Our law firm receives anywhere from a dozen to several dozen e-mails a day from people complaining about every imaginable problem on the high seas.
We divide the complaints into two general categories – complaints by passengers and complaints by crew members.
Cruise passengers complain about all types of things, like the food was bad
A blog discussing Goa India, and Miami’s Daily Business Review, are reporting on a significant verdict that was recently reached against Miami-based Celebrity Cruises.
The jury verdict involves a Celebrity crew member, Vincente Fernandes, from Goa, India. Back in September 2009, Mr. Fernandes was an assistant stateroom attendant on a Celebrity cruise ship. He
There’s an interesting article today by the Associated Press about the lesser publicized side of cruise ship excursions entitled Jamaica’s "Ganja Tours Draw the Tourists" (with subtitle: "Cannabis connoisseurs can enjoy trips to hidden plantations and sample strains of the drug that inspired Bob Marley.")
Jamaican ganja like "purple kush" and "pineapple skunk"
A newspaper in Romania reports on injuries suffered by a crew member from Romania who was seriously burned while working on the Carnival Dream cruise ship.
The accident occurred on June 20th after the Dream departed from Port Canaveral in a 7 day cruise. The Romanian crew member is 35 years old.
Today is the "Day of the Mariner." According to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), today is the day to recognize the dedication and hard work of seafarers in the shipping industry.
Most of the focus of this blog over the years has been on the frequent abuse of the lower rank crew members, like
When injured Royal Caribbean crew members contact us, there are a few things that they usually say:
"The ship doctor would not take me seriously and just gave me Ibuprofen;"
"My supervisor told me that if I didn’t want to work I would be sent home;"
"The company would not send me to a doctor
Several years ago, U.S. based cruise lines began insisting that injured crew members seeking compensation for their injuries must pursue their claims through arbitration in foreign countries.
Companies like Carnival, NCL and Royal Caribbean started moving to dismiss lawsuits filed here in Miami, arguing that seriously injured crew members are not entitled to jury trials
Like any employee, crew members are not immune from being terminated. But termination on a cruise ship is a bit different from being fired at a regular job. It’s like being fired and kicked out of your apartment all at once.
Better known as the "6 AM knock," crew members wake up to the ship’s
Royal Caribbean announced a new tipping policy.
Passengers will no longer be permitted to pay the "recommended gratuities" directly to the hard working stateroom attendants. Instead, the cruise line will automatically charge tips of $12 a day per person. The tips will be automatically added to the guest’s account on a daily basis.
So who
We are happy to have Danielle Gauer here at our firm. Danielle has firsthand knowledge of the inner workings of the cruise industry performing as a dancer for several years prior to embarking on her university studies. She is currently completing her Juris Doctor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law and will be
Courthouse News Service reports on a case involving a crew member from Canada who was employed aboard a Holland America Line (HAL) cruise ship.
The Canadian crew member, employed on the Oosterdam cruise ship as a dancer, suffered a serious career-ending injury, but is being denied the right to take his case before a jury.
Below is a photograph of a crew member client of the firm. We can’t mention his name, or which country he lives in, or the cruise line that he worked for, or the cruise ship where he worked, or his job position, or whether he settled his case or, if so, the amount of the settlement, or anything
A Royal Caribbean galley worker who attacked a supervisor in May of this year on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison.
U.S. District Judge William Martini sentenced Donny Martin Crisanto, age 31, of Nicaragua, during a court appearance in Newark, New Jersey.
Cristano had previously
The lawyers here at Cruise Law are traveling again to Jamaica. We will be visiting our clients to see how they are doing. We will also make ourselves available to meet with any crew members (or their family members) who need to learn about the legal rights of cruise ship employees if they become ill or
The following is a guest blog by fellow lawyer Charles Gourlis who works on cases with us against the cruise lines. Charlie is a bright, hard working fellow. We are glad to have him on our side.
First of all, let me extend a heartfelt thank you to Jim Walker for allowing me to guest
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Earlier this month we wrote about a Royal Caribbean crew member disappearing from the Serenade of the Seas. Our article – Another Crew Member Goes Overboard From Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas – was widely read. We also posted the article on facebook and received many, many comments.
We also posted additional information
On October 8, 2012, we reported on four crew members aboard the MSC Orchestra who were sickened with meningitis.
According to AFP in Rome, today one of the crew members, Ermandiasa Gede, age 32 from Indonesian, died of the infection nine days after being hospitalized.
Two of the other crew members, a 26-year-old Brazilian crew
Two weeks ago a television program in the U.K., "Cruises Undercover: The Truth Below Deck," revealed the harsh working conditions aboard cruise ships operated by Royal Caribbean Cruises’ subsidiary, Celebrity Cruises. The difficult working conditions and low pay are almost unimaginable by U.S. standards: 12 plus hour days, 7 days a week, 30
