Just Cruises Plus

Following the loss of power of the Carnival Triumph, we expressed concern about the management team of Carnival Cruise Line but we did suggest that their troubles might be the result of bad luck.  Today, Carnival is faced with two additional mechanical issues which are affecting the vacations of their passengers. 

The Carnival Dream experienced a failure of her backup generators while at a pier in St Martin and the Carnival Legend has a problem with one of her Azipods¹ which necessitated a sharp reduction in the speed of the ship.  The problems with the Dream and the Legend probably would not have made the news had it not been for the far more serious failure of the propulsion system of the Carnival Triumph.

The evidence seems to be building that bad luck is less of an issue than bad management.  We’re coming to the conclusion that the Carnival Corporation is far better at marketing ships than they are in operating ships.  They may be starting to recognize this sad situation since on Tuesday, Carnival announced it was conducting “a comprehensive review” of all 23 of its ships after the fire last month that crippled Triumph in theGulf of Mexico.  Carnival President and CEO Gerry Cahill said the investigation will focus on the prevention, detection and suppression of fires, engine room redundancies, and what additional hotel facilities might be provided and might run off the emergency generators.

This is a much needed step that should have been done years ago.  Should you book a Carnival cruise?  Reality is that the vast majority of Carnival cruises are fun filled and come home with happy passengers.  Carnival is cheaper then the competition so that might be a factor in your decision.  Thus far, no one has been seriously injured as a result of the mechanical failures.  However, there is no denying statistics.  Carnival ships have experienced more mechanical issues than their competitors and we have very serious questions about how Carnival handled the Triumph issue and we think that they were very lucky not to have had serious injuries.

1 Azipods are used in most modern cruise ships.  They are pods that are attached to the ship.  The functions of the propulsion motors, the propellers and the rudder are all part of the Azipod system.