Troubled Waters

Triumph passengers spell out ‘Help’.

Elation, triumph, legend, dream. Soaring words that are meant to evoke feelings of great joy or pride. Those are also the names of the Carnival Cruise Line’s four crippled ships that in two instances forced passengers to cut their cruise short and return to shore in the last few weeks. To be fair, Elation, Legend, and Dream only had minor problems. But the fact that their technical difficulties happened just weeks after Triumph’s “cruise from hell” could mean trouble for Carnival and the cruise business unless they start communicating with their customers.

The Triumph fiasco dominated news coverage for days as tugboats towed the ship back to an Alabama port. Families of the passengers recalled the conversations with their loved ones: No power or running water, food was in short supply, and the smell. Then came the videos of the human waste floating along the floors of the ship. As bad as it all was, it was slowly fading from memory until this week when three other Carnival ships ran into technical issues. The problems were minor, but the headlines and news stories all recount the Triumph disaster of a few weeks ago. What should Carnival do? What should be its communication objective?

Carnival will have to address a number of stakeholders but some crisis communication specialists say the cruise line’s focus should be on the customers they have now (Smith, 2013). Communicate transparency to those about to take an upcoming cruise and “create advertising about the safety of cruising in general” (McGregor, 2013).

Steep Learning Curve

Carnival has traveled a steep learning curve on crisis communications since the Costa Concordia (operated by a division of Carnival) ran aground last year. Carnival ceased its Facebook postings out of respect for those who died at a time when people were needing information (Sebastian, 2013). Communication experts say Carnival needs to take to those social channels and replace the images of overflowing toilets and confused passengers with a consistent message that cruises are safe and problems are being addressed with candor and transparency (Smith, 2013).

Resources:

McGregor, J. (March 15, 2013). Turning Carnival’s Ship around. Washington Post. Retrieved from Washingtonpost.com

Sebastian, M. (February 13, 2013). Despite missteps, Carnival’s PR was proactive during Triumph Crisis. PR Daily. Retrieved from prdaily.com

Smith, B. (March 16, 2013). Stranded Carnival Cruise ships offer lessons in turning crisis into positive experience. Financial Post. Retrieved from Businessfinancialpost.com