twobit383 Wrote:
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> Please notice that this is one of the only ways
> for customers to express their displeasure. The
> web allows people to read about the positives and
> negatives of cruise companies.
I agree, but I think that sites like Cruise Addicts, Cruise Critics, and epinions are much more useful since they have reviews rather than strictly complaints.
> If you go to the
> consumer affairs link, you will notice of all the
> cruise ships, Carnival has a HUGE list of
> complaints. While these stories are not "real
> data" and anecdotal, doesn't this many complains
> say anything???? If I knew about all these
> complaints ahead of time, I would not have
> traveled with Carnival.
>
It is interesting that Carnival has a much higher number of complaints, but the overall number is miniscule. Carnival has rougly 25 ships x 2000 pax x 52 weeks --> 2.6 million pax per year. I would guess the average capacity is higher, and like with Ecstasy some ships do more like 75 cruises per year. Even if you are very conservative, that site covers several years so it only records *maybe* 1 complaint per 100,000 cruisers. Of course we know there are many more complaints, so all that really tells me is that the site is meaningless in terms of *my* chance of having a bad cruise.
I wouldn't plan a wedding on ship after reading that site, but I never would have done that anyway. 
