Is $500 Enough for Enduring the Cruise from Hell? Brad Tuttle - TIME
go to original February 19, 2013

Kendall Jenkins kisses the ground after stepping off the Carnival ship Triumph at the Alabama Cruise terminal in Mobile, Alabama. (AFP)

So you’ve survived for five days stranded at sea aboard the Carnival Triumph. The ship had no working toilets, sewage dripped from walls, and the whole place smelled “like a hot port-o-potty.” Here’s $500 for your troubles.

Last week, after the Triumph was finally tugged into Alabama and passengers kissed solid ground in relief, Carnival announced that all passengers on the ship-which was hit with a fire in an engine room and left without power in the Gulf of Mexico - would receive some compensation. The offer included a full refund for the cruise and travel expenses, reimbursement for nearly everything they spent on board the ship, a credit good toward a future cruise, plus a check for $500.

To some, the offer didn’t exactly seem generous. “I would have expected more really,” said travel expert George Hobica, who runs the deal-finding site AirfareWatchdog.com. “I think giving them their money back and $500 is pretty cheap.”

Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor of CruiseCritic.com, had basically the same reaction. “What these people went through was worth more than $500,” she said. “It’s a little bit insulting. It’s almost as if Carnival would have been better off offering nothing than to go so low.”

So where did Carnival come up with the $500 figure to begin with? The cruise line didn’t explain. In situations involving refunds and compensation for travelers, there usually isn’t much explanation other than that the policies and dollar figures somehow seem about right. “It’s all about PR,” said Brown. “This was probably determined by the marketing department more than anybody.”

Calamities like the Triumph can obviously be bad for the cruise line at the center of the storm. They can also damage the cruise industry as a whole. In the aftermath of the sinking of the Costa Concordia - which just “celebrated” its one-year anniversary last month - cruise prices decreased by 12%.

To minimize the public-relations damage, to salvage some sort of goodwill with affected customers, and also to cut off lawsuits before they are filed, travel operators are known to offer compensation during the worst situations. Concordia passengers were offered around $15,000, on top of a refund and travel expenses.

At the time of the offer, a lawyer representing the cruise line told the Associated Press that there were big upsides for passengers who accepted the payment: “The big advantage that they have is an immediate response, no legal expenses, and they can put this whole thing behind them.”

Funny: The cruise lines involved in these disasters also want to avoid legal expenses and put the whole thing behind them.

Read the whole story at TIME

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