October 2011

Grand Princess Cruise Ship - Cocaine Drug SmugglingThe Crown Court in Southampton, England imposed an eight year jail sentence against a Princess Cruises bar supervisor who attempted to smuggle 1.29 kilos of cocaine with a 100 per cent purity worth  £429,000, into the U.K. 

At the current U.K. – U.S exchange rate, this is about $700,000 worth of coke.

The Daily Echo newspaper in England reports that Princess Cruise crewmember

7 New Belize reports today on the arrest of a 27-year old British cruise passenger in Belize City.

A police officer working at the Tourism Village reportedly arrested Paul Smith, after he was "acting suspiciously" and searched him. The officer found 2.3 grammes of crack cocaine inside a pack of cigarettes in Smith’s pocket.

Smith pleaded guilty to trafficking and a local constable

Violence Cabo San Lucas - MexicoNew sources report today that hundreds of people cowered for hours inside a shopping mall in the resort town of Cabo San Lucas today while security forces traded gunfire with armed criminals at the Plaza Sendero shopping center.

A local newspaper in Mexico, Milenio, reports that 12 men armed with high powered rifles (AK-47’s), were traveling in three vans (other articles say 3 –

Passenger Overboard - P O Cruises Ventura Cruise ShipWhile the P & O Cruises Ventura cruise ship sailed from Southampton to the Caribbean, a passenger went overboard.

Falling into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean at night should be the beginning and the end of the story.  But this passenger overboard story is different from the many other cases we have discussed before.    

The Mail Online newspaper in the

Multiple news sources are reporting that two passengers died aboard a Norwegian Cruise Line ship which returned to port in Boston this morning.  The passengers died separately on the ship on Thursday.

One of the passengers, a 67-year-old woman, has been removed from the vessel.  State Police said that her death was not suspicious.

The second death, involving a 23-year-old

One of the key provisions of the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010 is that crimes on cruise ships are suppose to be posted on the internet in order to provide a warning to the U.S. public. 

After listening to testimony over the course of the last five Congressional hearings, Congress concluded that cruise ship crime in

The Seattle Times reports that the husband of a cruise passenger filed a wrongful death suit Holland America Line in Seattle after his wife was killed during a cruise sponsored snorkeling excursion.

The incident occurred when passenger Diana Mechling had just entered the water from the excursion boat off the coast of Belize to start snorkeling.  The operator put the vessel in

Cunard’s three cruise ships, Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth, will no longer fly the Union Jack.

After 171 years of flying the Union Jack with Southampton painted on the stern, Cunard’s cruise ships will now be registered in Bermuda and will bear the name Hamilton – Bermuda’s capital. 

The question arises

NCL Cruise Horror StoryA local news station in Tampa, WTSP 20 News, has a story about an elderly couple’s cruise horror story. 

Betty and Ronald Coleman from Port Ritchie Florida were sailing on a Panama Canal cruise aboard the Norwegian Pearl when Mr. Coleman contracted what is described as norovirus.  NCL put the Colemans ashore in Cartegena Columbia without contacting the

A Carnival crewmember found a dead baby in a passenger cabin this week.  The child is apparently the newborn baby of a twenty year old passenger. 

The disturbing discovery occurred aboard the Carnival Dream cruise ship.  Carnival released a statement indicating that Dutch authorities detained the mother in St. Maarten, where the cruise ship called on Wednesday.  The FBI boarded the Dream

Jamaica - Cruise Ship - Crewmember Our firm and our co-counsel Jonathan Aronson spent a few days this week in Jamaica. 

On Tuesday, we toured the port of Freeport – Montego Bay where we will begin advertising our services helping Jamaican crewmembers injured on cruise ships.  We met with the head of the terminal and enjoyed a VIP tour of the facility where we will be

The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera contains an interesting update today on the mysterious disappearance of a young Italian chef from a Princess Cruises cruise ship in November 2009.

The story involves Angelo Faliva, a chef from Cremona Italy who was employed by Princess Cruises aboard the Coral Princess.  Mr. Faliva was last seen working in the Sabatini’s restaurant on November 25, 2009. 

A fire broke out on the Queen Mary 2 Wednesday night.

Cruise Critic, which characterizes the fire as "small," explains that "fire was caused by one of QM2’s gas turbines, which are situated below and behind the ship’s funnel. They’re used to augment power to the ship’s main quartet of diesel turbines, allowing the ship to

Four days ago, I wrote about the absurdity of Bermuda sending in customs agents with sniffer dogs onto cruise ships to conduct lawless searches for pot while the cruise passengers are vacationing ashore.   Bermuda engages in warrant-less random searches of unoccupied cabins, without any semblance of probable cause, and will even instruct the cruise line employees

Tonight I watched the news programs about the death of Steve Jobs, the college drop-out turned garage computer creator turned genius behind the Apple iPod, iPhone and iPad products and Pixar studio. 

Jobs had a almost Zen like approach to his iconic products and his life, as revealed during his 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University.

At this time, he had already co-founded Apple

HAL Maasdam Cruise Ship Missing Passenger CBC News Canada is reporting that a 75 year-old passenger from the Holland America Line MS Maasdam was reported missing by his wife shortly after 8 AM. yesterday after the HAL cruise ship docked in Charlottetown, Canada.

The Maasdam left from Montreal on Saturday on a seven-day cruise,

The newspaper states that the vessel’s crew conducted a shipwide search but could not locate the

Reefer Madness - Bermuda - Cruise Ship Drug BustThe Royal Gazette reports on Bermuda busting yet another U.S. cruise ship passenger for possessing a small amount of pot for personal use. 

This incident yesterday occurred when Bermuda customs officers brought their sniffer dogs aboard the Norwegian Dawn and busted a Massachusetts passenger for 8 grams of cannabis which was located in a safe in the passenger’s cabin.

Bermuda customs