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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.

The United States Coast Guard medevaced a female passenger last night after she sustained a heart attack on the Grand Princess cruise ship. 

The woman was described as 57 years old. At the time of the medevac, the Princess Cruises’ ship was approximately 80 miles southwest of Monterey, California. 

The Coast Guard flight surgeon recommended

NCL Norwegian StarPassengers aboard NCL’s Norwegian Star are telling me that the ship’s azipod system has failed. The cruise ship is skipping Miami today and is heading for Tampa one day early. One passenger said that the next cruise is reportedly canceled. (The cancellation of the next cruise is not confirmed information. Please double check

Cruise LifeboatTwo nights ago, the Thomson Dream stopped when the crew noticed an abandoned life raft. The cruise ship was sailing from Sardinia towards Naples. 

The ship stopped for around 40 mins. The crew pulled the life raft to the shell doors and then went aboard to inspect it. The life raft was brand new and undamaged.

Carnival SpiritThe Carnival Spirit has developed a problem with its propulsion system, forcing it to reduce its cruising speed. As a result, the Spirit will be delayed arriving in Sydney on Wednesday, and will arrive at approximately 3:00 PM. 

According to Carnival, the cruise ship obviously needs to disembark its current passengers.So check-in for the next

Newspapers in India are reporting that a thirty year old male Indian passenger disappeared in the Strait of Malacca from the SuperStar Gemini operated by Star Cruises.

Rajkumar Agarwal, from Calcutta, India, was cruising with his extended family who boarded the SuperStar Gemini on October 4th. He is the youngest of three brothers and was

Ventura Cruise Ship Overboard PassengerLast night a reader of this blog sent me an AIS screen shot of the P&O Ventura sailing in circles south of the Isle of Wight in an apparent attempt to search for an overboard passenger.

This morning the British press is reporting that a passenger went overboard fron the Ventura around 04:30 BST as it

SantoriniThere are lots of things that can go wrong during a shore excursion. Some are foreseeable, like injuries on a zip-line or being robbed during a stop-over on a Caribbean island. But some things are not.

The Greek Reporter covers the bewildering story of a German tourist, a 67 year old woman, who was killed

Norwegian Cruise Line announced that Miami remix rap artist "Pitbull" (Armando Christian Pérez) will become the Godfather of the company’s newest cruise ship next month at the Port of Miami.

NCL cruise executives CEO Frank Del Rio and President Andy Stuart will attend the naming ceremony of the Norwegian Escape on November 9th. 

Pitbull will perform

The U.S. Coast Guard medevaced a woman from a NCL cruise ship approximately 165 miles east of Virginia Beach today.

The Coast Guard was called for assistance after a 30-year-old woman complained of abdominal pain.

The Coast Guard helicopter crew responded to the Norwegian Breakaway and flew the woman to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.

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Tonight I received the following message from a Princess Cruises’ passenger just off the Star Princess:

"I just arrived in Vancouver on the Star Princess. Cruise was September 19 – October 4 2015 Vancouver-Hawaii-Vancouver. I contacted the worst type flu of my life on the 21 September afternoon. By the third day I notified Medical