By Tom Fox, currently aboard the Freedom of the Seas.
Dozens of chanting protesters, banging pots and cymbals, and packed onto a half dozen small vessels, greeted Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas cruise ship as it docked this morning in Labadee, Haiti.
Labadee is a 260-acre peninsula – dubbed a “vacationer’s paradise&rdquo
Many news sources are reporting that thousands of Haitian protesters have rioted in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and other locations in Haiti against President Michel Martelly and the upcoming election to determine his successor, which some say is rigged in favor of his ruling party, according to Time magazine. The turmoil comes before the scheduled runoff
Crime Watch Daily is a new program which focuses on stories of crime in the daily life of average Americans. Last month, it published it’s first show regarding crime on cruise ships – Cruise Ship Crime: Hard to Prosecute, Convict about the difficulties prosecuting crimes on the high seas.
The program has now published its
Court House News reports that a former Royal Caribbean crew member working on the Mariner of the Seas has alleged in a lawsuit filed in Miami that another crew member sexually assaulted her in November 2013.
"Jane Doe" alleges that when she returned to her cabin, the crew member was having sex with her roommate in
A video posted by a passenger on YouTube shows a man holding on to the support bracket of a lifeboat when his hands apparently slip and he falls overboard from the Oasis of the Seas last night around 1:00 A.M.
The video (warning, graphic content, available on Sun-Sentinel) taken by another passenger from a higher
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Royal Caribbean Cruises President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Adam Goldstein sold 90,000 shares of the cruise line’s stock today.
Mr. Goldstein sold the shares at $98.88 per share for a total value of $8,898,804.
Mr.Goldstein last sold RCL stock in July when he sold 4,184 shares at at $91.08 per share for a total
Royal Caribbean’s Splendour of the Seas caught on fire this morning as the cruise ship was sailing in the Mediterranean near the Greek islands.
“There’s thick acrid smoke all over the cabins," reported an Irish passenger according to UTV in London.
“We can constantly smell smoke. Smoke here. Smoke everywhere. Everywhere on the ship we can
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation contends that cruise lines have violated Alaska air pollution regulations for the past five years.
Tradewinds, a shipping trade organization, and the Juneau Empire report that Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) and Royal Caribbean Cruises disclosed in recent SEC earnings reports that they violated Alaskan Marine Vessel Visible Emission Standards.
A newspaper in New Jersey reports that crew member Karan Seechurn was sentenced today to 13 months in jail for "abusive sexual contact."
Although federal prosecutors declined to identify the cruise line or cruise ship, the crime occurred on Royal Caribbean’s new cruise ship the Quantum of the Seas sailing from Bayonne, New Jersey last
The Royal Caribbean Blog announced yesterday that the renovation of the Liberty of the Seas this January will include the reconfiguration of the sports deck and the installation of water slides including a water slide called a "Boomerango."
The blog says that the "Boomerango will let guests ride in rafts, where they will "plummet down
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Yesterday, Royal Caribbean chairman Richard Fain sold 151,032 shares of his cruise line’s stock for $13,650,151 at an average price of $90.40 a share. President and Chief Operating Officer Adam Goldstein sold 4,184 shares at at $91.08 per share for a total value of $381,094.19. Royal Caribbean’s General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer Bradley Stein sold 2,402 shares
A reporter for the Marketplace interviewed me yesterday regarding the state of the cruise industry.
I explained that compared to a year or two ago, the general perception of cruise lines is up. More than 23,000,000 passengers will cruise this year. Bigger and bigger cruise ships are being constructed. Travel agents seem more energized than
A number of Royal Caribbean crew members have contacted me complaining that they don’t feel safe because of ongoing construction on the Freedom of the Seas to install an advanced emission purification system (AEP), also known as a “scrubber system.”
Contractors from Harris Pye Engineering have been aboard the cruise ship retrofitting the ship with
A hoax is defined as a "deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth."
Royal Caribbean engaged in a hoax when it characterized the big, dangerous fire on the Freedom of the Seas which engulfed the little port of Falmouth with billowing black smoke as just a "small fire."
Cruise lines used to be able
There is an ongoing social media battle between the cruise industry and the proponents of improving the industry. This blog is part of that struggle. Our motto is “every thing the cruise lines don”t want you to know.”
Every time there is a cruise ship fire, the cruise lines rush to send out the message
I have received several calls this morning from friends in Montego Bay and Ocho Rios that the Freedom of the Seas is on fire as it approached the port of Falmouth, Jamaica.
I also have friends / former Royal Caribbean crew members in Falmouth who are going to obtain photographs of the blaze on the
WNEM reports that Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut joined the family of George Smith to plead for a federal law to protect cruise passengers.
Senator Blumenthal and Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts have introduced the Cruise Passenger Protection Act of 2015. WNEM says that the new law will:
This weekend will mark 10 years since George Smith disappeared from Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas in the early morning hours of July 5, 2005.
Mr. Smith was on a honeymoon cruise with his newlywed bride, Jennifer Hagel, who we later represented on behalf of Mr. Smith’s estate against the cruise line over his
