Cruise Law News

Does this mean that the protestors will put their water guns down?

Barcelona will raise tourist tax for cruise passengers, mayor says In recent weeks, anti-tourism activists have staged protests across Spain, saying visitors drive up housing costs and lead to residents being unable to afford to live in city centers.

More fun on a Carnival "fun ship?"

“Carnival Should Be Ashamed” — 4-Year-Old Airlifted From Cruise After Ingesting L*D "I worked for Carnival in the kids' department — same thing happened."

Sloppy, misleading effort by Daniel Klein to compare frequency of physical assaults on Carnival Cruise Line "fun ships"🚢(allegedly only a "few times a year") to true rarity of U.S. aviation crashes.

Fact is that Carnival Cruise Line reported eight assaults with serious bodily injury in the first three month of this year. No other cruise line reported a single act of violence resulting in serious injuries in the first quarter of this year. Last year (2023), there were a total or twenty-two (22) violent physical assaults leading to serious injury throughout the cruise industry. Carnival Cruise Line had the majority (14) of such incidents.

The first quarter DOT cruise crime data also reveals that Carnival Cruise Line remains the cruise brand with the most s*xual violence (r**e) at sea in real terms and on a per capita basis which is higher than around half of the states in the U.S.

Videos of drunken bar fights🍻🥤🍷🍸🥂🤼‍♂️are just the tip of the iceberg of shipboard violence and violence against women on Carnival cruise ships.

In defense of Carnival Cruise Line and its 'Fun Ships' We've all seen the viral fight videos, but that's not the whole story, and not how you should judge the cruise line.

"Even as wider travel spending cools following a blockbuster 2023, demand for cruise holidays is sailing strong. That has been a boon for Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line. All three cruise operators have recently reported record booking volumes and raised full-year guidance."

"Consumers’ enthusiasm to climb aboard city-sized floating resorts has not been matched by investor appetite. Of the three, only the share price of Royal Caribbean has managed to surpass its pre-pandemic high. Carnival and Norwegian are trading at more than 60 per cent below their February 2020 levels."

"High debt levels are to blame."

But Financial Times (FT) does not itemize either the collective debt of the leading three cruise lines (over $65,000,000,000!) or each company's individual debt (CCL - $30,650,000,000; NCLH - $13,740,000,000; or RCL - $21,160,000,000).

Instead, the article refers to the "net debt to ebitda" ratio.

"Carnival, which increased its borrowings by almost $20bn between 2019 and 2022, ended its fiscal 2023 year with a net debt to ebitda ratio of 6.7 times. Before the pandemic, the ratio was 2 times. At Norwegian, the metric more than doubled to 7.4 times during the period."

The cruise industry also issued dilutive equity at cheap prices in order to stay afloat, per the FT article.

I remain consistently amazed by the financial articles like this, which completely overlook the substantial harm the cruise industry causes to the water & air, public health. and the mental health of hard working crew members.

This letter to the editor touched upon my concerns:

"This industry is one of the worst global NOx, SOx and CO2 emitters.

Cruising is also a major threat regarding health risks related to infectious diseases, including outbreaks of gastrointestinal illnesses like salmonella, norovirus, and respiratory illnesses like COVID-19.

It seems that the benefits of packing 10,000 humans cruising in monster metal boats do not compensate the harm this rather superfluous industry is doing."

Cruise operators will keep on sailing despite debt piles Rising passenger numbers, higher ticket prices and falling fuel costs mean the wind is blowing in companies’ favour

Several people sent me this fight (actually more of a one-sided smack down) on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship sailing out of Galveston, saying that I am too hard on Carnival Cruise Line:

Cruise Ship Fight Club: Brawls Break Out While At Sea What a week it's been for videos out of the cruise industry where scumbags are turning cruise ships into Walmarts and Golden Corrals.

More on the drunken brawl on the Carnival Paradise via the New York Post:

“This is just what happens at 3 in the morning when you got a bunch of drunk girls from Tampa . . . " / Carnival Paradise 🚢🍻🍸🍷🤼‍♀️

‘It’s definitely gonna go down . . . And that’s how it happens. You’re just drinking too much.”

https://nypost.com/2024/07/03/us-news/watch-fists-fly-during-all-out-brawl-between-female-passengers-on-carnival-cruise-got-out-of-hand-very-very-quickly/

Yes, that's what happens at a Waffle House at sea at 3:00 a.m. . . . way too much cruise booze, too few security personnel, with poor training /

No surprise that Carnival cruise ships have by far the highest per capita rate of violence and s*xual assault at sea . . .

Watch fists fly during all-out brawl between female passengers on Carnival cruise: ‘Got out of hand very, very quickly’ A Carnival cruise passenger said he just wanted a late-night slice of pizza when he walked into one of the ship’s dining rooms — only to step into an out-of-control brawl between two ro…

According to Crew Center, a 45-year-old crew member from Indonesia was found dead in his cabin on the Celebrity Infinity. Condolences to this crew member and his family & friends. There is no mention of the name of the crew member or description of what occurred. Crew members ending their lives at sea is an uncomfortable issue which cruise employers avoid at all costs which deserves greater scrutiny by the press.

During a period of less than three years (between December 2009 and October 2012) at least twelve crew members jumped overboard or otherwise disappeared from cruise ships operated by Royal Caribbean/Celebrity Cruises. There is a need to respond to crew member concerns, like the lengths and terms of contracts, crew pay working & living conditions, and the issue of providing support and counseling to shipboard employees.

If you are a crew member and have information about this latest tragedy please contact us. If you wish to remain anonymous, feel free to contact us via direct message and we promise to protect your identity.

A fire🔥occured this afternoon on the Icon of the Seas🚢while the Royal Caribbean cruise ship was docked in Costa Maya, Mexico.

As predicted, the cruise line promptly released the usual talking points that: (1) the fire was “small,” (2) caused “brief” power loss, and (3) was “quickly extinguished.” Fortunately, no one has stated that there were any injuries to passengers or crew members.

If you have additional info about the fire or video or images of the incident or the fire team responding, please let us hear from you.

Fire Aboard Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas in Mexico A fire occured this afternoon on the Icon of the Seas, while the Royal Caribbean cruise ship was docked in Costa Maya, Mexico. As predicted, the cruise

This sad case where 23 year-old Amy Bradley disappeared from a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Rhapsody of the Seas, when the ship was approaching Curaçao, occurred the same year I switched from defending cruise lines to representing passengers and crew members.

Amy's mom and dad, and her brother who she was sharing a cabin with, informed the cruise line that she was not in her cabin when they awoke. Her parents pleaded with Royal Caribbean not to let anyone leave the ship once it reached port. But the ship permitted people to leave via the gangway without first conducting a search for her.

This was not a widely reported case at the time. It occured before the disappearance of Merrian Carver from the Celebrity Mercury and George Smith from Royal Caribbean Brilliance of the Seas, and before the International Cruise Victims (ICV) was formed. The CEO of the ICV was the father of Ms. Carver, Kendall Carver,

The investigation by the FBI into Amy's disappearance remains open, which is rather unusual given the fact that she disappeared from the cruse ship over 26 years ago.

Where Is Amy Lynn Bradley, Who Disappeared on a Cruise Ship 26 Years Ago? On the night Amy went missing, she was at the cruise ship's disco with her brother, other passengers and crew members, according to the FBI

This article reminds me of the some of the more amazing videos I have received from cruise ship employees regarding bad weather. Take a look at the videos below which I received from an officer on a Carnival cruise ship (see comments)..

Passenger shares terrifying inside view of cruise ship being completely submerged by huge 30ft waves A video from a passenger on board a cruise ship during a storm that saw 30ft high waves has shared the terrifying footage as the ship is submerged.

This article, about a singer/musician on a Virgin cruise ship working just a couple of hours a day (earning £3,315 a month!), who "gets all day off - and gets to explore each destination at his own leisure," is hardly "really what it's like" to work on a cruise ship.

He claims to have a side job in the Art Gallery earning an "extra £20 an hour running his own art auctions . . ."

I have not read a more misleading fluff piece about work on a cruise ship in quite a while. Would any crew members like to explain what its really like to work on a ship? (Please contact us via DM if you wish to remain anonymous).

‘I work on a cruise ship – here’s what it’s really like behind the scenes’ Jack Nolan, 33, works most nights on board as a singer and guitarist

A special Happy Father's Day to all crew members working on cruise ships away from their families and children!

It has been 13 years since I lost my father and I miss him every day. This is a tribute which I wrote in 2011 . . .

Happy Father's Day Dad Father's Day is this weekend. This will be the first time in my 52 years of life that I don't have a father alive to call and tell him that I love him.

A long term Disney crew member employed for 10 years as a stateroom attendant was terminated from his job after eating some of his co-worker’s "Jamaican Coconut Bread" secretly laced with ma*****na on the Disney Wonder cruise ship. Disney is seeking to remove the lawsuit to federal court and dismiss the case to arbitration.

The crew member ate the bread not knowing there was pot in it on Feb. 18, 2020, the lawsuit alleges. He got sick and couldn’t breathe and his vision became blurry.

He “required emergency medical treatment and overnight hospitalization onboard the ship. To make the situation worse, Disney thereafter "shamed and humiliated" him because he tested positive for the pot which he had unknowingly consumed when he ingested the bread.

When the ship docked in New Orleans, police interviewed him and his personal belongings were searched — “all of which revealed nothing,” the lawsuit said. The fired crew member accused Disney of not properly investigating the other two or more crew members who ate the bread bought when the Disney Wonder docked in Falmouth, Jamaica.

Disney argues that it can terminate crew members for any reason (good reason, bad reason or no reason at all) and because the crew member alleges that all of his damages arise from his termination, the case should be dismissed.

The case was filed by another lawyer here in Miami.

Drug-laced Jamaican coconut bread cost Disney Cruise worker his job, lawsuit said First, he got sick then he lost his job from eating drug-laced baked goods, a lawsuit said.

Crew Member Overboard From MSC Musica: 8th Person Overboard From A MSC Cruise Ship in 7 Months!

The information released by MSC and one cruise fan site is quite skimpy. There's no info when the crew member apparently jumped, or when the ship realized he went overboard and initiated what appears to be quite a limited & brief search.

Do any crew members know the crew member's name and where he is from? Any explanation why he apparently decided to jump? (if you wish to remain anonymous, please contact us via direct message and we promise to protect your identity).

Crew Member Overboard From MSC Musica: 8th Person Overboard From A MSC Cruise Ship in 7 Months! A crew member reportedly went overboard from the MSC Musica sailing from Italy last Monday evening, according to the popular Cruise Radio fan page which

Based on the dozen arrests of crew members (and a handful of passengers) in South Florida ports in the last five months of this year, it seems clear to me that federal and state law enforcement authorities are working with agencies which use state-of-the-art surveillance software where experts monitor child po*******hy and file-sharing sites to develop a massive international database to catch those who possess and share child abuse images.

I am interested in learning whether any cruise lines have rules & regulations (in a company handbook or in the "Master's Rules") regarding the issue of child po*******hy (i.e., it is against the cruise line's policies and will led to termination, plus it's illegal, why it's unlawful, and the serious risks which ship employees face (arrest, criminal prosecution and fines, potential jail sentences & being classified as a s*xual criminal).

Do any cruise lines have training for crew members where HR will provide education and instruction to ship employees regarding the consequences of possessing and/or sharing child s*xual abuse materials on the ships?

I get the impression that Carnival, Royal Caribbean, etc. don't devote any time, effort or energy in educating and training its crew members regarding this serious problem.

Any crew members care to comment? (you can contact us via direct message and we promise to protect your identity) . . .

A tool that unmasks child p**n offenders led to thousands of arrests. Now it’s expanding. The Child Protection System helps police triage child po*******hy cases. But as the system expands, it's facing growing privacy concerns.

Several crew members who work for Carnival Cruise Line (& wish to remain anonymous) tell me that Carnival Cruise Line employed these two crew members, Igedeboy Mardika (from Indonesia)(top photo) and Sreerag Vazhayil (from India)(bottom photo) who were arrested last weekend on child po*******hy charges.

The crew members were arrested last Sunday in Miami. The only Carnival ships calling on Miami last Sunday were the Carnival Horizon and Carnival Celebration. Can anyone confirm they were on one of these ships? (Please send us a direct message and we will protect your identity).

Carnival of course wishes to sweep this under the rug . . .

Two crew members were arrested last Sunday at PortMiami for possession of child po*******hy, bringing the total number of crew members arrested in South Florida in just the last five months to twelve. Miami-Dade police arrested the cruise ship employees last weekend “after cabin searches turned up both child s*xual abuse material and be******ty videos on both of their cellphones,” according to Miami Local 10 News.

The local news station reports that U.S. Customs and Border (CBP) Protection agents searched the cabins of Igedeboy Mardika (top photograph), a 28-year-old Indonesian national, and Sreerag Vazhayil (bottom photograph), a 32-year-old Indian national, at PortMiami on Sunday. CBP agents “discovered videos of both boys and girls being r**ed and s*xually abused by both men and women; the victims were as young as preschool-aged.”

Vazhayil possessed a “video of a man having s*x with a horse, while Mardika had three videos of women having s*x with a horse, a dog and a pig,” according to Miami-Dade Police. Mardika also distributed a child s*xual abuse video, police said, although the details of this charge were not disclosed.

Three questions:

Are cruise lines doing anything about this problem?

Which cruise line employs these two crew members?

And on which cruise ship? (If you are crew member and wish to remain anonymous, please contact us via direct message and we promise to protect your identity).

Epidemic of Child Po*******hy on Cruise Ships Continues As Two More Crew Members Are Arrested Content Warning: This article contains references to child s*xual abuse, animal abuse and s*xual assault of minors. Two crew members were arrested last

Fire 🔥 on the MSC Armonia ship operated by MSC Cruises 🚢 . . .

Predictably, MSC claims that the fire was allegedly "small" & "quickly put out" without "any danger to the passengers . . . "

lesson of the day: There is no such thing as a "small" fire on a ship . . .

(Accordingly to the Italian newspaper, "118 medical personnel were also sent to the site for preventive purposes, to assist the crew members who had acted in the initial stages of the firefighting action.")

Incendio (domato) a bordo di una nave da crociera a Marghera - Shipping Italy Le fiamme sulla Msc Armonia sono partite dalla lavanderia per cause ancora al vaglio degli esperti. Disposti sulla nave una serie di controlli pre-ripartenza

Early yesterday morning, a cruise passenger went overboard from the MSC Euribia while the cruise ship was sailing in the Sognefjord fjord between Lavik and Oppedal in Norway.

The Norwegian newspaper Bergens Tidende reports that a passenger “in his late 50’s,” who was traveling with his wife, went overboard around 2:00 a.m. early Thursday morning. The ship sounded an alarm around 2:15 a.m. There are no reported details currently available regarding how or why the person went overboard.

A rescue center in Southern Norway thereafter deployed a rescue helicopter, air ambulance, and several rescue vessels. A rescue boat was also deployed from the MSC ship.

The passenger’s body was located at around 3:00 a.m. and and recovered by a rescue vessel and then taken on board a rescue helicopter and flown to Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen where he was pronounced dead.

The newspaper quotes a local police officer as stating: “This is coded as a suspicious death. We have several hypotheses. It could be an accident, a criminal act, or an intentional act.”

This is the 411th person who has gone overboard since 2000, according to Dr. Ross Klein who maintains the definitive list of cruise ship overboards.

This is also the 7th person who has gone overboard from MSC cruise ships in less than the last seven months.

Passenger Overboard From the MSC Euribia Early yesterday morning, a cruise passenger went overboard from the MSC Euribia while the cruise ship was sailing in the Sognefjord fjord between Lavik

For decades, lines 🚢 have utilized century-old loopholes to avoid paying corporate taxes. They’ve gone to great lengths to bypass US employment laws, hiring foreign workers for less than $2/hour. They’ve sheltered themselves as foreign entities while simultaneously benefitting from US taxpayer-funded agencies and resources. Via The Hustle . . .

Article updated June 4, 2024.

“Cruise lines want to register somewhere where they pay no taxes, are exempt from labor and wage statues, and don’t have to follow health and safety codes,” says Jim Walker, a Miami-based lawyer. “They’re looking for a place that will leave them alone, not oversee their operations.”

Cruise ships hire crew members from Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and “anywhere else you can find people willing to work for nothing,” and demand grueling workloads in exchange for comparatively paltry wages.

The standard contract for a crew member like a cleaner or dishwasher requires a mandatory 308 hours per month — 11 hours a day, 7 days a week, for as long as 8-10 months, with no days off — for the equivalent of $400-700 per month, or $1.62 to $2.27 per hour.

The economics of cruise ships In the wake of coronavirus and tanking stocks, cruise companies have sought assistance from the US government. But for decades, the industry has done everything in its power to avoid paying into the system.

Crew members (who wish to remain anonymous) tell me that the two crew members arrested last Monday on child po*******hy charges worked for Carnival Cruise Line on the Carnival Conquest.

Iputuagus Karnawan (top photo) a/k/a Putu Karnawan reportedly worked in the galley as a cook and had previously worked on the Carnival Dream.

Imadewisma Dana (photo bottom) reportedly worked as a cook on the Carnival Conquest..

This brings the total number of crew (10) arrested for child p**n in the last 5 months to 3 RCCL cruise ships, 3 Disney ships, 2 Carnival ships, 1 Celebrity ship and 1 HAL ship.

Federal agents arrested a man with child s*xual abuse material on his phone 🎥📹📸 as he disembarked a Disney Cruise 🚢 at Port Everglades this past weekend, according to Local 10 News.

Dakota Anthony Ferguson, 22, of Columbus, Ohio, appeared in federal court in Fort Lauderdale on Monday on charges of transportation and possession of child po*******hy. Authorities arrested him after a border search of his cellphone after the Disney Magic returned to port on Saturday following a cruise to Cozumel, Mexico and Castaway Cay (Disney’s “private island” in the Bahamas).

According to Local 10 News, Ferguson was previously indicted in Ohio for engaging in “s*xual conduct” with a victim between the ages of 13 and 15 . . .

Disney Cruise Passenger With Child S*x Abuse Videos Arrested at Port Everglades Federal agents arrested a man with child s*xual abuse material on his phone as he disembarked a Disney cruise ship at Port Everglades this past weekend,

Two crew members, employed by unidentified cruise lines, are the latest cruise ship employees arrested on child s*xual abuse materials after they were apprehended yesterday at PortMiami with child po*******hy on their phones, according to local Miami NBC News Station 6.

Iputuagus Karnawan and Imadewisma Dana,, both age 28, were arrested at PortMiami on Monday.

In addition to these two crew members, eight other cruise ship employees have been arrested for possessing child s*xual abuse materials since February.

The cruise line and ship where they worked were not mentioned. Does anyone know who they worked for or the cruise ship?

Two Crew Members Arrested on Child Po*******hy Charges: Total of Ten Crew Members Arrested in Last Five Months Two crew members, employed by unidentified cruise lines, are the latest cruise ship employees arrested on child s*xual abuse materials after they were

A grand jury recently indicted a 27 year-old resident of Pennsylvania for strangling and beating a woman, who appears to be his girlfriend, during a cruise aboard a cruise ship operated by Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) to the Caribbean a year and a half ago. The U.S. Department of Justice charged Quintin Owens with three felonies earlier this week: (1) “assault of an intimate or dating partner by strangling,” (2) assault by striking, beating, or wounding,” and (3) interstate domestic violence.

Cruise Passenger on Norwegian Getaway Indicted on Felony Criminal Charges For Strangling and Beating Girlfriend A grand jury recently indicted a 27 year-old resident of Pennsylvania for strangling and beating a woman, who appears to be his girlfriend, during a