Cruising on Carnival Pride when the Concordia Capsized

Kelli with her daughter Lydia in the pool on the Lido deck.

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My daughter Kelli, her husband Andrew and two kids along with my wife Deb and I sailed on the Carnival Pride from Baltimore to the Bahamas two weeks ago. We were on board the Pride and heading north in the Atlantic Ocean returning to Baltimore when we heard the terrible news of the capsizing of the luxury liner Costa Concordia off the coast of the Island of Giglio. We had friends back home that were watching the news of the capsized vessel and were relieved to find out that it wasn't our ship. People asked what it was like when we heard the news. I can tell you that most of the people in the casino gambling away and the folks in the sports bars watching the NFL games on Saturday Jan. 14th. didn't seem to concerned for their own safety. Our captain did announce a moment of silence that night while we sailed home toward port. We have always felt fairly safe on high seas and have been very fortunate with calm seas when we were on a cruise. We do feel badly for families of those who lost their lives.  For travelers aboard the Concordia to try and evacuate in the dark while the captain was safe on a life boat is unacceptable. When we sailed the last time on a different cruise line we had the mandatory evacuation drill and were required to wear the flotation vest. On this cruise we just had to muster to the deck area where we would be evacuated from the ship and listened to instructions from the bridge. The flotation vests were left in the closets of our cabin. I believe that vests will be worn by the cruisers during the drill in the future. My biggest question and maybe I missed this part of the coverage, whenever you travel through local waters near land there is normally a pilot with knowledge of the channel on board the ship helping to navigate along with the captain and others on the bridge to assist them to open water. Where was the Pilot? Maybe they didn't have one on board. More details will come out over time. On our trip, the crew was friendly and professional and we arrived back an the Port of Baltimore safe and sound.