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

Tonight the Sixty Minutes television program airs a special on the Costa Concordia disaster. The program will discuss how the cruise ship capsized and will also examine the steps now being taken to salvage the ship. The plan is to right the cruise ship so that it can be floated out of the little port

Today the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper published an article about our trip this week to Jamaica entitled "Know Your Rights!" The article is below:

"CRUISE-SHIP workers are being urged to empower themselves by obtaining knowledge about their rights to benefits from their employers.

Several cruise-ship workers turned up on Wednesday at the Hibiscus Lodge

Falmouth Jamaica We returned to Miami from Jamaica last night after a three day trip where we visited crew member clients in Montego Bay, Falmouth and Ocho Rios. The weather was fantastic and the Jamaican people were warm and friendly, as usual. It is always delightful to travel to Montego Bay, which is an easy one and

Costa is back in the news with a widely reported incident where the Costa Pacifica cruise ship violently struck a piling in the Port of Marseille this morning. The cruise ship sustained a gash of around 8 meters long, which luckily is above the waterline. 

Costa down-played the incident stating that the damage was just

Newspapers in Germany report that 67 passengers suffered “heavily illness” on a cruise ship last night aboard the Dutch river ship MS Bellriva. Around midnight the passengers began experiencing what is described as “agonizing nausea, diarrhea and vomiting.”

The cruise ship anchored in the district of Wiesbaden Biebrich on the Rhine River.

The newspapers

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

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s interview with disgraced Captain Schettino airs tonight in a program entitled the "Captain’s Tale" produced by the CBC’s Fifth Estate.

The Costa captain states that he doesn’t understand why the disaster is being treated like a crime. He blames others for striking the rocks, explains that he delayed the evacuation

Theobald Perelo - Passenger - MSC Fantasia Cruise Ship DeathA number of sources are reporting on the death of a Brazilian man who fell from an upper balcony on the MSC Fantasia cruise ship today.

Some are saying that he fell from the eight or ninth deck to the fifth deck, apparently from an interior balcony.

The cruise ship was sailing between Santos and Rio