Freedom of the Sea Fire Falmouth JamaicaThere is an ongoing social media battle between the cruise industry and the proponents of improving the industry. This blog is part of that struggle.  Our motto is “every thing the cruise lines don”t want you to know.”

Every time there is a cruise ship fire, the cruise lines rush to send out the message that the fire was “small,” “quickly extinguished,” and no passengers were injured. In the world of social media, it is irrelevant to the cruise lines that the fire may have been large and prolonged and that crew members were burned or killed, as was the case in the fire aboard the Oceania Insignia.

Our former client Kevin Chambers used to work for Royal Caribbean and lives in the Montego Bay area. He rushed to Falmouth when the fire on the Freedom of the Seas broke out (the smoke could be seen for miles) and videotaped the spectacle. I posted it on our Facebook page and, later, on our YouTube page.

In less than two days, it has been viewed over 1,000,000 times on our Facebook page alone.

You can see it here: Fire on the Freedom of the Seas in Falmouth, Jamaica.

As expected, the cruise line is spinning the story. It’s just another “small” fire that was “quickly extinguished,” says Royal Caribbean. Hogwash. 1,000,000 people know better. They’ve seen the video.