Last week, Cruise Critic headquarters was consumed by the news that Carnival Triumph had experienced a fire, leaving more than 4,000 passengers without power, hot food and working toilets. We monitored the saga closely as the ship was aided by sister vessels and eventually towed to Mobile. Although everyone is safely ashore and officials have begun their investigations, many people are left wondering whether Carnival has done enough to fix the situation, both during the incident and in its aftermath. And we wanted to know whether it had changed our readers’ perception of a cruise holiday.
What we asked: How does the Carnival Triumph fire affect your view of cruising?
What our readers said: Over 95 percent of our respondents said the fire onboard Carnival Triumph and the ensuing saga at sea will not stop them from cruising again. Still, nearly a quarter of our poll takers report that the incident has raised worries about what could happen to them during a cruise, while less than five percent say that it will impact their decision to book a cruise.
What it all means: The response from our readers is not difficult to decipher: They will continue to cruise, and largely without worrying about facing a similar disaster while at sea. (This also mimics the low probability of being involved in an incident like the Carnival Triumph fire.) Still, with nearly 25 percent of respondents feeling a heightened sense of fear and roughly five percent putting off booking as a direct result of the fire, it’s clear that the fire has had some impact on even a committed group of cruisers like Cruise Critic’s readership, at least in the short term.
What do you think? Tell us in the comments below.
Vote in today’s daily poll here by scrolling to the bottom. How did this happen … again? Find out here.
2 Comments
February 26, 2013 at 10:58 am
I think that people are right to not let this cloud their decision to carry on going on their cruise holidays.
Yes, it will have been a horrible thing to experience but it’s over now and hopefully will not happen again anytime soon! It does pose the question though; Why do cruise ships not have any kind of back up power systems?
To be honest, I have been booking cruises for a few years now, and this will not stop me from doing so!!
Dangers occur in everyday life all the time, so why should something like this happening stop you from doing something you love?
February 27, 2013 at 8:31 pm
I would have said the same thing before this happened, however I was on the Carnival Splendor when we lost power and were stranded in the Pacific for almost 4 days. Our situation was not as dire as that of the Triumph because after the first day we had (cold) running water and our plumbing worked. And after we were towed in to San Diego and were able to eat something other than salad or fruit and took hot showers I had no qualms about going on another cruise because I thought, “What are the chances that this will ever happen again?” Until now. So yeah, I’m a little wary of booking another cruise with Carnival.