June 2011

The cops in Bermuda love to bust American tourists with small amounts of pot, even if the pot never leaves the cruise ship. 

In April, I wrote an article about Bermudan customs officers and police who boarded a cruise ship with a drug sniffing dog and found seven homemade cigarettes in the passenger cabin’s safe.  The cruise passenger was

This weekend I ran across an interesting tweet "Scuttled cruise ship on Google Maps" from Brian Major (@cruiseprguy) who handles PR for some of the cruise lines.  I could not resist clicking on the link.

His tweet linked to an interesting article in Geek O System about the World Discoverer, a German cruise ship built in

A fellow Miami lawyer filed a lawsuit against Norwegian Cruise Lines ("NCL") on behalf of a passenger who alleges that she was raped while aboard the Norwegian Sun cruise ship.

Cruise Pub Crawl - Norwegian SunThe alleged incident occurred in April when the passenger was participating in an NCL organized "pub crawl."   

NCL employees took her and other guests around the ship stopping briefly to drink at various

NCL Cruise Trash - DumpHawaii News Now is reporting today that an environmental group in Hawaii has located an illegal dumping site.

Much of the garbage and large plastic bags reportedly came from the Norwegian Cruise Line’s Pride of America cruise ship, including "paperwork, documents, and dozens of cabin cards with the names of passengers and the dates they sailed."

The Hawaii

Its never dull in the world of cruising.  This week was no exception.

Our firm remained busy with cases against the cruise lines.  At any given time, we and our co-counsel represent a little under 100 cruise passengers and crewmembers.  New clients retained us this week after being injured on Carnival, Celebrity, Disney and Royal

Forbes is reporting that the Cruise Lines International Association ("CLIA"), the trade trade group which promotes the interests of the cruise industry, spent $490,650 in the first quarter this year, lobbying the U.S. government. 

The cruise industry lobbied Congress, the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs & Board Protection, State Department, Homeland Security Department, Transportation Department, Justice Department on

A post by a cruiser on a CruiseCritic forum yesterday indicates that a cruise passenger visiting Bermuda was assaulted and battered in an attempted robbery last week.

One June 14th, a passenger from the NCL Dawn cruise ship was walking back to the ship around 4:00 p.m. from Snorkel Beach on what is described as a "relatively

Multiple news sources are reporting that a passenger from a Norwegian Cruise Line cruise ship went overboard in the Mississippi River last night. 

The Norwegian Spirit had sailed for approximately three hours from New Orleans when the passenger went into the river around 8:00 p.m.

NCL Spirit Overboard - Norwegian Cruise LinesA rescue boat was deployed from the NCL cruise ship.  The passenger was rescued and returned  back to

Last week a number of news organizations reported on the story about the release of hydrogen sulfide aboard the Monarch of the Seas in 2005 which killed three crewmembers, injured at least nineteen other ship employees and threatened the health of thousands of cruise passengers.

We blogged about this disastrous event last week in our article "Royal Caribbean Demonstrated "Gross Indifference" to Passengers’ Lives."  Our

Father’s Day is this weekend.  This will be the first time in my 52 years of life that I don’t have a father alive to call and tell him that I love him.  My Dad died on the morning of March 15, 2011.

My Dad lived 81 and 1/2 years. He was born in a

Earlier this week, we reported that the case against the Mexican man charged with killing Royal Caribbean crew member, Monika Markiewicz, was falling apart.  A key prosecution witness testified at a hearing that police pressured him into making a false statement implicating Nelson Pérez Torres as the murderer.

Nelson Pérez TorresIn our article Is Alleged Murderer of

For the past two years, I have been interested in the use of Twitter as a method of educating the public about dangers on cruise ships.  Dangers that are real.  Dangers that the cruise lines don’t want the public to read about.

Anyone who follows me on Twitter is well aware that I tweet daily on issues that the cruise lines don’t

Nelson Pérez TorresThe press in Mexico is raising questions about the criminal charges leveled against Nelson Pérez Torres, who is jailed and awaiting trial for the murder of Royal Caribbean crewmember, Monika Markiewicz.

Ms. Markiewizc was an accomplished musician employed as a violinist aboard Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas.  In February, she disembarked in Cozumel from

NBC Los Angeles reports today that Royal Caribbean Cruises demonstrated "a gross indifference to the life and health" of passengers by continuing to cruise with a ship that "that allowed poison gas exposure to its passengers," according to Miami Dade County Judge Marc Schumacher.

The ruling today involved a leak of hydrogen sulfide that killed three Royal Caribbean crew

This past week has been a busy time for our firm with many international news stories being published about the cruise industry.

Jim Walker - Jamaica - Cruise Ship LawyerOur firm is off and running with our advertising in Jamaica.  We spent Sunday fielding questions from prospective clients in response to our ads in local Sunday newspapers.   We are in discussions with advertisers in other Caribbean countries where injured and disabled

The Los Angeles Times has an interesting although very sad article about the mystery of a missing crewmember from the Disney Wonder cruise ship.  Written by Corina Knoll, the LA Times article is entitled "Bereft Parents’ Loss is as Deep as the Ocean."

Rebecca Coriam, a 24 year old from Chester, England, joined Disney Cruise Line to work with kids

On June 10th, a senior Federal District Court Judge in Miami rejected an attempt by a Miami-based cruise line to limit its potential liability at no more than $65,000 for alleged damages suffered by a minor raped on a cruise ship.    

The case arose out of a shipboard rape of a girl alleged against Oceania Cruises.  According to