Safe Cruise

Will Carnival Cruise ship Captain be Charged with Murder and Abandoning Ship

2012-01-15T00:19:00.003-05:00

Carnival Cruise Lines and other Cruise Ship Corporations still do not care about the health and safety of their customers.

With the help of John McCain and the millions of dollars they spend on lobbying each year, they have prevented the passage of any meaningful legislation to improve safety and security on cruise ships. Royal Carribean is still incorporated in Liberia so they can avoid regulations, taxes, and corporate responsibility. The also flagged their ships for years there for the same reason. The millions of dollars they paid in fees helped finance Charles Tayor when he murdered close to 400,000 humans in Africa.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Taylor_(Liberia) ‏

LikeBain Capital and other private equity firms we have heard about, Cruise Lines only care about partying, profitting, and the bottom line. 173 individuals have gone overboard since 1975.
See Persons Overboard, 1995 - 2010
Cruise Ship Deaths
Hundreds of sexual assounts have occurred yet no one has been convicted.
CruiseRape.com
Some 50,000 people have become sick from over 250 illness outbreaks on cruise ships in the last 9 years.
having ships run aground is not new to the cruise industry See:
Ships that have Grounded, 1972 - 2010
Ships that have Sunk, 1979 - 2010

Cruise lines do not care about the environment:
Pollution and Environmental Violations and Fines
Disabling Accidents, Collisions, and Fires, 1990 - 2010

Captain of luxury cruise ship faces charges
(NECN: Scot Yount) - The captain of the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia now faces charges of manslaughter and abandoning ship, which was two and a half miles off course, according to the Italian Coast Guard.

The sight of the mighty ocean liner on its side just off the coast of an Italian resort island is frightening.

Three passengers from Little Rock, Ark., said after the ship hit the bottom, the ship was listing so badly they couldn't wait for the lifeboats.

"One of the boats was full of 200 people, went down and caught on the railing the lifeboat tipped sideways and then fell and swung and everybody was screaming," said Mark Plath.

All three jumped into the sea with about 150 other people.

"One of the crew members was actually telling us we need to stay on. And that's when Mark was saying no we don't need to stay on, because it was sinking so fast. Where we were standing is actually under water right now," said Justin Baines.

The accident happened just as many people were sitting down to dinner. The initial investigation shows the ship hit underwater rocks, ripping a 150 foot gash in the hull.
There were scenes of panic as passengers rushed to abandon ship. A cell phone video shot by Americans who were on board shows what many passengers are calling chaos.

"I can't believe our ship is sinking!" screams one person in the video.

Three people were confirmed dead. Most of the more than 4,200 people on board reached land by lifeboats.

About 70 people have not yet been accounted for.

This man told reporters that he heard a loud bang while in the restaurant and that he ended up in the water for an hour and a half.

Passengers complained there were no evacuation drills and that the crew of more than 1,000 was disorganized.

Twenty-eight-year-old Melissa Goduti, of Wallingford, Conn., spoke to the Associated Press about her ordeal.

"It was so unorganized, our evacuation drill was scheduled for 5 p.m.," said Goduti, who had set out on the cruise of the Mediterranean hours earlier. "We had joked, 'What if something had happened today?'"

Reportedly, some Braintree, Mass., residents were on board the ship, but were rescued unharmed.

At this point, divers are working inside the ship to look for survivors or the bodies of those who are still missing.

Disney Cruise Line Worker Missing From Ship ‎

2011-03-26T00:50:00.001-05:00

Worker on Disney Wonder cruise liner disappears off Mexican coast

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 5:35 PM on 25th March 2011

A crewmember on a Disney cruise ship has been reported missing at sea off the western coast of Mexico.

The Mexican navy, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Bahamian Maritime Authority are now leading the search for the woman, whose identity has not been released out of respect for her family.

Disney Cruise Lines spokesman Christi Donnan says the female crewmember was reported missing on Tuesday morning after she failed to report for a scheduled shift on the Disney Wonder.

Near-disaster Dec. 6 & 7 when wild waves struck cruise ship in dangerous passage between Cape Horn & Antarctica

2010-12-27T10:55:00.004-05:00

Posted on Mon, Dec. 27, 2010

Surviving 'the Drake Shake': Riding out an Antarctic-cruise nightmare

By FRANK DOUGHERTY

For the Daily News

...The Clelia was thrashing about in the high seas. The cresting waves smacked the vessel as if it were a shuttlecock. Then one wave leaped to the fifth deck and ripped away the handrail, flinging it against the pilot's compartment windshield.

It broke the window, and seawater roared into the compartment, knocking out our communications, including radar. In a matter of seconds we went "blind" in a raging storm hundreds of miles from shore.

The National Geographic Society Explorer, another nature-tour boat in the passage, responded to our distress signal...

For a couple of anxious hours, I feared that the ship would go down. Passengers were being thrown out of beds and flung across cabins. We were being rattled like dice in a casino. Other than bumps and bruises, however, there were no critical injuries.

A rescue at sea was out of the equation. There was no chance of lifeboats being launched in a sea so turbulent. And forget life jackets! Death from hypothermia was a given in these frigid waters.

The ship shrieked and moaned with the violent twisting as we were buffeted by winds gusting from 50 to 70 knots per hour, and waves three to four stories high.

The creaking created by the constant battering was the cry of a ship in pain. It sounded like a death rattle. I thought it was just a matter of time...

Spam-a-Lot, Sweat-a-Lot, New Themed Cruises from Carnival

2010-11-11T00:20:00.003-05:00

http://www.naturalnews.com/030354_Carnival_cruises_Pop-Tarts.html

Stranded cruise line passengers rescued with Spam and Pop-Tarts

(NaturalNews) The U.S. Navy thinks Pop-Tarts are "emergency food supplies." The 3,000 passengers stranded on a Carnival Cruise Line ship that suffered an engine fire failure are now being "rescued" with junk food. All the on-board food spoiled when the ship refrigeration failed after the fire, so U.S. Navy Seahawk helicopters have been airlifting food to the passengers to prevent them from having to miss a meal (because that would be unthinkable).

Well, the term "food" may be a stretch. The emergency supplies being dropped off include Spam, croissants and Pop-Tarts. The ingredients for Kellogg's Pop-Tarts include High Fructose Corn Syrup, artificial food coloring chemicals, soybean oil and processed wheat flour. I guess being on this ship is no carnival after all -- it's more like a diabetes camp, and by that I mean a camp to cause diabetes, not to cure it...

When I think of preparedness food, I don't think Pop-Tarts

That Carnival Cruise Lines and the U.S. Navy could somehow think that Spam and Pop-Tarts are rescue food is almost unimaginable. You would think they'd be far better off delivering some dried nuts, fresh oranges and superfood drink powders to keep the passengers alive. But no, they're living on Spam and Pop-Tarts.

Then again, maybe this is what the cruise line passengers expect. A cruise on a Carnival ship, after all, is primarily an exercise in gleeful gluttony, with free, unlimited food served every hour of the day and night. The sewage treatment sections of these ships are astonishing in their size and productivity. When they're actually functioning, that is. Toilet service was out on the ship for at least a day...

I suppose the idea that 3,000 Carnival Cruise Line passengers might fast for three days is unthinkable. Oh God no! These people might DIE if they don't get something to eat! So throw 'em some Pop-Tarts!

Cruise Ship Kills Humpback Whale

2010-07-29T21:13:00.003-05:00

Whale, Cruise Ship Crash - Collision With Sapphire Princess Kills Humpback Whale
The Hational Ledger
By Jim Roberts
7/29/10

A juvenile humpback whale collided with the 2,670-passenger Sapphire Princess cruise ship and the crash killed the whale. The whale was found stuck on the bow of the cruise ship, and federal authorities are investigating the incident, reports Newsoxy.

According to AOL Travel, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) spokeswoman, Julie Speegle, tells the Juneau Empire, the ship was south of Juneau near Tracy Arm, when the whale became lodged on the bow.

***

NOAA is conducting a necropsy on the animal.

Cruise ship passengers tell of deadly waves off Spain

2010-03-04T22:59:00.002-05:00

http://www.breitbart.com

Mar 4 01:48 PM US/Eastern
By JORGE SAINZ
Associated Press Writer

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) - The Mediterranean was heaving as the 68-year-old Italian stood in the cruise ship lounge. A moment later a monstrous wave shattered the windows and sent shards into her head, leaving her bleeding on the floor and calling out for her husband.

Torrents of water gushed into the Louis Majesty, pouring through several floors of the ship.

"I thought I would end up in the sea, drowned," said Anna Lita, who had a black eye and bandages on her head and hand Thursday.

The three waves that struck the Cypriot-owned ship Wednesday claimed two lives off the coast of northeast Spain. The vessel was carrying 1,350 passengers and 580 crew members, from a total of 27 countries.

Lita's husband Carlo, 69, who had been beside her on a sofa, was thrown in the air and ended up with five stitches in the head and a leg injury.

Another Italian, Giovanni Zanoni, said that after the waves blew out the windows of the lounge, the ceiling caved in and pandemonium broke out.

"People were screaming, panicking. They were grabbing life vests," Zanoni said. He said he saw one huge shard of glass hit a man in the face, killing him. It took a while to find the body because he was under the wreckage of the ceiling, Zanoni said.

The ship's owner and operator, Louis Cruise Lines, said the vessel was struck Wednesday by three "abnormally high" waves more than 33 feet (10 meters) high that broke glass windshields in the forward section on deck five, which is one of 10 used by passengers. Two people died and 14 were slightly hurt, the company said.

Large waves are not rare in the Mediterranean, but ones that size occur only once or twice a year, said Marta de Alfonso, an oceanographer with the Spanish government.

This accident happened in an area of the Mediterranean called the Gulf of Leon, which is known for big waves when storms hit...

400 People on Celebrity Cruise Ship Suffer from Gastrointestinal Illness that is Sweeping the Ship

2010-02-23T23:08:00.003-05:00

www.petergreenberg.com/

About one out of every four of the 1,800 passengers on the Celebrity Mercury has reported symptoms of upset stomachs, vomiting and diarrhea.
Keep reading to find out what the ship is doing to treat the outbreak and prevent it from spreading.According to a Celebrity Cruise spokeswoman, Cynthia Martinez, the ship’s crew is instructing passengers to stay in their cabins until the virus passes. The crew will also scour the ship with enhanced cleaning efforts.
Meanwhile, sick passengers have been given over-the-counter medications such as Pepto-Bismol and Imodium.

Celebrity brought on another doctor and two nurses Monday to help treat the hordes of ill passengers.
Although it is not apparent at this time what exactly is causing the stomach bug, the cruise line has sent some samples to a lab to be analyzed.
Spending any amount of time on a Caribbean cruise kneeling before the porcelain throne is a worst-case scenario for travelers. But Celebrity is giving passengers certificates for future cruises to help make up for the time spent in quarantine.
The 12-day cruise departed from Charleston, South Carolina on February 15. The Celebrity Mercury has six more departures scheduled in upcoming months.
By Dan Bence for PeterGreenberg.com.

Woman jumps overboard on Royal Caribbean Cruise ship near Bahamas

2010-01-02T00:34:00.004-05:00

Florida Today reports the Coast Guard is searching for a 23-year-old female cruise ship passenger who reportedly went overboard near the Bahamas about 4 a.m. today. She went overboard from the 12th deck of the ship near Nassau, Bahamas. The ship is scheduled to return to Port Canaveral on Saturday. According to RCCL, The guest was last seen at 3:45 a.m. At that time, the ship was sailing from Nassau to Coco Cay, Bahamas. As soon as the guest was reported missing, various public announcements were made onboard and a complete search of the ship, as well of CocoCay, was initiated. Shipboard closed-circuit camera footage captured the guest going overboard on deck 11, portside at approximately 4:11 a.m. Government officials have reviewed the footage and determined that the guest jumped overboard.

131 individuals have gone overboard since the year 2000.

2009 was the worst year with 25. Many of the deaths were never investigated thoroughly and were never solved. Foul play should be considered for all incidents until they are fully investigated. The Cruise Lines continue to tell the media that this is a rare occurence. Nothing has improved since our cruise in 2005 when a beloved and respected couple fell overboard and died and the ship did not return to where they fell for over 12 hours and then there was no investigation of their murder. In the most recent case, the captain was not even notified of the death until 8 hours later. If somone died or was injured in a bar or a restaurant could they get away with waiting 8 hours before reporting it. Negligence by the cruise line and perhaps Congress? There have been recent congressional hearings but no effective legislation.
Then again why would any of the cruise lines be concerned about the death of one customer?

http://safecruise.blogspot.com/2006/04/did-royal-caribbean-and-celebrity.html
“How & Why Did Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines Help Liberian Dictator, Charles Taylor Brutally Kill over 300,000 Individuals in Africa in the 1990’s?”

Cruise Ship Crew Member Goes Overboard

2009-12-11T22:53:00.001-05:00

wokv.com

(AP) __ The Coast Guard has located a cruise ship crew-member who went overboard near Miami.

Petty Officer Barry Bena says 31-year-old Robert Mado was located in the waters off Cutler Bay about two hours after the Royal Caribbean's Majesty of the Seas issued a distress call Friday morning.

Bena says the crew-member is reported to be in good condition. The ship was about five miles off the Fowey Rocks near Biscayne Bay when Mado went overboard.

No further details were available on how he ended up in the water.

The Majesty of the Seas was en route to Miami from Key West.

Cruise ship trapped in ice for four days

2009-11-17T13:25:00.002-05:00

http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/cruise-ship-stuck-in-antarctic-ice-3153483

More than 100 penguin-loving tourists including dozens from Britain are trapped by ice off Antarctica aboard a Russian ice-breaker cruise ship, officials and the tour operator said on Monday.

The Kapitan Khlebnikov is in a bay near Snow Hill island, located off the northeastern end of the Antarctic Peninsula, and cannot leave as the bay is sealed off with ice, the Russian transportation ministry said.

"The wind has currently slowed down in the area and the massing of the ice has ended. Everything is calm aboard the ice-breaker, nothing is threatening the passengers and crew," the ministry said in a statement.

"When the wind changes to a favourable direction, the ice-breaker will head into clear water and on to the port of Ushuaia," at the extreme southern end of Argentina, the ministry predicted.

There were 105 passengers aboard the vessel and the total delay in the ship's scheduled trip could be around two days, it added.

The ship has been at its current location for four days, German Kuzin, an official with the Far Eastern Shipping Company, the ship's owner, said in televised remarks.

"There's nothing to worry about there," Kuzin said. "To put it plainly, the ship got stuck between an island and an ice massif."

Another Whale Killed by Princess Cruise Ship

2009-07-29T20:26:00.002-05:00

http://www.motherjones.com/

A Supposedly Fun Thing That Seems To Kill Whales
— By Mark Follman Tue July 28, 2009 9:42 AM PST

Over the weekend, an adult fin whale—a threatened species in Canada—turned up dead in the waters at a cruise ship terminal in Vancouver. The rare marine giant was impaled on the bow of the “Sapphire Princess,” a Princess Cruises’ ship arriving from Alaska.But according to my source, two passengers who arrived on the Sapphire Princess in Vancouver this weekend said that several passengers on the ship had seen whales swimming around and under the ship as it traveled the Inside Passage cruise route just north of Vancouver Island.
Spaven, the DFO spokesperson, told the Vancouver Sun that she believes the whale was struck north of Vancouver Island, since fin whales aren’t normally found in the straits closer to Vancouver.
The Inside Passage is famously rich with marine wildlife and is a crucial habitat and migratory route for whales. As the Sun also reports: “This is the second time in the last 10 years that a cruise vessel has come into the Port of Vancouver with a whale caught on the bow. In that instance, in June of 1999, the Celebrity Cruise vessel MV Galaxy collided with an adult male fin whale, which likely happened as the ship transited the Hecate Strait north of Vancouver Island.”

Murder on Carnival Cruise Ship Elation

2009-07-16T19:07:00.002-05:00

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com

Husband arrested in woman's death aboard cruise ship
3:00 PM July 16, 2009
A 55-year-old San Fernando Valley man has been arrested on suspicion of murder in the death of his wife while the two were on an ocean cruise to Mexico, the FBI said.
Robert McGill of Winnetka was arrested after the ship docked today in San Diego.
McGill and his wife, Shirley, 55, were on a five-day Carnival Cruise Lines voyage aboard the ship Elation when ship's personnel went to their cabin Tuesday to investigate a possible domestic disturbance. Shirley McGill was found dead, the FBI said.
FBI agents, ferried by a Coast Guard cutter, boarded the Elation and this morning FBI evidence technicians searched the 2,052-passenger ship when it docked in San Diego.
The FBI has authority in the case under federal maritime law.

LA man arrested in wife's high-seas deathHe declined to release any details of the death, but a statement from Carnival Cruise Lines said the woman was killed on Tuesday evening after the couple got into a dispute in their cabin. The man was taken to the ship's brig and a guard was posted on the cabin, which was secured as a crime scene, Slotter said. The FBI sent about 20 agents to the ship in a U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Wednesday night while the ship was at sea, and they spent the night interviewing the suspect ...SignOnSanDiego.com: Nation - http://www3.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/

Cruise ship industry reverses stance, backs federal safety bill

2009-07-06T22:52:00.002-05:00

www.latimes.com/business
The legislation would make shipboard crime reporting mandatory and require installation of security latches and peepholes on cabin doors, among other measures.
By Kimi Yoshino July 7, 2009
The nation's cruise ship industry, in a turnaround from its long-standing position that no additional government oversight is needed, on Monday endorsed proposed federal safety legislation, paving the way for increased security measures on cruise ships.Cruise Lines International Assn., the industry's chief lobbying and advocacy organization representing 24 member cruise lines, sent a letter of support to Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), one of the bill's co-sponsors. Association President Terry Dale said in the letter that he would work to ensure the passage of the comprehensive security bill.

If it passes, the bill would make shipboard crime reporting mandatory and require installation of security latches and peepholes on cabin doors. Ship physicians would also have to be trained in sexual assault examinations.Ken Carver, president and founder of International Cruise Victims, called the shift "a historic moment.""I think they've really taken a lot of heat and I'm glad to see them joining forces," Carver said, adding that he believes with the cruise industry's backing the bill will pass.
The $38-billion-a-year industry had maintained that cruises were one of the safest forms of vacationing and that its own self-regulation was adequate. But in recent years, after several high-profile reports of missing persons and sexual assaults, cruise lines had increasingly come under scrutiny.If the bill passes it would be a significant victory for safety advocates, who have long alleged that the industry skirts regulation by registering its vessels in foreign countries to avoid U.S. labor laws and income tax.The industry requested one major concession: deletion of an amendment to the Death on the High Seas Act that would have allowed surviving relatives to recover damages for their emotional suffering and bereavement, as well as any pain and suffering the victim may have experienced before death.Under the existing law, survivors of people who die at sea can only recover lost wages or burial expenses. If a retired person died, for example, family members would get little if any money, Miami maritime attorney James Walker said.The legislation would also clarify the long-debated issue of crime reporting. The bill would establish a reporting structure based on the current voluntary reporting guidelines.Each ship would be required to maintain a logbook to record all deaths, missing persons, alleged crimes, and complaints of theft, sexual harassment and assault. That data would also be posted on a website maintained by the Coast Guard.kimi.yoshino@latimes.com

Royal Caribbean: A floating nation where you are free to do whatever you want

2009-06-27T00:35:00.006-05:00

The Nation of Why Not launched by Royal Caribbean
Described as a floating nation where you are free to do whatever you want, Royal Caribbean has pushed the boundaries of imagination and innovation with there latest ad campaign. With the launch of the new brand concept - Nation of Why Not, the statement from Royal Caribbean is ‘anything is possible’. The new brand poses questions such as why not climb mountains at sea, ice-skate on the Equator or sunbathe past glaciers?
WHY NOT commit sexual assault on a cruise ship and never worry about being prosecuted. (Even though there have been hundreds of sexual assualts on cruise lines, there has been no convictions over the last forty years)
WHY NOT fall off a cruise ship and never have your death investigated.
WHY NOT take a cruise and be exposed to the Nova virus or the novel H1N1 virus and watch the ship be quarantined.
WHY NOT provide the foreign cruise companies with untaxed profits and help them pollute the deep blue sea at the same time.

Travel Attorney and former general counsel for cruise line reveals massive cover-ups: cruise lines protect their reputation not passengers

2009-06-24T21:18:00.005-05:00

eturbonews.com

They are powerful because it is this multi-multi-billion dollar industry and, like the aviation industry...So they are trying to be protective, and the consumer doesn’t have the rights that he or she needs...

just tell these ships: if you take the millions of US passengers that you do, you better collect evidence if there’s a crime. You better not try to cover it up, and you better report to the Coast Guard, the FBI, Homeland Security...We have such a need for the security. And, again, using this as an area I testify to sometimes as an expert witness, the security is more engaged in keeping the outside duty-free liquor off the ship so the passengers are forced to buy the cutsie little drinks with the umbrellas, than sometimes concentrating on security while on board. That’s a different need. There are thieves on board. You’ve got close surroundings on board. You have a lot of drinking on board. You have a lot of assaults and a lot of rapes. And, people can’t do much, especially if they’re part of the crew. And, this is wrong. This has got to be protected as a basic human right; protect those people that are working for you or are paying good money to be passengers...We’ve got to be able to make the cruise lines keep this information, not engage in cover ups. Turn it over and cooperate. That’s the biggest part of the legislation. And, what legislator could disagree with that? That tells somebody, if there is some incident happening on your ship, you’re not to cover up, you’re to assist with the authorities...

Some Things Oprah should know about deaths on cruise ships & the evil cruise companies‏

2009-06-23T00:08:00.002-05:00

Oprah Winfrey treating her staff to Mediterranean cruise
www.suntimes.com
June 19, 2009
BY MARK BIEGANSKI Staff Reporter
Oprah Winfrey : the world's greatest boss?
For the second time in recent years, she's making a strong case for that title by taking her entire staff and their families on vacation. This time they're going on a lavish Mediterranean cruise.Winfrey and her staff will leave Chicago on Saturday. The cruise ship will stop in Spain, Italy, Turkey, Greece and Malta. She is covering transportation, food, drinks and activities at port stops.
In 2005, Winfrey celebrated the end of her "Wildest Dreams" season by surprising her staff with an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii.
According to Chicago-based Best Travel, a cruise like the one Winfrey is taking her staff on costs about $5,400 a person. The billionaire employs more than 100 people at her Chicago based TV production company which recently featured an interview with the parents of missing toddler Madeleine McCann.

Speaking of missing persons:
Since the year 2000, 116 cruise ship passengers have gone overboard.
http://www.cruisejunkie.com/Overboard.html

I hope her staff did some research before planning the cruise. The cruise lines are some of the greediest, unethical, profit grabbing corporations on earth. They employ individuals from third world countries under sweat shop conditions which are just a step away from slavery. With the help of John McCain and the millions of dollars they spend on lobbying each year, they have prevented the passage of any meaningful legislation to improve safety and security on cruise ships. Royal Carribean is still incorporated in Liberia so they can avoid regulations, taxes, and corporate responsibility. The also flagged their ships for years there for the same reason. The millions of dollars they paid in fees helped finance Charles Tayor when he murdered close to 400,000 humans in Africa.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Taylor_(Liberia) . Winfrey had her DNA tested for the 2006 PBS program African American Lives. The genetic test determined that her maternal line originated among the Kpelle ethnic group, in the area that today is Liberia. I started my blog in 2005 after two grandparents were murdered on the carnival cruise ship we were on and there was no investigation. They didn't even turn the ship around to look for the bodies for over 8 hours. I also have evidence that the cruise lines have threatened a newspaper to kill a story that put the industry in bad light. I hope somenone can share this with Oprah's staff.

115 individuals have gone overboard since the year 2000. Many of the deaths were never investigated thoroughly and were never solved. Foul play should be considered for all incidents until they are fully investigated. The Cruise Lines continue to tell the media that this is a rare occurence. Nothing has improved since our cruise in 2005 when a beloved and respected couple fell overboard and died and the ship did not return to where they fell for over 12 hours and then there was no investigation of their murder. In the most recent case, the captain was not even notified of the death until 8 hours later. If somone died or was injured in a bar or a restaurant could they get away with waiting 8 hours before reporting it. Negligence by the cruise line and perhaps Congress? There have been recent congressional hearings but no effective legislation. Then again why would any of the cruise lines be concerned about the death of one customer? http://safecruise.blogspot.com/2006/04/did-royal-caribbean-and-celebrity.html"How & Why Did Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines Help Liberian Dictator, Charles Taylor Brutally Kill over 300,000 Individuals in Africa in the 1990's?"
How many more people must get killed at the intersection before we put up a stoplight? We are mad as hell and we are not going to take it anymore. Take a cruise that is. Americans should be encouraged to travel domestically until independent law enforcement is on every cruise ship.

Second time in less than a month a passenger went overboard from a Carnival cruise ship based in the Gulf

2009-06-17T00:15:00.002-05:00

Cruise passenger still
WALA-TV FOX10 - ‎1 hour ago‎
"Find her." Vilborg's disappearance marks the second time in less than a month a passenger went overboard from a Carnival cruise ship based in the Gulf.

Cruising into trouble
Tampabay.com - ‎2 hours ago‎
So far this year, 12 passengers or crewmen have gone overboard from cruise ships or ferries. That includes the Alabama woman still missing after a Tuesday ...

Carnival Cruise Passenger falls Overboard at 4 AM and is Rescued by Crew Members

2009-06-15T22:28:00.002-05:00

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=3269

June 15, 2009 - (4:20 p.m. EDT)

-- A passenger who went overboard from Carnival Inspiration was rescued this morning when he was found hugging a pilot marker in a shipping channel.According to a Coast Guard news release, "Crewmembers from a pilot vessel rescued a man at about 6:50 a.m. Monday, about one mile southeast of Mullet Key, in Fort Desoto, in St. Petersburg."The man was identified by the Coast Guard as Larry Miller, 46, who told the pilot crew that he had gone overboard from the cruise ship at approximately 4 a.m.According to a statement from Carnival Cruise Lines, "The guest told authorities that he climbed up on a railing to get a better view of the pilot boat when he slipped and fell overboard." Miller was taken to a hospital to be treated for injuries.Interestingly, Carnival did not know the man had gone overboard until reports surfaced of his rescue. He had not been reported missing at that time. The Coast Guard is investigating the incident.Carnival Inspiration was returning to Tampa from a four-night Western Caribbean cruise that departed on Thursday, June 11. The ship is scheduled to depart on a five-night cruise this afternoon as scheduled.--by Dan Askin, Associate Editor

Teenager falls overboard from Carnival cruise ship originating in New Orleans

2009-05-25T13:30:00.002-05:00

http://www.nola.com
by The Times-Picayune
Monday May 25, 2009, 11:35 AM
A cruise ship headed to Key West from New Orleans lost a passenger Sunday evening when an 18-year-old man fell overboard, the Coast Guard said. The call came in at 9:45 p.m., said Petty Officer Nick Ameen, a Coast Guard spokesman in Miami. A teenager, likely a member of a high school group celebrating graduation, had fallen into the water. Now, almost 14 hours later, the man is still missing, Ameen said. Helicopters, a C-130 Hercules and the Coast Guard Cutter Nantucket are still scouring the ocean about 150 miles off the Florida coast from Tampa Bay. The cruise ship, the Carnival Fantasy, circled the area until 2:30 a.m., before proceeding on to Key West, Ameen said. Ameen said he didn't have any identification for the teenager, but WWL-TV is reporting his name is Bruce O'Krepki of Hammond, a recent graduate St. Thomas Aquinas High School.

Crews search Gulf for missing teen
http://www.wafb.com

Increasinag Number of Cases of Swine Flu on Cruise Ships

2009-05-23T23:23:00.002-05:00

Swine flu threat becoming more serious: Roxon
ABC Online - ‎1 hour ago‎
Speaking to Channel Nine, Ms Roxon also defended authorities who quarantined a cruise ship in Sydney because of a swine flu scare yesterday. ...
Swine Flu Cases Surge Above 10000
Voice of America - ‎May 20, 2009‎
Health authorities say the 52-year-old Australian man arrived in Taipei on Monday, after working as a doctor on a cruise ship in the northeastern US state ...
Second Cruise Ship Reports Possible Swine Flu Among Crew
CruiseCritic.co.uk - ‎May 13, 2009‎
At this point, it is unknown whether the H1N1 virus is present. However, when the ship arrived in Barbados this morning, information about the illness and ...
Fears swine flu has spread in South Australian schools
Adelaidenow - ‎3 hours ago‎
ALMOST 3000 passengers on a cruise ship from Hawaii were held up for five hours in Sydney for tests after several showed flu symptoms. ...
Doctors on alert
Tasmania Mercury - ‎5 hours ago‎
Also yesterday the P&O cruise ship Dawn Princess spent five hours in quarantine in Sydney after four of its 3000 passengers and crew were tested for the ...
Thousands held in harbour quarantine
The Age - ‎14 hours ago‎
NEARLY 3000 passengers and crew were quarantined on a cruise ship in Sydney Harbour yesterday due to a swine flu scare, before being allowed ashore but ...
Swine Flu Diagnosed In Cruise Ship Crew Member SmartAboutHealthBoston (SmartAboutHealth) - It is being reported that a crew member working aboard the Serenade of the Seas cruise ship has been diagnosed with swine flu.
The ship was cruising through the waters of Alaska at the time of the diagnosis, making this case the first to be reported in the state.

Crew member aboard a cruise ship in Alaska waters is recovering from what health officials suspect is swine flu

2009-05-10T20:57:00.002-05:00

seattletimes.nwsource.com

Swine flu suspected in crew member on cruise ship

By MARY PEMBERTON
Associated Press Writer
ANCHORAGE, Alaska —
A crew member aboard a cruise ship in Alaska waters is recovering from what health officials suspect is swine flu.
The female crew member of the Serenade of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean ship, became ill May 2 while sailing from San Francisco northward. The woman was isolated two days later and was treated with antiviral medication, Dr. Jay Butler, Alaska's chief medical officer, said Sunday.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified Alaska health officials over the weekend that there was a probable case of swine flu aboard the ship.
Testing was performed at the Washington State Public Health Laboratory and forwarded to the CDC. The CDC is in the process of validating the results, which were expected Monday.
In the meantime, the state conducted its own testing on a sample taken in Ketchikan when the ship docked there. That sample was sent Friday to the new virology lab at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and came back negative on Saturday.
Those results were not a surprise, Butler said, because the woman had already been three days on Tamiflu, an anti-viral medication effective against swine flu, and for several days had no fever.
The swine flu has been blamed for 53 deaths worldwide, including 48 in Mexico, three in the U.S., one in Canada and one in Costa Rica.
Confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization and CDC are more than 4,500 in 29 countries, including at least 1,626 in Mexico, at least 2,532 in the United States and 280 in Canada.
On April 18, before embarking for Alaska, the Serenade of the Seas departed San Juan, Puerto Rico. During the 14-night Panama Canal voyage it visited Huatulco and Acapulco, Mexico.
On May 2, the ship departed San Francisco for a 14-night voyage to southeast Alaska and Canada.
No other cases of suspected swine flu have been diagnosed aboard the ship.
Butler said the ship's medical staff followed strict isolation procedures to prevent the spread of the illness.

The pirates would have boarded had some passengers not fought them off with chairs being thrown overboard as they were clambering up the side

2009-05-03T21:11:00.003-05:00

Kiwi slams security in pirate attack.
/tvnz.co.nz
One of the New Zealander passengers on board a cruise ship attacked by pirates says the danger of the situation has been down played to the media by the ship's captain.
The MSC Melody was over 900 kilometres off the Somali coast last Saturday, with 62 New Zealanders on board, when it was attacked.
Passenger Lorraine Adams told her mother, Barbara Newton from Nelson, in an email there was a lot to be disclosed when the ship docked as "really and truly, security weren't expecting this", the Sunday Star Times reports.
"The pirates would have boarded had some passengers not fought them off with chairs being thrown overboard as they were clambering up the side but then security of ours started the gunfire and, of course, pirates from their boat were letting us have it as well," she emailed.
"Captain said he took 4000 phone calls from CNN, NBC, BBC and of course every possible radio and TV station from around the world but everyone feels he has covered his own backside re security on that night."
The ship's captain, Ciro Pinto, said afterwards the attack had felt like "war".
One passenger and one crew member were injured by broken glass from windows shattered by gunfire, but the other 990 passengers were not injured. MSC Cruises chief executive Pier Francesco Vago said the ship's radar did not pick up the speed boat used by the pirates and it had arrived unexpectedly.
When bullets were fired the captain realised they were under attack and crew herded passengers into their cabins and got them to switch their lights off, he told Radio New Zealand last week.
He played down reports of security staff on the ship having had a shootout with the pirates.
The captain had zig-zagged the ship, the crew had sprayed the pirates with hoses and fired two warning shots in the air and the pirates had given up, Vago said.
A Spanish warship had intercepted a skiff carrying nine suspected Somali pirates believed to have attacked an Italian cruise ship

While rare, pirate attacks on cruise ships a cause for concern

2009-04-28T23:01:00.002-05:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30442086

by Michael Ventre
msnbc.com contributor
updated 9:45 a.m. ET, Tues., April 28, 2009

On Saturday night, the Italian cruise ship MSC Melody, with 1,500 passengers aboard, was attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia. Thanks to private Israeli security forces on the cruise ship who fired at the pirates, the assault was thwarted and the marauders were driven off.
Last December, the Oceania luxury cruise ship Nautica took evasive measures and outran a pirate ship off the coast of Yemen. In 2005, the Seabourn cruise ship Spirit, carrying 150 passengers and a crew of 160, was approached by two small boats filled with pirates armed with assault rifles and a grenade launcher. The captain of the Spirit took responsive action, even trying to ram one of the pirate boats, before eventually outrunning the bandits.
While pirate attacks on commercial ships have become more frequent of late, assaults on cruise ships remain rare. Still, rare is enough to cause some concern...
...Last year, more than 130 merchant ships were attacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden, an increase of more than 200 percent from the previous year, according to the International Maritime Bureau. Earlier this year, to step up security in the region, the CTF 151, a counter-piracy naval force, was formed by the U.S. (It recently turned over command to Turkey.) That is the fourth such naval group in the region, joining those sponsored by the European Union, NATO and the French.

Cruise lines cancel Mexico stops over flu fear

2009-04-28T22:14:00.002-05:00

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D97RO6K85&show_article=1
MIAMI (AP) - At least three cruise lines have canceled stops at popular ports in Mexico over concerns about swine flu, while those that haven't are assuring passengers the ships are clean and risk is low because most reported illnesses there are inland.
Travel agents say customers are still booking trips that include visits to destinations like Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan, but those itineraries are likely to change if the outbreak gets much worse. The federal government has warned against nonessential travel to Mexico.
Jennifer Michaels, an Atlanta real estate broker, is stocking up on antiseptic wipes ahead of a five-day Carnival Cruise Lines voyage leaving Miami on Thursday.

She hoped Carnival would skip a planned stop in Cozumel, but said she and her friends would go even if it didn't. "We'd probably still go and then just stay on the ship if they stop," she said. "I don't know if that would do any good anyways, but that's what we'd do." Michaels got her wish. After cancelling three scheduled stops in Mexico on Tuesday, the company said it would suspend all calls in the country for every ship now at sea and those leaving between Thursday and May 4.
Carnival is offering alternate ports on many trips, but will allow customers to reschedule if they wish.

Cruise lines: No plans to cancel calls in Mexico due to swine flu

2009-04-27T17:28:00.001-05:00

www.usatoday.com

Several major cruise lines with ships sailing to Mexico this week say they have no plans to cancel or alter the voyages despite global worries about a potentially deadly outbreak of swine flu in the country.
Industry giants Carnival and Royal Caribbean both say in statements today they are monitoring the situation in Mexico but will go ahead with itineraries that include calls in the country over the next few days.
Four Carnival ships are scheduled to call on Mexican ports Tuesday: the Carnival Paradise and Elation in Ensenada, the Carnival Inspiration and Holiday in Cozumel.
"We do not anticipate that our guests' cruise experience will be impacted by this type of illness and will not be making any adjustments to our itineraries," the line said in an updated statement issued late Monday. An earlier version of the statement today had said there was no evidence of a pandemic.
ALSO ONLINE: Passenger describes coming under fire during pirate attackALSO ONLINE: USA TODAY's Veronica Stoddart blogs live from European river cruiseALSO ONLINE: The secret to shore excursions in the Mediterranean?
Royal Caribbean's statement noted it will conduct enhanced sanitizing of all high-touch areas on ships visiting Mexico and take other measures aimed at reducing the transfer of illness. Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas is scheduled to call Tuesday at Cabos San Lucas, Mexico.
A spokeswoman for Princess Cruises also tells USA TODAY the line plans to go ahead with calls in Mexico in coming days as several of its ships reposition to Alaska for the summer.
Two Princess ships, the Sapphire Princess and Coral Princess, are scheduled to call in Mexico on Tuesday -- in Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas, respectively. Both ships have additional calls in Mexico scheduled for later in the week as does a third Princess ship, the Star Princess."We're taking extra precautions and will follow guidance from health authorities," Princess' Julie Benson tells USA TODAY. "Our ships and medical staff are well prepared to handle a contagious disease, and we'll also be stepping up screening."
Another major line that visits Mexico, Norwegian Cruise Line, already has finished its winter season of voyages to the country and doesn't have ships scheduled to call again until the fall, says a spokeswoman.
A spokeswoman for Celebrity Cruises tells USA TODAY the line, which is just finishing its winter season in Mexico, will go ahead with one final cruise to the country now underway. The Celebrity Infinity is scheduled to visit Huatulco, Mexico on May 5, Puerto Vallarta on May 7 and Cabo San Lucas on May 8.
As worries about the outbreak have grown since Saturday, a number of individual countries as well as the health commissioner for the European Union have urged citizens to postpone or cancel non-essential travel to Mexico. Many airlines, including Continental, American, United and USAirways are waiving penalties for customers who want to postpone trips.

Armed Guards and Cruise ship's security force fends off attack by pirates

2009-04-26T23:31:00.002-05:00

news.scotsman.com

Published Date: 27 April 2009
By NICOLE WINFIELD
IN ROME
AN ITALIAN cruise ship with 1,500 people on board fended off a pirate attack 500 miles off the coast of Somalia when its Israeli private security force exchanged fire with the bandits.
The MSC Melody was 200 miles north of the Seychelles during a 22-day cruise from Durban to Genoa, Italy, when six men in a small, white boat approached at about 5:30pm on Saturday and opened fire with automatic weapons.Domenico Pellegrino, the cruise's director, said the pirates retreated after the security officers returned fire and sprayed them with water hoses. The ship then continued its journey, with windows darkened.None of the 1,000 passengers or 500 crew were hurt."It felt like we were in war," said Ciro Pinto, the ship's commander. "They tried to put a ladder up. They were starting to climb up but we reacted, we started to fire ourselves. When they saw our fire, and also the water from the water hoses that we started to spray, they left." Mr Pellegrino said all MSC cruise ships were staffed with Israeli security agents because they are "the best trained".This is not the first attack on a cruise liner. However, Saturday's exchange of fire between the Melody and pirates is one of the first reported between pirates and a non-military ship. But Andrew Mwangura, of the Mombasa-based East African Sea Farers Assistance Programme, said: "Having weapons on a passenger or merchant ship is dangerous. They should have used other means to shake off the pirates, like a loud acoustic device."MSC Melody is proceeding to the Jordanian port of Aqaba under the escort of a Spanish warshship.

news.bbc.co.uk
BBC: Italian cruise ship foils pirates

General Petraeus tells Congress that Ships should consider armed guards

2009-04-24T21:52:00.002-05:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090425/ap_on_go_co/us_us_piracy
By LARA JAKES, Associated Press Writer Lara Jakes, Associated Press Writer – WASHINGTON – The global shipping industry should consider placing armed guards on its boats to ward off pirates who have become increasingly violent, the U.S. military commander who oversees the African coastline said Friday.
Gen. David Petraeus, who came to the Capitol to talk about a wide variety of issues, told a House committee Friday that just trying to outrun or block pirates from boarding cargo ships isn't enough to deter sea bandits off the Somali coast who are becoming more aggressive. The Pentagon is starting to study how to better protect merchant shipping, but hasn't yet come up with a formal plan. The shipping industry has resisted arming their boats, which would deny them port in some nations.

In response to questions from a House Appropriations subcommittee, Petraeus said defensive preparations short of armed guards "can work. You can have water hoses and others that can make it more difficult."
But in a wry tone, he added: "It's tough to be on the end of a water hose if the other guy is on the end of an RPG. So you've got to think your way through that calculation as well." An RPG is a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. Naval forces from several nations currently patrol the waters that Petraeus described as many times the size of Texas. But he said there is no way for any military to be able to safeguard all commercial ships that ply those waters.

The region is one of the world's most crucial shipping lanes, with oil vessels and other merchant ships carrying billions of dollars worth of cargo. Authorities say pirates are well aware that ship owners have been willing to pay an average of $2 million ransom for each seized ship.
Petraeus said the Navy would continue to patrol the region, but added that some shippers in the past hadn't taken even basic steps to avoid pirates. "We started off by saying, 'If you just speed up, when the pirates approach you that will help. If you take evasive action, that's even better. And if you unbolt the ladder that allows the pirates to climb onto your ship before you set sail, you get extra credit for that,'" Petraeus said. "These were not being taken before."

Joe Cox, president of the Chamber of Shipping of America, cautioned that deploying armed guards aboard cargo ships could escalate violence if pirates expect a gunfight. "If you asked us two weeks ago, we would say, 'No guns on ships,'" Cox said Friday. "Now the reaction is, 'Let's talk.' That's not a ringing endorsement of going in that direction. But we know, under the current circumstances, something has to be done."
The Washington-based trade association represents 32 shipping companies. Cox also called on the government to remain committed to securing the high seas. "We don't want them to abrogate the responsibility," he said. Pirates have hijacked more than 100 ships off the Somali coast over the last year, including one in a dramatic standoff between pirates and the U.S. Navy earlier this month in the Indian Ocean. A U.S. sea captain was held hostage for five days before three of his captors were shot and killed by Navy SEALS. A fourth pirate is now being held in New York, where he awaits prosecution.

Man Missing After Falling Off Norwegian Cruise Lines Ship

2009-04-19T11:41:00.003-05:00

http://news.aol.com/article/cruise-ship-missing-man/434425

AP
posted: 5 HOURS 44 MINUTES AGO
comments: 202
filed under: World News
MIAMI, Fla. (April 19) - The Coast Guard has suspended its search for a 39-year-old man who went overboard a Norwegian Cruise Line ship off the Bahamas. Passengers on a Norwegian cruise ship, seen here in an undated file photo, watched as a 39-year-old man fell overboard near the Bahamas early Saturday morning, officials said. The Coast Guard said it suspended its search for the man Saturday evening after patrolling 590 square miles. Click through this gallery to learn about others who have been lost at Sea.

The incident happened early Saturday morning, about 60 miles north of Nassau. The man was not immediately identified, but fellow passengers saw him go overboard. The ship was headed to Nassau, its first port of call on a three-day voyage. Several cruise ships in the area were assisting Coast Guard crews in the search. The Coast Guard says in a release that it suspended its search around 8 p.m. Saturday after searching 590 square miles.

New Plan To Tackle Somali Pirates Outlined by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

2009-04-15T18:17:00.005-05:00

www.rttnews.com

4/15/2009 4:07 PM ET (RTTNews) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary

Clinton on Wednesday outlined a four-step strategy to tackle the escalating piracy problem off the coast of Somalia."We may be dealing with a 17th-century crime, but we need to bring 21st century assets to bear," Clinton told reporters at the State Department.The four-point plan announced by Secretary Clinton included expanding international efforts to fight piracy in the Gulf of Aden, tracking and freezing the assets of pirates, promoting the deployment of defense mechanisms on board ships and improving the situation in Somalia.She said that the United States would send an envoy to the Somali donors conference in Brussels on April 23 to discus ways to improve conditions in the Horn of Africa country, which has not had a proper functioning government since the fall of the last government in 1991. "Our envoy will work with other partners to help the Somalis assist us in cracking down on pirate bases and in decreasing incentives for young Somali men to engage in piracy," she said.She said that she will discuss ways of expanding the international anti-piracy operations in the region with countries that have already deployed naval vessels in the Gulf of Aden to combat escalating piracy there.

Secretary Clinton stressed on the importance of tracking and freezing assets of the pirates, stating that it was "time to eliminate the financial payoff of piracy." She also reiterated the U.S. policy of "making no concessions or ransom payments to hostage takers."She also reminded the shipping industry that it too has a responsibility in contributing to the fight against piracy and said that she has instructed the U.S. State Department to "work with shippers and the insurance industry to address gaps in their self-defense measures."The Gulf of Aden, which is one of the world's busiest sea lanes, has been affected by piracy in recent months and more than hundred pirate attacks have been reported in the waters off Somalia since the beginning of 2008. Generally, the crew and the vessels are returned unharmed on receiving the demanded ransom. The pirate attacks off the Somali coast have escalated in recent weeks despite the presence of some 20 warships, deployed by navies of the NATO, the European Union, Russia, China, and India, in the region to protect cargo and cruise ships against piracy.The UN Security Council also has approved four resolutions since June to promote international efforts to fight the escalating piracy problem off the coast of Somalia, and has authorized counties engaged in anti-piracy operations to conduct land and air attacks on the pirates after obtaining prior permission from the Somali government. by RTT Staff Writer

A search and rescue operation continues for an Indian tourist, who went missing after he accidentally fell from a cruise ship off Kendi Island

2009-04-14T20:54:00.005-05:00

www.bernama.com

April 14, 2009 20:06 PM

PENANG, April 14 (Bernama) -- A search and rescue operation for an Indian tourist, who went missing after he accidentally fell from a cruise ship off Kendi Island, continues as searchers have yet to find any sign of him.Penang marine police operation officer DSP Rosli Sufien said the operation was jointly conducted by the police, Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, Marine Department, and Fire and Rescue Department."We have not found any sign of the victim until late this afternoon," he said when contacted today.Shetty Noojady Nithyananda, 49, went missing while his wife was rescued after they accidentally fell from a cruise ship about 15 nautical miles south of Pulau Kendi at 10.20am yesterday.Rosli said police had yet to ascertain how the couple fell from the ship, which was heading for Penang from Singapore.He said police had yet to record a statement from the victim's wife, Shetty Kasturi Nithyanda, 47, who had been admitted to the Glenagles Hospital here.-- BERNAMA

Royal Caribbean Cruises Has Web 2.0 Viral Infection: Failing to Identify Paid Advertisements May Mean They Pay People to Lie

2009-03-22T09:48:00.003-05:00

www.jaunted.com
No surprise here: Royal Caribbean Cruise Line has a viral infection. For once, however, it's not the Norovirus but that new-fangled byproduct of Web 2.0, the viral marketing infiltration. According to Consumerist, a group of fifty "Royal Champions" was outed by their own creator, the Customer Insight Group, as being a successful project whereby frequent positive cruise commenting on sites such as CruiseCritic was rewarded with free cruises and other perks.
So what's the big deal? Well, it seems that the "Royal Champions" weren't always up front about their status as compensated reviewers, effectively misleading readers of CruiseCritic forums with their positive comments. Add to this the fact that CruiseCritic admins assisted Royal Caribbean in choosing the fifty, with one of the stipulations being quantity of posts, "with many having over 10,000 message board posts on various Royal Caribbean topics." From here, the hole just gets deeper.
Now that many RC fans feel slighted at not having made the ranks and most everyone else is disgusted at the covert trade of cruising for happy juicing, the trustworthiness of such forums is under fire.
Due to CruiseCritic's ownership by TripAdvisor, which is in turn under the Expedia blanket of travel sites, a viral marketing stunt gone awry could possibly continue to negatively ripple. Does news like this affect your ability to trust good reviews on travel sites, or do you already consider yourself an excellent shill-spotter enough to weed out the solicited from the unsolicited? While this whole ordeal is mired in serious muckety-muck, let's hope it serves as a lesson for future viral marketers and as an argument for transparency.

Did Cruise Critic Cross an Ethical Line?
While I'm not a legal expert, I wonder if Cruise Critic's participation in this activity in some way might violate FTC regulations. Cruise Critic's management, in defense of their behavior, is claiming all it did was to provide their advertiser and marketing partner, RCCL, the contact information for those in to be invited to the Royal Champions Program;. Who are they kidding? Cruise Critic in addition knowingly published reviews and comments from this group and, according to a Cruise Critic bulletin board post (since removed from the site) from their Community Manager, both the Community Manager and Cruise Critic's Editor met with a large group of Royal Champions aboard one of the free incentive cruises. So, at the very least, Cruise Critic demonstrated a total disregard for their users who might have been misled by these posts, while creating an uneven playing field to the detriment of cruise lines other than RCCL. This seems to flaunt stated Trip Advisor policy, so it would be good to hear from them on this matter. And, as a public company, I wonder as well if Expedia, corporate parent of both Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor, may be liable for behavior that could be considered detrimental to their shareholders
Related Stories:· What Is A Royal Champion? [CruiseCritic.com]·
Paid Cheerleaders: Does Royal Caribbean's Viral Campaign Cross the Line? [Tripso.com]·
Marketing Campaign Sinks Cruise Critic [msnbc.com]
www.jaunted.com

Death at sea spurs call for legislation

2009-03-20T21:02:00.002-05:00

http://www.phillyburbs.com
May 20. 2009
Louise Horton's daughter died after falling off a cruise ship. Now she wants Congress to pass legislation to mandate the reporting of crimes at sea.

Cruise line advertisements focus on the fabulous accommodations and wonderful destinations that await those who come aboard the ocean-bound resorts.But there's a dangerous side to cruising that Louise Horton of Bordentown City, N.J., wants would-be travelers to understand. She's pushing for Congress to pass legislation that would require cruise lines that dock in the United States to report certain crimes that occur at sea to the Coast Guard and FBI and make safety and security improvements to their ships.Although cruise lines say they already report crimes voluntarily, Horton, whose daughter died after falling overboard from a cruise ship last May, is convinced many crimes and incidents go unreported and uninvestigated because they would result in poor publicity for the multibillion dollar industry.

"The public isn't aware about what goes on. You'd be surprised how many crimes are committed," Horton said Wednesday.

Legislation mandating the crime reporting and safety improvements was introduced in the U.S. House and Senate this month by Rep. Doris Matsui, D-California, and Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts.

In addition to requiring crime reporting, the legislation would mandate that guard rails aboard liners must be a minimum 54 inches high and make ship owners install technology to detect when passengers fall overboard. It also would mandate that cabin doors have peep holes, security latches and time sensitive key technology and that all ships carry rape kits and have a licensed medical practitioner to perform examinations.

Horton believes the federal oversight of cruise lines is long overdue, adding her daughter's death gives her a personal stake in the fight.Horton's daughter, Mindy Jordan, 46, fell off the cruise ship Norwegian Dawn on May 11, just a few hours after she and her boyfriend, Jorge Caputo, boarded the Bermuda-bound vessel in New York City.Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Lines said its investigation indicated Jordan, a Lenape High School graduate who grew up in Mount Laurel, fell from the ship after she tried to climb from one balcony to another on a windy night.

The cruise line said surveillance video cameras captured her fall and she was alone in her cabin just prior to the incident.Horton and other members of Jordan's family have expressed doubts about the cruise line's reports, saying Jordan was too small to fall over a railing and unlikely to risk climbing one.The FBI investigated the incident but found no immediate evidence that a crime was committed. Horton said the case remains open.The newspaper was unsuccessful in reaching a spokesman for the FBI's New York office for comment Thursday.Horton is not convinced her daughter's death was an accident, but believes some simple safety improvements might save lives in the future.

"I want to improve ship safety," Horton said. "Peep holes on doors and higher railings are very simple measures."

Ken Carver, president of International Cruise Victims, said cruise ships have managed to skirt federal oversight largely because most are based in foreign countries and because the ships enter international waters once they are 7 miles off the coast.

"What we're looking for is transparency, but cruise lines are unwilling to release [data about] the crimes that occur on their ships" said Carver, whose daughter disappeared during an Alaska cruise in 2004. "Go to Atlantic City and you can find out exactly how many crimes occur in Trump Casino, but you can't get that for a cruise ship."

The Cruise Line International Association said in a statement that safety and security aboard cruise ships are a top priority."Serious crimes aboard cruise ships are very rare, however, even one incident is too many. We have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to crime and have comprehensive policies and procedures in place to ensure passengers are safe while enjoying their cruise vacations."

Despite Hundreds of Rapes on Cruise Ships none of the Rapists have been convicted - FBI is investigating rape by Princess cruise ship crewmember

2009-03-09T22:36:00.002-05:00

Safe Cruise: Perfect Record: Not One Single Conviction for Sexual Assaults on Cruise Ships in Four Decades

FBI is investigating rape by Princess cruise ship crewmember.
abclocal.go.com/kabc
By Miriam Hernandez
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A Princess cruise liner returned to an L.A. port on Monday after a passenger alleged a member of the ship's crew committed sexual assault.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents were at the port of San Pedro Monday investigating allegations that a passenger sailing aboard a Princess Cruises ship was sexually assaulted by a crew member.
The Princess Cruises boat is called the Coral Princess and it has been berthed since 7 a.m. Monday. FBI agents have been onboard investigating allegations of a sexual assault.
The attack allegedly happened two days ago, according to a statement by Princess Cruises. The alleged attacker was a crew member. The victim was a passenger. Crimes of this sort are not uncommon. The FBI investigates more sexual assaults than any other crime that happens on the high seas. There were 41 cases reported in a five-month period.
Safe Cruise: Rapes rife on cruise ships, says professor

Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines Caught Paying People to Lie on Cruise Comment Web Sites

2009-03-08T16:37:00.009-05:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29685207/
By Anita Dunham-Potter
Travel columnist
Mon., March. 16, 2009
Well-regarded travel author Edward Hasbrouck called the Royal Champions “shills” and Royal Caribbean “puppet masters” in his blog. Cruise Critic posters are furious because they feel they’ve been unknowingly duped by Royal Caribbean’s marketing scheme in addition to being censored by Cruise Critic. Marketing experts are scratching their heads in a what-were-they-thinking way.

This is to be expected from the cruise industry that makes huge campaign donations and pays large lobbying fees to get Congressman to lie and an industry that has been known to pressure the main stream media to tone down negative news stories.
Columnist Anita Dunham-Potter describes how she was harrassed and intimidated by paid members of the Royal Champions who are explained below.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29554810/
"After writing Moran’s story last May, I, too, was not immune to hundreds of negative blog comments and e-mails about my reporting of her story. The sheer number of negative commentary on this story made me wonder if it was indeed coordinated. There were a number of posts that were similar in content and style to e-mails that I received. Upon checking IP addresses (a number that is assigned to a computer by an Internet service provider to be its permanent address on the Internet) I was able to match a number of nasty blog posts on ExpertCruiser to e-mails sent to me by two members that identified themselves as Royal Champions..."

Public Relations

Royal Caribbean Caught Infiltrating Review Sites With Viral Marketing Team'Meet the "Royal Caribbean Champions," a group of fifty prolific posters to popular online communities that Royal Caribbean Cruise Critic, one of the main targets of the program, are understandably pissed. rewards with special access and free cruises in exchange for their frequent and positive commentary. The Champions were outed by their creators, the Customer Insight Group, which boasted on their company blog that the potent group is "regularly leveraged for ongoing marketing initiates. Members of the popular reviewing site

The Customer Insight Group provides an excellent summary of the pernicious program's goals:

Identifying Brand Advocates: Royal Caribbean worked with Nielsen Buzz Metrics to identify enthusiastic online supporters of Royal Caribbean. Using a combination of automated and manual techniques, they identified online communities that discuss Royal Caribbean Cruises. Relying on data mining software and human expertise in word-of-mouth analysis, they measured awareness, identifying emergent qualitative themes of discussion on blogs, travel forums, usernets to gain a better understanding of how consumers discuss Royal Caribbean cruises. Fifty Royal Caribbean Champions were chosen for both quality and quantity of posts with many having over 10,000 message board posts on various Royal Caribbean topics. While Champions were primarily found on Cruise Critic, they also posted on travel communities, usenet groups, travel blogs and personal journals.
Influencing Brand Advocates: In May 2007, the Royal Champions community of online enthusiasts was invited to their first big event, the pre-inaugural sailings of our newest ship Liberty of the Seas in New York and Miami. This was the first time in the company's history that invitees to pre-inaugural sailings were "ordinary people" i.e. not VIP's, corporate executives, or top producing travel agent. Royal Caribbean hosted ship and stateroom tours and cocktail parties with executives. President Adam Goldstein hosted the New York party and CEO Richard Fain hosted the Miami party. The events generated abundant positive word-of-mouth on various sites and created a cohesive community of Royal Caribbean online enthusiasts that are regularly leveraged for ongoing marketing initiatives.
Measuring Success: While difficult to measure precisely, based on observation and anecdotal evidence we are confident that the Royal Champions produce ample word of mouth and exert sufficient influence to make the investment worthwhile. Posts from Royal Champions are carefully monitored during events and on a regular basis to ensure that posts remain positive and frequent.

The program's existence by itself isn't objectionable. Every industry is a carrier for public relations parasites, but most so-called public relations professionals adhere to a code of conduct that includes a clear disclosure of their affiliation. As the Customer Insight Group acknowledges, "the key to success in viral marketing is to subtly influence the influencers without them overtly realizing they are being influenced."

Since their posts are "carefully monitored," Royal Caribbean Champions should be required to clearly disclose their role as Royal Caribbean mouthpieces so other readers can fairly and fully evaluate their comments.

Influencing Brand Advocates [Customer Insight Group Loyalty Blog]
Default Royal Champions Vereses the rest of us [Cruise Critic via Tripso]

Cruise Ships add to Global Warming at an Alarming Rate and may Destroy some of their exotic destinations

2009-03-08T10:51:00.005-05:00

Riding on a cruise ship is the opposite of car pooling and could triple each humans effect on global warming. It may be like having one person drive three cars to work instead of having three persons drive one car to work. A recent New York Times article states:
Environmental groups say that a single ship, docked for one day, emits as much exhaust as 10,000 cars, maybe more.
Most cruise ships average two to three thousand passengers.
www.nytimes.com
By JAKE MOONEY
Published: March 5, 2009
RESIDENTS of Red Hook, Brooklyn, who worry about car exhaust have long looked in consternation to the east, to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, or, more recently, to the south, where an Ikea store opened last year amid fears about the traffic it would draw. But when Adam Armstrong of Pioneer Street thinks of exhaust, he thinks of the westward view from his backyard, toward the water. That is where, on certain days, Mr. Armstrong can see the smokestacks of the Queen Mary 2 and other cruise ships rising over the rooftops. When the ships are docked at Pier 12, the terminal at the foot of Pioneer Street, they are essentially idling, using their diesel engines to keep their electrical systems running.
What results, Mr. Armstrong said the other day, is a noxious smoke that wafts over the surrounding area. Environmental groups say that a single ship, docked for one day, emits as much exhaust as 10,000 cars, maybe more...According to the Port Authority’s numbers, based on 48 dockings each year, cold ironing would prevent 95 tons of nitrogen oxides, 6.5 tons of particulate matter (tiny particles suspended in a gas), 1,487 tons of carbon dioxide and 99 tons of sulfur dioxide from being released into the air.

Why is the FBI NOT Investigating the Case of the 63 Year Old Carnival Cruise Line Passenger Who fell Overboard

2009-03-07T00:16:00.005-05:00

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbcruise0307sbmar07,0,4472837.story
Staff report
March 7, 2009
The 63-year-old Carnival cruise passenger who disappeared off Chile's coast this week is from California, the FBI said Friday. Chilean authorities are investigating the case, not the FBI, because he disappeared abroad, FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said.The man, whose name and residence were not released, was a passenger aboard the Carnival Splendor, the Carnival Cruise Lines flagship that left Port Everglades on Jan. 31. The ship docked at Valparaiso, Chile, and then left on Tuesday on the last segment of a three-leg trip expected to end in San Francisco.
The man's wife reported him missing at about 9:30 a.m. after she found what appeared to be a suicide note, Carnival officials said. The man was last seen at about 4:30 a.m.

Since the year 2000, 109 cruise ship passengers have gone overboard; 56 on ships owned by the Carnival Corp.
http://www.cruisejunkie.com/Overboard.html
Investigations by the Coast Guard and FBI of many of these incidents have been haphazard, disorganized, and ineffective. Would this have anything to do with the obscene amount of money spent by the cruise lines on lobbying and campaign donations or the fact that many employees of the FBI and Coast Guard may want to get a job with the cruise lines once they retire from the government? Many disapearances and other cruise ship crimes and accidents remain unsolved. Instead of one treained unit handling the inquiries, each disappearance seems to handed out to different regional FBI offices. American cruise passengers should demand that independent law enforcement and safety personnel be aboard every cruise ship at sea.

Celebrity Cruise Passengers Hurt in Dominica Bus Crash

2009-02-26T22:35:00.002-05:00

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/922189.html
Posted on Thursday, 02.26.09
BY LARRY LEBOWITZ
llebowitz@MiamiHerald.com
Fourteen Celebrity Cruise line passengers injured in a bloody bus crash in Dominica earlier this week arrived in South Florida for treatment at Ryder Trauma Center and Jackson Memorial Hospital.
The cruise line chartered two air ambulances for the most seriously injured American tourists, a smaller G3 aircraft that could accommodate five or six gurneys and a small jet for those who could walk under their own power.
A hospital spokeswoman said Wednesday that five of the tourists were listed in critical condition, two in serious, four in fair and one in good condition. Two were treated and released.
Sixteen tourists, none from Florida, were returning to the Celebrity Summit from a culinary-themed shore excursion about 4 p.m. Monday when the open-air, safari-style vehicle in which they were riding lost control and slammed into a ditch near Roseau, the capital of Dominica.
The driver, who worked for a Celebrity vendor, told reporters in Dominica that the brakes failed on the makeshift bus. The roads are narrow and the terrain is hilly on most of the island in the eastern Caribbean.
All of the tourists were initially hospitalized in Roseau. Two were released and returned to the ship, while the Miami-based company made arrangements to airlift the rest to Jackson.

Another Couple Vanishes from Carnival Cruise Ship and Cruise Line is Quick to Blame Victims

2009-01-17T20:31:00.005-05:00

A wonderful, happy couple vanished while we were on a Carnival Cruise in 2005 and they did not drink and were not suicidal. We will never know who murdered them because the cruise lines spent millions on lobbying Congress and donating to campaigns and prevent the placement of independent law and safety enforcement officers on their ships. Cruise customers must realize that they are not protected from crime while at sea.

107 INDIVIDUALS HAVE GONE OVERBOARD SINCE THE YEAR 2000. THAT'S AN AVERAGE OF ABOUT ONE PER MONTH, YET CONGRESS HAS YET TO IMPROVE SECURITY AND SAFETY RULES. http://www.cruisejunkie.com/Overboard.html

Many of the deaths were never investigated thoroughly and were never solved. Foul play should be considered for all incidents until they are fully investigated. The Cruise Lines continue to tell the media that this is a rare occurence. Nothing has improved since our cruise in 2005. Hundreds of sexual assults have been reported on cruise ships and there has not been one conviciont in the last 40 years.

For a possible solution go to http://www.projectsafecruise.blogspot.com/ and http://www.internationalcruisevictims.org/
We offer our support and prayers to all families as they struggle to resolve these tragedies.

Cruise Cabin of Missing Couple Locked From Inside
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28699051/

By Olsen Ebright
NBCLosAngeles.com
updated 12:15 p.m. ET, Sat., Jan. 17, 2009
FBI agents responded to a cruise ship Friday to search for a missing married couple, who may have gone overboard.The wife, 79, and husband, 90, have not been seen since Tuesday, said Laura Eimiller of the FBI. The Carnival Cruise line ship, Carnival Paradise, docked in Long Beach on Friday. The vessel holds 2,052 passengers and just returned from a four-day cruise to Catalina Island and Ensenada."The woman and her husband, whose identities are not being released at this time, were not accounted for when passengers disembarked in Long Beach," Eimiller said.Eimiller said investigators were aboard the ship conducting interviews and an evidence response team was sent to search for anything that might suggest possible foul play, but she could not confirm whether or not foul play was suspected. "Whether we're dealing with a homicide, a suicide situation or an accidental death,'' Eimiller said to ABC7, the FBI would not make any determination "until we have all the facts.'' "Their cabin door was double locked from the inside with a do not disturb sign on the handle and the door leading from the cabin to the balcony was unlocked. The couple's personal belongings remained inside the cabin," said a statement from Carnival.

5 Pirates Drown With Share of $3 Million Ransom a Day After Freeing Saudi Tanker

2009-01-11T02:08:00.002-05:00

www.washingtonpost.com
By Mohamed Olad Hassan
Associated Press Sunday,
January 11, 2009; Page A15
MOGADISHU, Somalia, Jan. 10 -- Five of the pirates who hijacked a Saudi supertanker drowned with their share of a $3 million ransom, a relative said Saturday, the day after the bundle of cash was apparently dropped by parachute onto the deck of the ship.
The Sirius Star and its 25 crew members sailed safely away Friday at the end of a two-month standoff in the Gulf of Aden, where pirates attacked more than 100 ships last year. Hundreds more kidnapped sailors remain in the hands of pirates. The drowned pirates' boat overturned in rough seas, and family members were still looking for four bodies, said Daud Nure, another pirate who knew the men involved.
Piracy is one of the few ways to make money in Somalia. Half the population is dependent on aid, and a whole generation has grown up amid war. A recent report by London's Chatham House research group said pirates raked in more than $30 million in ransom last year.

Air Search for Carnival Ship Cruise Employee Who Fell Overboard Was Unsuccessful

2009-01-02T23:23:00.008-05:00

No reliable statisics exists on the number of cruise line employees that have been injured, killed, or gone overboard. They work under sweat shop conditions with no local law enforcement available.

Florida Today Exposes Carnival "Sweat Ships": The Under Belly of the Cruise Ship Industry
http://safecruise.blogspot.com/2006/02/florida-today-exposes-carnival-sweat.html

Five cruise employees died under suspicious circumstances during a four week period in 2006:
http://safecruise.blogspot.com/2006/02/5-cruise-ship-employees-die-under.html

If the rich cruise industry cannot provide reasonable safetry and security for employees, how safe can it be for the passengers?

http://www.news-press.com/article/20090102/NEWS01/90102047/1075
Florida Today

PORT CANAVERAL — The U.S. Coast Guard relaunched planes this morning to resume an air search for a cruise ship entertainment employee who fell from the Carnival cruise ship Sensation as he was celebrating the New Year.Guardsmen searched the waters on boats throughout the night, Petty Officer James Harless said. They will reassess the search situation sometime today.
Six co-workers saw the man, whose name is not being released, fall from the ship, the cruise company said in a statement.It marked a solemn ending for what passengers described as an otherwise pleasant four-day cruise to the Bahamas. It was the second fall from a cruise ship in a week."It seemed like the whole ship was somber this morning," said Maureen Fitzpatrick, a passenger from Connecticut. "You're hoping things turn around for this man. You hope that it turns out for the best."Searchers use a system based on wind conditions, ocean currents and the location where the man went overboard to determine where to look, Harless said. From there, guardsmen follow currents and perform search patterns over the sea.The chances of the man surviving depend on a number of factors, such as the water temperatures, wave conditions and the man's age and health, Harless said.Ocean temperature was about 72 degrees, but the man did not have a life jacket to help with the 7- to- 8-foot waves.Accidental fallCarnival said the fall was "clearly an accidental overboard." It occurred about 20 miles east of Vero Beach."Our thoughts and prayers are with this young man at this time as well as with his friends and family," the company statement said.Passengers told FLORIDA TODAY the crew member was a singer with a band that had performed on the top deck of the Carnival Sensation. They said he was trying to take a picture when he went overboard.Laura Martin, a passenger from upstate New York, said she and her three daughters were leaving the bandstand area on the ship when the incident occurred.A group of off-duty crew members had been dancing with other passengers, ringing in the New Year, she said."They were having fun," she said. "It was very sad."She said she saw a commotion involving several young women on the entertainment crew. She said they yelled down to other crew members, who immediately went into action to try to rescue the man who went overboard.Another passenger, Diego Friedmann of Uruguay, said the crew started throwing life jackets to the man. Three vests were thrown, but the man was not able to reach any of them, he said.Sensation crew began search-and-rescue activities and contacted all authorities, including the Coast Guard.

Coast Guard stops search for cruise ship employee:
http://www.bradenton.com/439/story/1127558.html

The Cruise Lines Are Now Responsible for more Disappearances and Deaths than America's Worst Serial Killer:
http://safecruise.blogspot.com/2006/07/cruise-lines-are-now-responsible-for.html

Coast Guard Searches for American Woman who Fell Overboard from Norwegian Cruise Ship near Cancun; Ship Captain Not Notified for 8 Hours

2008-12-27T02:13:00.011-05:00

News.yahoo.com

MEXICO CITY – Three Mexican Navy boats and a helicopter were searching the waters off the Caribbean resort of Cancun on Friday for an American woman who reportedly fell from a cruise ship, authorities said. A U.S. Coast Guard search-and-rescue crew using a Falcon jet halted its efforts to find 36-year-old Jennifer Feitz late Friday, but will resume early Saturday morning using a larger C-130 aircraft, said Petty Officer Third Class Nick Ameen. Feitz's husband reported her missing from the Norwegian Pearl cruise ship just before 5 a.m. EST Friday. Her hometown was not available.

103 INDIVIDUALS HAVE GONE OVERBOARD SINCE THE YEAR 2000. THAT'S AN AVERAGE OF ABOUT ONE PER MONTH, YET CONGRESS HAS YET TO IMPROVE SECURITY AND SAFETY RULES. http://www.cruisejunkie.com/Overboard.html

Many of the deaths were never investigated thoroughly and were never solved. Foul play should be considered for all incidents until they are fully investigated. The Cruise Lines continue to tell the media that this is a rare occurence. Nothing has improved since our ctuise in 2005 when a beloved and respected couple fell overboard and died and the ship did not return to where they fell for over 12 hours and then there was no investigation of their murder. In the most recent case, the captain was not even notified of the death until 8 hours later. If somone died or was injured in a bar or a restaurant could they get away with waiting 8 hours before reporting it. Negligence by the cruise line and perhaps Congress? There have been recent congressional hearings but no effective legislation.
Then again why would any of the cruise lines be concerned about the death of one customer?

http://safecruise.blogspot.com/2006/04/did-royal-caribbean-and-celebrity.html
"How & Why Did Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines Help Liberian Dictator, Charles Taylor Brutally Kill over 300,000 Individuals in Africa in the 1990's?"

http://safecruise.blogspot.com/2008/03/98-indvidiuals-have-gone-overbaord.html
"98 Indvidiuals Have Gone Overbaord Since 2000 Yet Cruise Lines Profit Again from Murders at Sea but Offer No Protection from Rape or Death"
Cruise lines were still offering "Murder Mystery" cruises a year after the well-publicized Death of Geroge Smith on Royal Caribbean.

The potential for massive ransom payments from the families of hundreds of rich tourists on a pleasure cruise may encourage MORE PIRATE ATTACKS

2008-12-05T11:17:00.003-05:00

http://dick-meom.blogspot.com/2008/12/barbary-coast-ghosts-return-congress.html

The luxury American cruise ship teeming with hundreds of tourists just might have been too much for the Somali pirates to resist. But the bandits, riding in two skiffs and firing rifle shots at the gleaming ship, were outrun in minutes when the captain of M/S Nautica gunned the engine and sped away in the Gulf of Aden, a spokesman for the company said Tuesday.

Still, the implications had the pirates hijacked the ship add a new dimension to the piracy scourge as NATO foreign ministers groped for solutions at a meeting in Brussels and the United Nations extended an international piracy-fighting mandate for another year.The potential for massive ransom payments from the families of hundreds of rich tourists on a pleasure cruise may encourage similar attempts, especially following the successful capture in recent weeks of a Ukrainian cargo ship laden with tanks and a Saudi oil tanker.

And the brazen attack also raises questions: What was a cruise ship doing in the pirate-infested waters of the Gulf of Aden? How many such targets are sailing these seas, and how can they be protected?

Even the pirates' motives were in question: they could simply have been testing the defenses of the massive ship, rather than making a real effort to hijack it. Sunday's attack on the M/S Nautica comes several weeks after a NATO mission served mainly to underscore the impotence of the world community: A handful of Western ships can do little to prevent attacks in a vast sea, and without the right to board hijacked vessels, they can only watch as the booty is towed to port.

"It is very fortunate that the liner managed to escape," said Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Malaysia, urging all ships to remain vigilant in the area.Some of the world's leading cruise companies said Tuesday they are considering changing their itineraries to avoid going near the coast of Somalia following news of the weekend attack. Cunard's public relations manager Eric Flounders said the company has two liners, the Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria, scheduled to go through the Gulf of Aden sometime in March but that the company "will obviously consider changing the itinerary" should the situation not improve.

And P&O Cruises' PR Michele Andjel said the company is considering whether to reroute the Arcadia, which is due around the Gulf of Aden sometime in January. Lt. Nathan Christensen, a Bahrain-based spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, said 21,000 ships cross the Gulf of Aden every year, but he did not have a figure for how many cruise liners are included in that figure.

"We are not advising ships to go a different way, but we do advise to go through the international corridor within the Gulf of Aden," Christensen said, referring to a security corridor, patrolled by the international coalition. The Nautica is not the first pleasure boat to be attacked.

The luxury yacht Le Ponant was attacked earlier this year, and pirates opened fire in 2005 on the Seabourn Spirit about 100 miles (160 kilometers) off the Somali coast. The faster cruise ship managed to escape, and used a long-range acoustic device — which blasts a painful wave of sound — to distract the pirates. The Nautica escaped by outrunning the pirates, speeding up as two small pirate skiffs tried to close in, said Tim Rubacky, spokesman for Oceania Cruises, Inc., which owns the Nautica. He said one of the skiffs made it within 300 yards (275 meters) and fired eight rifle shots at the vessel before trailing off.

"When the pirates were sighted, the captain went on the public address system and asked passengers to remain in the interior spaces of the ship and wait until he gave further instructions," he said. "Within five minutes, it was over." He noted that the ship, which communicates with international coalition forces, will return through the Gulf of Aden. Asked why the ship will re-enter pirate-infested waters, Rubacky said: "We believe this was an isolated incident."

"M/S Nautica is well-equipped to deal with these situations and the crew is well-trained," he said, but he would not comment on the specifics of their training. Rubacky refused to comment on whether there are weapons or other material aboard the ship that could help the ship's security in a hijacking. The Nautica was on a 32-day cruise from Rome to Singapore, with stops at ports in Italy, Egypt, Oman, Dubai, India, Malaysia and Thailand, according to Oceania's Web site. Such an itinerary requires the ship to travel through the dangerous waters of the Gulf of Aden.

The liner arrived in the southern Oman port city of Salalah on Monday morning, and the passengers toured the city before leaving for the capital, Muscat, that evening, an official of the Oman Tourism Ministry said Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Tuesday focused on demands for NATO to act amid growing alarm over the pirate attacks, which have continued unabated despite NATO's naval mission over the past six weeks.

Also Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council extended for another year its authorization for countries to enter Somalia's territorial waters, with advance notice, and use "all necessary means" to stop piracy and armed robbery at sea. Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, and pirates have taken advantage of the country's lawlessness to launch attacks on foreign shipping from the Somali coast. In two if the most daring attacks, pirates seized a Ukrainian freighter loaded with 33 battle tanks in September, and on Nov. 15, a Saudi oil tanker carrying $100 million worth of crude oil.

On Tuesday, a Somali pirate spokesman said his group will release the Ukrainian ship within the next two days. Sugule Ali told The Associated Press by satellite phone on Tuesday a ransom agreement had been reached, but would not say how much. The pirates had originally asked for $20 million when they hijacked the MV Faina. "Once we receive this payment, we will also make sure that all our colleagues on ship reach land safely, then the release will take place," Ali said.

Pirates fire on US cruise ship in hijack attempt

2008-12-02T23:11:00.002-05:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7760216.stm

A US cruise ship carrying more than 1,000 people was targeted at the weekend by pirates off the coast of Somalia, maritime officials say. Two small boats chased and fired shots at the Nautica eight times, but failed to board the vessel. Her captain, Jurica Brajcic, manoeuvred away from the pirates and increased speed to outrun them. The Nautica, with 656 passengers and 399 crew, was in waters patrolled by a multinational task force. The ship was on a 32-day cruise from Rome to Singapore when it was attacked at 0930 local time (0630) on Sunday in the Gulf of Aden. Oceania Cruises, the Miami-based company which owns the Nautica, described the events leading to the incident on their website. "The skiffs, approaching from a range of approximately 1,000 metres, attempted to intercept the vessel's course," it said. "Captain Jurica Brajcic and his officers immediately began evasive manoeuvres and took all prescribed precautions." Helicopter scrambled The Times in London quotes a spokesman for the Danish Navy, which has current responsibility for maritime safThe Nautica is the largest, though not the first, cruise ship to be targeted by pirates off the Somali coast. In April this year, pirates seized Le Ponant, a luxury liner with 30 people on board. They were eventually freed after an eight day stand-off. ety in that area, saying that a vessel was called on to aid the Nautica. Pirates are still holding a Saudi tanker, the Sirius Star, and its cargo of 2m barrels of oil off the Somali coast.

Worker kills lover onboard Queen Mary 2 cruise ship

2008-10-29T21:59:00.001-05:00

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2008/10/29/worker-kills-lover-onboard-queen-mary-2-cruise-ship-115875-20849569/
10/29/2008
A crewman aboard the luxury British cruise liner Queen Mary 2 was arrested last night after strangling his girlfriend in his cabin.
Police said the victim, 32, was his boss and had ended the relationship. "He was drunk and didn't like what he heard," they said. The liner, in Hamburg, Germany, for repairs, is now a crime scene. A post-mortem will be held on the victim, who is from the Philippines, today while her suspected Filipino killer, 38, appears in court.

Carnival Cruise passenger died this weekend after going dark-cave tubing in Belize

2008-09-30T21:50:00.003-05:00

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/260464

Orlando, FL - Linda Linan, 52, and her husband Eduardo were among the many tourists that were aboard the Carnival Glory cruise ship that stopped in Belize over the weekend. Part of the package was dark-cave tubing, like shown in the video above. What had been an exciting cruise turned into a nightmare after the tourists began their descent through the dark caves. Witnesses said that the river was too full, moving too quickly and that no one should have been in it in the first place. The strong current forced Linda and her husband to hit a cave wall and flip over where the river dead ended.

Cruise Ship Performer Goes Overboard and is Then Shot by Police

2008-07-28T00:42:00.002-05:00

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_24956.aspx

It's a tragedy within a mystery. And officials in San Diego admit they may never be able to figure it out. It happened during the weekend when a 37-year-old hired to dance for patrons onboard a cruise ship suddenly and inexplicably decided to dive overboard. But that was just the beginning of the end for Steven Hirschfield.

The local performer and bodybuilder was hired to be part of the entertainment for about 900 people involved in a weekend of gay pride celebrations on Saturday.
Around 11pm, police received a 911 call telling them someone had deliberately climbed over the railing of the giant vessel and jumped into the water.
Rescue boats were quickly dispatched and despite the darkness, they were able to locate the man overboard. But when they tried to pull Hirschfield - wearing only sneakers and a pair of shorts - onto the rescue ship, he began resisting, fighting them at every turn.
He refused to take hold of any of the flotation devices they threw out and he wouldn't reach out to the rescue ship sent to grab him.
"He didn't want to come aboard," reports Jim Unger of Hornblower Cruises, which was behind the party. "There was something wrong. Logically, when people go in the water, if they fell or didn't want to be there, they would quickly want to get help."
It took several minutes for the soaked submariner to be coaxed into hanging onto a rope - a literal lifeline - that he was offered by authorities, who finally hauled him onto a police boat. And it was there that this already strange story took a more fatal turn. Once out of danger from the water, police say Hirschfield grabbed a cop's stun gun and began beating the policeman in the face. He then apparently tried to reach for the battered lawman's side arm. When he refused orders to stop, a fellow officer pulled out his own gun and fired, striking the rescued man in the chest. The wound proved fatal.

The beaten officer was treated for leg and facial injures but will be O.K. Now, several days later, authorities are still stumped about the man's actions and the reasons why he did it. But the motive appears to have died with him. Drug involvement is suspected but toxicology reports won't be available until next month. Hirschfield was arrested for possessing a controlled substance in 2004, but all charges were dropped two years later after he agreed to attend an 18-month drug rehab program.

Sen. John Kerry introduces cruise ship safety bill

2008-06-30T22:41:00.001-05:00

http://www.calcasapublicpolicy.org/?p=614

Cruise ships would be required to install peepholes in cabin doors, increase guardrail heights and maintain crime report logbooks under sweeping legislation introduced Thursday by Sen. John F. Kerry.
Below is a press release from Rep. Doris Matsui’s office:
Today, Rep. Doris Matsui (CA-05) introduced the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2008 to keep Americans aware and protected while on cruise vacations. The bill is the culmination of months of fact-finding hearings and investigation into the matter. For Rep. Matsui, the call to action came when one of her constituents, Laurie Dishman, wrote to her for help.
Ms. Dishman was the victim of a sexual assault while on a cruise vacation, and was given no assistance by the cruise line in properly securing evidence of the assault, identifying her attacker who was an employee of the cruise ship, or prosecuting the crime once back on shore. Frustrated, Ms. Dishman reached out to her Congresswoman for help. “When Laurie reached out to me, I knew that I had to use my position to help her and investigate the issue further. What we have found is truly alarming: there is little to no regulation of the cruise industry, and far too many crimes go unprosecuted each year,” said Rep. Doris Matsui. Rep. Matsui called for multiple hearings that brought key executives in the cruise industry to testify before Congress.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) took up the cause in the Senate, holding a hearing just last week on the issue. Despite these fact-finding missions, the cruise industry has not yet taken sufficient action to regulate itself, spawning the need for comprehensive legislation.
“It is absolutely appalling that the cruise industry still has not instituted basic reforms so that crimes can be prevented and if crimes do occur, victims have adequate access to justice. When a goliath like the cruise industry will not act in the best interest of the customers who are entrusting it with their personal well-being, then Congress has a responsibility to step in and shed some sunlight on the problem,” said Rep. Matsui. Rep.
Matsui is a leading advocate in Congress for cruise safety, and welcomed the unequivocal support of Reps. Doggett (TX-25), John Lewis (GA-05), Maloney (NY-14), and Shays (CT-04). Together, they presented the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act, while Sen. Kerry introduced companion legislation in the Senate. “12 million Americans will board cruise ships this year and they should know that they are safe,” said Sen. Kerry.
“The tragic loss of Ken Carver’s daughter reminds us we need to tighten security and crime reporting regulations. Changing legal jurisdictions in international waters are no longer an excuse for failing to report and prosecute serious crimes. It’s time to hold the industry accountable for the security and protection of their passengers. I’m grateful to Senator Kerry and Rep. Matsui for their support in this endeavor.”
The Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2008 incorporates the recommendations and priorities of the international Cruise Victims Association (ICV), a nonprofit organization that represents victims of crimes on cruise ships. Kendall Carver, President of ICV indicated strong support for the bill that is being introduced in both the House and Senate.
In March of 2006, at a congressional hearing, ICV introduced a 10 point program to improve safety on cruise ships to protect the passengers and crewmembers. “Over the past year our organization and other victims of cruise crimes have met numerous times with cruise lines executives in an effort to have them voluntarily take the necessary steps as outlined in our proposals. The cruise line industry has failed to step up to the challenge and make any significant changes to improve safety.
That resistance to change is a clear signal to us that the only alternative left is for the United States Congress to move forward with legislation,” stated Carver.
The legislation would:
• Mandate guard rails to reach 54 inches in height; and entry doors of each passenger stateroom and crew cabin to have peep holes, security latches, and time sensitive key technology. Ship owners would be required to implement fire safety codes as well as technology to detect when a passenger falls overboard. Procedures would also be established to determine which crew members have access to staterooms and when.
• Provide Transparency in Reporting
The legislation would establish a reporting structure based on the current voluntary agreement in place between the cruise industry, the FBI, and the Coast Guard. Additionally, each ship would be required to maintain a log book, which would record all deaths, missing individuals, alleged crimes, and passenger/crewmember complaints regarding theft, sexual harassment, and assault. The log books would be available to FBI and Coast Guard electronically, as well as to any law enforcement officer upon request. Statistical information would be posted on a public website maintained by the Coast Guard.
• Improve Crime Scene Response
Each ship would be required to maintain anti-retroviral medications and medications used to prevent sexually transmitted diseases after assault, as well as equipment and materials for performing a medical examination to determine if a victim has been raped. A United States licensed medical practitioner would be on every ship to perform the necessary examinations and to administer treatment. Private medical information would be protected, and would require written authorization for release. Additionally, all passengers would be given free, immediate, and confidential access to a National Sexual Assault Hotline and the FBI.
• Improve Training Procedures
The legislation would establish a program designed by the Coast Guard and the FBI, and certified by the Administrator of the Maritime Administration, to train appropriate crewmembers in crime scene investigation. Each ship would be required to maintain one crewmember trained and certified under such a program.
• Enforce Safety and Environmental Standards
The Coast Guard is authorized to dispatch personnel to monitor discharge of waste, to verify logbook entries related to waste treatment and disposal, and to act as public safety officers by securing and collecting evidence of alleged crimes. Additionally, the Secretary of the Coast Guard shall conduct a study of passenger security needs and report findings/suggestions to Congress.
• Establish Equitable Remedies
The bill also establishes fair and equal remedies for persons injured in boating disasters.

100 People have gone Overboard since 2000: Cause of Death May Never be Solved Since Ships have no Independent Law Enforcement

2008-05-26T11:07:00.002-05:00

http://www.cruisejunkie.com/Overboard.html
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/woman.overboard.death.2.725777.html
Cruise Ship Drama Thickens With Boyfriend's Return
CrNEW YORK (CBS) ― The boyfriend of a local woman who fell off a cruise ship to her death is back home on Friday. There are plenty of unanswered questions, but he's not saying much. The Norwegian Dawn is set to depart from Bermuda today, and will return to New York City's ship terminal on Saturday. While Mindy Jordan's boyfriend has been cleared of any wrongdoing, there are still a lot of doubts in question to her disappearance. Jorge Caputo left New York City Sunday morning with his girlfriend as a cruise ship passenger headed to Bermuda. Thursday night he returned home early, on a plane, alone. His vacation cut short after Mindy Jordan mysteriously fell off the Norwegian Dawn off the waters near Atlantic City. The ship's surveillance video shows Jordan was by herself at the time of her fall, and Caputo was with friends in his room. Jordan's parents told CBS 2 earlier in the week they suspect foul play. "That would be totally out of character. She was 4 feet 10, weighs about 100 pounds. She would have never gone near a rail," said Andrew August, Jordan's father. FBI officials now say they do not suspect a crime was committed. CBS 2's Hazel Sanchez tracked Caputo's every move as he boarded a plane home to Newark Thursday night. During the flight, Caputo kept his face buried in a romance novel, entitled "Accidentally Yours," and offered a "no comment" when asked why his girlfriend would have been near a rail by herself that fatal night. At the airport, Port Authority police escorted Caputo away from news crews to an awaiting car. The FBI will continue to analyze the surveillance video for any further details and developments. uise Line Says Norwegian Dawn's Surveillance Camera Footage Appears To Rule Out Foul Play,

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/112-05172008-1535483.html

Coast Guard Bill that Mandates Reporting of Cruise Ship Crimes is Passed by Congress Despite Bush Veto Threat

2008-04-25T22:25:00.003-05:00

www.boston.com

By Andrew Miga
Associated Press Writer / April 24, 2008
WASHINGTON—Defying President Bush's threatened veto, the House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bill making the Coast Guard enforce security zones around eight liquefied natural gas terminals and any arriving tankers --all potential terrorism targets.
more stories like this... The bill also sets stricter crime reporting requirements for cruise ships and requires double hulls around fuel tanks on large cargo ships to prevent catastrophic oil spills like the one in San Francisco Bay in November. To address complaints that crimes aboard cruise ships are underreported, the bill makes line operators report to the Homeland Security Department all security incidents, including deaths, serious bodily injuries and sexual assaults.
Cruise lines also are required to post crime statistics on an Internet site maintained by the Coast Guard, with links from the cruise line public Web sites. "Sometimes, even cruise ships need sunshine," said Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif. Cruise lines last year announced a voluntary agreement with the FBI and the Coast Guard to improve and standardize crime reporting.
"The bottom line is, the crime statistics provided by the cruise industry are inaccurate and inadequate," said Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn. "This has got to change." Cruise line industry officials say the reporting requirement is redundant, since they are already doing so voluntarily.

Coast Guard Suspends Search for Carnival Victory Cruise Passenger Who Fell Overboard

2008-04-24T23:22:00.003-05:00

www.military.com/news
April 24, 2008U.S. Coast Guardby PO Barry Bena
MIAMI - The Coast Guard suspended its search at 9:15 p.m. Wednesday for a 44-year-old man who went missing from the cruise ship Carnival Victory approximately 38 miles northeast of Cozumel, Mexico.
Steven Manning, 44, of Illinois, was reportedly last seen around 1 a.m. Tuesday. Later that day, his wife had reported him missing to the ship's crew. After the cruise ship crew completed on board announcements and searches of the ship, the Coast Guard was notified at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Approximately 1,560 square miles of ocean were searched by two HC-130 Hercules aircrews from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, Fla.

Cruise Victims Testify in California about Horrors and Dangers of Unregulated Cruise Ships

2008-04-10T06:50:00.001-05:00

http://www.capitolweekly.net/article.php?xid=x19cdso0iysdjv
By Malcolm Maclachlan (published Thursday, April 10, 2008)
Cruise ships conjure up happy visions of the Love Boat and the sun-kissed South Pacific. But a crime-victims advocacy group says there's a lot going on that people don't know about--and that passengers often are at risk. The cruise lines take the legal position they do not investigate crimes," Carver said. "They say, we go to the FBI, which is voluntary. The FBI says they don't have the resources. No one does anything."

The committee also heard testimony from Laurie Dishman of Sacramento. She said a security guard sexually assaulted her in her cabin in 2006 on another Royal Caribbean-operated ship. The guard was originally hired as a janitor and only became a guard because of a lack of trained guards on that particular cruise. When she tried to report the crime to the ship's management, Dishman said, she was rebuffed and even told to gather evidence by using a police "rape kit" on herself.

In fact, Carver said, a majority of crimes on cruise ships are committed by crew members, with sexual assault being the most common crime. Most incidents are never reported to U.S. law enforcement authorities, he said. Over a period of just under five months last year, according to the FBI, they received 207 complaints of serious crimes on cruise ships. This included 41 sexual assaults and four missing persons.

Somali pirates seize French cruise ship

2008-04-06T21:31:00.001-05:00

http://www.marinelog.com/DOCS/NEWSMMVII/2008apr00050.html

April 5, 2008
A French cruise ship is being kept under surveillance following its seizure by pirates off coast of Somalia, Friday. The ship is the 88 m, 64-passenger, three masted sail-assisted Le Ponant, operated by CNA CGM subsidiary Compagnie des Iles du Ponant. CMA CGM says 30 crew members and no passengers were on board when the ship was seized. It was headedback to the Mediterranean after completing a Seychelles itinerary. A French foreign ministry statement said that on news of the incident, all the means at France's disposal in the region were immediately mobilized and an interministerial crisis team has been set up, under an antipiracy plan set in action on Friday by Prime Minister Francois Fillon. Minister of Defense Herve Morin said earlier today that French authorities have had no contact since the attack with either the ship's crew or the pirates

Four Carnival Destiny Passengers Robbed and Two Crewmen on a Another Cruise Ship Were Stabbed

2008-04-05T10:52:00.003-05:00

Cruise passengers robbed:
sun-weekend.com
Four passengers who arrived in Antigua Thursday on the Carnival Destiny cruise ship were robbed of a quantity of cash and personal belongings. The incident reportedly took place at the Pigeon Point Beach in English Harbour. According to reports reaching the Antigua Sun, the passengers who are from Zacatecas, Mexico went on an island tour with a taxi and stopped off at Pigeon Point Beach to take a swim.

www.bermudasun.bm
Two crewmen on a Bermuda-registered cruise ship were stabbed in a dispute on the high seas. The three disputants are from Mauritius. The two injured men are recovering in a Panamanian hospital, the suspect is locked in the ship’s brig and three Bermuda police officers have flown out to investigate. They’ll meet the ship in Aruba before going on to Panama. Bermuda police have to investigate crimes on Bermuda-registered ships in international waters.

98 Indvidiuals Have Gone Overbaord Since 2000 Yet Cruise Lines Profit Again from Murders at Sea but Offer No Protection from Rape or Death

2008-03-29T13:38:00.005-05:00

http://www.cruisejunkie.com/Overboard.html
A common element of each disappearance and in other cruise ship crimes and safety incidents is the lack of good evidence and/or successful investigations. Few if any crimes have been prosecuted. While on a cruise vacation, American citizens have a right to have an independent law enforcement person on each ship that they can immediately report crimes and safety problems. It has been suggested that cruise ships are small floating cities. They should have law enforcement available just the same. Is Royal Caribbean and Carnival profiting from George Smith's murder and other disappearances?
How insensitive can they be? They let amateurs investigate a fake crime scene for 168 hours (7-day cruise). They only gave Dr. Henry Lee 4 hours to investigate a real murder. Maybe they should have bought him a ticket for the Murder theme cruise. The theme cruises would not be in such bad taste if it wasn't for the fact that real deaths and disappearances are not investigated properly and the families cannot know whether the cruise line did everything humanly possible to save their loved ones and they may never know exactly what happened. Mysteries may be good for books, movies, and television shows but they offer no comfort or closure to those who have lost loved ones. We offer our support and prayers to all families as they struggle to resolve the tragedies of the past.

Posted on Sun, Jan. 29, 2006 CRUISE LINES
Tragedy changes game plan
Murder mystery cruises aboard Royal Caribbean ships were replaced in the wake of the honeymooner George Smith's disappearance.
BY AMY MARTINEZ aemartinez@MiamiHerald.com
The advertisement promised a cruise adventure ''to die for'' -- until the case of missing cruise-ship passenger George Smith. Now, the advertisement promotes a ''hilarious pirate'' mystery on the high seas. Whodunit Productions of Santa Clarita, Calif., recently pulled its ''murder mystery'' cruises with Royal Caribbean amid publicity surrounding the Smith case. Miami-based Royal Caribbean says it didn't ask for the switch -- it merely asked Whodunit ''to be as sensitive as possible'' given the case, according to spokeswoman Lynn Martenstein. Smith, 26, of Connecticut, was on his honeymoon aboard Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas in July when he disappeared in the Aegean Sea. His disappearance has become daily fodder for TV talk shows, from MSNBC's Rita Cosby Live & Direct to the Oprah Winfrey Show. The Smith family believes he was murdered and his body thrown overboard; the FBI is investigating. Whodunit Productions for the past several years has staged murder mysteries aboard Royal Caribbean ships for passengers who pay extra to play a game much like ''Clue,'' only with hired actors and elaborate props, including "notes slid under your cabin door, and secret phone calls made to your cabin." In the new ''pirate'' mysteries, there is no "murder mayhem.'' Instead, passengers search for the lost map of the Brethren of the Main on their way to discovering "all the riches of the legendary Santa Margarita!'' A voice mail message at Whodunit's California offices said the staff was away on a cruise and unavailable for comment.

Carnival Cruise Lines, Whodunit Productions Team Up for Series of 'Whodunit Mystery Cruises' in 2008-2009=
MIAMI, March 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Carnival Cruise Lines, (News) the world's largest cruise operator, and Whodunit Productions, the leading organizer of mystery cruises at sea, have teamed up for a series of 'Whodunit Cruises' aboard the 2,052-passenger ... [03/27/2008 - FinanzNachrichten.de]
http://whodunitcruises.com/

WHODUNIT PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS
THE MOST DIABOLICAL MURDER MYSTERY ON THE HIGH SEAS!!!!!!

Cruise Lines Admit to Polluting Alaskan Waters & Use Stalling Tactics & Whining so They Can Continue to Make Profits Now & Death Later (for Wildlife)

2008-03-29T13:08:00.005-05:00

the Anchorage Daily News
Cruise lines call discharge rules unrealistic
BIG SNAGS: The necessary treatment technology isn't yet available, they say.
By ELIZABETH BLUEMINK
ebluemink@adn.com
Published: March 28th, 2008 03:39 AMLast Modified: March 28th, 2008 03:46 AM
Starting this year, large cruise ships transiting Alaska waters will be the first in the country required to obtain a permit to discharge their waste in state waters. A spokesman for the cruise lines that bring nearly 1 million tourists to Alaska each year say the ships are unable to comply with the new rule. About 30 large ships owned by a handful of major companies, including Holland America Line and Royal Caribbean International, are scheduled to tour Alaska waters in Southeast and Southcentral this summer. An easier solution for the cruise lines is simply not to apply for a permit. The ships could instead discharge their treated wastewater in federal waters. One cruise line -- Royal Caribbean -- already does that to avoid any possible concerns with its dumping in state waters, Binkley said. But other ships do not have enough tank capacity to store treated wastewater for their entire run through Southeast Alaska, and might need to detour out to the ocean and spend less time in ports, he said...

British Columbia Man Arrested on Miami Cruise

2008-03-26T23:21:00.000-05:00

Updated Wed. Mar. 26 2008 9:27 AM ET
ctvbc.ca
A Vancouver man was arrested on a cruise ship in Miami on several counts of conspiring to traffic marijuana and cocaine, in a case that has also resulted in charges against a Canadian border guard. Charles Lai, 42, is facing up to life in prison and a $4-million fine after his arrest in Miami this week... When his cruise ship pulled into a Miami harbour over the weekend, investigators arrested him. Lai is now being taken to Washington for arraignment on the indictment.
Conspiracy to export cocaine is punishable by 10 years to life in prison and a $4-million fine, while conspiracy to import marijuana is punishable by five to 40 years in prison and a $2-million fine. Possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime is punishable by an additional consecutive five-year sentence on top of any other sentence, and a $250,000 fine.

Coast Guard searches for cruise ship passenger off Florida Keys

2008-03-09T14:46:00.002-05:00

Jacksonville.com
Jacksonville.com - Sunday, March 9, 2008
MIAMI - The Coast Guard is searching for a 39-year-old woman who may have jumped from a cruise ship off the Florida Keys. The woman had been traveling on the Costa Mediterranea with her boyfriend, who told officials she had become angry and agitated and then unexpectedly jumped overboard. A news release from the Coast Guard says the ship was about 20 miles southeast of Key Largo when the woman went overboard early Sunday. The Coast Guard dispatched two ships, a helicopter and a plane to conduct the search.
http://www.cruisejunkie.com/Overboard.html
98 individuals have gone overboard since the year 2000.

Unsafe on the High Seas - Your Guide to a Safer Cruise

2008-03-08T00:46:00.002-05:00

Unsafe on the High Seas - Your Guide to a Safer Cruise (Paperback)
by Charles R. Lipcon (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/Unsafe-High-Seas-Guide-Cruise/dp/0979780705/ref=cm_cr-mr-title

Ailing 89-Year-Old Birthday Boy Booted From Cruise

2008-03-08T00:23:00.000-05:00

wcsh6.com

(NBC) -- Jack Clevenger didn't feel that bad. But Carnival Cruise Lines put the 89-year-old Florida man ashore on a Honduran island anyway, saying he'd be better able to get medical care there than on the ship Legend. Clevenger was on a birthday cruise out of Tampa with his family. He never did seek medical care on the island, saying he heard from a ship's nurse that the hospital might not be up to his standards. Instead, he and his son, Roy, 63, scrambled to find a cab, a motel and then a way off the tourist island of Roatan. They learned expensive lessons: Be careful what you complain about to the ship's doctor. And buy travel insurance...The father and son spent $2,500 and two days hopping three flights to get back to Tampa.Clevenger, who so enjoyed cruising for his birthday he did it six times in a row, said he has had a change of heart after his shortened Caribbean adventure."That was probably the last one," he said. "Forever."Clevenger said he feels fine and the minor bleeding that took him to the ship's infirmary had stopped... "We regret that the family's vacation was interrupted and we do hope Mr. Clevenger is doing well," de la Cruz said. "However, he was asked to disembark the vessel for his own well-being."Clevenger disagreed."It's a dirty, lousy trick to put us off like that," he said.
-NBC-

Passengers on a recent 16-day Canary Islands cruise aboard Cunard’s brand new megaship Queen Victoria were infected by a norovirus-type bug

2008-02-25T20:33:00.001-05:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com By Christopher Elliott
It’s virus season, and that means you’ll probably be enduring a lot more stories like these:
Passengers on a recent 16-day Canary Islands cruise aboard Cunard’s brand new megaship Queen Victoria were infected by a norovirus-type bug whose symptoms included diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. The British press called it the “Curse of Camilla” in honor of the Duchess of Cornwall, who christened the vessel.

California Considers Legislation to Put Independent Officers on Cruise Ships

2008-02-22T22:39:00.003-05:00

Press Release: Ocean Ranger Bill Introduced in California
SAMMAMISH, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The International Cruise Victims Association(ICV) a not-for-profit corporation formed by victims and families of victims of cruise crimes, is pleased to announce that major legislation has been introduced in California. Senator Joe Simitian has introduced a bill sponsored by the Earth Island Institute to protect California waters from cruise ship pollution and cruise ship passengers from crimes on the high seas. The legislation will establish the California Ocean Ranger program, placing independent officers with certifications in marine engineering and public safety on every cruise ship transiting California waters.
The Ocean Rangers will perform three important tasks:
-- Oversee wastewater discharge practices and the maintenance and operation of pollution control equipment. The cruise industry has been convicted for dumping, tampering with pollution control equipment, and falsifying logbooks. California must protect its coastal waters.
-- Deter crime and ensure important criminal evidence is not destroyed or improperly handled. The incidence of serious crimes on cruise ships (thefts, rapes, assaults, and suspected homicides) has reached epidemic proportions.
-- Coordinate with Homeland Security agencies to be a first line of defense against terrorism attacks in U.S. ports of call. Tens of thousands of foreign nationals have direct access to U.S. port cities every day via cruise ships, with minimal or no oversight.

Crew Member Accuses Carnival Cruise Lines of Slavery

2008-02-13T18:13:00.002-05:00

usatoday.com

A crew member has accused Miami-based Carnival Cruise Lines of forced labor, slavery and human trafficking for allegedly violating her contract by putting her in a lower-paying job, Florida Today reports.
Attorneys for 33-year-old Reshma Harilal, a resident of South Africa with a U.S. tourist visa, filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District in Florida.
They want her taken off the Carnival Glory and returned to Miami. The suit also wants her passport returned, and seeks the wages agreed to under the contract she signed.
Read the entire lawsuit (pdf).
“Based on what our client has told us, there are other crew members who are also working in lower positions and at a lower pay than they agreed when they boarded the vessel,” Tonya Meister of the Miami law firm Lipcon Margulies & Alsina told Florida Today. (Like USA TODAY it is owned by Gannett.)
No response yet from Carnival.
The suit alleges that Harilal traveled from South Africa and signed a contract to work as a cabin steward. Once aboard, however, she was told to work as an assistant cabin steward instead, the suit claims. Cabin stewards are paid $1,500 every two weeks, while the assistant earns $250 to $300 biweekly.
The complaint has been faxed to the Glory, which is in Belize today. It's expected to arrive in the Bahamas by Friday, and Harilal's attorneys hope she'll then be returned to Miami. The ship is due back at Port Canaveral on Saturday.
floridatoday.com 2/12/08
BY DONNA BALANCIA FLORIDA TODAY

Carnival Cruise Lines Honored with Record Number of Awards

2008-02-02T16:15:00.000-05:00

money.cnn.com
CNNMoney.com - USA16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Carnival Cruise Lines, the world's largest cruise operator, raked in a record number of awards during the past year, ...

Here is an award, CARNIVAL will Not Be Bragging about:
Of the 96 individuals that have gone overboard since the year 2000, half of them have been from cruise ships owned by the CARNIVAL CORPORATION! http://www.cruisejunkie.com/Overboard.html
Are they proud to be number one. What are they doing about it?

Crewmember Missing from Cruise Ship "Carnival Glory"

2008-02-01T23:33:00.000-05:00

Military.com - 02/01/2008
http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,161242,00.html
MIAMI - Coast Guard aircrafts and cutters are searching approximately 1,350 square miles of ocean for a missing cruise ship crewmember believed to have fallen overboard about 45 miles north of Nassau, Bahamas, Friday...
The crew of the Carnival Glory searched the ship and reviewed security tapes before notifying the Coast Guard around 12:30 p.m. which is standard practice when a passenger or crewmember is missing...

Of the 96 individuals that have gone overboard since the year 2000, half of them have been from cruise ships owned by the CARNIVAL CORPORATION! http://www.cruisejunkie.com/Overboard.html

In 2007 five tourists died while scuba diving in the Cayman Islands but investigations of those fatalities have still not been completed.

2008-01-31T23:27:00.000-05:00

http://www.cdnn.info/news/safety/s080131a.html
CNN.info -
GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands (31 Jan 2008) — The body of another tourist who disappeared while scuba diving in the Cayman Islands has been recovered...
Police said the scuba diving accident is under investigation, however, authorities acknowledge that long delays of up to two years compromise the safety of tourists who scuba dive in the Cayman Islands...
The latest scuba diving fatality was the second in the Cayman Islands in a little over a week.
On January 19, British tourist Tina Baxter drowned while scuba diving off Northwest Point with an unidentified local dive boat operator...
Once considered the best Caribbean scuba diving destination, the Cayman Islands is now synonymous with overdevelopment, exorbitant rates and lowest common denominator tourist trap gimmicks such as Stingray City where local dive boat operators harass marine wildlife to "entertain" cruise ship tourists...

We Challenge Cruise Lines to Plan SAFECRUISE Event in 2008 to Showcase the Use of Independent Law Enforcement Officers or "Sea Marshals" on All Ships

2008-01-17T19:53:00.000-05:00

PROJECT SAFE CRUISE - A Win/Win Solution to Cruise Disappearances and other Crimes

Are Cruise Ships Safe? Not Yet, But We're Working on it!
Here is the Challenge we wish to direct towards the cruise lines,

Now posted at http://www.projectsafecruise.blogspot.com/ and http://www.safecruise.blogspot.com/

In memory of all families and individuals that have suffered any type of loss
while on a CRUISE VACATION, we Challenge
All cruise line companies,
The International Council of Cruise Lines (ICCL),
Owners,
Stockholders,
Employees,
All media organizations,
Interested members of the public,
Members of Congressman Shays subcommittee and related government agencies,
And all related business; including but not limited to travel agents, hotels, airlines, suppliers, tourist groups, gift shops, restaurants, tour companies, and advertising firms

To participate in, support, and/or sponsor Project Safe Cruise.

Project Safe Cruise:
A Demonstration project for enhancing security and safety procedures on cruise ships by having an independent law enforcement officer or "Sea Marshal" on each ship.
Project Safe Cruise will consist of a one week cruise in 2008 that will showcase the type of security and safety system that could be put in place by cruise lines to insure the safety and security of all passengers and crew and at the same time preserve evidence of crimes and/or accidents. On this Maiden Voyage we hope to offer short entertaining seminars and panel discussions by various security experts and perhaps some celebrities, on missing persons, identity theft, date rape, kidnapping, teenage and young child safety, security, and general health and safety issues while in other countries or at sea, investment scams for seniors, how to buy art work, etc. We must focus on a positive solution that will benefit all parties involved and prevent future tragedies. With the help of former FBI and NYPD law enforcement experts, we ask you to do this as a way of honoring the 61 people who have gone overboard since the year 2000. Most of whom are presumed dead.
We believe the cruise lines are able and are in fact obligated to invest in a project that could pay dividends to all parties involved in the cruise ship safety and security issue, including the cruise companies and related business, victims and their families, government oversight agencies, and all future passengers and crew. We acknowledge that cruise lines have security and safety procedures in place. However, we also believe that there is an urgent need to enhance them for the following reasons: *The number of people overboard has increased significantly in the last five years. *A common element of each disappearance and in other cruise ship crimes and safety incidents is the lack of good evidence and/or successful investigations. Few if any crimes have been solved or prosecuted. *Overnight cruise ship operators carry close to ten million passengers on over 90 ships that call on hundreds of ports worldwide. *While on a cruise vacation, American citizens have a right to have an independent law enforcement person on each ship so they can immediately report crimes and safety problems.
It has been suggested that cruise ships are small floating cities. They should have law enforcement available just the same as small cities, and not just private security personnel. The need for enhanced security will grow over time as the number of "first time" passengers increase. They, especially, should be informed about the rights and protections available to them while on the open sea or on foreign soil. There currently are no reliable, in-depth, or up-to-date statistics on the number, type and frequency of cruise crimes and accidents among passengers or crew. These must be devloped so that trends can be monitored and improvements put in place to reduce the number of tragedies.
There are growing threats in the form of bird flu and other illnesses, terrorist threats, natural disasters, fires, equipment failures, and pirate attacks that underscore the need to have personnel in place that have the expertise, the experience, the training and authority to act, communicate, investigate, and monitor incidents quickly and effectively. Mysteries may be good for books, movies, and television but they offer no comfort or closure to those who have lost loved ones. We offer our support and prayers to all families as they struggle to resolve the tragedies of the past. Although we will never be able to prevent all deaths, crimes, or safety incidents that occur on cruise vacations, we can make a difference. And we can at least put a system in place that offers assurance to each and every American passenger that everything humanly possible was done to protect and/or save his or her friends and family while on a cruise vacation. A brief description of Project Safe Cruise is provided below. Specific dates, details, and additional information will be posted at http://www.projectsafecruise.blogspot.com/ when it becomes available.
Project Safe Cruise could be a win-win solution for parties on both sides of the cruise ship safety issue. Look at it as an outside the box idea, a partnership if you will. Even though focusing on prevention is less glamorous and less dramatic than solving crimes, it is more efficient and gratifying, especially if we save one life or reduce the suffering for one family. We must work with the cruise lines to set up a cadre of independent contract employees that would act as security ombudsman (Sea Marshals) who would –
- Know how to deal with a terrorist situations, fires, natural disasters, equipment failures, crime, and health and safety
emergencies.
Develop and maintain a security and safety action plan for each ship, which would provide guidelines and procedures to follow for different threats and incidents.
Have the authority to lock down crime scenes and secure the chain of evidence.
- Help passengers file complaints with local authorities when there is theft or assaults, missing persons.
Act as liaison and reviewer of safe and unsafe shore excursion operators, establishments and neighborhoods at all ports of
call.
- Maintain and inspect fire/safety/security equipment on ships and on piers.
- Develop working relationships with global and local authorities for recent threats, incidents, watch lists, etc. Be Prepared.
- Act as a trusted, friendly cop on the beat providing peace of mind for customers and crewmembers.
Participate in regular training sessions and network with other Sea Marshals at quarterly conferences, sharing incidents,
problems, solutions, and heads up items on a searchable intranet web-based database.
- Monitor passengers, crewmembers and related contractors for suspicious activity.
- Learn how to handle various medical emergencies including contagious disease and contamination.
- File immediate and periodic reports with the FBI, Coast Guard and other appropriate authorities as outlined in the CLASS
Act.
- Develop and keep up to date various training methodologies for passengers and crewmembers.
Have available a means of communicating directly with law enforcement and emergency service personnel, such a satellite
phones.
Maintain crime scene equipment including DNA kits, a safe for effective storage of evidence, temporary holding rooms,
cameras, etc.
Have centralized independent legal staff available for consultation 24 hours a day when local authorities are not available.
Monitor whether was crewmembers are applying responsible service of alcohol, appropriate security measures, and not serving minors.
Deal immediately and directly with the FBI, Coast Guard, and other agencies and organizations in all ports of call.
Provide ongoing security and safety training to crew and travel agents and organizers including shore excursion groups.
Present short entertaining presentations outlining safety and security guidelines and resources for all passengers, including the design of a laminated security overview card for each cabin, similar to the ones used by air lines before each flight.
Monitor training given to crew members and contract employees to verify they are fully trained and competent before reporting for duty, including surprise inspections and safety/security drills.
Record and maintain a database of safety/security/crime incidents and health inspections and develop some analysis of current procedures and conduct of parties involved and recommend improvements for all.
Based on information from Internationalcruisevictims.org, we could develop agreements with the countries where the ships are flagged and major ports of call to temporarily deputize the onboard Sea Marshals, so they can consult, cooperate with, and act on behalf of the relevant authorities until their permanent staff could arrive and take over. They could stabilize the situation and begin investigations immediately. They would preserve evidence, maintain crime scenes, and interview crew members and passengers in a timely manner. The cadre could be staffed by ex-military and ex-law-enforcement personnel who would get salary and/or some free cruise or vacation packages for their work, kind of like how many campgrounds have frequent campers act as hosts. What works good on land should work good on the water including a Neighborhood Watch or Guardian Angel type system that could include frequent customers, crew members, contract employees, travel agents, etc. Design an Amber Alert system for use on ships, when passengers go missing. The use of this and an independent cadre perhaps named Sea Marshals would provide the most important factor or element for preventing and solving crimes: TIME. We sent information for a cruise ship security plan to the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations. Congressman Shays' subcommittee has introduced the "Shays/Maloney Cruise Line Accurate Safety Statistics Act"
http://www.house.gov/shays/news/2006/june/junecruise.htm

Establishing independent "Sea Marshals' on cruise ships is a real possibility as Carnival Australia's P&O lines have recently agreed to allow undercover liquor agents aboard as noted below. Also noted below is the idea that funding mechanisms are available to pay for "sea marshals" since Alaskans recently voted for a $50 head tax on cruise ship passengers.
According to the Sidney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/secret-inspectors-to-board-cruise-ships/2006/08/09/1154802960584.html
Carnival Australia/P&O Cruises Australia have greed to Undercover Liquor Agents:
THE State Government plans to send liquor and gaming inspectors on covert inspections of P&O Cruises after the Dianne Brimble affair, but the inspectors will be powerless to do anything if cruise staff fall out of line.
Staff and patrons will not be told of the inspectors' presence, but the company in charge of P&O, Carnival Australia, will know the inspectors are on board. It will pay their fares. The Government admits there is no way for sanctions to be placed on P&O if alcohol is not served responsibly because of travel in international waters. The Minister for Gaming and Racing, Grant McBride, said the inspections would allow the Government to see whether P&O was applying responsible service of alcohol and appropriate security. He said: "While it is at the company's invitation, officers will be going in undercover and crew members and patrons will be unaware of the operation.
"We are keen to do all we can to ensure citizens on cruise ships departing from NSW are protected."
Mr McBride is preparing to propose at the next meeting of state and territory ministers that the Federal Government be responsible for the safety of Australians on international cruise ships.
http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=N23370827
In a state primary election ballot held on Tuesday, Alaskans passed a citizen initiative that will assess a $50 tax on each cruise passenger and tax the cruise lines' corporate earnings and gambling revenues reaped when the ships are in Alaska waters. The initiative also requires cruise ships to obtain wastewater discharge permits while operating in Alaska and to pay increased fines for any wastewater violations.

EPA reports that cruise ships dump massive amounts of poorly treated sewage & highly contaminated raw graywater into harbors & coastal waters

2007-12-25T17:35:00.000-05:00

The report is available at http://www.epa.gov/owow/oceans/cruise_ships/disch_assess_draft.html. Key citations follow.)
“This report shows that cruise ship dumping is out of control and is only getting worse with more ships and more passengers,” said Teri Shore, Campaign Director for Marine Programs at Friends of the Earth. “Since the EPA won’t act, here’s all the evidence that Congress needs to step in to ban cruise ship dumping close to shore and in sanctuaries—and require the best treatment everywhere else.” The report responded to a lawsuit filed by the University of Washington Environmental Law Clinic on behalf of Friends of the Earth in May 2007 seeking a response to a seven-year-old petition calling on the EPA to analyze pollution from the rapidly expanding cruise ship fleet and find ways to prevent environmental harm. The EPA provided detailed pollution data, but no solutions. The EPA found that cruise ship discharges contain concentrations of bacteria, chlorine, nutrients, metals and other pollutants that often far exceed federal effluent and water quality standards and are harmful to human health and the marine environment. The report estimated that cruise ships produce an average of 21,000 gallons per day of sewage and 170,000 gallons per day of raw graywater that can contain as much bacteria as sewage. Large volumes of sewage sludge and oily water are also routinely dumped overboard.

http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/1221-04.htm

Navy saves teen whose appendix burst on cruise

2007-12-19T00:13:00.000-05:00

msnbc.msn.com

SAN DIEGO - A teenager whose appendix ruptured at sea, hundreds of miles from help, got safely to shore Tuesday after an unusual rescue in which the Navy airlifted her from a cruise ship for emergency surgery. Laura Montero, 14, fell ill aboard the Dawn Princess cruise ship off the coast of Baja California. The Bahamian-registered ship sent out a distress call Friday that was answered by the USS Ronald Reagan, which was on training maneuvers about 500 miles away. The nuclear carrier was the closest ship with a hospital facility, according to a news release from the Navy. It steamed overnight toward the cruise ship, which was about 250 miles northwest of Cabo San Lucas when the call went out.

A helicopter took off from the Reagan around 5 a.m. Saturday to close the final 175-mile gap between the ships. The crew arrived after a 45-minute flight and lowered a medic onto the cruise ship deck in a basket because there wasn’t space to land, said Lt. Cmdr. Gregory Leland, the pilot. Montero, who was on an antibiotic drip, was loaded into a litter basket, lifted into the helicopter and flown back to the Reagan for an appendectomy. Her mother stayed aboard the cruise ship. “We practice this all the time, but this is the first time I’ve pulled a civilian off a cruise ship,” Leland said. A spokeswoman for Princess Cruises, which operates the Dawn Princess, said the ship’s captain called the Coast Guard for help because he felt that would be faster than diverting to the nearest Mexican port.

Search Ends for 77 Year-old Man Missing from the Carnival Cruise Ship "Fantasy"

2007-12-06T21:33:00.000-05:00

www.hattiesburgamerican.com

The search for the 77-year-old Hattiesburg man who went missing from a cruise ship that docked in New Orleans has ended. The Coast Guard suspended its search for the man at 10:15 a.m. Sunday, after investigators discovered a suicide note in the man's cabin, senior investigator Cheri' Ben-Iesau said It indicated the man, who traveled the cruise alone, had health problems, she said. The victim's identity was not released. He was last seen at 7 p.m. Friday, when the Carnival Cruise Ship Fantasy was still almost 28 miles from shore. The Coast Guard searched 400 square miles in the Gulf of Mexico and part of the Mississippi River from the Southwest Pass at the mouth of the river, north to the Port of New Orleans. The Guard also sifted through the ship's dock area "just in the hopes we would find the gentleman," Ben-Iesau said. The guard will continue to run a broadcast for the missing man, despite the fact it has ended the search for him. "We've engaged the maritime community," Ben-Iesau said. "All the vessels out there listen to the broadcasts, so anybody else coming into the area will be on the lookout for him."

Crew Members of sunken Ship admitted that they were all at far greater risk than previously disclosed because of a drifting iceberg

2007-11-25T12:04:00.000-05:00

http://www.mercopress.com/vernoticia.do?id=11966&formato=HTML

Some of the British tourists rescued from the Antarctic cruise ship which sank after hitting an iceberg were airlifted from a remote island in the Southern Ocean last night. Last night some of the rescued holidaymakers spoke of their ordeals. Speaking from King George Island, the Explorer's British ornithologist, Bob Flood, and American expedition leader, Brad Rhees, gave a graphic account of how three male passengers, sharing a cabin, were woken by water flooding in just before 1am on Friday. Mr Rhees, 60, a veteran Antarctic explorer, said: "The impact was on the starboard side, right next to a cabin being shared by three men. It was a fairly strong strike and in a short time their cabin had a metre of water in it. "The crew didn't know anything about it until the passengers pressed an emergency button. There was a quick response from the crew but they were the people who alerted us." When we were on the rescue ship, the weather quickly got worse. It was almost a whiteout blizzard blowing 30 to 40 knots. If we had been in that in the lifeboats, we wouldn't have made it. We had to wait six or seven hours before it was safe to land at the base on King George."

Body Of Missing Cruise Passenger Washes Ashore

2007-11-24T20:52:00.000-05:00

cbs4.com
FT. LAUDERDALE (CBS4) ―
A woman's body that washed up on a Hollywood beach Monday morning has been identified as a cruise ship passenger who vanished late Sunday.The Broward Sheriff's Office says the body was discovered around 7:30 a.m. Monday on the beach in John U Lloyd state park by a ranger. Sunday evening, the U.S. Coast Guard was contacted by the Discovery Sun casino cruise ship that a woman had vanished from the ship as it returned from a 3-day trip to the Bahamas.49-year old Monique Teresia Van der Steenstraeten's boyfriend told investigators that he last saw her around 9:30 p.m. Sunday when she left the lounge they were in to go have a cigarette on deck. When she didn't come back, and could not be found on the ship, he alerted the ship's officers who contacted the Coast Guard. During a search of the ship they allegedly found a suicide note written by Steenstraeten.
BSO says Steenstraeten's boyfriend has been cooperative with detectives and no foul play is suspected. The medical examiner performed an autopsy and has ruled the death a suicide.

Ship sinks after hitting iceberg, Antarctic

2007-11-23T20:12:00.000-05:00

naca.sbs.com.au/worldnewsaustralia
Friday, 23 November, 2007

More than 150 passengers and crew escaped unhurt after their cruise ship struck an iceberg in the Antarctic Ocean and started to sink, an Argentine coast guard official says. Two passenger boats in the area were picking up the 154 occupants of the Explorer from the lifeboats they used to escape the ship, which ran into problems near the south Shetland Islands. "Everyone is safe and accounted for," Susan Hayes, a spokeswoman for ship owner Gap Adventures, told CNN.
Iceberg 'cause for crash' The ship was travelling out of Ushuaia in Argentina, travelling southbound to Antarctica, and off King George Island it hit some ice and began taking on some water," Hayes said. She said 13 Americans had been on board, as well as British, Canadians, Australians, Dutch and other nationalities. Cruise carrying 154 people The ship, built in 1969 and refitted in 1993, was carrying 100 passengers and 54 crew on a cruise that was due to end by Monday. The Explorer usually makes two-week cruises around the Antarctic, costing around 4,000 pounds ($A9,200) per cabin.

The South Shetland Islands lie about 120 km north of the Antarctic Peninsula. They have been part of the British Antarctic Territory since 1962, although they are also claimed by Argentina and Chile. Cruise trip travel has grown in Antarctica in recent years and Tuhay said 52 cruises were expected at the southern port of Ushuaia during this year's peak season from October to April.

Crewmember from Cruise Ship Missing at Sea

2007-11-17T14:38:00.000-05:00

miamiherald.com [Nov 14, 2007]

The U.S. Coast Guard was searching Tuesday for a 44-year-old crew member who was reported missing from the gambling ship Island Adventure at about noon. Officers on the 512-foot ship told the Coast Guard that one of the ship's employees, Oliviero Fernandes, who is from India, had not been seen since 9:30 p.m. Monday...

Jarvis said nearly 300 crew members live aboard the ship, so it wasn't unusual to not see him later at night because he might have been asleep. But the crew knew something was wrong when Fernandes didn't show up for work Tuesday morning, she said. Crew members searched the ship several times, then called the Coast Guard, Jarvis said.

150 Passengers Sick from Virus on Norwegian Cruise Lines' Pride of Hawaii

2007-11-12T00:25:00.000-05:00

cruisecritic.com November 11, 2007

More than 150 passengers aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines' Pride of Hawaii fell ill onboard last week with suspected Norovirus. The ship, which was carrying 2,500 travelers, had departed from Honolulu on Monday, and folks reportedly were coming down with the symptoms -- violent vomiting and diarrhea among them -- fairly soon thereafter.

Those who caught the bug were required to be quarantined in their cabins for 24 hours or so. That's fairly standard procedure among all cruise lines. The ship did not make a planned call at Maui Wednesday -- but that was due to an oil spill not related to Pride of Hawaii.

Cruise Critic members could, as always, be relied upon to provide details. Writes Whale-Watcher, "I am a nurse currently on vacation sailing on the Pride of Hawaii. Yes there is a Norwalk outbreak. The captain and the crew have been very honest about it. I see crew all over the ship with spray bottles wiping things down constantly. I went down to the medical center to volunteer my services and was told they had it all under control. They said the first cases were reported Monday night (the first night of the cruise). Since the Norwalk virus has a 72 hour incubation period that means that someone came onboard already sick. Pride of Hawai`i has been carrying out an extensive range of preventative measures on board and does not expect this issue to carry forward into the next cruise. Passengers on the next cruise will be advised before boarding that a certain number of passengers on the prior cruise experienced symptoms of stomach flu and will be given an opportunity not to sail if they feel uncomfortable proceeding with their cruise at that point.

Video of Sinking Cruise Ship Now Posted to Youtube

2007-11-10T16:07:00.000-05:00

sinking-cruise-ship-santorini-repost-new-footage

Cruiseship owners blame sea charts for sinking

Athens News Agency, Greece - Nov 2, 2007

The owners of a sunken cruise ship now resting on the ocean floor of Santorini's picturesque volcanic Caldera on Friday blamed erroneous sea charts as causing the maritime accident, with company officials charging that the exact location and depth of a reef struck by the ill-fated "Sea Diamond" were inaccurate. According to information presented in Athens by the head of operations for the Louis Hellenic Cruises company, the reef was listed at a distance of 57 metres from the shoreline, but in fact, was 131 metres from the shoreline, which in this case is the sheer rock cliffs of the popular holiday island's caldera. Additionally, Louis Cruise official George Koubenas said the depth of the reef was given as between 18 and 22 metres on a chart issued by Greece's relevant Hydrographic Service, instead of the actual five-metre depth.

Victim Identified In Cruise Ship Death

2007-10-06T11:39:00.000-05:00

www.wluctv6.com

The man who fell overboard from the Keweenaw Star to his death Thursday night was 23 year old Jessie James Jaukkuri. Authorities released his identification Friday, along with information on how the accident apparently occurred. Witnesses say Jaukkuri was leaning backward over the railing when he slipped, falling 15 feet into Portage Canal. He wasn't seen again. Divers with the Michigan State Police Underwater Recovery Unit are now trying to recover the victim's remains. They estimate it may take three days. Some remains were found on Thursday night. More than 70 passengers were on board the boat.

Woman dies in fall from cruise ship

2007-10-03T23:47:00.000-05:00

Guardian Unlimited - UK

Sunday September 30, 2007 12:33 PM
A woman died after falling overboard from a cruise liner just before docking at a British port.
Police were alerted at 7am with reports of the woman going overboard from the Oceana cruise liner as it approached Southampton, Hants. A spokesman for Hampshire police said that the woman had not yet been identified. A Coastguard spokesman said that the ship had been searched after the husband of the 67-year-old woman reported her missing. A sea search was launched involving RNLI lifeboats and the Coastguard rescue helicopter and the body was found in the water at Thorne Channel in the Solent near Cowes, Isle of Wight. The body was picked up by the Calshot RNLI inshore lifeboat and airlifted by the rescue hospital to Southampton General Hospital. The spokesman added that sea conditions were calm with good visibility when the woman was reported missing while the Oceana was near Calshot, Hampshire. A spokesman for P&O Cruises said: "We can confirm that a person was reported missing from their cabin just prior to daybreak this morning as Oceana was approaching Southampton.

Carnival Cruise Ship Passenger in Coma after Fight

2007-09-29T11:08:00.000-05:00

UNION-TRIBUNE

Man talks about altercation on ship
By Keith Darcé
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
September 29, 2007
A cruise ship altercation nearly two weeks ago that left San Diego grocer Scott Boney in a coma fighting for his life began as a random encounter between Boney and Kade McRae, 21, a construction worker from Ogden, Utah. The FBI is investigating the incident. McRae was confined to his stateroom for most of the cruise but has not been charged with any crime.
Boney, 50, has been unconscious since the incident, which occurred about 11:30 p.m. Sept. 17. He has undergone two surgeries at Scripps Memorial Hospital-La Jolla, one to relieve pressure from brain swelling and another to remove a blood clot, family friends said. He remains in an induced coma on life-support systems.

Congressional Hearing: Sparring over crime at sea

Scandal on the High Seas? - Congress Holds Hearing on Cruise Ship Safety Amid Assault Allegations

2007-09-23T12:30:00.000-05:00

abcnews.go.com

After complaints of onboard assaults, thefts and even mysterious disappearances, Congress investigated today how safe these vacations are. A House Transportation subcommittee conducted a hearing on cruise safety this morning. Congress heard testimony from passengers with stories about poor security, and little accountability, in this $30 billion-a-year industry.

"Until it is more profitable to make the ships safe than to settle lawsuits, I don't believe that all of the necessary changes will come at the hands of the cruise industry," said Susan DiPiero, whose son, Daniel, was lost at sea from Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Sea May 15, 2006. Some lawmakers agreed. "A common theme in this panel was that you still didn't get it," Matsui told cruise line officials. Attorney William Sullivan — whose unnamed client, asleep in her cabin this past March, was allegedly raped by a crew member, and then had ship's doctors give her Lorazepam, a drug that can cause forgetfulness — called on lawmakers to take action. "It doesn't seem to me that Royal Caribbean is interested in prosecuting criminals or predators," Sullivan said, "because it exposes them to liability, and that's not something they're interested in. ... It's time for legislation, time for Congress to step in and mandate."
Orlich just hopes that no other women will be subjected to the same horrors that she was.

"I'm here in Washington," she said, "to help out other women, to make sure it doesn't happen to them." Today, Orlich and other victims had lawmakers aiding their cause.

Sen. John F. Kerry plans to write legislation that would mandate that staff on cruise ships immediately notify the FBI about all incidents

2007-09-22T18:47:00.000-05:00

The Republican

U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., said he plans to write legislation that would mandate that staff on cruise ships immediately notify the FBI about any untoward activity aboard their ships including crimes, suicides and disappearances. Staff would be required to develop better protocols for collecting evidence. Kerry, a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, said he made his decision after meeting this week with the Kendall Carver, the father of Merrian L. Carver. Carver said his daughter, a Cambridge investment banker, went on a cruise off the coast of Alaska in 2004 and has never been heard from since.

Other cruise passengers testified before a House panel earlier this week about crimes or disappearances and the cruise line's failure to report the incidents to law enforcement authorities or seal rooms to protect evidence.
Cruise ships that leave U.S. land are mandated by law to report disappearances and crimes to the FBI and Coast Guard, said U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, but crews don't always follow a standard procedure. Neal and U.S. Rep. John W. Olver, D-Amherst, signed legislation this week that would require cruise lines to maintain adequate security levels and to give passengers full disclosure about risks.
Kerry will work with U.S. Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., the FBI and the cruise lines to develop legislation to "create clear rules for cruise lines."

Bill targets cruise lines on crime issue

2007-09-21T18:56:00.000-05:00

latimes.com

We need clear rules for all cruise ships so that we can improve security for the millions of Americans each year who take cruises," Kerry said. "Voluntary steps are not enough." Critics have long contended that the $32-billion industry flies under the regulatory radar. Most ships are registered in foreign countries, operating under so-called "flags of convenience." As a result, cruise lines pay little corporate income tax, hire largely foreign crews and are not required to abide by U.S. labor laws."After the hearings this week, to have John Kerry introduce this in the Senate could not send a stronger message to the cruise lines and the industry that it's time for change," said Kendall Carver, president of International Cruise Victims.Carver's daughter, Merrian Carver, disappeared during a cruise in 2004.kimi.yoshino@latimes.com

International Cruise Victims Association (ICV) Members to Testify on September 19, 2007

2007-09-17T19:43:00.000-05:00

Congress Issues "Protect Americans from Crimes on Cruise Ships" Resolution MIAMI, Sept. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Congress has scheduled a hearing on September 19, 2007 at 11:00 a.m. on "Cruise Ship Security Practices and Procedures." The hearing will be conducted by the Committee on Coast Guard & Maritime Transportation, and will be held at the Rayburn House Office Building (Room 2167) in Washington D.C. Congress has invited a number of members of the International Cruise Victims Association ("ICV")to testify regarding their experiences. These individuals include Kendall Carver, Susan DiPiero, Lynnette Hudson, and Angela Orlich. ICV has scheduled a press conference before the hearing at 9:00 a.m. in the Concord Room of the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, located at 400 New Jersey NW, in Washington DC. ICV will discuss a Congressional resolution called "Protect Americans from Crimes in Cruise Ships." The resolution acknowledges the lack of federal regulation over the cruise industry and the need for Congressional oversight to ensure the safety and security of American passengers. The following ICV members will be discussing proposals to enhance passenger safety, reduce shipboard crime, and protect the victims from poor treatment by the cruise industry: Kendall Carver of Arizona lost his daughter on the Celebrity cruise ship Mercury, owned by Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. Following her disappearance, the cruise line failed to notify family members or law enforcement and engaged in a cover-up of his daughter's disappearance, Mr.Carver alleges. Mr. Carver is the President and one of the founding members of the ICV. Families of victims created this organization as a victims advocacy group to protect passengers, who choose to travel on cruise ships.The group now has members around the world, including sixteen countries and a separate chapter in Australia. Susan ("Sue') DiPiero of Ohio lost her only son, Daniel on the Mariner of the Seas operated by Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. Ms. DiPiero and her husband, Ron DiPiero, received a telephone call from the cruise line saying" ... we cannot find your son ..." Daniel's disappearance was caused by inadequate security standards on the ship, including only a few security guards, excessive alcohol served on the ship, security cameras which were not monitored, and a delay in reporting and responding to the emergency,according to the DiPiero family. Ms. DiPiero will address her family's recommendations to avoid future tragedies to other families. Lynnette Hudson of Delaware lost her father, Richard Liffridge, a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam Wars, on the Star Princess, owned by Carnival Corporation, during a cruise with his beloved wife, Victoria Liffridge of Georgia. Ms. Hudson will testify regarding her family's experience following the fire. She will explain that one of the greatest threats to the safety of passengers on cruise ships is fires at sea. Ms.Hudson created the Richard Liffridge Foundation to educate and to bring awareness to this issue. For information, go tohttp://www.RichardLiffridge.com. Angela Orlich of Massachusetts was on a vacation cruise aboard Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines's Nordic Empress, when she was sexually assaulted during a cruise sponsored scuba excursion in Cozumel, Mexico. The cruise line did not provide her with any assistance nor did they timely report the incident to law enforcement authorities, according to Ms. Orlich. She was required to travel to Mexico and initiate legal proceedings alone. She will testify regarding her efforts to seek justice for the crime,notwithstanding the lack of cooperation and assistance from the cruise line regarding their excursion. For more information about the ICV, please contact us at: -- Web: http://www.internationalcruisevictims.org

-- E-mail: info@internationalcruisevictims.org

-- Telephone: (425) 753-7711 -- Facsimile: (206) 374-2944

Family of Cruise Ship Victim to Appeal to Congress This Week

2007-09-16T20:07:00.000-05:00

www.henryherald.com

Liffridge sole casualty of cruise ship fire
By Johnny Jacksonjjackson@henryherald.comRelatives of a Locust Grove man who died of smoke inhalation last year while on a Caribbean cruise are pushing for increased scrutiny of what they say are insufficient cruise ship safety procedures. Lynnette Hudson is scheduled to appear at a Congressional hearing in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, when she will testify in front of a committee on Coast Guard and maritime transportation. Hudson’s father, Richard Liffridge, died during a fire aboard the Star Princess cruise ship on March 23, 2006, at the age of 72. His wife, 62-year-old Victoria Liffridge, was aboard the ship with him. “Shortly after 3 a.m. — Richard and I were both asleep — we both heard the sound of a steady alarm ringing softly,” she said. The alarm alerted them to a fire on the ship. Victoria Liffridge said that by the time she and her husband were able to get to the hallway outside their cabin to evacuate, smoke had already filled their part of the ship. “Flames were shooting above our heads,” she said. “The sprinklers hadn’t turned on, no lights in the hall or fire extinguishers. I’m not sure if there were smoke detectors in the hall.” Liffridge said she held on to her husband’s T-shirt as they crawled through the smoke-filled hallway trying to find their way out, but they were separated when the ship was jolted. She suspects the jolts were from shifting gears on the ship. She was eventually able to find someone to help her to safety, but her husband did not make it. He was the only reported casualty in the fire.“It was something very devastating to us to have caused her family grief,” said Julie Benson, a spokeswoman with Santa Clarita, Calif.-based Princess Cruises, which operates the Star Princess. “We have been closely working with members of the Liffridge family and their attorney.” Jim Walker, a maritime attorney from Miami, represents the Liffridge family. “The Liffridge family’s story is compelling,” Walker said. “They will be discussing their recommendations to prevent future tragedies and their goals ... regarding the safety of passengers on cruise ships.” The hearing, known as the Cruise Ship Security Practices and Procedures hearing, is the fourth such hearing in two years. “There is very little regulation of the cruise industry,” Walker said. “Mr. Liffridge’s situation was more of whether they had appropriate safety protocols. None of the balconies had heat detectors or fire suppressers. And they are a part of a larger issue in cruise ship safety. “People should know that some of the cruise lines have implemented changes and most of them have not,” he said. The Liffridge family has created a foundation in Richard’s name to push for cruise ship safety improvements. The committee hearing begins at 11 a.m. Wednesday.—On the Net: www.RichardLiffridge.com

Rapes rife on cruise ships, says professor

2007-09-15T20:14:00.000-05:00

earhtimes.org
Passengers on cruise ships are nearly twice as likely to be sexually attacked as Americans who stay at home, a professor who has studied crime rates on the high seas told a conference in New Zealand, a newspaper reported Monday. Members of the ships' crew are mainly to blame, Professor Ross Klein, a sociologist at Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada, told a conference at the Auckland University of Technology, the New Zealand Herald said.
The rate of sexual assaults on cruise ships was 59 per 100,000 people compared with a norm in the US of 32 per 100,000, according to figures submitted by the industry last year to the US Congress, Klein said. There were another 53 cases per 100,000 of sexual harassment.
Klein told the conference that nearly 70 per cent of sex assaults were carried out by crew members against passengers and 10 per cent on fellow crew members. "On some ships you have crew members organizing contests between themselves to see how many passengers they can sleep with," he said. "The younger the passenger, the more points they score."

Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Schedule Hearing on Cruise Ship Security for September 19,2007

2007-09-13T22:55:00.000-05:00

Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Schedule Hearing on Cruise Ship Security for September 19,2007 [developing]

http://transportation.house.gov/hearings

Israeli Ship Sinks after Collision with Cruise Ship

2007-09-01T11:07:00.000-05:00

Swissinfo - Switzerland - August 31, 2007

Ship collision kills Ukrainian and Indonesian sailors. JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli forces retrieved the bodies on Friday of two Ukrainian and Indonesian sailors who died when an Israeli freighter sank following a collision with a Cypriot cruise ship off the coast of Haifa, police said.
The forces had rescued 11 crew from the Israeli-owned "Shelly" cargo vessel, but the freighter had sunk and its captain and crew member had gone down with it, officials said. Some 700 passengers and crew of the "Salamis Glory" cruise ship were unharmed by the collision near the northern port of Haifa and a spokesman for the company said they would be flown to Cyprus. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear. Kofteros said experts from the shipping department would leave for Israel later on Friday to help authorities with the investigations.

Cruise Ship Passenger Attacks Friend and Throws Belongings Overboard

2007-08-25T00:09:00.000-05:00

www.adn.com
JUNEAU -- A New Jersey man on a cruise with a 76-year-old traveling companion is accused of assaulting his friend and damaging or throwing overboard more than $1,000 of his personal items. According to a statement from troopers, Flynn also caused more than $500 of damage to the stateroom the two men shared and threatened his travel companion's life. Flynn was charged with fourth degree assault and two counts of third degree criminal mischief. He was being held without bail Thursday at the Lemon Creek Correctional Center.
-- Anchorage Daily News

International Cruise Victims (ICV) meet with Cruise Industry to Improve Cruise Ship Safety and Security

2007-08-18T10:58:00.000-05:00

http://www.greenwichcitizen.com/localnews/ci_6611980

ICV president Kendall Carver, who co-founded the organization with Greenwich's Smith family, said Congress directed the cruise lines to work with ICV after the third government hearing on cruise ship safety on March 27. The new initiative between ICV and CLIA was held during the week of July 30 in Washington, D.C.
Carver said ICV presented a proposal for greater transparency and safety onboard cruise ships, which includes a plan for an independent security force. Carver, a 70-year-old former Darien resident who now lives in Phoenix, said ICV would work with Congress to enact the reforms. ICV has been closely allied with U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4, who said he is currently drafting "a bipartisan legislative proposal."
Shays initiated the first cruise ship safety hearing in December 2005, as a result of the disappearance of George Smith, 26, of Greenwich, who vanished from his Royal Caribbean honeymoon cruise on July 5, 2005. ICV also recommends an independent security force police on cruise ships since a conflict of interest may arise when a crewmember commits a crime. Carver compared this kind of security force to the sky marshal program on airlines, and cited the "additional concern of terrorism."
The proposed reforms will be presented at an upcoming hearing in late September, Carver said, and he hopes to see "significant" support for the plan from both members of the House and Senate.
"We've come a long way and I'm pleased with our progress," Carver said. "But we are up against an industry with a lot of money."
In the 2000 election cycle, the cruise lines gave more than $1 billion in political contributions to candidates and political parties, according to opensecrets.org. The Center for Responsive politics also reported that the industry spent more than $2.9 million on federal lobbying from January 2004 to July 2005.
Still, Carver believes that the power of ICV lies in the victims' stories. "Anyone who hears our stories can't ignore them," he said.

In our posting on August 10. 2005, we called for independent law officers for each ship in the form of "Sea Marshalls.':

Safe Cruise: Congressional Hearings Needed on Cruise Ship Safety & Security

Project: Safe Cruise: Coming in 2007: PROJECT SAFE CRUISE>

Did Liberal Alcohol Policies and Poor Security Measures Contribute to Possible Murder on Carnival Cruise Ship?

2007-08-12T15:07:00.000-05:00

Sidney Morning Herald 8/11/07

Sidney Morning Herald 8/12/07

PASSENGERS leaving P&O's Pacific Sun yesterday told how a man who died on board the ship had been king hit following an alcohol-fuelled fight with another man over $20. (P&O is owned by Carnival) Witnesses said the 31-year-old Dulwich Hill man, who was found dead in a toilet next to the ship's Legends bar, asked security guards for help before his death early Tuesday morning. Police suggested in earlier reports that the man's death was due to natural causes, but some passengers told a different story.Renae Sherri, 29, of Melbourne, said holidaymakers had been singing Happy Birthday to the man in the bar before he died. "I was going to the toilet and his sister was screaming, 'Who did it? Tell me who did it. Who was he?'," Ms Sherri said."I heard he got hit in the back and he fell on the floor."The man is understood to have been travelling with his wife, two sisters, brother, brother-in-law and some family friends after winning the trip in a 2GB competition.The cruise was the radio station's biggest competition, with 75 listeners and their families winning tickets.With the inquest into the death of Dianne Brimble on the Pacific Sky finishing on July 27, the family-themed cruise on August 3 was intended to create some positive publicity for P&O. (The cruise lines always seem to be quick to blame the victim or declare that a passenger's death was from natural causes.) Ali Aryan, 28, said he was told by a female friend of the family that a fight had broken out about money and there had been a scuffle." Other passengers told The Sun-Herald there had been an argument before the man was found dead.

Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship Used to Smuggle Drugs from Aruba and St. Maarten

2007-08-10T15:30:00.000-05:00

Safety-Minded Cruise Company Takes Action to Protect Endangered Child

2007-07-20T10:25:00.000-05:00

fosters.com
Dover New Hampshire 7/11/2007
When a woman appeared to be stumbling and had dropped her 2-year-old son while boarding the Portsmouth Harbor Cruises ship Heritage on Friday, staff on the Heritage kept a watchful eye on her and then called police when the boat returned to the dock. Police arrested Holly Spreen, 34, of 26H Piscassic St. in Newmarket for allegedly endangering her child while having a blood-alcohol level of 0.49 — more than six times the legal limit of 0.08 to operate a motor vehicle. Cole, co-owner of Portsmouth Harbor Cruises, was not on board during this incident but heard from his captain that Spreen had dropped the child in the small gap between the boat and the dock when boarding the vessel at about noon. The boy was not injured when his leg went into the gap. Ship officials said Spreen did not seem to be aware of her surroundings. Cole said that the ship is held to the same rules and regulations as any other bar in New Hampshire as it has a state liquor license. "If a customer were to come up that were visibly impaired and ask for a drink, we would refuse them," he said.

Man Overbaord Mysterious Disappearance: Did Carnival Cruise Lines Do the Right thing?

2007-07-19T10:43:00.000-05:00

cruisejunkie.com
89 people have gone overboard on since the year 2000.
A 56-year-old man went missing from the Mexican Riviera cruise, July 1-8 (port calls at Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas). He was apparently last seen by his cabin mate at 1AM on July 4. His body was found off Puerto Vallarta on July 10. The FBI was notified and is investigating. The incident was made public July 16 after family members contacted Cruise Bruise, who said, "there was no sea search done by the ship. This passenger was missing for 5 days before the body was found. While the USCG was notified, we find no record of a USCG search being performed. In addition, because there was no public press release on this incident, the public including the boating public had no idea there was a man in the water. Given, there was a man missing, presumed overboard, it should have been automatic to post the press release publicly. The fact that it was not posted immediately, losing potential assistance in the search for Mr. Klingele, leads to further speculation." Carnival Cruise Lines says it is not normal practice for it to disclose such events to media unless specifically asked by a media source.
losgatosobserver.com
Kevin Klingele vanishes from cruise ship

Carnival Cruise Lines Chooses Profits over Passenger Safety: "I'll Never Go on a Cruise Again"

2007-07-15T09:55:00.000-05:00

Sunday Star Times, 7/16/07
Carnival's Subsidiary P&O Australia Cruise Lines makes decision to put passengers at risk rather than loose money by cancelling or re-routing P&O Pacific Star. When customers were shown to their rooms, boards were lined up along the corridor, and were soon put up to cover each cabin window. Hundreds of Kiwi holidaymakers suffered a horrendous night at sea on Tuesday as hurricane-force winds battered their cruise ship off the North Island's north coast. Passengers, including many schoolchildren on holiday, were exposed to 12 hours of extreme weather.

Captain Ivan Jerman said the hurricane-force winds, which averaged 75 knots gusting to 90 knots, and 9m swells were the worst conditions he had sailed in during his 35-year career at sea.
The Pacific Star suffered considerable damage, including broken windows, damage to the bow and the loss of a satellite dish overboard.
One passenger, Joy Meekings, from Whangaparaoa, said she would never go on a cruise again. Already anxious about sailing, Meekings said the appalling weather forecast heightened her concerns as she boarded the ship in Auckland on Tuesday.

Nine Cruise Ship Workers Test Positive For TB

2007-07-14T10:29:00.000-05:00

MAYPORT, Fla. -- After a former employee of SunCruz Casino tested positive for tuberculosis, the Florida Department of Health tested all of the cruise line's local employees for the disease and found eight tested positive. Channel 4 learned that an employee who worked for SunCruz two months ago was hospitalized with an active case of tuberculosis. While that person's family tested negative for the disease, health officials decided to test 126 other employees of the cruise line. Skin tests found eight more people appeared to be infected with the tuberculosis germ

Elderly Man Beaten With Cane on Cruise Ship

2007-07-13T10:22:00.000-05:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19736163/
July 12, 2007
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Police are searching for a man who attacked a 93-year-old man on a gambling cruise ship. Jim Yu's family said the elderly man was attacked in a bathroom on a Sun Cruz Casino, and beaten so badly he ended up in a hospital.
Investigators said it appeared as if Yu was not only targeted because of his age, but also because of his winnings. The elderly man had about $1,500 in cash in his wallet. Is It Time to Have Independent Law Enforcement Staff on all Cruise Ships: http://projectsafecruise.blogspot.com/

Carnival Cruise Line Employee Missing and Possibly Kidnapped

2007-07-12T10:46:00.000-05:00

http://www.cruisebruise.com/Domenico_Miuccio.html
Domenico was working onboard Carnival Imagination and was enroute to Grand Cayman on a five-day cruise out of Miami. He didn't show up for work on Tuesday June 20, 2006, having last been seen on Monday June 19, 2006. His son has come to Cruise Bruise asking for help. The family has been told nothing, and no body has been found. Because of the high incident of illegal drugs being run between Miami and the Caribbean, it is possible that Domenico saw something he shouldn't and the disappearance is related to that. If you have information regarding this case, please contact the FBI.

Risk of Terrorist Attacks on Cruise Ships in Caribbean Identified in New US Government Report

2007-07-04T12:13:00.000-05:00

We were on the Carnival Destiny near Aruba when an elderly couple disappeared without a trace in early 2005. Investigations by authorities were delayed and incomplete. While on our Caribbean cruise, we were shocked by comments by the locals that crime was on the increase on all of the islands due to organized crime activity and the use of the Caribbean as a half way point for drug traffickers from South America and elsewhere. Local law enforcement was poorly trained, understaffed, and ill-equipped to handle the growing security threats. This added to the fact that there are no independent, trained, and experienced law enforcement on cruise ships creates a dangerous situation. A report just released by the Government Accounting Office validates our initial concerns. 87 individuals have fallen overboard since the year 2000 and most cases go unsolved; no thanks to the incomplete security provided by the cruise lines. http://www.cruisejunkie.com/Overboard.html Last year was the worst with 22 and there have been 11 so far this year. Because of pressure from the families of victims and groups like http://www.internationalcruisevictims.org/ cruise lines have made limited changes to safety procedures and a few ships reacted quick enough to actually save victims. Congress has held several hearings but have taken no real action except to witness a last minute voluntary agreement with the cruise lines. Congressman Elijah E. Cummings, Maryland, Chairman Says the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Will Give Cruise Lines Six Months or until from September 27, 2007 to Work Voluntarily with Coast Guard & FBI and Then Hold More Hearings. http://transportation.house.gov/hearings/hearingdetail.aspx?NewsID=112 See the COUNTDOWN CLOCK in the left hand column.
Project Safe Cruise will consist of a one week cruise in 2007 that will showcase the type of security and safety system that could be put in place by cruise lines to insure the safety and security of all passengers and crew and at the same time preserve evidence of crimes and/or accidents. On this Maiden Voyage we hope to offer short entertaining seminars and panel discussions by various security experts and perhaps some celebrities, on missing persons, identity theft, date rape, kidnapping, teenage and young child safety, security, and general health and safety issues while in other countries or at sea, investment scams for seniors, how to buy art work, etc. We must focus on a positive solution that will benefit all parties involved and prevent future tragedies. With the help of former FBI and NYPD law enforcement experts, we ask you to do this as a way of honoring the 87 people who have gone overboard since the year 2000. Most of whom are presumed dead. http://www.projectsafecruise.blogspot.com/ offers a possible solution.

http://www.caribbeanpressreleases.com/articles/1992/1/US-Governmetnt-Report-on-Port-Security-in-the-Caribbean/Some-concerns-about-port-security-in-Caribbean.html

Caribbean ports contain a variety of facilities such as cargo facilities, cruise ship terminals, and facilities that handle petroleum products and liquefied natural gas. Additionally, several Caribbean ports are among the top cruise ship destinations in the world. Given the volume and value of this maritime trade, the facilities and infrastructure of the maritime transportation system may be attractive targets for a terrorist attack.
Our prior work on maritime security issues has revealed that the three most likely modes of attack in the port environment are a suicide attack using an explosive-laden vehicle or vessel, a standoff attack using small arms or rockets, and the traditional armed assault. Beyond the types of facilities and modes of attack to be considered, officials we spoke to identified a number of overarching security concerns that relate to the Caribbean Basin as a whole.
Among these concerns are (1) the level of corruption that exists in some Caribbean nations to undermine the rule of law in these countries, (2) organized gang activity occurring in proximity to or within port facilities, and (3) the geographic proximity of many Caribbean countries, which has made them transit countries for cocaine and heroin destined for U.S. markets. Other security concerns in the Caribbean Basin mentioned by U.S. agency officials include stowaways, illegal migration, and the growing influence of Islamic radical groups and other foreign terrorist organizations.

http://www.gao.gov/docsearch/abstract.php?rptno=GAO-07-804R

According to cruisebruise.com

"U.S. Virgin Islands are an Easy Terror Target: Cruise Ship Passengers At High Risk of Major Event"

In a document titled, Towards a Homeland Security Strategy for the United States Virgin Islands: The Terrorism and Natural Disasters Planning Group, Martin J Alperen says, "The Virgin Islands (VI) is underprepared for major natural disasters and terrorism. Many emergency plans are incomplete, based on inaccurate information, wrongly optimistic, and assume an infrastructure that does not exist. The VI is at risk for a direct terrorist attack and also is subject to secondary consequences that could result from a stateside attack because virtually 100 percent of its food, fuel, medicine, oil to make electricity and potable water, and tourists -- the economy's lifeblood -- are imported. Other factors to be considered are as follows: (1) geographically, help is not readily available from any neighboring city or state; (2) the VI's first responders are likely to be affected by the same disaster they are responding to and will be unable to assist; (3) the VI must assume more of the emergency preparedness functions that would typically be shared between neighboring communities; (4) the VI must have more funding than similar communities on the mainland; and (5) preparedness planning must include the importing of mainland resources." He concludes, "The political system, law enforcement, and other infrastructure in the US Virgin Islands is dysfunctional at best and this prohibits meaningful law enforcement, homeland security, preparedness and response."

Virus outbreaks on cuise ships are an ongoing problem:
http://www.cruise-bruise.com/cruise_epidemics.html
According to the USCDC there are five (5) ships each week with reports of Norovirus onboar d. That comes out to 260 ships a year. This rate is for 2006, and may be less or more in other years. In looking at the list of outbreaks for 2006, you will see, there are not 260 reports by ships of Norovirus. There are 36. Ships may have cases for many cruises, before the percentage of infected reaches a CDC reportable level.

Security is also lacking for victims of sexual predators:

I have since learned that there have been no convictions for rape cases on cruise lines in four decades... Cruise industry executives testified last year before the House Government Reform Committee that 66 cases of sexual assault were reported from Royal Caribbean between 2003 and 2005. However, as a result of a civil lawsuit, Royal Caribbean was forced to turn over internal documents that showed that these numbers were actually much higher. Specifically, such cases had actually occurred 273 times over the three-year period in question. I have also come to learn that many of the crimes that were not reported involved minors. It seems impossible that Royal Caribbean would not consider these crimes worthy of reporting.

FORTY YEARS AND NO CONVICTONS

-Opening remarks of Congresswoman Doris O. Matsui on March 27, 2007 at the hearing that Exposed Cruise Industry’s Lax Responses to Crimes Committed Onboard its Shipshttp://matsui.house.gov/Newsroom.asp?ARTICLE2939=7897

Perfect Record: Not One Single Conviction for Sexual Assaults on Cruise Ships in Four Decades

The inadequate security and safety practices still used by Cruise Lines have not even been able to put ONE sexual predator behind bars. Now what kind of luck will they have blocking attacks by terrorists and suicide bombers?

In addtion many of the crewmembers on cruise ships are from poor third world countries where terrorist groups exist. It is doubtful that the cruise lines spend enough money to obtain reliable background checks. Many of the crew has access to millions of paper and computer records containing highly personal data on passengers such as Social Security and credit card numbers, addresses, photos, possible face scans, etc. Wouldn't terrorists like to get their hands on that. Think of the damage that could be done.

Safe Cruise: Are the Privacy and Security of Millions of American Cruise Vacation Customers at Risk?

Tipsy Teacher rescued after plummeting 40 feet from a cruise ship into the Atlantic Ocean

2007-07-03T06:36:00.000-05:00

http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/158771.html
Scott Durbin, who was cruising aboard the Carnival Liberty with three of his buddies, stumbled out of the casino -- and into a lifeboat attached to the side of the ship, authorities said. When a security guard showed up and told him to get out, Durbin apparently took the order too literally. He plunged into the Atlantic, prompting an hourlong rescue effort. The incident marked the second time in four months that a passenger jumped off a Carnival cruise ship in South Florida waters.

Party Attack Victim Jumps Off Cruise Ship, Dies

2007-07-02T11:32:00.000-05:00

click2houston.com

HOUSTON -- A teenager who was beaten and sodomized at a party died Sunday after he jumped from a cruise ship into the Gulf of Mexico, KPRC Local 2 reported.
Officials said David Ritcheson, 18, jumped from aboard the Ecstasy, a 70,000-ton cruise ship that sailed out of Galveston on Saturday for a five-day round-trip cruise to Cozumel, Mexico.

FBI launches investigation into missing cruise ship passenger

2007-06-22T00:33:00.000-05:00

wink TV, Charlotte NC

By The Associated Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - FBI officials say they are investigating the disappearance of a North Carolina man from a cruise ship sailing through the Bahamas.Brent Smith, 24, was last seen around 1:45 a.m. Monday on his stateroom balcony aboard the Freedom of the Seas, owned by Royal Caribbean International. Relatives reported him missing around 8:30 a.m., according to a cruise ship statement.The ship turned around at that point to search for Smith, who was traveling with his brother, Matthew Smith, and his brother's girlfriend, said FBI spokesman Harry Rodriguez. Coast Guard crews launched a search as well.Officials said he was born in Fremont, N.C.The U.S. Coast Guard suspended a search for Smith on Wednesday, saying he likely won't be found.The ship docked Wednesday in Puerto Rico so that FBI experts could determine whether foul play was involved, Rodriguez said. He declined to say whether agents retrieved any evidence from Smith's cabin or other areas.Cruise lines reported at least 24 missing people from 2000 to 2005, compared with the estimated 10 million passengers that travel every year.The Freedom of the Seas, carrying more than 4,000 passengers, will return to Miami on Sunday morning.More than 100 people gathered for a vigil Wednesday evening at the family's church, Wilson Praise and Worship in Wilson, N.C. Its pastor, Cliff Lewin, flew to Puerto Rico to be with the family earlier this week."Prayer goes where we cannot. It moves the hang of God," Lewin's wife, Lisa, said during the vigil.She said Smith, a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, was devoted to his family and made a point of attending all of his little sister's dance recitals.