Most of what I know about the conditions on the ship I learned from 20/20 this past weekend. No power on the ship, no bathrooms, no hot food, sleeping on the deck. Onion sandwiches I could deal with, sleeping on the deck, that's fine too. But the bathroom, that's where I draw the line. Using red hazardous waste bags as your bathroom while there are overflowing toilets, that's a health issue. It's compounded by the fact that the Carnival Splendor had similar issues 2 years ago when they had an engine fire.
The other thing that was interested is that the ship was about 3 days closer to Cozumel then it was to Mobile, Alabama. But, they decided to go to Mobile, allegedly because not all passengers had passports. While that is a legitimate concern, and was probably a factor in the decision to go to Mobile, I'm sure there was a lot more going into that decision.
I also found it interesting that 2 ships in the area met the Triumph and gave some sort of assistance. But I wonder if there is anyway passengers could have been offloaded to those ships. I'm sure there are a ton of issues with space on the other ships, where they are in their itineraries, how to choose who gets offloaded. But when your choice is 4 days at sea in squalor, then sleeping on the floor of a lounge on another ship doesn't seem like such a bad option.
I have one recommendation, which I have no idea of the feasibility of, but it certainly sounds reasonable.
How about isolated back-up generation that can power emergency lighting and toilets. Seriously, how many ships have to go adrift without the toilets working before we realize that this problem needs to be addressed?
I'm not going to swear off cruising because of this or the other recent events in the industry. But, I'm starting to wonder about Carnival's ability to handle emergencies.
How about you, are you reconsidering cruising?
