Last week I met Kevin O’Keefe. Kevin is the genius behind LexBlog which designs and creates law blogs and supports legal bloggers like myself. If you like the design and functionality of this blog, thank Kevin. His 
team designed it.
Kevin’s company also runs LexMonitor, the best round-up of legal blogs around, as well as LexTweet
A headline in the NoroBlog intrigued me – "Cruise Ships Causing Norovirus Outbreaks in Ports?" – indicating that norovirus is "often associated with cruise ship sickness." The article also raises the question whether cruise ships can infect the local port communities.
The cruise industry’s PR people have been fighting the connection between norovirus and "cruise ship sickness" for
The on line web information portal CruiseJunkie.com is reporting that a passenger may have gone overboard yesterday from the Rotterdam cruise ship.
The report is based on information received from a passenger on the Holland America Line cruise ship.
CruiseJunkie.com is operated by Dr. Ross Klein, a cruise industry expert who has, among other pages, a large
The departure of Celebrity Cruises’ Mercury cruise ship, scheduled for today, has been delayed so that the cruise line can make a last ditch effort to try and kill the norovirus which sickened over 20% of the passengers and crew during its last cruise.
Celebrity is offering vouchers to accommodate the passengers or staying overnight in Charleston.
The ship is now scheduled
Newspapers are reporting that the Costa Europa cruise ship collided with a pier in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt yesterday. The collision ripped a hole in the hull of the ship and flooded a crew cabin, resulting in the death of three crew member who, unidentified, are described as "an Indian, a Honduran and a Brazilian." (Technically speaking, when a
In our first article regarding the excursion tour bus accident in Tortola, we explained that while Princess Cruises sent "customer care" representatives to the island to meet with the survivors of the crash – the cruise line also sent Miami defense trial lawyers to defend the cruise line’s interests.
The Cruise Line Gets Lawyered Up
The attorney heading up Princess Cruises’
13WHAM in Rochester, New York has a story on Aaron Rumphrey, who passed away during a shore excursion in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. He had been cruising with his parents. Written by Elizabeth Schubert, the article is entitled "Easy, Gracious Man."
Mr. Rumphrey attended classes at the Cobblestone Arts Center in Farmington, New York. His teachers and friends there remember him as
Around 450 passengers and crew are sick with nausea, vomiting and diarrhea aboard Celebrity’s Mercury as the ill cruise ship completes its inaugural cruise to the Caribbean from the port of Charleston, South Carolina. The cause of the illness is unknown. The cruise ship will sail again from Charleston tomorrow, and many new passengers don’t want to
The police in Tortola arrested the driver of the excursion bus used by Princess Cruises to transport cruise passengers from the Caribbean Princess cruise ship to the "Tropical Forest Hike and Beach" tour sold by the cruise line.
BVI News Online reports that the police took Roland Allen, age 32, of Baughers Bay, Tortola BVI, into custody last night and charged with
CruiseCritic reports that a passenger whose husband died after contracting Legionnaires’ Disease during a cruise aboard Fred Olsen Lines’ Black Watch (who would name a cruise ship, Black Watch?) received a settlement after three years of litigation.
Audrey Heath, from the U.K. sailed with her husband, Robert Heath, on the Fred Olsen cruise ship when a number
CruiseCritic reports that an excursion tour bus taking passengers from Princess Cruises’ Caribbean Princess cruise ship crashed in Tortola.
In an article entitled "Tragic Bus Accident on Cruise-Sponsored Shore Excursion," the CruiseCritic website reports that the cruise sponsored tour bus was headed to a "Tropical Forest Hike and Beach."
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The tour bus (photo left) "went off the road and
The Sun Sentinel reports that Florida charged travel agencies in the state with using unlicensed agents to sell bogus trip insurance policies through a company called Prime Travel Protection Services, of Colorado. Prime Travel, which apparently was never authorized to do business in Florida, went out of business in 2009 and is in liquidation. Hundreds of Florida travelers were left with
Newspapers in Alaska are reporting that cruise lines are trying to avoid Alaska’s strict waste water laws.
The Juneau Empire reports that the cruise industry is complaining to lawmakers in Alaska that the limits on ammonia are too strict. The cruise industry’s "Alaska Cruise Association" – comprised of Miami based cruise lines – is again posturing to reposition its
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The Associated Press reports that hundreds of passengers have fallen ill with a stomach ailment aboard the cruise ship Mercury, operated by Celebrity Cruises, which is sailing in the Caribbean.
Over 300 of the 1,800 passengers are experiencing upset stomachs, vomiting and diarrhea. Another 25 or so crewmembers are also ill. The Mercury left Charleston, South Carolina on February 15th
KHOU.com from Houston, Texas reports that the parents of Kipi Holcomb do not believe that their daughter’s death on the Carnival Ecstasy cruise ship was the result of foul play or that her boyfriend, Jeffrey Aaron Stultz.jpg)
, had anything to do with her passing.
In an article entitled "Family: No Foul Play in Carnival Cruise Ship Passenger’s Death,"
The U.S. Coast Guard issued a press statement that it is searching for a crew member from the cruise ship Pacific Venus, which was sailing from Hawaii back to Yokohama, Japan.
The 24 year-old crew member was noticed missing at approximately 2 p.m., on Saturday, February 20th, after he failed to show up for
48 students aboard the S/Y Concordia found themselves in lifeboats bobbing in the Atlantic for two days after their sailing yacht sank 550 kilometers from Rio de Janeiro Brazil.
According to the Vancouver Sun, the students, mostly Canadian high school and first year college students with some Americans, were part of a Canadian "Class Afloat" program aboard
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Multiple new sources are reporting that the FBI is investigating the death of a 32 year old woman from Brazoria County, Texas aboard the Carnival cruise ship Ecstasy.
Kipi Holcomb was sailing with who is described as either her fiance or her newlywed husband, whose identity has not been revealed. Most news sources call the death "mysterious,"
