The cruise industry is being pummeled in the world of social media. The endless stories of cruise ship fires, propulsion issues, engine failures, and, most recently, elderly passengers abandoned ashore after suffering serious injuries seem to come at a non-stop pace. The bad news affects the public’s perception of cruising. A Harris Poll conducted this spring revealed positive cruise brand perception plummeted by double digits.

Even when cruise lines try and act transparently, they look suspect. Sometimes they get caught lying. Cruise lines like Royal Caribbean boast that they are voluntarily disclosing all crimes and overboard passengers. But when the cruise line published its disclosures last month, Royal Caribbean revealed only one out of eleven people who have disappeared from its cruise ships over the last couple of years. Dishonesty like this does no one any good.

But today, the Consumerist published a feel-good article about Disney Cruise Line. It seems like the officers and staff aboard the Disney Wonder helped a six year-old child, who became sick on the cruise Port of Miami Cruise Shipship, receive prompt and potentially life-saving medical treatment. The article bears the heart warming title Disney Cruise Line Went Above & Beyond To Help Save Our Child’s Life.

People ask me "why don’t you write about happy cruise news?"

Occasionally I do.  Like when I wrote an article entitled Three Happy Cruise Stories – Salvation, Generosity & Rebirth. But that article was over three years and a thousand articles ago.

The motto of this blog is "everything the cruise lines don’t want you to know." So our focus (and some say bias) should be apparent. We are not the most popular maritime law blog in the world because we write pleasant articles which make the cruise executives and travel agents feel comfortable.

Quite frankly I’d like to write more about truly remarkable things the cruise lines are doing, like Disney saving a child’s life rather than assisting a child molester escape back to India or withholding information from family members about the disappearance of their daughter.  But positive stories like the Consumerist article seem few and far between. Most stories about proactive steps taken by the cruise industry are PR stunts planned after a cruise ship sinks or catches on fire or the day before a Congressional hearing about cruise ship problems.

If you have a happy cruise story about a cruise line going above & beyond to help a passenger or crew member in distress, send us a link and we will be pleased to mention it.

At this point, the cruise industry needs all the help it can get.