Cruising Was a Covid Disaster Article Analysis

Significant concerns loom as world citizens strive to regain normalcy in traveling amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Award-winning digital journalist for CNN Travel, Francesca Street, suggests that cruising is the primary choice to consider when planning a trip in her article, “Cruising Was a Covid Disaster. Now It Claims to Be the 'Safest Vacation Available'”,  published June 27, 2021, on CNN.com. Street advocates the beginning of Covid created miserable conditions at sea, adversely impacting thousands of people. She consistently emphasizes reducing occupants, mandating vaccines, and requesting masks establish cruises to be safe. Street focuses on the current status of cruising, safety practices implemented, and testimony from wary passengers and crew. Street’s effort to validate that cruising has shifted from “disaster” to “safest vacation available” lacks solidity. She utilizes vague testimony from professionals, thoughts of several passengers, and an anxiety-ridden recount of a crew member for support. 

Using pathos to connect emotionally to the reader, Street describes an agonizing account of the cruise industry’s collapse. Her detailed explanations are remarkable in drawing her readers in; however, they provide no benefit to her claims as it is well-known that nearly every aspect of public activity became nonexistent due to Covid. After a fifteen-month hiatus in the U.S., cruises are finally operative again, though, not without intense scrutiny. Street genuinely recognizes these challenges by sharing, “There’s a lot riding on cruise ships remaining virus-free, navigating the red tape, restoring their reputation and returning safely to the seas,” this remark extends hope and reassurance to cruisers. 

Targeting potential travelers, Street uses logos to logically present that reduced capacity of voyages, vaccine mandates, and mask requirements satisfy the safety criteria sought as the vessels set sail once again. World citizens understand the logic of mandating mask usage and vaccinations being customary worldwide. These methods are widely asserted in many travel entities and do not set cruising apart from others. 

Street provides a helpful resource by including a hyperlink that offers a more in-depth account of health and safety practices applied by the cruise industry. The article, “First cruise from a U.S. port in more than 15 months has set sail,” portrays a glimpse of the context that better satisfies Street’s argument. She relays in the article that buffets are no longer self-served, the arrival and departure times are staggered to avoid large crowds, and extra spacing between guests’ cabins is in place. These details provide improved evidence to back her credibility. 

Street’s composition involves numerous arguments from influential individuals. She includes part of an interview with Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert. She uses this to boost her credibility in an appeal of ethos. Dr. Schaffner refers to the safety applications as “a series of slices of Swiss cheese.,” declares Street. He then proceeds to provide an example of layer after layer repairing the “gaps” and “holes” in the system until finally “the risk associated with the activity . . . [d]iminishes,” Street adds. In all of Dr. Schaffner’s examples that Street includes in the article, he never precisely reveals what “layers” are applied. Instead, Dr. Schaffner firmly indicates that vaccines are vital in his statement, “I think the current circumstance where the cruise lines are not able to actually require all of their passengers to be vaccinated is a mistake,” Street recalls. His insightful words further promote contradiction to Street’s rhetoric, considering she mentions, “some cruise lines are mandating vaccines, others aren’t. There isn’t an industry standard.” This statement directly challenges the safety protocols employed onboard and the integrity of her argument. 

Suspicion continues to accumulate against Street’s hypothesis as additional interviews produce uncertain results comparable to Dr. Schaffner’s statements. Street uses individual testimony so her readers can personally relate to the context by adding excerpts from them. McShawn Morton, an anxious crew member from Princess Cruise Line, reveals, “I do not anticipate that I’ll be going back out this year. I feel a bit scarred from the experience of last year,” Street cites. Applying the same technique, a quote from Christine Bheeler, a passenger, and cruise fan, discloses, “I’ll wait until some of the wrinkles are ironed out on board,” Street includes. The use of Morton and Bheeler’s similar beliefs after being occupants on ships when Covid hit gives any affected passengers the ability to relate to the turmoil. The witnesses also believe that requiring 100% vaccination of cruise passengers and crew is ideal. With vaccines not mandatory for all sailings, neither are confident in returning right away, leaving room for doubt for anyone who shares the same experience, especially vacationers. 

Street’s strategic use of an enlarged, disheartening photograph of the Celebrity Edge secured behind a chain-link fence represents the cruise industry’s collapse. Street uses the photo to establish a somber tone to the article. As it hovers above the text, the illustration allows Street to manipulate interested travelers into supporting the cruise industry by creating a sense of abandonment that needs restoration. Street then adds more snapshots that display several ships and a cruise terminal beginning to move about with very few dwellers. The additional illustrations exhibit pathos, building hope to bring the cruise industry back to life with the safety precautions executed. 

Unfortunately, Street fails to dictate to prospective travelers a solid argument that cruising is “the safest vacation available” by consistently using evidence that disproves her proposition. Street makes a few rational claims throughout her article and uses relevant images and hyperlinks to support them; nevertheless, she counteracts the claims by using conflicting testimony from herself and other influential persons.