Should there be life guards on board your cruise ship?

Last week on board Anthem of the Seas saw another tragic accident happen. An 8 year old boy was found unresponsive in the swimming pool, after being there 20 minutes before the alarm was raised! He is now said to be in a critical condition in hospital. The reports are that he was without oxygen for 20 minutes, it really doesn’t bear thinking about. You’re on your cruise enjoying time with your family and that happens to your child, unimaginable to say the least. Unfortunately it’s not the first drowning incident, there have been a number of drownings on board the Royal Caribbean ships in the past couple of years, and not just Royal, other cruise lines also.

Reading the story a few days ago I was sat so upset for the child and for his parents and family. I was also thinking about my little girl. We’ve just got back from our family holiday, a week in the sun in Menorca. My little girl Sofia  who is four years old was in the pool all the time and even though she can swim there wasn’t a second we left her alone. There were 3 life guards at the pools every day, making sure everyone was safe and there in case of any emergencies, makes sense with so many children and swimming pools.

I guess the question I have been left with is why are there no life guards on board the ships? It’s not just Royal Caribbean without lifeguards, think of all the well known cruise lines popular with families.. Celebrity, P&O, Princess, Cunard….the list goes on….and no lifeguards in sight! Disney are the only line to have lifeguards on board, strange when you think about the dangers of water and swimming pools.

If you go swimming here at home there is always a life guard at the pool, on holiday in a hotel for example on the med there will be life guards, at the beach there are always lifeguards , so why is it on a cruise ship there are none. Royal Caribbean and other cruise lines attract lots of families with children and safety on board has to be number one surely. I know some will say that it’s the responsibility of the parents to make sure the children are safe and not in the pool unsupervised, and of course this is true but accidents do happen and children don’t always do as they should, if there were life guards present at the pool surely this would be safer for everyone, adults included.

There have been a number of children lost in these tragic incidents, and it seems to me if there were life guards at the pools the drownings could have been prevented. I’m praying for the little boy to recover from this awful accident as I’m sure are all involved. I think it’s time that the cruise lines stood up to their responsibilities, what will it take for them to take action? Guests deserve to be safe on their cruise holiday and I truly believe that all pools should be attended by a life guard.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you agree? As always I would love to hear your thoughts.

thanks Abbi x