July 2011

Eight people have been proclaimed dead and one is presumed to have drowned when a pleasure ship collided with a cargo barge. The accident occurred today in the Moscow River. There were a total of sixteen people onboard when the ship went down and only seven were rescued.

The ship, Lastochka, was registered to Russia. Its captain and owner

The Miami Herald reported that Discovery Cruise Line, which is known for operating day cruises to the Bahamas plans to discontinue services starting September 7.

It is unknown whether this is a temporary hiatus or whether the cruise liner is going out of business for good. According to the Herald, the cruise line announced

Last November, Cruise Law News (CLN) reported on the drunken cruise ship passenger who reportedly snuck into the control room and dropped anchor while the ship was sailing back to Tampa from Mexico.

Daniel Castillo, Ehlert’s defense attorney now claims that Rick Ehlert admits to being intoxicated and sneaking into the control room to drop

The Rebecca Coriam Search Foundation is holding a fundraiser and rally to help raise money to continue the search and investigation into the disappearance of Disney crew member, Rebecca Coriam.

The rally is being held on July 23, 2011, from 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. at the Chester Race Course Pavillion. For more information visit

Today I had the pleasure of visiting the headquarters of LexBlog in Seattle Washington.  As many of you know, LexBlog is the company which provides the technical support for this blog.  LexBlog designed the layout of Cruise Law News so if you like the design and functionality of this blog, thank LexBlog.  

LexBlog does

I ran across an interesting article written from the perspective of a Mexican port which one of the cruise lines labeled as too dangerous to visit.

It seems like Princess Cruises has incurred the wrath of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico after the cruise line dropped the port from its cruise itinerary citing "continued violence" as the reason.  USA Today quickly

The big news this week is the sad story of the sinking of the Bulgaria cruise ship on the Volga river.  The 1955 era ship was considered a rust bucket.  On the day in question, it sailed with a malfunctioning engine, listing to one side, and overloaded with passengers.  When a storm turned the ship

Yesterday I bought a Blackberry PlayBook.  Small and compact and new to the market, the PlayBook is supposed to compete with the iPad 2.  Its screen is only 3 and 1/2 by 6 inches.  It has everything on it.  I can blog, prepare legal pleadings, and email outside of the office.  The PlayBook also has a camera

Larry King Live - George Smith Disappearance - Cruise ShipThe media’s interest into the "missing groom" story was unparalleled in the history of the cruise industry.  Royal Caribbean had been able to dodge bad press about the disappearance of passengers and women and children sexually assaulted on its fleet of cruise ships for decades.

But the case of George Smith was different.  Every network was covering the

Last year I published a series of articles about how cruise lines mishandle customer complaints and ruin their reputations in the process.

Part I of "And the Cruise Industry Wonders Why It Has An Image Problem" series focused on the ways that Carnival and Royal Caribbean managed to botch customer problems and tarnish their images.  

Part II took a

Two days after George Smith went overboard from the Brilliance of the Seas, the cruise ship’s captain prepared a casualty report concluding that Mr. Smith accidentally fell off of the railing.   The official report did not mention any of the suspicious noises in the Smith’s cabin heard by other passengers or that other young men (later accused of raping a passenger

George Smith Disappearance  In December 2005, Congress convened its first hearing on the issue of the safety of U.S. passengers on foreign flagged cruise ships.  The hearing came about primarily due to the efforts of several families who had lost loved ones from cruise ships on the high seas, under suspicious circumstances. 

George Smith’s family was instrumental in bringing a great