Carnival Responds to More Ship Trouble

Generator trouble on Carnival Dream, docked at St. Maarten, caused a problem no company wants to explain: non-working toilets, the second publicized incident for Carnival within the past month.

A discrepancy seems to exist between passengers' accounts and Carnival's position. According to CNN, passenger Gregg Stark said,

"There's human waste all over the floor in some of the bathrooms and they're overflowing -- and in the state rooms. The elevators have not been working. They've been turning them on and off, on and off."

Jonathan Evans, another passenger, emailed CNN:

"We are not allowed off of the boat despite the fact that we have no way to use the restrooms onboard. The cruise director is giving passengers very limited information and tons of empty promises. What was supposed to take an hour has turned into 7-plus hours."

But Carnival posted this message on its Facebook page:

"We know there have been questions on the conditions onboard Carnival Dream last night and wanted to update you. We have had multiple conversations with the ship's management team. Based on the ship's service logs and extensive physical monitoring of all public areas, including restrooms, throughout the night, we can confirm that only one public restroom was taken offline for cleaning based on toilet overflow and there was a total of one request for cleaning of a guest cabin bathroom. Aside from that there have been no reports of issues on board with overflowing toilets or sewage. The toilet system had periodic interruptions yesterday evening and was fully restored at approximately 12.30am this morning."

 Discussion Starters:

• CEO Gerry Cahill gave a press conference during the recent Triumph situation. If he were to give another conference, how should this one be different? What can Cahill do to rebuild trust in the Carnival brand?
• Trouble started during the last part of a seven-day trip. The company is reimbursing passengers for three days of the trip and is offering half off a future cruise. Carnival has been criticized for insufficient compensation in the past. Is this deal appropriate?