Is Carnival Cruise lines just having a bad couple of years, or do they just suck?

[randomness]

The news about the Carnival Triumph and its recent troubles got me to looking into the line's recent record:

• On November 8, 2010, a fire broke out in the generator room of the Carnival Splendor and the ship lost most power.


• On January 13, 2012, the Costa Concordia, operated by a Carnival subsidiary, ran aground off Isola del Giglio, Tuscany. The ship capsized and partially sank, killing 32 people.


• In March 2012, the Costa Allegra, owned by Carnival Cruise Lines' Costa Cruises subsidiary, suffered an engine room fire and went adrift in the Indian Ocean.


• In February 2013, the Carnival Triumph, with 3,143 passengers aboard, suffered an engine room fire, leaving the ship adrift for days in the Gulf of Mexico.

Is this number of incidents normal for cruise lines? Is Carnival Cruise lines known to be more accident prone than other lines? They do have a large fleet, so I suppose it could just be random chance, but it doesn't seem like a good record.

I don't know the first thing about cruise lines and their reputations, so I'm asking.

Comments

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

If cruise craps out due to engine problems, does Carnival refund peoples' fees?

[gee-tar.livejournal.com]

I think it depends and I don't really know the details of this particular incident. But in general, I think the corporation first tries to appease customers with a free cruise, and if that doesn't work, a full refund is usually in order. No sense in making PR problems worse than they already are.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

According to reports, in this particuloar case the cruise line is offering a full refund of the cruise fare, plus a refund of all shipboard purchases (except for gift shop, art, and casino), plus a cruise credit equal to the fare paid for the voyage. They then added that they will be paying everyone $500 on top of all of that.

That last bit is unusual. It probably speaks to just how bad a PR disaster this has been.