Is the cruise ship industry "dead in the water"?

I'm booked for Nov. It will be my seventh. I love it. I work hard and I like vacations where I can just kick back and my most difficult decision is what to eat. I don't do Carnival.

Over The Rainbow, let me tel you this latest episode will not have a major affect if any, accidents do happen. Costa Concordia, do you realize that after that incident, there was not a decline in sailings, and the vessels are still going out with 85% plus occupancy. There was another cruise vessel, some years that there was an engine room fire, the ship was dead in the water, there was no affect to the cruise industry. Take a calculation of the amount of sailings world wide, and compare them to the mishaps, I think the ratio was less than 1%.

This won't make a dent in the cruise industry. The value for the money is superb - a wonderful vacation.

One incident happens to a ship that makes the news and suddenly everybody is an expert on how ships work. Maybe I shouldn't have bothered to get my engineering degree in Naval Architecture, and maybe I shouldn't have bothered to get a job working with ships on a technical and engineering level for a living. And by "everyone" I really mean the people who talk on TV pretending to be experts. Don't think I'm saying this about you. Then again, referencing what the user Sumdude said, what happened to Carnival Triumph is eerily similar to what happened to Carnival Splendor. And it doesn't take a Naval Architecture degree to put 2 and 2 together and realize there's some design flaw in the engines where a fire in one spot disables the entire ship. Engines on ships are supposed to be designed with enough redundancy to prevent this exact scenario from occurring.

No. It is a very rare accident, just like an airplane crash is a very rare occurrence. If anything, cruising will be safer because ships will upgrade their systems and procedures.

No. Haven't got a cruise booked yet for this year, but I hope to soon.

I'm going on my 5th cruise in 2 Weeks. I'm not afraid at all, and seeing that doesn't change my mind at all. That is a very rare accident and doesn't happen rarely ever. Your just as safe on a cruise as on land. There are many accidents on land too. Your just as safe either way. Don't get to paranoid. You'll love cruising!