I spent literally all day yesterday–from about 8 a.m. till well after 6 p.m.–listening to press conferences and testimony before Congress about the issue of crime onboard cruise ships.

What an Alice in Wonderland-style rabbit hole. The industry says everything’s fine, that there really aren’t very many crimes at all. The victims stand up and say the industry is covering up crimes left and right to keep the official crime statistics low. Some elected officials try to get serious answers from both parties. Other officials complain about the fact that hearings are being held regarding an industry that donates mightily to their campaign coffers.

The saga will continue, as the cruise industry has been required to report back to Congress within 90 days about progress it is making to correct glaring deficiencies in safety practices and procedures. And I think, based on yesterday’s hearing, that Congress is at least going to require a neutral third party, such as the U.S. Coast Guard, to begin making cruise ship crime statistics available to the public.

This last bit caught my attention because of the way the hearing’s chairman, a thoughtful Democrat from Maryland, tried to get the cruise industry to accept public disclosure of cruise ship crime statistics. “People are smart,” he told a panel of industry executives. Vacationers who get onboard cruise ships should understand that bad things might happen. These large ships are, after all, floating cities. Covering up the crimes only makes them seem worse in the public eye.

The thing that crossed my mind during this commentary is that it’s ridiculous for anyone to have to anticipate violent crime when planning a cruising vacation. Why in the world would you choose to cruise in an environment where crime is at all likely to occur, let alone be covered up to the point that congressional hearings are required?

I respectfully disagree with the hearing’s chairman on this point. I think people should have great expectations about their cruising vacations, not fears of rape and robbery.

Which is, of course, why I continue to champion the idea of private charter yacht vacations instead of cruise ship trips. It’s just plain commonsense that a ship full of 4,000 to 6,000 strangers is not nearly as safe a place as a yacht carrying just you, your family, and the yacht owner’s personal staff.

I look forward to continued public disclosure and increased awareness about just how dangerous cruise ships may in fact be. Every time another cruise ship crime victim comes forward, it’s another chance for me to tell you about why you should choose private yacht charter for your family’s next vacation instead.

If you’re tuning in to the blog here on Wednesday morning, please note that I am on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., where there is a hearing before a U.S. House subcommitee on “Cruise Ship Security Practices and Procedures.”

This hearing is a follow-up to the one I attended this past spring called “Crimes Against Americans Onboard Cruise Ships.” You can see by the change of tone in the new hearing’s title that the lobbyists have been hard at work over the summer.

I’ll blog late in the day Wednesday of early Thursday after returning home from the hearing, where legislation is expected to be introduced that would hold cruise corporations accountable for the increasing number of crimes being reported onboard their ships. It should be a very interesting day of testimony, one that again reinforces the notion that yacht charter is a much better vacation option than any cruise ship in the world.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term, a “podcast” is an audio program that can be downloaded from the Internet, heard on your computer, or saved to your MP3 player or iPod. A podcast can be anywhere from 3 seconds to 300 minutes long (or longer–but who would listen for half a day?).

I recently agreed to be interviewed for my first podcast, with Executive Editor Diane Byrne of Power & Motoryacht magazine, where I’m a frequent article contributor. The podcast runs about 40 minutes and is entirely about yacht charter, including tips for getting your money’s worth and finding good brokers and boats.

You can have it playing in the background on your computer while you do other things, if you want to take a listen while sorting through e-mails. Just click here to go to the Power & Motoryacht page.

If you have iTunes, you can click on the link below: