Nightmare, disaster, debacle and terrible situation are among the descriptions sticking to the week-long Carnival Triumph crisis, which has ticked up the news cycle for nearly a week.

PR author, consultant and O'Dwyer's columnist Fraser Seitel offered a prescription for the embattled cruise line on Fox News, while Sydney Finkelstein of the Tuck School of Business Management at Dartmouth University, said in assessing the situation on CNBC, "You couldn't have a much bigger PR disaster than this."