Fat passengers breaking Queen Mary II's chairs


The Sunday Telegraph


Tuesday, December 07, 2004


LONDON - Dozens of seats on the Queen Mary II, the world's biggest, newest and most luxurious cruise ship, are breaking under the weight of obese passengers.

The French company that supplied the chairs is repairing and replacing them as fast as possible as they buckle under weighty vacationers.

One former ship employee said many of the broken seats were from the bar and restaurant areas.

"We do have many large passengers on the QM II,'' he said.

"Most of the passengers are American, and many of them are elderly. And we do have 10 restaurants on the ship, so if they are big when they get on, they tend to be bigger when they get off.''

Dr. Ian Campbell, president of the National Obesity Forum, a British educational group, said more obese and overweight people want to go on cruise holidays to escape the embarrassment of more claustrophobic forms of transport.

"Air travel can be a real challenge if you are overweight,'' he said. "Fitting into small seats, pulling the tray down so you can eat and knowing that you are going to be a problem for other passengers as you manoeuvre through small aisles, can be a real problem,'' he said.

"I am not so surprised that passengers are breaking chairs. They have become heavier over the last generation and the seating is designed for a lighter person from the past.''

The Queen Mary II, the tallest and longest ocean liner ever built, set sail from Southampton on her maiden voyage in January.

She carries 2,620 passengers and 1,250 crew, and cost an estimated $1.2-billion to build. The ship is now in the Caribbean.

Most seating on the ship is free-standing, but some seats -- particularly around the walls of the bars -- is banquette-style. Both types are being repaired by Alstom Chantiers, the French company that provided the cruise ship with all its fixtures and fittings.

Fat people have come under increasing pressure from airlines over the extra space they require, and the additional weight the planes must allow for. Two years ago, Southwest Airlines in the United States announced a policy to charge overweight passengers for two tickets.

This year, the Air Transport Users Council, which represents passengers in Britain, said it was receiving "a very heavy postbag'' from lightweight passengers who complain they have to pay a premium on excess baggage when other passengers were taking more body weight on board.

A spokesman for Cunard, which owns the Queen Mary II, said it could not quantify exactly how many seats had been broken by obese customers.

He did acknowledge, however, that there was a repair scheme on board to replace and repair chairs. The problem is likely to be tackled during next year's refit.

"There is a bigger refit planned for Queen Mary II for November next year, and what we are going to do in that refit is still being established at the moment.

"We do get some large passengers, but we get people of all shapes and sizes,'' he added.

Hmmmmmmmmm.

Could it be a design or manufacturing fault?

Mikie, enough with the silly American-bashing. Go try to get laid, even if the prospects are super dim.

The seats were built by the French? Maybe that was the problem.

I thought about the design flaw idea, too, but the article does say that the seats/chairs were manufactured for "the lighter people from the past..."

And, as much as I love sex, I'm afraid it doesn't fix eveyrthing.

Thank you but..(and since my background is rooted in the USA...)this is not directed at any country....

My intent, and what disturbs me, is what this article says about the direction and health values of our Western culture, including my own (Canadian). I question, without an answer, the idea of 24 hr buffets, and I think the point on airlines and large travellers is an issue that is worhty of discussion...what are my rights as a passenger?
That is all, no deep political motive...

Well, I guess that's the breaks...

As a designer & furniture specifier myself, I believe the requirements & needs of the seating was not taken adequately into consideration when the furniture selections for the interior spaces were made. There are chairs designed specifically for larger individuals, and if these folks are a significant segment of their client base, then this need should have been factored into the furniture.

You don't hear much about obese people braking chairs in regular restaurants, yet I'm sure they dine there...

Bad furniture selection. Nothing more.

At this moment, I am sitting in an oak, kitchen chair made in Ohio in 1885, back when "seating [was] designed for a lighter person from the past".

Not only is this chair capable of holding two of me, it doesn't wiggle.