The cruise industry, which has waited tepidly as the Costa Concordia disaster drags on off Italian shores, may not be as impacted as many analysts first thought.

In a research note out today, Robin Farley of UBS says channel checks show one week past the accident ticket prices remain 40 basis points higher week-on-week. 

"What is even more surprising is that average ticket prices increased since the start of the year for almost every brand that we survey, including Costa," Farley says.

Pricing has ticked up in the Caribbean and Alaska, and remains stable in the Mediterranean, UBS data shows.

"While still early, impact so far on bookings may not be as negative as one might have expected. Our EPS adjustments last week assume 50bp impact on total demand, with ~10% impact to Costa specifically, which nets to 200bp impact to CCL and 50 bp impact to RCL," she says.

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NEW YORK (AP) — The frightful images of a sinking Italian cruise ship have scared off some cruise passengers, at least temporarily, during the industry's peak booking season.

Travel agents — who book more than two-thirds of cruise passengers worldwide — have been nervously watching bookings ever since the Costa Concordia, which is owned by Carnival Corp, ran aground on Jan. 13.

On Monday, they got a new reason to be nervous: bookings fell significantly for Miami-based Carnival Corp. following the Costa accident. Attention is now focused on Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., which reports earnings on Thursday. An increase there could show that passengers are fleeing Carnival over safety fears. A decrease could indicate an overall distrust of all cruise lines.

Nearly 11 million Americans took a cruise last year, generating an estimated $14.5 billion in revenue for the industry, according to PhoCusWright, a travel research firm. Like the rest of the travel industry, cruise lines are still recovering from the Great Recession. Several new mega-ships started sailing just as passengers struggling with their finances decided to stay home. But 2012 was supposed to be a year of moderate growth.

Carnival won't say exactly how much bookings have dropped, but it disclosed Monday that in the 12 days following the Concordia capsizing there was a percent decline "in the mid-teens compared to the prior year." Reservations hit a low on Jan. 16, the company said in its annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Carnival operates 101 ships under several brands including Costa, Carnival, Cunard, Holland America, Princess and Seabourn. It said reservations with the Costa line are "down significantly" but difficult to interpret because many Costa customers were rebooked on other ships because of the loss of the Concordia ship.

"Despite these recent trends, we believe the incident will not have a significant long-term impact on our business," the company said.

Carnival's statement is the first evidence that passengers are hesitant to embark on cruises after seeing the awful images of the Concordia shipwrecked off the Italian coast. More than 4,200 passengers and crew were on board the ship at the time of the accident. Seventeen bodies have been recovered, one of which has not yet been identified. Sixteen people are missing.

Europeans, who have been bombarded with daily reports of the accident, have been particularly skittish. They accounted for about 38 percent of Carnival's revenues last year.

Jaime Katz, an analyst at Morningstar, noted that there were big discounts on some seven-day cruises out of Rome while other trips had raised prices.

Discounts depend on which company is operating the ship and where it is traveling. Katz added that first time cruisers might also be more hesitant to book.

Unlike plane tickets or hotel rooms which are mostly booked directly through the internet, most cruises are sold by travel agents. Passengers like speaking with somebody who can assist them with all the decisions and quirks involving each ship and itinerary. That scattered sales approach makes it harder to gauge the impact of an accident like the Concordia.

"Who knows how many people ... (were) on the fence and decided not to book?" said Michael Driscoll, editor of Cruise Week.

Barclay's Capital noted that on Thursday, the Carnival line began offering promotional onboard credits of up to $200 for things like drinks and spa treatments.

"Despite this ad, which in normal circumstances would have stimulated strong call volume, calls remain down 10 (percent)," Barclay's analyst Felicia R. Hendrix wrote in a note to investors.

A major unnamed online travel agent has also seen cruise call volume fall 30 percent, Hendrix said.

Hendrix also noted that cancelations in the U.S. are up 10 to 15 percent. That's because savvy travelers are backing out of trips now in anticipation of getting the same cruise later for less.

In the week following the shipwreck, booking site CruiseCompete saw 4 percent fewer people requesting price quotes for a cruise than the same week last year. This past week saw requests down 3 percent. Right before the accident, inquiries were up 9 percent.

However, not everybody is seeing a drop in bookings.

Travel Leaders, a network of independently owned and operated travel agencies in the U.S. surveyed its members about demand for cruises this year. Spokeswoman Kathy Gerhardt said there has been no noticeable difference in responses gathered before and after the accident. And, Cruise Holidays, a network of 200 U.S. and Canadian travel agents specializing in cruises saw a 1.4 percent increase in sales last week compared with the same week in 2011.

And prices generally aren't falling.

Sharon Zackfia, an analyst with William Blair & Co., said the stable prices might indicate that "cruise companies are waiting to assess the situation in full before" offering deals.

"It's still way too soon after the Costa shipwreck," she said, "to know what the implications are going to for the cruise industry."

____

Scott Mayerowitz can be reached at http://twitter.com/GlobeTrotScott.

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A pleasant cruise turned into a nightmare for 22 Carnival passengers when they got robbed by hooded gunmen in Mexico, reports the L.A. Times.

It's a terrible and horrifying experience for the passengers, who were on a guided nature hike in the jungle outside Puerta Vallarta.

The bandits boarded their bus, took all their valuables, and ran off into the countryside. Fortunately, none of the passengers were hurt.

For Carnival, the incident comes a month after its Costa Concordia liner hit a rock off the western coast of Italy, killing dozens of passengers and crew.

Much of the backlash has died down since then for Carnival, with the focus veering toward the ship's bizarre captain and his escapades. But now, Carnival—and its flagship brand—have been thrust right back into the news.

How's Carnival responding to the crisis?

Well, it released a typical apology statement, which says, "Carnival sincerely apologizes to its guests for this very unfortunate and disturbing event."

But Carnival also notes that it's helping the affected passengers with their passport situations and working on reimbursing them for their stolen belongings, according to a statement provided to CNN. Plus, it has suspended the tour where the robbery occurred.

Though an appropriate response to the problem, it's just another thing to overcome as Carnival tries to rebuild its brand.

UPDATE: And now Carnival has yet another problem—a Costa cruise ship is adrift off the coast of Seychelles. Click here for more info >

NOW SEE: The 11 Biggest PR Disasters of 2011 >

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Carnival and its subsidiary Costa are still feeling the heat in the aftermath of the tragic Costa Concordia crash  in January. The cruise line invited a lot of criticism after multiple questionable moves that ramped up its PR crisis.

To make things worse, Costa had another problem in February when one of its cruise ships went adrift after a fire.

So what's to become of the devastated Costa brand? 

Carnival CEO Micky Arison recently came out in defense of Costa in an interview with Gene Sloan at USA Today:

"It is damaged. It will take some time [to rebound], but we'd be crazy to abandon such a powerful brand ... Costa is a 64-year-old brand that is ingrained in places [such as] Italy ... I can't say strongly enough that we fully support the brand and the management of the brand."

There you have it. It looks like Costa won't go the way of extinct brands like ValuJet (which rebranded to AirTran following a crash and subsequent PR crisis).

Is it the right way to go? Time will tell, but customers are generally quite forgiving because they understand that accidents will happen.

But between the eccentric captain's exploits, the weak response to quell the negative PR and the "insulting" discount debacle, Costa has been set back far more than it should have been.

NOW SEE: 9 PR Fiascos That Were Handled Brilliantly By Management >

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(Reuters) - The chief executive officer of the Carnival Corp & PLC <CCL.N> unit whose ship ran aground off the coast of Italy in January in a deadly accident is retiring and will be replaced by the head of another of the cruise operator's European lines.

Pier Luigi Foschi, 65, will step down as Costa Crociere CEO on July 1, but will remain as Costa's chairman and keep his seat on Carnival's board. Carnival said the move was part of its longtime succession plan for when Foschi hit retirement age.

Foschi will be replaced by Michael Thamm, who is currently president of Aida Cruises, which is based in Germany and also part of Carnival Corp.

On January 13, the Costa Concordia, a liner operated by Costa, hit a reef just off an Italian island and capsized, killing or hurting dozens. Last month, Carnival slashed its full-year profit and sales forecast after new bookings fell following the accident.

(Reporting by Phil Wahba in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

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A Miami woman's account of getting kicked off a Carnival cruise makes us never want to book a cruise again. 

As News 10 describes it, Lillian Hensley and her daughter Christine were checking in for their trip to Jamaica when Carnival called to say they couldn't find Christine's portable dialysis machine. 

Christine requires nightly dialysis so Hensley had cleared the equipment with Carnival beforehand. But the mother was shocked when the cruise line booted them off the ship without so much as an explanation—or an apology. Even worse, the ship left with their luggage in tow while the Hensleys had to rush to the hospital. 

"I said, 'Without everything? You're giving me, like, a death sentence for my daughter,' " Hensley told News 10. "They just escorted us off the ship." 

Consumer advocate and author of Scammed, Chris Elliott, said Hensley's story was tragic, but not out of the norm for the industry. 

"The family's rights—such as they are—are outlined in Carnival's ticket contract," he said in an email. "Cruise ship contracts are among the most customer hostile in the entire travel industry. They're to protect the cruise line and deprive you of almost every right you thought you had. Worse, you agree to it by getting on the ship." 

The reason, said James Walker, maritime attorney in Miami, is because no one bothers to read the contract until it's too late. 

"Realistically, my view of the industry is that they do whatever they want to do and have self-serving contracts," he said. "Unless the family was injured (and can prove) it was due to Carnival's neglect and bad conduct, the law isn't that much of a help." 

And if you read the fine print, chances are you won't like what you see. A cursory glance at Carnival's contract revealed baggage is defined very strictly, but could exclude medical equipment. What's more, the contract leaves little to no room for recourse if the ship decides to boot you off for no apparent reason. 

"It goes back to maritime rights where the master of the ship could kick off passengers for pretty much anything, particularly medical issues," said Walker. "The cruise lines tend to take a harsh view that if you can't care for yourself or don't have someone to assist you, they won't hesitate to kick you off." 

If you're preparing to book a cruise ship this summer, here a few things to keep in mind: 

Purchase travel insurance."Having trip insurance that provides reimbursement is key, not only for your cruise, but for medical evacuation to the states or any type of contingency," said Walker. Be sure to read these insurance tips before planning your next getaway.  

Read the passenger ticket carefully. Since there's no telling what you'll find buried in the fine print, it's important to know what you're getting into and whether taking a cruise is feasible given your health or that of your friends and family.  

Keep information on hand for the U.S. embassies and consulates. You never know what could happen when you're abroad, Walker said, adding that it can't hurt to contact the FBI if things go awry.  

For its part, Carnival issued a statement on Monday to News 10: "Carnival Cruise Lines sincerely apologizes for this most unfortunate situation and is providing everyone in the Hensley party with a full refund of their cruise fare, as well as a credit for a future five-day cruise with Carnival." 

Now check out the hidden fees you'll find on a cruise > 

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The Costa Concordia reportedly failed to address many safety problems before its famous crash near the Italian island of Giglio. The recent news is another reminder that the Carnival Corp., which operated the scandal-tainted cruiser, has put its customers and investors at risk by continuing to have poor governance.

After six months of investigation into the tragedy that killed at least 30 people, CNN said Thursday that countless survivors had received little or no safety training after boarding the Costa Concordia. Multiple passengers didn’t even know where to gather during the emergency. The Costa Concordia’s black box recorder had broken numerous times and was scheduled for repair, its doors designed to prevent flooding were left open, and its maps were unauthorized, according to news reports this week.

The Costa Concordia hit a rock and turned on its side on January 13. Before the more than 4,200 people aboard had finished evacuating, Captain Francesco Schettino allegedly abandoned ship; he was later accused of manslaughter. On Thursday Italian judges released Schettino from house arrest but also ordered him not to leave his home town, according to Reuters.

Carnival’s website said Thursday that all its crew undergo safety training that meets or exceeds regulatory requirements, its boats are designed in compliance with international law, its ship command platforms always have multiple people on watch, and its officers expertly use the most advanced navigation technology. The U.S. Coast Guard inspects Carnival ships for their safety every three to six months and a third-party organization also conducts annual inspections, the company said.

Although Carnival uses government services such as the U.S. Coast Guard, the company paid only 1.1% tax on $11.3 billion in profits during the five years before 2010, CNN reported Thursday. Carnival registers most of its ships in Panama and is incorporated there, while keeping U.S. headquarters, CNN said.

The problem with Carnival is that even after a debacle like the Costa Concordia, the company continues to leave glaring and ongoing management issues unresolved. As we reported in May, GMI has flagged Carnival’s board for years as having dubious supervisory capacity. Carnival’s chairman and CEO Micky Arison, along with his family, controls over a third of the company’s voting power. Seven directors are long-tenured with over a decade of service, and five have at least two decades of service. Good old pals like these aren’t as likely to ask tough questions and demand accountability for accidents such as the Concordia’s.

No wonder that tragedy wasn’t Carnival’s last. 18-year-old Adrian Vasquez, the lone survivor of a drifted fishing boat, recently alleged in a lawsuit that a Carnival cruise ship ignored him and his friends in March when they waved for help.

Although Carnival’s AGR score is a 71, indicating average accounting risk, GMI has given the company a D on its corporate governance since July 2003. Had investors paid closer attention to such problems before this year, they might have saved themselves money. Carnival’s stock has sunk by 10.8% in the past twelve months to trade at around $34.21 per share intraday on Thursday, underperforming its benchmark the S&P 500 index.

Until the company tightens up its supervision with better checks and balances, there’s no telling what could happen next.

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The captain of luxury European cruise ship the Oriana told passengers staff "could not cope" after 300 people were struck by an outbreak of the winter vomiting bug during a tour of Christmas markets in Europe.

Passengers, one of whom had described the trip as "a cruise to hell" disembarked the ship at 3.30am this morning.

During the tour, which took in the Christmas markets of Zeebrugge, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Oslo and Hamburg, many were left furious after they reportedly had to queue for hours to see the ship's doctor and were forced to endure the smell of vomit below deck.

They say there was a lack of food and toilet paper on board the Oriana following the outbreak of norovirus.

Passengers even threatened a "sit-in" protest when it returned to port in Southampton.

Chris Meadows, from Southampton, who attended a crisis meeting between the liners captain Thomas Lane and passengers, said the captain told travellers staff were struggling to cope.

He said: "The captain has admitted at the height of the outbreak the crew could not cope.

"We had a show of hands of how many people were affected, which was filmed by many of the passengers that attended the meeting."

Large parts of the ship were closed off to avoid the virus spreading further while many passengers were forced to miss stop offs at cities including Amsterdam, Oslo and Hamburg,

One elderly female passenger said travellers were planning to protest as they disembarked the ship.

"We’re all respectable middle-class travellers of a certain age. I have never been on a protest in my life but this trip has infuriated me," she told the Daily Mail.

P&O initially said the outbreak of norovirus had affected only nine passengers. However, this morning they confirmed 300 people had been sick with the bug.

Passengers, who paid up to £4,000-a-head for the ten-day Baltic tour, reported restaurants on the board the ship were operating only limited service during their stay.

The luxury liner's owners Carnival UK have offered to waive fees for anyone who had to visit the on-board doctor and said a protest had not been staged.

Spokeswoman Carol Marlow said: "The number of people affected was at an unprecedented level but we did not put profits before health."

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The Carnival Triumph, a Galveston, Texas-based passenger cruise ship with the theme "Great Cities Around the World," might have been better off sitting at port, as a court initially ordered.

As of Monday morning the 14-year old ship was going nowhere, operating on emergency generator power after a fire Sunday in one of the diesel generators killed its propulsion.

The fire was quickly put out by an automatic fire extinguishing system, and none of the 4,229 passengers or crew are said to be in any danger.

All were waiting patiently as a giant tug boat trudged toward the Triumph, now operating under generator power, with the intention of hauling the 100,000 ton, 893-foot vessel to the nearest port in Progreso, Mexico. It is expected in port some time Wednesday afternoon. Carnival Cruise Lines headquarters are in Miami-Dade.

"The cause of the fire is still to be determined," said Carnival spokesman Vance Guliksen. In a brief news release, Guliksen said "there were no casualties to guests or crew."

He said all passengers will be flown back to the United States and will be fully refunded.. Carnival said it will cover any additional transportation expenses. Passengers will also receive a free future cruise.

As of 11 a.m. Tuesday another Carnival ship, the Carnival Elation, was on the scene transferring food and beverages.

According to Carnival, some basic auxiliary power has been restored, cabin toilets are working on part of the ship and some elevators are operational. The dining areas are serving hot coffee and limited hot food.

The $420 million Triumph made news early last year after the family of a German tourist killed in the Costa Concordia disaster in the Mediterranean filed a $10 million lawsuit against Carnival. A judge found the family had standing, and ordered the ship held at port in Galveston. The court later allowed the ship to move between ports until a hearing takes place.

The lawsuit contends that Carnival Cruise Lines is the corporate parent of the Costa Concordia. ___

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The giant Carnival cruise ship left adrift in the Gulf of Mexico after a weekend fire will be towed to Mobile, Ala., and should get there Thursday, the cruise line said Monday night.

Carnival said the 102,000-ton Carnival Triumph originally was going to be towed to its closest port, in Progreso, Mexico, by late Wednesday. The ship has since drifted about 90 miles north because of strong currents, putting it equidistant to Mobile, Carnival said.

"Given the strength of the currents, it is preferable to head north to Mobile, rather than attempt to tow against them," Carnival president GerryCahill said in a statement.

The first of two tugboats was tied to the ship Monday evening, and the second is expected to arrive this morning, Cahill said.

Passengers on the ship described uncomfortable conditions after the Sunday-morning fire. Although the blaze was contained to the engine room with the help of the ship's automatic fire-suppression systems, it resulted in a loss of power to operate air conditioning, elevators and toilets in passenger areas, as well as kitchen equipment to prepare hot meals. For a time, the ship's freshwater system also was down.

Some passengers spent Sunday night sleeping on the ship's open decks because of a lack of air conditioning. Plastic bags were used as makeshift toilets.

"My wife (is) on this cruise and has said the conditions were horrible. No power, no water, having to use the bathroom in bags," Gary Keyes of Baton Rouge told usatoday.com.

Carnival said technicians have since restored fresh water, and toilets were operating in some parts of the ship. Some power was restored to a buffet to provide coffee and some hot food. Some elevators were operating.

None of the 3,143 passengers and 1,086 crew was injured during the fire. Carnival said Monday that a passenger in need of dialysis was transferred off the ship to another vessel, the Carnival Legend, for transport to Cozumel, Mexico. The Legend provided meals for passengers on the Triumph. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Vigorous also is on the scene.

At the time of the fire, the Carnival Triumph was near the end of a four-night cruise to Mexico out of Galveston, Texas, that began Thursday. The ship was scheduled to return to Galveston on Monday. Carnival is arranging to get passengers back home from Mobile.

Industry analyst Tim Condor of Wells Fargo estimated the incident could cost parent company Carnival Corp. as much as 10 cents per share, or nearly $80 million, in lost revenue, reimbursements and repair costs.

Although the incident comes at the height of the busiest time of the year for cruise bookings, a period known as Wave Season, travel agents weren't bracing for a downturn in business Monday, in part because the incident had yet to get major publicity, said Mike Driscoll of Cruiseweek, an industry newsletter.

The Carnival Triumph fire comes two years after another Carnival ship, the 113,000-ton Carnival Splendor, was disabled off the Pacific coast of Mexico by a fire during a cruise from California -- a similar incident that ultimately affected bookings leaving Texas, Driscoll said.

The Carnival Triumph fire is the latest in a string of serious incidents involving cruise ships, most notably the Costa Concordia, which capsized in January 2012, killing 32 passengers. On Sunday, five crewmembers of a Thomson Cruises ship were killed during a safety drill in Spain.

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Carnival Cruise Lines President and CEO Gerry Cahill on Tuesday apologized to passengers stranded after an engine room fire left 4,229 people adrift on one of the cruise giant's ships in the Gulf of Mexico.

"No one here from Carnival is happy about the conditions on board the ship and we obviously are very, very sorry about what's taken place," Cahill said at a press conference at the company's headquarters in Doral. "There's no question that conditions on board the ship are very challenging. I can assure you that everyone on board in the Carnival team and everyone shoreside is doing everything they can to make our guests as comfortable as possible."

Passengers aboard the fire-stricken Carnival Triumph have one more full day at sea without air conditioning or widespread use of toilets before they reach land in Mobile, Ala. under the power of two tugboats. A U.S. Coast Guard vessel is escorting the ship in case of emergencies.

"If something does happen, we're out there to help," said Petty Officer Richard Brahm.

Cahill said the company has lined up more than 1,500 hotel rooms in New Orleans and Mobile for Thursday night and 20 charter flights to fly people to Houston on Friday. The company has canceled the ship's Feb. 11 and 16 sailings. For those who just want to get home, Carnival is arranging for motorcoach service to Houston and Galveston.

By the time they arrive, it will have been a longer trip than they bargained for, and much less of a vacation.

The 14-year-old ship left Galveston for a four-night Western Caribbean cruise on Thursday with 3,143 passengers and 1,086 crew on board; it was scheduled to return Monday morning.

But Sunday morning, fire broke out in an engine room for unknown reasons as the ship sailed off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The blaze was put out by automatic extinguishing systems, but the ship lost propulsion and was forced to operate on emergency generator power.

Since then, passengers have complained of stench, human waste in public areas, heat and long lines for food.

Texas resident Brent Nutt, whose wife is on the cruise ship, said Monday that she told him the "whole boat stinks extremely bad" and some passengers were getting sick and throwing up, the Associated Press reported. Nutt said his wife reported "water and feces all over the floor."

Jimmy Mowlam, 63, told the Associated Press his 37-year-old son, Rob Mowlam, told him by phone Monday night that the lack of ventilation onboard Carnival Cruise Lines' Carnival Triumph had made it too hot to sleep inside. He said Rob and his new bride are among the many passengers who have set up camp on the ocean liner's decks and in its common areas.

"He said up on deck it looks like a shanty town, with sheets, almost like tents, mattresses, anything else they can pull to sleep on," said Mowlam, 63, who is from southeast Texas.

Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor-in chief of the popular website CruiseCritic.com, said many frequent cruisers take such incidents in stride -- but, she said, the fact that there have been several fires on ships in recent years could be cause for concern.

In a strikingly similar case, the Carnival Splendor was set adrift in the Pacific in November 2010 after a major fire. It was out of service for about three months; the company estimated its loss was $56 million.

"The thing is that everyone remembers the Carnival Splendor fire," said Spencer Brown."And something that appears to be very similar happening within a two-and-a-half year span, it does shake confidence a little bit."

Cahill said the Triumph fire is not the same as the Splendor, which suffered a "catastrophic explosion" in a diesel generator.

"Clearly we learned a lot from Splendor," he said. "The automatic extinguishment systems worked very well. Our teams onboard have gone through extensive fire training and they also performed very well. I think those things were very helpful in this situation. Once we have a chance to go back, do an investigation....we'll learn the cause, we will learn more information, I'm sure there will be further things we will learn that we'll want to implement across the fleet."

The U.S. Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board said late Tuesday they were investigating the cause of the fire. They will assist the Bahamas Maritime Authority because the ship is Bahamian flagged, the agencies said.

Hector Pazos, a St. Petersburg-based expert in maritime accidents, said explosions are more common than fires in engine rooms. "I don't understand what happened," he said. "It must be something fairly large."

He said maintenance goes on constantly in an engine room, with crew required to keep detailed logs and follow lengthy manuals routinely. "It's not that they have to wait for the end of the month to take it to a shipyard," Pazos said.

Jim Walker, Miami-based maritime attorney, said he has seen cruise companies work crew members extremely hard -- and he expects that the ships put in as much work.

"These are not airlines or city buses where you have 50 percent of them in operation and you can shut them down and rest them or put them in the garage and provide maintenance," he said.

Aside from short scheduled drydock repairs and upkeep, Walker said, "They're doing maintenance at sea... Push the ships like the crewmembers to the point of exhaustion and when they break, that's what you see."

While nowhere near as severe as the wreck of the Carnival Corp.-owned Costa Concordia that killed 32 people in Italy in January of 2012, the Triumph fire comes at an inopportune time for the world's largest cruise ship company. The traditionally busy booking time known as "wave season" is about midway through, and Carnival had reported encouraging activity in North America in its last earnings report.

Cahill said he could not estimate what kind of financial hit the company might take and added "frankly, we haven't even looked at it or thought about it."

But Tim Conder, a Wells Fargo analyst, estimated that the impact could be between as much as $80 million, or 10 cents a share, for the quarter.

"While this incident represents a string of similar occurrences over the last several years, we believe this incident will most likely be more of a negative PR event, especially during the Wave season," he wrote in a note to investors. "We believe that management will place additional efforts to better identify and install preventive measures to avoid future similar incidents and related negative PR."

Carnival stock closed Tuesday at $39.02, up nearly one percent.

This report was supplemented with information from the Associated Press.

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Over its 41 years, Carnival Cruise Line has had a checkered past. In its heyday, Carnival was the cruise brand known for innovation, but more recently it has become known as the brand with PR disasters to deal with.

Click here for the disaster timeline >

Last week, Carnival's 'Triumph' ship was towed into Mobile, Alabama after almost a week stuck at sea due to an engine fire.

The testimonies from the passengers are truly disgusting: Hallways were flooded with human waste, there was no A/C or running water, and passengers were left to survive on limited food and water. The Triumph was given the nickname "poop cruise" because passengers were forced to use the bathroom in bags.

But do these PR crises have a lasting effect? According to Jaunted, trips aboard 'Triumph' can already be booked for as early as April of this year. That's only two months after passengers said that the floors were"flooded with sewer water."

This type of disaster is not new for Carnival. It experienced very similar situations in 1998, 1999, and 2010. And let's not forget about the Costa Concordia disaster in Italy last year in which the ship capsized, killing 32 passengers. (Carnival owns Costa Concordia).

It has also had to deal with circumstances of passengers jumping overboard to their deaths. 

But with every PR disaster in Carnival's history, it has also experienced record-breaking good moments.

Carnival was the original brand to pioneer the concept of shorter, less expensive cruises. It built the first ship to weigh more than 100,000 tons, as well as the world's first non-smoking ship.

The cruise company's on-board service has won numerous awards, including three Cruise Critic Editor's Picks —best new ship, best bar, and best value in 2012.

Carnival Cruise Lines was founded by Ted Arison in 1972.

Ted Arison, the son of a multi-millionaire shipping magnate, was born in Israel in 1924. He immigrated to the U.S. in the early 50s and co-founded Norwegian Cruise Lines in 1966.

He then went on to found his own cruise company, Carnival Cruise Lines, six years later.

Carnival was originally a subsidiary of American International Travel Service (AITS), but in 1974, Arison bought Carnival for $1, along with $5 million in assumed AITS debt.

By the late 1980s, Arison was reportedly one of the world's richest men, with a personal fortune estimated to be between $6 and $10 billion.

His family still owns the Miami Heat. He was the man responsible for bringing the team to South Florida.

Carnival's first-ever voyage got off to a bad a start.

According to Carnival's website, in 1972 "the company’s first cruise ship, the TSS Mardi Gras, runs aground on a sandbar during its inaugural voyage."

But by the early 80's, things started improving.

In 1984, Carnival became the first cruise line to advertise on network television. Kathie Lee Gifford, then Kathie Lee Johnson, was the company's first spokesperson.

The 1980s was a great time for Carnival.

In 1982, the 'Tropicale' ship debuted, representing the first new ship the industry had seen in years.

Two years later, Carnival launched the first network-wide advertising campaign in the industry.

This video is one of the original commercials Carnival ran. It features Kathie Lee Johnson, aka Kathie Lee Gifford.

In the late 80s, Carnival was carrying more passengers than any other cruise line, making it "The World's Most Popular Cruise Line." The brand still uses this phrase as its tagline.

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On February 12, 2013, the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board launched an investigation into the cause of an engine room fire that occurred on the cruise ship Carnival Triumph, which belongs to Carnival Corporation, during a four-day cruise ship.

The 'Triumph' Catastrophe

The engine fire, which occurred on February 10, was extinguished by the ship’s fire extinguishing systems. The ship lost power and propulsion after the fire and had to be towed by tugboats to Mobile, Alabama. The purpose of the investigation was to identify the cause and contributing factors that led to the incident.

The crew response and effectiveness of the firefighting systems will also be evaluated. On February 18, 2013, investigators reported that the fire may have been due to leaked fuel from a leaking diesel engine line that ignited.

The fire took out the ship’s power and disabled its plumbing systems. This caused toilets to overflow and flooded cabins and passageways. Combined with rotting food, this created putrid conditions that had sickened some passengers.

There were reports from passengers of long lines for food and shortages of fresh water. Many were forced to sleep in hallways or outside on the deck to escape the odors and heat below. Passengers were asked to use plastic “biohazard” bags as makeshift toilets.

Following the incident, the company announced that all passengers on the ship would receive a full refund for the cruise, travel expenses, reimbursement for all expenses onboard, a credit toward a future cruise, and $500 in cash.

A History Of Troubles

This is not the first time Carnival has been in the spotlight for catastrophes. Most notably, on January 13, 2012, a Carnival cruise ship, the Costa Concordia, ran aground on a sandbar off the west coast of Italy. About 3,200 passengers and 1,023 crew members on board the ship had to be evacuated by lifeboats, helicopters and other ships near the island of Giglio, off Tuscany. Thirty-two people were killed.

The ship is currently being salvaged by a crew of 420 workers from 19 countries. Following the disaster, the company offered $14,000 in compensation to the passengers. The company is currently facing 12 class-action lawsuits related to the Concordia tragedy.

In late February 2012, the Costa Allegra cruise ship, which was from the same fleet as the Costa Concordia, lost power and hundreds of passengers were stranded out at sea in the Indian Ocean for three days in similar conditions experience by those on the Triumph.

The loss of power was due to a fire that broke out in a room housing electric generators. There were 636 passengers and 413 crew members on board.

The risk of lawsuits from the most recent incident remains limited, as passengers essentially forgo the right to litigate other than for direct injury or losses due to outright negligence. These disclaimers are written typically into cruise ticket contracts.

Problems At The Top?

Nonetheless, the persistent nature of these accidents remains quite troubling, and when coupled with the intensively negative media spotlight, shareholders have cause for concern. It is clear that with each new incident, Carnival does damage to its brand, as it exhibited no effective strategy to deal with the media fallout.

Oddly, Chairman and CEO Mickey Arison has been absent as the face of his company. He was only spotted courtside at the Miami Heat game during the most recent crisis, and was remarkably reticent during the sinking of Costa Concordia last year.

If these incidents are symptomatic of a larger break down of operational and risk management at Carnival, then Mr. Arison would be well served to develop a strategy that counters the growing negativity surrounding the cruise industry, and his company in particular.

Currently, Carnival’s “C” rating for ESG reflects a moderate long-term sustainability risk, but this recent disaster could result in a downgrade. Carnival’s AGR Rating—a measure of the integrity of accounting and governance practices—is “Average.”

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Passengers who were stranded aboard the crippled Carnival cruise ship Triumph that languished in the Gulf of Mexico filed a class-action lawsuit against Carnival Corporation.

The lawsuit, filed this week, claims the company put passengers at "severe risk of injury, illness and/or disease" after they were left stranded on the ship, which quickly became unsanitary, CNN reported Thursday. 

However, the lawsuit might not stand much of a chance. 

Unless passengers were actually physically injured or fell ill because of conditions on the ship, they can't sue just because their vacations were ruined, maritime attorney Jim Walker told The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog law week. 

Plus, passengers should have read their tickets a little more closely. 

Cruise ship tickets often have a clause that prohibits class-action lawsuits, Walker told Law Blog

Plus, Carnival tickets often limit lawsuit venues to the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Florida, making it difficult for passengers who don't live in Florida to come to court. 

Carnival declined to comment on the pending litigation.

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After an engine room fire last month resulted in a loss of power, the Carnival Triumph cruise ship was left adrift in the Gulf of Mexico.

It took five days to tow the enormous vessel back to port, and its passengers were stuck on a ship without power and very few working toilets.

While some of the 4,229 passengers have already filed lawsuits (which they are unlikely to win), Christina Peaden of Galveston Texas, used the journal she kept while on board to write a book about the experience.

She self-published "Triumph Over Calamity: What Really Happened on the Carnival Triumph — A Memoir" on Amazon on February 27, less than two weeks after the Triumph reached land. (It is available on Amazon for $2.99 an an e-book, and for $8 as a paperback.)

While the short book focuses on the experiences of Peaden, her husband Mark, and her three young daughters, it reveals a good amount about the conditions and atmosphere onboard the Triumph.

Here are some passages that stand out:

On food and drink:

On February 11, the day after the fire:

The captain has decided to have an open bar. This is not a great idea.

Later that night:

Open bar has been closed due to safety.

The food seemed pretty good:

For dinner, we have salad, shrimp with cocktail sauce, smoked salmon sandwiches, and beef raps.

On passenger behavior:

It's all perspective. This is literally camping on the ocean except we don't have to hunt for food. People are acting like savages, uncivilized, and closer to apes than humans.

After passengers were told they would receive a full refund, future credit on a cruise, and an extra $500:

It's amazing how money changes everything. The ambiance has completely changed to one of celebration, chattering, and laughter in the dining room.

On going to the bathroom:

Soon after the engine fire knocks out power and most of the toilets on the Triumph:

Jen [a Carnival crew member] makes another announcement. If we have to go #1, we must use the shower. If we have to go #2, we must do this in red bags which will be provided. We must place the bags in the hallway, and a steward will come pick them up. Really??

On February 12:

Jen makes an announcement and requests that everyone refrain from throwing the poop bags overboard as it is a violation of international maritime laws.

The last line in the book:

How to poop in a bag: Put the bag in an empty trash can first! When done, tie it up and dispose of immediately.

The rough experience did not overly bother Peaden and her family: She told KHOU in Houston that they are already planning another Carnival cruise, in April.

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Passengers on the Carnival cruise ship Dream are complaining of power outages and overflowing toilets, CNN has reported.

The ship is docked in port at Philipsburg, St. Maarten.

In an email to CNN on Thursday, passenger Jonath Evans of Reidsville, North Carolina, said "The cruise director is giving passengers very limited information and tons of empty promises. What was supposed to take a hour has turned into 7-plus hours."

Passenger Gregg Stark told CNN, "There's human waste all over the floor in some of the bathrooms and they're overflowing -- and in the state rooms."

The Dream has not lost power, Carnival wrote on its Facebook page: The ship has full power but is still at dock while personnel continue to work on the technical issue."

The Dream left Port Canaveral, Florida on Saturday, for a seven-day cruise.

While the ship, with room for more than 3,500 passengers and 1,300 crew, is in port, the limited power and overflowing waste call to mind the Carnival Triumph, which was left adrift in the Gulf of Mexico last month after an engine room fire.

It took five days to tow the enormous vessel back to port, and its passengers were stuck on a ship without power and very few working toilets. Carnival Corporation is now facing a class-action lawsuit filed by Triumph passengers.

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Yet another Carnival cruise ship is facing difficulties: The Legend, on the last leg of a week-long cruise through the Caribbean, has had a technical issue with its sailing speed.

The company has sent the ship back to its destination in Tampa, canceling a scheduled stop in Grand Cayman.

Cruise-goers are not happy, passenger Rob Bonenfant told CNN in an email, "Passengers are now really pissed off."

According to the Daily Mail, Legend passengers will get a $100 credit, and half off on a future Carnival cruise.

On Thursday, some elevators and toilets stopped working on the Carnival ship Dream, part-way through a seven-day cruise. Although the propulsion systems were not affected, the cruise was ended early, in St Maarten.

Passengers were flown home, and will receive a refund equal to the equivalent of three days of the trip, plus half-off on a future cruise, Carnival said.

Both incidents come in the wake of the Carnival Triumph, which was left adrift in the Gulf of Mexico last month after an engine room fire.

It took five days to tow the enormous vessel back to port, and its passengers were stuck on a ship without power and very few working toilets. The result was a PR nightmare for Carnival — along with a class-action lawsuit— which will only be made worse by this week's problems.

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In mid-February, an engine room fire onboard the Carnival Cruises ship Triumph left more than 4,000 passengers stranded in the Gulf of Mexico, with no hot water and few working toilets.

A month later, just as the incident was fading from the public eye, the diesel generator in the Carnival Dream malfunctioned, while the ship was at port, and passengers were flown home.

The next week, Carnival Legend had a technical issue with its sailing speed, and was sent back to its destination in Tampa, canceling a scheduled stop.

This recent string of public relations disasters is not a new phenomenon for Carnival: Its first ship ran aground on a sandbar on its inaugural voyage. There have been fires on four ships since 1998.

The Costa Concordia, operated by a Carnival subsidiary, struck a reef of the coast of Italy in January 2012, killing 32 people.

But despite its checkered past, the increased cost of maintaining its aging fleet, and the need to cut prices to draw customers put off by recent fires and strandings, Carnival's bottom line has not badly suffered.

In fact, its quarterly earnings and revenue just beat market expectations, and Carnival executives say bookings have already bounced back in the wake of the heavily publicized Triumph disaster.

Problems started early for Carnival: The TSS Mardi Gras, its first cruise ship, ran aground on a sandbar during its inaugural voyage, in 1972.

Everything was fine until July 1998, when a fire started in the main laundry room of the Ecstasy, soon after the ship left Miami.

A fleet of tugboats fought the fire and pulled the ship to shore, but not before 8 passengers and 14 crew members were injured.

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Carnival has canceled 12 cruises on two ships so it can update the vessels' fire-fighting and power systems, the cruise line announced Tuesday.

The changes will be made on the Triumph, which was stranded for five days in the Gulf of Mexico after an engine room fire knocked out onboard power, and the Sunshine, which is undergoing a previously scheduled full-ship makeover that will be extended.

10 of the sailings canceled were scheduled for the Triumph, which operates four- and five-day cruises in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Triumph will re-enter service on June 3, and the Sunshine, which cruises mostly in the Mediterranean, will begin sailing again on May 5.

Passengers who had bought tickets for a canceled cruise will receive a full refund, reimbursement for non-refundable transportation costs, and a 25 percent discount on a future similar cruise.

The company has suffered a spate of bad news recently. The Triumph fire in February was followed by incidents on two more ships in March: Cruises on the Dream and Legend were cut short by ship malfunctions.

On a conference call last week, Carnival executives said the company had increased its spending on regular maintenance, as its fleet of ships ages.

Planned upgrades include enhanced operating redundancies, the ability to run more services on emergency power, and improvements to fire prevention, detection, and suppression systems.

The Triumph and Sunshine are not the only vessels Carnival will work on: The company's statement described the repairs as "the first implementation phase of its fleetwide comprehensive operational review."

SEE ALSO: A Photo History Of Carnival Cruise Ship Disasters

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The Carnival Triumph cruise ship, which became infamous in February for being stranded in the Gulf of Mexico for five days after an engine room fire, broke loose from its port Wednesday afternoon.

The ship, which was undergoing repairs in a Mobile, Alabama shipyard, drifted across the 700-foot wide Mobile River, crashing into its western bank and hitting another ship docked there, according to a local NBC station.

The Triumph has sustained damage, including a large hole in the right side of its stern, visible in the above photo.

A Carnival spokesperson said all crew members and contractors working aboard the Triumph, about 800 people in total, have been accounted for.

The ship, knocked loose by 70 mph wind gusts, has been moved back to the eastern bank of the river by tug boats.

According to a Mobile Fire and Rescue Department spokesperson, a guard shack nearby the Triumph was knocked into the water with two people inside. One was recovered and taken to a local hospital.

The search for the second person was suspended Wednesday night at 9 p.m., after 15 hours. Coast Guard boat and helicopter crews, and the Mobile fire and police departments "saturated a search area covering three square miles" near the mouth of the Mobile River, and the investigation continues, a Coast Guard spokesperson said.

After the 14-story Triumph was left adrift in February, it took five days to tow the enormous vessel back to port. Passengers were stuck onboard without power and very few working toilets.

Repairs included updates to the vessel's fire-fighting and power systems. The Triumph was scheduled to return to service on June 3.

Here's where the Triumph ended up, on the western bank of the river:

And here's what the Triumph's engine room looked like after the February fire:

SEE ALSO: A Photo History Of Carnival Cruise Ship Disasters

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