Not a good year for Carnival - Another Ship with Problems
 

Or as someone on Cruise Critic said "Not a good idea to be traveling on anything with Dream in the title"

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/14/travel...html?hpt=hp_t1

A coworker is on her first cruise on this ship. I'm guessing she's going to have some interesting stories when she gets back.

They just can not catch a break. Sad really.

its fortunate that its docked.....

I saw the story - what I wanted to know was how they planned to get 3,646 passengers from St. Maarten as per the story. Even if they used 747s, it is many flights!

CNN totally blowing this one up. The passenger they are quoting is making it sound like none of the toilets are working and that there is sewage everywhere. It was one public toilet and one cabin that had toilet problems. It was a backup generator that failed in a test, and they aren't sailing the ship with passengers out of caution because of the backup not working. No issue with the main propulsion or electrical system, they could have sailed and no one would have been the wiser if nothing happened with the main system.

But at the same time, it is getting tiring hearing about Carnival having all these problems. Never seem to hear about a Royal Caribbean ship. Makes me wonder if Carnival is just a juicier target for the media, or if RCI ships really don't have these type of problems.

#1) Costa Concordia #2) Carnival Triumph #3) Carnival Dream.

"One time is a mistake, two times is a coincidence, and three times is a pattern."

The bizarre thing is not letting pax off the ship in St. Maarten. That would really annoy me.

Depends on who they talk to

Kris Anderson, a passenger on the ship and reporter for CNN affiliate WREG, said Thursday passengers have been told they will be allowed off the ship to enjoy the island while flight arrangements are made.

Carnival Splendor would be number 1. The Dream doesn't rate mention with those 3 I don't think.

As for the passengers not being let off, I'd like to hear more about that. The passengers were certainly allowed off this morning, and are allowed to come and go as they please until their flight home, whenever that will be. The ship is fully functioning.

Did that passenger demand last night that Carnival put him up in a hotel and pay for his flights before they had a handle on what actually was happening? There was no real reason to start trying to line up hotels for everybody, and I doubt they could have anyway. If that passenger had said he's leaving the ship and not holding Carnival accountable for costs at that point, I'm sure they would have let him go no problem. Plus, I'm sure the port authority had a say in whether they were going to allow people back off the ship after hours. If they don't have the proper staff in place at night (have no idea what time this guy wanted to leave), then they aren't going to allow thousands of people to start wandering around either.

This could be another case of not all pax having passports. With the previous problems on the Triumph (right ship?), hundreds of pax did not have passports.

I believe the reason for not letting them off the ship initially was that they hoped to fix the issue, but didn't have a time to tell people to return. If they had let people off and then gotten it fixed, they would've then had to wait for them all to return, delaying their departure even more. Once they knew they were flying people home instead, I believe they started letting people off the ship.

There are many that don't have passports, and it is an issue Carnival is having to work out with the US authorities (and it will be worked out). That wouldn't have stopped them from actually getting off the ship in St. Maarten - the problem happened after they'd already spent the day there, with people getting off the ship with no issue.

Yes, Carnival has said they have already resolved the passport issue with the authorities.

That is still a lot of 747s

+1 and LOL's - that or lots of 738's charters, plus, urrrr - lots of excess checked luggages. Many cruisers are known to bring half of their personal belongings on a weeklong cruise to the Caribs ...

Who has a fleet of 747's on standby, aren't most of them mothballed out at the Mojave desert in California, stripped for parts or otherwise baking naked in the sun? And, qualified pilots & crews to fly them on short notice - plus, these pax will be expecting and demanding non-alcoholic drinks, food & all, FREE of charge ...

What a logistical nightmare even if they can call in 2 available 747's (or charter 4 767's ... whatever's available, just all hands on deck) to start loading them tomorrow - still looking at 3 or 4 round trips to get most of them out of the USVI. :rolleyes:

Plus, the triage for who gets priority to board the first & second flight, seat assignments - children & elderly and those with medical needs first, or those pax paying top dollars (suite & balcony vs. inside cabins) - not going to a pretty scene if they have to line up to get their flight's BP, etc. :D