Sometimes it seems that Carnival takes a lot of abuse. Just mentioning the name of the cruise line generates interesting reactions. The recent fire on the Carnival Splendor that left the ship without power brought Carnival into the spotlight again.
Stories covering the unfortunate event often seemed to focus on the negative, but some of the remarks elicited a smile on my face. Two parts of this story on Yahoo News caught my attention.
According to the story, one passenger says,” I spent the night tossing and turning in my cabin in the dark.” It’s hard to spend the night in the light, isn’t it? That is unless you are sailing where the sun never sets. Needless to say, there was limited electricity after the engine fire. But, it is very likely that on a regular cruise, a person might spend the night in the cabin in the dark.
Perhaps more humorous was the statement by another passenger who said, “Nothing like it was advertised in the brochure.” Of course not and the impending doom of the fateful Titanic sailing was not advertised in the brochure, either.
Things happen on cruises and overall, it seems that the majority of passengers rose to the occasion as did Carnival. Nobody ever foresees an emergency, but it is how one reacts to an emergency or conditions caused by the emergency that say much about the character of a person and the character of a company.
Several passengers claim that they would never cruise again because of this incident. The chances of this happening to the same person on another cruise are slim to none.
Carnival offered a full refund, covered travel expenses and will give a credit for another cruise of the same value. That should be an incentive for passengers to give cruising another try for their next vacation. It’s unlikely that they will have any stories from the future cruise that can compare to this.
Too bad that the group of magicians aboard weren’t able to make either a new engine or electricity appear. Long ago, I suggested that ships use solar power; this seems a perfect example of a situation where having alternative energy would be ideal.
Both Carnival and the passengers on this memorable trip deserves special recognition for the handling of this less-than-ideal situation.
Sail Away
Wow that is absolutely a huge ship. It is my ultimate dream to have a cruise trip with my wife. Every time I read about cruise ships I am more inspired and determined to save and work hard just to make that dream come true.