February 2011

We are approaching the five year anniversary of the March 2006 Congressional hearings into the issue of crimes on cruise ships.  Due to the efforts of the newly formed International Cruise Victims (ICV) organization, Congress convened a hearing in March 2006 to investigate the disappearances of cruise passengers and the sexual assault of women during cruises.

Merrian Carver - Missing - Celebrity CruisesThe cruise industry was caught flat footed.  The ICV

One of the interesting things about having a blog is that there are programs which indicate how many viewers you have, how many pages they look at, and the countries where they are from.

For the first two weeks of this month alone, Cruise Law News (CLN) has been viewed over 62,000 times.  We have been the tenth most

Every so often, I will read an article which reminds me why I practice maritime law and represent crew members from around the world.  Here is an article from Miami’s New Times about several of our clients.  Although it was published several years ago, it reveals how cruise lines today mistreat crew members to try

Its been a while since I awarded my monthly "Worst Cruise Line in  the World" award.

But for one cruise line – Royal Caribbean – this year has been a such nightmare that it wins the first worst cruise line award for 2011 hands down.  

Last week started off with the disappearance of a 32 year old musician

Nelson Perez Torres - Murder - Monika MarkiewiczNelson Perez Torres, age 24, reportedly confessed to striking Royal Caribbean crew member Monika Markiewicz in the head with a rock and then throwing her into the ocean, according to the chief prosecutor of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo where Cozumel is located.

As we reported in a prior article, Ms. Monika Markiewicz, a 32-year-old Polish musician

The AP is reporting that a second person has died after arriving in Cozumel on Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas cruise ship last Friday, February 4, 2011.  We previously reported on the death of Royal Caribbean crew member, Monika Markiewicz, whose body was recovered Saturday from the sea off of Cozumel and is believed to be the victim

Thirteen years ago I represented a young woman from St. Augustine, Florida.  She was employed as a cook on a private yacht owned by a multi-millionaire tycoon.  She went ashore to Cabo San Lucas with a group of fellow crew members.  They ended up leaving her in a nightclub and returned to the yacht.  When she tried to walk back to the marina

Numerous news sources are reporting that the body of crew member from Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas was recovered from the ocean near Cozumel. 

Allure of the Sea - Cruise Ship - Crew DeathPolish national Ms. Monika Markiewicz, age 32, was employed by Royal Caribbean as a musician.  She disembarked from the Allure on Friday and did not return to the cruise ship.  The cruise ship then left

Today, Royal Caribbean’s newest mega-ship, the Allure of the Seas, sails from Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale on its first charter with 5,400 gay and lesbian passengers.  The cruise is sponsored by Atlantis Events which is billing the event as the "world’s largest gay cruise."

The Allure will port in Nassau, St. Thomas and St. Maarten during