Chuck Schumer’s Carnival Cruise Line Fix

As we all know, Carnival Cruise Lines had a couple of bad hair days recently.

Senator Schumer, taking a break from his efforts to tame the federal deficit, reform immigration and protect us from attack, held a press conference in which he called for creation of a “Cruise Passenger’s Bill of Rights”. Among the rights would be the right to have more spare generators on board, and who knows what else.

Since these cruise lines are foreign flagged, the Senator acknowledged that embracing this Bill of Rights woud have to be voluntary. If they do not comply, though, the Senator would encourage the State Department to negotiate with the foreign governments, as a way of getting it done.

I have a better idea — why don’t we just let the free market handle it? If Carnival can’t deliver an acceptable cruise experience, they lose passengers — and that provides a far greater incentive for Carnival to get its operational act together, than complying with a few thousand pages of additional regulations (not to mention the cost of whoever it is that will draft that Bill of Rights).

I don’t plan to take a cruise anytime soon, but if I did it certainly would not be on Carnival, and I suspect I’m not alone in that regard. Senator, with all due respect, please work on the matters that your constituents elected you to resolve — let the consumers vote with their feet (flippers?) when it comes to the cruise line industry.