Cruise industry insiders say that in the weeks after the Carnival Triumph debacle made news, cruise sales have remained strong, prices have remained steady, and overall, travelers today are just as likely to book a cruise as they ever were. The results of a new poll suggest otherwise. By some accounts, cruise prices dropped 12% in the aftermath of last year’s Costa Concordia disaster, in which the ship sunk off the coast of Italy and 32 people died. No one died on the Triumph, but because the ship received so much bad publicity while it was stranded for five days at sea, and because the conditions on board were so atrocious, the widespread assumption was that the episode would damage Carnival’s reputation and sales—and perhaps even hurt the cruise industry as a whole. (MORE: Is $500 Enough for Enduring the Cruise from Hell?) So, has the cruise industry been hurting in the weeks since the Triumph was the subject of so much unwanted attention? Cruise agents—who have an obvious interest in spreading the word that business is good—say that (you guessed it) business has been good. The week after Triumph passengers made it back to land—which happened to be around Valentine’s Day—agents in South Florida were telling the Sun Sentinel that sales hadn’t decreased in the slightest. In fact, they say just the opposite happened: “We saw an unbelievable increase of 76 percent this Valentine’s day compared to last Valentine’s Day,” [iCruise.com’s Don] Walker said. “Our clients are certainly feeling the love right now with an amazing array of promotions in the market including free gratuities, free beverage packages and ship board spending credits.” Stewart Chiron, known as “The Cruise Guy,” wrote: The good news is that there hasn’t been a negative consumer response relating to Triumph. The current wave season continues to be strong for the industry, as evidenced by higher pricing, year-over-year. None of the cruise lines have engaged in “panic pricing.” When asked by CruiseCritic if there had been a falloff in demand, one agent said, “On … Continue reading Has the Carnival Triumph Episode Hurt Cruise Sales?