The cruise industry image is floundering again, with more bad news and big pictures about ships losing power (and the subsequent much-feared inability to flush toilets).
If history is any guide, cruise lines will fight back by throwing money at the image problem, lowering their prices until customers start buying again.
So if you are thinking about booking a cruise, this may be the time to find a bargain. (This article appeared earlier this week in The Plain Dealer of Cleveland, Ohio.)
When customers slow their buying because of concerns about negative events, such as the recent engine/power/generator problems on the ships of Carnival Cruise Lines, nearly every cruise line lowers its prices until customers come back to the usual levels.
A problem on one cruise line affects them all, as many vacationers, even past cruisers, don't remember one cruise line from the next. When one gets a fever, they all shiver.
If you're interested, call your travel agent and watch for cruise ads with discounts. You may see sales offering as much $100 off, per person, for a week's cruise. If that doesn't get enough response, cruise lines may offer $150.
Carnival promises to fix troubled power systems
Besides, the odds against a lousy cruise, such as the February sailing of the Carnival Triumph in the Gulf of Mexico, are in your favor, as the vast majority of cruise ships operate without incident, returning to their home ports with happy, well-fed passengers.
The odds will get even better after Carnival gets its act together and its ships fixed.
Two big Carnival ships are now in extended dry dock. The cruise line announced on Tuesday that unplanned, costly repairs are now aimed at "operating redundancies and the scope of hotel services that can run on emergency power," which I read as providing working toilets and some cooking and dining facilities even when a ship is disabled because of a power failure.
A few weeks ago, it seemed that the dreary February cruise aboard Carnival Triumph probably was an anomaly, though it was the second Carnival ship in three years to drift without power after an engine fire. Triumph passengers spent five difficult days in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, some camping out on deck to escape their stuffy cabins smelling from seeping sewage.
While not a single person, passenger or crew, was injured, and some passengers praised the crew for their efforts, the Triumph took on the worst image of a ruined vacation that was supposed to be fun and carefree, mostly because the TV world watched the whole, drawn-out affair on CNN.
Then, last week, the Carnival Dream, on a Caribbean cruise from Florida, abruptly ended its voyage during a port stop in St. Maarten, flying everyone home early and offering refunds and discounts. While the problem was a backup emergency generator, and the ship could have cruised home to its base at Port Canaveral, Carnival faced the possibility that something might go wrong, without a backup generator. The last image that Carnival wanted on television was another disabled ship full of passengers who couldn't use their toilets, being towed ignominiously into port.
Some Internet sites reported that the Dream was having problems similar to those on the Triumph, but Carnival responded that such reports were not true, which seems to have ended that discussion.
Carnival President Gerry Cahill has promised an unrelenting investigation into power sources, safety and how to keep ships operating to take care of passengers and crew if another ship fire occurs. The review is in addition to investigations of the Triumph fire conducted by the U.S. Coast Guard, National Transportation Safety Board and government of the Bahamas, where the Triumph is registered.
Evidence points to need for serious repairs
The first evidence of that review -- clearly investigators have found something wrong -- was the surprising news last week that Carnival is taking two big ships out of service for repairs.
Carnival Triumph, which was supposed to return soon from the engine room fire repairs, now will not be back until June 3, with a total of 10 additional cruises canceled. Passengers will receive a full refund, reimbursement for nonrefundable transportation costs and a 25 percent discount on a future four- to five-day cruise.
More of a surprise was an announcement about Carnival Sunshine, which is undergoing a huge makeover in Italy. It was to be introduced with great fanfare in April. Now, its first two cruises have been canceled for "implementation of the enhanced operating redundancies and other measures." The Sunshine will start cruising May 5. Passengers on the first two voyages will receive a full refund, plus reimbursement for any nonrefundable travel costs. Additionally, they will receive a 25 percent discount on a future cruise.
"We sincerely regret canceling these cruises and disrupting our guests' vacation plans," said Cahill. "We are fully committed to applying the recommendations stemming from our fleet-wide review and to make whatever investments are needed despite the difficult decision to impact people's vacations."
Looking ahead to prevent repeats
This will not be the end of repairs for Carnival ships. Perhaps as many as a dozen ships will need time in dry dock.
"Moving forward," said Cahill, "we will have the ability to source materials and schedule improvements much more expediently, thus minimizing the scheduling impact on other vessels."
Cahill said that all Carnival vessels have fully effective safety systems, equipment and training. They are inspected regularly by the U.S. Coast Guard and other regulatory authorities.
"The changes we are implementing are focused primarily on improvements to better support continued power and hotel services should unexpected issues arise. The review will focus on the balance of our fleet."
Carnival Triumph operates year-round four- and five-night Mexico cruises from Galveston, Texas. Carnival Sunshine is scheduled to operate a series of nine- and 12-night Mediterranean cruises May 5 to Oct. 20, either round-trip from Barcelona or sailing between Barcelona and Venice. After a 16-night trans-Atlantic crossing from Barcelona to New Orleans in early November, the vessel will do year-round seven-night Caribbean cruises from New Orleans.
Passengers on the affected voyages may contact their travel agent or call 1-800-227-6482 for assistance.
David Molyneaux writes regularly about cruising news, tips and trends. His cruise trends column appears monthly in U.S. newspapers and on other Internet sites. He is editor of TheTravelMavens.com
