Memes Interruptus: Cheerful, Grateful Passengers Defy MSM ‘Cruise from Hell’ Narrative
I admit to being fascinated by the Carnival Cruise ship drama (Twitter hashtags—no kidding—#poopboat and #poopship) as we watched the disabled behemoth limp back to Mobile on Thursday with 4000 crew and passengers in a floating soup of raw sewage and onion sandwiches.
As low-information travelers, our family has been on no less than three Carnival cruises, so I know a little about the culture of those ships. It’s an odd mix of senior citizens, families with young children, and the people who purchase the unlimited liquor cards. The seniors play bingo, the children romp around Camp Carnival, and the fun folks with the unlimited liquor cards spend their nights grinding in the disco and their mornings with their heads hanging in the suction-operated toilets. The ship carries a group of people who would never under normal circumstances choose to spend time together crammed onto an opulent miniature city for a week, staged by a crew that works slavishly to serve the needs and the whims of the passengers 24-7.
Suddenly last week, thousands of people who packed their bags for fine dining, magic shows, and romps on the beach found themselves in survival mode. Hollywood couldn’t have written a better reality-show script: grandparents celebrating their 50th anniversary, recent college grads on their honeymoon, a homeschooling family from Waco, football buddies from New Orleans. Who would survive the Sludge Boat?
DRUDGE screamed terrifying headlines about the misery in the Gulf:
FLOATING PETRI DISH LIMPS TO PORT
SLEEPING WITH LIFE VESTS FEARING CAPSIZE
HOARD ON BOARD
PASSENGERS FIGHT OVER FOOD
The stories from the Carnival Triumph early Thursday made it sound like a third world county:
Conditions on board a cruise ship stranded in the Gulf of Mexico have deteriorated dramatically, reportedly leaving passengers fighting over food and the vessel caked in urine and raw sewage. Passengers on board the US cruise ship Carnival Triumph, which has been stranded since Sunday after an engine fire, are using mobile phones to convey tales of carpets soaked in urine and passengers sleeping in tents on deck.
Food supplies are said to be running low, with passengers forced to queue for hours for cold onion and cucumber sandwiches, and there are also reports of fights breaking out as groups of “savages” fight over the dwindling supplies.
Speaking to CNN, passenger Ann Barlow said: “It’s disgusting. It’s the worst thing ever”, while her husband Toby told the news channel there is “sewage running down the walls and floors”, with passengers asked to defecate in plastic bags and urinate in showers due to their being only five working toilets between 4,200 people.”
It seemed that every news outlet in the country sent reporters to meet the ill-fated cruise ship in Mobile, no doubt expecting to see horrific scenes of human carnage as medics wheeled feces-caked passengers off the ship. It was clear in the lead-up to the ship’s arrival in Mobile that they fully expected to be greeted by angry, disgruntled passengers looking for lawyers. The media prepared us all day for how bad this would be as they followed the ship into port.
CNN sent Erin Burnett and Martin Savage to the scene to capture the human drama as it unfolded. They seemed surprised when the ship sidled up to the dock and, as the CEO of Carnival Cruise lines addressed reporters, a cheer arose from the crowd gathered on the shore and from the passengers hanging from the rails of the ship.
Suddenly, the narrative changed midstream, and though reporters tried valiantly to keep up the “traumatized victim” meme, passengers greeted them with story after story of ordinary Americans who basically said that conditions were awful, but they made the best of the situation.
In one exchange, Savage absurdly attempted to compare the plight of the stranded cruise ship passengers to victims of Hurricane Katrina. Passenger Rob Kenny politely corrected him: “Yeah, but let’s put that in perspective. Katrina was a major devastation. We’re in a freaking cruise ship.”
Like Kenny, many passengers recounted heartwarming stories of good that came out of their harrowing trip.
Passenger Joseph Alvarez said, “The worst was the fire. The best was having that quality time with my wife. We started a Bible group and it was a very uplifting spiritual time for our group.”
“It was awesome. It lifted up our souls and gave us hope that we would get back,” said Alvarez of San Antonio, describing the Bible study group that met in the evenings and was attended by around 45 passengers.
“It was 2 1/2 days of great fun and then it was bonding and family coming together and helping each other,” said Mercedes Perez de Colon, whose sister had been taken off the ship for dialysis earlier in the week. She was surrounded by her family in a heartwarming group hug.
Earlier in the day, Fox News anchor Greg Jarrett had spoken to another member of the same family, Brenda Colon. Jarrett asked Colon if Carnival was negligent for not having better contingency plans:
“I’m not really sure how all of that works. Here where we’re at, they’ve been doing a really great job. We have water. They’ve been able to restore power on some of the parts of the boat so we’ve been able to charge our phones.” She commended the staff, saying, “They’ve been able to put on comedy shows, play movies for people. The crew on board has been wonderful and that’s all I can speak to.”
Asked about the offer of a free cruise and $500, Colon said, “It’s better than nothing, that’s all I can say. It’s better than nothing.”
Joy Dyer, a young woman from Oklahoma City who had been living in the “tent city” on the deck because her room conditions had deteriorated, told Martin Savage and Erin Burnett, “The situation we were in was a terrible situation and there were a lot of terrible and frustrating things to deal with.” But she said the crew made all the difference.“What we were in awe of the entire time was the crew that was completely unselfish. They served us with smiles and served us in ways that are truly unthinkable. The things that they did for us, yet they did it with smiles. We built relationships with the crew. We came home intending to keep up those relationships. They did not have to serve us to the capacity that they did, but they chose to make the most of it and that encouraged all of us to make the most of it.” Dyer added that a sense of humor was also an important element, saying, “We found…laughter in spite of what we were dealing with and that helped us all to get through it.”
Joe Perkin, traveling with his friends on their fourth cruise together, told Martin Savage, “We made friends for life, which obviously has some value to it. For the most part people were very kind to each other and the crew was always smiling and very kind.”
Julianna Hair and her mother, Julie shared Bible verses that encouraged them during the ordeal. Speaking to Fox News as she walked off the ship, Julie clutched a Diet Coke and expressed her gratitude for her family, saying, “I’ve learned humility from this trip.” She said,
Sunday and Monday it was just a bunch of fear. You could just feel fear. But we had a good prayer meeting. She quotes verses. Julianna knows 290 verses. And we were in the middle of quoting and she busted out crying and I said, “Julianna, lets just keep on quoting,” so we read the next verse and the next verse said, “Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you.” And after that we had a peace. The Lord gave us a peace that was like no other. And I’m thankful that He protected us.
The Carnival Triumph, a floating city in the Gulf of Mexico, was a microcosm of how humans deal with calamity and adversity. We see the same patterns anytime an event propels a group of people into circumstances for which they were unprepared, whether they experience a power outage, loss of city services, or being trapped on a floating cesspool.
Some people handle the circumstances with aplomb and take the adversity in stride, while others weep and wail, tear their clothing, and phone their lawyers.
One theme emerged as passengers disembarked from the Carnival Triumph: passenger after passenger praised the heroics of the Carnival crew members, lauding their smiles, good attitudes, and selfless actions in the face of the miserable circumstances.
We may not ever find ourselves on a giant floating toilet in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, but perhaps someday we will be forced to live through a natural disaster, a long-term power outage, or something worse—an EMP failure or the dreaded Zombie Apocalypse the federal government warns about. How will we respond?
I’d like to think I’d rise to the occasion and be the girl cheering others on, leading Bible studies, and encouraging the Floating Slumber Party of the Century. I’d like to think that I wouldn’t be the grumbling, complaining wretch who brings everyone else down, causing them to run the other way when they see me stomping down the Promenade Deck. Proverbs 17:22 says, “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” I hope I’d be the former rather than the later. I did manage to remain cheerful through a recent 6-hour power outage during which our family enjoyed a lovely candlelight family game night, but during that six hours we only used one of our “last three flushes” and we didn’t deal with a food or water shortage. To be completely honest, if our power outage had stretched into a day or more, I’m not sure how long my good cheer would have lasted.
The story of the so-called “Cruise from Hell” reminded me—and reminds all of us—that we can choose how to respond to a crisis and that how we respond directly impacts not only our own emotional reaction, but the responses of others around us. Clearly, the positive culture of Carnival Cruise Lines’ well-trained employees raised the spirits of the guests, despite raw sewage running down the halls of the ship and passengers being forced to defecate into plastic “bio-bags.”
Lewis Mumford said, “Humor is our way of defending ourselves from life’s absurdities by thinking absurdly about them.” Guest after guest exited the ship and giggled about the bio-bags, recounting stories of lost modesty and awkward communal living conditions. While they certainly didn’t say they enjoyed it, they saw the absurdity in the whole thing and it was clear some couldn’t wait to get off that ship and tell their survival tales.
On Friday, CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield spoke to Jacob Combs, who told her, “You’ve got to smile and laugh about it.” Banfield asked Combs, “Were there some people who weren’t quite as positive as you and who were angry after all of this?”
Combs was philosophical:
You know, I think each person on the ship had a different experience and that caused some different reactions. You know some people had more flooding. Some people had more smoke. Some people had a really hard time. Maybe they were elderly and couldn’t get up the stairs and that justified some of their response. But as I’ve said a couple of times, you’ve got to find a way to be positive in that situation and look on the bright side or it’s just going to become even more miserable for yourself and miserable for everyone around, so that’s the kind of policy I decided I was going to live with despite the horrible conditions and there was lots of positives. The crew was amazing. They helped out, hand and foot, all the time, there was nothing to complain about on that side.
Maria Morales, with a group of women on the “2013 Divas Cruise,” related how their positive attitude affected their time on the ship:
The main thing we kind of brought out of this is that staying positive and having each other was what kept us going and having that bond…we really achieved the purpose of our trip. And most of all is our faith. We are all women of faith. And I think that was the main thing that kept us going. That faith that someone higher was taking care of us.
Though we will surely hear the requisite complaints and fault-finding about Carnival’s missteps before and during the cruise and we’ll hear harrowing stories from passengers (one told her parents, “Everyone will need some kind of psychological help” after the cruise and the first lawsuit has already been filed), the exuberant, upbeat passengers who emerged from the ship on Thursday teach us a valuable lesson about handling adversity — attitude makes a difference.
It was clear that the Carnival guests who cheered and smiled and waved as the ship docked in Mobile chose to find good in the midst of their miserable plight. They worked together, embraced their faith in God and found comfort in prayer, looked for the positive, and laughed at the absurdity of sharing the most intimate bodily functions with total strangers. They found a way to survive — and even thrive — while trapped on a ship in miserable circumstances, and we can all learn something about the importance of faith, humor, and a great attitude from their example.
kkaitrobertson on Instagram: “Never better more friendly people and never seen so many people come together as I have on this cruise Its been a crazy journey #triumph #carnivaltriumph”
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More from Paula Bolyard at PJ Lifestyle:
Previously from Paula Bolyard at PJ Lifestyle:
“…we can choose how to respond to a crisis…”
That’s exactly right. This is such an awesome story, because of how so many people showed kindness, selflessness and good humor, and how they acted out their Christian faith. It reminds me of some examples I’ve read about men in warfare. Often one’s true character comes out in a crisis. There are many times when the quiet guy becomes a hero and saves others, while the loudmouth braggart looks after his own skin.
Since I was a boy, I was also impressed by the many stories of selflessness on the Titanic. You wouldn’t know it from the horrible 1990′s movie, but there were many examples of heroism in the actual events, with men and women giving up their life jackets and places on the lifeboats to others, with some of the crew staying at their posts, and with the musicians continuing to play music to help calm the nerves of the others. The movie “A Night to Remember” does a good job of showing some of these events.
And being able to laugh at these kinds of circumstances is awfully helpful, I think. I work in a job where I see a lot of absurdity almost daily, and I don’t know how I’d make it if I couldn’t laugh at it.
Here’s an encounter between some people of faith who made it through the Carnival cruise ship experience with good spirits, and a member of the media who doesn’t want their whole story to be told: http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2013/02/16/Reporter-Stops-Cuise-Passenger-From-Quoting-bible-Verse
Victor Marguerite said that the choice of one’s attitude toward his circumstances is the one freedom that can never be taken away. Clearly, when that choice is made in a positive direction, the choosers are happier, the lawyers have more free time…and the regulators have sourer faces!
I hope you know that coitus interruptus actually makes sense in Latin, whereas “memes interruptus” is gibberish in any language that has ever existed.
Stan,
I’m “just a blogger”–not claiming to be like the professional journalists in the real media who never, ever make up gibberish.
What’s Latin for “pedantic bore”?
P.B.S. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.
Having been through 4 Hurricanes and without water for a week at a time and electricity for a month twice, with leaks and all. I know of what they speak. The fact is our neighborhood opened up a common kitchen, did water and ice runs, and people with gas did what they could. Vegetables and food were donated. People who had skills such as owning a restaurant chipped in, younger adults and kids cut open driveways for the elderly etc. Everyone got to know their neighbors a lot better.
Pat,
It’s funny how much that sounds like an OWS camp! The difference is that you did it to survive! What a great example of a neighborhood working together in a time of need. It’s a good incentive to get to know my neighbors better now, before something like that happens.
Just because a lot of people were able to keep their cool, don’t let your generally correct disdain for the MSM fool you into letting Carnival off the hook.
I am in Mobile so we had a front row seat.
Carnival definiteinty placed PR damage control and spin over the passengers.
Background. .. the city has empty cruise terminal and is desperate to get Carnival back after they stiffed us. Mayor and local in-bed media bending over backwards dovetailed with Carnival bringing ship to Mobile – away from their other ships & passengers in New Orleans. Mobile tv stations only interviewed the people expressing joy at being off the ship, none of those pissed with specific stories. By contrast the Pensacola tv interviewed both kinds of groups.
Carnival took down all the shelters on deck before entering Mobile Bay, putting making the ship look normal for choppers and cameras at the docks over the comfort of the passengers who still had most of the day toget into the terminal.
Carnival declined offers from local hospitals to meet passengers doc side with food, water etc plus doctors and nurses to check people out for free.
Carnival also made passengers get on buses to New Orleans still tired and filthy for a 3hr ride to hotels there, even though hundreds of rooms were available in downtown Mobile were just 5minutes away. They even insisted passengers FROM Mobile had to ride to NO in order to get the compensation offered.
Again, getting passengers away from the cameras seemed to top priority.
There is always more to it than meets the eye…
Just some alternate reasons for what Carnival did. I do not work for them or am I affiliated with them in any manner but I have made my living at sea for nearly 40 years.
1. New Orleans would have taken at least 24 hours more to get to due to difficult tow upriver from Gulf of Mexico.
2. Ship Yard time is expensive so it is very reasonable to expect that all deck debris would have been removed prior to coming into port such as the tent city.
3. Carnival has offices in New Orleans and New Orleans has 1000′s of Hotel rooms. Yes it is easier for the company but is it really that big of an inconvenience for the passengers?
I am certain that Carnival was in full spin mode but controlling press access to passengers seems a little far fetched. If the press felt that way they would have followed the passengers to New Orleans to get to the truth.
Don’t be too quick to ascribe ulterior motives tpo actions when there are always more simple reasons.
I went to sea as a marine engineer for 30 years. When I was younger I would volunteer during my vacation time and work aboard an evangelical Christian mission ship which because of international maritime regulations was always in need of licensed professionals who would work for free. Once we were in Barranquilla and the duplex electric motor that powered our two AC compressors burned up and we had to take it ashore to be rewound. For maybe a week we were without AC and it was hot. There was a small compartment that had a small independent AC unit and so that space was still cool. The behavior of some of my shipmates seeking to get at night sleeping space in that one AC’d compartment was not a good thing to watch.
I’m glad people helped each other and the crew rose to the occasion. However, a mess is a mess and the Carnival main office did not tske the shortest way home. They are lucky some sort of illness didn’t break out on the ship I didn’t see the board members or officers of Carnival on that ship.
They are also very lucky they had relatively calm seas.
They did take the quickest route however. A large ship under tow is a difficult beast to control. Wind and sea currents make the job impossible at times. The natural current in the Gulf of Mexico made Mobile or Tampa Bay the real choices available. Galveston or New Orleans would be difficult to get to and even harder to navigate. Imagine trying to tow/push a ship that size up the Mississippi River about 100 miles to New Orleans.
Mobile is an easy port to get in and out of and the current helps get you there so while it might not be the closest destination I am sure it was the quickest, easiest and safest to get to.
it was Bush’s fault, wasn’t it?
Thank God obama got them all though it. What a miracle worker that man is. A testament to the progressive spirit.
Now, onto the lawsuits to turn a few day of moderate discomfort into lifetime pensions.
I’d love to see a demographic study of the people who sue vs the ones who don’t, including political affiliations.
And just wait until the tales of racism and homophobia begin to be revealed.
Taxes will have to be raised to prevent this in the future. And, of course, it will require several thousand pages of legislation. Can’t wait to see what’ in it.
There have already been cries for legislation and a congressional inquiry, including a steady drumbeat on Fox News. They question how Carnival and other cruise lines can “get away” with flying under a Bahamian flag with its lack of American-approved regulations. Judge Jeanine was outraged that our government isn’t “doing more” to put an end to this. Absent was any analysis of our behemoth regulatory system or the burdensome tax code that drives companies out of the country. Before they’re done, it will be illegal for Americans to travel on these “unregulated” ships.
Don’t forget the impact of stranglehold of the unions on the merchant marine affecting both operators and the ship building industry.
Just like the way they’ve hurt the Us steel and auto industries
We’ve been on several cruises and statistically, by FAR, the most dangerous part of our trip was driving from Ohio to Florida to board the ship. But you won’t hear that or what you mentioned in any of the debate in the aftermath of this (very rare) event.
Certainly, if this had happened to our family, if wouldn’t have been easy. It would have cost vacation time, a lot of inconvenience (pet sitters, etc.), and a lot of discomfort. But we have to stop looking to government as our Great Protector that shields us from every loss and discomfort in life.
Waaah, it was horrible! (Mostly from people who weren’t there.) Obviously, it just sucked but wasn’t really horrible at all. But it’s left/liberals in the whining Media… ban “assault cruise ships,” for the children!!
On Dec 24th 1987, after a very busy week with the family business(family businesses are the best you can be yourself) I had a 600 mile drive ahead of me to get to the family Christmas.
Why not pamper myself before the drive so I check into this beauty hotel all tropic inside all snow outside with the best swimming pool and whirpool I ever see. And it began with my first swim. I notice i did not need to breath air underwater each time I go underwater I rapidly increase the time i stay under the sea figure of speech.
Rapidly my body began to change. The dreams i was having for a long time at night is how normal it is to fly in the air
So this underwater world I had to myself all night long without disturbance all the way to the morning on Dec 25th 1987 and my flesh body was so changed as if I was ready to grow wings and fly in the air.
The people came . I was attracting so many people. Then i began to meet with them one at a a time and i knew their past i knew their future and i had such a tender heart for them and so many people were coming to me after after a while all i wanted to do was get back to the experiment of metaphorisis
This went on for days. My family had no idea what happened to me
Then it happen. I was discovered by a group of people that began offering me their riches beyond belief and the two women they offered me look like the two soul mates from eternity figure of speech.. slight lust came in my flesh body then i see that this get out of control and what about my Jesus? (if they waited a few more days i may have not been able to resist their version of heaven but to make a long story short i did resist and for the first time in my memory the descent into hell began. the trauma is still with me to this day. only the forest was a safe place.
The mental hospital I was thrown in make the last days of the carnival cruise look like paradise. They allowed me to refuse the medication. Washing the dirty walls of the place helped me get a quick release. But my body now look like it had aged 20 years from all the events that took place in my first visit to hell. One day i will be brave enough to record the events in hell but words I fear can produce hell in people because it might be an inch away from all of our noses and good atheist have an advantage to temporary stay free of hell
footnote
my theory is the fallen angels use the sin energy of humans to create hell but this maybe be heaven to them
Sounds wonderful. Maybe Carnival can add something like this as a regular feature.
If Carnival had advertised it as “Prepper Training” they’d have made a fortune.
Thanks for the blog, Paula. It’s nice to hear something positive about ordinary folks caught in a temporary condition of discomfort, but probably no real danger, and rallying to make the best of it with humor and maybe a little grace. All we will hear from the popular media (that’s MSM plus Fox News) is the outrageous side of things. If it bleeds, it still leads.