Carnival Cruise Lines Terrible, No Good, Very Bad, Year

-Alexander Englander

2013 has not exactly been a banner year for Carnival Cruise Lines. The “fun ship” company,

as they are called, has had a string of high profile mishaps. In February 2013, the cruise ship

Triumph lost power due to an engine room fire. It took tug boats five days to tow the ship back

to port. Because there was no power, there was also no air conditioning, no fresh water, or

working toilets or hot meals. By the time the ship reached port in Mobile, AL, many of the

passengers were sleeping outside as the heat and humidity made the odor inside unbearable.

Right on the heels of that incident, another ship, the Dream had a problem with a generator while

it was docked in St. Maarten. After many hours, in less than ideal conditions, passengers were

flown home. The following week, the Legend, had to be rerouted back to port, as it was having

technical issues with its cruising speed. Add on top of all of this, several incidents in which

passengers have either jumped or been pushed overboard and it marks a very bad first half of

2013 for the economy cruise line.

Spokespeople for the cruise line have said they handled those situations the best they could

and passengers where compensated for the inconveniences. In an article written for PR Daily, a

website dedicated to Public Relations, author Michael Sebastian tracked the public relations

response to the Triumph incident. He believed that Carnival’s PR team was in front of the crisis

and did a pretty good job of keeping people informed. As guests disembarked from the ship in

Mobile, AL, CEO Garry Cahill apologized over the PA system and issued the following

statement, posted to Carnival’s Facebook page:

First, I'd like to start with saying how very thankful we all are that the ship is alongside and everyone is safe. I am so appreciative of the efforts of everyone involved in bringing the Carnival Triumph safely to the Port of Mobile.

I want to thank the United States Coast Guard, The Port and City of Mobile, Customs and Border Protection, and the countless other parties who have been incredibly helpful throughout.I’d also like to thank our shore side teams for working around the clock to make this happen. And finally, I want to thank our crew for all they have done. We have seen and heard so many reports, online and in the media, from passengers praising the crew’s hard work.

I am now going onboard to talk with our guests and crew, as well as to help with getting our guests off the ship and on their way home. Thank you.

While issuing that statement and keeping people updated about the crisis on Facebook and

Twitter is a good thing, and having the CEO personally speak to guests is a step in the right

direction, with the other incidents starting to pile up; what does Carnival have to do to reclaim

the ground lost during the first half of this year? Toward the end of March, Carnival announced

plans that it would initiate a “fleet wide assessment” and expects fixes to be made through 2014.

However, the company was not specific as to what kind of fixes will be made and how it plans to

prevent similar issues like the ones suffered earlier this year. The bad press doesn’t stop at just

the mechanical problems on board the ships. Passengers do not feel as though they have been

compensated appropriately. Passengers aboard the Triumph received a refund, credit for a future

cruise, a $500 refund, and a personal phone call. Carnival Dream passengers received a three

day refund and 50% discount on a future 2-7 day cruise. Finally, guests aboard the Carnival

Legend received a $100 credit.

Although the public relations department may have done a good job in relaying information

to passengers and family members during these crises, there is more to crisis management then

just providing information and a refund. Once the crisis is over, the PR team has the larger task

of ensuring the proper message is being disseminated through the media. The worst thing that

can happen is the PR team telling one story and passengers telling another story. That is what

was happening to Carnival. Passengers are contradicting the narrative which the cruise line

wants to tell. And that is a big problem. In order for Carnival to regain its standing, the

company, more specifically, the PR team must do more for its affected passengers, show it has

learned valuable lessons, and reveal details on how it will prevent these problems from

happening again. A good PR team will be proactive and not wait for the next crisis.

Alexander Englander earned his Master’s Degree in Communications from The College of Saint Rose, runs a blog, Words Have Consequences and lives in Pawtucket, RI with his fiancé and their four cats. You can follow him on Twitter @PRGradStudent.