After the noxious saga of the marooned — and underserved in plumbing — Carnival Triumph last month, and a Royal Caribbean ship hit with norovirus just last Friday, the vacationing public understandably may be somewhat hesitant to order a tall one on the lido deck these days.
Not surprisingly, the cruise industry is delivering deep discounts and plenty of perks (though travel professionals insist that much of this has less to do with distressing headlines than with time of year and competition).
Still, “these types of incidents do give a lot of people pause, and this just sort of accelerates some of the values we were already anticipating,” says Gabe Saglie, senior editor for the deal site TravelZoo.com.
Cruise experts say the best deals they’ve been seeing are on cruises to Alaska and in Europe. There are also plenty of opportunities to sail around the Caribbean.