Carnival Cruises Investing $700M in Ship Improvements

Discontent with its public image as a quaintly Spartan floating hotel of horrors, Carnival Cruise Lines will invest as much as $700 million in improving its 101 ships to solve "reliability problems" that have plagued its vessels in recent years, the company announced Wednesday.

Carnival arrived at the surprising conclusion it might be a good idea to improve its ships following a string of public relations nightmares in the past few years.

"We've had two cruises that have not been good experiences for our guests; that's two too many," said Carnival Cruise Lines President and CEO Gerry Cahill. "We're making this effort because we are the biggest cruise line in the world. If we're not going to lead the way and say we're going to provide a great guest experience every time, I don't know who will."

While Carnival claims its ships are already safe even without the new improvements, the recently announced efforts will work to boost "reliability and guest comfort," upgrading fighter fighting and power systems across its 10 brands, including Princess Cruises, Holland America Lines, Cunard and Costa Cruises. The newly invested money will also go towards ensuring fresh water, and providing constant power to staterooms, public bathrooms, and elevators in the event of a power outage to the main system. A subsequent phase of the plan will extend available power for cooking areas and cold food storage.

Carnival Cruise Lines "Fascination" ship failed a health inspection before the vessel could set sail out of Jacksonville, Fla. in February. Inspectors for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered dried food waste, flies, and even a "roach nymph" aboard the 2,056-passenger "Fascination" ship. The CDC regularly conducts random investigations on cruise ships twice every year. Judging the vessels on a scale of 1-100, any number below 86 is deemed a failing grade. The "Fascination" was given an 84.

The inspection of the "Fascination" came just 11 days after Carnival's "Triumph" lost power, trapping its passengers on board for several days before they could be pulled by tug boats back to Florida.

The "Triumph" was stranded without propulsion after a fire broke out the morning of Feb. 10, and had to rely on a back-up generator for five days, according to the Associated Press. Passengers reported quickly worsening conditions aboard the ship, such as no air conditioning, scarce supplies of running water, limited access to bathrooms, and long lines for little food. As no power means no refrigeration, the stench on board was also reportedly almost unbearable, and was causing many passengers to sleep in tents on the ship's deck, passenger Shelly Crosby toldABC News in a text message.

The owner of the "Triumph" is currently facing a lawsuit from the boat's passengers seeking class action status for the "anguish" the incident caused them.

Earlier in March, the "Dream" Carnival Cruise ship lost power in the Caribbean, trapping 4,300 passengers, and 1,300 crew members onboard. When the Dream suffered a complete power outage and some of the ship's toilets stopped working, none of the passengers were allowed to leave the boat, even though the vessel was docked at Phillipsburg, St. Maarten, according to CNN. Power was eventually turned back on, and bathrooms began working again after an unspecified amount of time, but still the boat wasn't given permission to leave.

Carnival expects to complete the first phase of the upgrades in the next few months. The company could not provide an estimate for when the entire process will be finished.