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People can be annoying. When on vacation—especially on a cruise ship—they can be even more annoying. Perhaps some people figure anonymity makes rude behavior OK. Perhaps some people are just so relaxed, or so centered on their hard-earned focus on self, they let little things slide. Perhaps some people are just assholes. (just being honest) Sometimes guests misbehaving is small. The most annoying thing I recall from my four years working on cruise ships was quite small. I think that’s why it grated me so much: sometimes a surprise, light strike hurts worse than a heavy blow (ask any man who’s been hit below the belt). As an auctioneer, I had arranged my desk top with all manner of flyers, pamphlets, and books. I got it all ship-shape, as they say, arranging stacks to perfection. The task took only about five minutes but made me feel comfortable and organized, ready for action. The first lady that walked up plunked her gargantuan bag right atop the desk with so much force that books tumbled to the floor and papers scattered into every corner of the corridor. She wanted directions to the gangway. How rude! Some guest misbehavior is just opportunistic. Again as an art auctioneer, I was targeted me for freebies. A power cord taped to the deck had come partially loose near the wall. A little old Asian lady made a bee-line for the far side of the corridor and ‘tripped’. That is, she had a misstep, because she only pretended to trip. After ensuring she was fine, apologizing, and fixing it, I thought the matter closed. That night—at 11PM I might add—I was called into the hotel director’s office. There waited the little old Asian lady and her daughter, intent on suing the cruise line for being racist. The hotel director had pointed out how absurd that was—60 nationalities worked together on that very ship—so she instead tried to sue me personally. Using her daughter to translate (though she had earlier spoken clear English to me), she claimed that had she been white, I would have treated her better. Via daughter-translator, she called me a racist to my face. I usually laugh off verbal barbs, but that time I was not amused. I went off on her, much to the chagrin of the hotel director. During my yelling rant, I pointed out that I had dated an Asian woman. All charges were dropped. Some guest misbehavior is so egregious that it spawns nothing short of hatred. As a waiter, one particular family was so over-the-top gluttonous and selfish that my poor assistant literally had an emotional breakdown in the dining room. It was the most awful thing I’d ever seen in my life. Perhaps I’ll devote a blog to that nightmare, if I could but encapsulate the magnitude of it all in under 700 words. Impossible. Whatever the reason for guest misbehavior, it’s usually best to not let it bring you down, whether cruising as passenger or crew. Because, when official policy is stirred, the finger of blame can point into some downright shocking directions. Take the tragedy of the Costa Concordia, for example. While this misbehavior was entirely and utterly the fault of the idiotic and indefensibly cowardly Captain Schettino, his boss doesn’t see it that way. Carnival Cruise Lines specifically blamed passengers for the internal damages to the Costa Concordia. That’s right, when Costa Concordia capsized off the coast of Giglio in Italy, taking 32 victims, Carnival Corporation blamed ship damages on passengers, NOT the untold thousands of gallons of seawater brought on from recklessly colliding with rocks. When aggrieved passengers, relatives of the deceased, and crew-members filed a lawsuit against the company, they shot right back. Specifically, court documents filed by Carnival Cruises state: "travelers' negligent or careless behavior were between the causes, if not the only cause, of the alleged injuries and damages." By Brian David Bruns, author of national best-seller Cruise Confidential. Pics of the people and places I blog about are on my website and FB pages, join me! www.BrianDavidBruns.com https://www.facebook.com/BrianDavidBruns

Congressmen who haven’t passed a budget in four years are now getting ready to hold hearings on the cruise industry after the Carnival Triumph incident? These people can’t get out of their own way, yet they want to stick their noses in an industry that has a 95 percent approval rating from the passengers. Contrast that with the approval rating for Congress and then call your local congressman and tell them to fix their own House first -- pun intended. It comes down to the difference between how government operates and how private businesses operate, as well as whom they each serve. Does anyone think Carnival Cruise Lines and its sister brands want to have issues at sea like Carnival Triumph? Does anyone think they don’t do everything possible to make customers happy and keep them healthy at sea? Their company depends on it! Indeed, every travel company depends on it. That makes the idea of public hearings on the Carnival Triumph’s engine fire a complete publicity stunt for our elected officials. It’s not to make us safer or to “get to the bottom” of anything, but simply a way to use what’s become a sensational story to their advantage. In other words they are doing this to give the illusion that they are actually doing something. There are laws in place that pertain to safety at sea and the cruise lines adhere to them. Even when it’s not part of the law, the cruise lines take proactive action. In the aftermath of the Costa Concordia incident, the cruise industry instituted new policies to hold safety drills before getting under way. All cruise lines followed this policy, as I personally noticed on a recent SeaDream Yacht Club cruise in January. Government officials would like us to believe that they can “fix” everything and “protect” us from the world. Guess what? We need protection from them. There is no competition when it comes to our elected officials in Washington. Once they are elected from their particular area, good luck getting rid of them. Our representative government means I’m stuck with the choices from all over the country, no matter how incompetent or abusive their power grab might be. At least when it comes to travel, people have a choice about which line they cruise on, what airline they fly or what hotel they stay in. Competition means that these companies focus on the customer and satisfying their needs at every turn. It also means that they do it as efficiently and effectively as possible. Efficient and effective aren’t two words I would use to describe our current representatives and their actions. How long would a bad hotel or cruise line last if they didn’t put their customer’s safety and experience first? That, unfortunately, hasn’t applied to our elected officials. Here’s a suggestion: tell your local congressman or congresswoman to spend his or her time on what they were sent to Washington to do and what’s allowed by the Constitution. Let them know that you expect nothing more and nothing less. They’d accomplish far more in less time and might even find themselves with a little extra time to spend with their families. Maybe they could take a cruise or some other vacation and actually understand the industry better. If our elected officials took me up on this offer, they also might not have to wonder why their approval rating remains in the teens. By Mark Murphy, Travel Pulse Re-posted on CruiseCrazies.com - Cruise News, Articles, Forums, Packing List, Ship Tracker, and more http://www.cruisecrazies.com View full article

Thank you for this beautiful perspective. Exactly my sentiments. Very well written and needed!

Knowing the ship was having engine problems from prior cruises, the ship should have been put in dry dock and repaired. In my opinion they needlessly put their 'paying customers' through this ordeal. Considering this incident and the Concordia, in just a one year period the Carnival Corp has done major damage to their image and the image of the cruise industry as a whole. We had some friends tell us "You must be nuts booking another Carnival cruise!" Maybe we are?

I have posted my opinion on our site a few times about what Carnival did wrong here and I will reiterate my feelings. There is NO reason why Carnival couldn't have cancelled a cruise on another one of their vessels and used that ship to evacuate the passengers from the Triumph. They had no propulsion, limited power, no cooking or refrigeration as well as no comfort items (Air Conditioning) just to name a few losses. This insight was actually presented to Carnival in a news conference and they stated that there was an accident recently where 5 people were killed during a CREW lifeboat drill and felt an evacuation would be too dangerous. I beg to differ. Let's be honest folks, if YOU were on the Triumph, and take the affore mentioned life boat drill "accident" into consideration, wouldn't you still opt for taking the chance of being evacuated from a foundering vessel? And yes, it was foundering when you hear reports of it listing to one side in strong currents. A very, VERY weak excuse from Carnival. I have been on Carnival 5 times in my last 5 cruises and never had a major issue. But I do know one thing for sure, Carnival like any other cruise line are FOR PROFIT businesses.