Sticking up Thomson cruises!

Did you read the recent news story about how Thomson Cruises refused boarding to two deaf passengers but then had to make a quick U-turn and allow them onboard after a complaint and a Facebook campaign by their son? If you haven't already seen the story it was covered on our cruise forum here.
Whilst I'm aware the initial reaction of people will be to blame Thomson for this as being unfair to disabled passengers I'm actually coming down on their side for this topic.
Why you ask?

To give you the gist of the article the couple, (both of whom were fully deaf), booked their cruise. They then rang Thomson one week before the sailing to let them know they were deaf. In their words this was to allow Thomson time to make any special arrangements that might be needed.
One weeks notice!
At the time of booking they would have, (or should have been asked),
“Do you have any special medical needs?”
Even if they weren’t asked this they should have volunteered the information to Thomson just as a common sense precaution.
Giving a worst case scenario what if both guests had been in their cabin when the ship hit an iceberg say, (to give you a famous example). If Thomson didn’t know the guests couldn’t hear the ships announcements they could be sitting in their cabins happily reading whilst the ship sinks. On a more realistic note on the day of embarkation they could be in their cabin when the announcement comes for the muster drill. In a real emergency they then might not know what to do, even if they were out and about around the ship.

I’m sure Thomson didn’t take the decision lightly, and they certainly weren’t doing it just to be mean, it was for valid safety concerns and I think both the passengers, their son, his Facebook campaign and the Channel 4 show No Go Britain who also picked up the campaign have been unfair in lambasting Thomson cruises.
A cruise ship isn’t like a hotel, when you’re floating in the middle of the sea miles from land health and safety regulations have to be different. It might not be nice, it might not even be fair but it is for peoples safety, the cruise lines aren’t here to discriminate against the disabled just for the fun of it and I feel it's a shame Thomson had to back down on this issue, can they gurantee those passengers will be 100% safe? I don't think so.

Happy cruising