Conversation The Carnival Cruise Ship

I was having a conversation at Starbucks with some intellectual type thinkers of various backgrounds, all accomplished in their own rights. What started out as just a conversation about anything and everything turned into a dialogue about current events and then evolved into a brainstorm of a smart new business concept to start. Amongst the candidates were all sorts of mobile smart phone apps, high-tech devices, and believe it or not survival kits in case of an asteroid, civil war, Earthquake, Hurricane, or get this; in case you are on a cruise ship that loses power and you are stuck at sea for a week. Okay so, let's talk.

The same day as our conversation the Carnival Cruise Ship "Triumph" was being towed into a port in Alabama after being adrift at sea due to an engine room fire. For four days it was without power, water flow, toilets working, etc. and it took over 3-days just to tow it to port. Obviously, those passengers by the time that ordeal was over had indeed "triumphed" over the adversity of the cruise from hell. You have to feel sorry for Carnival Cruises because that's just some awful PR. Sure, they are a solid company and will recover, but in the interim they did take a Tsunami size hit to their brand name.

This isn't the first time a cruise ship has lost all power, a year or so ago the same thing happened off the coast of San Diego, some 200+ miles out to sea. Then we all heard about the capsized cruise ship in the Mediterranean which actually had casualties. Okay so, our little ad hock brainstorming session realized that a "survival gear" pack for cruise ship patrons might indeed be a wise item to market to the public. In it would be flashlights, battery packs, fresh water, MREs, and flying toilet bags - these are bags you can go to the bathroom into and if push comes to shove you can sail them over the side into the sea as a last resort so your in-room cruise ship toilet doesn't overflow making your life even more miserable.

 How much could we market these for you ask? Well, our group decided that $29.99 would be a fair price, but a "family cruise ship survival pack" could sell for $59.99 and sustain 4 people for 4-days until help arrived to rescue the stranded cruise ship. Better to play it safe than sorry. So, if you are an entrepreneur, well, maybe this might be a decent business to start?