CNN oped piece slams cruise industry (piggybacks on Triumph)

[gnocchi_mommy]

Well at least he shared the love for many cruise lines.

This is just what I want my extended family who already think we are a little crazy for our cruise-addiction to read.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/13/opinio...html?hpt=hp_c2

[kingoftheicedragons]

Interesting article. But then, it's just an opinion by someone who either has never cruised, or had one bad experience with cruising, or maybe even has more of an interest in land-based vacations and he's trying to convince people to not cruise.

[chengkp75]

The article is untrue in most aspects. The driving force for regulation of foreign flagged ships is the insurance underwriters. It they don't certify a ship, the company gets no insurance, and they don't want to pay for an incident like the Triumph out of their own pocket.

I don't know where he got the idea that noro is caused by contaminated food. All ships that call in the US are inspected by the USPH (part of CDC) according to the Vessel Sanitation Program. This is the most stringent sanitation program in the US, far stricter than any local health inspection codes. I know, I worked as a Staff Chief Engineer on a cruise ship, and was tasked with the technical aspects of implementing the VSP. As part of the VSP, all food that is "ready to eat" (like salads, fruit, etc) are sanitized in bleach prior to going from the provisions area to the galleys.

We had several outbreaks of noro on my ship, and the medical department would have the patients fill out a form from the CDC, and the CDC is usually able to trace the outbreak back to patient "zero".

[WoCEditor]

The article is also written by a notorious legal ambulance-chaser who thrives on trying to make the cruise biz seem bad. Much of it quotes spurious statistics and questionable so-called 'facts' and CNN should be ashamed at publishing such obvious anti-cruise propaganda. For example, it uses the Bahamas Celebration and Ocean Star as examples of "cruise ships," when they are, in fact, an overnight casino ship and a one-off old-timer of a failed Mexican company that have about as much relevance to today's industry as does a tug boat. It also claims a "catastrophic explosion" aboard the QM2, which would be news to Cunard as the ship is still sailing normally! Just third rate gutter tripe, I'm afraid.