Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Carnival Splendor Troubles


This is an article that I read and I wanted to share with everyone everywhere... I was on the Carnival Splendor a year ago, and absolutely loved the service and the overall experience!

Dedication of the Carnival Crew

By Paul Motter

The recent Carnival Splendor crisis showed the larger non-cruising public something we dedicated cruisers already know - that a major reason cruising is so popular is because of the amazing crewmembers.

I was in San Diego to watch and speak to departing Splendor passengers, and everyone said the crew was amazing. I was on the radio on Saturday and asked if I thought this incident would lead to discounts due to slowing demand. We in the industry already know that it won't, but I had to find a logical reason to explain why it won't.

What other tourism business compares to cruising for the quality of personal service? I said "If you heard this incident happened at Disneyland would you say you'd never go to Disneyland again?" Of course not, because everyone knows that Disney is a great vacation experience and such an accident would be a pure anomaly.

That is how the vast majority of cruisers feel about cruising - not only does the cruise industry have an exemplary safety record (which never gets mentioned during media reports of these events) - but cruisers know that ship workers are among the most dedicated in the world and they truly respect that.

We have had rare incidents of fires on ships and ship losing propulsion power. But this is the first time I have ever heard of a ship losing all power to the point where almost nothing onboard was working. But I never heard the media mention that fact.

They were all over the "cruise from hell," angle, as always, and many reporters were even saying "I will never go on a cruise." That kind of reporting is purely coming from a lack of knowledge, and why is it that every time a cruise ship has a crisis the media never call in a cruise industry expert to put the events into perspective?

We cruisers were not at all surprised to hear the Carnival crew did a fantastic job, we already know cruise crewmembers are the best in the world. But while every passenger I heard interviewed cited the crew and ace Carnival Cruise Director John Heald as having done a fantastic job of keeping the guests informed, reassured and even in good humor about the events, the media didn't seem to care about those statements - being far more interested in the "spam" angle.

I watched some of the first person videos people had taken onboard during the blackout, and every time a video camera hit the face of crewmember they smiled and waved. Many of them stopped and talked to the camera, telling us what they were doing, whether it was delivering ice or forming a human chain to get food from the galley up to deck ten where passengers were assembled.

The people who cruise regularly all said they would definitely be taking Carnival up on the free cruise offer they gave every guest as compensation. By the way, Carnival also paid for flights home for everyone, and gave them the option to stay in San Diego for an extra day with a paid hotel room (Hilton) and even meal vouchers.

My interview with first-time cruise Barbara Dillonpierside as she came right off the ship showed that even a first-timer could be so impressed with a crew during a crisis that she said she would definitely cruise again, and she even tipped the room steward. She also mentioned the heroism of the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, who contribute to the exemplary record of the cruise industry on almost a daily basis.

As I said on the radio, I didn't hear a single person say "I'll never cruise again." Every experienced cruiser said "this was an accident and this doesn't change my mind about cruising one bit." My interview in CruiseMates with first-time cruiser Barbara Dillon coming right off the ship shows that the crew on Carnival was so good that she will definitely cruise again, many times, even with this "cruise from hell" as her first experience. She even tipped her crewmembers.

This Carnival crew showed what crewmembers are famous for - all the time and under all circumstances - keeping the passengers as happy and comfortable as humanly possible, even under the most challenging and extraordinary circumstances.

Splendor cruise director John Heald has an epic firsthand account of his experience in his personal blog. He mentions a few things he wishes he had done differently. But every officer, staff and crewmember was improvising - there is no handbook on what to do in case of a systemic failure of ship power - it has never happened before.

I just think it is too bad that the courage and commitment of the crew during every "cruise from hell" crisis gets lost in the television media coverage. When Captain Sully landed a jet on the Hudson River the media didn't focus solely on the negative points. They focused on the heroism of Captain Sully and the fact that he was the exception to what commonly happens with airlines -planes crash and everyone dies.

But I have never seen a cruise crisis where the media notes that our modern western cruise industry has a spectacular reputation for safety with no catastrophic loss of life in recent history. The worst ship fire had just one tragic fatality. That is very sad, but an exemplary record compared to every other form of mass transportation; trains, cars and planes, all of which have had horrific accidents.

Discuss the Carnival Splendor crewmembers here: Carnival Splendor Crew



Thursday, November 12, 2009

I JUST FINISHED!!!

I finished (ACED) my last final.
I am officially "smart"


I AM DONE WITH SCHOOL!!!

Did you not hear that? I AM DONE!
WAhoo!


Tuesday, November 3, 2009

T-Mobile??? LOL

My favorite Verizon ad:


WANT 100% MORE COVERAGE THAN T-MOBILE?
THERE'S A MAP FOR THAT TOO.
(as of 5:30pm (EST) today
here is the Map for T-Mobile Service, LOL)

HA ha ha, Go T-Mobile! It's a good thing that I am with Verizon!
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/110309-tmobile-outage.html

Friday, September 25, 2009

Saturday, August 15, 2009

SMA Walk-n-Roll

So I have the cutest little niece, Brynlee, but when she was around 6 months old her parents noticed something wrong with her legs. They took her into the doctor, and to make a long story short, they found out that she has SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy). SMA is a disease that affects the muscles in her little body, it basically prevents them from working like muscles should work. She was unable to lift her legs, and the one that gets most children under the age of 2 is that she is unable to cough and struggles to breath.

Well, her 2nd birthday (they never said that she would live to the age of 2) is August 29th, and it just so happens that there is a fund raiser on August 29th in Park City; the Utah Chapter of Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy Walk-n-Roll. The FMSA is inviting friends, family, patients, and anyone else interested to participate in the fund raiser to help find a cure for the number 1 genetic killer in infants.

To register, or even just to donate you can visit: FSMA
If you want to join Team Brynlee on the Walk-n-Roll (she will be rolling along in her new little wheel chair) you can register under my sister-in-law: Tara Liston


Here is the fund raising Biography for Team Brynlee:


See, isn't she the cutest!

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Aspen Grove - Timpanogos

So, today we decided to try to hike the Aspen Grove Timpanonos trail. I was with my mother and step father, who haven't been on the hike for a long time. We ended up starting way late, so we didn't make it to Emerald Lake, but we did have a great hike. It was a beautiful day, and we all had a great time.


















There was a lot of water coming down the mountains this year, which made for some great pictures. I didn't take these pictures, but some nice friendly blogger did, so I figured that I would share. This is what we did see though. =0)


















There were also many beautiful flowers, but once again I don't have the pictures that I took today, so I may have to post them a little later.

Well I am headed to bed so that I can spend the week getting ready for those crazy teachers to come back into their schools a week for now... ;)

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Lake Powell

Well it was hard, but I had to work almost 2 weeks before going on another trip... I take off Sunday morning to head down to Lake Powell with some family and friends that go down every year. I wasn't able to make it with them last year, and I was devastated, but this year it sounds like it should make up for the lost time. They just bought a new (as in 0 hours) boat that we are taking down, AWESOME!

So my favorite part is the part where phones don't work down at the water level, my computer won't work (well I don't want it to work), and well I really can't be reached by those that I work with on a daily basis at all. I am leaving and not talking to them until I return to work in August. =0)

I do love Lake Powell, and have since I first went down there with my childhood friend and his family. I don't know if it is the beautiful red cliffs, the clean blue water, the nice warm weather, the nice sandy beaches, or the great company that I usually get to go with, but I do so love it.

Yeah, it is not a cruise in the Caribbean, but it is is probably the second best place on earth as far as I am concerned.

Anyway, I hope that y'all have a great week as I know that I will. =0)

Chao,