Headline Surfer uploaded three videos from YouTube on the Carnival cruise disaster that political columnist Ellen Darden reflects on here.
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Good grief! You could not get away from the anguished and alarmist reporting about the Triumph, a luxury cruise ship that experienced mechanical and systems breakdowns as a result of a contained fire. The ship did not sink; it floated safely around in the Gulf of Mexico until tug boats could tow it into port.
No one died; passengers were uncomfortable, and their vacation plans and dreams unpleasantly interrupted.
Unlike the fairly recent incident when a cruise ship ran aground off the coast of Italy, turned over on its side and partially sank, killing and seriously injuring passengers, no tragedy resulted.
Without power for cooking and refrigeration, food could not rise to the level of gourmet gluttony that has become synonymous with trips on these modern floating resorts.
That is "not" tragedy.
People were annoyed, repulsed by the odor from toilets that could not flush and irritated by the heat because air conditioning could not run without electric power. A few reportedly got upset stomachs; some may have suffered mild food poisoning. In the end, every passenger and crew member returned to land safe and alive.
I tried to ignore the increasingly idiotic, hysterical reporting from what has become a national joke: much of our news media, especially television “journalists.” However, the story was ubiquitous and seemed to become a contest between reporters trying to one-up each other with ever more alarming narratives. Toilets that don’t flush and people without air conditioning rises to the level of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina?
I tried to ignore the increasingly idiotic, hysterical reporting from what has become a national joke: much of our news media, especially television “journalists.” However, the story was ubiquitous and seemed to become a contest between reporters trying to one-up each other with ever more alarming narratives. Toilets that don’t flush and people without air conditioning rises to the level of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina?
This question was asked by one reporter of a passenger as he safely debarked. Which brings me to the other players in the story who disgust me as much as the idiot reporters who tried to rewrite a spoiled vacation into a national disaster: the whining passengers who reacted as though they were entitled to perfection and behaved as though they were deliberately tortured and their civil liberties withdrawn because the trip didn’t turn out as planned.
People, it was an accident.
Accidents happen. Does any person in their right minds conceive that Carnival Cruise Lines deliberately plotted this unfortunate incident? Does that sound like savvy marketing?
Incidentally, all of the passengers are being handsomely compensated for their “unanticipated adventure at sea.” Most people who vacation have experienced disappointments and plans that go awry.
If one is vacationing where nature has important influence or one relies on mechanical systems, the very best planning can still have an unexpected or uncomfortable outcome. That’s part of the adventure of moving outside of your normal space.
How about crossing the Gulf of Mexico in pea soup, zero visibility fog and running aground, or being out at sea with lighting striking 360 degrees around the boat, or getting caught in a gale way out of sight of land?
How about “surfing” from the Bahamas to Florida in a 27-foot boat in 18-foot-following seas with no way to turn back without overturning and sinking the boat?
How about hiking in the wilds of the mountains and being attacked by bears?
How about chartering a personal luxury yacht and finding out that that the toilets are broken, the waste holding tank is unusable and the bilges filling with waste long after you’ve left port?
These are but a few of my personal vacation “adventures.”
Having survived, I remember them with a relieved smile, not anger. They say “that which does not kill us makes us strong.” And, the adventures make good stories. Did I hire a lawyer to make me whole by suing Mother Nature or the boat manufacturer or owner because the vacation reality didn’t match up with my pre-vacation anticipation?
Based on some of the comments reported, I’ll bet good money that some of the miffed, but safe passengers on the ill-fated (but not tragic) Triumph cruise do so. Is this what the citizens in the land of the free and the home of the brave have become?
A nation of whiny, entitled brats egged on in their narcissism and sense of victimization by so-called journalists who can’t tell the difference between true disaster and a luxury cruise that turned into the opportunity for some very spoiled, pampered people to face the lack of creature comforts that the majority of humans in our world live with on a daily basis?
A nation of whiny, entitled brats egged on in their narcissism and sense of victimization by so-called journalists who can’t tell the difference between true disaster and a luxury cruise that turned into the opportunity for some very spoiled, pampered people to face the lack of creature comforts that the majority of humans in our world live with on a daily basis?
How about that being the storyline?
I don’t want to condemn the entire passenger roster. I’m sure there were good sports who weathered the unexpected without a sense of outrage and just soldiered on.
The crew is being given kudos for their positive attitudes and efforts to alleviate discomfort. But regarding the outraged whiners and ridiculous “journalists,” what can I say but good grief!