You all know that I am a proponent of cruising, and that isn’t going to change. But the Carnival Triumph situation sounds seriously sucktacular beyond description. I can only imagine the frustration, and my heart goes out to the passengers….AND the crew. Having been on the receiving end of customer frustration about things I myself could not control, I am always sympathetic to everyone involved in such a mess as this. Carnival Triumph should arrive at Mobile, Alabama sometime tomorrow, and I’m sure ALL those on board can’t wait. I will read the reports on the incident investigation to be conducted on this with great interest. I hope other cruise lines (and of course Carnival) are learning from this.
Here’s an interesting article from Carolyn Spencer Brown on the subject.
Thanks MJ and Brant for the explanation. Maybe this will make river cruises even more popular!
Hmm – if ever there was a temptation to pee in a pool…
@Brant, thanks for your comment.
MJ When thinking about the potential to transfer passengers to another vessel in open waters you must simply answer one question: is death imminent if we do not make the transfer. If the answer is no, death is not imminent then your answer is clear: absolutely no transfer. The risks are too great. That being said, there may have been opportunities to provide extra supplies to the ship by helicopter but I do not have all the info of the case so this is pure speculation.
I’m hoping that fares come down enough for me to pull the trigger on a quick long weekend cruise in April.
I’ve been watching fares for the past two weeks (since I came back from my last cruise) and so far haven’t seen anything that looks like downward adjustment due to the Triumph situation. I’m not sure if this will end up having effects on fares beyond perhaps for Galveston and that particular ship.
There may be some short term impacts on fares, but I’m not positive. I can’t think of a nice way to say this, so I’m just going to say it…. as much as this sucks for those affected, no one died…..there’s no sunk ship. I’m not convinced it will have the kind of impact on bookings that Costa Concordia did. Then again, we’ll just have to wait and see what kind of images emerge once the ship gets to port and passengers disembark. If it’s as ugly as I suspect it could be…..well….who knows what will happen?
Could have been worse. They could have towed them to progreso. Not my favorite port plus the logistics there would have been bad.
I would also add, that they aren’t being left “adrift” but are being towed into port by tugboats. They were adrift until the tugs arrived for sure.
@Elaine, I can only repeat what Carnival said. That is that they considered transferring the passengers to another ship but felt the approach they are taking would be safer. I am not a mariner, so I can’t speak to the safety issues involved with authority. I can say that the idea of moving 3,000 customers from one ship to another while at sea sounds like an opportunity for more than one of them to find their way into the sea accidentally….not to mention the collision possibility between the 2 vessels being close together for that length of time. I know… Read more »
I do not understand why Carnival did not attempt to get the people off the ship. Surely they could have done something more than leave them to drift in the ocean? Is it because a drifting ship would be too dangerous to approach/remove passengers from? Thanks for any light you can shed on the issue.
So MJ, what will this do to prices and such or will all just forget in a week?
Forgotten in a year….probably.
What’s most telling is that despite previous incidents (fires, virus outbreaks) the masses continue to patronize the WalMart of cruise liners: Disney and Carnival. What a circus, indeed. And you omit from your blog that it was just today that the CEO made a public statement. How nice of him to take the time. Not. Hope the Carni is sued right out of business. Couldn’t happen to a better bunch.