What do you all think about this article from CNN?

[YaWk3Y_BoMb3r]

This is an article written about all sorts of things that are bad about cruising. What's the opinions of the veteran cruisers?

 

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/13/opinion/walker-cruise-ships/index.html?sr=fbmain

[njhorseman]

As soon as I saw the article was written by a maritime lawyer who makes his living suing cruise lines on behalf of passengers and crew members I didn't bother reading it. It's guaranteed to be one-sided rather than dispassionate and impartial.

[klfrodo]

As soon as I saw the article was written by a maritime lawyer who makes his living suing cruise lines on behalf of passengers and crew members I didn't bother reading it. It's guaranteed to be one-sided rather than dispassionate and impartial.

 

I wasted valuable time skimming the article,,but,,,ding ding ding

You were right.

[calliopecruiser]

This is an article written about all sorts of things that are bad about cruising. What's the opinions of the veteran cruisers?

 

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/13/opinion/walker-cruise-ships/index.html?sr=fbmain

 

I'm hardly a veteran, but I'm not surprised and I don't doubt any of it. It is one sided, but never pretends to be anything but.......I think it's a worthwhile opposite view to pretty pictures on the Carnival ads. While you may believe the good outweighs the bad, you can't deny that the bad is still there. In fact, I'm often amazed at how many people try, LOL.

 

I have no problem acknowledging some of the downsides of the cruise industry (and one of the reasons I chose to travel with a small line) - acknowledging it doesn't mean I have to boycott it.

[pyrrhus]

As soon as I saw the article was written by a maritime lawyer who makes his living suing cruise lines on behalf of passengers and crew members I didn't bother reading it. It's guaranteed to be one-sided rather than dispassionate and impartial.

 

I love cruising, go as often as I can (which hasn't been much lately do to a job change)... But the lawyer was right in everything he said. There is a seedy underside to cruising just like every industry. I think I would rather consumers know everything before making their decisions. I do wish there were counterpoints included, but we quit caring about those 30 years ago. In the meantime I am trying to decide between a baltic or an eastern med cruise.....

[SanDiegoHeather]

I will still continue to go on 2 cruises a year - looking forward to Crown Princess on Feb 23rd! I am aware of problems - I chose not to go on certain lines because of maintenance issues but I thought those were limited to cosmetics. I am now worried about going on a Carnival francise next week. However, based on past Princess cruises they work independently (just like Celebrity vs RCCL).

[Cruisin' Chick]

What he's doing is a bit, IMO, akin to ambulance chasing. He's hoping that someone who's been on a cruise recently and had a few things gone wrong (in their mind) will contact him for a law suit.

[notentirelynormal]

When I got to the part about those poor souls making such a low wage and the ugly cruise lines... blah blah blah ... I scrolled down to see a bunch more to the article and I stopped reading. It was too negative for me. Their was nothing objective in the part I read.

[DT1304]

As soon as I saw the article was written by a maritime lawyer who makes his living suing cruise lines on behalf of passengers and crew members I didn't bother reading it. It's guaranteed to be one-sided rather than dispassionate and impartial.

 

As soon as I saw that article was on CNN I didn't bother reading it.

[Scrapnana]

It's the same old, same old that gets trotted out after every cruise line problem. We know the crew gets paid poor wages but they are not forced to be there. Many are making far more than what they would make in their home country (no, that does not make it right but obviously means something to the workers or they would not take the jobs). Yes, the cruise lines need to make a profit which requires them to turn the ships around in a few hours. If they could not make a profit we couldn't cruise. If you read your cruise contract you know that you give up almost all of your rights but the tradeoff is worth it. I feel bad for those affected in each of these incidences but I won't stop cruising.

[Cuizer2]

This is an article written about all sorts of things that are bad about cruising. What's the opinions of the veteran cruisers?

 

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/13/opinion/walker-cruise-ships/index.html?sr=fbmain

 

As soon as I saw the article was written by a maritime lawyer who makes his living suing cruise lines on behalf of passengers and crew members I didn't bother reading it. It's guaranteed to be one-sided rather than dispassionate and impartial.

 

Just because the article is one sided does not mean it is not accurate. There is nothing in the article that I disagree with (I've been on 21 cruises and will soon go on my 22nd cruise. My 23rd cruise is already booked and I'll likely book my 24th cruise while on my next cruise.

 

The bottom line is, things could be better, and things could be a lot worse. Despite the things brought out in the article I will continue to cruise. Not because I think it is the greatest thing in the world, but because the potential rewards are worth the risks to me.

 

Some people will not fly. Okay, that is their choice, but that rules out a lot of potential travel. I do fly. I don't always enjoy it, but I do fly. Once again the potential rewards, in my opinion, are worth the risks.

 

Now, you will not see me walking on some steel cable stretched across some canyon. For those that enjoy that kind of thing - great. But for me, the potential rewards are not worth the risks. So, to each his own.

 

That said, I doubt that anyone in Carnival's PR department has been bored lately. The bottom line, most people can accept a problem or two. But if Carnival doesn't start spending a little more money on inspections and maintenance, and if more of these incidents pop up in the new every other year or so, Carnival may wake up one morning and find that it is no longer the world largest cruise line.

[beachbum53]

Finally! I have a valid reason for skipping the salad bar!

 

"...the culprit may be norovirus-laden salad."

 

See honey! I told you this chocolate cake would be healthier for me than the salad bar.:D

[Hlitner]

HUMBUG! Instead of dismissing the article (more like a work of fiction) lets analyze. Fire is a big fear on any ship and given the amount of machinery and electrical buses below decks it is sometimes inevitable. So ships are carefully designed to tough international standards (including SOLAS) to minimize damage and risk to life if the worst happens. On the Triumph fire the fire was quickly extinguished and nobody (crew or passengers) was injured. Eventually the authorities will learn exactly what caused the fire and hopefully make changes to avoid a similar situation in the future (but more fires will still happen). As to Norovirus, it is one of the most common viruses on earth and infects folks both on ships and off ships. But off the ships it is usually not reportable so you often do not hear about major outbreaks. You go to a restaurant and get sick a couple of days later and you never make the connection like they do on a ship. Sometimes rumor is much worse then reality. We live in Mexico about 2 months a year (for the past 7 years) and have never gotten a GI illness. Yet, while we were once safe in Mexico the US was hit with a serious e-coli outbreak (which killed many people). But people still tell us that its dangerous to be in Mexico (not true in places like Puerto Vallarta). For folks who live in places like Chicago one could argue that they would be much safer to move to Puerto Vallarta or Cabo St Lucas or even live on a cruise ship....but the media will never tell you that story.

Last night we watched (from Mexico) some of the live coverage from Alabama as passengers disembarked the Triumph. As the reporters were desperately trying to encourage folks to tell horror stories what we actually heard were passengers praising the crew, telling how they coped, wearing bathrobes (it was cold) that they had decorated with various notes ("I survived the Triumph") etc. We watched one reporter who seemed frustrated that nobody would say anything bad about the cruise line or crew. The real story (not told) was that nobody was hurt, the ship will be repaired and soon sail again, and the only news item was that 3000 passengers were inconvenienced and had a bad week. Most of these passengers will tell their stories for years and there will probably be 10s of thousands of folks who will later say they were on that ship :)

 

Perhaps the real story is how the cruise industry adopted revised SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) standards that contributed to everyone on the Triumph returning home safely. And these standards had nothing to do with the US government (my goodness) and actually work :)

 

Hank

[bosslaydee]

Cruises are cheap because crews work long hours for little pay

Well ive spoken to a VERY nice british girl named Tamara who was on her way out to port on her break. She explained that she loved her job. No complaints except the odd rude customer. But every customer service job is like that.

 

He mentions the cleaners make 100 and change a week with no tips. i dont know if thats entirely true. we tipped our room guy and girl..

 

The cruise lines operate their ships virtually 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year.

Certain Cruise chips only work certain months out of the year.. yes every business runs all year but parts of it stop and take a break at different times. -.-

 

This whole post was ridiculous..

[bosslaydee]

HUMBUG! Instead of dismissing the article (more like a work of fiction) lets analyze. Fire is a big fear on any ship and given the amount of machinery and electrical buses below decks it is sometimes inevitable. So ships are carefully designed to tough international standards (including SOLAS) to minimize damage and risk to life if the worst happens. On the Triumph fire the fire was quickly extinguished and nobody (crew or passengers) was injured. Eventually the authorities will learn exactly what caused the fire and hopefully make changes to avoid a similar situation in the future (but more fires will still happen). As to Norovirus, it is one of the most common viruses on earth and infects folks both on ships and off ships. But off the ships it is usually not reportable so you often do not hear about major outbreaks. You go to a restaurant and get sick a couple of days later and you never make the connection like they do on a ship. Sometimes rumor is much worse then reality. We live in Mexico about 2 months a year (for the past 7 years) and have never gotten a GI illness. Yet, while we were once safe in Mexico the US was hit with a serious e-coli outbreak (which killed many people). But people still tell us that its dangerous to be in Mexico (not true in places like Puerto Vallarta). For folks who live in places like Chicago one could argue that they would be much safer to move to Puerto Vallarta or Cabo St Lucas or even live on a cruise ship....but the media will never tell you that story.

Last night we watched (from Mexico) some of the live coverage from Alabama as passengers disembarked the Triumph. As the reporters were desperately trying to encourage folks to tell horror stories what we actually heard were passengers praising the crew, telling how they coped, wearing bathrobes (it was cold) that they had decorated with various notes ("I survived the Triumph") etc. We watched one reporter who seemed frustrated that nobody would say anything bad about the cruise line or crew. The real story (not told) was that nobody was hurt, the ship will be repaired and soon sail again, and the only news item was that 3000 passengers were inconvenienced and had a bad week. Most of these passengers will tell their stories for years and there will probably be 10s of thousands of folks who will later say they were on that ship :)

 

Perhaps the real story is how the cruise industry adopted revised SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) standards that contributed to everyone on the Triumph returning home safely. And these standards had nothing to do with the US government (my goodness) and actually work :)

 

Hank

 

:eek: OMG, everything you said was what i was thinking.

Stuff happens. Car accidents at LEAST 4 times a day in each city, and everyone knows yet everyone piles back into their cars without a care. With good reason. You have to live, cant stay cooped up in your basement fearing any little thing that can happen. SNL made a sketch about living life to the fullest.. by staying alive in captivity. lol :P

And everyone [the media] was so quick to bash the cruise lines, but no one seems to get that NO ONE GOT HURT. Thats the real victory. It couldve been worse, but the fire was extinguished promptly.

Someone conducting an interview asked me what i thought about the accident and when i kept saying good things, interrupted me and then cut me off. :/ :confused:

[dsrdsrdsr]

"Other cruise ships experienced what the industry would either deny or call "minor fires," including the Adventure of the Seas, the Crown Princess, the MSC Musica and the Allure. But there is nothing minor about a cruise ship, filled with thousands of passengers, catching on fire on the high seas, even for a matter of seconds."

 

I reckon that's probably the daftest of his claims. Is he saying that if a frying pan catches fire and is immediately put out, that it's a major incident?

 

Basically, everything that he says that is of any relevance at all, is equally relevant to foreign land based holidays as well. If a 2,000 bed hotel has a chip pan fire which is immediately put out, it's just as major as when the ship does it. If a hotel in India pays its staff double the local average wage but one-sixth the amout they could earn if they lived in the USA, that's just as significant as when a cruise line does it. And maybe he doesn't know it, but most hotels are open 52 weeks a year.

 

Perhaps next we can have an article written by a turkey, about how Thanksgiving is a festival that needs to be abolished? :rolleyes:

[virginialucy]

"At the last hearing, before Sen. Jay Rockefeller, cruise expert and author Ross Klein said fires broke out in 79 cruise ships from 1990 to 2011."

 

Is this supposed to shock me? Assuming there were few or no repeat fires, that's 79 fires on cruise ships over 21 years. That's 3 or 4 a year, most of them very minor, out of hundreds of ships making thousands of voyages. Seems pretty rare to me.

[Tampa Jim]

He is just angry that they didn't comp him a balcony suite. :D

[Hlitner]

So now Congress wants to get involved with their usual self-serving hearings. One can have a good laugh by trying to picture a cruise ship designed by Congress. But the really sad part about our government is that they do their best to drive the cruise industry away from US Ports. Just imagine the additional tax and tourist revenue if cruise ships were allowed to routinely call at ports along the East and/or West Coast (severely restricted by the PVSA, California ship fuel regulations, Longshoreman Union issues, and probably some provisions of the Jones Act. To the best of my knowledge there are currently no US Citizen Captains running any of the mass market cruise ships (although we know one US officer who is third in command of a Celebrity ship). There are apparently some good legal reasons why cruise lines prefer foreign Captains. And US labor laws already make it nearly impossible to have a US "Flagged" ship. We figure by the time Congress is done with the cruise industry we will have to fly outside the US to catch any cruise ship.

 

By the way, one has to simply look at Hawaii to see the impact of American rules, regulations, protests, etc. Did you ever wonder why you do not see lots of high speed hydrofoils, ferries, etc. routinely carrying folks between the islands?

 

Hank

[Steviewonder1]

Our last cruise on Carnival in January was just this side of Pergutory. We caught our plane to JAX (yes we fly), had a text that said Boarding delayed to 5-8PM from Noon to 4PM due to weather. We arrive in JAX an hour later and the next text says Boarding delayed to 8-11PM. We got to JAX at 12N, checked our luggage with the Carnival Desk, rented a car and went into downtown JAX. Arrived back at the airport at 6:30PM to take the 7PM bus to the Cruise Terminal. We waited a bit on the bus until 8PM, went straight to the Captains Lounge, checked in, got our Suite Keys and sat down in Group One chairs. At 8:45PM we boarded the ship. Lots of complaining and grumpiness among several passengers and many children. Long story short was Carnival Comped everyone's Lunch and Dinner plus half a days cruise cost for what we missed. We did the muster drill at 1:30AM, and departed port at 4:15AM. We did not care at all as we hit the MDR and our smuggled booze made it on, all of it. The ship was delayed coming out of Dry Dock in the Bahamas and a large storm it had to go around. We are going out of country on our next Cruise and I expect that we will do that more in the future but not on Carnival.

[dsrdsrdsr]

I take it that storm only went after Carnival vessels, then? Though I've not quite grasped why it's relevant to this thread.

[EmJakeBubbie]

oy vey! the article, shared by the OP, was most biased, imho.

I hope the lessons learned include all pax realizing when they board an ocean going vessel, they aren't in Kansas, anymore. One must be alert, have a Plan, Be Prepared is the motto. Buy a Passport, Take Trip Insurance, fly in a day early, and relax. Be proactive and realize that You are responsible for You. We've had the good, the bad, and the downright ugly of cruising experiences, but we keep booking the next cruise.

The prices we pay haven't changed since the early 90's - the tips, however, have increased, and now you might as well call them mandatory service charge. The crew volunteer for their jobs - they are wealthy people and support their families in their home countries. Yes, they work hard, but the pay is worth it, so I've been told.

The Triumph's pax had horrible exposures to the worse unsanitary conditions.

The Crew must have been amazing, and imho, Carnival did their best to compensate and accommodate, when there was nothing else they could do. Lobster and Steak to leave a good last impression and I thought the CEO was sincere with his apology. All souls survived.

Whoever was responsible for clearing the Triumph to sail, must have overlooked something.

I think there's a major design flaw in redundant engine/propulsion systems. Perhaps isolate the "backup" from the "main" ??? Engineers will look at this, I hope.