Yesterday, Paul Motter’s popular online cruise community "Cruisemates" published an interesting article entitled "Mainstream Media Stupidity over Cruising." The article is about the weird and sad story of an irate and perhaps drunk father throwing his 7 year old son overboard during a cruise around a harbor in Southern California on a sight-seeing boat.
Cruisemates was upset that
Yesterday, in the case of Lindo v. NCL, a federal appellate court entered a decision which further stripped the legal rights away from seriously injured cruise employees.
The Lindo case is the latest decision which reflects that our judiciary has little concern for the rights of cruise employees outside of the U.S.
Eight years ago the
Multiple news sources are reporting that a passenger threw his 7 year old son overboard from the Pavillion Queen, which is being referred to as either a cruise ship or sight seeing boat.
The incident occurred yesterday afternoon, when Sloane Briles, age 35, was sailing on a sight seeing cruise in Newport Harbor, California with his girlfriend and two sons, ages
The Juneau Empire published an interesting article this morning about how the cruise industry routinely ignores a U.S. law requiring the use of U.S. longshore workers to perform certain duties, such as operating tender boats and handling cargo and luggage.
The newspaper reports that the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) plans to picket today over the practice of the cruise lines which refuse to utilize
Hurricane Irene has been the big story this week as the cruise lines juggled itineraries to keep their cruise ships out of Irene’s path.
The Right Way, and Wrong Way, to Abandon Families in a Foreign Port as a Monster Storm Approaches
Carnival and Royal Caribbean received a lot of press for leaving hundreds of passengers in
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This week I received a copy of a paperback book about the disappearance of George Smith IV during his honeymoon cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas in July 2005.
The book is written by a reporter from the Greenwich Post, Joan Lownds, who covered the story from the beginning.
The back cover of the book promises
The images of the "rebel forces" advancing into Tripoli mesmerized me this weekend. It has been a surreal experience to see the "Green Square" in Tripoli filled with joyful Libyans celebrating the anticipated fall of Colonel Gaddafi.
In 1965 my Dad took our family to Tripoli after he obtained a job as a geophysicist for a major U.S. oil company in Libya.
Dad had
The Tribune newspaper in the Bahamas is reporting that a pleasure cruise on board the Discovery cruise ship turned into terror and aggravation for hundreds of passengers when a bomb threat stopped the ship at night en route to Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale. The incident began when Miami Dade Police Department received a 911 call around
Yesterday the Bermuda Sun reported on two additional drugs busts involving both cruise passengers and crewmembers.
The Bermuda Sun reports that yet another cruise passenger was arrested with a small amount of marijuana in his cabin. This arrest involved a 48 year old US tourist who was arrested after Customs officers from Bermuda entered his cabin. The cruise passenger
The big news this week in cruise ship social media 2.0 is that no one other than Carnival’s CEO Micky Arison just joined Twitter. You can check out his tweets at @MickyArison. He has received a warm welcome mostly by cruise fanatics and Miami Heat fans.
It will be interesting to see if CEO Arison sticks around and really engages on Twitter.
Al.com blog reports today that a 19 year old Mississippi man pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 13 year old girl during a Carnival cruise ship last month.
Dylan Cole Bloodsworth, 19, pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of a child during the cruise, as well as enticing another young girl to engage in sex back in Mississippi. We reported
This year we have been reporting on the high number of arrests by the Bermuda customs officials of cruise ship passengers for small amounts of marijuana.
A Pattern of Invading Cruise Cabins and Shaking U.S. Passengers Down for Money
All of the cases fit into a pattern.
After the cruise ship arrives in port, the passenger leave their
The cruise industry is struggling with its own form of "reefer madness" over the last month. Here’s what has been happening in the weird world of cruise ship pot heads, dealers and smugglers.
Bermuda Bust No. 1: Earlier this week, customs agents in Bermuda arrested two Royal Caribbean crewmembers for importing cocaine into the islands on a
Business Week reports that the Cruise Lines International Association ("CLIA") spent $453,444 lobbying the federal government in the second quarter this year.
CLIA is the cruise industry’s trade organization which promotes the interests of the cruise industry.
It lobbied Congress, the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, and the U.S. Coast Guard on issues such as vessel
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In the last week there have been a number of articles about certain cruise lines enacting new policies to restrict smoking on their cruise ships.
Yesterday the Miami Herald published an article Cruise Lines Putting Out More "No Smoking" Signs which discussed the policies of some of the cruise lines which have new rules prohibiting
An arbitrator in California recently awarded substantial compensation on behalf of a seriously injured Carnival crewmember.
California attorney Stephen Estey issued a press release which stated that he obtained an arbitration award for a crewmember working aboard the Carnival cruise ship Imagination in the amount of $800,000 for injuries sustained in June 2008. The press release states that Polish citizen Marcin Sokolowski was employed by Carnival as
In the last few years, the major cruise lines have been trying to enforce arbitration provisions which they inserted into the crew member’s employment agreements.
Many of our crew clients around the world ask us "what is arbitration?" and was is the difference between an "arbitration" and a "trial."
Arbitration is a process where disputes between parties are decided
Two stock fraud lawsuits recently filed against Royal Caribbean Cruises have placed the cruise line’s corporate ethics under the microscope.
In the case of Todd Roth v. Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd, Richard D. Fain, Brian J. Rice, and Henry L. Pujol, United States District Court, Southern District of Florida, Case No. 22783 – MSC, a stockholder alleges that
