Industry & Corporate News

As promised, Senator Jay Rockefeller announced that he has introduced legislation seeking to eliminate the Section 883 exemption for cruise industry income derived from cruises that embark or disembark passengers in the U.S.  Senator Rockefeller stated in a press release: 

“The cruise industry can’t operate for free here in the U.S. It costs money to

Yesterday, I wrote a short article about Royal Caribbean President Adam Goldstein selling 2,181 shares of RCL cruise stock earlier this week at an average price of $36.80, for a total value of $80,260.80. Cruise executives buying and selling their company’s own stock is interesting to me as an indicator into their true thoughts about

Cruise lines hate U.S. governmental scrutiny of their business operations.  

The whole purpose of incorporating their businesses and flagging their cruise ships in foreign countries is to avoid U.S. taxes and the scrutiny of federal regulators. This business model permits the cruise lines to pay virtually no U.S. taxes and to avoid U.S. wage, labor

Under public criticism and pressure initiated by U.S. Senator Rockefeller, Carnival announced today that it will reimburse the federal government for costs of over $4,000,000 incurred by the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy in responding to its Triumph and Splendor cruise ships.

Senator Rockefeller set his sights on the cruise industry at a Senate

Yesterday cruise passengers at Port Everglades waited for up to four hours in long lines to be processed by customs and border protection officials.  

Due to budget cuts caused by the federal budget sequester, there were only three U.S. Customs Border Protection Officers working.

There were also long lines of passengers waiting to board

USA TODAY has an interesting article today entitled "Titans of the Cruise Industry See Net Worth Rise."

Forbes’ annual ranking of the world’s billionaires for 2013 lists Carnival mogul Micky Arison at No. 211 with a net worth of $5.7 billion, up from $4.7 billion a year ago.  Arison’s net worth has nearly doubled

Former cruise ship performer and soon-to-be-lawyer Danielle Gauer returns for another inside look at the cruise industry. You can read Danielle’s prior articles about life as a cruise ship dancer here and what Canadians should know about cruising here.  Thanks Danielle for another great blog:

Many cruise ship passengers wonder where the crew lives

Barron’s reports that Royal Caribbean Cruises’ top executive recently bailed out on a large block of cruise line stock just before the cruise line’s shares touched a new 52-week intra-day high.

On December 13th Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Fain sold 143,140 shares of RCL stock for $4,964,095, an average of $34.68 each. Barron’s says

The Cruise Line International Association (CLIA) announced today that eight cruise line groups have agreed to be merged with CLIA in order to operate under a common organization.    

The associations are the European Cruise Council (ECC), Asia Cruise Association (ACA), Passenger Shipping Association (PSA/ACE), France’s AFCC, Brazil’s ABREMAR, Northwest and Canada Cruise Association

Here’s another great guest bog by one of our attorneys here at Cruise Law, Charles Gourlis, who takes a look at cruise line medical care for ship employees: 

Not all cruise lines are made equal. Some provide adequate medical treatment to their injured crew members, but there are several cruise lines that just won’t get

The major cruise lines have reduced prices for this winter and early 2013 sailings by around 3.5 percent since late September, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.  

Cruise line operators started this year hoping that they could start charging passengers higher prices after offering discounts following the 2007-2009 recession. But then two weeks into the year, disaster

A year ago, Carnival Cruise Line unexpectedly abandoned Mobile, Alabama as a cruise port. 

Carnival cited rising fuel costs and an inability to raise prices for its cruises out of the cruise terminal in Alabama.  The unexpected news shocked local officials in Mobile which had worked for a decade to lure the cruise line to

Cruise Ships - New OrleansLast month, two cruise ships from Miami-based cruise lines arrived in New Orleans. NCL’s Norwegian Star, with capacity for around 2,300 passengers, transitioned to the "Big Easy" and relieved the Norwegian Spirit which had been home-ported there.  

Royal Caribbean moved the Navigator of the Seas, a larger ship with a capacity of around

Fairplay reports today that Michael Crye, a lawyer and long time lobbyist for the cruise industry, will soon be leaving the cruise industry’s trade organization, the Cruise Lines International Association (“CLIA”). Fairplay does not mention where Mr. Crye is going.

Mr. Crye used to be the president of the old International Council of Cruise Lines

This weekend the cruise port in Fort Lauderdale, Florida broke a new record with the most cruise passengers entering or leaving the port.  The Sun Sentinel reports that around 106,000 passengers will transit through Port Everglades on 24 cruise ships.  Each day from Friday through Sunday will see 8 cruise ships return and then leave the port full of passengers.