People spent five days on the cruise from hell and all they got was $500 and a crappy apology
The Carnival Triumph finally arrived at port in Mobile, Alabama on Thursday evening.
People spent five days on the cruise from hell and all they got was $500 and a crappy apology
The Carnival Triumph finally arrived at port in Mobile, Alabama on Thursday evening. Folks on board had been camping in a shanty town on the ship's deck, defecating in bags, and brawling over cold onion sandwiches since an engine fire left the vessel stranded, treading water in the Gulf of Mexico.
When they finally reached land, sweet and glorious land, on Thursday/Friday, they were greeted by Carnival's CEO Gerry Cahill, who was there to shake their hands, offer them complimentary bus trips to Galveston, Texas or New Orleans, Louisiana, and $500 in addition to the complimentary cruise they'd earned by enduring their first, shitty vacation.
You just spent five days rationing Dramamine and playing Lord of the Flies on what has got to be the worst vacation you've ever taken. You were probably only a few hours away from voting on which person in your party would be eaten first. When you finally reached land on Thursday evening, what was the first thing you wanted to do? Oh, get on a bus for eight hours? Perfect. That's what Carnival was banking on.
Also, on what planet is $500 reasonable compensation for the literal shit these people had to endure? One passenger and his wife offered assistance to the elderly because they say the captain and crew weren't around.
When they noticed no one from Carnival was stepping up to help the elderly and sick get around, they and other passengers offered to help, Gill said, carting mattresses and bedding up from the lower decks.
By Monday, they had started a prayer group.
On Monday, he started gathering with a prayer group, where people worried about getting sick at sea, about their kids and jobs back home. By Wednesday, they had attracted 200 people.
Things got real when Allie Taylor's father ran out of snuff.
"It got super duper scary" after the engine fire, she said, standing in the parking lot in flip flops. "I said ‘Daddy, what’s going on?’ and he said ‘I don’t know.'" Later, Allie said she ended up being the stabilizing influence -- when her father ran out of snuff. "I tried to calm him down," she said.
Ugh. The whole story is just awful. And $500 doesn't even cover the time these people took off from work. I realize that every bit of information about the Carnival cruise from hell can be punctuated with a #FirstWorldProblems, but that doesn't trivialize how miserable their week was. A bus ride home, $500, and an invitation to give Carnival a second shot hardly seems worth it. [Los Angeles Times]
UPDATE: Be surprised that one of the buses headed for New Orleans broke down. I dare you, be surprised.
Did I miss something or is flat-out cursing now permissible in philly.com articles? Also, what is this "snuff", is it some kind of hillbilly narcotic?— Gray Areas- Actually you've missed a lot!
One has to assume you're upset about the "s" word appearing in print.
If so, why do you limit your musings to that particular "curse" word - there was a time "crappy" would be prohibited as well.
The "s" word and "crappy" are not "curse" words, they're dirty words - curse words are emotional expressions and sneaked their acceptance into polite society a long time ago.
But none of that is what you've been missing - what you've missed is the complete disappearance of polite society - or polite anything for that matter.
- they got all their money back - plus a coupon for a free future cruise, plus $500. At some point what would be enough? Perhaps they should each get $50,000? It was outside the cruise lines control - and ti was the safest way to get people home. Humans are fragile land based creatures - we can die in less than a minute without air, for example, and the sea is a very, very unforgiving thing - when things go wrong at sea, it takes every bit of our wit and guile to come out it alive. As inconvenient and as smelly as it was compared to our western view of what reality should be like, no one was seriously injured, no one died. These people should be glad they're alive.— PhillyDaniel
- No, it was not outside the cruise line's control. They are responsible for the integrity of their fleet, and they failed miserably. Any argument otherwise just makes you look like an apologist.
I have no problem with the settlement offered, but I can understand if others do, because after all most of the passengers had to give up a week's vacation to go on this trip which they cannot get back.— mkk9772 - There were previous problems with that ship. So, you're "it was outside the cruise lines control" excuse is no good. Try again. — Yohanna
- what's with the profanity?— Gradhospital
- LOL! — Gray Areas
- Originally, we thought they were getting back their money, but it looks like a free cruise on the next ship instead. Most likely scenario, the cruise company will file for bankruptcy protection as it sorts through the mess including the millions of dollar needed to thoroughly clean out the ship, replace affected furnishings and equipment. There could be a fight between the insurer and the cruise company over demands for a new ship constructed to replace the old one.
Lawyers wrote the cruise ship contract that bars families and individuals from suing. Questions could be raised about why the US Government did not send the USN to help the cruise ship when it was dead in the water. People would have been within their rights to request a transfer over to a USN ship capable of carrying Marines and their assault equipment. This mess will take a lot of time to sort out.— Aces high - 3 words: Class Action Lawsuit— Dan in Holmesburg
- Apparently there is something in the contract that the passengers sign which prohibit that. — mkk9772
- Get a grip people. We're all adults here, and we can certainly allow for a little colorful language to help punctuate the emotion of this story. As for the cruise industry, I would never go again. I was on a cruise last year at exactly this time when my partner fell ill with the Noravirus. It was frightening to watch how sick he became (severe dehydration, turned blue, trouble breathing, etc...), and all the staff seemed interested in was getting him out of their hair and back to our cabin. They never checked on him again, and we were left to our own devices to navigate the ridiculously long lines (hours long) of the disembarking process...all while he continued to battled severe diarrhea and vomitting. Those shysters will never get my money again!— drho
- I agree 100% with the first three comments. Sure it's hard to place a value on that kind of experience, but how greedy are we nowadays? Aces, I also asked why they didn't transfer people to another cruise ship, as they did transfer supplies apparently. I believe logistically it probably was quicker to get the boat to port. Having a ship ready to handle all of these people with staff, security, food, etc probably was not feasible on such short notice. Same goes for a Navy vessel, which are not designed to ferry hundreds/thousands of civilians, wouldn't have adequate food and facilities, etc. Additionally, I don't know that we've got a fleet close enough to the area anyway.— cool guy
- I'm sure people from the Titanic would have taken that settlement.— Another_1
- um, did anyone force you to get on a giant boat for a week? or was that a voluntary choice? Was there some kindof money-back guarantee that the trip would be awesome and have no problems? Ok, then STFU.— KingOfPhilly
