I've been on many cruises, including several to Europe. Regarding the passport issue, the past 2 cruises to Europe I was able to keep my passport in my in-room safe. However, when I did a European cruise in 2000, my passport was taken from me at embarkation to be used to show to European port officials prior to approval to dock at a port, and then returned to me a day before disembarkation at the final port. Regarding safety, the past several cruises with RCI and Celebrity, we did the lifeboat drill sans lifejackets, but the ones for RCI were performed on the Boat Deck underneath the lifeboats themselves. However, on a more recent voyage on a Celebrity ship, the lifeboat drill was held indoors in various public assembly areas, along w/a live video feed of the Captain talking to us guests.

That all said, however, I have still have questions about what happens when a ship loses power, there are no lights to guide me down corridors to my cabin, and I can't enter my cabin because electricity powers the card key lock; there's also the problem on getting into my safe to get my passport if there's no power. Lastly, how exactly, would people get to their cabins when the stairwells are tilted the way this Costa ship was. How well would the emergency doors to the lifeboats work to give people access to the lifeboats?

One last point about teens: I agree that they need to be reined in, by both ship's security folks and their parents or group chaperones. They can't be allowed in the casinos unless they're of age, and security officers need to do a better job of patrolling the corridors to make sure the teens aren't running up and down the hallways, causing noise, smoking and drinking. The parents need to do a better job of reining in their teen kids, especially late at night: just because ships are floating resorts should not be an excuse to abdicate their parental responsibility. Parents: Before you swoop like helicopters in and attack me--and you will--, please know that as a single person, I don't have kids but I do have a pretty well-behaved niece and nephew who have been on cruises--albeit not with me--and they have shown little or no interest in playing casino slots or playing with elevator buttons.

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