CNN reporting another Carnival Ship having trouble (The Dream)

[dwjoe]

Looking at teh pie chart with my "scary" naked eye, is not Carnival #3 behind Misc Ships and RCCL?

Yes, watch out for those Misc Ships.

[Heirloom]

Think it's time to walk away from Carnival.

 

Costa, Triumph, Dream, and Tom&Cheryl overview (which we respect thoroughly), along with obvious cuts in entertainment and food.....

 

......losing interest. Been there, done that. Carnival "fun and excitement"

is flying out the window. Micky Arison still gets $7,000,000 bonuses and watches basketball games, plays golf, as passengers suffer on cruises, etc.

 

This La-Dee-Dah operation has lost our confidence . Wow. Had it, but easily tossed it away. Based on all of the e-mail discount offerings

we've received over past month or two, they're striking out with MANY of their customers.

 

What a shame.

[ducklite]

Yes, it will certainly set a precedent. It will be interesting to see what happens to pax without a passport. There is an excellent chance that the State Dept and CBP will waive the requirement and allow them to board the charter flights and get home.

 

:::head smack::: They don't need a passport to board the flight. They need the passport to clear through INS when they return to the US. I don't see anything being waived, I see a lot of extra screening and long lines for those without passports.

[MrPete]

For the most part, these incidents will tend to shy-away first time cruisers not only from booking CCL, but from booking their first cruise -- this impacts the entire industry and curtails growth. Seasoned cruisers may avoid CCL for now, but will continue to sail other lines . . .

 

Problem is, Carnival is in the process of chasing away the seasoned cruiser banking on the newbies. This may be their downfall.

[broberts]

They are flying everyone home, however we don't know how that will be handled. I suspect that those without passports will have to work with the US Embassy to obtain temporary passports. This is not likely an expense to be covered by CCL. Even if they are allowed in without passports, they will be subjected to additional scrutiny and security measures--as they should be.

 

CBP is quite capable of recognizing exigent circumstances and making special provisions.

 

Since all the passengers are being returned by charter flights I would think it quite likely that CBP will arrange for special handling of the returnees, essentially processing them as if they were debarking the Dream.

 

CBP has the Dream passenger list so there really isn't any reason why people without passports would need special attention.

[Topo Gigio]

Let me tell you something chartering a wide body is NOT cheap. depending on the flying time you can talk about $75000 and up fuel excluded..

[bguppies]

You know, we're first time cruisers. We paid everything off literally a week after Triumph. SHIP happens! ;) I was stranded in an airport by myself for 3 days when I was 8 months pregnant, yet I will still fly. It was frustrating at the time, but I look back and laugh at it now. First world problems! If our ship was to break down on our cruise, yeah I'd be annoyed. BUT I would look at it as an adventure my husband and I would be on. There's no point in getting all riled up over something you cannot control. My entire family (about 30 of us) spent a lot of money renting cabins and camping spots on a canoe trip weekend one Memorial Day. Guess what? It rained the entire weekend, the river was flooded, and we couldn't go canoeing. Instead of pouting about it, we held mud volleyball tournaments in the rain. Some of the best memories are from that vacation! If people will no longer cruise because of these two incidents, that's their prerogative. I am so excited for our first cruise! We will hope for the best, and prepare for the worst!

 

“Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass. It is about learning to dance in the rain." [ or play volleyball ;) ]

 

Good outlook.

 

On the brightside for you.

 

The Fascination never gets too far from the Florida shores.

 

You could always get in the lifeboats and paddle back if you had to...

 

Enjoy your Fascination cruise. She's a great ship.

 

Bill

[yknot13]

Why would they be entitled to more than a partial refund? This was near the end of the cruise. Like a PP said, they made all the ports it's now just a matter of getting back on time.

 

CUSTOMER RESPECT that is why?

[darrengs]

Japan and Korea make cruise ships?:eek:

 

Japan most definitely builds cruise ships, the Sapphire Princess for one was built in Japan by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

[Senorita2012]

Um, you can't become a non-citizen resident of the US without entering the US on a passport issued by your country of citizenship--and it's required to keep that passport current as long as they remain in the US. Anyone who is not a US citizen would be required to show their passport before boarding the ship.

 

I am sorry but you are mistaken. Cubans are allowed to flee their country and gain U.S. Residency after one year. They do not have passports from Cuba or intentions of returning. They are not allowed to declare U.S. Citizenship until 5 years of residency. So technically, they have U.S. Resident Status but not U.S. Citizenship from here nor their country.

[MrPete]

They aren't coming back to the same port, therefore they are not on a closed loop cruise. They are coming back onto US soil in Orlando, not Port Canaveral. big difference.

 

And that's not THEIR problem.

 

CCL will be sure to handle this, and I still haven't read anyone mentioning PASSPORT issues after all the WORLD IS ENDING posts when the Triumph returned to Mobile.

 

Not one.

[ducklite]

No, but I have seen the planes fly in by the beach. It would be kind of scary to fly into there. Not sure about out- maybe?

 

Like taking off out of Logan. Short runway that ends in the water.

[MsSWhite]

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Freaking out! We are supposed to sail March 23 on the Dream. What do you think our chances are?

 

I feel terrible for those who have had their vacation cut short and for those who were supposed to board this Saturday. :(

[dwjoe]

Poor Gary Cahill can't catch a break. Just two days ago he made a comprehensive, transparent, and serious statement about what CCL was doing to address the issue of safety on its ships, and now this thing with the Dream happens.

 

http://carnival-news.com/2013/03/12/carnival-cruise-lines-president-and-ceo-gerry-cahill-comments-on-carnival-triumph-from-cruise-shipping-miami-2013/

 

So what we've done is start a comprehensive review of our entire fleet and that review focuses on four things:

 

First, looking at prevention, detection and suppression of fires.

 

Second, engine room redundancies.

 

Third, what additional hotel facilities might be provided and might run off the emergency generators.

 

And then fourth, the changes we can make from the first three items and how we implement those.

 

Now, I can assure you since this fire has occurred it has been the number one priority for both Carnival Cruise Lines and Carnival Corporation. We have a number of experts from a lot of different disciplines involved in the process of performing this review, including experts in fire safety; naval architects, marine engineers, electrical engineers, and mechanical engineers.

We have people, from within the Carnival Cruise Lines organization, from Carnival Corporation, as well as our sister brands involved. In addition we have pulled in experts from shipyards, engine manufacturers, electrical machinery equipment manufacturers and class society.

[J and J]

I believe there are always mechanics on the ships...aren't there?? :confused:

 

Yeah but not ones who can keep the ship running....LOL

[ducklite]

wonder if this latest incident will affect the stock at all?

 

The last one did, I think it's safe to say this one will as well--perhaps even more so.

[dwjoe]

Blomberg Business Week had a critical article on Carnival this week titled "Will Carnival Party On?" Basically it was saying that the bad news Carnival keeps sustaining is tarnishing the brand and it may not be able to change that image with refunds, price discounts and future cruise credits. Too much bad news sticks with the customer and the fact that the Carnival CEO cared more about playing golf when the Triumph was in trouble did not send a positive image either to the consumer. :o

To be fair, that was Micky Arison, the chairman of the board. The CCL CEO is Gary Cahill, and he was sincerely engaged, on the ground in person at Mobile to greet the Triumph pax.

[chengkp75]

I agree. I don't like the term "technical problem", it sounds like they're hiding something. They should just call a spade a spade and say there's an engine problem, generator problem, propulsion problem or whatever it is. It's already pretty obvious that the ship is not going anywhere so not sure what they think they are gaining by equivocating.

 

DWJOE: I most firmly agree that the Company has failed to apparently keep even the passengers onboard informed of what is going on, let alone the general public. They also must improve the PR training of the ships' crews (officers) with regards to getting info out onboard. They should have announced that the temporary power outages (not total) were caused by a technical issue with the emergency power distribution system (if that is what it truly is), and that the ship is not allowed to sail until it is fixed. They should have announced that the Captain was retaining everyone onboard for a speedy departure. All ship's functions were working, so it would have been just like a sea day, which it was supposed to be anyway. Ship's management fell down on this, unless they were directed otherwise by shoreside management.

 

However, would it have made you feel better if Carnival had said "the shunt trip coil on the emergency bus tie circuit breaker is malfunctioning due to an unusual ground detected in the buffet line waffle maker outlets?" (humorous example). I get pretty technical on here, and I think most people skip my posts because of it, but believe me when I say that I could fill pages with technical jargon that wouldn't mean diddle to anyone but a marine engineer.

 

In the legalese of the maritime world, there are only a few terms out there for incidents like this (and by USCG definition this would be an "incident" not an "accident") that would be generally understood, and technical issue is one of them.

 

I agree with most of your posts, but I think you're taking this too far. You, however, tend to be a moderate voice, and don't get into flaming the previous poster, for which I am glad.

[Topo Gigio]

How can we know at this point? I bet even Carnival doesn't know.

[Flying is for Planes]

Of the numerous ship dramas through recorded history, it seems that the majority of cruise ship issues have occurred in Fincantieri-built ships. However, since the late 1990s, Carnival Corporation blindly buys almost all of its ships from Fincantieri without looking at other builders (the only major exception was the Spirit Class in the early 2000s).

 

 

 

Is it the time for Carnival Corp to reconsider its relationship with Fincantieri and consider other builders ( Meyer Werft, etc.) with better records.

[mikel24m]

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Freaking out! We are supposed to sail March 23 on the Dream. What do you think our chances are?

 

I feel terrible for those who have had their vacation cut short and for those who were supposed to board this Saturday. :(

 

You may want to call Carnival and not ask this question on a message board.Im not being smart im just saying I would want the actual answer

[MeredithNC]

just announced - dream will not sail next week, flying everyone home

[dwjoe]

I am under the impression (I may be totally wrong) that the reason pax on the Triumph were stuck on that ship as it was pulled all the way to Mobile, was because taking the ship to Mexico (closer) would have caused a logistical nightmare, getting people with no passports home.

 

I don't know how accurate that statment is....just repeating somethign I heard.

It's not accurate. The reason the Triumph was towed to Mobile is that by the time the tugboats arrived the ship had drifted north, and taking into account the current, wind, and speed of the tugs, Mobile was the closest port. The logistical and passport simplification was a nice bonus but not the primary reason for the decision.

[Leo's Rule]

Well, I wouldn't mind being "stranded" in St. Maarten. I love St. Maarten. That will be my birthday trip next year.

[Thebosn1]

From CNN;

"We are also canceling the ship's next voyage which is scheduled to depart on Saturday, March 16." Nothing beyond that mentioned...