Carnival Cruise Lines

Maybe it's time for Carnival to beach its Costa brand. The cruise line suffered another ugly mishap this week when a fire aboard the Costa Allegra left the ship powerless on the Indian Ocean, stranding passengers for three days with no hot food, air conditioning or running water.

Last weekend's Costa Concordia accident, when the Carnival luxury liner tipped over after running aground on a rock off the Tuscan coast, was a thankfully rare tragedy. But even one such event is enough to scare some people away from floating vacations. If you're not one of the skittish, that temporary slowdown in bookings is just one reason this is a great time to schedule a cruise.

Wall Street can be fickle, leaving investors scratching their heads in bewilderment. Some of last week's biggest surprises, blunders, and flat-out boneheaded moves included Netflix's misguided pricing hike, ill-timed IPO announcements by Norwegian Cruise Lines and Zillow, and Trex going the way of Lumber Liquidators.

There's a battle brewing at sea, but you won't hear a lick about it from the Pentagon. That's because it involves passenger ships, not battleships. Cruise lines are fighting for customers by launching their biggest boats ever. It's no warship, but the largest boat to date -- Royal Caribbean...