CNN reporting another Carnival Ship having trouble (The Dream)

[darrengs]

They reported what they were told. You reported what they "told" you. That doesn't make YOU wrong.

 

 

True, the days of actually verifying sources and information are long gone.

[bguppies]

So funny that one of Cnns own was on the tv saying how it wasn't that bad and they were getting to spend the day in st maarten while carnival figures out the transportation home. Mellow dramatics :eek::rolleyes::rolleyes:

 

He is actually a reporter or anchor for WREG...

 

If he was a CNN reporter, he would have been told to scream and relay every second of doom and gloom that happened in the middle of the night, when the toilets were down. (yet fixed by 12:30AM)

[emdia43]

CNN reports they will all be flown home. March 16th cruise cancelled.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/14/travel/cruise-ship-trouble/index.html

[Cruisegirl6]

I stuck up with Carnival during the ordeal of the Triumph, thought that Carnival did the right thing giving the passengers what they did.

 

Now, the Dream....Im sorry I have to finally see the light, and it makes me realize what is going on with their maintence because way too many ships of theirs are having problems. This is way too soon to have another major issue with a cruise ship after the Triumph just a few weeks ago.

 

I think refunding for 3 days is not fair....they only getting back what they are loosing that time. They not getting anything back from shortening their cruise and shortening the fun. Carnival says that the ship was operating full function, I assume since she remained in St. Maarten that the casino was closed so how could they say all functioning properly?

 

I backed Carnival up for years, but this is way too much now to be called coincidence.

[pat55]

People during our attempt to get the back up generator functioning we did cut power causing intermittent power outages in the early morning hours . This did cause some toilets not to work for a short period of time*

As you know all power is restored*

A couple other announcements*

1 The*Thalassotherapy Pool is not a designated public toilet

2 we have plenty of food , please no abducting /eating the several service animals on board*

3. Will the person who managed to deficate *on the ceiling in the karaoke room plz contact us , the US gymnast committee would like to see / recruit *you **

[Athankfulheart]

Im bumming with the folks who have to fly home ( I hate flying nowadays) and the folks who had their vacation cancelled :( I hope that you can somehow salvage your time off and do something fun.

 

We were on the 3/16 (17) sailing in 2012 and feel like you guys are kindred spirits in a way. We loved the Dream and have another sailing scheduled for 1/4/14. We are still excited about our trip! Stuff happens and I think Carnival is doing right so far. I'd agree that communication to the pax should be as often/accurate as is possible, so if it hasn't been, then that would be my only issue so far.

 

Wishing you all the best.

[Lakers1041]

SO i hear the March 16th cruise is cancelled.

[Ccruzal]

No matter what is going on on the Dream, this is so awful for Carnival. What a PR nightmare. Scares away first time cruisers and turns other cruisers off from the line. I've only cruised RCL and will continue to do so. Carnival might be a good cruise line, but its not good to develop a bad reputation.

[mikedoes]

I don't totally disagree with you but you cannot deny Carnival has a disproportionate number of occurances. I seem to remember a small blip of someone new in the maintenance department...hopefully it will make a difference.

 

 

Did you enjoy your RCCL Oasis cruise...?

[finzup-kt]

I have a trip on the breeze booked for May. Not feeling supremely confident in Carnival's maintenance department right now.

 

I'm travelling with my 9 month old. Odds are, everything will be fine - but yeah, I will be taking some precautions (extra formula, food, etc) and yeah, I will likely do some homework on other cruise lines for next time.

 

Safety and quality are not things to skimp on. I'm beginning to agree with those that say there must've been some cutbacks to maintenance.

[wildcatlh]

No matter what is going on on the Dream, this is so awful for Carnival. What a PR nightmare. Scares away first time cruisers and turns other cruisers off from the line. I've only cruised RCL and will continue to do so. Carnival might be a good cruise line, but its not good to develop a bad reputation.

 

This is going to affect every line, not just CCL. The Splendor and Concordia both caused an overall reduction in cruise ship bookings.

[Cruisegirl6]

If I were a passenger I would expect Carnival to put me up for the remaining three nights, pay my expenses home and give me back my 3 days refund.

[bguppies]

Happy everybody is keeping the discussion mostly in this thread this time.

 

25 pages in 6 1/2 hours...

 

What is the over under for pages at the 24 hour mark..?

 

Lets start a pool.:D

[fielddreamer]

This is the thrid issue in 2 years don't you think that it is about time the Carnival loyal believe they have a real problem !

[DGP1111]

How will they fly out 3,646 passengers? :eek: They will need more that 10 empty big planes for that. I don't think those things are just sitting around idle waiting for something to do (much like cruise ships).

 

Boeing currently has several really large jets "sitting around idle" that could remedy the situation . . . unfortunately their current maintenance is about equal to Carnival's.

 

.

 

Perhaps Carnival Dream should allow this unfortunate repeat experience to be an 'excursion' of sorts, and have the passengers line up along Maho Beach to watch their charter aircraft fly in low overhead, and then walk across the street and get on them. Could be fun.

 

.

[ducklite]

This is going to affect every line, not just CCL. The Splendor and Concordia both caused an overall reduction in cruise ship bookings.

 

Actually a few lines are seeing record bookings. However they are all smaller lines, not mass market.

[chengkp75]

Weird comparison. No one got sick. Would you never go to a Red Lobster again anywhere if one had issues? Would you never go to another Darden owned restaurant? We are not talking about issues with every ship. Also, this is something totally different than Triumph. Not an engine issue. Actually, neither is an engine issue. A leak in the fuel line caused the fire on the Triumph and the way they put out the fire is what caused the ship to lose power. This time, the engine was fine, in fact everything was fine except the back-up generator and the Captain did not want to sail back without it working. No one was ever in harms way. I would not complain if it happened to me because sh*t happens everywhere. Carnival is being smart not sending the ship out without a back-up generator. With the Triumph it was a leak, not shoddy maintenance.

 

Actually, the Triumph WAS an engine problem. The loss of power from using the halon fire suppression is unavoidable, but should have allowed them to restart after a couple of hours to check for reflashing of the fire. What caused the ship to never regain power was the same as the Splendor, the fire damaged the wiring from the generators. The CEO of Carnival even states this in his comments from the Miami cruise convention; the ship had two engine rooms, two switchboards, but the fire damaged the wiring from both engine rooms.

 

Carnival most probably had no choice in the matter of sailing without an emergency generator. That is normally what we in the maritime call a "no sail item", meaning that regulatory agencies will not let you sail with whatever not working. Once the Chief Engineer decided that the emergency generator or emergency switchboard could not be fixed in a short period of time with the parts and manpower onboard, it became a done deal that the ship would not sail, and the passengers would be disembarked. They may be able to get a waiver to sail back with just the crew, if they show that repairs cannot be undertaken in St. Maartins, but I don't know for certain how the local authorities will deal with it.

[cmhatter]

I'm cancelling dream in Nov. Likely headed to rccl.

[Boston Bill]

Classic! A whole new definition for CCL! LOL

 

As a new person here on cruisecritic.com I am shocked at the intense hatred some have for Carnival. I had a terrible experience with a Kia car recently but I do not spend hours on end on a website telling people about it. I am about to take my first carnival cruise and I intend to have a fantastic cruise and for now I think I will leave this place as its full of negativity.

[ducklite]

Boeing currently has several really large jets "sitting around idle" that could remedy the situation . . . unfortunately their current maintenance is about equal to Carnival's.

 

LOL! Well there's that...

[zenful6219]

This is Cruise "Critic", not Cruise "You're only allowed to say nice things, and defend your Cruise Line to the Last".

 

Thank you! I couldn't have said it better myself!

[Vigorosity]

Vigorosity- We find ourselves in a similar position as we next planned to "treat" our daughter, son-in-law and new grandchild to a 5-day cruise on his (SIL's) return from Afghanistan. Galveston is our home port... and we have other choices now besides CCL. Sailed Magic in February- so the choice to cruise on another line would be partly based on curiosity about the differences between CCL and Disney or RCL... but, also influenced by the fact that the line has had so much bad press lately AND that I have been following the "brand ambassador's" writings well enough to know that the head doesn't know what the tail is doing quite often at CCL. Like you said, traveling with a toddler will be fun enough without having to worry about the issues lately faced by Triumph and Dream pax.

 

Yeah. I love Carnival's ships, atmosphere, food, service and most of all...price. We probably can't afford Disney, but I'll look into Royal. Might be fun for me to notice the differences anyway! Good luck and congrats on your grandchild!

[wildcatlh]

Actually a few lines are seeing record bookings. However they are all smaller lines, not mass market.

 

I thought they went down for a short time and came back, though I can't find numbers to back me up there. Either way, I can't imagine this being good for the industry as a whole. Two incidents in this short a time will scare away passengers. CCL will be hurt worse, but I can definitely see first time passengers being scared away from all cruise lines (except the smaller lines, as you said)).

[quantumleap]

Boeing currently has several really large jets "sitting around idle" that could remedy the situation . . . unfortunately their current maintenance is about equal to Carnival's.

 

.

 

Perhaps Carnival Dream should allow this unfortunate repeat experience to be an 'excursion' of sorts, and have the passengers line up along Maho Beach to watch their charter aircraft fly in low overhead, and then walk across the street and get on them. Could be fun.

 

.

 

 

LOL...that is a brilliant idea!! :D

 

Hadn't even thought of the effect of all those extra planes having to come in...should make for a great viewing day at Maho Beach! :)

[Ccruzal]

This is going to affect every line, not just CCL. The Splendor and Concordia both caused an overall reduction in cruise ship bookings.

 

I feel horrible for the poor people whose vacations have been ruined. On the bright side, maybe this means lower prices industry wide for future sailings! Nothing will ever deter me from cruising. It's still the best vacation ever.