Carnival suffers another publicity nightmare

Carnival Cruise Lines has been hit by yet another series of public relations disasters after being forced to cancel a cruise on its ship Carnival Dream and cut short a cruise on Carnival Legend.

The cruise giant had to fly thousands of passengers home from the island of St Maarten after a fault with Carnival Dream’s back up emergency generator.

The ship was on the last leg of a seven-day cruise and was docked in St. Maarten when the technical problem arose. The next voyage, due to leave tomorrow (Saturday), has also been cancelled.

Shortly afterwards, a cruise on Carnival Legend had to be cut short due to more technical problems.

Although the ship’s safety systems and onboard facilities are working, the ship has had to reduce speed and, as a result, has had to cancel a visit to Grand Cayman.

"The vessel made its scheduled call yesterday in Mahogany Bay, Roatan, in addition to visiting Cozumel and Costa Maya earlier in the week," said a statement.

"Because of the reduction in sailing speed, today’s visit to Grand Cayman has been cancelled and the ship will proceed to its homeport of Tampa, where it is expected to arrive on Sunday as scheduled."

Carnival Legend is currently on the last leg of a seven-day Caribbean cruise that departed Tampa on March 10.

The problems come just a month after sister ship, Carnival Triumph, was stranded for five days without power. On that occasion, Carnival boss managing director Adolfo Perez issued an apology to the travel trade for ‘failling to deliver’.

Both incidents have led to damaging headlines about overflowing toilets and human waste on the floor.

Carnival issued a statement yesterday apologising to Carnival Dream customers, but claimed only one public restroom was taken "offline for cleaning based on toilet overflow and there was a total of one request for cleaning of a guest cabin bathroom".

"Aside from that there have been no reports of issues on board with overflowing toilets or sewage," said a spokesman.

Guests who were flown home will receive a refund equivalent to three days of the voyage and 50% off a future cruise.

Guests scheduled to sail on tomorrow’s cruise will receive a full refund and 25% off a future seven-day cruise. Guests who re-book will have their current rate protected on the future sailing.

"Additionally, any non-refundable transportation related expenses will be reimbursed," it said.

Carnival Legend passengerswill receive a $100 per person credit and a full refund on pre-purchased shore excursions for Grand Cayman, plus 50% off a future Carnival cruise.