Articles tagged “costa”

Carnival is on the cusp of restarting cruises on AIDA and Costa brands. To say the company has something to prove is an understatement.

Cruise ships are full of crucial pieces of technology; Pepper the robot is not one of those. The humanoid, multilingual robot that will sail on two European brands is more of a marketing ploy than practical tool.

With norovirus outbreaks hitting the cruise industry relatively hard in the beginning of 2014, Costa Cruises, still in recovery mode from the Costa Concordia crash, didn't need a suspected measles outbreak among crew on one of its ships. Neither did the passengers who, according to reports, have so far not come down with the virus.

Carnival CEO Arnold Donald is likely asserting himself with these changes, as some of the old guard loses its grip and management gets a refresh. Although Buckelew isn't exactly an insurgent, having been at the top ranks of Princess for almost a decade.

Carnival Cruise Lines claims its decision to withdraw ships from Europe in 2014 has nothing to do with the adverse publicity stemming from its Costa Concordia tragedy off the Italian coast. We're not buying it.

Authorities may refloat the ship and scrap it, but the memories of the disaster will live on forever.

Carnival is going to retrofit its massive fleet to expand onboard emergency power, but generating some candor out of this insulated executive team will be a much more difficult task.

A price cut is the absolute last thing that the cruise industry needs. There's no way Carnival and its peers can argue that their race to the bottom hasn't created conditions where accidents are much more likely. Even lower prices will arguably make things worse.

If the cruise industry can rebound from these six horrific trips, it’s only be a matter of time before bookings bounce back as die-hard cruisers move on from the shock and first-timers choose to take a risk.