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If you are at all like me, taking a trip on one of the many luxurious cruise ships which ply the seven seas is a big deal. We pour over the various destinations, cruise line demographics and styles, room configurations and of course the food served. We’ve saved our pennies to be spoiled for a week, perhaps longer, at sea.
What we do not, normally prepare for is to have this floating city, to experience a flood.
How does this happen?
Let’s look at some recent instances.
Carnival Cruise Lines - Carnival Dream
Who can forget the most recent incident on the Carnival Dream flood on 03 May 2018? Carnival said that about 50 passenger cabins were affected, that the crew addressed the matter as soon as the broken pipe was discovered, and that within 24 hours the water was cleaned up, the carpet replaced and passengers back into their cabins.
While a pipe bursting is an unexpected challenge, like at our homes and place of work, plumbing sometimes fails and when it does, it is messy. Carnival clearly had a plan to address this contingency given the stockpiled carpet and rapid response. Kudos to them for having their playbook in hand and executing on it.
What about those who were affected? Carnival Cruise Lines stepped up and did the right thing, here’s Carnival’s statement
The Carnival Dream continued on its 7-day Caribbean cruise uninterrupted after the water line break on Thursday evening, May 3. It returned to its homeport of New Orleans as scheduled this morning. The water main break had no effect on the safe operation of the ship. The safety and security of our guests and crew is our top priority.
Both our crew and our guests were amazing during this voyage. The water line break occurred at 6:00 p.m. and in six hours, our crew had replaced hall and stateroom carpeting, dried out other sections of carpeting that were damp but did not need to be replaced, and restored the 50 staterooms so that all guests could sleep in their beds that evening. There were a handful of guests that chose to sleep elsewhere that first night and we moved mattresses to the spa for them.
We never want our guests to experience anything other than a perfect vacation, so we sincerely regret that we inconvenienced nearly 100 guests. We provided a full refund and a future cruise credit as a goodwill gesture. We offered to fly the impacted guests home at our expense if they wanted to disembark early and only two of the nearly 100 guests that received our offer chose to do so. Most of the guests on board were not even aware of the incident until the last 24 hours as word circulated and our passengers heard from friends and family who saw media reports. Needless to say, the tremendous positive attitude of our guests and crew is proof of why we are America’s favorite cruise line.
Princess Cruise Lines - Sun Princess
On your honeymoon, your enjoying your cruise and your cabin floods. This is what happened to a couple in Australia on the Sun Princess in September 2017. Princess Cruises (a part of Carnival Cruise Line corporate family) and nine other cabins when a pipe burst in the ceiling, flooding the hallway and ten rooms. The honeymooners claim that sewage also seeped into their cabin, but Princess vehemently denied such occurred. The broken pipe was repaired, carpet replaced and all cabins back in order, again within 24 hours. The Daily Mail shared a montage of photos of the event.
Again, the existence of a playbook in place to address the contingency that a pipe may break made the event an inconvenience and not a catastrophe. This is why crews practice damage control, broken pipes, fire in the galley, all the various contingencies. The cruise lines focus on safety first, and comfort of the passengers second.
Enjoy your next cruise, safely.
