Cruising next week- sick of Carnival ship comments

[NoobCruise]

My response is "then you shouldn't fly or drive either". While I'm sure those on the Triumph are miserable, the media blows it all out of proportion. Considering the number of ships sailing daily, these occurrences are pretty rare.

 

I'd jump on a ship - including Carnival - in a heartbeat.

[kingoftheicedragons]

I agree that it does get old. But then I have to compare the number of cruises I've taken versus the number of cruises the person saying it have taken. If the person saying it has never cruised before, then it just becomes pointless hot air with no validity.

 

Those who are quick to criticize Carnival better hope that their favorite cruise line doesn't suffer any sort of problems, because then their words they've spoken against Carnival can just as relevantly be used against their line.

[bbwex]

I have to agree 100% with navybankerteacher. For the most part, the cruise line is safe, but there seems to be an element of luck at times. Although the International Marine Organization (IMO) has upgraded its requirements for newer builds (since 2010), there is a recurrent problem on cruise ships that seemingly minor fires and incidents can knock out virtually all power.

 

There is a glaring lack of redundancy, whether it is a totally separate electrical panel, and a separate generator or generators, something ought to be done to retrofit the vast majority of ships out there to prevent these incidents.

 

Training is another issue that ought to be addressed. In almost every investigation, they have found that some personnel were not properly trained or did not train frequently enough.

 

Then too is the maintenance issue. The recent lifeboat incident on the Thomson ship should really be ringing a bell. The parts failed when the lifeboat had only less than a dozen people on board. What if the lifeboat was filled to capacity of 100 or 150 and fell?

 

I know there are millions of armchair ship captains out there who are going to question all of us when we say we are cruising, and I agree that the news media doesn't know the right questions to ask to give a proper report. People have suggested to me and DW that certainly they could have gotten the people off the Triumph, etc., without realizing the logistics even if a suitable ship was available. Even the logistics of getting extra food out to a ship this size are extremely difficult. Evacuating the ship which was in no danger of sinking would have been another large task, though Carnival may now be wondering if that would have been preferable to the conditions that developed on board.

 

Still the industry needs to start to look at some of these issues seriously and do what it can to minimize these situations.

[sail7seas]

Surgeons will only operate when the risk of surgery is lower than the risk to the patient of not operating.

 

The risk of removing 4,000 people from that ship was far higher than the risk of leaving them on a ship which was in no risk of sinking.

 

While I am sure I would have pleaded to be removed from the ship were I in that circumstance, the bottom line is no one was seriously injured by remaining aboard.

 

There was one broken leg from what I have heard. It is likely there would be a broken leg on most any cruise that had 4,000 people aboard. That would be a very ordinary circumstance.

[navybankerteacher]

Surgeons will only operate when the risk of surgery is lower than the risk to the patient of not operating.

 

The risk of removing 4,000 people from that ship was far higher than the risk of leaving them on a ship which was in no risk of sinking.

 

While I am sure I would have pleaded to be removed from the ship were I in that circumstance, the bottom line is no one was seriously injured by remaining aboard.

 

There was one broken leg from what I have heard. It is likely there would be a broken leg on most any cruise that had 4,000 people aboard. That would be a very ordinary circumstance.

 

Absolutely correct: the risk of almost certain serious injury, even possible loss of life, makes any large-scale transfer of passengers at sea a last resort. Even in the calmest seas tender operations involve risk. The cost of getting another ship out there might have figured in Carnival's decisions, but absent life-threatening conditions, evacuation would have been a bad call.

 

On the other hand, it would appear that Carnival should focus on avoiding repeats: better maintenance of existing equipment, building som redundancy capacity, improving training so that staff can better handle small problems before they get big, and better staffing so that on-going maintenance can prevent, and on-ship competence, can cure problems.

[Duddy]

Well, Bob, if we were like the gloomy Gusses we would be worried about goat toxemia is and Christmas tree disease and bunker flu.

 

On the morning I leave for my cruise I could fall when I get out of the tub; trip going down the stairs; wreck the car on the way to the airport; die in a plane crash. All these things are more likely than disaster on a cruise.

 

Exactly! Enjoy your trip next week! :D

 

~Bob~

[marco]

And are these the same folks who after seeing an automobile accident vow to NEVER drive or ride in a car again?

[Corby114]

Moving passengers from the Carnival Triumph to another ship in the middle of the Gulf Of Mexico would have been a dangerous experience. Carnival did the right thing by keeping everyone safe onboard the ship. Shipbuilders should plan on having emergency generators located in an area of the ship away from the main engine room. In this situation, even if the main engines are knocked out for any reason the ship would still have power to run the normal hotel operations so that passengers and crew wouldn't suffer while they waited for emergency help to arrive. I read earlier today that repairs were made to the generators a few weeks ago on the Carnival Triumph and that the fire was in no way related to the repairs made weeks earlier. I would love to read the official report on the cause of the fire when it's made available.

[wildzinnia]

Focus on the good. If we believed everything people say, we would be living in Montana, raising goats, growing Christmas trees, eating berries and building bunkers.

 

~Bob~

 

I couldn't agree more! I would prefer to take my chances, travel and have wonderful experiences and memories, rather than staying barricaded at home, covered in bubble wrap and worried about all the dangerous possibilities of life.