The Costa Concordia disaster has created some of the weirdest stories I have ever heard of in the field of maritime law. The notion of a playboy captain dining with a young blonde former ship dancer while the cruise ship heads towards disaster would be an improbable movie script if the story were not so
Did the Holland America Line New Amsterdam Nearly Run Aground in Split Croatia?
Yesterday several readers of our Facebook Page sent an article from a Croatian website regarding an incident involving the New Amsterdam cruise ship operated by Holland America Line (HAL).
The article describes a scene where the HAL cruise ship allegedly came perilously close to a beach at Split, Croatia. By some accounts, the anchor may
Desperate? Carnival Goes Old School & Brings Bob Dickinson Back
In what seems like a vote of no confidence for Carnival Cruise Line’s current president Gerry Cahill, Carnival Corporation has invited former Carnival Cruise Line president Bob Dickinson back as a "special consultant" to Carnival Cruise Line as well as Carnival Corporation’s other brands including Princess Cruises, Holland America Line and Seabourn.
Do Cruise Lines Conduct Background Checks of Crew Members?
The Florida Today newspaper published two articles today about the issue of sexual assault of passengers and whether cruise lines conduct background checks of their cruise ship employees.
The issue of background checks is a rather interesting topic. But it’s an issue the cruise lines hate to talk about.
Six weeks ago, I attended
Is Child Pornography Widespread on Cruise Ships?
Last week we reported on an arrest of a Holland American Line (HAL) crew member from the Veendam cruise ship on charges of possessing and importing images of child pornography.
I mentioned that the arrest was one of six arrests of crew members for child pornography in the port of Halifax Canada alone. The arrests
Confidence in Cruise Ship Safety Sinks: Air Travel Perceived Much Safer & More Reliable
Bad news for the cruise industry as it tries to salvage its sunken image.
A recent Harris Poll concluded that that perceptions of the safety and reliability of the top cruise industry brands are not only low but continue to decline.
The average "Trust Score" shows the steepest decline for Carnival, although trust in the
Who’s Keeping Cruise Passengers Safe?
Anderson Cooper’s show AC 360 "Keeping Them Honest" aired a special program last night "Who’s Keeping Cruise Passengers Safe?"
The program follows a string of cruise ship mishaps dating back to the Costa Concordia disaster last year up to the fire aboard the Royal Caribbean Grandeur of the Seas last week.
Where are cruise lines
Another Cruise Ship Employee Busted with Child Porn – This Time HAL Veendam
A newspaper in Canada reports today that a 36-year-old cruise ship employee faces child pornography charges after police and Canadian border officials in Halifax found explicit files aboard the cruise ship where he works. Metro News Canada identified the crew member as Sean Richard Bell.
Halifax Regional Police state that Canada immigration authorities arrested the crew
What Caused the Grandeur of the Seas Fire?
Its been a week since a fire erupted on the Royal Caribbean Grandeur of the Seas.
There has been widespread praise for the actions of the crew in extinguishing the fire, and for the manner in which the cruise line’s public relations representatives kept the public informed via Twitter, Facebook and other forms
It’s Not Better in the Bahamas: Crime Up, Cruise Passenger Spending Down
The headline today in the Nassau Guardian newspaper blasted “Elderly Woman Shot at Home” during a robbery. Another front page story involved an unrelated but even more deadly title “Men Charged with Murder.”
These headlines are hardly rare. Two weeks ago, a U.S. crew member was shot dead during a robbery in downtown
Miami Cruise Ship Injury Lawyer – Jim Walker
Injured on a cruise ship and looking to retain an experienced maritime lawyer? Consider Miami lawyer Jim Walker.
Jim studied maritime case in law school in the early 1980’s and has practiced maritime law for the past thirty years. For the last fifteen years, Jim has focused his law practice exclusively on representing passengers
Charges Dismissed Against Cruise Passenger Accused of Strangling and Dumping Ex-Wife Overboard
Two days ago we reported on a ruling made by a judge in California holding that a cruise ship passenger accused of strangling and throwing his former wife overboard from a cruise ship in Italy could be prosecuted in state court.
But yesterday, the same judge reconsidered his ruling and decided that he did not have
Royal Caribbean Cruise Passenger Sentenced to Jail for Over 5,000 Images of Child Pornography
In a story we first reported on in December last year, a cruise passenger aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship was sentenced to eight years in federal prison for transporting thousands of child pornography photos and videos on a cruise from Port Canaveral.
Gary Lee Reed seemed like a normal passenger but an initial
Cruise Ship Passenger Can be Tried in California State Court for Murdering Ex-Wife
Crimes on cruise ships on the high seas often fall into jurisdictional no-man’s lands where prosecutions are impossible to pursue.
But yesterday a judge in Orange County, California ruled that local prosecutors can try a criminal case against a cruise passenger accused of strangling his ex-wife and tossing her off a cruise ship in Italy
Another Drug Bust on the Bahamas Celebration
The Sun Sentinel newspaper reports that U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) agents arrested a crew member of the Bahamas Celebration cruise ship after he tried to smuggle two bricks of cocaine (a kilo) into the Riviera Beach Port.
Crew member Dannys Daniel Sjogreen-Gutierrez was taken into custody by CBP agents earlier this week after he
Did the Grandeur of the Seas Fire Compromise the Crew Member Emergency Evacuation System?
Cruise ships like Royal Caribbean’s Grandeur of the Seas have different emergency evacuation systems for the passengers and the crew. Passengers are loaded onto lifeboats at their muster stations on the port and starboard sides of the ship and then lowered into the water. The lifeboat is motored away from the burning or sinking ship
Where Are Photo & Video Images of the Fire on the Grandeur of the Seas?
Cruise fans have largely praised Royal Caribbean’s public relations efforts in responding to the fire which erupted aboard the Grandeur of the Seas early Monday morning.
Royal Caribbean tweeted updates from its new Twitter PR feed @RoyalCaribPR and updated its Facebook page. It uploaded one photo showing a portion of the damage to to fire
Cruise Ship Fires: When is Enough, Enough?
Today CNN and other networks have repeatedly aired images of the burned Royal Caribbean cruise ship, the Grandeur of the Seas.
I clicked on the flat screen TV in my office this afternoon and took the photos below, of the burned stern of the cruise ship and passengers with life-vests on, in the casino