Tim Adams of the U.K.’s Observer is one of hundreds of travel writers invited aboard Royal Caribbean’s new mega-liner Oasis of the Seas.
Unlike the majority of cruise groupies who have gushed praise for the mega-ship, Mr Adams’ article is not exactly what the executives of Royal Caribbean were hoping for.
The article is entitled "Oasis
The fall-out from last Saturday’s robbery of 18 Royal Caribbean and Disney cruise passengers on the Segway Tour at "Earth Village" continues. The Tribune, Bahama Journal, and Nassau Guardian newspapers have reported daily 
on the crime spree in the Bahamas and the inability of the government to do anything about it.
Fort Lauderdale’s Sun Sentinel newspapers also recently
Those of you who have followed my blog over the last three months know that I have been hard on Royal Caribbean. I think that this cruise line treats its injured crew members terribly, and it has 
handled the problem with sexual assaults on its cruise ships even worse. I also think the Oasis of the Seas is
The Tribune newspaper in the Bahamas reports that two men wielding shotguns robbed 18 cruise passengers who were on cruise sponsored eco-tours on Saturday.
The passengers were from cruise ships operated by Disney and Royal Caribbean cruise lines. They were part of two groups touring the "Earth Village," which is a preserve.
The Nassau Guardian also reported on the brazen robbery and other robberies this
Last night, a member of the one of the leading online cruise communities – CruiseCritic – contacted me about a cruise line passenger who had been harassed and battered by a cabin attendant in 
her cabin. This was far from a rape, but it certainly sounds like something other than a "cultural misunderstanding."
Some of the CruiseCritic members supported the passenger and made some
The U. S. Coast Guard reports via its Twitter page @uscoastguard that the Coast Guard Air Station Miami helped rescue a 62-year-old man who went overboard from the Silver Shadow cruise ship last night.
Passenger Ronald Shulman went overboard about 20 miles east of Miami at around 3:00 a.m. last night. He was initially located by the crew
U.K. ‘s Mail Online has an informative article in its Sunday edition today addressing the use of bunker fuels by cruise ships and other large shipping vessels entitled "How 16 Ships Create As Much Pollution As All The Cars In The World."
I wrote about the cruise industry’s use of bunker fuels in a blog
At this moment, the Oasis of the Seas is sailing with newspaper reporters, travel writers, cruise bloggers, and other cruise enthusiasts. They are tweeting their observations on Twitter under the hashtag #oasis.
One of the tweters is @johnnyjet who has a nice travel portal called JohnnyJet.com. He posted a photograph of the Royal
AF Family.com in Phoenix, Arizona reports on the story of the family of Merrian Carver, a 40 year old who "disappeared" from a cruise ship. The cruise line, Royal Caribbean, tried to cover the incident 
up. The Carver family fought back.
And won.
We have commented on the Carver family’s struggle and other "disappearances" in a prior article.
On Thursday, a Los Angeles Federal Court jury acquitted a headwaiter working for Princess Cruises of sexually assaulting a woman passenger during a cruise on the Coral Princess.
A woman from Kansas City accused Princess Cruises crew member Jorge Manuel Teixeira (from Portugal) of sexually assaulting her during a cruise last March between Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles, while the ship was at sea
The San Francisco Chronicle is a great newspaper. Like the L.A. Times, it has an endless staff of intellectually curious, bright journalists instilled with an ethic of investigative journalism of the likes 
of super-journalist Douglas Franz. All qualities which our newspapers here in South Florida are sorely missing.
Miami Herald – An Enabler of the "Greed of the Seas"
I
Today, six crew members filed a lawsuit seeking compensation for injuries sustained when the Maersk Alabama was hijacked by Somali pirates in April. The crew members sued Maersk Line 
Ltd., the operator of the vessel, and Waterman Steamship Corp., the crewing company which hired them. They are seeking damages for physical and mental injuries and loss of income.
The seaman allege that Maersk failed to
The success of the Cruise Vessel Safety and Security Act of 2009 (HR 3360) can be traced directly to Congresswoman Doris Matsui of Sacramento California.
Congresswoman Matsui’s constituent, Laurie Dishman, called upon her three and one-half years ago after Ms. Dishman was a victim of a crime on a cruise ship operated by Royal Caribbean Cruises.
We have discussed
The House of Representatives passed the Cruise Vessel Security & Safety Act (HR 3360) today. This cruise bill was previously part of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2009, but was voted on today as a ‘stand alone" bill to speed up its enactment.
Congress approved the bill by a resounding vote of 416 to 4.
A number of "All Star"
The New York Times just published two articles regarding outbreaks of norovirus on cruise ships and the unsanitary condition of cruise ship bathrooms. The article are entitled "Study Ties Restrooms to Illnesses on Cruises" and "When Illness Spoils the Cruise Vacation."
The Times is finally reporting on a study reported in the Clinical Infectious Disease Journal over
Royal Caribbean’s new "Genesis" class cruise ship, Oasis of the Seas, arrived this morning in Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale, Florida).
It looks big.
Here are two videos. The first by the Miami Herald shows the arrival of the cruise ship in port. The second by CBS News, featuring Peter Greenberg, is an introductory piece.
Prayers for
Over the past week, those of you who read my blog but don’t Twitter missed the remarkable phenomenon of bickering between a small group of travel bloggers invited by Princess Cruises to promote cruising under the hash tag #followmeatsea – and a larger group of green travelers who could not stomach the wow-cruising-is-amazing tone of the tweets.
"Bickering" may be an understatement. The
Today I received a telephone call and two emails from crew members from Trinidad, India and Nicaragua.
Their stories all sounded the same.
They worked on cruise ships as a waiter or assistant waiter until they suffered back, shoulder or 
wrist injuries. After being sent home, they had to call and email the cruise line repeatedly before a medical appointment was
