Of the over 3,000 passengers aboard the Costa Concordia cruise ship when it capsized, two Americans were lost, Gerald Heil, age 69, and Barbara Heil, age 70, of Minnesota. They are among fifteen passengers who were either trapped in the cruise ship or lost at sea.
Over the last five weeks since disaster struck, I
Seatrade Insider has an interesting article today entitled "Costa Battles Media Onslaught, Concordia Scams."
The article raises the issue whether there is a future for the Costa Crociere brand following the Concordia disaster. The article quotes Costa CEO Pier Luigi Foschi admitting that Costa’s sales across the fleet are 35% below the
A rather ordinary couple of weeks in the world of cruising: 1,000 passengers or so sick with diarrhea and vomiting caused by gastrointestinal outbreaks on five cruise ships, 16 brawling passengers kicked off a cruise, a crewmember (a child activities supervisor no less) arrested on charges of molesting a child, a cruise passenger acquitted of
Yesterday, New York lawyers for Costa Concordia cruise survivors filed an amended lawsuit in Miami, adding 33 additional passengers as plaintiffs. The lawyers are seeking $78 million in compensatory damages and $450 in punitive damages for a total amount of $528 million on behalf of 39 passengers.
Although the lawyers called the original filing a "class action" lawsuit, the case was
Swamped from a tide of bad publicity following the Costa Concordia disaster, the cruise industry today announced a change to its safety drill policy. The new policy? Hold your breath:
All cruise lines will begin to provide a safety briefing to the passengers before the vessel sets sail.
That’s it? Why wasn’t this the law a hundred years ago, after
Just when you thought this National-Enquirer-like story of the cowardly Costa cruise ship captain could not get any weirder, the Italian magazine Chi published a photograph of Captain Schettino and former cruise dancer/hostess Domnica Cemortan. It seems like the love birds were eating oysters and crab legs at a restaurant about a month before married Capitano Amore wrecked his cruise ship
The Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster fueled not only significant coverage by international newspapers and cable news programs, but also spawned an unprecedented look at the cruise industry by part-time bloggers and recreational twitter & facebook users.
I use a Twitter application called "TweetDeck" (photo below left) where I follow certain terms like "Costa Concordia" and hashtags like #Costa to stay ahead of this latest cruise disaster story. The
There is a lot of talk in the media about so-called "class action" lawsuits, arising out of the Costa Concordia cruise disaster, seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation and other far fetched claims. Most of these exaggerated claims are being made by lawyers who have absolutely no experience handling maritime claims.
What is not being
Last month was an ugly, ugly month for the cruise industry.
January 2012 will long be remembered as the month that brought us the death and destruction surrounding the the Costa Concordia cruise ship, resulting in the media asking us- is it safe to cruise?
Lots of other really bad things have been happening in the world of cruising this new year before the Concordia disaster, seemingly
A long time reader of Cruise Law News just contacted me. He suggested that I take a look at the promotional language in the website of the cruise industry’s trade group, the Cruise line International Association (‘CLIA") regarding Costa Cruises.
So I took a look at CLIA website on Costa Cruises. it refers to “Cruising Italian Style:"
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As rescue and recovery attempts continue to try and locate the bodies of passengers missing from the Costa Concordia disaster, law firms in the United States are moving forward to file class action lawsuits against Costa Cruises and its parent company, Carnival Corporation, in Miami, Florida.
One of the firms advertising for such cases and taking a high
The following is from LexBlog TV which hosts our firm’s blog Cruise Law News:
By far and away, the most encapsulating part of the news surrounding the Costa Concord shipwreck in Italy has to be the remarkable and unbelievable imagery. But while the images of the ship lying on its side, half above the water, are
Click on "CC" on player for English subtitles:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=dNsqDTdykrc%3Frel%3D0
It was only a matter of time before the public would realize that the crash of the Costa Concordia involved far more than just the actions of a reckless cruise ship captain. Costa’s quick smack down of Captain Schettino (photo left) was not an impulsive outburst by the Costa CEO Pier Luigi Foschi. It was undoubtedly a decision carefully thought out
When I first learned of the unfolding Costa Concordia cruise disaster ten days ago, I remember reading a statement attributed to the cruise line stating that the evacuation was proceeding "orderly" and the passengers were "not at risk."
Initially there were no reports of deaths or injuries, but I knew that something was terribly wrong. Elderly
A cruise line’s reputation in a time of crisis is often formed not by the circumstances which caused the crisis but by the company’s attitude, appearance, and action afterwords.
I call this the "three A’s" of cruise line crisis management: attitude, appearance & action.
When disaster strikes and passengers are injured or killed during a vacation cruise, the U.S. public
Last night ABC News aired a cruise ship special on its 20/20 program about the Costa Concordia disaster. Narrated by Chris Cuomo from Italy, the one hour program contains an inside look at this latest cruise ship disaster based on interviews with surviving passengers.
You can watch the first segment of the show, which focuses on details of the cruise
Last night a cruise ship special aired on ABC’s 20/20 about the Costa Concordia disaster.
Narrated by Chris Cuomo from Italy, the one hour program contains interviews with surviving passengers. The 52 year old captain, Francesco Schettino, is seen dining with a 25 year old blond former crew member as the disaster unfolds. ABC shows
