Has the Costa Concordia disaster deterred you from booking a cruise?
In the wake of last Friday’s Costa Concordia cruise ship tragedy off the Italian coast, you’d be forgiven for being put off booking a cruise this year.
It’s understandable that the unforgettable image of a ship lying on its side will see many consumers shy away from cruises, but the CD-Traveller team won’t be among them.
Yes last week’s accident was horrific and, with the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking only a couple of months away, couldn’t have come at a worse time. However the fact remains that cruise ship accidents of this scale are (thankfully) rare and going forward I expect that cruise companies will put passenger safety first, like never before.
Plane crashes are much more frequent yet we haven’t stopped boarding flights to far flung destinations, so I can’t see that the Costa Concordia incident will deter cruising enthusiasts from setting sail this summer.
On the contrary, with cruise operators now lying awake at night worrying about losing custom, I expect to see the cost of cruise holidays slashed. Translation? 2012 could be the year that those like me, who have long viewed cruises for the newly wed or nearly dead, are finally converted to cruising.
That’s my view but what about you? Has the Costa Concordia disaster made you think twice about cruising or will you still be sailing? Let us know by posting a comment below.
UPDATE: 24 January 2012.
See Irena’s interview in her blog, Benidorm all year round, with a couple who had sailed on the Costa Concordia in December. Tony and Renee Dipple raised safety issues at the time with the crew.
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Our cruise for October was booked before the disaster happened. We won’t be changing our minds as we have had so much fun on our 3 previous cruises. It is excellent value.
My only concern now would be that the cost of our cruise is reduced a lot and we end up paying quite a bit more than those who book later.