August 2012

A puke fest is underway on the Carnival Glory cruise ship, with passengers taking to the message boards at Cruise Critic to comment that passengers are suffering from diarrhea and other norovirus-like symptoms,

The message board states that Carnival prepared a letter to passengers this weekend that passengers on the prior cruise experienced norovirus sickness.

One of the things we talk about is disappearances at sea. With few exceptions, the stories of passengers and crew who find themselves in the water don’t end well.  Here’s an exception.

Kim Thomsen and his fellow fishing mates found themselves in the dark waters off of western Australia 260 kilometers north of Perth after

The Costa Concordia in January disaster set off a seemingly endless avalanche of stories on cable news this year about ship fires, sinkings and other cruise disasters, as well as a steady stream of articles and videos about sexual assaults during cruises, drunken brawling passengers, and the disappearance of women at sea.

I’m just one of

Cruise Ship Fantasy PhotoIn one of the first articles published in the cruise industry’s new blog, entitled "Sailing with Respect," the cruise lines pitched themselves as leaders of the marine environment.  CLIA CEO Christine Duffy proclaimed that:

"As an industry, we are extremely committed to protecting the waters and surrounding environments where we operate to preserve

The big news coming from the cruise industry is that the CEO of the Cruise Line International Association, Christine Duffy, launched a new blog.  One of the primary purposes of Ms. Duffy’s blog is to attack what CLIA is calling “sensationalist” and “misleading” news accounts of crimes on cruise ships.

Ms. Duffy recently sent

The U.S. Coast Guard website reports that it medically evacuated a 41-year-old woman from the Carnival Glory cruise ship today.  The passenger reportedly exhibited stroke-like symptoms.

The cruise ship was approximately 55 miles southeast of Nantucket, Massachusetts at the time of the emergency.

Coast Guard Sector Boston received the word from the Carnival cruise ship at

Didim Mavis Cruise Ship Fire A small cruise ship in Turkish waters, transporting 100 passengers, burned to its hull after a fire ravaged the ship today while cruising off Turkey’s Aegean coast. 

The Didim Mavisi, which cruises the Aegean islands,experienced a fire shortly after departing from the Aegean district of Ayvalık today.

The fire reportedly broke out in the

Today the cruise Industry trade organization, Cruise Line International Association ("CLIA"), sent out a press release announcing that its CEO, Christine Duffy, now has a Twitter account: @CLIACEO 

I could not help but think, oh boy is this going to be fun.  

Ms. Duffy began her tenure at the helm of CLIA in January