The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

I'm surprised no one is talking about that ship that was literally dead in the water.  A friend of mine's niece happened to be on the ship and I went with him to Mobile to get her last Thursday night. 

From what I've read, this is not the first time Carnival has had such a problem with its ships.  I've never gone on a cruise before but if I do, it sure won't be on Carnival

I left on a cruise from the very same port the Triumph left from 2 days prior.  While I was in the line waiting to board, I heard a lot of people complaining that the Disney cruise we were taking costs a lot more than a Carnival trip.  After I got back and heard the news, I was glad I paid the extra $$$. 

I agree.  They do cost a lot more than most other travel/hospitality/entertainment venues.  But you will get great service and comfortable acommodations.

Outside of my genital region, I can't imagine better service.

I've heard Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Holland are great too.  But Holland cruises tend to be full of blue hairs.

Back to the topic.  Imagine being stuck out in the middle of the Gulf  on that ship with no AC, no running water and no hot food.

I can't even get that far.  Imagine being stuck on that boat with no booze!!!!!

I've been on 3 Carnival cruises and I'd do it again in a second.

This was an anomaly accident, and Carnival has done everything they can to "make it right" with the passengers.  I applaud them for it.  Accidents happen - at least no one died.  *cough*COSTA*cough*

Sadly, there are hundreds of ambulance-chasing lawyers waiting for them at the port when they got in, prepared to sue the pants off Carnival.  That disgusts me.

Take a wild guess who Costa is owned by?

Doesn't matter - they're different companies for a reason.

Different companies under the same umbrella.  From what I've read and talked to people who cruise regularly about, this is the latest of many issues for ships owned and operated by Carnival Corp.  I'm deducing that Carnival doesn't maintain its ships properly.  That's why if I ever cruise, it won't be with Carnival.

Blatantly false.  You aren't "reading" and "talking to people" to deduce anything. 

Tell me what a dumbass ship captain ignoring the charts and running his ship into the ground has to do with ship maintenance.  Costa and Carnival are completely separate operations.

Its your choice to fictitiously never give Carnival any money.  Fine.  But don't give ridiculous reasons.  The Triumph was an isolated accident, out of anyone's control.  Shit happens.

Turns out this ship had prior mechanical problems.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/carnival-cruise-ship-had-prior-042900338.html


And to add to that, another Carnival ship had the same type of issue while cruising the Mexican Riviera.

http://www.kjrh.com/dpp/news/national/carnival-triumphs-problems-symptomatic-of-largely-unregulated-cruise-ship-industry


Now try to tell me this was an isolated incident.  I just don't buy it.

I thought that was the Disney cruise.

I don't care, I'm not here to defend Carnival.  But every ship has a problem from time to time.  That engine is running full steam almost every day.  Its just an engine, its going to have problems under such heavy use.

Maybe your beef should be with the engine manufacturer, cause I'm sure that same engine is in more than just that ship.

i work in a related industry, at least one that interacts with the cruise lines. Carnival has the rep of being a party-boat .. if you're older than 25 you'll be the old man on it .. Celebrity has the rep of being the old people boat .. and MSC or Norwegian have the rep of being pretty high class.

That being said .. Costa and Carnival aren't the same company .. they may be owned by the same group in much the same way that mcdonalds and chipotle have the same ownership group .. or cheetos and pepsi have the same ownership group .. but they aren't the same company, they have independent systems, independent contracting and manufacture and not the same.

I've been on three Royal Carribean Cruises and never had an issue. It's the best vacation I've ever had.

The biggest issue for all of the cruise lines are what they pay and how much they work their people.

I always thought it would have been a great job for someone just getting started in life. As I look back I really would have liked to travel more when I was young. I had ideas of going to Alaska to be on the fishing boats, working on a crusie line, or the military. Instead, I went to college and traveled far less than I wopuld have liked.

It is not an isolated event.  Different companies have different corporate philosphies. 

The same people who made the decisions about how to run Carnival made the decisions about how to run the Italian cruise.  And the philosphy at Carnival is low price, low quality, save money anywhere you can including on maintance and safety systems and offer a low cost product.  That doesn't mean they purposefully run their ships aground or set them on fire but they do skimp where ever possible and sometimes it bites them (and their customers) in the ass.

Disney on the other hand has a philosphy of high quality at a high price.

Disney charges for their name and for the peripheral bullcrap like Mickey Mouse on board, etc.  Disney cruises are grossly overpriced for what they are.

Like I said I've been on three Carnival cruises, 1 Princess, 2 Norwegian, and 1 Royal Caribbean.  I didn't notice any lack of service, and sub-par or low cost anything on Carnival.  They cater to younger crowds, yes, but that doesn't mean they neglect their ships to the point that they don't work anymore.  I'd sail Carnival again in a second.  And they're not much cheaper than their competitors, if at all.

This snafu cost the company millions.  I don't think its something they knowingly and willingly risk as a rule.  Accidents happen.

I haven't sailed Disney.  But my family has and all of them say it goes way beyond having Mickey on board, but better food, better service, more organized boarding and debarking, cleaner, etc.

I haven't sailed Carnival either, but about half the people I know who have say they won't sail Carnival ever again even if the trip was free.  Whereas I haven't met anyone who says that about other cruise lines.  Granted, the other half did enjoy their cruise and are willing to go back.  Given the high disastisfaction rate with one and not the others it is a pretty easy decision for me to make.   

^^ to me, its all about the clientele and your own personal tolerance level.  Do you go to bed at 10 PM and can't sleep if people are talking in the hall outside your room?  Carnival may not be for you.  Do you expect five-star food and stuffy dining rooms?  Carnival may not be for you.  Are you over the age of 50?  Carnival may not be for you.

But if you just want to have a casual good time, not be restricted, and have flexibility and options, there's nothing wrong with Carnival.

I have sailed most of the major cruise lines -- many times.

Carnival is not the classiest, but it's on par with Royal Caribbean.   ...not quite as nice, but still the same kinda deal.

Carnival is a more "fun" experience.  Conga-lines, people drinking fruity drinks on the deck, etc.
Royal Caribbean is more "elegant."

Disney has great customer service - they woulda had that ship back in port or transferred all the passengers off within a day. 

Holland America and Costa are the best - Holland America is so ritzy and luxurious it's amazing; altho yes there are a lot of geezers because it's ridiculously $$$.

Great theory....but that doesn't touch any of the complaints...

Which included.....

lost or delayed luggage -- multiple complaints. The oddest--  One person I know complained 5 times in the course of two days that there was a suitcase in her room that didn't belong to her and she was missing one.  Nobody from Carnival ever did anything.  However, on the third day of the cruise she overhear another passenger complaining about the same thing and lack of help.  Low and behold they had the each other's luggage and swapped.  Finnally on the 5th day someone came to get the suitcase that didn't belong to her. 

Slow or non existent repair.  Such as 3 days to unclog a shower drain.  One person told me how when they arrived the bathroom light didn't work.  Nobody fixed it for four days.  They bought an overpriced flashlight at the gift shop so they could use their bathroom which carnaval then double charged them for. 

I have heard multiple complaints about Carnval screwing up the ground transport to and from the ship and airport in sometimes resulting in missed flights.  (No, it wasn't a matter of booking the flight too close, Carnavel said the window was don't book before noon and their flight was 2 pm)

Etc, etc, etc. 

 

You must have the most unlucky friends ever.

A snippet from a buddy: 

"A big ship has a poop deck.  In this case, the Carnival Triumph had more than one"

Yeah, but they are only unlucky on one crusie line.

To quote a advertisment for a Time Life book series, "Cowincidence?  I think, not" 

Guess which cruise line had a power outage again?

Carnival is either very unlucky or poorly managed.  I am going with the latter.   

Yeah, this time around, it was the Carnival Dream.  Luckily the ship was still in port when it happened, so they were able to take care of everyone and get them housed. 

Like I said earlier on, if I ever take a cruise, it will not be with Carnival.

Another Carnival is struggling now to make three. Carnival Legend out of Tampa is having issues with sailing speed. Because of the reduction in sailing speed, Carnival says Friday's visit to Grand Cayman has been cancelled and the ship will proceed to its homeport of Tampa, where it is expected to arrive on Sunday.

At least they've got beer and poopers!!

Make that 4 ships as Carnival Elation had to be escorted by a tugboat Saturday because of a malfunction in its steering system.

The microscope is in full effect.  I'm sure its no magic that ALL of their fleet is having problems at once.  Maybe the media magnification isn't helping.  I'm sure other cruise ships have problems like this at times as well.

Yes, they are under a microscope.  Odds are missing a single port would not get the attention its getting if it was not for the fact it was the second problem in two days, third in a week and fourth problem in 1 month nor the magnitude of the earlier problem.

And yes, other ships have problems too. Here is a list of all the problems on all the cruise lines this year.  http://www.cruisejunkie.com/events.html 

By my count Carnival is listed 19 times.  Disney twice.  I may have miscounted.  And obviously some incidents are more serious than others.  But Carnival's name appears  lot. 

You would think after their previous problems that there would be some sort of company-wide QA initiative.

The fact that they are continuing to have serious issues does not bode well.  This is the kind of thing that can kill a company.

^^^ Well I think staying in St. Maarten is a preventative thing given the 1st ship's problem.  Otherwise they would have probably kept sailing since only the back-up generator was down.

Wish I was stuck in St. Maarten, loved Orient Beach when I was there.

More Like kill an entire industry. This is gonna hurt the cruise line industry as a whole

Not if all the problems are happening on one line.

What do you think someone who is thinking about cruising for the first time will think when they see this happening?

If you see a bunch of articles about iPhones with non-functioning antennas, do you think, "Man, I shouldn't buy any cellphone, they don't work"?

If all these recent problems are confined to one passenger line, people will rather quickly associate that name with those problems.

I am with Spider on this one. 

Folks can be broken down into the following groups.

1.  Weren't going to cruise anyway.

2. Would have cruised Carnival, but now aren't going to cruise at all.

3.  Would have cruised Carnival, now will cruise with another line.

4. Are still going to cruise with Carnival.

5.  Are still going to cruise with a non-Carnival line.

6.  Would have cruised with a non-Carvinal line, now won't cruise at all.

Only two of those groups affect the rest of the industry 3 and 6.  And it would not surprise me in the least if there are more people in #3 than #6, helping the rest of the industry. 

Guess what ship is back in the news....

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/03/travel/carnival-triumph-adrift/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

I guess the ship became restless for adventure. 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/now-carnival-cruise-ship-failed-200416351.html

Wow....what a ton of bad press, all in a row.  It's funny; I've sailed Carnival multiple times and I always find the experience very enjoyable.  I wonder if this is a good time to jump on Carnival stock after it drops down.  I see no reason that it wouldn't rebound.  People take cruises.

I can see plenty of reasons why it won't rebound.  Not many people are cruising with them and those that are are doing so at very discounted prices plus they have tons of bills to pay to fix all their problems.  A very decent chance they could go bankrupt. 

However, if you do want to cruise with them go ahead its cheaper than staying in a motel 6.

http://www.chron.com/business/article/Carnival-offers-Motel-6-price-for-Caribbean-after-4423183.php

If they can get enough bodies on the ship, they will be ok.  They make lots of money off drinking and gambling.

I read somewhere a statement from Carnival that they had no intention of dropping their prices.

That said, my wife and I went on a 1 week cruise with Carnival last December for like $420 each - so roughly $120 a night including lodging and unlimited food all day for a week.  And, oh yeah, you get to visit 3 or 4 countries without ever unpacking your suitcase.

Plus that article is misleading - the $289 price is based on double occupancy.  No one can get on that ship in their own cabin for $289.  You either have to take 2 people (and pay $289 each) or pay double if you go alone.

Thus, their dumb-dumb math of $58 a night is completely inaccurate.  Its no cheaper than $116 a night per cabin, which is about the going price for a 5-night cruise.

They continue to get bad press ....

The Carnival Ecstasy is headed back to Port Canaveral on Thursday morning after experiencing a power failure at sea, cruise line officials said. The power outage happened around 6 p.m. Wednesday, but all hotel services and propulsion were restored less than 15 minutes later, officials said.  The cause of the outage was not immediately known.

and

Earlier this week, Carnival Corp. subsidiary Princess Cruises had a blockage within the ship's vacuum toilet system rendered 410 stateroom toilets inoperable from 5 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Either Royal Caribbean and others keep it much quieter or Carnival is definitely on the down-slide.

I am sure every cruise line has problems here and there.  Carnival had a BIG problem, thus is under the microscope, so every little thing that happens becomes front page news.

Yes, every little thing is page 1 news for carnival now.  But Royal Caribbean losing power for 15 mins would be news (but page 24).  It is time to accept, facts:  Carnival has been offering lower prices and to save money it has cut corners on maintenance, resulting in more problems than ships who do proper maintenance. 

^^ I just think that's an assumption on your part and not entirely factual.

About a year ago I started looking at me and my girlfriend going on a cruise. Mainly because Carnival was so cheap. My thinking was that I could we could go in Oct-Nov for $289 per person for an exterior window stateroom. For a 5 day cruise to Cozumel, I would eat more than $289 in food. Since all this shit happened, my girlfriend said she ain't going on no damn cruise. Three days later I read that the ship we were thinking of going on, the Carnival Elation out of New Orleans had some kind of problems. I then said to myself, I ain't going on no damn cruise.

yeah, and it is an assumption on my behalf that smoking increases ones risk of cancer. 

So you have scientific evidence published in numerous medical journals based on decades of research that Carnival Cruise Lines doesn't maintain their ships?

Or are you just the king of terrible analogies?

http://www.examiner.com/article/carnival-ship-evacuated-the-triumph-trouble-again?cid=rss

This one is just bad luck.  That shipped is cursed.  The rest was a result of negligence.