Though the issues on board the Carnival Triumph last month received more publicity, three other Carnival cruise ships, the Dream, Elation, and Legend, have had issues in the past few weeks. The Legend is currently having technical difficulties that are affecting its sailing speed, the Dream lost power on Wednesday in St. Maarten and all passengers are being flown back to Florida, and the Elation had a malfunction in its steering system on Saturday.
While the crisis communication team for Carnival was able to hold off on many reporter's questions two weeks ago about the Triumph, could they do the same now given the new incidents? There would obviously be the same cookie-cutter answers about an 'ongoing investigation', but since the issues seem much more wide spread now, it begs the question, will Carnival have to make drastic changes to its fleet of ships and the way it operates?
Economically, Carnival must be prepared to take a hit. Cruise takers might have been nervous, but not completely turned off by the idea of a cruise vacation, after the nightmare situation aboard the Triumph. But after this string of technical issues and power losses on the ships, will people still consider going out to sea with Carnival? Or for that matter, any cruise company?
Carnival shares fell 2% on Friday after the company announced a bleak outlook for sales and profits this year. Carnival is now down 5% this year, though the stock market seems to be soaring. Carnival's competitor, Royal Caribbean, also saw a fall in stock on Friday after the company announced that more than 100 people were suffering from norovirus on one of its ships.
If a cruise vacation starts to be seen as a gamble, I wonder if other relatively inexpensive vacation destinations, like Florida or Myrtle Beach, will start to see more visitors and more profit.
-Emily Mosh
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