Balcony-railing photo highlights cruise ship safety rules
The ship and date connected with a recent image of a passenger lounging on a balcony railing remain unclear.
A recent Facebook post showed a cruise passenger reclining on a balcony railing. The person who shared the image said it had been seen from a stateroom balcony, but the ship and the date of the photograph were not established.
Royal Caribbean’s cruise contract prohibits passengers from sitting, standing, jumping, lying or climbing on or across exterior or interior railings and other protective barriers. The report accompanying the post said some passengers have been banned from future Royal Caribbean Group cruises for similar conduct, including cases in which nobody was injured. It did not establish what consequences, if any, the passenger in the latest image faced.
Other railing incidents have drawn attention in recent years. A video circulated the previous year showing teenagers moving along a narrow balcony railing while at sea. In 2019, a passenger was reportedly banned after posing on a balcony railing for a photograph.
A 12-year-old passenger also died after falling from an interior-facing Central Park balcony cabin aboard Harmony of the Seas. Separately, Cruise Lines International Association data recorded 212 overboard incidents from 2009 through 2019, with 48 successful rescues.
