Now the tow lines has broken. I wouldn’t want to be on a boat where shit is hitting the fan like that.
I wouldn’t want to be on a tug or CG boat within poo-flinging distance, thass fer sure.
This is getting to be a bit like the issues with giant buildings, maybe more back in the 70s and 80s than now but still a problem - these things exceed all reasonable “rescue” capabilities. Too big to move, too big to supply at sea, too big to evacuate…
Sorry, didn’t mean to say “evacuate.”
Yep, the rule with the large vessels is that as long as there is no uncontrolled fire/sinking threat, they are their own best lifeboat.
I suppose a backup system capable of handling the full “utilities” for the passenger section would in fact have to be nothing less than an entire utilities powerplant with its own watch, in a location separate from the main propulsion powerplant, which arrangement would be inefficient.
This picture seems to confirm that. Only some of the very largest poshest liners have a dedicated landing pad, otherwise it’s not profitable to occupy valuable topside surface area that way – when the QE2 was called up as a Royal Navy Reserve Fleet troopship during the Falklands war, helicopter platforms were added as removable temporary superstructure.
Geez, Shit Boat can’t catch a break!
So…you’re saying it’s all gone to shit because the plumbing doesn’t suck?
Carnival just can’t catch a break. They choose not to reserve rooms in Mobile. Instead they have rooms reserved in New Orleans. That’s a 2 hour bus ride away. If they had docked around 4 to 5pm as planned that wouldn’t be a big deal.
But now they are expecting to dock at 10pm or later. Late night and no rooms booked close by. I’d bet the passengers aren’t going to be happy.
The mayor of Mobile is already questioning why rooms weren’t booked in his city.
http://news.yahoo.com/coast-guard-cruise-ship-stopped-towline-broken-192926545.html
I hadn’t heard about this. Interesting article on the towing operation.
The Mexican towboat helped a lot.
To answer a couple of questions from the thread, most cruise ship customers go with Carnival as a first time cruise because it’s usually the cheapest, and they do shorter itineraries than most other lines.
The lack of quality, long lines and cattle-car feel of the mega-ship short-form cruises appeal to some, but for most customers when they go for their next cruise they usually opt for one of the higher-tier lines like Royal Caribbean, Holland America or Princess. Of course, Carnival owns Princess, so there are some similarities, but the next tier up often has longer itineraries, better food and amenities, and so on.
There are several tiers up from there in terms of quality, but I think that most of the middle-tier lines give you a good vacation for your money. The base-price that you pay for the cruise can often be negotiated or discounted, because every cabin on those big ships generate on-board revenue - drinks, excursions, gambling, etc.
As to the Triumph, it will very likely go into what’s called a drydock refit - the ship will be taken out of the water and repairs will be done to everything that was damaged mechanically, and very likely all of the carpets, furniture and linens will be completely torn out and replaced. They essentially strip the hotel part of the ship - anything that can bear smells or disease - away and replace it with new stuff, while giving everything else several industrial cleanings.
If you’ve never seen one of those huge ships at drydock, it’s pretty interesting to see - I once got to drive underneath one just hanging there on huge concrete pillars.
Tim
When I took my cruise on the boat, the boat was late due to bad weather. Instead of us hanging around New Orleans, they chartered a bus for us to go downtown to watch a movie, then they drove us back.
The people who decided to just stay at port rather than be shuttled into town then back to port boarded the ship about 3-4 hours earlier than we did. I get the impression they don’t run things well at Carnival.
Also I find it amusing that we are all so dependent on technology and the system running smoothly that within 3 days of a kink in the machine people are reduced to eating onion sandwiches and shitting in ziploc bags. Maybe the survivalists have a point.
Those of us who are currently on boats floating in the middle of the ocean are that dependent, yes.
It’s the intersection of the lower tier of cruise fares and the problems of marshaling happy people around. The ship pulls in at 10 and tries to unload 3500 passengers as quickly as possible, while the housekeeping staff scampers behind them trying to make every room, every public area look shiny-new for the next load, which starts coming aboard around 2. Sail away, come back, repeat. There’s no margin for problems and the only way to make it work is to herd the passengers like cattle.
I’ll say it again: anyone considering a cruise on a mega-ship (over 2000 or so passengers) is out of their mind and not likely to find it a fun experience. Especially if anything - anything at all - goes wrong.
It was fortunate that they had a good supply of Ziploc® plastic bags on board, wasn’t it?
I imagine that the refrigeration and cooking facilities must have also been impaired. They had to make do with non-perishable items that could safely be eaten raw.
And, if they ran out, doesn’t the ship have a poop-deck?
Don’t ships have a deck just for such a contingency? 
According to tonight’s newscast, the local passengers on the ship are saying that the food is down to cucumber slices and hamburger buns. Haute cuisine!
I keep waffling back and forth as to whether I’d want to go on a cruise. But I know for certain that I will avoid Carnival. I can’t imagine the utter exhaustion of the passengers this evening.
You’ve got to be kidding?! NCL is worse than Carnival. The one NCL we were on, was horrid. The crew was surly and over worked. They ran out of milk to drink on day 3 and light cusine on day 5 of a 7 day. Imbarkation/debarkation was in an unair-conditioned pole barn in 120°F weather, coupled with a 3 hour bus ride through fuel farms in sounth Texas. The busses back to the air port were 2 hours late and so everyone finished with customs was pushed out of the shade of the pole barn into the blazing sun.
Have you done this in the open ocean or just in harbour?
I’ve watched some of CNN’s live coverage of the passengers leaving the ship. So far the ones that were interviewed have praised the ship’s crew for working tirelessly to help them and keep spirits up. That’s good to hear.
Everyone looks pretty worn out but unhurt. They got a great story for the grandkids. 
And a lot of mentions of prayer circles and The Lord. weird…