But there's the rub. If stupidity does run rampant on a ship (or in any scenario) when does it then become management's responsibility?
Example benches in a park used to be a flat bench. But then homeless drug addicts started sleeping on them. (not saying all homeless are drug addicts btw) if after a while this created a danger for people walking through the park, does it then become park management's responsibility? Most people would say yes.
But what about a homeless person sleeping on the bench in below freezing weather and nearly dying? Does it then become management's responsibility? Yes. That's why most parks have changed their benches so that people can't lie down on them but just sit on them.
Another example. A friend of mine owns a cottage in Cape Cod that he rents out for the summers. He starting working with an AIRBNB marketer. They convinced him to accept dogs because lots of people who come there are huge dog fans. He said Ok and this guy came (firefighter from Boston) with his wife and two kids. They bought a puppy while they were in Provincetown and left the puppy uncaged for an entire day in the cottage with no air conditioning. Of course the poor puppy destroyed all the beds and even worse almost died from the heat
Even though all the other dog owners were responsible we had to say no, to any more renters with dogs. We stated on the AIRBNB Unfortunately we can vet you as a tenant but not as a responsible pet owner. If an industry starts to see issues showing up with reckless caregivers of children, they have a responsibility to protect the child as a passenger. Not coddle to the paying customer alone.
Totally understand what you are saying, but if we focus on this incident and the facts surrounding it, they really don’t have a leg to stand on. People do stupid stuff every day. The totality of that act matters. The bench issue you bring up was an issue that was affecting a lot of people, there were complaints and so they did something to try to make it safer, but it wasn’t like one person was complaining, enough did that got their attention, so they did something to try remedy the issue. So did making the benches uncomfortable to sleep on stop the problem, I’m guessing enough that people felt safer. But, the truth is, someone could still sleep on the uncomfortable bench, they can’t control everything people do. If after making the bench uncomfortable and someone then deals with a person who doesn’t care and sleeps there anyway, is it still the managements fault?
The Airbnb dog issue. That’s a personal choice. If the owner decides no dogs because of an issue with a renter, he or she can do whatever they choose. I’ve stayed in Airbnb’s a lot, I have always been able to bring my dog. Irresponsible people are everywhere, renting to anyone holds some risk, dog or not. The fact is, people are more of a problem than a dog. I used to be a manager for an apartment building, the damage people caused apartments were way higher than animals.
This particular incident is not a common or even a rare occurrence. People are not lifting children to open windows because it’s really a dumb thing to do. They ask no one to do this in the terms. They put a railing there. They have taken steps to try to avoid this type of thing, but even with that, he did it.
At some point, people have to be responsible for their actions. Nothing is 100% safe. To predict what any dumb person will do is literally impossible. They can do whatever to those windows, but if another person with the mentality of grandpa comes on, it will not matter.
I’m all for making things safer, but I also need to be shown why it’s not safe or an issue. In this case, grandpa was the issue, but I doubt they will stop letting “elderly” people take cruises. As mentioned millions take cruises, many with kids, this has not happened before. People are not lifting their kids to windows, because the average sane person knows it’s dangerous. Do accidents happen on ships, of course, just like on land.
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