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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.

Celebrity Eclispe Cruise Ship - St. KittsA newspaper in St. Kitts reports today that on Wednesday two U.S. passengers who arrived in St. Kitts aboard a cruise ship were arrested by local police for possessing pot.

The U.S. couple from Los Angeles were sailing on the Celebrity Eclipse when ship security was alerted to the possibility of passengers having marijuana in their cabin.  Ship security searched the couple’s cabin

There has been a very public debate about the safety of cruise passengers while in Mexican ports.  In June of this year, Princess Cruises pulled out of Puerto Vallarta (and Mazatlan) stating "as the safety and security of our passengers and crew is our highest priority, and based on the continued violence in these areas, we’ve

Today was a beautiful sunny 75 degree day in Miami.  Usually we spend Thanksgiving with my parents in Arkansas where the leaves have fallen and its colder. 

Last year was my Dad’s last Thanksgiving.  It was strange not seeing him carve the turkey today.

This year we stayed in Miami.  Lots of family members and friends came

Multiple news sources are reporting that an U.S passenger died aboard Holland America Line’s Veendam cruise ship that arrived in Rio de Janeiro yesterday.

HAL’s Veendam is also the same cruise ship on which approximated 80 passengers fell ill, according to the state-run Brazilian news agency, Agencia Brasil.  The agency refers to the cruise passengers as suffering from "gastro-enteritis."  It is

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami announced today that it is charging a Carnival Cruise crewmember with sexually abusing a 14 year old passenger aboard the Liberty cruise ship.  

According to the criminal complaint filed against the cruise ship employee, Carnival crewmember Kert Clyde Jordan, age 35 of Grenada, engaged in unlawful sexual abuse of  a 14-year old

Yesterday, a jury in Miami returned a $1,000,000 verdict against a Miami based cruise line whose ship employee underwent an unnecessary surgery to insert a pacemaker which he did not need.

The case involves a Celebrity Cruises chef, Shalesh Buttoo, who experienced headaches and pain to his face while working on a Celebrity cruise ship.  Although only

Newt Gingrich - Greek Cruise Every time you turn on the TV it seems like young people are being sprayed in the face with pepper for exercising their freedom to speak out about corruption and injustice.  Juxtaposed against these disturbing videos and photographs are images of smiling rich Republican Presidential wannabes approving of the pepper-spraying of our country’s youth.         

Today we watched the spectacle of Republican Presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich, initially

Grand Princess Cruise Ship - Princess CruisesThe Bermuda Sun reports this week that three cruise passengers were taken to the hospital in Bermuda after Princess Cruises’ Grand Princess arrived in port.

A female passenger reportedly broke her ankle, a male passenger suffered a heart condition, and another male passenger lost consciousness in the cruise ship’s swimming pool.  

This was the Grand Princess’s only trip to Bermuda this

A news source in the U.S. Virgin Islands reports that two passengers from the Celebrity Eclipse cruise ship were involved in a serious parasailing accident on Tuesday in St. Thomas.

The incident occurred late Tuesday afternoon while the passengers were on an excursion.  One of the passengers died, and the other was seriously injured and remains hospitalized.

A news blog in Alabama, al.com, reports tonight that a Gautier, Mississippi man dubbed a “serial rapist” by prosecutors will serve 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting a 13 year old girl during a cruise aboard a Carnival cruise ship. 

The case involves Dylan Cole Bloodsworth who was accused of raping the young passenger while

Each year 14,000,000 people (yes 14 million) will go on a cruise.  There are literally hundreds of passengers, as well as crewmembers, who will suffer a serious back injury or break their ankle, leg or hip after slipping and falling while cruising.  Once back home after the cruise, they find it difficult to think of hiring a lawyer who they have never met in order

Sergey Abramov - Russian River Cruise ShipMultiple news sources are reporting that a fire broke out aboard a Moscow based river cruise ship, the Sergey Abramov, and engulfed the vessel.  

Various news reports indicate that several passengers were burned and one crewmember is either missing or reported dead.  Other news accounts reports indicate no deaths.

The Sergei Abramov is a three-deck river vessel which apparently caught

The Sunday Times of London published a disturbing story today regarding paint used on cruise ships and other vessels which could leach into the ship’s water tanks.  The newspaper reports that the potable water supplies may have been contaminated and posed a cancer risk to thousands of cruise passengers.  

The paint could leach the toxin acrylonitrile, described as a tumor-causing probable

Yesterday, a jury convicted a Chinese passenger of murder after finding that he threw his wife off a cruise ship.   

The Standard newspaper in Hong Kong reports that Wang Weile, age 49, shook his head in disbelief when the seven member jury returned its guilty verdict.  The judge then sentenced him to life imprisonment.

Charlie Chan's Murder CruiseAs we reported in our article about this bizarre crime earlier

An unusual debate continues over the use of Charleston, South Carolina as a cruise port and the scale of the cruise industry’s presence in this quaint old southern town.  There is a lot to argue about – air emissions, waste discharge, traffic, noise and passenger congestion as well as the visual pollution of this beautiful city.  

The debate