The Carnival (did not bring) Triumph Incident

Carnival Cruise Line has been the subject of public scrutiny lately. First, I'm sure we all remember the Costa Concordia incident, where the ship "crashed" too close to the shore of Italy, halfway sinking. More recently, the Carnival Triumph lost propulsion due to an engine fire in the middle of the ocean with over 3,000 passengers on board, eventually losing all power. When it seemed that Carnival did not handle the Costa Concordia incident well, I think they did handle the Triumph incident very well.

I took a close look at Carnival's Facebook page, and they have been very forthcoming with updates about the condition of the Triumph. They also let everyone know of the compensation passengers would receive, what would happen once they arrived in Mobile, as well as their choice for an additional offering of $500 extra dollars. They posted notices for future passengers of the Triumph and their options for refunds. Reading through some of the thousands of comments on the updates Carnival posted, I noticed there were more neutral to positive comments then there were negative comments. People would comment on how they had a cruise booked next month and are so excited, and how they love cruising and Carnival is their favorite. Many others commented on the hard work of the staff and crew in the worst of conditions. I then visited Social Mention to get a look at the sentiment analysis, which was 18:1!

I can't help but think of the difference in the action taken by Carnival compared to that of the recent Applebee's incident. Where Carnival was open and honest, Applebee's was sketchy and argumentative. Carnival does so much more to create and maintain a relationship and instill trust amongst passengers that people have remained loyal and positive throughout this incident. For Applebee's, they kind of just exist. Perhaps this goes to say people respond in an entire different way when a brand acts opposite of our morals and beliefs versus threatening our safety. Is it because psychologically we think about cruise ship accidents like, "it won't happen to us," whereas we can all be personally offended by the actions Applebee's took? Or is it all in the way the situation was handled?

Either way, it is crazy to think people are less outraged about people being stuck on a boat with little to no power for 5 days in the middle of the ocean in seemingly terrible conditions then they are about a waitress who got fired for posting a photo of a guest's receipt!