A dozen newspapers in the U.K. have reported on P&O Cruises’ decision to pay its crewmembers a basic salary of 75 pence an hour (around $1.20 an hour) which turns out to be approximately $400 a month. Cash tips are being phased out with automatic gratuities being added to the passengers’ bills. But rather than
Yesterday was the one year anniversary of the disappearance of youth counselor Rebecca Coriam from the Disney Wonder cruise ship.
BBC News published an article which summed up the problems caused when a cruise line like Disney chooses to fly a flag of convenience in a country like the Bahamas. You can read the
Let me place my biases front and center.
I am no fan of the Miami Herald. it’s beholden to the cruise industry which pays it for cruise advertising ads. The Herald’s "business" editor, Jane Wooldridge, is the former travel editor for the newspaper. Although she graduated with me from Duke in 1980, she is at
The first blog I wrote when I started Cruise Law News three years ago was about the Death On The High Seas Act (“DOHSA”). It was called “Death On The High Seas Act – Screwing American Passengers for 89 Years.”
Under this archaic law, families who have lost a loved one on the
The U.S. House and Senate have scheduled hearings for February 29 and March 1, 2012 to address whether the cruise industry has taken adequate steps to protect cruise passengers and comply with newly enacted laws designed to make cruising safer.
A series of events prompted the Congressional hearings.
First, and most obvious, is the
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
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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Yesterday one of my clients, who I will call Jane Doe, contacted me after receiving an unsolicited email from the President of Royal Caribbean Cruises, Adam Goldstein.
The e-mail addressed her by her first name. It seemed to be personalized to her. It recognized her as a past customer and contained statements like:
"At Royal Caribbean International, the safety
Costa Cruise Lines’ Costa Concordia cruise ship has evacuated most of its passengers after a disastrous situation this evening near the island of Giglio in southern Tuscany, Italy.
Media reports suggest that the cruise ship ran aground or struck a reef after departing from its regular course.
The grounding ruptured the hull and water entered the vessel, leading to the forced
Over the years I have learned that the single most critical factor that drives clients to our office is not when a cruise passenger has been injured or inconvenienced. Stuff happens, and most people understand that. But when a cruise line treats passengers poorly after injuring or inconveniencing them, that’s when our law firm’s telephone begins to ring.
Over 75% of
The Los Angeles Times has an interesting although very sad article about the mystery of a missing crewmember from the Disney Wonder cruise ship. Written by Corina Knoll, the LA Times article is entitled "Bereft Parents’ Loss is as Deep as the Ocean."
Rebecca Coriam, a 24 year old from Chester, England, joined Disney Cruise Line to work with kids
Its been a while since I awarded my monthly "Worst Cruise Line in the World" award.
But for one cruise line – Royal Caribbean – this year has been a such nightmare that it wins the first worst cruise line award for 2011 hands down.
Last week started off with the disappearance of a 32 year old musician
KTUU Channel 2 in Anchorage Alaska reports that the cruise industry has filed suit to avoid paying Alaska’s head count tax. In an article entitled "Sources: Cruise Ship Industry Files Suit Over Head Tax," Channel 2 reports that cruise lines are trying to avoid the $46 infrastructure tax levied at Alaska ports which the cruise ships use. The cruise industry
For the past many years, I have watched cruise lines respond to each disappearance at sea by blaming the passenger.
Selling Dreams of Carefree Vacations
Cruise lines like Carnival and Royal Caribbean spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year to create the illusion of carefree vacation getaways where hard working Americans can relax, let
Over the course of 26 years practicing maritime law, I have seen some remarkably bad conduct by cruise lines. Covering up crimes, abandoning injured passengers in foreign ports, or quickly concluding that "missing passengers" committed "suicide" are just a few examples. I have kept a list of what I consider the most outrageous moments in cruise line history.
If you are retired or a child and die on a cruise ship due to the cruise ship’s negligence, the cruise line will consider your life to be worthless under current maritime law.
Your family will face a law called the Death on the High Seas Act, commonly known as “DOHSA.” In 1920, Congress
