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Jim Walker

Everything the cruise lines don’t want you to know” is the motto of Cruise Law News, authored by Jim Walker.

Jim is the founding partner of Walker & O’Neill, a Miami-based maritime law firm that has represented more than 2,500 clients, including survivors who testified before Congress on cruise ship safety.

Following the fire on the Carnival Freedom cruise ship, the burned ship was neither safe nor suitable to carry vacationing guests on a return cruise back to Florida. Despite telling its guests in a letter delivered to their cabins on the burnt ship that it intended to send them home “as soon as possible,” Carnival

A fire broke out this morning on the Carnival Freedom while the cruise ship was in Grand Turk. Fortunately, there are no injuries reported so far.

A large number of cruise guests posted images on Twitter of what appears to be a fire coming from inside the ship’s funnel. There is one popular blog that

Yesterday, CNBC reporter Seema Moody tweeted that Carnival Corporation (“Carnival”) was “in discussions to sell (its) Seabourn brand to the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.”

This development seems to have surprised some people, but is understandable in light of Carnival’s considerable financial troubles.

This week started ominously for Carnival with its stock (CCL) falling to

A woman went overboard from the Celebrity Solstice early in the morning of May 17, 2022 while the ship was sailing on an Alaskan itinerary. KTOO reported that “a cruise ship camera showed the woman going overboard at approximately 3 a.m. Tuesday as the ship sailed from Juneau to Skagway.”

There has been no explanation

As of yesterday, there have been a minimum of around 120 guests who tested positive for COVID-19 aboard the Norwegian Dawn, according to a trusted, long-term reader of Cruise Law News on the ship who wishes to remain anonymous.

The NCL cruise ship left New York (Cape Liberty Bayonne NJ) on April 28th for

A number of newspapers are reporting today that the Carnival Spirit cruise ship experienced a COVID-19 outbreak. As usual, Carnival Cruise Line refused to respond to requests regarding the number of infected passengers and crew members. Cruise guests on the Carnival cruise ship estimated the outbreak to involve “more than 100 people” and as many

This year’s annual Seatrade Cruise Global exposition in Miami Beach is ending today. This week, attendees listened to the cruise trade show’s keynote presentation titled “The State of the Global Cruise Industry.” The panelists who addressed the theme of the presentation – “Resilience and the Restart” –  included Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) President and

Brazilian law enforcement agencies arrested six people and confiscated 30 kilos of cocaine at the port of Santos, Brazil, according to the Brazilian news outlet G1 / Globo. The drug smugglers, five Brazilians and one Argentinian, were arrested at the cruise terminal in Santos, attempting to board the Costa Diadema (photo top) which was

Today, Crew Center reported that police at the French port of Marseille arrested two passengers aboard the MSC Seaside cruise ship who were carrying 12 kilos of cocaine in their luggage. This is the second drug bust on the MSC Seaside during its transatlantic cruise from Brazil. Previously, Spanish authorities arrested ten passengers who disembarked

Three recent cruises aboard Princess Cruises cruise ships have involved many dozens of guests testing positive for COVID-19 according to passengers aboard the Caribbean Princess, Ruby Princess and Sky Princess ships. In all three cases, Princess Cruises did not say how many people tested positive, demonstrating the typical lack of transparency by a Carnival Corporation-owned

Late yesterday afternoon, the Norwegian Escape encountered high winds and ran aground as the NCL cruise ship was departing Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. Several videos showed the ship in Puerto Plata near the shore.

An NCL cruise passenger, the Disney Dude, was one of the first guests to report on the grounding and

Yesterday was Carnival Cruise Line’s fiftieth (50th) birthday.  The internet was filled with celebratory tweets and Facebook postings from Carnival cruise fans and travel agents extolling the cruise line’s “family fun and entertainment.”

There is no question that one thing this cruise line has successfully accomplished over the last 50 years is to market itself