The St. Kitts & Nevis Observer reports today that five men accused of robbing a tour bus full of cruise passengers in November 2010 pleaded guilty to the crime.
Elroy “Stanny” Williams, Junior “Que” Sobratie, and Curtis Long were charged with four counts of robbery, one count of conspiracy and one count of assault with intent
Bad news for our friends in the Bahamas and cruise passengers intending to vacation there.
The U.S. State Department’s 2012 "Crime and Safety Report" has labeled New Providence island’s (including Nassau) criminal threat level as "critical" with Grand Bahama’s island’s (including Freeport) level as "high."
"In previous years, most violent crimes involved mainly Bahamian
A newspaper in the Bahamas published an interesting article quoting the newly appointed tourism minister, Obie Wilchcombe, in the Bahamas: Cruise ships are " . . . floating shopping malls now, casinos and hotels. The Caribbean made a mistake 20 years ago when they didn’t limit what cruise ships could do; now the cruise ships own the
The MSC Poesia cruise ship ran aground into a reef in the Bahamas this weekend while sailing to Port Lucaya near Freeport, Bahamas.
The 93,000-ton cruise ship needs twenty-five feet of draft but sailed into only fifteen (15) feet of water. The video below show that the vessel ground into and destroyed a substantial length of the fragile reef.
Today the Cayman News Service reports that yesterday afternoon a seventy one year old cruise passenger was found dead in the water near an area referred to as the "Sand Bar." This is a popular location where tourists can swim in shallow water near stingrays.
Police have identified the cruise ship passenger as Mr. Samir Rizk of Raleigh, North Carolina.
According to
This weekend I ran across an interesting opinion piece from Caribbean News Now. Entitled "Turning Haiti’s Historic Sites into Tourist Destinations," the article begins with a quote from an article I wrote in January 2010 following the horrific earthquake in Haiti:
Is it appropriate to sail into the idyllic port of Labadee, Haiti on a pleasure cruise
Today we began advertising in Jamaica, as I mentioned in an earlier blog. The ad below will begin appearing in some of the newspapers in Jamaica, and a variation will appear on some of the billboards in Jamaica.
I have been a lawyer for 28 years. I have never advertised on television, radio, newspapers or billboards. We have relied on our reputation
Last week I traveled to Jamaica to visit clients in Montego Bay and Ocho Rios. During our trip, we also attended to some matters in the port town of Falmouth where Royal Caribbean parks its new mega-ships, the Genesis class Oasis of the Seas and the Allure of the Seas.
Falmouth is the capital of
The lawsuit we filed this week of behalf of our clients for the death of their daughter, Liz Marie Perez Chaparro, has been covered in the Miami New Times and USA Today this week. The article, written by Tim Elfrink, for the Miami New Times is entitled "Couple Sues Carnival Cruise Lines After Teenage Daughter Killed in Virgin Islands Gang
I have written a couple of articles about the the cruise industry and Cuba lately, U.S. – Cuba Politics: No Cruise Ships In Havana and Royal Caribbean Intercepts Cuban Immigrants. Notwithstanding the U.S. embargo of Cuba for over the past four decades, there is no question that U.S. based cruise ships will stop in Havana as an integral part of their Caribbean
The news today is filled with stories about a cruise ship which "rescues" rafters adrift in the Atlantic.
What the news reports fail to mention is that the "rafters" were trying to get to Florida. They are probably already back in Cuba pursuant to U.S. immigration policy.
Royal Caribbean’s Monarch of the Seas cruise ship reportedly "rescued" six people who were
The Miami Herald published an article on Friday entitled "New School, New Hope for Young Haitians" about Royal Caribbean Cruises building a new school in Labadee on the 260 acres which it leases from the Haitian government.
The article points out that the new 6,500-square-foot campus consists of six buildings, twelve classrooms, administrative offices and a
When my friends in my home state of Arkansas ask me how I like living in Miami, I give them the same answer – I love it, because I have always wanted to live in a foreign country.
Miami is the melting pot of the Caribbean. It is the number one place where immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, the
I have written many articles about the high crime rates in many of the Caribbean islands frequented by cruise lines – Crime in Caribbean Ports of Call Against Cruise Passengers. Consider the following articles in the last year alone:
Antigua – Cruise Passengers Attacked & Robbed in Antigua While Cruise and Tourism Officials Meet and Passenger From Star
TIME Magazine just published an article entitled Cruise Ship Port Call: Gauging Crime on the Bahamas.
Time addresses the November 2009 armed robbery of cruise ship passengers during Segway shore excursions in Nassau, Bahamas. Cruise Law News was the first one in the U.S. to report on the robbery in our article – 18 Passengers From Royal Caribbean &
It does not get any stranger than this.
The Jamaica Observer reports this morning that police in Jamaica arrested a Carnival cruise passenger who jumped from Carnival’s Liberty while the cruise ship was in port in Ocho Rios.
It turns out that this was no ordinary passenger. The police arrested Harold Crooks who was the former commandant
A number of newspapers in Trinidad are reporting on the death of Michelle Samaroo of Arima, Trinidad and Tobago, who disappeared on April 26th when she traveled to Arouca to obtain a job on a cruise ship. Ms. Samaroo had responded to an advertisement in a local newspaper and had told her family that she was going to a cruise placement agency.
Ms. Samaroo
BVI Platinum News reports that Roland Allen, the driver of the cruise tour bus involved in the excursion accident in Tortola, was released from prison "after someone successfully posted bail for him."
Earlier last month, Mr. Allen – also known as "Crash Dummy" – was placed on $60,000 bail where he had to pay $25,000 in cash and sign a $35,000 surety. His lawyer had informed
