Can Carnival Cruise Out Of its PR disasters?

Don’t you want to ask Carnival executives what they are going to do to reverse their deplorable situation? In a recent poll, very few mentioned going on a cruise as one of their dream vacations and most know the reason. Thanks to all the publicity about Carnival’s disasters recently you would definitely turn to another cruise line for that once in a lifetime cruising experience.

Carnival Cruise Lines is the largest in the world but has had a very tough year and all their recent mechanical difficulties have had the world watching. Every media channel carried the story of Carnival Triumph being towed to shore while angry passengers tweeted their frustrations with the cruise line. Who wouldn’t want that for a relaxing vacation! Then there were other incidents on other ships to keep adding to their problems. Carnival is in big trouble and their PR woes just keep getting worse.

With all the recent debacles they are canceling 10 cruises on Carnival Triumph and Carnival Sunshine. Management has announced that the cancellations will be the first implementation of a fleet-wide comprehensive operational review. The two ships will return to service June 3 and guests will receive a full refund for their nonrefundable flights and 25% off future cruises. Does this really help when many have had to scramble to book their honeymoon cruise on another cruise line?

Finally, Carnival has announced it will spend $700 million in repairs and upgrades to its fleet to correct some of the power problems it has experienced. Is this enough to keep them afloat?

You know you are in real trouble when Congress starts to notice and a few lawmakers are demanding a review of passenger rights. After all, what’s a little more regulation going to hurt in view of everything else.

While the cruise line management tries to mitigate the disasters in relationship to the vast numbers of folks who have trouble free cruising vacations, the damage has been done and competition will start taking customers away.

Carnival may have to look at rebranding to get out of this mess. How can you have happy employees when they go through hell and back on every cruise that has problems? One disaster, maybe, but with the current run of luck I’d cancel any vacation plans on this cruise line.

While there is tremendous equity in the current brand, the only way for the organization to save it is to discount fares like there’s no tomorrow and buy its way back into the hearts and souls of the cruising world. With all the refunds, millions in repairs and millions more in consultants to figure out what to do, I think a rebrand is worth discussing.