It seems that after an elevator malfunctioned on the Carnival Inspiration last weekend, with five guests inside, Carnival handled the situation poorly according to the comments posted on Facebook online. A reader of Cruise Law News sent this link to me today:
https://www.facebook.com/jacob.burrola.5/posts/2305552379537290
The Carnival officers who eventually responded appeared to be disinterested in
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PR News recently published an interesting article about how Royal Caribbean Cruises successfully handled its public relations image during the 2013 fire aboard the Grandeur of the Seas. Titled How Royal Caribbean Controls the Message During a Crisis, the article explains how the cruise line effectively controlled the narrative when the Grandeur caught
The captain of the Freedom of the Seas, Captain Ron Holmes, I am told by crew members is a good man. He is well liked and respected by the crew, from what the shipboard employees tell me.
After the fire, Captain Holmes, via a closed circuit television loop, explains to the passengers what just happened.
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A number of news sources report that SeaWorld’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), James Heaney, will be joining Carnival Cruise Line as CFO next month. Mr. Heaney worked at SeaWorld since 2011.
As the movie Blackfish reveals, SeaWorld profits by forcing captive orcas, which swim a hundred miles a day in the wild, to entertain tourists. The
A Harris Poll released today reveals that the public has a lack of confidence in the reliability and safety of the cruise lines. Although the cruise industry was improving the public’s perception of cruising, the numerous norovirus outbreaks aboard cruise line ships this year seem to have "effectively stolen the wind from the industry’s collective
This weekend saw the epic failure of Royal Caribbean’s corporate communications department after two of its cruise ships, the Adventure of the Seas and the Navigator of the Seas, encountered difficulties returning to their respective ports.
The Adventure of the Seas encountered propulsion problems last week and, eventually, a total failure on Saturday night
This week I listened to the multi-millionaire cruise executives praise the cruise industry at the "state of the cruise industry" at the Cruise Shipping Miami (CSM 2014) trade show.
As anticipated, Carnival’s CEO and former Monsanto chemical executive Arnold Donald said cruise ship accidents are "so rare . . . cruising is safe." Royal Caribbean’s
This morning I wrote an article about Princess Cruises immediately blaming the sick passengers for what appears to be the latest norovirus outbreak aboard the Caribbean Princess: Blame Game: Princess Accuses Passengers of Starting Norovirus Outbreak on Caribbean Princess. Princess’s PR spokesperson Julie Benson accused the passengers of bringing the virus with them
The news of 600 passengers and crew members stricken with what appears to be norovirus is dominating the cruise news today. The story broke on Friday with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announcing that a little over 300 passenger and crew aboard the Explorer of the Seas were suffering from nausea and diarrhea.
The
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A newspaper in Australia presents two sides of the cruise industry today.
The main article is entitled: Death, Assaults, lawlessness … the Dark Side of the Cruise Industry. It’s a must read article for everyone interested in the historical view of the problems which continue to plague the cruise industry: missing passengers, excessive alcohol
Carnival scored some much needed public relations points during an interview with CBS News’ travel expert Peter Greenberg. Following several high-profile mishaps (the Costa Concordia disaster and the Carnival Triumph "poop cruise"), the cruise giant is reportedly spending more than half-a-billion dollars for improvements on its fleet of cruise ships.
Of particular interest during
I have always wondered how the cruise industry PR people do it.
They face non-stop bad cruise news. The Splendor fire. The Concordia deaths. The Allegra fire. The Triumph fire. Plus another 10 cruise ship fires, 50 norovirus outbreaks and more shipboard rapes than you can count in just 3 years.
Yet, the cruise
The U.S. and international media covered the saga of the stricken poop-filled Triumph cruise ship non-stop last week. CNN led the coverage with its "ceaseless, rigorous reporting" on what some newspapers are characterizing as essentially "inconvenienced cruise passengers without working toilets." CNN enjoyed a 74 percent increase from its recent prime time numbers according
The Costa Concordia in January disaster set off a seemingly endless avalanche of stories on cable news this year about ship fires, sinkings and other cruise disasters, as well as a steady stream of articles and videos about sexual assaults during cruises, drunken brawling passengers, and the disappearance of women at sea.
I’m just one of
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The cruise industry has an image problem. Royal Caribbean is the main reason.
This year began with Royal Caribbean’s business-as-usual approach to ferrying passengers back and forth to its "private destination" in Labadee (actually sovereign Haitian land leased from Baby Doc Duvalier). While Haitians tried to dig out of the rubble and bury their dead following the devastating earthquake, Royal
Last week was another rough week for Royal Caribbean.
First there were repeated outbreaks of the nasty norovirus aboard the Jewel of the Seas which sickened hundreds of unsuspecting passengers. Then there was the embarrassment of a Royal Caribbean employee with a criminal record stealing private information from Royal Caribbean computers regarding Royal Caribbean customers so her career-criminal-of-a-husband could break into their
A handful of recent stories have shed light unwanted light on the image-conscious cruise industry. Cruise lines like Carnival and Royal Caribbean spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year to paint pictures of care free vacations. But here are some stories published in the last few days which make you realize that the fun-filled family cruise may a bit different than
Obtaining accurate information from the cruise industry is difficult. Whenever passengers have a complaint, the cruise lines either ignore them or the cruise lines’ customer relations departments send them a nonsensical letter several weeks later dismissing their complaints or offering a 25% on a future cruise. This often infuriates the passengers who have no intention of ever sailing on a
