A New Cruise Line Passenger Bill of Rights

[chengkp75]

How many dire predictions of the end of cruising was there after the Costa Concordia, and how long did it take for Costa to fill their ships again?  People have short memories, especially in today's instant news culture.

[celebrity]

13 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

How many dire predictions of the end of cruising was there after the Costa Concordia, and how long did it take for Costa to fill their ships again?  People have short memories, especially in today's instant news culture.

Good Morning. 
I’ve always enjoyed reading your insightful posts as you truly have knowledge. 
However on this, I respectfully disagree. 

We’ve all witnessed the heartbreaking news from passengers quarantined on cruise ships, we’ve seen life come to a grinding halt. 

 

I’m a New Yorker living in the current Epicenter. I lost my job 3 weeks ago. 
We’re all living a bad dream. 
 

The Costa Concordia was a single tragedy that effected those passengers and their loved ones only. 
 

This virus has wreaked havoc on a global scale and we are forever changed as a result. 
 

I have no doubt some cruise lines will be bankrupt over this. 
 

Wishing everyone good health and Godspeed. 

Edited April 1, 2020 by celebrity

[Sailorgrl7392]

2 hours ago, zzzz8888 said:

Unfortunately, I think many Cruise Critic members are living in the cruise world bubble where faults, issues, and oversights by the cruise industry are dismissed and ignored, attributed to financial limitations, logistics, etc.  I understand that point of view and accept it.

 

But when it comes to matters like this - perception trumps facts.  The perception and PR being broadcasted to the world by cruise companies are:

• Not keeping their passengers safe.  To be blunt, cruise passengers are dying in substantial numbers in a short period of time.
• Have no (apparent) safety protocols.
• Cruise ships are efficient vessels to spread coronavirus.
• Quarantining on board cruise ship doesn't work - you don't want to be quarantined on a cruise ship when an outbreak occurs.
• Have medical staff that are overwhelmed, incompetent, understaffed.  Lack of medical equipment on board, etc.
• Governments don't care about cruisers.
• Cruise lines indeed don't have much, if any responsibility (as mentioned by @sparks1093) to protect its passengers.  Many ignored or were ignorant of this in the past.  But no more.

We can argue whether all of this is actually true or not.  But there's no doubt this is the perception in 99% of the world who are not CC forum members or hard core cruisers.  The original point of my post is cruise lines need to battle this horrible perception and regain trust by taking steps that show they're trying to improve.  They have done little to nothing of this sort in the last few months.

 

I would love to see and witness CC forum members and hard core cruisers prop up the industry when it start operations again.  Perhaps the hard core cruisers can keep the industry afloat - for a while.  But there is a difference between keeping a cruise industry on life support vs one that is thriving.  Repeat cruisers are not enough for the latter.  The cruise industry needs to take action now to reassure the other 99%.  I would love to be wrong here, but let's see what happens when operations start again to see what the drop in revenue and passenger volumes will be.

Here's what your missing. people who don't work in the cruise industry/maritime industry in general don't really understand. while i get your heart is in the right place it needs to be realistic.  I understand that changes have to be made if/when they come back.

 

The maritime industry as a whole is big about saving money. I work onboard a commercial cargo ship and my job used to be a job for 5 people. guess what? the industry cut cost and now one person can do the job 5 people were doing. also container ships used to spend a couple of days in port to load cargo. now they spend hours.If the commercial industry figured out how to save money and make the most while cutting cost, so did the cruise lines. they want to make the biggest bottom line. everyone does. The sad reality is the ideas do cost more money and unless they can figure it out where it doesn't, it might be awhile. also be a little realistic with yourself. adding rooms and equiptment to the medical center? more crew? more doctors? come on now. where is all this going? you might say get rid of X or get rid of Y. yes they could but it interferes with the bottom line.  they keep adding things and making things bigger to become more competitive with each other. there is really no reason they need a huge medical center onboard. why? because 90% of the people onboard never go there unless they have a dire medical emergency. its meant to fix little things and stabilize you to be transferred ashore. also pandemics don't come around all the time, this is rare.so whats your grand plan on how the cruise line can make money if they expand and add more crew to this medical facility after this goes away and the pandemic is no more? it's not generating revenue. wasted space onboard now. 

 

And guess what? if the perception keeps people away then the truth is they were never gonna cruise to begin with or keep cruising because cruise ships are floating petri dishes.  they have outbreaks all the time. its not uncommon. there used to be a website that reported month by month issues cruise ships had. it was never empty. all it takes for an outbreak to occur is some human factor to comes onboard sick and thats it. human factor is the problem here. not the cruise ships and not the industry. 

also they are not required to to be responsible for passengers  if they get hurt or sick. thats why people buy insurance. so you protect yourself. if a builder builds a house and theres a flood or a fire after you've bought it should he just build you one for free without insurance. if you don't have insurance your at a loss. the builder isn't magically gonna build you a new one or fix the issues for free. cruise lines are the same. insurance is important. thats the lesson here. also when you buy a cruise, your paying for the ship. not for the ports. people miss and forget this little tidbit. if your stuck on a ship for 7 days and you paid for a 7 day cruise, you got what you paid for. 

 

I agree they don't have a good light shed on them right now.they can do better and should do better. what that involves i'm not sure. but remember that they can implement all these grand ideas on paper and manuals and training until passenger factor comes into play. unless they factor this in, then the changes won't do much good. 

Edited April 1, 2020 by Sailorgrl7392

[chengkp75]

1 hour ago, celebrity said:

Good Morning. 
I’ve always enjoyed reading your insightful posts as you truly have knowledge. 
However on this, I respectfully disagree. 

We’ve all witnessed the heartbreaking news from passengers quarantined on cruise ships, we’ve seen life come to a grinding halt. 

 

I’m a New Yorker living in the current Epicenter. I lost my job 3 weeks ago. 
We’re all living a bad dream. 
 

The Costa Concordia was a single tragedy that effected those passengers and their loved ones only. 
 

This virus has wreaked havoc on a global scale and we are forever changed as a result. 
 

I have no doubt some cruise lines will be bankrupt over this. 
 

Wishing everyone good health and Godspeed. 

You do know that many "bankrupt" companies continue business as usual while in bankruptcy?  That's what Chapter 11 bankruptcy is all about, protecting the company while it reorganizes so it can continue as a business entity.  But even with reorganization, there is really little incentive for the cruise lines to make any of the changes suggested by the OP, unless there is statutory regulations concerning these things, and with the ships being foreign flag, there isn't a lot the US can do about it.

[CruiserBruce]

@zzzz8888, perceptions trump facts when people publish falsehoods and misconceptions as established facts. When people make accusations without any concept of the facts. When people grossly overstate the facts (or the untruths)to make the facts seem impossible or improbable. 

 

Sound familiar? There are many examples of this in our world today, besides this thread.