But these vociferous lawyers may be facing a Herculean battle if previous cruise line adjudication is any indication. To help clarify the situation, I spoke to Jerry Hamilton of Hamilton, Miller & Birthisel, a law firm specializing in maritime law in Florida.

The main challenge to these New York-based lawyers is the cruise ticket, which contains very specific limitations on the right to sue a cruise line. Boarding a cruise ship requires far more than a token to show you paid the fare. Your cruise voucher is actually a finely crafted legal contract, filled with some surprising and even arcane restrictions in fine print which many cruise plaintiff attorneys (those who sue cruise lines) feel are egregiously one-sided in favor of the cruise line. Unfortunately, most passengers never even read them unless something goes wrong.

The first hurdle these law firms face is the venue. The Costa cruise ticket states that Genoa, Italy, must be the venue for any lawsuit for any cruise originating from any port other than the United States, even though Costa is one of many cruise lines belonging to parent company Carnival Corp., which is headquartered in Miami.

Plaintiff attorney Mitchell Proner, on a public interview by the Miami ABC affiliate television station, said he hope to get a change of venue because parent company Carnival Corp. is based in Miami. Citing a legal concept called Forum Non Conveniens he implied that a company that earned $14.5 billion, sitting in the heart of Miami, should be able to be sued in Miami.

On the other hand, Miami maritime lawyer Hamilton pointed out to me that Forum Non Conveniens is decided based upon several distinct variables; (1) where the victims are located, (2) where the incident occurred and (3) where the evidence is located. He said that Carnival Corp. could be sued in Miami, but that it seems unlikely to be allowed in this case because Carnival is the holding company, not the company who owned the ship.

The two New York law firms hope to form a class action lawsuit for as many Concordia victims as they can find; and Proner stated he has people from Italy and every place from Peru to Shanghai. However, according to Hamilton Forum Non Conveniens would apply to American victims. And when it comes to where the incident happened and the location of the evidence; Italy is the only logical answer.

Other Legal Arguments
Perhaps even more pertinent to this case is a famous (in cruise circles, anyway) 1991 U.S. Supreme Court case; Shute vs. Carnival Cruise Lines. That decision said venue restriction in the cruise contract is fully legal. In fact, many things regarding the cruise contract were decided in that case.

Proner also hopes to pierce the cruise contract by bringing up the fine print issue. He said in the same interview that no one reads the fine print on a cruise ticket and no one should be expected to read it. I would likely agree with him on that, but once again; Shute vs. Carnival Cruise Lines. That case decided the cruise contract was not only printed in legible type, but that the language is clear and concise enough to be understood by the party signing the agreement.

Note; you can read the Costa Cruises cruise ticket contract here.

http://www.costacruise.com/B2C/USA/Support/contract/contract.htm

The next challenge to the idea of a class action law suit to represent all of the Concordia victims is the definition of a class action lawsuit. Proner said he hopes to get about 125,000 Euros for emotional suffering for each victim, three to four times that amount for those who were physically injured and millions for the families of those who died or are missing.

Once again Hamilton points out that by definition a class action lawsuit must represent a class of victims that suffered fundamentally the same injury, so it does not make sense to have emotional, physical and other sufferers in the same class action suit. Most likely the suit could not be brought as a class action.

Proner also said that if he could not establish a class action suit he would take on individual cases. “If you go there,” said Hamilton, “you come right back to the passenger ticket issue; meaning venue and other restrictions.” On the other hand, Hamilton did suggest that if a victim were to call Costa, he surmises the line would be more than happy to discuss the issue. 80% to 90% of all lawsuits, including maritime, end up being settled.

In the end Hamilton pointed out something that made a lot of sense. There is no greater concentration of maritime lawyers anywhere than in Miami, yet not one Miami lawyer is trying to do what these New York lawyers are trying to do. Of the better known Miami lawyers I am personally familiar with, only one has sued Costa, and he did it in Genoa.
“Furthermore, Italy has plenty of lawyers, some of which have also sued Costa,” said Hamilton.

Other Cruise Ticket Restrictions
While the conditions of the cruise ticket are arguably one-sided, there is nothing inherently illegal about them. But surprisingly many aspects of cruise tickets are based not on U.S. law, but rather upon international treaties and maritime law comprising a system of legal jurisprudence outside of U.S. law.

For example, there is the Athens Agreement, an old (1974) and often amended international treaty which limits the liability of a cruise line in cases of injury and loss of property (combined) to about $70,000 per person.

Then there is the “Death on the High Seas Act” which limits liability for loss of life to the amount a wage earner would have earned in his lifetime, and that is only available to immediate family. The DOHSA came into play with the BP Gulf oil rig disaster, and interestingly it is a United States law, and Hamilton told me it is quite possible that Italian law may be more beneficial to the families of those who died.

Bottom Line – Cruise Contracts
Now, to be clear, Carnival Cruise Lines is separate from Carnival Corp. Carnival Cruise Lines is just one of many separate and distinct cruise lines, separately incorporated, that are in the Carnival Corp. holding company, which also includes Princess, Holland America, Seabourn, and Cunard. The Concordia event involved Costa Cruise Lines, incorporated and sailing in Europe with mostly European passengers.
The bottom line is that these are very complicated legal matters and I am not an expert. The law is full of surprises and loopholes. If any experts out there care to weigh in there is a comment section below. If you have any other cruise questions email me at editor@cruisemates.com.

Related posts:

1. Carnival Splendor Lawsuits?
2. Cruise Crime Act 2009 Questions
3. The Art Auction Controversy Continues

The Costa Concordia tragedy has received an amazing amount of media attention, which comes as no surprise. The major consumer news media believe that a “newsworthy” story requires emotional impact, conflict, loss of life/property and/or novelty. This story has all of those elements – but it especially excels in the “novelty” category.

The Concordia story is especially compelling for the visual medium of television news, because we have never seen a modern cruise ship lying on its side before. While watching one cable news anchor doing a tease about an upcoming Concordia story, they showed the clip of the ship lying on its side for the thousandth time — but this time the anchor could clearly be heard mumbling to the director’s booth, “now cue it up again…”

That was a glimmer of acknowledgement from a real reporter that he knows when a story is being overplayed. The Concordia event was not overplayed at first, for as long as they stuck to the incident itself, but when the media started looking for evidence of malfeasance in the cruise industry’s past and reporting every little event as proof of a “cancer on the cruise industry,” it became too much.

Loss of life is always a tragedy, but did the media really seem concerned with finding out how many people were dead or missing, or their names, or whether they were crew or passengers? Not really — which is odd when you consider that most “tragedy” news stories begin with the number of dead or missing.

In this case, the lost souls were somehow an afterthought and the “story” was more about the captain, who was accurately reported to be a “coward” and has already been the subject of headlines like “Chicken of the Sea” and “Cap’n Crunch.” The media zoomed in on Captain Schettino’s actions to portray him as the villain he proved to be. I am not disputing that, but were his actions really more important than the people who are still missing, or those who survived, or the heroic efforts of the divers working on rescue?

Reporters who researched the numbers in their Concordia stories could have let people know that cruising is still the safest form of travel by far compared to flying or especially driving. I did hear it mentioned only once or twice, but in respect for the facts, wouldn’t it have been far more accurate to lead each story with, “in what is normally one of the safest vacations experiences possible, something extraordinary caused a cruise to go horribly wrong?” But instead a number of news organizations did their best to drum up other stories of untimely or negative cruise events. Obviously, they were hoping to find more “Cap’n Crunch” tales. With every big cruise event I get calls from major media asking me about “the hidden cruise world” that they somehow believe exists even though they have been covering the cruise industry themselves for years now, they don’t correlate the concept that if they have not had that much to report there must not be that much bad stuff going on.

In the worst reports, we heard the inevitable tales of people going “missing” at sea – with no mention of the fact that in nearly every such case, the leading national investigative body — the U.S. FBI – has determined that no foul play was involved.

While Concordia is a tragedy, there are few incidents in life where one can use the phrase “the exception that proves the rule” and truly mean it – but this is one.

Eighteen million people cruised in 2011, hundreds of millions (more than the population of the United States) have cruised the modern American cruise ships since the industry started and only in a handful of cases has anyone lost a life due to the negligence or malfeasance of a cruise line.

I don’t want to minimize the roughly 40 lives lost in the Concordia incident. In fact, I want to emphasize that number – because in context with the travel industry at large, it is comparatively small. Cruise ships commonly carry from 3,000 to more than 8,000 people (crew and passengers) on every cruise. Concordia is by far the worst accident in modern cruise history, an industry that was new in the 1960s and has grown steadily every year to become a $35 billion business in annual revenues. The loss of 40 people is horrible, but how many die on our highways every year? Even if you match it on a “per 1,000 passengers” basis, the odds are still vastly worse for driving, or flying, than for cruising.

So why is this story getting so much media coverage? I said it above: It’s the novelty of the situation — the fact that a modern cruise ship has never had such a tragic loss of life, and that no captain has ever abandoned a ship in a life or death situation. But the novelty of the situation has barely been mentioned by the major news media – the very fact is that there are so few “life or death” incidents in the cruise industry where every soul was not eventually saved for the last 30 years is a concept that is just “lost” in the mind of the media.

The fact is that there are no fully safe vacations, yet no one mentions the percentage of traffic-related deaths or plane crashes that happen yearly before a friend embarks on one of those vacations. When it comes to cruising the news media has always proven itself more than ready to report the worst possible scenario first, and then clarify the record later — after the fact, and only if it is convenient or necessary.

On a personal note I want to say one thing; as a travel writer I am no fan of “fluff” reporting. I see it all too often, especially in magazines geared toward travel sellers. I believe there are far too many stories distributed to travel agents almost like “talking” points for particular travel experiences, and cruising is certainly one of them.

But in this case I am speaking as a cruise industry reporter who sees the underbelly and knows the nuts and bolts of the industry and still finds reasons to love it. I have been reporting on cruising for so long that I am now inured to the pervasive anti-cruise bias that exists in some people. I don’t even bother to try to change anyone’s mind about cruising anymore. It’s like politics – people will listen to what they want to believe – and most of them don’t even want to hear the other side. There is no concern with “perspective” or “context” in the news media anymore.

So – here is the balanced opinion of the Concordia incident. It is a tragedy, but the story has legs mostly because cruise ships are beautiful, vastly complicated wonders of technology, similar to the Space Shuttle. But when we lost our Space Shuttles the people onboard were heroes. When after all of these years we finally lose our first cruise ship, the crewmembers are useless, the operators are conspiratorial cowards and the lost passengers are victims.

It’s funny how the media can choose any angle it wants – and it picks its favorites and crucifies the rest.

Related posts:

1. Concordia – Still More Question than Answers
2. Concordia – What We Finally Know
3. Welcome to CruiseMates Blog

According to Costa the captain was on the bridge at the time the rock was hit. But the captain stated the first night that he went up to the bridge 40 minutes later and “discovered the ship was badly off course”. This makes no sense as a declaration if he obviously knew the ship made the close sail-by to Giglio Oporto and the ship was returning to its regular course to reach Savona.

But the captain apparently decided for then (40 minutes later) for the first time that since the ship had a huge hole in its port side – that he should return to Giglio Oporto. The captain dropped anchor and turned the ship around.

The ship was then headed back to the pier at Giglio Oporto. But the question is why a Mayday was not raised much sooner so boats on the island could be made ready to pick up passengers if the ship had to stop and begin evacuation procedures. For that matter – a Mayday should have been sounded the moment it was known the ship had hit a rock – on the sail-by much earlier that night.

Costa said this morning that the captain called the Costa land marine department at 10:05 Italy time. This seems to be just after the time of the beaching and probably just before he left the ship.

But that was not the most serious problem – the worst part was the actual beaching of the ship on the island before it could reach the pier in Giglio Oporto. This made the ship evacuation nearly impossible due to the list to starboard – away from the side of the initial damage.

Was the beaching a mistake – or did the captain feel the ship was sinking? It seems most likely it was a mistake – but was the ship mechanically compromised – or was he really that bad at steering the ship? It should be noted that beaching a ship is a common procedure to keep it from sinking. But in this case it was not a clean beaching – it does not seem to be intentional.

Now to the crew and life boat drill.

All crewmembers on any ship are assigned to a life drill station – their job is to direct passengers to their own assigned lifeboats. The problem in this situation was that half of the lifeboats were incapacitated because of the list. The question is whether or not officers took over once the captain left and made decisions regarding life rafts and the use of the existing life boats. We have no reports of anyone on the navigational staff (after the captain left the ship early) of being on the scene. But it seems as if someone must have taken over.

The main problem in this situation is that Costa is marketed to the pan-European market to offer cruises in five languages simultaneously, or consecutively as the case may be. Much of the panic and confusion before “abandon ship” was sounded had to do with the fact that there were so many passengers who only spoke their native languages; Italian, German, French, Spanish or English – plus possible other languages; Scandinavian, Portuguese (Brazilians), Russian, etc.

Every crew is trained to perform their duties on a stable ship – not a crippled one. This case required extreme measures and someone trained in all aspects of lifeboats to take over the evacuation. It appears someone did take over since over 4000 people were evacuated within two hours, but Costa has not identified who was in command during the evacuation. It would be nice to know.

It has already been noted that this ship board passengers in four different ports of call every week on this itinerary. The 696 who were boarded in Civitavecchia had not been given a lifeboat drill since more passengers were scheduled to board in Savona the next day – and so the drill for all of Friday’s passengers had not been held at the time of the accident.

Finally – what should have happened. The protocol of cruise ships these days is to use the “ship as the lifeboat” – if the ship had been stopped as soon as the initial damage occured everyone could have been evacuated with no loss of life or property. A mayday should have been sounded immediately.

Related posts:

1. Concordia – Still More Question than Answers
2. Carnival Splendor Returns to Service
3. The Many Two Worlds of Cruising

The newest press release from Costa indicates that the line believes the captain made a significant miscalculation in getting too close to shore, and that he hit a rock (or rocks) that he did not know were there. However, the statement does not say where that rock was located. I have read two different theories, that he hit the rock during the close sail-by between the two islands – or that he hit an isolated rock some 300 meters off shore some 40 minutes later, at the point where he turned the ship around to head back to Giglio.

Local officials commented that the rock was hit earlier, but no one on board reported feeling or hearing anything at that point. Many onboard did report hear and feeling a loud, raspy, shuffling noise 40 minutes later – just before the captain slowed the ship down, reportedly dropped anchor and then returned the ship to Giglio. The sound is consistent both with hitting a rock and with anchors being dropped. Following that action we have reports of a first list to the port side (consistent with a new hole in the port side, turning the ship to starboard and with anchors being dropped).

This time line on this web site says the rock was hit 40 minutes later – which makes more sense according to details.

What we see is the ship laying on its starboard side north of the pier at Giglio Porto. The hull on the exposed side (on the ship’s port side) – away from the shore – has a huge rock embedded in it and it significantly damaged. The question is “when did this happen?”

If we trace the route the ship took before it find its final resting place we see this:
The ship approached Giglio Porto and made a difficult maneuver between two small islands – likely meant to impress the locals and people onboard hoping to take pictures. Most of the passengers were Italian who probably knew of the island but did not see it very often. The captain chose to give them an up close look. Many are people speculating this is when he hit the rocks embedded in the port side of the hull.
But about 40 minutes later – as the ship turned north by northeast after leaving the Giglio Porto, reports say passengers experienced a rumbling with a loud grating sound. This indicates the first contact with rocks could have happened at this point.

A tracking of the ship shows it stopped almost dead in the water 40 minutes after sailing between the two tiny islands at Porto Giglio and heading north by northwest. That was just after the moment when diners noted first a growling sound accompanied by shaking (striking an outcrop of rocks would do that) followed by a short period of calm, but then a loud “bang” sound followed the ship listing to the port side. Some of the power also went off at that point.

Costa just released an updated statement at 6:30 EST that says “there may have been significant human error on the part of the ship’s master, Captain Francesco Schettino, which resulted in these grave consequences. The route of the vessel appears to have been too close to the shore, and in handling the emergency the captain appears not to have followed standard Costa procedures.”

What are they referring to? Reuters reported that the ship struck some rocks and started taking in water quickly. They quote “officials” as saying the captain “made an attempted safety maneuver before realizing he had no choice but to evacuate as water poured in.” Both of those statements are consistent with hitting the rocks later.

“He turned the prow towards the port of Giglio and cast the anchors into the water in a bid to hold the ship steady as close as possible to the coast,” a coastguard official said.
In either case – we know the captain decided to turn the ship around and head back to Giglio Porto 40 minutes after the sail by. Whether the ship was crippled sooner or later is still not known, but it is hard to believe he would have continued sailing if the ship was badly crippled 40 minutes earlier.

Is it possible he was not in the bridge when it happened? Yes, very possible. And that whomever performed the sail-by did not tell anyone (or notice) water was coming into the ship in a 160-foot long gash? Not likely, but possible.

The Second Mistake
Once the captain decided to beeline back to Port Giglio there was also obviously the second error – the beaching of the ship on the outcropping of rock just yards away from the pier. Most officials agree this was an accident – but some disagree on whether he hit more rocks, or if it was just the backwash of underwater currents pushing the keel outward that caused the ship to tip. I find this unlikely, since the ship had to have been going very slowly at the point. I think it is more likely he hit more submerged terrain which pushed the keel away from the rocks and the top of the ship towards it – beaching the ship on its starboard side.

The ship seems to be resting on another rock now, it has barely moved for days – although a high tide did make it creep and sink a little more on Sunday night.

In any case – it appears the captain was trying to be the big hero in the situation by getting the ship to a point where everyone could be rescued before the ship sank. But was it going to sink at the point where he turned around? There was a 160-foot gash, but the ship also has fully water-tight sections. I don’t think the ship would have sunk even though that is a critical amount of damage. The proper thing would have been to stop the vessel out there and send a mayday. The ship could have been carefully towed back to Giglio, or at least close enough for evacuation to happen quickly and safely.
Of course, if he could have reached the pier (as he tried to do) then people could have packed up and just walked off. Unfortunately, he beached the ship on an outcropping or rocks before he could reach the pier.

I do not agree that the crew was any more or less competent than any other ship’s crew. This does not include the officers (not considered crew, considered “staff”). The crew responded exactly as they were trained – every member of the crew contingent is given a station and a job – mostly to just direct people the right direction once an abandon ship call has been made. The goal is to get them to the correct muster (lifeboat) station.

But in this case you had a ship where half the number of lifeboats was inaccessible. Furthermore, the ones who were interfacing with passengers were working on a cruise ship that normally caters to five different languages simultaneously; Italian, German, French, Spanish and English. The confusion among the passenger population had to so with the inability of the crewmembers to communicate with everyone equally.

Even more confounding – the officers were nowhere to be seen – the abandon ship signal was not given for several minutes (reports vary). And when it was given, there are no reports of officers going on deck to give instructions on lowering life rafts and utilizing the lifeboats. That information is critical. It reflects on whether the entire navigation team was as “cowardly” as the captain himself, or whether they were eventually heroes, of sorts, fixing all of the grand mistakes the captain had made.

I have read that the ship was mostly evacuated after two hours –although the media keeps reporting only what went wrong during the muster drill.

The Questions Remain
It is extremely frustrating to cruise industry reporters like me who are not being given an exact timeline of what happened:

1. When did the ship first hit the rock?
2. What happened 40 minutes later when the ship was turned around?
3. Was there a power failure during the crisis compromising the ship’s navigability?
4. Why was the ship beached? Power failure or just bad seamanship?
5. Would the ship have survived in using the “ship as a lifeboat” protocol had the ship just been stopped in the water and eventually towed back to port?

This last question is exactly what happened with Carnival Splendor off the coast Mexico two years ago. Of course, there was no hole in the Carnival hull, but the ship was towed for almost four full days before it reached San Diego. Although it has not been mentioned – Costa Concordia has almost the exact same floor plan as Carnival Splendor (both are of the Conquest class).
As bad as many of the details seem to be in this case – what is most disappointing is that there were so many opportunities to fix the situation.

The captain has been called a coward in this case – and that is accurate considering he left the ship before all of the passengers were evacuated. However, most of his decisions were not cowardly, they were “cowboy,” – starting with the decision to get too close to the island in the first place, followed by the decision to get the hobbled ship back to Port Giglio on his own.
Of course, he should have raised a Mayday signal as soon as he knew he was in trouble – when he turned the ship around. That is arguably cowardly, as he was hoping to reach Giglio Oporto so news of damage to the ship would be minimized in light of everyone being safely rescued.

Right now, my biggest concern is putting all of the actions into perspective by finding out when the captain hit a rock, but more importantly I want to know what happened to the missing people.
Are they under water because they were told to wait in their stateroom and then could not get out when the lifeboat drill was finally sounded? Or are they some of the people who jumped by could not make it to the shore. Either way – a failure to manage the ship population is the fault here. And it needs to be mentioned that the newly boarded passengers from the same day had not had a life boat drill yet – it was scheduled for the next day.

I don’t know how bad the shore conditions were there, but if you could not swim to shore right away you could easily have been swept out to sea in cold water and weather. You would not last long in that open water.

Bottom line – we need a solid timeline to know what happened here – there were too many tipping points where things went wrong that were against regular protocol. If you have any details, please contribute them to our comment section below.

Related posts:

1. Concordia – What We Finally Know
2. Cruise Basics: Questions and Answers
3. First Cruise Basics – No Question Is Too Dumb

The New York Times is reporting that Carnival Cruise Line has a new ad campaign showing the advantages of a cruise over several different types of land-based vacations.

One ad shows a couple on a camping trip stuck in a car while a bear and a wildcat rock it back and forth.

Here is the ad:

Another ad shows a woman getting an overly-affectionate “bear-hug” from an uncle.
Royal Caribbean is also starting a new ad campaign called “The Sea is Calling” where the focus is less on the onboard experience and more on the ocean. This replaces the “Get Out There” and “Nation of Why Not” campaigns that Royal used predominately the last few years.

Both campaign are focused at “cruise rookies,” according the Times article quoting Carnival’s James Berra, chief marketing officer at Carnival. I can’t help noticing this term has replaced the phrase “cruise virgins” as the common term used under former CEO Bob Dickinson.

The Times notes that 76-percent of the U.S. population has still not taken a cruise, according to CLIA metrics. The Times also cites statistics from market research firm Mintel noting that the primary deal breaker for 33-percent of the population is fear that the base cost of a cruise vacation is too high.

High cost as a main concern is a somewhat surprising development that has not received much attention before. The follow-up concerns have garnered more attention in the past; 26-percent fear hidden costs, 18-percent fear the ship will be too crowded, 14-percent think the cabins will be too small and 13-percent still think cruises are “too regimented.” These are the same concerns the cruise industry has almost always faced.

My question is, “Are cruises really priced too high or is that a misperception?” The answer depends on whether you are asking cruise experienced people, or people who have never cruised before (cruise rookies). When a cruise-experienced person cites high prices as the main deterrent from taking a cruise it means they really can’t afford to go – not that they are misinformed about cruise prices, so the price is actually too high.

I definitely meet far more cruise experienced people these days than I have met in the past. At a recent gathering of my high school friends, now most of them in their 50s now, many of them told me they had been on cruises and enjoy them. That indicates to me that they know the true prices of cruises, but that they currently find them to be too high.

However, a look at Mintel’s information gathering procedures tends to show the research is based on random sampling (meaning a majority of cruise rookies) – not necessarily on people who are informed on average cruise prices.

This indicates the cruise lines are truly targeting cruise rookies in their ads. The new Carnival ads infer that prices are competitive with land vacations (starting as low as $300, for example). The Times also says many of the ten or so new ads will also show people relaxing in roomy staterooms, not crowded into regimented activities; so all of the major cruise concerns are being addressed.

But the ad shown above has just two simple but distinct messages – that cruises are true vacations, in the sense of relaxation, and that they are cheaper than one might expect.

But how many cruises really start at $300? These days the average cruise is seven days and includes a balcony cabin. Add in port charges, taxes and onboard costs and you are more likely to go over $1000 per person, even if the vacationer drives to the cruise.

The More Important Message
The most revealing aspect of the numbers above is that the percentages of people with any negative impressions about cruising seem to be lower overall. For the most part it seems that most Americans would like to try a cruise and that the well-known “cruise misconceptions” cited above after “cruises are too expensive” have become far less prominent than in the past.

So, with cost becoming the new top concern it is logical (as the Times article reports) that these new ad campaigns are targeted to regional populations within five hours drive time of a cruise port. This indicates that more people are saving money by driving to cruises than ever before, and that home-porting cruise ships in various markets throughout the United States, rather than focusing most of them in Florida as was common ten years ago, is now an integral aspect of the cruise business.

For example, New York is now a major year-round cruise port with regular sailings by Royal Caribbean (Explorer of the Seas), Carnival (Miracle) and Norwegian (Gem, Jewel and Pearl) scheduled to cruise from there even in the dead of winter next year. Further New York options include Celebrity Solstice to the Caribbean and Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 offering transatlantic cruises. Autumn cruises out of New York are also especially popular in 2012; September through late October, with many additional ships from Holland America and Princess.

The upper East Coast has become segmented with Baltimore as another popular cruise port for all of the Maryland, Washington D.C. and Northern Virginia market. Surprisingly, Philadelphia foundered as a cruise port even though the city worked desperately hard to foster its reputation as a cruise city.

So – what is the bottom line?

“The price is too high” as the primary concern is an affirmation of what Carnival reported in its last quarterly report; that the economy is still bad and that the expected recovery in cruise prices is no more a certainty now than it was a year ago. Cruise prices are still at historic lows as the cruise lines struggle to fill the many new ships that have been built in the last decade in addition to the many older ships still in service.

But is advertising a base price of $300 for a cruise compared to a land vacation a good strategy? It will certainly entice people to call – but will they book?

Related posts:

1. Cruise Industry’s Economic Impact
2. Are Cruise Line Bar Prices Too High?
3. Holland America Cruise Line Returns to Bermuda After 27 Years

Some Caribbean destinations do whatever it takes to attract as many cruise ships as possible. St. Martin. an independent republic formerly of the Dutch Antilles, didn’t even have a cruise terminal as recently as 1993 – all ships tendered. The island built its first cruise dock in 1994 was recently praised by Carnival’s senior vice-president of marketing for “making big strides and attracting Carnival’s cruisers.” He said St Maarten had “taken things to the next level” with a cobblestone shopping district and a beautiful beachfront area.

“They’ve done a fabulous job of watching what cruise customers want and really going ahead and building around that, putting important funds behind it to make the experience good for people. St Maarten can be held up as a superlative example of port development.”

In fact, on September 15, 2010, the largest ships of the three largest cruise lines in the U.S. were all in Saint Martin on the same day’ Carnival Dream, Oasis of the Seas and Norwegian Epic. The island is currently building a special dock just for Carnival that will enable it to have six ships in port at the same time.

But not all Caribbean-centric cruise ports are out to get as much cruise ship business as possible – Key West, the southernmost island in the Florida Keys, has decided by an overwhelming majority of it City Commission members that it will not take steps to enable the world’s largest cruise ships, Oasis and Allure of the Seas, to dock there.

The first step was to commission a study, just to see whether or not it is possible to dredge the city’s shipping channel from a width of 300 feet to 450 feet. That study alone would have cost $5.5-million, half to be paid by the federal government.

It was estimated the dredging project would cost as much as $36-million. The current channel can accommodate ships as large as Freedom of the Seas and Norwegian Epic, the world’s next largest category of ships. So, we are talking about spending over $40-million just to add access for Oasis and Allure of the Seas. These ship each carry over 6000 cruisers each, but Key West already commonly receives about 800,000 cruise passenger visits per year anyway.

In addition, there are only two ships too large for the current Key West ship channel, and no cruise line has expressed any interest in building any more ships of that size – despite the fact that Oasis and Allure have become phenomenally successful in terms of attracting bookings.

The feasibility study alone would have required four years, and then the process of funding and completing the dredging project would have taken an additional four years. This means it would 2020 before these two ships could arrive in Key West even if the study started now – which it won’t because it has been killed.

The question is whether or not there will be more ships of the size of Oasis by the year 2020. It only requires two to three years to build a cruise ship. So, although no cruise line has plans right now to build more ships over 200,000-tons, it is a possibility.

In fact, the three ships projects currently planned for construction in the next two years; from Norwegian, Princess and Royal Caribbean, are all in the 140,000-ton range, smaller than the largest ships already calling in Key West now.

Related posts:

1. Cruise West Goes Belly Up
2. Ever Lost Your Keys to the Car? What Happens When the Captain Loses the Key To The Ship?
3. Should Cruise Ships Go to Haiti?

Last Monday (Oct. 3) Carnival held a special press conference in New York City to announce its newest entertainment initiative called FunShip 2.0. The $500-million plan will bring two television celebrities into the Carnival fold to “brand” future aspects of the cruise experience on Carnival ships. FunShip 2.0 starts with recently departed TBS late-night talk show host George Lopez becoming “Director of Comedy” for all the shipboard comedy clubs across the Carnival fleet. Additionally, Food Network personality Guy Fieri will bring his own personal touch to the new “Guy’s Burger Joint,” restaurant to be featured on all Carnival ships.

Is it any coincidence that Carnival called the press conference to announce this just after Norwegian Cruise Lines had already announced it will hold a press conference in New York City on October 6th (tomorrow) to announce the latest developments in its Project Breakaway ships? Is it any coincidence that Carnival then held their press conference three days before the Norwegian press conference?
Did Carnival intentionally steal Norwegian’s thunder? My little black 8-ball tells me “It is decidedly so.” But can you blame Carnival for doing that?

Carnival had been the lone holdout in terms of ramping up to the next level in onboard entertainment. The line has always had good stage shows, but nothing for guests to brag about when they get home. Meanwhile, Royal Caribbean and NCL (the two mainstream cruise line competitors to Carnival) have both been focused on much better entertainment for a few years now. Now that Carnival has joined the ranks, with a hefty $500-million investment, the very definition of cruise ship entertainment is going to a higher level.

Most likely, that Norwegian press conference will be for the purpose of announcing the entertainment offerings NCL has lined up for the two new “Breakaway” ships set to debut in April of 2013 and April 2014. And the news they intend to announce could be impressive, if the entertainment offerings on Norwegian Epic are any indication.

Norwegian Cruise Lines has had very good entertainment at sea for years now, and Norwegian Epic, the line’s newest ship, has the best entertainment at sea in my opinion, and that is saying a lot when you consider the shows Royal Caribbean presents on Oasis and Allure of the Seas. Those ships have real Broadway shows, ice and aquatic acrobatic revues and 3-D movies and characters from DreamWorks (Disney’s top animation competitor).

But Norwegian Epic has Blue Man Group, the Second City comedy group of Chicago, Howl at the Moon (dueling pianos) and a great blues bar hosted by authentic New Orleans bluesman Slam Allen. The ship certainly wins my award for best entertainment. Meanwhile, Norwegian is attempting to build excitement for its upcoming Project Breakaway ships, and I can’t help wondering what they could possibly do to top Norwegian Epic.

In all honesty, I have no idea, unless it is a Beatles reunion with a resurrected John Lennon along with Johnny Carson as the cruise director. Okay, let’s put it this way; the Project Breakaway entertainment will either be fantastically cool, or a disappointment. If the latter, the size of the disappointment remains to be seen. It could a little disappointing, or it could be a real bummer.
The ball is in Norwegian’s court. What can they do to surpass Blue Man Group?

Personally, “Rent” is one of my favorite Broadway shows, but it is a little controversial. “Spider Man” would be great, but not in high seas. You know, I’ll bet they had this very conversation at NCL.
They could get the actual Cirque D’ Soliel to do a show, rather than the pale imitation “Cirque Dreams and Dinner” (the act I forgot to mention above) that they currently have on Norwegian Epic now. They could get a big star, like Celine Dion or Conan O’Brien to live on the ship and entertain nightly…

Maybe they will do something completely different – like spend the night in Nassau once a week and have stadium shows by great rock bands where they save the floor seats for the cruise passengers. Bands like Pink Floyd or Eric Clapton will entertain.

In any case, one thing is certain with this announcement by Carnival; cruise ship entertainment has now officially gone to the next level. The days of “A Salute to Hollywood” stage revues featuring no-name singer/dancers culled from Dollywood are behind us. The new generation of cruise ship entertainment is Las Vegas caliber, not Branson Missouri.

Related posts:

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2. Cruise Ship Names 2011
3. Cruise News & Rumor Update

A Ship For Every Cruiser

There’s a perfect ship for every cruiser. This “cruise primer” can help you find your dreamboat and select the style of cruising that best suits you.
You can cruise on a river boat, a small ship, a big ship or a mega-ship. (As the old sailors’ joke goes, never call a ship a boat — a boat is what you get in if the ship is sinking.)
There are cruises that provide intellectual stimulation – and others that focus on the complete opposite. Some cruises offer up-close encounters with nature, while some ships are giant floating cities where you can easily forget the ocean is “out there somewhere.”

Some ships are great for families with young kids or teenagers; others are preferred by retirees craving peace and quiet. Today’s ships can even accommodate road warriors who need constant access to the office via email and cell phone. In fact, many modern cruise ships can handle all of the above at the same time – for families like yours, perhaps?
By explaining the differences between various cruise lines, we will bring you closer to finding the perfect cruise ship for you. Below is a basic synopsis of the cruise industry, with a description of the cruise lines available to North Americans and the kinds of vacationers to whom they appeal.

A Category for Every Ship

The industry includes four basic categories of cruise lines; roughly in order of increasing price, they are: Contemporary, Premium, Deluxe and Luxury. The contemporary cruise lines are the biggest brand names, and carry the most passengers on the largest vessels. They are the most popular, but certainly not the only brands you will recognize. Some people refer to these as the “mainstream” cruise lines.

A Synopsis of Mainstream Cruise Lines

Carnival Cruise Lines: Since Kathie Lee Gifford first sang “If You Could See Me Now,” people have known Carnival Cruise Lines as the “Fun Ships.” They live up to the moniker, with impromptu conga lines in the dining room and wacky pool games like “Belly Flop” and “Men’s Sexy Legs” contests. As trite as it may sound, the formula works, making Carnival the world’s most successful cruise line. The spirit of fun permeates every person on the ship — including the crew, from deckhands to captain. Asked to describe what type of person Carnival appeals to, former CEO Bob Dickinson once quipped “Everyone but curmudgeons.” Everyone finds something to like about this budget cruise line, and some people will cruise no other.

Royal Caribbean Cruises: True to its “Get Out There” slogan, this line delivers action and adventure onboard, with an abundance of shipboard activities and cutting-edge architecture. Royal Caribbean has the biggest and most technically impressive ships at sea, including the newest “World’s Biggest Cruise Ship,” Oasis of the Seas just introduced in December, 2008. Oasis can accommodate over 6000 passengers and 2100 crewmembers. It has an outdoor “Central Park” with creeping vines and real trees; a separate outdoor “Boardwalk” with a real merry-go-round and an AquaTheater for water-based performances a la “O” by Cirque D’ Soliel. Other entertainment includes professional ice skaters on the largest ice rink at sea – also open for passengers who want to rent skates between shows. The main theater shows the first licensed version of a Broadway musical at sea: Hairspray.

Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) rounds out the mainstream category. The line’s forte is “Free-Style” cruising – meaning there are no set dining times or table assignments, and a variety of ongoing events and eateries. Its newest ship, Norwegian Epic (debuted June 2010, 4500 passenger berths), offers 21 different restaurants, several nightclubs, and an array of entertainment options. The ship features entertainment by the Blue Man Group – the hit show from New York and Las Vegas — as well as comedy from Chicago’s Second City Troupe and a unique Cirque dinner theater that may remind you of a Renaissance Faire production with its irreverent revelry.

These mainstream cruise lines have two things in common – they are based in Miami, and their megaships are considered destinations unto themselves. These mainstream ships mostly sail to Caribbean ports of call (they also venture to Alaska, Mexico and Europe), but the “ship as the destination” mindset is the hallmark of mainstream cruising.

Moving Up to Premium Cruising

Next up the ladder, in cost and sophistication, are the premium cruise lines. No doubt you have heard of these companies, but you may not know they cater to more intellectual mindsets by including lecturers and other enrichment and sail to more rare and exotic locations. Their ships are smaller at about 2,400 passengers apiece, lending a quieter and more personal touch to the onboard experience.

The premium cruise lines include: Celebrity, Cunard, Disney, Holland America and Princess Cruises. Premium cruise ships are smaller in size, but with fewer passengers they offer more space and more crew members per guest, for a heightened level of personal service. The food is generally better and the décor is toned down yet decidedly more opulent than on mainstream vessels. Most important is the variety of itineraries on offer. With the exception of Disney, they travel worldwide from New Zealand to the Norwegian North Cape. And don’t let the word “premium” derail you – these ships can be as affordable as the mainstream lines.

Remember that the cruise lines in any single category can still harbor vast differences, especially when we start to examine individual ships. For example, some Princess ships are as big as some Carnival ships, but they are roomier and sail to more exotic destinations. The newer Celebrity ships (called the Solstice class) are even bigger, but they carry 30% fewer passengers making them roomy and architecturally radiant. Disney ships, on the other hand, mostly sail in the vicinity of Orlando, with rare trips to Europe or the West Coast, and their entertainment and decor is all Disney for appeal to kids and other Disneyphiles.

Holland America, founded in 1873 but now headquartered in Seattle, has the smallest ships of this category on average, catering to a mature mindset with string quartets, cognac and cigar bars and a wide variety of world destinations such as South America, South Pacific, Europe and South America.

Cunard is the last cruise line to keep any semblance of the classic ocean liner “class system” in place, as in the movie Titanic. Cunard’s Queen Mary II is considered “premium” only in its regular class, but it qualifies as a luxury line in its upper class staterooms — like the Queen’s Grill category, where the cabins are all suites with butlers, and the cuisine is served in a private restaurant. Cunard, founded in 1839, is rife with seafaring history and the majestic Queen Mary 2 is the only modern ocean liner offering regular transatlantic crossings.

Deluxe Cruise Lines

Next we have deluxe cruise lines, including Oceania Cruises, Azamara Club Cruises and Windstar. These cruise lines can also be defined as “budget luxury cruises.” They are much smaller than mainstream cruise ships, 700 passengers or less, and put the focus on unique, port-intensive itineraries. With a different port each day — and even offering overnight stays in certain ports — deluxe lines focus on the travel experience first, but include top-notch restaurants and comfortable staterooms, so you can be fully revitalized for your next day’s sightseeing throughout the cruise. There is little entertainment onboard and no children’s programs.

The ships are very popular with certain cruisers who seek travel experiences to exotic destinations first. These ships excel in reaching the most interesting ports of call during the day and then making your nights most satisfying in cuisine and comfort.

The brand Oceania Cruises “Marina” is one of the most beautiful ships I have ever seen and I believe it qualifies as a true luxury ship. The executive chef, Jacques Pepin is famous for the PBS show he shared with Julia Childs. The ship has a wonderful culinary “school” where each guests gets his own kitchen workspace to perfect new cooking skills.

Luxury Cruise Lines

Finally we have the luxury cruise lines: Crystal, Regent, Seabourn and Silversea. These lines offer the finest cuisine and the most spacious and comfortable staterooms at sea. They have butlers onboard and will keep your personal refrigerator stocked with your favorite wine, champagne or beer included in the cruise fare.

Luxury cruise lines generally offer only open-seating restaurants, so you dine whenever you please every night. All spirits, wines and even champagne are included in the cruise. These ships also include staff gratuities in the fare (on other ships, the average is about $10 per day per passenger). Luxury ships tend to have the finest cuisine at sea: Regent has Le Cordon Bleu, Silversea has Relais and Chateaux, Seabourn features Charlie Palmer of “Le Cirque” fame, and Crystal includes food by Nobu, the most famous sushi chef in the world.

What’s Included on the Average Cruise?

Except on the luxury lines, you are expected to pay for all your alcoholic and soda beverages onboard. You will also be charged for tips for the staff, generally $10 per passenger per day. To track these onboard expenses, you submit a valid credit card upon boarding, and all your shipboard charges are posted to your stateroom account.

You can also charge shore tours provided by the cruise line, and you can get advances for the casino from the credit card that anchors your shipboard account. There are usually plenty of gift shops on all ships, and you can also spend additional money on photographs, dinner reservations for special dining rooms, and massages or other treatments in the onboard spa/salon.

About Cruise Pricing and Value:

When you see a price quote on a cruise, you can be sure that most sources are offering the same price, including the cruise line itself. Years ago a practice called “rebating” gave the price advantage to large volume sellers who rarely offered the best service. To reinstate a level playing field, the cruise lines now set all cruise prices and enforce a “flat-pricing” rule for all sellers.
The only exception to this rule is group pricing by special affinity groups offering a package deal cruise and special onboard events included in the price. Group cruises can only be attained through the agent sponsoring the group, and they will tell you that.

Cruise lines hate to see a cabin sail empty, so they have become expert at filling their ships by using price discounts and other incentives to entice vacationers. The industry reported 100% capacity last quarter.

Savvy consumers should try to “buy low and sail high,” booking cruises that the lines are discounting because they want to fill their ships. There is nothing wrong with these cruises; the lower prices simply reflect lower than expected demand for a perishable commodity. From the cruise line’s perspective, some revenue from an empty cabin is better than none.

Thus you might think that last-minute bookings will always provide the best cruise bargains, but it isn’t that simple. With clever computer modeling, the lines can offer enough attractive prices to sell most of the cabins on a given cruise six months before the sailing date, and rates can often go higher for the remaining vacancies.

A cruise is a great vacation value: The price includes not only your accommodations on the ship, but also all your meals, entertainment and transportation to exotic ports of call. Regular cruisers know the value proposition cruises offer, so they book early to get the best selection of deals. Cruises generally earn a higher satisfaction rating than other types of vacations, and on any given cruise, most of the passengers have cruised before and will again.

Technically Speaking
These terms will enhance your comprehension of cruise ships:

“Gross tonnage” conveys ship size, which is vital for comparison even without the exact definition. Oasis, the world’s largest cruise ship is 220,000 gross tons. Queen Mary 2, the largest ocean liner ever built, is 152,000-tons. The largest Carnival ship is 130,000-tons. Premium cruise ships average 90,000 tons. Deluxe ships are about 30,000-tons and luxury ships average 20,000-tons. But there are always exceptions to these average sizes.

Passenger space ratio is another tool to describe ship size. It is the number a square meters available per passenger. While luxury ships can have a PSR of 80, Carnival ships can go as low as 35.

CruiseMates Cruise Glossary
http://www.cruisemates.com/articles/feature/cruisingglossary-031708.cfm

Let’s Get Started!

Cruising becomes a way of life for many people, and the best way to get started is simply to take a cruise!
It can be difficult to make a significant vacation investment in uncertain times, but if you had purchased a cruise in 2008, today you would be bragging about the fantastic bargain you snagged. As in stock market investing, it pays to think like a contrarian when it comes to vacation values. “Buy low and sail high,” is our mantra for finding cruises that are selling cheaper solely due to low demand, but there is generally nothing wrong with the cruises. In 2011 that sector is Mediterranean cruises, for example, solely due to too much stateroom capacity on sale there.

That’s the modern cruise industry in a nutshell. Now that you understand a little more about the differences between cruise lines, the first step is deciding where you want to go. The next step is selecting the specific ship for your personal style. The last step is getting the ship you want at the best price.

Related posts:

1. Is Traditional Cruising Gone Forever?
2. Three New Cruise Ships to Debut -Three Different Worlds of Cruising
3. Royal Caribbean to Build More Ships???

In the 1980s you could be sure that most of your fellow cruisers would be college graduates and employed. Not true anymore. A Los Angeles Times expose just showed us that a number of welfare recipients on the dole in California have been taking cruises. How do they know? The state benefits are given to the “needy” in the form of a debit card which essentially looks and works like a regular credit card. Lo and behold, many of these card’s transactions were being charged aboard cruise ships. Eight of those ships were sailing out of Miami, not California.

The California state government has now instructed the bank behind the debit cards not to allow charges from cruise ships. Not too surprisingly there was another location where many on the dole were spending their money – Las Vegas casinos. Something like $12-million was spent on the Strip in 2009 alone. They also put an end to that. However, California welfare recipients are still allowed to charge items in Hawaii and Mexico, even if they are in the Four Seasons Hotel gift shop on Lanai.

Now, you could be seated with a cruiser wearing a brand new set of pearl earrings from the cruise ship gift shop and you just might mistakenly ask them what they do for a living. What are they going to say? If you find yourself dining in uncomfortable silence, at least you can take heart in knowing you can start afresh the next night with an entirely new set of dining companions.

Here are more topics of conversation topics one should avoid on a cruise ship:

“Where are you from?”   This used to be the standard opening line at any cruise ship dining table – an ice breaker that never failed. But these days there is hardly a state in the union that doesn’t already have a reputation for political leanings. So, if you are from Utah and you ask mistakenly ask someone where they are from and they reply, “Berkeley, California,” you are doomed to an entire night of awkward silence.

They are probably interested in Napa wines, while you don’t drink; they probably voted for Nancy Pelosi while you live in a state where Ronald Reagan was considered too liberal. All of your children are probably legally married with LOTS of kids, while at least one of their children has a “life partner,” and a toy poodle, and you probably drive to your non-union job daily, while they go to government union job on the BART subway system.

Bottom line; never ask anyone where they are from during a cruise.

The next topic of conversation to avoid is “Do you have any children?” In this economy children, even adult children, can be an embarrassment. There is a good chance they are nearing 30 years and still living in the basement.  A lifetime of Internet usage has diminished their social skills to having more affinity to their “Doom” avatar name of “Vulcanized Robber Bear, On!” that their real name, which is your dining companion’s name – plus junior.

The only thing that can make this conversation even worse is if that child happens to be on the cruise with the parents. This is highly likely since mom and dad believe their antisocial child’s depression will only get worse if you point out his shortcomings rendering him unable to face the possible rejection of job interview for another two years.

I once met a lovely couple on a cruise who were both quite affable and good looking.  They were funeral directors, but that was not the eye-opener.  The shock was how willing they were to talk shop so openly. But after all, they were on vacation.

They met at a convention, for funeral directors, of course. They fell in love when they realized how few “normal” people could ever perceive either of them as anything but ghoulish – despite their apparent good looks. Well, could you make love to your spouse knowing they had their hands on dead people all day long? Okay, that’s an indelicate question and I apologize, but I couldn’t help thinking it.

As we got to know them better, they really opened up. Did you know one of the biggest complaints funeral directors have is interference from the government health department? Now, mind you, the worry isn’t that the environment will become unhealthy for living people, as you might think. The concern of the health department is that the dead should be kept in a pristinely clean and germ-free environment. This was deemed to be highly over-burdensome by our new friends because as they put it, “They’re dead! They don’t care!”

Now that I just wrote that I realize it sounds terrible, but these people were actually very nice. It made perfect sense to them, purely from a business point of view, but all we could do is nod our heads and say “Yeah, that makes sense to me….”

More topics you should never discuss on a cruise ship:

Favorite television shows or commentators. The days of Walter Cronkite are gone. In this modern age if you mention even one commentator you are revealing your entire political philosophy and opening up a real can of worms. The same is true of favorite actors. Whether it is Sean Penn or Charleton Heston, Tim Robbins or Mel Gibson; chances are they have been affiliated with one political movement or another and you cannot discuss their movies without getting into choppy political seas. Television shows are also off the table since Bristol Palin went on Dancing with the Stars.

The only safe topics to discuss any longer are pets. Pets are non-political and non-religious. Gardening is also safe, because plants are like pets that don’t run around. Vampires are also okay; because they are dead and don’t vote in most states.

Keep it simple – pets, plants and vampires.

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Update: the ship has now been rescued and whether or not an engine explosion was the cause of the fire is now in question. Still, several engine room control panels have also been problematic, so the issue remains much the same.

The Nordlys, a popular Norwegian cruise ship owned by the Hurtigruten line caught fire two days ago after an engine explosion. Two crewmembers were killed in the explosion, nine injured, and it blew a hole in the hull where the ship is now taking on water. Fortunately, no passengers were killed or injured in the blast. All were evacuated safely as the ship was close to the port city of Alesund where the ship is now docked.

But now the ship is now listing (tilting to one side) at an angle of 21.7 degrees – well beyond what is considered to be the safe-zone of up to 20-degrees. Workers have placed pumps on board to remove the water that is coming in, but so far the hole in the hull is winning. There is now a real fear that the ship could tip over, and once the interior of the ship is breached it will fill with water very quickly and sink almost instantly.

That is a serious problem, but fortunately the immediate danger to human life and safety has already passed.

But my concern is the frequency of recent cruise ship engine room fires that have been caused by engine room explosions. To the best of my knowledge, one company, a German maker named Wartsilla, makes the vast majority of engines installed on large ships, but I am not going to blame them just yet because I do not have the ability to verify the specifics of each ship or what actually caused the the individual explosions. In some cases the explosions or fires were not the actual engines, but the control panels used to manage the power systems.

The following ships have suffered engine room explosions or fires that resulted in a loss of power to the ship for varying lengths of time:

MSC Opera – this beautiful cruise ship built in the STX shipyard in France suffered an engine failure in the Swedish archipelago when it was sailing towards Stockholm just last May. In this case there was no explosion, but there was a failure in the electrical panel that controls the engines. The entire ship lost (electrical) power, meaning there were no working toilets, lights, etc., beyond the emergency power made available through an auxiliary generator system each ship keeps. The ship was towed to Stockholm and the rest of the cruise was cancelled.

In April of 2011 a Mexican cruise ship, the Ocean Star Pacific, had a generator fire when it was sailing off the west coast of Mexico near Mazatlan – no one was injured but the entire passenger contingent had to be evacuated by lifeboat.

November, 2010, we saw the most extensive damage an engine explosion can create when the Carnival Splendor lost all power off the west coast of Baja California in Mexico. In that incident over 3000 passengers and nearly 2000 crewmembers were stuck on the ship, which had no electrical service, for over three days. They were forced to live on cold food and could not take showers the entire time.

In the case of Splendor, it was decided that the people aboard would be safest staying on the ship rather than trying to evacuate them. The ship was at a point about 50 miles from shore when the explosion occurred, but making matters even worse, during the overnight wait the powerless ship drifted nearly 100 miles in the wrong direction. As a result the ship had to wait almost 24 hours before the first tug-boats could arrive from Mexico. The ship was towed back to San Diego (the cruise had originated in Los Angeles) where it sat docked for nearly two months before it could sail up to San Francisco (under its own not-full power) and get a new engine installed which took an additional three weeks.

The following month, December 2010, the mighty Queen Mary 2 had a “leaky capacitor” in another engine room control panel that resulted in an arc flash that blew the steel doors off of the control room. Fortunately no one was injured, but the ship lost all power and floated adrift off the coast of Spain for about 30 minutes.

Many people also forget that the Norwegian Epic had a main generator engine explosion in the STX shipyard in France just before it was delivered to NCL. That incident required cutting a hole in the hull, taking out the engine and replacing it with a new one – the same steps as were taken in dry dock for the Carnival Splendor.

Of course, the most famous cruise ship engine explosion ever was in 2003 on the old SS Norway. But in a way this one does not count since that ship used older “direct-drive” steam-powered propellers. Those styles of engines have always been notoriously dangerous, which is why all new ships are built with a different system. That blast killed four crewmembers and injured 21 others, but fortunately no passengers were injured.

How Cruise Ship Engines Work

The engines where we are seeing explosions on these ships are not the kind of engine you have in an automobile or a propeller-driven airplane. Rather, they are electrical generators which create a current that in turn drives the propeller systems with separate motors powered by the electricity generated by the “engine.” You can imagine the amount of electricity that must be generated to turn a propeller fast and hard enough to move the 150,000-ton Queen Mary 2. That ship actually has five separate propellers mounted to external pods below the stern of the ship.

This pod system is now used on most new cruise ships, including the Carnival Splendor and MSC Opera. Strangely, the Norwegian Epic uses the older style “screw-driven” propeller coming straight out of the ship, but those propellers are still driven by electricity – not steam powered as on the old Norway.

In any case, all of the electricity aboard any ship is the same power that drives the propellers and heats up your hair dryer. It is generated below deck in very large engines that burn a very raw grade of diesel fuel called “bunker fuel.” This fuel is so thick it must be heated before it can even flow into the engine to be burned. But the engines quickly burn the fuel to turn turbines that create electrical power – the same as the small generator you see attached to mobile homes in remote areas. The rate of burn (if memory serves) can be over one ton of fuel per hour. To be more specific, Oasis of the Seas has six Wartsilla engines and each consumes 1377 gallons of fuel per hour.

Those are the “engines” that have been exploding – and I have to say I have been expecting to hear more from the manufacturers of the engines by now. The rash of recent incidents has been somewhat staggering.

Related posts:

1. Does this Carnival Fire Mean Future Bargains?
2. Fire At Sea – Every Sailors Worst Nightmare
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