Let the Cruise Lines Sink
National Review,
by
Alexander Holt
Original Article
Posted By: MissMolly,
3/23/2020 4:41:37 AM
As you walk through empty aisles in the grocery store worried that your hours might be cut back at work and wondering how you’ll manage to keep paying your bills, it might seem preposterous to think that anyone in power would be worried whether you’ll be able to still go on a cruise. Luckily, the political class is on it. On Thursday, March 12, Wells Fargo recommended that investors buy stock in Carnival Cruise Lines, the embattled company facing a potential existential crisis due to the coronavirus outbreak. Carnival is “almost ‘too big to fail,’” argued Wells Fargo, and “there probably will be broad . . . government support.”
Reply 1 - Posted by:
PChristopher 3/23/2020 4:47:14 AM (No. 354796)
Turn them into hospital ships
15 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Troutgreen 3/23/2020 5:08:02 AM (No. 354799)
Floating petri dishes. Planes are flying petri dishes. We need to stop jamming ourselves into these things for a while. Stay home. This stuff's bad.
17 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
FleetUSA 3/23/2020 6:18:45 AM (No. 354815)
Amen
6 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
worried 3/23/2020 7:13:06 AM (No. 354849)
Cruise ships serve no vital needs. They don't provide transportation from one place to another as airlines and trains do. Their one purpose is to cater to those who can afford a pleasure trip. They don't employ many Americans, and even register in other countries in order to avoid paying taxes here. So why should we bail them out?
32 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Dr. Constant 3/23/2020 7:15:49 AM (No. 354852)
I do not think this guy realizes how big companies like Carnival and Royal Caribbean actually are. They both employ over 100,000 people. They both have billions in revenue. They will not sink. I saw where carnival has something like 6 billion dollars in reserve.
Statements like "They're a Petri" dish are simply ignorant. I was recently on a Royal Caribbean ship for a transatlantic crossing. There were hand sanitizing stations every at every hallway junction. You could not enter a restaurant with washing your hands. The water in pools and jacuzzis was constantly replaced, not just treated. The ships distill seawater for drinking so the drinking water is pure. The ships are extremely clean.
Carnival has already offered to turn some of their fleet into hospital ships if need be.
13 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
doctorfixit 3/23/2020 7:34:32 AM (No. 354865)
I would never get on one of those "floating concentration camps for FUN!" Ugh.
12 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
privateer 3/23/2020 7:42:56 AM (No. 354869)
Sounds a lot like class envy sailing under the flag of virtue-signalling. They are not intended to get you from here to there. The ship is your destination. The ports of call are like today's movie, only much better. A luxury car doesn't get you somewhere better than a modest one. Expensive shoes, or luxury handbags don't cover your feet or hold you stuff better than modest counterparts. Sometimes, it's nice to indulge yourself a little, if you can afford it, and especially if you are up in years. My comments are NOT about a bailout, simply a reaction to the supposition that cruises are a needless extravagance.
14 people like this.
There is one of two alternatives: Allow them to fail and treat other such passenger transportation operators the same, including AMTRAK, the airlines, bus lines and this can trickle down to their suppliers and employees. Let them all go belly up and let the vultures pick up the pieces of everyone from American Airlines, to Boeing, to cities and states that have made huge infrastructure investments in airports and cruise terminals financed by public debt that are now in jeopardy.
The alternative is to help these stay on their feet while their market recovers. There are over a TRILLION dollars soon being sent off by the U.S. Government, much plain pork promoted by all political stripes. It buys little useful but political brownie points in an election year.
Which will it be?
5 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
LadyHen 3/23/2020 9:45:46 AM (No. 354969)
National Review... so I don't read anything they publish. Sorry. Never Trumper traitors globalist publications don't get clicks from me.
The recent reports show Carnival should be okay for probably up to a year thanks to cash on hand and low interest loans.. okay doesn't mean great just not bankrupt.
The head of Carnival Mickey Arinson offered President Trump their ships for hospital ships already, they have over 100 across all their brands, large and small. President Tfump was very happy and thanked him and said in the future that might be necessary.They could be utilized for the extra beds for non-critical non-CV patients to take the strain off the actual hospitals. All they asked in return was the cost to literally run the ship.. fuel, supplies, and a port. Pretty damn generous. Some of the larger ships even have enough space in their infirmeries to house 8 ICU beds. The military could be used to convert them and they could go anywhere, east or west coast, as they have ships on both sides right now.
I don't know the logistics of any bailout but I can safely say, if it came down to it the cruise lines on whom hundreds of thousands of Americans depend for tourism dollars and salaries are more worthy than Planned Parenthood.
9 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Hermoine 3/23/2020 10:00:49 AM (No. 354994)
They are not petri dishes...according to the data from the Diamond Princess Cruise ship that was held "in quarantine" off of San Diego, 86% of the people did not contract the virus, which is astounding if you listen to the way they are describing the virus as "highly contagious".
6 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
janjan 3/23/2020 10:35:28 AM (No. 355047)
This isn’t really about people’s personal opinions of cruises as a vacation choice. It’s about capitalism. The government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers. Funding for bailouts should be applied equitably.
2 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
lakerman1 3/23/2020 11:13:21 AM (No. 355108)
#4, the foreign registration of cruise ships helps to shield them from some U.S. regulations, as I understand it.
Therefore, if I am correct, let Panama (a commonr egistration base for cruise ships) or other countries bail them out.
3 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Strike3 3/23/2020 11:31:21 AM (No. 355142)
The enjoyment of cruise ships is way overblown. The real fun is to be had when you stop at one of the tropical tourist stops so why not just fly to your favorite Caribbean beach and rent a hotel with 24 hour buffet and open bar? Your room will also be larger than a dog house and it won't bounce.
1 person likes this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
AltaD 3/23/2020 12:01:30 PM (No. 355202)
FTA: Of those 88,000 working on Carnival ships, only 4.4 percent come from North and Central America (they don’t specify the number of Americans).
Not a vital industry/US employer.
1 person likes this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Pete Stone 3/23/2020 12:08:26 PM (No. 355208)
Nos. 5 and 10: If those ships are such healthful environments, and their water and food are so good, where did those shiploads of people struck by norovirus (diarrhea and vomiting) come from? That was long before the Wuhan flu came into existence.
1 person likes this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
skacmar 3/23/2020 1:02:23 PM (No. 355262)
Cruise lines employ and support a lot if other companies. Food suppliers, airlines, transportation, supply companies, alcohol, and everything else that is used on the ship! Where do the "crusie line haters" think all of the stuff that the cruise lines use comes from? Like a bunch of other industries, you may not like them, but they support a lot of other business big and small that will be affected if they go away!
2 people like this.
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