The cruise line was recently reprimanded by a US Senator, Jay Rockefeller, for it’s misdeeds, so I say no, they aren’t “owned”.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, sent a letter Wednesday to Arison.
“The Coast Guard has responded to a string of 90 marine casualty incidents with passengers onboard Carnival ships in the last five years,” the West Virginia Democrat wrote. “It seems that Carnival has failed to take any meaningful course of corrective action after these continual incidents. This needs to change.”
In other words, “quit being negligent in your maintenance and requiring US tax dollars to rescue your goddamn ships. If this continues, the US government will send you a bill for services rendered.”
They might lose a tiny bit of cash due to people like me who might have been willing to go on a cruise until the Poop Ship coverage made them realize that once you get on one of those ships you can’t leave :eek:, but I doubt they’ll go belly up.
Me, I’ll stick to less terrifying vacation prospects like the annual spider roundup in Australia.
A friend of mine was in Galveston, waiting to board the Triumph. The funny part is that she works on cruise ships, and this was to be the first cruise she would have taken as passenger. She is the financial person of a music cruise company, and though she goes on cruises three times a year, she spends the entire time dealing with money - paying bands, straightening out problems, etc. This was to be her first time where she could relax, visit the spa, etc. Didn’t work out.
My parents were waiting in Galveston for the Triumph as well. This was to be their first cruise. They took their refund and decided to never plan another cruise.
I was wondering why FOX devoted a half-hour of news time decrying the waste of taxpayers money investigating the dangerous conditions Carnival put its passengers in “since its in such a highly competitive field”. :dubious:
Or maybe its all a publicity stunt to promote their latest ship, Carnival Dysentery
Long before I ever took I cruise, I was determined never to board a Carnival ship - their commercials annoyed me that much.
I have since cruised Royal Caribbean twice and I enjoyed it. I don’t think I’d like one of the 5000 passenger monsters, but the smaller ones seem nice. I’m hoping to do a transatlantic crossing some day, as well as the Panama Canal and maybe Scandinavia and the British Isles. I’m also interested in cruising on one of the sailing ships. The appeal for me as not having to do anything - no cooking, no cleaning, no chores. It’s just so relaxing!
There’s a reason for that. Most lines have a loyalty program where you get points based on the number of nights you’ve sailed with them. If you go on just one cruise, usually, you’ll get a bunch of benies for your next cruise. I couldn’t imagine switching now.
Hotels don’t carry you from one amazing destination to another while you sleep. Hotels don’t have free dinner, dancing, and a nightly show.
Same here, but most importantly for me- no airports! I can see Rome one day, get a free steak and lobster dinner, see a free show, gamble a little, and go to bed. When I wake up, I’m in Sicily, then Athens, etc. I can see five or ten destinations without ever having to get on a train or plane. What’s not to love?
We got some nice credits for our second NCL cruise, and if we go on another we’d do better.
I’ve done that. Rome to Athens to Turkey to Egypt to Malta, and I don’t have to pack or repack. It is also a great way of sampling destinations. I’d never have imagined loving Turkey and hating Greece.
I’ve never been on Carnival, and doubt I ever will book them. Our cruises have been more exotic than Mexico or the upper Caribbean, and I seem to be getting the impression that they are skimping on maintenance to keep their fares low,
Carnival is a huge conglomerate, they have absorbed several different major cruise/passage operators and they have brands from the ultraprestigious to the cheap. But so does Royal Caribbean (the 2nd biggest cruise conglomerate) and you don’t hear as much about their ships failing.
BTW remember that a large proportion of the cruise liners sail under flags of convenience – there are limits on how much US authorities can do about some aspects of the operation.
Unless something has changed in the last few years, the only US-flagged cruise ships are NCL’s 2 or 3 on the Hawaii loop. There is a rule that foreign-flagged ships cannot touch at only US ports, so for many years, and for carriers other than NCL, Hawaiian cruises had to leave from Vancouver and cross, or make a dash down to exciting Fanning Island.
NCL went to the trouble of creating a US-flagged fleet, which may have shrunk to one now, so that they could offer 8- and 10-day Hawaiian cruises that hit all the major port cities and islands. Highly recommended way to see Hawaii, BTW, unless you’re content to go to one island and basically one location for your entire visit.
In an update, the Carnival Triumph went back to sea.
Which is not good news because it wasn’t intentional. It broke free of its mooring lines at the repair dock causing structural damage to the Triumph, to another ship it collided with, and to a nearby dock before it could be secured again.
I’m thinking Carnival may be regretting their decision to build their corporate headquarters on a sacred Indian burial ground.
Pretty much. He’s an employee of a different company that works at the same location where the Triumph was docked. The only connection is that it appears he’s drowned in the same storm that tore the Triumph loose.