Not that a weak economy is enough of an obstacle for the cruise line industry, but the sinking of a Carnival Cruise affiliated ship off the coast of Italy won’t help things. All of this comes in a crucial time for cruise lines as the first quarter of the year is the peak travel booking period. Travel blogs as well as business blogs have been talking about how bad this is for the industry. Carnival Cruise Lines announced that they expect this incident to cost them around $90 million. That is only related to the revenue lost from having this ship out of service. Think of how much more money will be lost from bookings on not just other Carnival Cruises, but other cruise lines as well. People just become afraid when they hear about these things. The airline industry can certainly remember how 9/11 effected them and how people were afraid to fly. It took a while to rebuild confidence. The only good thing going for the cruise industry is that it really is one of the more economical vacations that one can take. The cruise lines have been slashing prices the past couple of years. I was on a cruise recently and I could tell that it wasn’t only the prices that got slashed. The quality of service took a big hit as well. I literally paid extra to go to the steakhouse every night because the regular dining experience was horrible.