Carnival Cruise Line shares the truth about its ‘iceberg’ incident.

The definition of what exactly counts as an iceberg is open to interpretation.

“A large floating mass of ice broken off from a glacier or ice sheet and carried out to sea,” is Dictionary.com’s definition.

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The problem is that the “table” is open to interpretation, and one person’s “iceberg” could be another person’s piece of ice.

But when a cruise ship hits some floating ice, it’s very tempting to describe the ice as an iceberg. Cruise ships and icebergs may have a limited history, but their shared past involves the fourth highest-grossing movie of all time.

Cruise lines have a mixed opinion of the Titanic. Royal Caribbean World Cruise passengers said they were warned not to mention the doomed ship, while Celebrity Cruise Line, a Royal Caribbean brand, offers a class on the famous ship on some voyages.

When a cruise ship hits a piece of ice of any kind, however, it’s very tempting for the news media. Carnival’s Spirit had an ice-related incident on Carnival Spirit on September 9, and both the media and social media had different views on the issue.

The titles ranged from responsible to sensational.

USA Today, for example, took a very measured approach. “Carnival cruise ship steps on ice in Alaska, assessment finds no damage”.

Fox News was a bit more sensational. “‘Titanic Moment’: Seattle’s Carnival Cruise Ship Hits Alaskan Iceberg.”

Reddit had perhaps the boldest interpretation of its newsgroup, “Carnival Cruise Ship Collides With Iceberg.”

The reality was something very different.

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This chunk of ice is much larger than the one the Carnival Spirit hit.

Image source: Pixabay.

Carnival cruise line responds to ‘iceberg incident’

Videos posted on social media show the ship hitting what could be more of a chunk of ice than an iceberg. Carnival brand ambassador John Heald highlighted this by sharing a photo of a large iceberg on his Facebook page.

And by the way. A quick shout out to some of the sensationalist Cruise sites and a story about the Spirit of Carnival in Alaska last week, let me say;

THIS IS AN ICEBERG!

Oh, FFS

“FFS” is “for fun’s sake” in Heald’s unique parlance.

Some of his followers supported this interpretation of the incident.

“I was at Spirit last week and as the comedian said, ‘please don’t tell people you hit an iceberg…you hit an ice cube,'” wrote Jeane Burns.

Many on board noted that passengers might learn of the incident as it happened.

“I was on Spirit last week when I had the encounter with the iceberg. In fact, I think it floated into us as we were almost motionless in the fjord. Some creative souls on our ship have done some hilarious re-enactments of the Titanic, btw,” added Nancy Squyres.

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The carnival took the incident seriously

While an iceberg may be mostly underwater, the numerous videos of the Carnival Spirit incident show that this was far from clear. The chunk of ice was floating freely and not the tip of a larger obstacle.

“I traveled to Alaska in June and saw lots of chunks of ice floating in the water. So I knew the story of the Carnival Spirit hitting an iceberg was a far-fetched story! The actual iceberg from which these chunks of ice broke off was nowhere to be found. next to the ship, you have to take a much smaller boat trip to get that close,” Tammie Gibbs posted.

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Carol Feather shared a similar view (although she was not on the affected sailing).

“I’m glad they stopped at Qaqortak. We got to stop at both ports in Greenland last year, it was great. And I agree that the large floating ice cube in Alaska that the Spirit hit was not an iceberg. Talk about your over the top stories. “, she wrote.

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The cruise line’s official statement supports this description.

“Carnival Spirit came into contact with a stray piece of drifting ice last Thursday while sailing in Tracy Arm Fjord, Alaska,” spokesman Matt Lupoli told USA Today in an emailed statement. “An assessment determined that there was no damage to the ship’s hull and the ship continued its cruise and there was no impact on operations.”

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