Carnival Cruise Lines President: 'Conditions Onboard the Ship Are Very Challenging'

[dm33]

It's one thing to tender in a harbor area when your ship is anchored. I don't think it would be safe to tender between two ships in the open seas, neither of which is anchored.

 

Anchoring is not magic. Tenders often run while not anchored, position held by thrusters. Having 2 tugs on site should let them position the ship however they need to.

[samj80]

Have you been in a tender packed in like sardines. Why would you want to leave a ship and get in a lifeboat (tender)......:rolleyes::rolleyes:

 

There are no spare ships to take on 4,000 people .....and helicopters are out of range.

 

 

No ships? Carnival send two ships to assist the Triumph. They should of canceled the cruises and sent one of those ships back to get those people off.

 

I can't image how miserable it would be to be stranded on Triumph and watch a fully functional cruise ship with passengers in comfort sail away and leave me behind.

[gtalum]

A transfer operation in the open sea serves only to put people in danger of injury or death. Lifeboats are only to be used in emergencies. This has been repeatedly stated by many with experience in seafaring.

 

It would have been less expensive for Carnival to refund a second shipful of passengers than to deal with the firestorm that's going to erupt over this, so I'm sure it wasn't their choice.

[bkdlays]

Why isn't there a boat that could power the ship at least partially? Get some big generators, thats all a ships engines are anyway. A company like Carnival with 100+ ships, why aren't they equipped to handle disasters like this. I don't these people would mind getting towed in if they could live normally on board.

 

All it needs is electricity.

[SRQfireman]

For those of you saying....."why don't they tender them over to one of the other ships?".....You have any idea what capacity they're sailing at? If I was a betting man, I'd say at least 100%.....maybe even more than that. This day and age they do whatever they can to make sure they're full.

With that in mind, where would the people go they transfer??? Who would they pick to go and who stays behind? And #3.....You honestly think a cruise ship is going to take on other passengers and have to face the USCG when they find out how many people they had on board Vs what the Max amount of passengers they're allowed to have onboard ?

This is just logistically impossible to do.........

[SeaBlu]

I am truly, truly amazed by most of these comments. I was going to make another comment, but you know what they say, "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." :)

[only1deejay]

I hope carnival learns a big lesson from this.....they are cheap...face it....there attorney's are on the phone right now drafting up contracts to clean up this mess the cheapest way possible. and read the passenger contract....you can bet there is writing somewhere's about how carnival is not held liable for massive electrical failure and engine room fires.....anyone ever read a homeowners policy.....it basically covers alot of "not responsible" clauses. good luck carnival shoveling the SH!T this time.literally.

[lovelights]

No ships? Carnival send two ships to assist the Triumph. They should of canceled the cruises and sent one of those ships back to get those people off.

 

I can't image how miserable it would be to be stranded on Triumph and watch a fully functional cruise ship with passengers in comfort sail away and leave me behind.

 

 

I agree with you 100%. My thoughts exactly. (Noticed you're going on Jewel of the Seas in a few months. You're going to love it. We just got off of the ship, and we've been on about 12 cruises, and it was the best we've been on.)

[kellanrevere]

I kinda see people's point about tendering to the other ships. I mean the people are already sleeping on deck because they can't sleep in their rooms.

 

Why not tender people to one of the ships let them sleep on deck, at least they'd have a bathroom to use, AC, food and water. If I was on board the ship picking them up I wouldn't mind and would help however I could.

 

Honesty it feels like they want to drag the ship to where-ever works for their needs(dry dock) instead of what's best for the passengers.

 

Maybe because that ship was already full of paying passengers ? Were they supposed to also take their mattresses with them ? Double up on the toilet facilities ? Ration food and water in half between twice as many people ? Bad enough having one ship in trouble, why distress more ?

[cruisefied]

As was learned last week on the Majesty launching lifeboats is inherently dangerous. they are only to be used in an emergency that requires evacuation. the Transfer from the pilot boat is inherently dangerous as well. Its my understanding that the experts have been brought on the ship to determine the extent of the damage.

 

They have been bringing foodstuffs in from other Carnival ships.

transferring people would require the ship to stop.

 

This is not our area of expertise. You are entitled to your opinion but voluntary doesn't work either. The US Coast Guard is there as well. if they wanted the ship evacuated it would have happened already.

 

 

You mean to tell me that the U.S. Navy can spend literally millions of dollars and mutiple ships scowering the sea for one American (JFK-Jr.), yet we cannot help 3200 U.S. citizens who are stranded in the most deplorable conditions possible??

 

What's wrong with this picture?

[gtalum]

You mean to tell me that the U.S. Navy can spend literally millions of dollars and mutiple ships scowering the sea for one American (JFK-Jr.), yet we cannot help 3200 U.S. citizens who are stranded in the most deplorable conditions possible??

 

What's wrong with this picture?

 

You still don't seem to understand the inherent danger of transferring 4000 people from ship to ship in rough seas. The captain of Vigorous (the USCG ship on scene) is on record stating that it would be a bad idea. Conditions are miserable but everyone is physically safe. A transfer of 4000 people at sea in rough conditions will ensure many injuries and increase the likelihood of deaths from the incident, so it would be unconscionable to attempt.

[ATLfuzzy]

Meanwhile Tuesday in Miami, Carnival CEO is hanging out at a sports game, front row.

 

Insensitive.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2277914/Carnival-Triumph-CEO-Micky-Arison-takes-basketball-game-thousands-suffer.html#axzz2Kk1G89EA

[radzer0]

Those contract rules are about a power failure and loss of ac etc. Something to this point with piss and **** all over and health threatening conditions a judge will say they are still responsible. Depending on the age of passengers those kind of conditions could put a older person in the hospital. They should definitely have a backup system to run sewridge water and a reasonable amount of lights over the whole ship. I'm sure the newer ships do but carnival keeps these crazy old ships in service when most company's replace ships after about 15years once they get dated to the point where there selling cabins dirt cheap.

 

 

The next boat to have this issue will be the carnival sunshine.. Getting a complete interior overhaul and redesign yet the same old mechanicals still sitting there.

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2

[RBrownTN]

Why isn't there a boat that could power the ship at least partially? Get some big generators, thats all a ships engines are anyway. A company like Carnival with 100+ ships, why aren't they equipped to handle disasters like this. I don't these people would mind getting towed in if they could live normally on board.

 

All it needs is electricity.

 

The Triumph has five bus-sized generators, four of them dedicated to propulsion. The fire supposedly knocked all five plus a back-up out. You can't just string an extension cord from one ship to another. There isn't a sea-worthy cable out there to do that.

 

Even if the technology did exist - where do you position a ship like this? This could have happened anywhere in the world.

[gtalum]

Meanwhile Tuesday in Miami, Carnival CEO is hanging out at a sports game, front row.

 

Insensitive.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2277914/Carnival-Triumph-CEO-Micky-Arison-takes-basketball-game-thousands-suffer.html#axzz2Kk1G89EA

 

Yes, their PR game has been absolutely awful.

[Seago2]

Meanwhile Tuesday in Miami, Carnival CEO is hanging out at a sports game, front row.

 

Insensitive.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2277914/Carnival-Triumph-CEO-Micky-Arison-takes-basketball-game-thousands-suffer.html#axzz2Kk1G89EA

 

I will never forget Mickey Arison's tweet after the Concordia disaster: "Go Heat!"

[gtalum]

Those contract rules are about a power failure and loss of ac etc. Something to this point with piss and **** all over and health threatening conditions a judge will say they are still responsible.

 

IANAL, but there were no successful suits against carnival when this same thing happened to Splendor.

[sneakrat]

Let me preface this by saying I not sailed on the ship having the current issue. I did however sail on the Elation back in June. I will say this that ship was in a bad state. Over half the elevators were not running and there were numerous electrical problems all over the ship. Our cabin air did not work during the day, and the tv was on the blink the entire cruise. Not to mention the plumbing problems we had in our room.

 

I have to say Carnival is not doing maintenance on these ships, if they were this could have all been avoided. I will not sail carnival again. I don't care if New Orleans is a close driving distance to the house.

 

I would not get on any Carnival ship ever again. After seeing the problems we had on the elation, and whats went down on the Triumph I would be scared to get on any of their ships.

 

I just read a lot of reviews that talk about the past month and the many problems they had with the engines on that ship. If they would have fixed it right they would not be having the current issues.

[mbrown2097]

Last I heard, the coast guard has not boarded the Triumph. They are following and ready to lend assistance if necessary. May I suggest that the Coast Guard go ahead and put some people on board to verify that conditions are safe. With conflicting stories from Carnival and families, it's probably worth getting a third party on board to verify.

[mainelycruising]

Last I heard, the coast guard has not boarded the Triumph. They are following and ready to lend assistance if necessary. May I suggest that the Coast Guard go ahead and put some people on board to verify that conditions are safe. With conflicting stories from Carnival and families, it's probably worth getting a third party on board to verify.

 

I would like to know that the CDC is on board this floating sewage scow. Cholera is a real possibility, and should be ruled out before the passengers are let off and sent to thousands of different places.

[radzer0]

IANAL, but there were no successful suits against carnival when this same thing happened to Splendor.

 

Was the splendor always having issues prior or was it a one time thing? I didnt keep up with things when that happened. The triumph has had propulsion and other issues including generator.

 

My mom and sister were on a cruise on it 2 years ago and power to propulsion went out twice. One time the a/cs got knocked out for about 45minutes too. The boat is beyond disrepair and alot of people have been commenting around about the other boats needing alot of repair too.

 

 

This is issues this boat has been having for a long time and they havent made any time to pull it out for a drydock. The NCL spirit has propulsion issues and they made drydock plans as soon as they could to fix the issues properly vs just hacking things together and making it work which is what carnival has been doing for a long time. They will investigate everything and look at the maintance issues the boat has had and if its on systems they keep working on it will turn into something bigger.

 

 

The concordia thing has changed all of this. Canivals policy says they arent responsible for things out of there control and the concordia wasnt in there control. But there still responsible.

 

 

All it takes is a large group of lawyers with big pockets to fund the whole lawsuit to make it happen.

[gtalum]

Was the splendor always having issues prior or was it a one time thing? I didnt keep up with things when that happened. The triumph has had propulsion and other issues including generator.

 

My mom and sister were on a cruise on it 2 years ago and power to propulsion went out twice. One time the a/cs got knocked out for about 45minutes too. The boat is beyond disrepair and alot of people have been commenting around about the other boats needing alot of repair too.

 

 

This is issues this boat has been having for a long time and they havent made any time to pull it out for a drydock. The NCL spirit has propulsion issues and they made drydock plans as soon as they could to fix the issues properly vs just hacking things together and making it work which is what carnival has been doing for a long time. They will investigate everything and look at the maintance issues the boat has had and if its on systems they keep working on it will turn into something bigger.

 

 

The concordia thing has changed all of this. Canivals policy says they arent responsible for things out of there control and the concordia wasnt in there control. But there still responsible.

 

 

All it takes is a large group of lawyers with big pockets to fund the whole lawsuit to make it happen.

 

If the electrical fire is tied to existing propulsion issues, then there might be a legal issue. That's a big "if", though.

[In2why]

You still don't seem to understand the inherent danger of transferring 4000 people from ship to ship in rough seas. The captain of Vigorous (the USCG ship on scene) is on record stating that it would be a bad idea. Conditions are miserable but everyone is physically safe. A transfer of 4000 people at sea in rough conditions will ensure many injuries and increase the likelihood of deaths from the incident, so it would be unconscionable to attempt.

 

 

I doubt everyone is safe since they are having EMT triage waiting at the dock for when they get there. I believe this is much worse then what happened on the Splendor based on the reports. This isn't camping or making do with onion sandwiches. This is sewage coming through the walls and soaking the floors. Not being able to wash your hands.....(I would use the alcohol to santitize not drink). One decent indicator that it is worse is that now they are also giving each passenger $500 as well as refunds, travel expenses, and a free next cruise.

[radzer0]

If the electrical fire is tied to existing propulsion issues, then there might be a legal issue. That's a big "if", though.

 

 

True, but what we know of the propulsion issues may be a power delivery issue, who knows what the nature of the previous issues were. May have been many systems that safetys would prevent use of propulsion with them not working properly.

 

 

I dont know much of boats that size. But I know there is many systems (extremely expensive systems) that have to be properly functioning etc to power up the engines and may have been bypassed.

[bagelsnbrew]

Meanwhile Tuesday in Miami, Carnival CEO is hanging out at a sports game, front row.

 

Insensitive.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2277914/Carnival-Triumph-CEO-Micky-Arison-takes-basketball-game-thousands-suffer.html#axzz2Kk1G89EA

 

OH come on! He owns the team. Should he be swimming out to the ship instead? Besides, he's stinking rich and that's offensive to me wherever he sits.

 

As for those thinking it's reasonable to transfer 3600+ people in the open ocean? It's risk! It may not be pleasant but the boats not sinking. The risk involved in transferring all those people is far greater than leaving them on the ship. You tender in a bay and only under calm conditions, not in the open ocean! Thus, they stay. Group this whole "idea" in with "why can't we have fresh fish on a cruise ship, we're in the middle of the ocean?" brilliance.

 

OH, and this-

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/14/travel/cruise-ship-fire/

 

For the over the top saccharin hyperbole, the author deserves a month on the Triumph in its current condition! "It's the worst thing ever"??? Really? Ask the people that lost their homes in Hurricane Sandy, the families of the Newtown tragedy, anyone living in Afghanistan/Libya/North Korea/Iraq/ect.? I think they may have you trumped!

 

It's a bad vacation! Nobody died or was seriously injured. Those on board will have stories to bore the crap out of everyone they know for years to come. Carnival seem's to be doing a decent job all considering, for the pr it's true, but it could be handled much worse.