"A 10-year-old girl drowned in a cruise ship pool Sunday while the boat was Florida-bound, the Coast Guard said Monday.
The Norwegian "Gem," operated by Norwegian Cruise Line, was 75 miles off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, when the girl drowned in one of the ship's pools, said Coast Guard Spokesman Nate Littlejohn. He said the Coast Guard was notified about an hour after the 4 p.m. incident.
Norwegian Cruise Lines said in a statement that the company was "extremely saddened" to learn of the death. The ship's medical team had administered CPR, but the girl could not be revived, according to the statement.
The cruise left for a seven day trip to Florida and the Bahamas from New York on Saturday, the statement said. The ship arrived at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Monday afternoon, according to the Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard is investigating the death, Littlejohn said."
We were just on this particular cruise ship back in February. It has two very small pools and it isn't deep but it could be very wavy like ocean surrounding the boat. Just a tragedy
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That poor girl and her family.
That poor girl and her family, their anguish must be unbearable.
Especially if the ship is sailing, which means every passenger is aboard and around the pool. But, if you've been on cruises and seen how many parents basically tell their kids to go swim while they drink Rum Runners, it's not really that surprising.
Was on NCL 10 days ago for a weekend cruise to Bahamas. Our kids are young so we watched them like hawks regardless but you absolutely see how this could happen. While lots of people are at the pool, most are drinking and not really paying attention.
These cruiselines employ 500, sometimes 750+ staff on them... they absolutely should designate 1-2 to lifeguard the pools during the day. Insane not to.
Would not be surprised if after this event, next time i went on NCL the depth capped out at 4.5 to 5 feet.
but at least on the cruise i went on, they had so much staff -- i mean multiple people who's jobs it were to just welcome you back on the ship after a day excursion in Atlantis.... especially during the day time, why not re-profile some of these positions to monitoring pools?
And if you're not going to do that... at least reduce the max depth to 4-5 feet.
so now they're not liable? is that an international waters thing?
if someone drowns in my pool I assume I have some liability, I don't have a lifeguard and I have a fence to keep people out.
Enter at your own risks
I remember going to the pool in Disney World and the lifeguards do this thing with their hands pointing along the pool to help them train their eyes at the kids in the water. Drowning doesn't look like you think it would in the movies, with all splashing. If you aren't trained to see it, you can easily miss it. One of the guards blew the whistle and jumped in the pool to get a kid out who was under the water and there were people all around. No one noticed other than the lifeguard.
Disney is one of the few that actually use lifeguards. Unfortunately this was a result of their own experience with a child drowning.
This is why my kids began swimming lessons at 6 months old. I am amazed how many parents do not see the value in having their children learn how to swim at a young age. Most don't want to deal with the inevitable crying that goes along with the early ages, but that's a dangerous shame.