Carnival Splendor -- Carnival tweets, cruise director blogs

Carnival Splendor — Carnival tweets, cruise director blogs

With the Carnival Splendor expected to dock today, Carnival Cruise Lines has picked up the pace of its social media response to the incident.

In the last day, Carnival’s Twitter account has come alive with tweets about what passengers can expect when they arrive in San Diego, the low-down about the food onboard the stricken ship, and an expression of thanks about the support and concern that the cruise line has received.

The acceleration of social media activity followed the posting of this Tnooz story yesterday and comments criticizing Carnival for a lack of dialogue in its social media response to the incident.

Carnival also has taken to the blogosphere about the incident with a surprising twist.

It turns out that senior cruise director John Heald was on the ill-fated sailing and he blogged about the experience Nov. 10 once Internet and limited email service were restored.

“Obviously it has been a challenge but let me tell you the most important facts and those are that the ship is safe, the guests are safe and that nobody was injured in what was a very difficult situation,” Heald wrote. “I also want to tell you that the guests have been magnificent and have risen to the obvious challenges and difficult conditions onboard.”

In the blog, Heald anticipates the inevitable backlash against the cruise line once it arrives in San Diego and passengers get to tell the tale.

Heald already is blaming the media and some passengers for the expected outcry.

He writes: “There will be those who will say this has been ‘the cruise from hell.’ However, when you see the local news reporter with the huge hair talking to Mr. Angry remember that there are many many many many more who will tell you what they have been telling me and the crew and that is that Carnival as a company have done everything they can and continue to do so to help them through this difficult situation.”

Well, at least Carnival is finally talking.