I am counting my lucky stars these days. Joe and I had a great cruise on The Carnival Imagination but Carnival is being plagued with bad news stories these days.
The string of bad luck started January 13, 2012 with the sinking of the Costa Concordia, one of the worse passenger ship disasters since the sinking of the Titanic.
At the time I wasn’t aware that Carnival Cruise Lines was the parent company for the Costa Concordia not that it would have made any difference to me when I accepted the free cruise from my time share.
Blissfully unaware of any issues at Carnival we looked forward to our mini cruise. We joked about the ships that had engine fires or became disease riddled. Stories like that were always popping up in the news. But when you consider the number of ships that are plying the seas it stands to reason that there will be a mishap now and then.
Our cruise was wonderful. In spite of less than perfect weather it was relaxing and pleasant. So it was with some surprise that I listened the horrendous reports about the Carnival Ship Triumph which became stranded in the Gulf of Mexico not far from where we had been. It was a mini cruise that followed one of the itineraries I had the option to choose. We went out of Florida, not Texas. A different choice and we could have been on that ill-fated ship. Still I felt it was just a “fluke”. Now I am beginning to wonder.
Carnival and Royal Caribbean are the largest cruise lines according to industry statistics with Carnival cornering approximately 21 % of the total cruise market worldwide with a fleet of 23 ships.
But back to the string of bad luck. Costa Concordia is by far the worse with an actual sinking and loss of life.
Then we have Triumph that drifted in the Gulf of Mexico . Passengers reported over flowing toilets, sewage in the halls, cold and spoiling food before they were towed to port.
Following the Triumph in quick succession we had the Elation…
Then , Dream
and now Legend!
Carnival Elation had to be escorted by tugboat because of a malfunction in its steering system.
Carnival Dream lost power and toilets stopped working . Even though they were in port at the time no one was allowed to get off the vessel.
Carnival Legend was on the last leg of a seven-day cruise through the Caribbean when technical problems affected its sailing speed.
It’s been reported (but I haven’t been able to verify) that in a months time 3 other Carnival Ships have reported problems.
Carnival announced this week that it is conducting a “comprehensive review” of all of its ships. Until things improve I think I’ll stay away from Carnival Cruises.
I’ll be heading off on another cruise in May, north to Alaska. I’m looking forward to seeing the glaciers and wildlife of our 49th state but we won’t be cruising with Carnival. This trip is on the Princess Cruise Line. I haven’t heard anything bad about them lately. 🙂