him, our weather guy here, has been on, like, 20 cruises. loves to cruise. but, i mean, it is a huge surge in popularity. has the industry safety standard though been able to keep up with that growth? i think it has. last year the cruise industry grew 5%. this year, forecasting 2% to 3%. and you know, the more ships you put in the water, the more likely it is that we ll have an incident. it is just, you know, statistics 101. we see a lot of regulations, a lot of improvement in safety over the years. so but i think, again, we just there needs to be accountability, some getting out ahead of the story. jay herring let s make passengers feel lucky to be on a ship that has a mishap. because the compensation is so great. that nice. jay herring, we re not on that ship. the author of the truth about cruise ships. thank you so much. i appreciate it. thanks, brooke. up next, a big win for the prosecution in the case against george zimmerman.
.and we inspected his brakes for free. -free is good. -free is very good. [ male announcer ] now get 50% off brake pads and shoes at meineke. helpless, that word getting tossed around quite a bit by cruise passengers who found themselves in an emergency situation in the middle of the ocean. it has not been a good year for the cruise industry. this exclusive video just into us here at cnn, look at this, showing the aftermath of this latest disaster that hit the high seas. royal caribbean cruise ship that caught fire, sending hundreds of panicked guests scrambling to the decks with their life jackets. jay herring is here with me now, the author of a book entitled the truth about cruise ships . jay, good to see you. you know, the issue with this
pictures of their cruise ships, people continue to cruise. am i wrong? cruising has a 94% satisfaction rate. they do. they love to cruise. and the reason why is it s such a great value for your vacation dollar. so, you know, we see this industry continue to grow. what about checks and balances? who is making sure things like this happen fewer and fewer between? you know, we ve seen a lot of changes in the industry over the last couple of years as a result of these continued incidents in the pr that they get. i mean, again, i think it was great that the ceo came out onboard. he is ultimately, the buck stops with him. it is his cruise line, his company. so, sure. jay herring, thank you. all right. thanks so much. still to come tonight, a woman spends 22 years on death row for the murder of her son. but now authorities believe she s innocent. she was set up by a crooked cop. plus, a shake-up at the national spelling bee.
some of the other things we ve seen in the last few months. well, let me talk about that with someone who knows a thing or two about the cruise industry. erin, thank you. this fire comes about three months after the disaster, let s call it whats, the carnival triumph fiasco that left thousands of vacationers without power and, you know, things we can t even talk about on tv. it was not a pretty scene for a lot of the folks. jay herring is the author of the truth about cruise ships. let s start with the point that she made. she was saying in terms of pr and getting out front of the story, how do you think royal caribbean did? i think that royal learned a lesson from the fiasco with carnival. i mean we saw the ceo eventually came out and got onboard and greeted guests when they debarked. but it took a long time before we saw him respond. i think royal is doing a great job getting out in front of this story, getting the ceo out there pront yoe. and really showing his face.