That level of video surveillance is fairly recent; it has not always been thus. And I don't believe it is universal--yet.

But the popularity of balconies has changed things. People going over the side is becomming an all-to-frequent occurrence. And the wall of balconies that is the side of a modern ship has created a unique new fire danger that must be closely monitored.

I don't like the intrusion into my privacy, but as with airline security, I understand the need for it and I am glad it is in place.

Rick

Though an expensive investment for the crusieline in the end it will prove to be well worth the investment. It may prevent a lot of lawsuits against the cruiseline. If it happened as they are saying it did then that proves the boyfriend had nothing to do with it. Without the footage there would be a need for a lot more investigation and fingers were already pointed at him. I am sure he is glad that it was caught on tape or he might be in custody right now. Too bad RCCL did not have this when that poor groom went missing. That is a story I do not think we will ever have answers to. My heart goes out to his family. I cannot imagine what I would do if that were my son.

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Originally posted by Sonny V:
Strange this story hasn't been on fox news.

Sonny
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Fox National News has covered this story extensively. They even covered the arrival of the boyfriend on his flight back to N.J. on 5-15-2008 as he did not stay on the ship. According to Fox News, the FBI will NOT charge him with anything. I am sure that he was very Happy that the NCL Dawn had those cameras to protect his innocence.

Many people are to judgemental, as evidenced on this tread here and other websites.

I agree we can sometimes be to judgemental,but with the past history of violence in there relationship it is hard not to judge.You know the expression if it looks like a Duck!!Personally, I don't even know how she could and would be with this man and yes I am being judgemental.

I just cannot understand if she was as intelligent as they say why she would do what she did. This not only was very dangerous but the weather was bad. Why did she not walk around to the door. I say alchohol or something else must be involved. People do things under the influance that they would not normally do sober. I get very nervouse being out on the balcony. I sure would not try climbing it. Did he actually witness her climbing the balcony? Has he said why she was doing it?

quote:

Did he actually witness her climbing the balcony? Has he said why she was doing it?

According to the reports, he had left the cabin and was next door so he didn't see her do it. I'm wondering if she thought it would be funny to be standing on their friends balcony and surprise them.

Seems like there are several people concerned about the camera. I doubt the camera can view into your cabin or balcony. I am sure they are just taking a video of the sides of the ships. So relax and do what you want on your balcony, it will not appear on Youtube.

It also seems Fox is trying to build this into a sensational case. Another example of the media creating news instead of reporting it.

Sadly it is the media that fuels all the rumors and judgemental comments. They are so bent on being the first to report a story to boost their ratings. They report stories without all the facts, they release little tidbits of information to peak curiousity, all so they can say they were First! You will already have rumors flying from the people that were actually on the ship and don't have all the facts. How many times do you hear breaking news stories that really don't tell you anything? Why do news people have to go stick
their cameras in the face of griefing families two hours after they hear bad news? It's all for ratings. And sadly, it's the American people that thrive on this sensationalism.

Sorry for the rant. The old days were so much simplier.

The "breaking news" thing is ridiculous. They all do it now, even local stations. And 99% of the time it is nothing. Fox "breaking news" will show live video of a police chase in Chicago. It happens all the time and isn't some profound news story. Our local channel 19 news does this crap now, and it will be some life altering event like a traffic light being out on University Drive in Huntsville - but the police are on the scene directing traffic!

I can't stand it.

quote:

Originally posted by gdjoslin:
Seems like there are several people concerned about the camera. I doubt the camera can view into your cabin or balcony. I am sure they are just taking a video of the sides of the ships. So relax and do what you want on your balcony, it will not appear on Youtube.

I am not in the least bit concerned about the camera...just didn't realize they were there. If you are doing nothing wrong, then the camera issue is really quite moot. And I think you may be a little naive (maybe) if you don't think the camera can pick up things on the balcony...especially if the balcony is lower than the camera Afterall, the camera apparently saw her going over the railing.

Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can comment?

quote:

Afterall, the camera apparently saw her going over the railing.

That doesn't require the camera to be focused in on the individual balcony. A security camera looking aft from a bridge wing would pick up someone or something large going over a balcony railing. It wouldn't be immediately clear which balcony it was unless it happened to be closer to the camera such as a forward cabin.

Depending on the ship, not all balconies can be observed from above. I doubt they have cameras hidden in the overhead of each balcony.

According to the mother on Nancy Grace and she has not seen the tape yet. She stated that the camera shows her daughter going over the rail but does not show her climbing or if anyone had anything to do with her going over the rail. So I do not think the camera is keyed in on anything but a straight shot across the edges of the balconies. So if someone is nude on their balcony as long as they are not leaning over the balcony I doubt the camera can see but some of the balaconies I have been on are visible from other balconies. I have also noticed that that dividers sometime reflect the balcony next door.

If her boyfriend did not see her climbing the balcony then how does he know what happened? How does he know she did not jump? What made him report her climbing the balcony if he did not see her? I take this all personally.

On my first cruise we had a passenger have a heart attack in front of the pursers desk. We had not even left port yet. We had just finished the muster drill. They were still working on him when the ship pulled away from the dock. Why did we pull away when they new there was a medical emergancy? The ship pulled to the next terminal and the man was removed by paramedics. We heard that the man did not survive. This was all I could think about the whole cruise. I thought about how long they may have planned for the cruise. I knew it was a husband, wife, son, daughter and son-in-law. Watching the family on the dock I looked the next day for their boarding picture. I wondered if the picture would show a man not feeling well. What I found was a beautiful family on a dream vacation and the husband with a big smile on his face. He appeared to be early 60s. I thought of taking it to the photo people and seeing if maybe some how it could be sent to the family. I know if it were me and this was the last picture taken I would want it. This was 2004 and to this day I think of that man every time I take a cruise.

I can only imagine what this has done to the passengers on that ship knowing a woman lost her life on the very first day and has not been found.

On one of my cruises out of New York (which mind you, WAS also rough waters) we were woken up around 4 am by a CODE RED (or something to that extent) on the intercom. Wondered what that was, figured out what it was when we go to our next port and they were taking a casket off the ship into a hurst.

But, back to the story at hand. Did anyone ever think, due to the history of their relationship together (which I KNOW is heresay, but this is a thought), that because he was so abusive with her, that MAYBE he locked her out on the balcony to "reprimand" her, in some sort of sick way. And because it was rainy and cold out there and he wasn't in the room to let her back in, she tried to climb over to get to their friends' so they could let her in? Just a thought.....

quote:

It wouldn't be immediately clear which balcony it was unless it happened to be closer to the camera such as a forward cabin.

In a storm, I'm not quite sure how clear it would be if it were directly above the cabin. Tou notice they haven't released the tape. Hopefully it is clear enough to come to a conclusion with eye wittness and other evidence. The time lines are interesting and the tape of the boyfriend leaving the cabin before the incident. Something still doesn't add up here. Maybe I'm judgemental or just skeptical, perhaps I'm jaded by past incidents and outcomes. We don't yet have all the facts, perhaps we never will but there is something odd about nobody notifying the family of anything for 11 hours. The cruiselines take and had emergency contact info for the family. The boyfriend obviously had the number as he did ultimately call with a story of horseplay. How was he aware of horseplay if he wasn't in the cabin? How was he the only one, while not in the cabin, to see her clinging to a lower deck? How did she manage to stop her fall and hold on after such a fall? I may not have the facts of the case but there is something about simple logic in the whole thing that leads one to believe there is far more here than what we've heard so far. A 40+ mother of two climbing between balconies in foul weather doesn't seem likely but the other tidbits released so far seem even more unlikely. Strange things happen and people do unexplainable things. I guess its possible it happened exactly as its being reported. I'm not yet convinced and hope the investigators aren't either.

Cheers, Neil

quote:

Originally posted by TrvlPro:

quote:

It wouldn't be immediately clear which balcony it was unless it happened to be closer to the camera such as a forward cabin.

In a storm, I'm not quite sure how clear it would be if it were directly above the cabin. Tou notice they haven't released the tape. Hopefully it is clear enough to come to a conclusion with eye wittness and other evidence. The time lines are interesting and the tape of the boyfriend leaving the cabin before the incident. Something still doesn't add up here. Maybe I'm judgemental or just skeptical, perhaps I'm jaded by past incidents and outcomes. We don't yet have all the facts, perhaps we never will but there is something odd about nobody notifying the family of anything for 11 hours. The cruiselines take and had emergency contact info for the family. The boyfriend obviously had the number as he did ultimately call with a story of horseplay. How was he aware of horseplay if he wasn't in the cabin? How was he the only one, while not in the cabin, to see her clinging to a lower deck? How did she manage to stop her fall and hold on after such a fall? I may not have the facts of the case but there is something about simple logic in the whole thing that leads one to believe there is far more here than what we've heard so far. A 40+ mother of two climbing between balconies in foul weather doesn't seem likely but the other tidbits released so far seem even more unlikely. Strange things happen and people do unexplainable things. I guess its possible it happened exactly as its being reported. I'm not yet convinced and hope the investigators aren't either.

Cheers, Neil

I agree that it does not make sense. The weather was bad that would mean if the railing were wet they would be slippery. I might start yelling but I would not try to climb to another balcony. I thought she was trying to climb to the one next door where her frineds were. Also, has anyone heard anything about their story? The fact that her boyfriend left the cabin just before it happened could mean something or mean nothing. The fact is he was not with her when it happened. She had to of gone over on her own accord. If he did lock her on the balcony I would have been yelling to my neighbors. If I were the boyfriend I would feel some responsibility if I loked her out.

Well if it were storming isn't it possible she could've yelled and no one heard her with the crashing of the waves, etc.? And why HAVEN'T we heard anything from their friends that were staying next door yet? I think that's kind of odd, no?

It would seem to me that if she was trying to climb from one cabin to another, the camera would have shown her doing so. I would guess that is now they know what she was trying to do. Perhaps the boyfriends and her had a plan play a joke on the cabin next door, he would enter from the main door, and her from the balcony. Perhaps he did not call right away because he was hoping she would be found.
I know I have done thing my parents never thought I would do. One was trying to climb a peak with a girlfriend. We got stuck at about 10,000 feet. We were rescued by the USMC Cold Weather Training unit which trains in that area. (Sonora Pass). Never told my parents, they were a little surprised when they got a bill for the rescue. BTW I was 16 at the time.
This woman is old enough to know better, but I have a brother in law that lets beer make dumb choices for him.
I would not turn on the boyfriend until the whole story is out.

Sorry if some of you might be offended by the name change, but this thread has become a "what if", and so I moved it and renamed it.

Cruise Scene Investigation