Date	Ship Cruise Line	Event	Type of Incident
December 30	Crystal Symphony Crystal Cruises	From a passenger: The ship hit with a large wave in the Drake Passage on the night of December 29-30, resulting in a broken stateroom window on deck 5. Seas were quite rough at the time. There was water damage in the stateroom and adjacent hallways and other nearby staterooms. Rumors of a passenger injury, but no statement. The ship returned to the Ushuaia area where repairs were made on the 30th. Whether the return to Ushuaia was due to the broken window or the high seas or a combination is conjecture. After spending the 30th anchored off Ushuaia, the ship headed south again and had an uneventful set of crossings through the Drake Passage.	Damage from high seas
December 30	Antarctic Dream Antarctic Shipping	The ship was scheduled to leave port yesterday evening, but didn't leave until this morning. Water pressure at the port has been really low, and they have been using the firemen's truck to supply the small ships. Prior to arrival at Ushuaia, the ship has been operating with two of its three engines for the past two weeks (one engine is not operating) and is cruising at reduced speeds (as little as half its usual cruising speed) -- it does not appear the problem has been repaired and what impact this has on the itinerary and whether the ship's safety is affected.	Engine problems -- Delayed departure
December 29	Grand Princess Princess Cruises	Antigua Sun reports the the ship diverted to safe harbour, anchoring outside English Harbour. It had to be diverted to that part of the island because it was having problems with its bow thruster. Due to this mechanical problem, the ship had to be anchored and the cruise line made the choice of securing the ship in the safe port of English Harbour considered much more sheltered than St. John’s. The decision was also made on the basis that the prevailing high gusts of winds being experienced in Antigua required that the ship, its passengers and crew go to the safest position which is in English Harbour’s sheltered bay.	Thruster problems
December 28	Explorer of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	Antigua Sun reports two passengers were allegedly robbed of US$200, their hand bags, credit cards and passports at Fort James beach. This is the second incident in a matter of weeks affecting the cruise sector. After the passengers were robbed, the taxi driver who was transporting them reportedly attempted to catch the thief but was unsuccessful.	Robbery ashore
December 27	Artemis P&O Cruises	The ship reported 4 (0.69%) crew and 54 (4.80%) passengers had reported ill with gastrointestinal illness on a 14 day cruise ending today in New Orleans.	Illness
December 26	Norwegian Pearl Norwegian Cruise Line	Searchers from the U.S. Coast Guard joined the hunt Friday for a cruise ship passenger reported missing after employees of the Norwegian Pearl failed to find her. The search was centered about 15 miles east of Cancun, off the northeastern Mexico coast. The husband of 36-year-old Jennifer Feitz told cruise ship personnel about 3:50 a.m. that he couldn't find her. When a thorough search didn't locate her, the Coast Guard got a call for help. "Initial reports indicate the guest may have gone overboard while the ship was at sea, east of Cancun," a spokeswoman for the Miami, Florida-based Norwegian Cruise Line said in a statement. Given her mental health history, media are assuming the disappearance is a suicide.	Person Overboard
December 25	Jupiter Jupiter Cruise Line	The Phnom Phen Post reports more than 200 Cambodian tourists were denied entry into Thailand despite having valid entry visas. According to a passenger, border police demanded pax deposit $1,500 to enter Bangkok and keep it there for two months. A group of Vietnamese made up of 25 people was allowed into Bangkok and only Cambodians were denied.	Pax denied entry
December 23	Emerald Princess Princess Cruises	Posters at Cruise Critic report an elevated number of illnesses (~50) attributed to norovirus, but the number does may not appear to be high enough (3% of passengers) to be considered an outbreak.	Illness
December 23	Carnival Miracle Carnival Cruise Lines	From a passenger: I just returned from an 8-day cruise to the Western Caribbean (Dec. 15 to 23). We found out the morning of the cruise that due to "mechanical difficulties", Panama and Costa Rica were off the itinerary, replaced with Costa Maya, Cozumel and Roatan (Belize remained from the original itinerary, but on a different date). Two days into the cruise, I personally met with the Captain and two of his senior officers. Also attending the meeting was a guy who had collected 250 email addresses from disgruntled passengers. The meeting lasted for about 1 1/2 hours.  The Captain told us that two days prior to returning to Ft. Lauderdale (our cruise left there on Dec. 15), they had problems with the thrust bearing on one of the two main azipods, which limited their top speed to 18 knots.  This is the same problem which apparently affected the Carnival Legend when it was doing the Panama run (the Miracle took over this itinerary after the Legend was no longer able to do it).  Due to the limited top speed, the ship simply would not be able to get to Panama in time.  Both ships are expected to have the problem repaired when they go into dry dock in a couple of months (late February). The new itinerary was over 1600NM shorter than the originally scheduled cruise, but no refund of the fuel surcharge was offered. A second incident occurred on Monday afternoon, December 22.  We were informed over the PA that a passenger was gravely ill, and so the ship was going to return early to Fort Lauderdale - ETA midnight instead of 7:00 the next morning. To our amazement, our "damaged" ship made 21 knots NO PROBLEM all the way back to Fort Lauderdale.	Itinerary change -- Mechanical problems
December 20	Minerva Swan Hellenic	The ship reportedly canceled the first two cruises of their season in Antarctica, due to mechanical problems.	Mechanical problems
December 20	Lyuba Orlova Quark Expeditions	The ship reportedly had to cancel four trips due to a mechanical problem. There was leak on the cooling for the engine, and the Argentinean Port Authorities did not authorize it to sail. Later, after the repairs had been done, they could not sail because of some inspection problem. They proceeded to change their flag to the Cook Islands, and managed to sail on their first trip of the season today.	Mechanical problems
December 19	Le Diamant Ponant Cruises	On December 13th, the ship encountered strong winds during their cruise on South Georgia. They suffered damage to their landing platform (that hangs from the back of the ship), and lost one of their two engines. They canceled the rest of their voyage (that was supposed to go to the Antarctic Peninsula), and headed straight back to Ushuaia, where they arrived today. They expect to have conducted repairs and to be able to resume their schedule December 20th.	Engine problems
December 18	Ecstasy Carnival Cruise Lines	Thick fog in Galveston delayed the arrival of the ship. The Galveston-Texas City Pilots Association, whose members guide vessels to and from area ports, suspended services about 1 p.m. Wednesday because of low visibility. They did not resume services until the fog began lifting about 3 p.m. Thursday. Ecstasy, which typically docks about 7 a.m., was expected tie up about 4:30 p.m. Thursday and was not expected to board new passengers until about 9:30 p.m.; it was expected to sail around about midnight (rather than typically early evening).	Fog delay
December 15	Navigator of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	Posted at Cruising Talk: So much for the saying about lightening not striking twice... Earlier in the year, as we documented here on CruisingTalk, Navigator o/t Seas suffered a problem with one of her stabilizers on her Transatlantic crossing. The offending article was removed at Cascais, Portugal upon instruction from the Portugese authorities after she arrived in Lisbon. Well the other stabilizer was removed on December 15. No word as to the reason for the second 'amputation', but she is expected to receive a new set of fins when she is in dry dock at the end of January 2009.	Stabilizer removed
December 15	Maejan Philippine Ferry	At least 23 people drowned when the overcrowded ferry capsized just short of its destination (in Aparri town in north-eastern Cagayan province) in rough seas in the north-eastern Philippines. Terrified passengers leaped into the sea, and a further 33 are still missing after the wooden-hulled Maejan, traveling from Calayan islands in the Luzon Strait, encountered strong waves and currents on Sunday evening. Nearly 100 passengers jumped into the chilly water after waves broke the ferry's bamboo outrigger, causing it to bob wildly.	Capsized
December 15	Alexander von Humboldt Phoenix Reisen	The ship's Antarctic season has been canceled because the ship (under charter to Phoenix Reisen)has been seized due to its owner's unpaid debts.	Cancellations
December 15	Arcadia P&O Cruises	Time Online reports that four people pleaded guilty today to trying to smuggling ￡1.7 million worth of cocaine into the UK while posing as passengers on a cruise ship. They had strapped 20 kilos of the drug to their bodies but were arrested when the ship docked in Southampton in October. The ship had just returned from a 23-day cruise around the Caribbean. Three others arrested at the same time were released on bail until January 20, 2009.	Drug bust
December 15	Queen Victoria Cunard Line	It has been reported that the ship suffered significant problems during her last cruise. Naples was missed due to bad weather. A list of about 7 degrees developed causing crockery & glassware to fly off shelves, one of the counters in the Lido started to give way but was held back by staff. On the last night of the cruise the ship came to a dead stop after a temporary engine failure. Emergency lighting was working but it took some time to get the engines to restart.	Severe list -- Propulsion problems
December 13	Vistamar Plantours & Partner	The Earth Times reports that passengers have been disembarked while the ship sails through the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden with a reduced crew. The 200 passengers will instead spend three days making a land visit to Yemen.	Avoiding pirate attack
December 12	Veendam Holland America Line	FROM A PASSENGER: We were on Westerdam on a back-to-back cruise from Nov 30th to Dec 14th.  On Dec 12th before we disembark at our port of call Costa Maya our Captain mentioned over the PA that we should not mix with the other people on the ship dock beside us (which was Veendam) because of an outbreak of that "ship flu." He said about 40 pax were ill.	Illness
December 10	Oriana P&O Cruises	The port call at Piraeus planned for tomorrow has been canceled due to widespread violence in many Greek cities, including Athens. The ship will now have a day at sea and will arrive in  Naples  the day after.	Canceled port call
December 9	Pride of Hull P&O Ferries	According to the BBC, the ferry was left drifting 50 miles (80.5km) from port after an engine fire broke out. It was returning from Rotterdam to Hull when the blaze started at about 0530 GMT. Staff on the vessel, which had several hundred passengers and crew on board, quickly extinguished the blaze, during which time the other engine was shut down. No one had been injured and the ferry was due to arrive in Hull later in the day.	Fire
December 9	Columbus Hapag Lloyd	The cruise line announced plans to fly its passengers over the Gulf of Aden, instead of sailing them through, out of fear of pirate attacks in the region. All 246 passengers and most of the crew, currently at the start of an around-the-world cruise, will disembark at Yemen, then fly to Dubai to continue their journey. The company called the move a precautionary measure. The world cruise began November 28 in Genoa, Italy and is due in Dubai December 17. Passengers will stay in a five-star hotel in Dubai for three days until the Columbus arrives to take them back onboard.	Avoiding pirate attack
December 7	Brilliance of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	FROM A PASSENGER: The November 25 to December 7 cruise missed two ports. Bad weather caused cancellation of the port call at Citavecchia on November 28 -- the ship spent an extra day at sea, arriving at Citavecchia on 29.  Because of the delay, the ship went directly to Santorini, skipping Mykonos.  Then on the return leg of the cruise to Barcelona, bad weather prevented the port call at Naples.  Instead the ship went to Messina, Sicily.	Itinerary changes due to weather
December 6	Norwegian Gem Norwegian Cruise Line	The Sun Sentinel reports while approaching on the port side to refuel the Bahamian cruiseship Norwegian Gem, the Barge DBL17, under the control of tug Caspian Sea, makes contact with the stern quarter of the cruiseship when it is pushed by the current. The barge sustained a dent portside, midship from the impact with the fender. There were no damages on the Norwegian Gem. No cargo discharge or injuries noted.	Collision
December 6	Inspiration Carnival Cruise Lines	FROM A PASSENGER: We left the pier a little delayed perhaps 30 minutes @ approx 4:30 instead of the scheduled time of 4:00. Standing in the Atrium after the 1st seating dinner approx 8:30 the ship went dark (pitch black), seemingly losing all power.  At first we thought it was some planned event.  but as it continued we knew this was not the case.  People stuck in between floors in the main glass elevators.  After about 30 seconds emergency lighting came on and flickered off & on for another couple of minutes or so.  Everyone was calm, almost in shock as if we couldn't believe this was happening.  Finally the lights came on and we were back to normal.  I understand the casino had problems as all machines lost power and when reset balances were lost, Stores were closed immediately with use of yellow tape blocking openings I guess to protect against theft.  About a hour passed when the captain made an official announcement that basically said that the ship engineers had diagnosed the problem, it was corrected and all was under control.	Power loss
December 4	Infinity Celebrity Cruises	The US Coast Guard reports the ship experienced a problem with "material failure."	Material failure
December 4	Norwegian Jade Norwegian Cruise Line	FROM A PASSENGER: Due to bad weather and winds up to 50 knots, the Jade skipped its port of Piraeus, Greece after the port pilot refused to board in the rough seas.  The passengers were treated to a one hour 'happy hour' of free beer and select wine. Last week, on November 29th, the ship called off its port call to Palma de Mallorca due to bad weather.	Missed port calls
December 4	M/V Ushuaia Fathom Expeditions	FROM A CREW MEMBER: Today, sometime during the morning around 10:30 AM, the ship Ushuaia run aground on a rock close to Wilhelmina Bay in Antarctica. I don't know the extent of the damage, but there is a hull breach, and possibly fuel leak. The Ushuaia is a small vessel, from Argentinean Company, carrying around 90 passengers and 40 crew (not precise numbers). The approximate coordinates are 64 degrees 34' S,  82 degrees 27' W. The British coast guard is coordinating the rescue by radio. The first ship to approach the accident is the Antarctic Dream, from a Chilean Company, another small vessel that can carry 80 passengers and around 40 crew members (approx). Two other ships are on the way, but we still don't know what we can do to help. Both ships are small, and none could accommodate the full compliment of crew and passengers from the Ushuaia. So far there has been no order to abandon ship. At the moment it seems they are not sinking, but there is no chance of it sailing across the Drake Passage with passengers. The weather on the Peninsula has been horrible, winds of 30 knots, gusts up to 60 knots. UPDATE: The Ushuaia was scheduled to make a landing at Danco Island this morning, but due to strong winds they canceled and went north to Wilhelmina Bay to try and find a more protect landing place. On their way there they hit a rock and run aground at approximately 10:30 am. They issued a distress call at around noon. Position: 64º34' S 62 º26' W. Two ships were in the area, the Antarctic Dream, and the Grigoriy Mikheev and attended to the distress call. The Antarctic Dream was the first to arrive at the scene at 13:30, and the Mikheev arrived at 15:00. At that time the situation was the following: There is a breach on their hull, it is on two of their fuel tanks. There is a diesel leak of about 40 m that is being dispersed by the winds. So although they are taking in water and leaking diesel, the breach does not affect the safety of the passengers, who will then remain on board until rescue arrives. On the other hand because the breach is in the fuel tank there is no chance of affecting any kind of repairs from inside the ship. Two ships from the Chilean Navy have been dispatched and are expected to arrive to their position tomorrow early morning: the Achiles and the Lautaro. The Achiles have capacity for 120 passengers, so it shall take on the passengers probably towards Frei Station (the one with the airport) or maybe directly to Punta Arenas. The other ship will work to try and free the Ushuaia. The crew will remain on board. The Lautaro has divers, and they will be able to access the extent of the breach. In the meantime, the Antarctic Dream is to stand guard around the Ushuaia, to provide assistance in case their situation changes. Its commercial activity has been suspended and it is on standby for any change in the situation, or further instructions. The weather is fine now, the wind has abated, and there was a nice sunset. Will give more information when I have it. NOTE: The ship previously ran aground in July 2005 and was cited for a number of deficiencies in its last safety inspection. See Lloyd's List. UPDATE: December 5 mid-day: all passengers have been taken aboard the Achiles, which is expected to arrive at Chile’s Frei station in Antarctica shortly before midnight. On Saturday morning they will be flown to Ushuaia. UPDATE: December 8, the ship has been refloated and is en route to Paradise Bay under its own power. Arrived in Punta Arenas December 18, entered Dry Dock December 24, and will need forty days for repairs.	Grounded in Antarctica -- Fuel Leak
December 4	Carnival Freedom Carnival Cruise Lines	Cruising Talk reports that the ship apparently left Grand Cayman on time but due to reports of something or someone falling overboard, the captain returned to the island and instigated a search of the area. Subsequent enquiries and a full head count revealed that what had been seen going over the side was in fact an inflatable toy monkey that had been on over ten cruises (according to its owner). The cruise has continued without further incident.	Inflatable animal overboard
December 3	Athena Classic International	The Courier Mail reports planes buzzed a flotilla pirate boats, forcing them to keep away from the ship with 450 passengers onboard off the coast of Somalia. Fire hoses were run out to prevent boarding attempts and passengers evacuated open decks. For hours, the ship was shadowed by the pirates. Eventually, an aircraft arrived and buzzed the boats. Passengers were told that just before dawn there had been attempts on two nearby vessels.	Pirates
December 2	Pride of Rotterdam P&O Ferries	The BBC reports six lifeboats and two search and rescue helicopters are searching the sea off Norfolk for a man believed to have fallen overboard. The alarm was raised just before 0600 GMT by crew on the passenger ferry, which was on its way from the Dutch city to The Humber. The search is concentrating on a 60-mile area of sea from the east of Cromer to The Humber. The missing man is believed to be a ferry crew member.	Crew overboard
December 2	Sea Wind Tallink Silja	Helicopters have evacuated passengers from a cargo ferry in the Baltic Sea after a fire broke out in the engine room. All 11 passengers were flown to the nearby port of Mariehamn in the Aland Islands, while the 28 crew members put out the fire. , Robin Lindstrom from the Turku Rescue Centre said on Tuesday. The ship was en route from the south-western Finnish port of Turku to Stockholm, Sweden, when a fire broke out in the engine room at about 2.40am Tuesday (1140 AEDT). The ferry suffered severe fire damage.	Fire
December 1	Unknown	Lloyd's List reports a V Ships-managed vessel has been stranded in the Gulf of Aden for more than 72 hours after terrified crew witnessed the Biscaglia hijacking and refused to sail the ship further. V Ships is now searching for naval or private security support to escort the ship to safety. “We have a crew right now who won’t go any further and have stopped the ship,” said V.Ships chief operating officer Matthew Dunlop. “They are saying ‘it’s too dangerous and we are not going anywhere’.” The V-Ships crew was traveling close enough to witness the hijacking of Biscaglia which took the pirates 10 minutes to board. There is no indication the ship involved is a cruise ship.	Pirates
November 30	Zuiderdam Holland America Line	A reported has been received that a small fire - believed to be electrical - was reported overnight on the 30/11/2008. It was quickly dealt with and no injuries or damage has been reported.	Fire
November 30	Disney Wonder Disney Cruise Line	News 13 reports that the main gangway for guests and crew members collapsed into the water. There were several guests onboard the ship -- it had to be moved to a cargo pier to load the remainder of the guests.  The ship was an hour late pulling out of port. There were no reports of injuries.	Gangway collapses
November 30	Emerald Princess Princess Cruises	Miami Herald reports that officials are checking cars leaving Port Everglades, looking for a fired cruise ship worker who slipped out of government custody. The worker, who is not a U.S. citizen, was fired by Princess Cruises and was being processed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to be sent back to his country when he ran off, said a spokeswoman for Port Everglades. It was believed that the man was hiding somewhere in the port. He was let go along with five other workers. Those five workers remained in the custody of Customs and Border Protection.	Fired worker
November 30	Nautica Oceania Cruises	At 0528 GMT, the ship was transiting through the Gulf of Aden. As the vessel sailed past several groups of non-hostile fishing vessels, two small skiffs were sighted by the Officer on Duty and deemed potentially hostile. The skiffs, approaching from a range of approximately 1000 meters, attempted to intercept the vessel's course. The ship immediately began evasive maneuvers and took all prescribed precautions. The ship was immediately brought to flank speed and was able to out run the two skiffs. One of the skiffs did manage to close the range to approximately 300 yards and fired eight rifle shots in the direction of the vessel before trailing off. No one aboard the ship was harmed and no damage was sustained.	Attempted pirate attack
November 28	Astor Transocean	Speigel Online reports (see here) the German Navy warded off a suspected piracy attack in the Gulf of Aden. The Navy's Mecklenburg-Vorpommern frigate chased off two suspicious speed boats with warning shots last Friday, a spokesman for the mission commando in Postsdam confirmed. A spokesman for Transocean Tours in Bremen, which was operating the cruise ship, said the 492 guests and crew on board had not noticed the incident. The ship also had not asked for help. The suspicious boats disappeared quickly into Yemen's territorial waters. Transocean said the speed boats had approached about 3 sea miles distant, and the frigate intercepted them before they got to the cruise ship. The cruise ship was bound for Dubai, where it arrived on Tuesday.	Pirates
November 28	Costa Concordia Costa Cruises Century Celebrity Cruises Grand Celebration Iberocruises	Di-ve news reports three ships had planned visits to Malta affected by inclement weather. The visit by Century was cancelled. The visit by the other two ships was in question as the ships waited outside the harbour which had operations halted because of gale force winds.	Cancelled port calls
November 26	Seven Seas Voyager Regent Seven Seas	Cruise Talking reports the ship has a problem with her propulsion system. She reportedly snagged fishing nets and is running slower than normal due to the damage done. Arrival in Ft. Lauderdale is delayed one day to December 2nd on the current transatlantic crossing. RSSC are sorting all required air changes free of charge and all passengers on the current cruise are receiving $400 each towards a 2009 cruise. The next cruise will be losing a port, which one is unknown at present but passengers will be compensated accordingly for the late start of the cruise and the missed port. FROM A PASSENGER: We are ticketed for the now-delayed Dec. 1 cruise on the Voyager out of Port Everglades. We were contacted yesterday and they told us about the fishing nets, etc. We are being put up at the Hyatt Pier 66 near the port and will board about noon on Dec. 2, they say. We are disappointed to miss a day at sea, of course, but the compensation seems fair to me. The dropped port is the furthest away, Santo Tomas de Castilla, Guatemala. Port times have also been rescheduled and in some cases, Cozumel in particular, shortened.	Propulsion problems -- Delayed arrival & departure
November 25	Lady Anne River Cruise Line	Monster and Critics reports a party of sick British pensioners were isolated Tuesday aboard the river cruise boat after German authorities put them under quarantine on the Rhine River. At least 42 of 110 passengers came down with a norovirus infection and 16 were moved to area hospitals after suffering drastic loss of body fluid. The rest were not allowed to leave the boat. A German disinfection team was sent aboard the anchored boat off Boppard to clean it after the captain radioed for help Monday with dozens of patients suffering vomiting and diarrhea.	Illness
November 23	Astoria Transocean	From a poster at Cruisepage.com's "Cruise Talk": Transocean Tours briefly issued a press release earlier today, stating that during a routine dry docking, a major issue with "Astoria's" main engines has been discovered, resulting in the cancellation of the upcoming, 123-night world cruise. Later today, the press release was removed from the Transocean web site for whatever reason.	Cancel world cruise
November 22	Costa Concordia Costa Cruises	The Malta Independent and Times of Malta report the ship hit the dock in Palermo harbour as a result of a storm that has hit the central Mediterranean over the past 24 hours. The bow was damaged, some passengers were shaken, but no injuries were registered among the passengers and crew. Repairs were undertaken after the ship was firmly docked. Here are some pics of the damage.	Collision with pier
November 22	Imagination Carnival Cruise Lines	A reader at Cruise Critic posts: Yay! Just home from the 4 night imagination cruise this week to key west and cozumel. Had a minor crash that left a huge dent and needing some paint touch up on the front side of the ship. Couldn't see it much in Cozumel but saw it clearly as possible when de-embarking today. Cruise director tania said everything was ok, no major damage to vessel (Of course they will say that if the ship runs good and no issues mechanically)... but look at the outside! I'm sure the new white paint will hide it good tho -- Click Here for pics	Collision with pier
November  22	Grand Princess Princess Cruises	Cruising Talk reports the ship has been delayed by overnight poor weather and will not be arriving in Civitavecchia until at least 1430 today. FROM A PASSENGER: At around 9pm during dinner, there was a sharp lurch and then a hard drop and the ship shuddered noticeably.  Several hours later, the ship lurched again and then came down hard and shuddered again and the power to the entire ship went out. The ship seemed to drop again, and vibrated very hard. about 5 minutes later power was restored only briefly, and then went out again.  Power was out for about another 5-10 min and then came back on, but not to propulsion.  We drifted for about 30 min before limited propulsion was restored.  There was VERY limited notification as to what happened, just the usual all is well and we are working on restoring power and propulsion.  The ship was to arrive at 6am, but we were proceeding only at about 5 knots and on only one screw.  We finally limped ashore and arrived at 1230pm.  We had to be assisted by 2 tugs to get us docked- something I NEVER saw on any other port call for this ship.  The scene ashore was totally anarchy with little comment from Princess.  I heard from an engineer when i questioned him that we lost a generator as well as damaged a stabilizer- but again nothing from Princess in terms of compensation, assistance or comment.  Overall a very bad situation on their part.  What I want to know is how seas of only 4-8 feet could take out a modern mega-ship like Grand Princess?   Yes winds were like 40MPH but that should be nothing for a ship this large and modern. Another passenger adds: the subsequent cruise sailed at 830PM but missed Cannes due to wind. There were quite a few ships caught in the unexpected storm and a ferry is missing. There was damage to one window in Sabatini's but no damage to any passenger cabins and no injuries. She also suggested that the power outage was not as long as mentioned above, and that Princess did everything possible to make a bad situation better. And another writes:  I can confirm that during second seating dinner, 9ish, a crash sent our cutlery and glasses all over the table. I can also confirm that around 11 pm - 12:30 am we were hit by several waves the biggest of which cut power and engines.  My room on the Aloha deck was one of the last to have power restored at about 2 am, so it wasn't just 15min like reported, my series on deck 12 camped out in the hall until power was restored.	Delayed embarkation
November 21	Carnival Splendor Carnival Cruise Lines	From a passenger: Just got back from the special 4 day sailing on Carnivals new SPLENDOR. Awesome ship, horrible engineering. Ship is WAY TOO TOP HEAVY!!  Ship rolls WAY TOO MUCH!!! Carnival is going to have to re-think having this ship on the west coasts Pacific Ocean, as it is usually rough. Encountered 40 knot wind and rough seas, and ship rolling had me rolling out of bed.  High winds made captain cancel call on GRAND TURK  and substituted NASSAU in lieu. No compensation offered.	Changed itinerary
November 21	Boudicca Fred Olsen Cruises	Cruising Talk reports the ship sustained minor damage to her bow whilst in Barbados. The port authorities were shifting her to another berth to allow for Ventura and due to high winds Boudicca caught another cross berth. The damage caused a 7ft dent which needed to be repaired before leaving for Castries. She was due to depart on the 21st but has delayed that til the 22nd to allow for repairs to be made. See picture here.	Collision with pier -- Delayed departure
November 21	Sapphire Princess Princess Cruises	From a passenger: We are booked on the Sapphire Princess for November 22-29, and just got a notification via email that the cruise will have a delayed boarding due to operational reasons.  We were also contacted by phone and told that there had been a delayed departure from Cabo on the current cruise.	Delayed embarkation
November 21	Constellation Celebrity Cruises	The ship reported 1 (0.10%) crew and 62 (3.15%) passengers had reported ill with gastrointestinal illness on a 10 day cruise to/from Fort Lauderdale.	Illness
November 20	Noordam Holland America Line	A poster at Cruise Critic wrote a review of her cruise in the Mediterranean and their experience of being off-loaded in a remote area of Italy with no support or assistance from the cruise line. It is an illuminating read.	Offloaded - Failed duty of care
November 20	Discovery Sun Discovery Cruise Line	The US Coast Guard reports the ship experienced a problem of "material failure."	Material failure
November 18	Sun Princess Princess Cruises	From a passenger: I have recently cruised from Sydney to Sydney on a 28 day Tahitian Pearls cruise to South Pacific Islands, Cook Islands, Tonga, Tahiti & Fiji.  From day 2 of the cruise many of the passengers and crew people began getting very sick.   Flu like symptoms.  Very bad throat and cough, it was a Respiratory Infection/Influenza 1.  Every day the medical centre on the ship had many people seeking medical help. When passengers asked the medical team on the ship what they should do - they told them to get off the ship ASAP! the medical staff appeared to be overwhelmed and unprepared to deal with the scale of the outbreak. The Captain even got the Respiratory Infection. I was prepared as I had a supply of antibiotics from my doctor prior to going on the cruise.  We witnessed two coffins being taken off the ship in full view of passengers at Papeete and being loaded into the ambulance. Our holiday was spoiled as we tried as best as possible to isolate ourselves. For 26 days of the 28 day cruise most of the passengers continued to get around the ship with little concern for spreading the coughs & sneezes!   The Norovirus outbreak was also a problem passengers were told not to use the public toilet facilities - to use their cabin facilities - that may have worked except that on many occasions we had no water in our cabins. The worrying thing is that the illnesses where taken to each of the islands we visited, unfortunately the islanders do not have access to our medical services. The ship should have been quarantined in the first week when these illnesses turned into an epidemic!	Illness
November 18	Costa Atlantica Costa Cruises	The UK Marine Accident Investigation Bureau issued a report today regarding a near-missed collision between the cruise ship and a car carrier (Grand Neptune) on May 15, 2008 in the Dover Strait. The investigation identified a number of factors related to the decisions and actions taken by the bridge team on board Costa Atlantica which contributed to the development of the close quarters situation. The full report is available online.	Near collision
November 18	Volendam Holland America Line	A 75-year-old Dutch passenger was photographing vintage cars parked nearby when he walked backwards off the edge of the wharf at Napier (New Zealand), falling 4-5m into the sea, about 12.30pm. A cruise ship staff member jumped into the water and rescued the man who was later taken to Hawke's Bay hospital suffering water inhalation. The man, due to leave aboard the ship this afternoon, was expected to rejoin the vessel in Tauranga.	Pax falls off dock
November 17	Summit Celebrity Cruises	The ship is experiencing propulsion problems that reduce top speeds to 15 knots from the usual 24 knots. The result is that port call have been dropped -- Split was canceled on the Nov 1-15 cruise; a port was also dropped from the subsequent cruise. See Cruising Talk and Cruise Critic.	Propulsion problems
November 14	Carnival Miracle Carnival Cruise Lines	The ship's cruises scheduled for February 25, March 5, and March 13 have been cancelled because the ship will enter dry dock. Repairs are reportedly related to propulsion problems reported during the summer (see July 7 below).	Cancellation for dry dock
November 13	Norwegian Sun Norwegian Cruise Line	The port call at Punta Arenas (Costa Rica) was cancelled after industrial fishing boats blocked entrance to the port in protest at shark finning regulations.	Cancellation of port call
November 12	Coral Princess Princess Cruises	The port call at Punta Arenas (Costa Rica) was cancelled after industrial fishing boats blocked entrance to the port in protest at shark finning regulations.	Cancellation of port call
November 11	Eurodam Holland America Line	A blogger reports (here and here) that passengers were awakened at 4AM by a fire alarm and the following over the ship's PA system: "There's not need for concern, ladies and gentlemen, we've detected a fire in the engine room.  No cause for concern, the ship's crew will be taking care of everything.  Fire crews, emergency response teams, emergency elevator operators, traffic control teams, hotel manager (and others) all report to your stations, please." A short time later another announcement was made: "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the Captain here. The Fire Suppression System has done it's job, and the temperature is dropping in the boiler. I'm going to stop giving you updates now, do please go back to sleep and enjoy an unworried slumber."	Fire
November 11	QE2 Cunard Line	The ship ran aground as she came into her home port to make her final call. It touched the bottom at the Brambles sandbank near Calshot, Southampton, with three tugs attached to her stern. A spokesman for Solent Coastguard said they were alerted to the 70,000-tonne ship being aground at the entrance of Southampton Water at 5.26am today. Five tugs were sent out to assist her getting off the sandbank, he added, and she was pulled off just before 6.10am. The ship leaves Southampton for its final voyage later today.	Aground
November 7	Carnival Victory Carnival Cruise Lines	The Antiguan Sun reports two guests were robbed. They reportedly took a taxi tour to Long Bay Beach. At about 4:20 p.m., just after they finished swimming and were preparing to return to the taxi, the man who they described as a Rastafarian allegedly demanded money from them and threatened to shoot them if they did not yield to his demand. The guests reportedly started to run to their waiting taxi and the male guests reportedly jumped through the driver’s window while screaming that he was being robbed. This did not deter the man as he allegedly followed them to the taxi and again demanded that they give him all their money or he was going to shoot them. He kept on making his demands although the driver tried talking to him. At this time, the tourists had no choice but to empty their pockets and give him the money they had in their possessions. After collecting the money, the alleged robber escaped through some nearby bushes. He was later arrested.	Robbery ashore
November 7	Royal Caribbean International	Cruising Talk reports: It appears that RCI have been dropping their stops at Labadee during the last few days due to an unresolved labour dispute. Jewel o/t Seas cancelled a stop there and diverted to Cozumel instead on it's current cruise. Explorer o/t Seas also cancelled a stop there on November 6, all cabins received OBC. So far there are no indications on the RCI web site regarding when this problem will be dealt with, in fact there isn't any information regarding the itinerary changes for ships going to Labadee at all. Passengers are receiving letters explaining the itinerary change when they board. UPDATE December 20: A passenger writes that stops at Labadee are resumed and things appear normal.	Labadee calls canceled
November 6	Carnival Legend Carnival Cruise Lines	7 News in Belize reports that thirteen passengers were injured (none critically) when their shore excursion tour van had a collision with another vehicle (in which five people were injured). An infant in the other vehicle is in critical condition with head injuries (see The Reporter)	Pax injured onshore
November 5	Ruby Princess Princess Cruises	The Sun Sentinel reports at approximately 0900 local time, during a COC-CVE in Port Everglades, a tender on board the C/S RUBY PRINCESS sufferred a failure of the flow equalizer valve on the hook lowering hydraulic motor. Manufacturers attended the vessel and replaced the unit. No injuries/additional casualties occurred. Material failure.	Life boat failure
November 5	Zuiderdam Holland America Line	From a passenger: Doing a 17 day cruise from Venice to Ft. Lauderdale. Self service of all food stopped a week ago trying to contain spread of Norovirus. Few cases of Norovirus until yesterday when 20 new cases reported. Today another 35 reported and now have been informed that our stop at Half Moon Cay has been cancelled as they are worried about spread of Norovirus on the tenders to the island. We have been scheduled to stop at Nassau on Saturday November 8 instead. UPDATE November 6: CDC reports 14 of 794 (1.76%) crew and 224 of 1820 (12.31%) passengers had reported ill with gastrointestinal illness on this cruise ending November 9. Update November 10: CDC now reports 17 of 794 crew (2.14%)  and 261 of 1820 passengers (14.34%).	Illness
November 5	Diamond Princess Princess Cruises	The Sun (UK) and Shanghai Daily reports up to 400 passengers hit with a vomiting bug were confined to cabins (quarantined) for 48 hours by officials at Shanghai in China. Health and safety bosses were on the verge of forbidding the ship from even docking. But they eventually decided to let 2,000 healthy passengers ashore. However, other people, including 13 crew members, were holed up in their rooms to prevent the highly contagious norovirus spreading.The bug hit the ship on Sunday evening as it sailed from Japan.	Illness
November 4	Sea Princess Princess Cruises	SKN Vibes (St. Kitts and Nevis) reports the ship encountered ‘technical difficulties’ as it attempted to dock at Port Zante this morning which resulted in passengers being ferried to the nearby marina by the ship’s life crafts. Initial reports indicated that there had been a fire onboard the Sea Princess which caused engine damage to the vessel and hindered its berthing. However an employee at the Port explained that the ship developed engine problems earlier today and was drifting out at sea. The individual informed that since there is no tug boat at the pier, the passengers were therefore tendered to the marina adjacent to the Port. A press release issued by the St. Christopher Air and Sea Port Authority (SCASPA) shortly after the incident indicated that the cruise vessel will remain at anchor for the entire day due to said engine problems.	Engine failure
November 3	Island, Sapphire, and Diamond Princess Princess Cruises	The Juneau Empire reports that each ship reportedly violated its wastewater discharge permit in September (2008), according to Alaska state regulators. Wastewater samples from the ship had higher-than-permitted ammonia.	Environmental
November 3	Westerdam Holland America Line	The Juneau Empire reports that each ship reportedly violated its wastewater discharge permit in September (2008), according to Alaska state regulators. Wastewater samples from the ship had higher-than-permitted levels on two parameters.	Environmental
November 3	Silver Shadow Silversea Cruises	The Juneau Empire reports that each ship reportedly violated its wastewater discharge permit in September (2008), according to Alaska state regulators. Wastewater samples from the ship twice had higher-than-permitted copper.	Environmental
November 3	Mercury Celebrity Cruises	Celebrity Cruises' web site reports the ship had to perform a medical evacuation for two guests who developed serious and life-threatening conditions. In order to perform the evacuation, the ship had to turn around and return to Hawaii. The process added several hours to the ship's sailing time and has caused a delay in its arrival back to port. The ship will now arrive in San Diego on Friday, November 7, a day later than scheduled. From a passenger: After sailing 300 miles on our way back to San Diego, the ship  turned around and returned to Hilo Hawaii to evacuate "two very sick passengers?"  The port stop of Ensenada Mexico was canceled and we came straight back to San Diego, arriving November 7 in the morning.  Lot of extra expense all the way around for Celebrity and passengers who had to change airline tickets etc., plus the next cruise had to to be delayed with most of the people outside the area having to make air changes. Major impact for passengers of both cruises and Celebrity did not credit anybody for the inconvenience to the 4,000 people impacted.	Delayed arrival
November 1	Magic 1 or Mirage (same ship)	The Cyprus Mail reports a search and rescue was launched off the west coast of Cyprus yesterday after authorities received reports that a 19 year old female crew member may have fallen overboard from a passing cruise ship. Paphos coastguard together with police and British bases helicopters spent from noon yesterday, when they received the report, until dusk searching the area in international waters some 33 nautical miles off the coast. No trace of the missing woman was found however. According to reports, the woman from Ukraine went missing from her cabin around 3am yesterday but it wasn’t until noon that Cypriot authorities were notified that she might have fallen overboard. A follow up story can be found here.	Passenger overboard
November 1	Norwegian Dream Norwegian Cruise Line	From a passenger: At about 2:45 a.m. an electrical fire broke out on deck three in an electrical locker of the ship. It was en route to Boston on the final leg of her final cruise as the Norwegian Dream. Code Bravo deck three 3019 was called over some parts of the ship including some passenger cabins.The crew responded and succeeded in extinguishing the fire.The captain explained the situation later in the day during His regular report to the Passengers.	Fire
November	Dawn Princess Princess Cruises	From a reader: On the recent repositioning from San Francisco to Sydney aboard Dawn Princess, it seemed the captain and his crew showed who was the boss on board ship a few times. Two women were removed from the ship after being caught shoplifting in the ship's boutique. Two men were removed from the ship after assaulting crew who had removed their belongings from a hogged lounger. And to round it all off another couple of men having a heated argument/fight in the laundry room were also removed from the ship.	Ejections
November	Pacific Dawn P&O Australia	From a reader: The crew recently removed a party of 8 men in Vila and a mother and daughter in Ouvea. It appears that the group of 8 men were being generally silly, including climbing over the rails...warned a few times then offloaded. The mother & daughter were ejected due to apparently destroying their cabin. Added to the above another couple of people were offloaded at Noumea for reasons unknown. All incidents are from one cruise on each ship, not over several cruises!	Ejections
October 30	Fantastic Grandi Navi Velaci	The ship arrived in Genoa after she snapped a stabilizer in stormy seas off Genoa on October 30th, 2008. She was carrying 439 passengers at the time, 37 were seriously hurt during the incident and several damaged vehicles on the car deck. Apparently she has suffered engine problems after being hit by a 60kt gust of wind just before the stabilizer damage and the captain was forced to drop anchors in order to avoid a collision with the breakwater. The ferry was en route from Barcelona at the time. See pics here.	Stabilizer snapped
October 30	Radiance of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	USA Today reports that RCI canceling cruises in South America scheduled for 2009 and 2010 aboard Radiance of the Seas and instead keeping the ship in San Diego. The vessel will sail 24 additional Mexican Riviera sailings out of San Diego between September 2009 and May 2010. The changes are a sign that higher-priced vacations such as South American cruises are becoming a tougher sell as the economy tumbles and worried consumers look for more affordable vacation options. Cruises out of so-called "home port" cities such as San Diego traditionally have appealed to penny-pinching consumers because they can be reached by car, eliminating the cost of airfare.	Canceled itineraries
October 30	Ocean Village	The Daily Telegraph reports the company will cease operation in 2010. The company’s two ships are now to be transferred to Australia in 2009 and 2010. The first ship will transfer to P&O Cruises Australia in time for Christmas 2009, followed by the second a year later. Parent company Carnival UK, which also runs P&O Cruises and Cunard Line, said a single ship would operate in the Caribbean in winter 2009-10 and in Europe in summer 2010. According to the Thomson Holidays web site the last cruise of Island Escape will be September 2009; the last for Island Star is March 2009 after Caribbean sailings. It suggests that Island Escape will become part of TUI Cruises which is a joint venture between TUI and Royal Caribbean. It is doubtful the other ship will go to Australia given that P&O is owned by Carnival Corporation -- there is some indication it will revert back to Royal Caribbean (perhaps to Pullmantur?). We'll have to watch to see.	Ceasing operations
October 29	Azamara Quest Azamara Cruises	From a passenger:  While docked in Chios (Greece) there was a fire in the ship laundry room. Most passengers were on excursions at the time. It was reported that 5 local fire engines responded but were not needed. The fire was contained quickly and it did not effect the schedule. There was also a problem with availability of hot water in some starboard forward cabins but it was also addressed promptly.	Fire
October 29	Black Watch Fred Olsen Cruises	The Daily Telegraph reports that two passengers were taken to hospital after they were thrown into the sea when the ship broke free of its moorings while docked in Bilbao, northern Spain. The elderly passengers and a crew member were crossing the gangplank when ropes snapped and the ship swung away from the quay side. All three were rescued from the water and taken to a local hospital. Fred Olsen Cruise Lines confirmed that an incident had taken place on Wednesday afternoon at around 2pm and said two passengers were being treated in a local hospital. "The Black Watch was docked in Bilbao when it was hit by high winds which caused the ship to pull away from the pier and the gangplank became detached," said Mike Rodwell managing director of the Ipswich-based company. The ship sustained no damage in the incident and left port shortly after the scheduled time of 6pm bound for the port of Honfleur in Normandy, France.	Gangplank collapses
October 29	Volendam Holland America Line	The Marlborough Express (New Zealand) reports a norovirus outbreak (the ship is on Code Red) aboard the ship that prevented visitors while it was in Picton. The ship was to host a fundraising luncheon for the Marlborough Community Hospice but it was postponed. The Otaga Daily Times reports October 31 that the number reported ill at 60. UPDATE: The ship's "welcome to Sydney (Australia) was reportedly cancelled because of norovirus onboard.	Illness
October 29	Queen Mary 2 Cunard Line	The Mirror reports a crewman 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. The USA Today subsequently reported that "Media reports that a crew member died are false, Cunard spokesman Brian O'Connor tells USA TODAY. But "Cunard can confirm that there was a domestic incident between two crew members." O'Connor says the the crew member detained by German police has since been released.	Crew on Crew murder??
October 28	Carnival Liberty Carnival Cruise Lines	The company has cancelled its program of summer 2009 sailings from Dover. Instead, the ship will stay in Miami sailing to the Caribbean instead of re-positioning to Europe next summer as originally scheduled. The decision was based on "current market conditions, continued economic uncertainty and high air costs to Europe which impact US visitors wishing to cruise in Europe," a statement said.	Cancellation of 2009 program
October 27	Fantasy Carnival Cruise Lines	A poster at Cruise Addicts writes at 9:51PM: Hi I am on carnival fantasy the ship broke down in miss. River. Severe list. We are drifting. Chairs falling over. Ship is turn we back toward New Orleans . Sorry I type bad am on my iphone. The anchor is now out and all outside lights on toward the river. He reports at 12:05AM that tugs arrived to assist the ship. The ship had just left New Orleans for a Western Caribbean cruise. UPDATE: Carnival reports there was a minor technical glitch a few hours after the Carnival Fantasy's departure as the ship was sailing down the Mississippi River.  The problem was quickly investigated and fixed. The ship resumed sailing and will arrive in Progresso on Wednesday as scheduled.	Dead in the water
October 25	Celebration Thomson Cruises	The Daily Mail reports that a cruise scheduled to depart from Liverpool has been cancelled due to bad weather. More than a thousand passengers were due to go on the four-day trip to Ireland, but Thomson Holidays cancelled the cruise after high gales were forecast for the Irish Sea. More than a thousand passengers have been left stranded and Thomson is refusing to provide refunds -- instead it has offered an 80% discount off future cruises. The ship had been due to visit Cobh and Dublin. Passengers on the starboard side of the vessel are faced with with a view from their windows of a huge pile of scrap metal at the Canada Dock processing plant. Passengers were given the option going home or to stay on the ship for the four days while the ship remained moored at the dock.	Cruise cancelled
October 25	Azamara Quest Azamara Cruises	FROM A READER: There was a group of 160 French Canadians traveling together with CAA.  50 of them had a pre cruise tour to Luxor. On that tour, at least 30 of them came down with the "touristas" and/or Bronchitis.  One of my American friends and his wife both became ill and were told by the Ship's doc that 200 of the passengers became ill.. I have no way of verifying that and there appeared to be no unusual precautions taken.	Illness
October 24	Grand Caribe American Canadian Caribbean Line	The ship reported 8 (47.06%) crew and 29 (42.65%) passengers had reported ill with gastrointestinal illness on a 12 day cruise ending October 24.	Illness
October 24	Caribbean Princess Princess Cruises	CBC reports that 105 passengers and 3 crew have been sickened by a bug believed to be norovirus. The ship docked today at Halifax, Nova Scotia. Princess Cruises said in a written statement that extra sanitation procedures were put into practice as soon as a higher-than-usual number of sick passengers was reported. Ill passengers are isolated in their cabins until they are non-contagious. Yesterday a crew member was taken off the ship in Saint John and transferred by ambulance to hospital for an unknown illness -- it is unknown whether his illness is related to this outbreak of what appears to be norovirus. UPDATE: The CDC reported October 27 that 172 of 3081 passengers (5.58%) and 13 of 1161 crew members (1.12%) reported ill on the cruise.	Illness
October 23	Navigator of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	Cruising Talk reports: As reported elsewhere, Navigator o/t Seas was forced to abandon docking in Sardinia after freak weather caused a tour bus to overturn on the quay, Navigator's ropes snapped & her gangway dropped into the sea. The captain is reported to have taken the decision to abandon the port call and return out to sea. No injuries reported other than the driver of the tour bus, but Navigator has sustained minor damage.	Docking abandoned
October 21	Seven Seas Voyager Regent Seven Seas	The ship hit the quay in Rhodes with her stern, no injuries but minor damage done to the ship.	Collision with Quay
October 20	Independence of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	FROM A PASSENGER: Whilst on the ship my 5 year old daughter rushed over to her dad and said she needed him to come to the bottom of the pool. When he got there he could see a little girl right at the bottom, he shouted for help and jumped in he pulled her dead weight out of the water she was blue. He did CPR and mouth to mouth for a few minutes every one thought she was dead.. but he carried on and eventually colour started to come back to her cheeks, there are no life guards and no first aiders on or around the pool area, if it wasn't for my daughter and husband that girl would have died. Thank god she did live or else my husband would have had that on his conscience  for ever.  We feel it should be essential to have somebody around the pool area  to do  first aid if this happens and it should not be left to the people around the pool. It was a terrible situation to be in and it ruined our cruise. The incident was subsequently reported by The Daily Record (Scotland) NS and Leicestershire Times.	Near-drowning of child
October 19	Arcadia P&O Cruises	BBC reports that seven people were arrested in an early morning drug raid on board the P&O cruise liner Arcadia in Southampton. Four of those arrested had a total of approximately 30 kilos of cocaine strapped to their bodies. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) investigators and UK Border Agency officers seized the drugs, which have an estimated street value of £1.2m. The seven - from Birmingham and Manchester - are in custody and investigations are ongoing. None of those held is a crew member, a statement issued by HMRC said.	Drug bust
October 17	Rhapsody of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	From a passenger: I recently cruised from Vancouver to Sydney.  28 days.  10 days into the cruise a lot of people began getting very sick.   Flu like symptoms.  Very bad throat and cough.  At one stage there was over a 2 hr wait to see a medico at the ship infirmary.  The ship ran out of throat lozenges that they were telling people to take.  And the medical staff appeared to be overwhelmed and unprepared to deal with the scale of the outbreak. The only thing that saved me -- I was in the medical profession all my life) -- was I would lie up on the deck in the fresh air, unlike other passengers who would remain in their cabin, breathing the recirculating air.  For 18 days of the 28 day cruise I felt like crap and didn't do much at all. NOTE: Influenza outbreaks are periodically a problem on cruise ships.	Illness
October 17	Norwegian Jewel Norwegian Cruise Line	For the second cruise in a row the ship reported an outbreak of gatsrointestinal illness. Today the ship reported 11 of 1084 (1.0%) crew and 86 of 2132 (4.1%) passengers had reported ill with gastrointestinal illness on a 10 day cruise ending tomorrow.	Illness
October 16	Ruby Princess Princess Cruises	The launch ceremony for the ship was cancelled after a worker died in an accident on board the vessel last night. A 43 year old supervisor at the Fincantieri shipyard was killed when he tried to squeeze through a heavy watertight door that closed upon him. Around 2,000 workers at the Monfalcone shipyard went on an eight-hour strike in protest of the fatality and to call for improved workplace security.	Death at shipyard
October 16	Balmoral Fred Olsen Cruises	An unknown number of noro type illness was reported current cruise; the next cruise (BL026) had delayed embarkation til 1800 to accommodate increased cleaning of the vessel.	Illness
October 16	Boudicca Fred Olsen Cruises	The company announced that a 3 day mini cruise this weekend is cancelled due to rudder damage on the current cruise. The ship's departure for the Caribbean on Oct 21 is not affected.	Cancellation
October 16	Norwegian Star Norwegian Cruise Line	The company announced today that the cruise scheduled for July 11, 2009 is canceled due to a full ship charter.	Cancellation
October 15	Elation Carnival Cruise Lines	We left out of New Orleans and the ship was fresh from dry dock. It was a Horrible Cruise. There were contractors aboard still putting carpet down and certain areas were unable to accessed. We had clothes on our bed and when we returned smut from the ac was all over them; the ship reaked with sewage smell, and the slide was not installed or pools filled till last 2 days of the 5 day cruise.The slide broke and flooded the dining area underneath. Also the stabiliziers malfunctioned and the ship was not stable and was from side to side - it was a horrible cruise. It was my 1st cruise and worst expereince ever.	Multiple problems
October 15	Norwegian Pearl Norwegian Cruise Line and Carnival Valor Carnival Cruise Lines	Both ships skipped its port call at Roatan due to riots/unrest. Over the last few months there has been a steady escalation of civil unrest by inhabitants of Roatan due to major increases in electricity charges. In the last week, at least two cruise ships have diverted scheduled port visits as a direct result of the civil unrest currently making travel potentially unsafe. The UK Foreign Office has the unrest listed in their travel aware section. The US dept of State has no mentions of the problems. However, as per instruction from the UK Foreign Office, it is advisable to avoid all large groups of people if visiting Roatan and do not be surprised if you are diverted to another port, such as Progresso, if Roatan is on your itinerary until the civil unrest ceases being a potential danger towards visitors.	Skipped port
October 13	Enchantment of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	Disembarkation at Fort Lauderdale was halted for about an hour  after a suspicious package was found bobbing near the ship. The Broward County Sheriff's Office bomb squad was called and determined and determined the package was harmless -- a one foot by six inches plastic container.	Disembarkation halted
October 10	Spirit of Adventure Saga Holidays	The ship is having a few problems on current cruise -- today in Kepez, Turkey the ship hit the quay after tug failed and gashed hull.  It was repaired and continued cruise. SUBSEQUENTLY, it had more tug troubles leaving Yalta on October 14.	Collision with pier
October 9	Prince Albert II Silversea Cruises	Because of tropical storm Odile, the captain today decided to give passengers the option of disembarking tomorrow at Puerto Vallarta, instead of Acapulco in 3 days, which would coincide with the storm approaching Acapulco. The ship is expected to arrive with a delay of 24 hours in Acapulco, because the ship will try to circumnavigate the storm, giving it wide berth.	Itinerary change
October 8	Grande Caribe American Canadian Caribbean Line	The ship reported 1 of 17 (5.9%) crew and 18 of 68 (26.46%) passengers had reported ill with gastrointestinal illness on a 12 day cruise ending October 12.	Illness
October 8	Norwegian Jewel Norwegian Cruise	The ship reported 8 of 1071 (0.75%) crew and 127 of 2132 (5.96%) passengers had reported ill with gastrointestinal illness on a 10 day cruise ending today.	Illness
October 7	Fantasy Carnival Cruise Lines	A passenger writes: Today we got evacuated from the cabin and made to go to the Lido Deck while they put out either a fire in the crew area or something started by a welder. This ship is not ready to be on the sea y'all. Really. We had to stay up there for about four hours. At least that was better than the ones that were ashore in Cozumel and could not reboard for that time. Fun fun fun.  Another Passenger posted the following from a letter sent to pax after the incident: Our crew was performing a maintenance function on one of the lower decks. The work involved the cutting of a large pipe and during this procedure, residue within the pipe became overheated. This created a significant amount of smoke which then traveled to areas on several higher decks. There was no fire associated with this incident and the crew quickly controlled the source of the smoke. As a safety precaution, we advised all guests to report to the open deck areas and we temporarily limited access to the ship via the gangway. We then made a full assessment of the incident to be sure that there was no safety concerns. After a complete evaluation, we confirmed that this situation was under control and there were no safety issues. Guests were then advised that they no longer needed to remain on the open decks and gangway access was re-opened.	?Fire?
October 5	Caribbean Princess Princess Cruises	The ship lost power after arrival at Ambrose light (New York). It was towed into New York Harbor by 3 tugs from Moran Towing, arriving at Pier 12, Brooklyn approximately 2 hours late. According to the Sun Sentinel, lost all propulsion IVO Verrazano Bridge while transiting inbound. Vsl regained partial port/stb engine capability (half engines: electric drive) and 5 of 6 thrusters are running. Three tugs standing by; Pilot on board stated everything under control and feels confident the transit to dock will be conducted safely. Vsl engineers are troubleshooting cause of the problem. Equipment failure; loss of electrical power.	Loss of power
October 4	Ocean Village Ocean Village Holidays	Wales News reports A pensioner died after fallingoverboard while trying to find his relatives. Leighton George Carter was only two days into a cruise around the Adriatic sea when he tumbled from the 14th deck of the ship Ocean Village. Gwent Coroner’s Court in Newport, south Wales, heard the 71-year-old was probably leaning over the guard rail on the deck in an attempt to spot his two granddaughters and their partners on the deck below after they became separated from him and his wife Janet. The ship was docked at Dubrovnik in Croatia at the time of the incident. Although there were no witnesses to the fall, the inquest heard that the retired insulation engineer from the Malpas area of Newport was seen hurrying along the deck, looking agitated. During the fall, Mr Carter struck his head against one of the lifeboats slung on the slide of the ship. Dr Majid Rashid, a pathologist at the city’s Royal Gwent Hospital, carried out a post-mortem examination on Mr Carter’s body after it was repatriated and concluded he died as a result of a fractured skull and spine due to blunt trauma consistent with a fall.	Fall overboard
October 3	Majesty & Freedom of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	The Consumerist reports that Royal Caribbean has announced plans to charge customers who order steak in the main dining room a $14.95 surcharge. The New York strip steak being offered in the main dining rooms on these two ships is a Black Angus steak. It will also be available in the alternate dining room, Chops, but there will be no additional fee above the regular cover charge.	New surcharge
October 2	Carnival Destiny Carnival Cruise Lines	The Sun Sentinel reports at approximately 1218 local time, while alongside in Port of Miami, vessel was conducting a test of the emergency generator. The emergency generator failed to perform, resulting in a "black-out" of the vessel. Classification society attended vessel, issuing a condition of class. Equipment failure. Material failure. Loss of electrical power.	Generator failure / loss of electrical power
October 2	Carnival Destiny Carnival Cruise Lines	From a passenger: We have just disembarked from a Carnival cruise with a very poor taste in our mouths. On the first night of the cruise, at 11pm, we went to the pool deck to get some air. While we were out there, we noticed several incredibly drunk people hobbling around the deck. We saw that a net had been placed on top of the swimming pool and assumed that we were not allowed to swim at night. We then saw one of the drunk men make his way over to the swimming pool and take off his clothes while his friends hung around behind him. We were about to say that he shouldn't be swimming because of the net, but he jumped in. My thought was, "he will land in the net and get out." It wasn't until we realized that we had not heard a splash that we panicked! The pool was empty and all that was covering it was a flimsy net. He had fallen to the bottom of the pool and he was laying unconscious in a pool of blood.  There were not even any signs. The pool was brightly lit and looked inviting apart from the net. I was sober and I had no idea that it was empty! We all started frantically looking for someone in charge so that we could get help. I went to the bartender to let him know what had happened, he nonchalantly picked up the phone and started dialing some number. It wasn't until about 10 minutes later that we heard an announcement calling staff to the pool deck.  The staff on the cruise are more interested in getting the guests to spend as much money as possible than ensuring their safety. I will never take another cruise and if you do, please be careful.	Serious and preventable injury
October 2	Island, Sapphire, and Sun Princess Princess Cruises	The Juneau Empire reports that each ship reportedly violated its wastewater discharge permit in August (2008), according to Alaska state regulators. Wastewater samples from the ship had higher-than-permitted ammonia (twice on Island Princess, once on Sapphire and Sun Princess.	Environmental
October 2	Star Princess Princess Cruises	The Juneau Empire reports that the ship reportedly violated its wastewater discharge permit in August (2008), according to Alaska state regulators. Wastewater samples from the ship twice had higher-than-permitted copper.	Environmental
October 2	Golden Princess Princess Cruises	The Juneau Empire reports that the ship reportedly violated its wastewater discharge permit in August (2008), according to Alaska state regulators. Wastewater samples from the ship had higher-than-permitted zinc.	Environmental
September 30	Minerva Swan Hellenic	Jane Archer's blog indicates the ship is having to go into dry dock on October 27 for a planned four days to have a diesel generator fixed. It means the preceding Treasures of Africa cruise has had to be shortened, from 15 nights to nine nights. Passengers who are affected will be receiving letters today.	Shortened cruise
September 29	Royal Princess Princess Cruises	The ships' Bar Harbor call, originally scheduled for today, has been cancelled. The ship instead spent the night in Boston, and sailed after 7:30am  today for Saint John, New Brunswick, where it will arrive on schedule at 7 a.m. on Tuesday.	Cancelled port
September 28	Explorer of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	The ship skipped Charlottetown purportedly because of approaching Hurricane Kyle. However, the weather during the day had winds of 22km and less (14 mph) and cloudy skies. The ship instead sailed to the St. Lawrence and spent an overnight in Quebec CIty.	Skipped port
September 28	Norwegian Dawn Norwegian Cruise Line	Fire broke out under a West Side pier (New York City), startling passengers preparing to disembark. The ship was docked along Manhattan's West Side when a fire erupted beneath Pier 88 on West 48th Street and 12th Avenue shortly after 9 a.m. While some of the 2,300 passengers hurried off the ship, others stayed aboard until the drama was over. The threat ended when divers swam under the pier and extinguished the fire. Fire officials said the cause was probably electrical insulation used to keep water pipes warm in the winter.	Fire at pier
September 27	Golden Princess Princess Cruises	A fellow passenger saved the life of a nine-year-old child who he found lying unconscious at t he bottom of the 1.5 metre deep swimming pool. According to The Province, "the pool area was busy, he recalled. There were lots of people chatting, loud music and a group of kids frolicking in the water. There were no lifeguards, and large signs warned swimmers they were on their own." The man, who received a free seven night cruise for his heroics, says the cruise line should post a lifeguard at its pool.	9-year-old  saved from drowning
September 26	Coral Princess Princess Cruises	Passengers were met with a protest by local independent transport operators when the ship arrived at Punta Arenas (Costa Rica). The independent transport operators were protesting the decision by the cruise line not to use transport services unless contracted by them (services for which the cruise line likely gets a commission or cut). The protest was quickly disbanded when members of the Fuerza Pública (police) and Tránsito (traffic police) arrived on the scene.	Protest Onshore
September 26	QE2 Cunard Line	High winds (30 - 35 kms/hour) caused the ship to skip its port call at St. John's, Newfoundland. The ship had been scheduled to drop anchor at Foxtrap (Conception Bay South) and tender passengers ashore.	Missed port
September 25	Royal Star African Safari Club	Christian Today reports the last 10 crew members of the ship, stuck in Mombasa for five months, have finally been repatriated after being helped by The Mission to Seafarers. The seafarers were part of a 130-strong crew operating the 5,600-ton vessel which sailed around the Indian Ocean. When the ship owners ran into financial difficulty, the majority of the crew were repatriated home with only part of the wages they were owed. The ten men had stayed behind as lay-up and dry-docking crew and were given repeated assurances that their wages would be paid and that they would be sent home. Instead, the ship owners stripped the vessel of anything valuable and fuel ran so low that the men were forced to sleep on an upper deck because of a lack of lighting and air conditioning. The Kenyan High Court had ordered the ship to be sold to pay the crew and other creditors. But when the seafarers heard the sale could not be completed before October at the earliest, the International Transport Workers’ Federation was asked to fund the men’s repatriation.	Crew repatriated
September 25	Crown Princess Princess Cruises	A passenger writes: The Crown Princess was unable to make its planned port call to Reykjavik yesterday (9-24) due to a storm.  The Crown Princess is currently off the coast of Greenland and hopes to make its planned stop tomorrow at Qaqortoq.	Missed port
September 25	Oasis of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	A fire broke out on board while the ship is under construction at Aker Yards Finland. Some 1,500 workers that were on board the ship at the time the fire started at about midday were evacuated. Insulation material on deck 9 caught fire in connection with welding work and the yard's own fire fighters were able to put it out before it could cause extensive damage. Although the were no casualties, the fire caused a lot of smoke, which spread from deck 9 to various decks higher up on the ship.	Fire
September 25	Island and Golden Princess Princess Cruises	The Juneau Empire reports the ships violated its wastewater discharge permit in May, June and July (2008), according to Alaska state regulators. Wastewater samples from the ship had higher-than-permitted zinc.	Environmental
September 25	Sapphire, Star, Coral, and Diamond Princess Princess Cruises	The Juneau Empire reports the ships violated its wastewater discharge permit in May, June and July (2008), according to Alaska state regulators. Wastewater samples from the ship had higher-than-permitted effluent limits on several parameters.	Environmental
September 25	Seven Seas Mariner Regent Seven Seas	The Juneau Empire reports the ship violated its wastewater discharge permit in May, June and July (2008), according to Alaska state regulators. Wastewater samples from the ship had higher-than-permitted zinc.	Environmental
September 25	Norwegian Pearl Norwegian Cruise Line	The Juneau Empire reports the ship violated its wastewater discharge permit in May, June and July (2008), according to Alaska state regulators. Wastewater samples from the ship had higher-than-permitted pH.	Environmental
September 24	Carnival Glory Carnival Cruise Lines	A passenger died during a cave tubing excursion in Belize. The apparent cause of death is drowning. According to interviews conducted by Channel 5 Belize, the Caves Branch River in Belize was running higher than usual, causing the same tour to be canceled just a few days earlier and other tours, such as those run by Jaguar Paw Jungle Resort, to be canceled today; however, Bel-Cruise -- Carnival's shore excursion provider -- chose to run its cave tubing excursion, with over 300 cruise ship passengers participating. According to a description by the 52 year old woman's husband, toward the end of the tour, strong currents pushed the couple toward the cave walls where they were sucked beneath the water. The husband was rescued, but his wife could not be reached in time. Carnival has suspended all future sales of the excursion at this time and an investigation into the accident is underway. See Cruise Critic for more information. UPDATE: WFTV subsequently reported that another passenger had complained to Carnival two years earlier that the shore excursion was unsafe after she found herself in raging rapids and pinned under water as tubes piled on top of each other. All the while, she said the two guides responsible for a group of almost 100 tourists were nowhere in sight. "It was up to my fellow passengers to rescue me," she said.  SEE ALSO September 18.	Death on shore excursion
September 24	Regal Empress Imperial Majesty Cruise Line	All cruises have been on hold until further notice. The ship has been hired for use in disaster relief efforts for several Texas gulf communities damaged by the recent hurricane. The cruise line's statement is available online.	Cancellations
September 23	Caribbean Princess Princess Cruises	It was announced today that five Caribbean Princess cruises in April 2009 have been cancelled following an approach to hold an important government conference on board. The affected cruises are April 5 (14-day), April 12 (7-day), April 12 (14-day), April 19 (7-day), and April 19 (14-day). Passengers affected will be offered alternative cruises.	Cancellations
September 21	Ventura P&O Cruises	From a passenger: Captain announced that due to forecast force 4 to 5 winds tomorrow, the berth assigned at Livorno will not be safe for the ship to dock. Alternative arrangements have been made for anchorage at La Spezia, 40 miles further north. Tours will be rescheduled or cancelled.	Itinerary change
September 21	Westerdam Holland America Line	The Juneau Empire reports the ship violated its wastewater discharge permit in May, June and July (2008), according to Alaska state regulators. Wastewater samples from the ship had higher-than-permitted ammonia, zinc and biological oxygen demand. The latter indicates the amount of organic waste in the water.	Environmental
September 18	Enchantment of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	From a passenger: Another couple, my husband, and I were on the cave tubing excursion in Belize booked through onboard.  The wife of the couple with us was pulled under a wall in the cave. We frantically kept yelling for help because we couldn't find her and last saw her go under the water right as we made impact with the wall.  Other people were crashing into the wall behind us and as we were yelling for help they kept telling us to keep going.  We refused to leave her and risked our lives in the current trying to find where she had disappeared to.  After about 5 minutes someone finally pulled her from the hole in the wall.  She had managed to hold on to the grooves in the cave to keep from being sucked deeper into the cave. She had also pulled herself up one time for air.  No one checked on us. The excursion manager blew us off as if we were exaggerating about the dangerous conditions in the cave.  They refunded our money because 2 other people (whom we didn't know but were in our excursion group) had also been sucked into the cave wall and managed to escape on their own, demanded their money refunded. Nothing was done.  We wrote a letter to Miami headquarters, and not so much as a call from them has been received.  It was a very tragic experience and my last excursion I will ever take and maybe my last cruise.  I later found out that just one hour before our tubing started, they had rescued 6 other people, but yet they continued to load people into the river.	Near fatal accident on shore excursion
September 16	Balmoral Fred Olsen Cruises	The company has announced that the cruise ending/beginning September 18 will arrive/leave from Southampton instead of Dover. The reason for the change is "technical concerns experienced with the vessel's propulsion system."	Itinerary change
September 15	Sea Princess Princess Cruises	From a reader: The ship appears to have had problems with one of the Stern Thrusters, entering and departing Boston.  Both times a Tug was required to assist [if needed]. It doesn't look like it is affecting schedules, but today due to the Winds [remnants of Hurricane Ike] it seemed to be a precaution.	Thruster problems
September 15	Norwegian Dream Norwegian Cruise Line	High winds caused the ship to skip its port call at Saint John, New Brunswick.	Skipped port call
September 15	Eurodam Holland America Line	High winds caused the ship to skip its port call to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.	Skipped port call
September 15	Carnival Liberty Carnival Cruise Lines	The Herald Telegram in Saint Maarten reports the ship will make a previously unscheduled port call there on September 24. The ship was originally scheduled to stop in San Juan, PR on the 24th. The best guess is that San Juan will be visited September 25th when it was scheduled to stop at Turks and Caicos where the port facilities suffered hurricane damage.	Changed itinerary
September 14	Vision of the Seas & Serenade of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	The Juneau Empire reports the two ships violated visible air emissions standards last year (2007), July 1 and August 9 respectively. Royal Caribbean may be liable for criminal or civil penalties. Past enforcement cases have cost cruise lines $27,500 per violation. The state's air quality standards  are designed to keep people from breathing harmful sulfur and nitrogen compounds and particulate matter.	Environmental
September 10	Sea Princess Princess Cruises	From a passenger: During Sea Princess' recent transatlantic 'repositioning' cruise the port of St Johns, Newfoundland was missed on 10th September 2008 due to high winds making the passage through 'The Narrows' too dangerous.   Captain stayed offshore for 2 hours before making the decision to sail for New York in advance of scheduled departure time, making for a very slow transit to final destination. Editor's Note: Winds that day were 40 kph (24 mph) and coming from the WSW meaning there was no cross wind affecting entrance through the narrow. Note event on September 15 -- this may be a more logical explanation for skipping St. John's given the absence of tugs at the harbour.	Skipped port call
September 8	Andea Elegant Cruises	From a passenger: At about 9PM whilst off the coast of Albania, the ship suffered a complete power failure: engines and electricity. We were dead in the water. Emergency electric came on about 2 minutes later, and the ship was back under way in about 20 minutes. About 5 minutes later, at 9:25 PM another electric failure occurred. The only announcement made concerning this disturbing sequence of events was that we were back under way at 14 knots and might be 15 minutes late into Vlore, Albania in the morning.	Power failure
September 7	Carnival Victory Carnival Cruise Lines	The ship set sail yesterday from New York on a seven-night cruise to New England and Canada has skipped today's port call in Boston to avoid the remnants of Hanna.	Skipped port call
September 7	Europa Hapag Lloyd	Press in Finland report the ship spewed waste oil, hitting both the ground and sea, at the Katajanokka terminal. The accident occurred when a hose channeling bilge water to a container tank came undone. As a result, waste oil erupted from the unfastened hose at high pressure, causing oil to land both on the asphalt as well as in the sea. The ship was docked at the time of the accident. Between 50 and 60 litres of oil gushed from the ship, ten litres of which shot into the sea. The ship departed for St. Petersburg half an hour behind schedule due to clean-up work.	Environmental
September 4	Discovery Voyages of Discovery	Despite assurances August 20 (see August 9) that engine problems would be repaired "by the weekend," a safety inspection by British authorities in Harwich confirmed the repairs have still not been completed. According to the inspectors, the ship is running on three engines but she is able to manoeuvre to legal requirements. They inspected the paper work on the spare parts, and the company making the new bearing has admitted that they supplied the wrong size. Discovery hopes to fit the new parts in Lisbon or Nice.  NOTE:  The ship was also inspected in Gdynia on Sept 1 where they found seven deficiencies, including: Fire safety measures (Jacketed high pressure lines), MARPOL annex I (Oil record book), Propulsion & aux. (Auxiliary engine; Bilge pumping arrangements; Gauges,thermometers, etc), Structural safety (Steering gear), and Working spaces and accident prevention (Obstruction/slipping, etc).	Engine problems (continuing)
September 3	Pride of America NCL America	The US Coast Guard reports the ship suffered a problem with "material failure."	Material failure
September 3	Carnival Miracle Carnival Cruise Lines	Cruising Talk reports that it appears there is a confrontational problem aboard Carnival Miracle. Due to the storms in the Caribbean, the ship has had her itinerary changed 4 times. The latest change will be a call to Newport Rhode Island on Friday this week. There are a few very vocal passengers who have apparently almost taken the reception area by siege demanding full refunds etc for ruined cruises. This behaviour has not gone down well with other passengers or the crew. The most vocal of the passengers have allegedly reduced their auto-gratuities to zero. Time will tell if this turns into another QM2 type mutiny. The ship departed from New York City on a cruise of the Eastern Caribbean.	?Passenger mutiny?
September 3	Norwegian Pearl Norwegian Cruise Line	Further to the pod problem (thrust bearing failure) mentioned on August 27, NCL has announced the October 26th cruise aboard Pearl has been cancelled so the ship can enter dry dock for repairs. All passengers booked on the sailing will be fully refunded and a credit of 25% for a future cruise will be given. September 7 & 14 cruises - will have slightly altered itineraries. Victoria will be a 'touch & go' therefore passengers will be unable to disembark. September 21 cruise - San Francisco and Los Angeles are being dropped. Port calls at Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco and Cartagena will be slightly altered to allow for a slower cruise speed. Each passenger will receive $50 OBC. October 12 & 19 cruises - Roatan times will be altered slightly to 11am til 7pm. The ship will return to normal service November 2.	Mechanical problems / Itinerary changes
September 3	Seven Seas Mariner Regent Seven Seas	The ship reported 12 of 445 (2.69%) crew and 33 of 620 (5.32%) passengers had reported ill with gastrointestinal illness on a 7 day cruise from Seward to Vancouver (August 27 - September 3).	Illness
September 1	Disney Magic Disney Cruise Line	From a passenger:  Hi...just got off the 15 day cruise from LA to Orlando, through the Panama Canal. Great cruise!! About 6 nights ago, however, there was a "Bright Star" call over the ship's PA directing crew to "deck 4 mid ship". When I asked a crew member what this meant, they sort of shrugged it off. I asked our room purser the following day and he told me that someone had tried to "jump off the ship from deck 4". The person was stopped and taken off the boat the following day while at port in Aruba. Also...when we docked, the boat wasn't cleared by US customs for a about 3 hours while they searched for a single missing foreign born passenger on the ship. Otherwise...great trip on a great cruise line!	Delayed disembarkation
August 31	Clipper Pacific Peace Boat	Coast Guard Inspectors conducted a Port State Control exam on the ship in Seward over the weekend and issued a 32-item deficiency list and detained the vessel temporarily for significant International Ship Management code violations in respect to oil record books, engineering logs and engineering rough logs. Customs clearance for departure was withheld until a surety bond for $1.1 million was provided by the owner but was later cleared by U.S. Customs and Border Protection after a Letter of Understanding was received from the owner. Inspectors found issues with the vessel's documentation and non-compliance of the International Ship Management Code for Safety of Life At Sea (SOLAS). There is evidence the vessel's crew operated the oily water separator and potentially inaccurate oil content meter in the U.S. exclusive economic zone in potential violation of United States Code known as the Clean Water Act, 33USC1321 (b) (3). They also failed to report a discharge of oil into a navigable U.S. waterway while draining the bilges of their lifeboats which is another violation of the CFR, 33CFR151.15. After four days the crew of the vessel had fixed enough of the critical deficiencies that Coast Guard officials were comfortable with the vessel leaving the U.S. port. However, concerns about the oily water discharge system and the fact that this is a foreign-flagged vessel that may not return to the U.S., prompted officials in cooperation with Customs and Border Protection to require the vessel's insurance agency, the P&I Club, to issue a the $1.1 million Surety Bond.	Detained for safety violations
August 27	Seven Seas Mariner Regent Seven Seas	From a passenger: I don't know how many people were sick with Norwalk virus during the cruise, but many became ill on the trip home, including me and my husband.  I have been told that half of a tour group of 100 (Nomads) were ill on their private jet on the way home.  The man across from me on the train from Seward to Anchorage was ill and his wife said the captain had given him an  antiemetic.  We observed at least one other person who appeared to be ill in the hospitality room at the Anchorage Hilton and one of the people we met for lunch around 2pm the day we disembarked returned sick to his hotel room before lunch was served.  I became ill on the plane on the way home to Philadelphia and my husband shortly after. on the drive home from the airport.  Too bad, though, because it was our first cruise, which we really enjoyed, but I'm afraid it will be our last.  My husband sent an e-mail to the Regent Travel Office on Thursday, about 7pm eastern time, letting them know of our illness and that of several others. We didn't know about the Nomads until late last night. We thought such a high-end cruise line would be safe but I guess you can never be sure.	Illness
August 27	Norwegian Pearl Norwegian Cruise Line	Cruising Talk reports that the ship appears to have a pod problem meaning a slower cruise speed and slight alterations to her planned itinerary. The stop in Victoria is a touch & go (to stay legal for Jones Act purposes) and the time spent in Ketchikan has been reduced. OBC of $50 per head or a full refund choice has been issued by NCL as this problem was picked up about a fortnight ago. The ship is not due to dry dock in the immediate future, however should her performance deteriorate, she is likely to go to a Bahama dry dock shortly after her repositioning to Miami at the end of her Alaska season.	Mechanical problems / Itinerary changes
August 26	Zuiderdam Holland America Line	A passenger reports there was an onboard fire while the ship was docked at Dubrovnik. S/he returned to the ship at around 1:30 PM, and during lunch heard a fire alarm. As they tried to return to their cabin, they found a strong smell of smoke and instead went to the Promenade. Upon arrival at the Promenade we saw that 4 fire trucks arrived and more were beginning to put the hoses on the boat. About 40 minutes after the initial warning, the fire appeared to be under control and 10 minutes later firefighters began to leave. The fire apparently burned some kind of warehouse and had been burning an hour. The degree of damage was not known.	Fire
August 25	Sun Princess Princess Cruises	The Sydney Morning Herald reports about 1,600 Australian cruise ship passengers were forced to wait in a Russian port for five hours as local authorities took hours to make a series of passport inspections. The ship, which left Sydney on July 14 carrying 2,000 passengers - mostly Australians - was held in the port of Petropavlovsk on Russia's east coast as the Russian navy checked and re-checked every passport. The ship was blocked from leaving the port by two naval frigates. The ship was scheduled to depart at 4:30PM but was still at dock past 9:30PM. Local authorities did not explain why they had kept the boat so long.	Delayed in port
August 19	Serenade of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	A thirty-year old Turkish male crew member was arrested when the ship was in Juneau after a female crew member complained to police that she had been sexually assaulted while in her cabin.	Sexual Assault (crew on crew)
August 18	Norwegian Sky Norwegian Cruise Line	Cruise Critic reports a dozen passengers were stranded at the Port of Miami when the ship departed early on its four-night Bahamas cruise due to Tropical Storm Fay. It was scheduled to depart at 5 PM, but due to the oncoming storm the ship was forced to change it's departure time to 3 p.m. The line posted notices of the revised embarkation times on its Web site as early as Sunday and called all of the passengers on its manifest (and reached many of them, including some of the passengers who still arrived too late to embark), according to a spokeswoman for the line. NCL offered the stranded passengers full refunds of their cruise fares, and paid for their cab rides from the port to wherever they wanted to go (airport, hotel, etc.). The line arranged for a reduced rate for the travelers at a Miami hotel and gave them the number of NCL's Total Travel department, which could help arrange last-minute air travel back home. Passengers were also given the option of meeting up with the ship in a subsequent port (most likely Nassau on Wednesday), but no one took this option.	Missed ship
August 18	Carnival Victory Carnival Cruise Lines	The Sun Sentinel reports the ship had an equipment failure of the number 3 aft thruster. The vessel has 3 forward and 3 aft thrusters with 6 in all. Vessel is currently located at Berth 2 of Pier 88 in Manhattan. The crew intends to get underway with a tug alongside at 1700 local on Aug 18th, 2008. Cruiselink claims there are no safety issues, and the ship can get underway without the number 3 aft thruster.	System failure
August 16	Ecstasy Carnival Cruise Lines	Passengers report the ship went to Progresso (which is closer to Galveston) today instead of Cozumel because of propulsion problems.	Propulsion problems
August 15	Queen Mary 2 Cunard Line	There are reports the ship lost all power at 1:30AM this morning on its transatlantic run.  She regained power about an hour later but is running slower than normal at 18 knots.  No announcement has been made as yet regarding New York arrival, if delayed or not.	Loss of power
August 15	M/V Dalmajia Dinamik (Turkey)	More than 200 Turkish passengers were besieged in the middle of the Adriatic Sea because of dissension between a Turkish travel agency and a Croatian ship manufacturer.   Istanbul-based travel agency Delos Tourism arranged Adriatic cruises for 201 passengers. Passengers boarded the ship, which is owned by a Croatian firm Adriatic Cruise, last Saturday at 9 a.m. at İzmir Port on the Aegean coast of Turkey. An announcement was conveyed from the owner of the ship informing the passengers that due to problems with the travel agency he had decided to cancel the tour and anchor in the middle of the sea. The ship finally proceeded to Split (Croatia) and were flown home.	Cruise ended
August 12	Fram Hurtigruten	An enormous oil spill in Sisimiut harbour Greenland) resulted in 21 firemen working through Tuesday night to clean up 3000 litres of diesel, reports Sermitsiaq. When the passenger ship Fram attempted to refuel, 10,000 litres of oil escaped into the harbour waters. Sisimiut fire-chief Steen Borisen said that passenger ship Fram unsuccessfully tried to refuel and the oil spilled directly into the harbour.	Environmental
August 12	SeaEscape	The day cruise operator of gambling cruises, which has run from Ft. Lauderdale for twenty-one years, is expected to tell the Broward County Council that Sunday will be its last sailing. The company's business has fallen off considerably since land-based casinos have opened in Broward County, and its profit margins have been harmed severely by rising fuel costs.	Cease operations
August 9	Discovery Voyages of Discovery	It appears the ship is still having trouble. It was out of action for a fortnight as of July 13, but her 25th July cruise missed first/last ports of call. The ship was due in Flam today at 9.30am local time...It arrived four hours late. This cruise ends in Copenhagen. According to passengers, the company is still not admitting there is a problem, but dropped ports indicate there is. UPDATE August 15:  TTG Live reports a problem with one of its ships four engines should be fixed soon after it takes delivery of a new bearing for the engine this weekend. The continuing problem has prompted criticism from customers on the cruise networking web site Cruising Talk and elsewhere. UPDATE August 20: Today's Telegraph reports the problem will be fixed this week -- time will tell.	Engine problems (continuing)
August 9	Monarch of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	The Miami Herald reports a former staff captain has filed suit against Royal Caribbean Cruises, alleging he was seriously injured in an accident September 2, 2005 aboard the ship. A cloud of toxic gas escaped from ballast tanks into crew and passenger areas, killing three crewmen (see here). The suit charges the company of failing to properly maintain and service its ballast tanks, which are used for balance. That, he claims, resulted in the escape of poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas. This is a different account than released at the time of the accident. As well, the suit alleges that Royal Caribbean “represented on its logs that venting [of tanks following the accident] took place only when at speed and at sea” but “venting actually took place when the ship was not at speed and even in port. "When the tanks are vented and the ship is not at speed, noxious gas is sucked into the vessel and into the passenger areas, including cabins, through air-conditioning intakes." He contends Royal Caribbean “allowed deadly gas to leak into work areas and passenger cabins for months following this accident."	Law Suit
August 8	Norwegian Dream Norwegian Cruise Line	The Bermuda Sun reports an American couple on their first trip to Bermuda the island were fined $1,000 each for possession of 5.06 grams of cannabis. Customs officers conducting a routine sweep of the ship with a drug dog around midday stopped at the couple's cabin when the dog alerted to it. After gaining entry into the unoccupied quarters with the aid of ship's security the officers found the drug in a plastic bag in a closet safe. When they later confronted Ms Paradis and Mr. Schiavo, the two admitted having the drug.	Passengers arrested for pot possession
August 8	Arcadia P&O Cruises	It has been reported that the ships is currently running slow due to a propulsion unit failure. The cruises that are affected are J817, J818, J820, J821 and J822Y. Passengers booked on these cruises are being notified of all itinerary changes that are necessary. Repairs will be undertaken during her scheduled dry dock refit in November 2008.	Propulsion problems
August 4	Akademik Ioffe Quark Expeditions	Northern News Services reports the ship was expected to end its journey in Resolute Bay where passengers would disembark and take a First Air flight to Ottawa on Aug. 3 However, ice conditions didn't allow for the crew's Zodiac boats to take passengers from the ship to the community, so the ship continued on to Arctic Bay. A First Air charter was then expected to take the passengers to Ottawa from Arctic Bay, but mechanical problems grounded the plane at the airport in Nanisivik while a mechanic and parts were flown in. The pilots would have exceeded their duty day time by the time the plane was repaired, so arrangements were made for passengers to overnight in Arctic Bay. The majority of the travelers stayed in the gym, while others stayed in the 20-bed hotel or the 8-bed B&B. The ship had disembarked 97 passengers plus crew.	Stuck sleeping in a gym
August 1	Fantasy Carnival Cruise Lines	Carnival has announced that the cruise scheduled to end Monday (August 4) will disembark/embark passengers at Mobile instead of New Orleans because of uncertainty around the Mississippi River following the oil spill two weeks ago. UPDATE August 6: Carnival announced that all sailings through August will leave from Mobile, citing fears that lingering delays from a Mississippi River oil spill would throw off sailing schedules from New Orleans, the normal port. Guests currently on the ship and those scheduled to board for sailings Saturday and Aug. 14 will be bused to Mobile and back to New Orleans for free. For the four sailings after that, only guests flying to New Orleans will get free transportation to and from Mobile. Other passengers will be told to drive to Mobile.	De/Embarkation port change
August 1	Crystal Louis Cruises Lissos Anek Lines	Express (Greece) reports Crystal collided with the ferry Lissos at Piraeus port. There were 955 passengers on board the cruise ship. Only material damage was caused to both vessels and nobody was injured. Lissos was loading passengers and vehicles and was heading for the islands of Chios and Lesvos. Both Crystal, which was on a seven-day cruise in the Aegean islands and Turkey, as well as Lissos, will set sail after their inspection by a Port Authority technical team.	Collision
July 31	Pacific Sun P&O Australia	The New Zealand Herald reports forty-two passengers (TV 3 in New Zealand reports the number is fifty-seven) were injured after the vessel rolled in seven metre swells 600 kilometres off New Zealand's North Island. The ship was returning to Auckland from Vanuatu. The injuries to four of the passengers have been described as serious by Carnival Australia. Part of the ship's interior was also damaged. Carnival says the captain had planned to avoid the forecasted storm and they will conduct a full investigation to find out what happened. The ship is expected to dock in Auckland Harbour tomorrow evening (August 1), one day later than scheduled.	Severe Roll
July 30	Majestic America Line	Cruise Critic reports that the cruise line will not sail after the completion of the 2008 season. It was announced last April that the company was up for sale, and there is belief a sale is pending, but for now all indications are the company will suspend operations at the end of 2008.	Suspending operations
July 30	Isle of Inishmore Irish Ferries	The Evening Herald (Ireland) reports more than 200 passengers on an Irish Ferries vessel were put on evacuation standby as firefighters tackled a blaze that broke out on board. A boiler room fault triggered the fire that sparked the emergency on the ferry after it docked in west Wales. All 316 passengers and crew aboard the ferry escaped unharmed. The had arrived at Pembroke Dock and was about to set sail for Rosslare when the fire broke out as a result of a fault in the ship's thermal boiler. Members of the ferry's crew detected the fire while it was still in its early stages, and immediately shut down the stricken boiler unit. Nobody was injured during the incident.	Fire
July 30	Fantasy Carnival Cruise Lines	The ship, scheduled to return passengers to New Orleans from a five-day trip to Mexico will instead bring travelers to Mobile.  Uncertainty about whether the Mississippi River would remain open to marine traffic spurred Carnival to change its plans to arrive in New Orleans.	De/Embarkation port change
July 27	Zenith Pullmantur Cruises Aegean Pearl Louis Cruises	The ships collided in Greece's main port of Piraeus causing damage but no injuries. Zenith, carrying 1,819 passengers and 619 crew, hit the Greek-flagged Aegean Pearl as Zenith attempted to tie up in the port. Aegean Pearl was carrying 504 passengers and 349 crew members. Nobody was injured but port authorities were not allowing them to sail until the damage to both ships was assessed. Passengers remained on board as the ships were not in any danger. Aegean Pearl had been scheduled to depart Piraeus Monday morning for a cruise stopping at Mykonos, Kusadasi in Turkey and then continuing to the Greek islands of Patmos, Crete and Santorini. Zenith had arrived in Piraeus after setting off from Venice, Italy, and stopping in Croatia and the Greek islands of Rhodes, Mykonos and Santorini. UPDATE: Aegean Pearl was damaged at deck level on the starboard side -- some of the lifeboats were also damaged. The ship was passed to sail without passengers to Neorion Shipyard on the island of Syros where it is currently undergoing repairs and is scheduled to resume sailing in a week’s time. In the interim passengers booked on Aegean Pearl will be offered similar itineraries on Louis Hellenic’s Aquamarine or Cristal.	Collision
July 23	Fantasy Carnival Cruise Lines	Carnival is exploring contingency plans after an early morning accident between a tanker and a barge closed a 47-mile stretch of the nation's major waterway, including the Port of New Orleans.  The closure is likely to go on for days while remediation teams rush to clean the heavy slick of tar that is drifting southward. The Fantasy is scheduled to arrive/depart from New Orleans July 26. UPDATE: The current voyage of the Carnival Fantasy will end in Mobile, Ala., instead of its regular home port of New Orleans. Disembarking guests will be provided transportation back to the Port of New Orleans or the New Orleans airport. The next voyage will also depart from Mobile.  Carnival will provide motor coach transportation from New Orleans' Erato Street cruise terminal to Mobile.	Waterway closure
July 23	Antarctic Dream Antarctic Shipping	Aftenposten (Norway) reports the ship ran aground off the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard (near Alkefjellet in the Hinlopen Straits), just east of the island of Spitsbergen. The vessel, with about 130 passengers on board, called for help around 11am. There apparently was no damage to ship and that neither the vessel nor its passengers and crew were in danger. Any grounding, however, sparks environmental concerns. A rescue vessel was trying to free the vessel Wednesday afternoon, which was freed after six hours. The ship has been sailing around Svalbard this summer, and had an expected return to Longyearbyen on Monday.	Aground
July 21	Carnival Cruise Lines	Carnival among others have changed itineraries because of Tropical Storm Dolly, which is cutting across the northern tip of Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula. The storm is expected to bulk up as it heads westward into the Gulf of Mexico, and forecasters warned Dolly could become a hurricane by Tuesday. Carnival Holiday is in Key West today, in lieu of Progreso. Carnival Liberty delayed today’s scheduled call in Cozumel to Tuesday, and Carnival Inspiration substituted Key West for today’s planned stop at Grand Cayman. Carnival Imagination flipped its Ocho Rios and Grand Cayman calls and is visiting Ocho Rios today and Grand Cayman tomorrow.	Storm-related itinerary changes
July 18	Queen Victoria Cunard Line	From a passenger: tWe were pax on the Aurora departing immediately behind the QVictoria. Ventura departed behind us, completing a three-in-line ahead departure. QVictoria had cast off first and went astern in a 90degree starboard turn around the end of the main jetty (stern now towards Soton city). A 25ish knot crosswind then drove her sideways, eastwards, away from the jetty and she grounded on the sandbank at the side of the marked navigation channel. We were advised this had occurred because one of her pods had jammed when they changed from astern to ahead. She remained on the sandbank whilst the pod was ‘freed’. She then used her engines for some 15minutes, alternately to wriggle off the bank. During this operation it as easy to see her roll a degree of two from side to side.  It took some 25minutes. Aurora had already cast off and within a few hundred meters heard of the QVictoria ’s plight. We held our mid-channel station using cross/bow thrusters fairly continuously, against the crosswind. We were slowly being driven towards the jetty and had QVictoria remained in difficulty much longer we’d have moved forward to occupy the QVictoria ’s now vacant berth. Ventura had cast off her springs when Aurora advised Ventura (behind us) not to cast off completely. Therefore, due to the crosswind, Ventura remained at berth.	Aground
July 16	Clipper Pacific Peace Boat	Newsday reports that the cruise ship (the 1970-built Song of Norway) with 1,200 passengers aboard was detained in New York Harbor on July 13 after a Coast Guard inspection found significant hull damage. The inspection, which began on Sunday and ended Tuesday, found that the ship's hull was leaking and found 66 safety problems on the ship, including damage to the lifeboats and life jacket issues. A commercial diving company has made temporary repairs to the hull, but the Coast Guard ordered the 637-foot ship to remain in the harbor until further repairs were made. The ship is based in the Bahamas, and was inbound from Greenland when the Coast Guard stopped it. It was headed for Venezuela.  UPDATE: The ship left New York July 17 and proceeded to Tampa where it arrived July 21 and will enter dry dock for fuller inspection and repair as needed. It is expected that passengers will remain on shore for two days. UPDATE July 26: Inspectors found new safety problems, leaving about 675 Japanese passengers stuck in Tampafor at least another day. Representatives of the Bahamian government and ship's classification society, which vouches for a vessel's seaworthiness, discovered "several deficiencies" in firefighting, life-saving and safety equipment.  The Coast Guard won't let the ship depart or allow passengers to stay on board in port until the problems are resolved. The ship is on a round-the-world cruise that left from Japan in May.	Safety problems --- Detained in port
July 15	Norwegian Dream Norwegian Cruise Line	The Royal Gazette reports a passenger was slashed with an axe in a robbery involving four men. The man suffered several cuts to the chin, head and chest in the attack, which happened around 9:30 PM after he stopped for a cigarette while out driving his rental scooter on the North Shore in the vicinity of Terceira's gas station, Roberts Avenue and Palmetto Road, Devonshire. The 46-year-old, from Massachusetts, said a black male approached him, aged 18-20, with a "long narrow 'droopy' face". After offering him a cigarette, the man left but returned a few minutes later with three other men. The man suffered several two inch lacerations about his head and abdomen. In addition, he also received a four to five inch laceration to the left side of his chin -- none were life-threatening. The robbers got away with a wallet containing cash and credit cards.	Onshore attack of passenger
July 13	Carnival Victory Carnival Cruise Lines	From a passenger:  I was just on a five-night Canada Cruise (July 12-17, 2008). On Sunday night, July 13th we were at the 8:30 show in the Caribbean Lounge.  There were some "explosive" special effects throughout the show.  At the end...at least I THINK it was the end...a spark ignited one of the speakers in the stage floor. It was smoking! After a few seconds a crew member came out from back-stage with a fire extinguisher and put it out. It continued to smoke even more. Eventually, the lounge was cleared out.  The 10:30 show was delayed and the Midnight Comedy show was re-located due to the "fire".	Fire
July 13	Zaandam Holland America Line	From a passenger: Just finished 7 day cruise in Alaska...ending 7/13...something happened that caused smell of kerosene inside several decks..we were on deck 6..woke up to the smell..opened the balcony..made smell worse..closed it back..woke up again later and smell was better..listened to passengers talking....some slept out by pool deck smell was so bad..heard 200 gallons of diesel was in bilge pump....somebody else said it affected everybody on deck 2....some on 6 didn't notice at all....got up morning of departure opened door to hallway...still smelled kerosene...made son-in-law sick....I'd like to know what really happened???	Noxious smell
July 12	Sea Lion Lindblad Expeditions	This photo was taken in the morning while the ship (apparently on charter to National Geographic) was tied to the fuel dock in Sitka, just below the OConnor Bridge. It's probably just gray water (not illegal), but still not consistent with a company that claims to be environmentally sensitive and responsible. (Photo courtesy of Island Resources Foundation).	Environmental
July 12	Tahitian Princess Princess Cruises	The US Coast Guard reports the ship experienced a problem with "material failure."	Material failure
July 12	Clipper Pacific	The US Coast Guard reports the ship experienced a problem with "material failure."	Material failure
July 9	Ocean Village	The Daily Mirror in the UK reports a man lost his left leg after burning his feet on the ship's metal deck during a Caribbean cruise. His limb was amputated below the knee when infection set in. His feet stuck on the deck as he sunbathed -- he says: "They started to sizzle. I wrenched them up and the skin was all off the foot. I was in agony." He was flown home from the ship in Belize.	Freaky injury
July 7	Carnival Miracle Carnival Cruise Lines	It has been reported that the ship is running slower than normal due to propulsion problems. Tortola has been dropped as a port of call and replaced with Grand Turk. The itinerary change will reportedly remain in place until the end of the year at least.	Propulsion problems
July 7	Caribbean Princess Princess Cruises	It has been reported that the ship is experiencing mechanical problems (i.e., genset fault) and that it is running slow. St. Maarten has been dropped from the itinerary and replaced with Tortola. Other port calls have been shortened.	Mechanical problems
July 7	Aurora P&O Cruises	From a passenger: The captain has just announced that due to problems with one of the propulsion units the ship will be 12 hours late arriving at Reykjavik. The port call at the next Icelandic, Akureyri has been cancelled and pax will be given further info regarding  future ports after the unit has been inspected by experts who are being flown to Iceland to try and sort out the problem. The ship is at present sailing out from Nuuk in Greenland at around 16 knots and expects to be in Reykjavik by 8pm Thursday. UPDATE July 12:  The problem has been solved by the experts flown out to us. We are now running on both engines.We will be missing our stop at Alesund (Norway) but due to popular demand Akureyri has been reinstated. As a goodwill gesture P & O has given a £100 per person credit to cabin accounts.	Propulsion problems
July 7	Arcadia P&O Cruises	It has been reported that the ship is experiencing engine problems and running slower than normal. Port arrival times have been altered but no ports have been dropped.	Engine problems
July 7	Jewel of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	It has been reported that the ship is experiencing engine trouble and is running slower than normal. The cruise scheduled for October 18 has reportedly be cancelled for the ship to enter dry dock	Engine problems
July 7	Discovery Voyages of Discovery	It has been reported that the ship is still experiencing engine problems and the itineraries are affected. From a passenger:  I came across your page after looking on the web after we received cancellation of our cruise Fjords,Faroes,Fire and Ice II on the MV Discovery -sail date 14/7/08  via a letter today dated 9/7/08. A second engine has now got a problem and impact on maximum cruising speed means they cannot complete the planned cruise as they need time for engineers to undertake a full a speedy repair to their usually reliable engines.	Engine problems
July 7	Spirit of Glacier Bay Cruise West	The ship grounded in Tarr Inlet near Glacier Bay just before 8AM. The Coast Guard says the hull of the ship has not been compromised, and no injuries have been reported. It deployed aircraft and ships to the site, and a National Park Service vessel from Glacier Bay also is en route. In the meantime a boom was deployed around the vessel as a precaution. The ship is home-ported in Juneau. Weather conditions at the time were clear skies and calm seas. Later in the day passengers were offloaded to a Coast Guard vessel and taken ashore. The ship was refloated the next day and towed to port. UPDATE: While en route to Ketchikan (under its own power) a crack was discovered in the hull and water was seeping into the ship at a rate of 10 gallons per hour. The ship was diverted to Wrangell where the crack was repaired. The company has cancelled the ship's next four cruise tours to allow for other repairs to be completed. UPDATE July 25: The company has now cancelled the remainder of the ship's Alaska cruise season.	Grounded
July 5	Rhapsody of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	The Associated Press reports Royal Caribbean Cruises says it mistakenly broke state law in discharging about 20,000 gallons of wastewater into Chatham Strait in Southeast Alaska. Crew members mistakenly discharged gray water, wastewater from cabin showers and sinks, on June 10. The error was not discovered until a week later. The ship's captain and environmental officer were apparently suspended while a full investigation is conducted.	Environmental
July 3	Statendam Holland America Line	The Sun Sentinel reports at approximately 1345 on July 3rd 2008, Sector Juneau was notified of a minor hydraulic leak on the ship. The leak was from the port side controllable pitch propeller system due to a loose cover plate on the hub. The leak was approximately one drop of hydraulic fluid every two seconds into Tongass Narrows, which is a navigable waterway of the United States. The vessel hired divers to repair the hub. No cleanup was necessary due to the minor amount. The vessel placed absorbent boom around the vessel to contain the sheen.	Envivronmental - oil leak
July 2	Carnival Spirit Carnival Cruise Lines	The ship reported 3 (0.33%) crew and 82 (3.61%) passengers had reported ill with gastrointestinal illness on a 7 day cruise from Whittier to Vancouver (June 25 - July 2).	Illness
June 28	Theofilos NEL Lines	The ferry changed course and had to be evacuated (475 passengers) after hitting the reef near the eastern Aegean islet of Oinousses. A 20-metre gash was found in its hull below the waterline, but the ship's watertight compartments held and it only listed two degrees. A cleanup operation was underway Sunday around the ferry to contain fuel that seeped out of the vessel during the incident. The ship's 97-man crew are on board as repairs are underway to seal the breach so the ship can sail to Chios for a fuller inspection. A prosecutor on Chios is expected to press charges against the captain and others deemed responsible for the incident. The Theofilos is one of the ferries connecting the islands of Chios and Mytilene with the Greek mainland and it is high season for tourists in the Aegean.	Grounded -- Holed
June 24	Freedom of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	A passenger writes: While ship was at mooring at Labadee (Haiti) sudden 50+mph winds hit the ship broadside.  Forward mooring lines break, and small, local fishing boats are capsized.  Ship was able to hold position well, with just aft mooring lines attached.  This happened at the end of the stay, and there were still a couple of tenders to unload.  Unloading of tenders looked rough as the winds were still high.	Mooring lines break
June 22	Veendam Holland America Line	The Anchorage Daily News reports that an unnamed Holland America ship has had an elevated number of illnesses. It states that rumors about a norovirus outbreak followed the ship from port to port, prompting media inquiries. The ship had about 20 sick passengers early in its cruise when it was in Haines. It went to Juneau and Sitka before pulling into Seward (the end of a seven-day cruise). According to one source, the ship has been in Code Red due to the Norwalk Virus since last Thursday. The Veendam is doing Alaska (Vancouver to Seward 7 days, and Seward to Vancouver 7 days). Guests sailing for 14 days were all placed in quarantine for 24 hours last Friday after being plied with free tours in Seward since extra crew were flown in to clean the ship. All staff were present in the Lido restaurant to help serve guests. No salt and pepper shakers, no self serve coffee stations and activities cancelled. Over 100 guests were sick and approximately 20 crew affected. The outbreak was subsequently reported by the Centers for Disease Control -- it reports 112 of 1313 passengers (8.53%) and 12 of 556 crew (2.16%) were ill.	Illness
June 21	Princess of Stars Sulpico Lines	The ship stalled in rough seas near Sibuyan island in the central Philippines while in the midst of a typhoon. "It’s dead on the water, but we can’t get to it because of big waves,” said a coast guard spokesman. The ship left Manila on Saturday morning for the central province of Cebu. The ship capsized later in the day. As of June 23, more than 700 people remain missing and are feared dead. Twenty-eight passengers and crew did survive and miraculously made their way to the coast in a lifeboat.	Dead in the Water --- Sank
June 19	Carnival Victory Carnival Cruise Lines	CBS in Miami reports a woman alleges she was sexually assaulted on board the ship on  February 4, 2008. The married mother of three said she was in one of the ship's nightclubs when a man offered to buy her a drink. She declined the offer and said she was looking for her friend. A short time later, the man returned and said he saw her friend in another area of the nightclub. When the two walked to the other area, the section was closed and the man forced the woman into a room where he sexually assaulted her. The victim notified Carnival security who investigated the incident, along with the FBI. The suspect, who was a passenger, was identified in a photo line-up. The lawsuit alleges the sexual assault might have been prevented if there had been adequate security on the cruise ship.	Sexual Assault
June 19	Statendam Holland America Line	According to the Sun Sentinel, the ship reported that the fuse for their port side controllable pitch propulsion system had tripped causing temperature high level alarms and pump indication alarms. The system was switched to their back up. Propulsion was never lost.	Propulsion problems
June 17	Costa Atlantica Costa Cruises	From a passenger: After leaving Tromso on 17th of june, the captain announced he was obliged to reduce the speed . A fishing net was in the propeller and we have to wait the next harbour (Honningsvag) to verify the propeller. Everything was ok after this incident. The cruise was : 12 june 2008 Amsterdam, 13 june at sea, 14 june Geiranger, 15 june Trondheim, 16 june Gravdal (Lofoten), 17 june Tromso, 18 june Honningsvag, 19 june at sea, 20 june Andaslnes, 21 june Bergen, 22 june at sea, 23 june Amsterdam.	Engine problem
June 17	Norwegian Dream Norwegian Cruise Line	The Royal Gazette in Bermuda reports that a passenger was arrested and fined $2500 after 6.7 grams of marijuana was found in the room's safe. According to the article, the Seaport Enforcement team along with a security guard and a sniffer dog went on board the ship docked at number six shed in Hamilton looking for drugs. The sniffer dog alerted the officers to a cabin and when they knocked on the door, there was no response. The security guard opened the door and the officers went inside to find the cabin unoccupied. The sniffer dog alerted the officers to a grey safe. When they opened it, they found a small plastic bag containing plant-like material. Later that day, the officers met with the cabin's occupant who admitted the drugs belonged to him. The Royal Gazette reported the same day that a second passenger was fined $3,000 for bringing cannabis and cannabis resin into the Island. While the Seaport Enforcement team along with a security guard and a sniffer dog went aboard the ship looking for drugs the passenger opened his cabin door and the sniffer dog reacted. Officers identified themselves to the defendant and asked him if he had any drugs. He said: "Yes, I have a little pot." Officers found a small black toiletries bag in the closet containing a Ziploc bag with plant-like material, a brown substance and a homemade pipe. The man was arrested with 1.92 grams of cannabis and 0.10 grams of cannabis resin. EDITORIAL COMMENT: It would be nice if the cruise industry was at least as vigilant in dealing with sexual assaults perpetrated against passengers by crew members and officers!!!!	Passengers arrested for pot possession
June 16	Dawn Princess Princess Cruises	The ship reported 4 (0.48%) crew and 68 (3.15%) passengers had reported ill with gastrointestinal illness on a 10 day cruise to/from San Francisco.	Illness
June 13	easyCruise Life easyCruise	The ship ran aground inside the port of the Aegean island of Syros on Friday with 353 passengers and 105 crew on board. No injuries or damage were reported. The Merchant Marine Ministry, which handles rescue efforts at sea, said the Maltese-flagged ship from the budget easyCruise line ran aground on a sandy part of the port. The ministry said the easyCruise Life was not damaged, and a tug boat removed it from the sandy spit. The ship tied up at another part of the port for a full damage inspection and was then expected to continue its cruise.	Aground
June 11	Saga Rose Saga Holidays	A 43 year old Filipino crew member died after running out of oxygen in the ship's ballast tank; another crew member was removed from the tank unconscious. Neither man was outfitted with the usual breathing gear. The ship was in Southampton where police are investigating whether the men were told to enter the ballast tanks or told to inspect them from a safe distance above. Click here to see story at BBC.	Crew member dies in accident
June 6	Costa Classica Costa Cruises Poesia MSC Cruises	The two cruise ships collided in the Adriatic Sea near the Croatian tourist town of Dubrovnik, but no one was injured. According to Croatian media, "Two cruisers collided in the old town harbour. One of them had to make a full circle around the isle of Locrum before returning for the passengers waiting in boats." According to the first assessments, the damage was minimal and the accident occurred when cruiser Poesia's anchor loosened and caused her to hit cruiser Costa Classica. Both continued their scheduled itinerary with no delays. See here for a picture.	Collision
June 6	MV Ptarmigan Portage Glacier Tours	The Anchorage Daily News reports the tour boat, owned by Holland America Line / Carnival Corporation, struck an iceberg in Portage Lake, jolting passengers and leaving as many as 10 with minor injuries. The vessel struck the iceberg after a tourist reported spotting a bear and the captain swung the vessel around for passengers to get a better look. The jolt apparently did not significantly damage the ship but two people were reported to have fallen during the crash, with one hitting her head on a rail. The rest appeared to have suffered minor bumps and bruises.	Collision with iceberg
June 6	Ventura P&O Cruises	The Telegraph in London reports "passengers on the £300million cruise ship Ventura have been struck down by an outbreak of the potentially lethal norovirus."  The newspaper quotes a P&O spokesperson as saying, "There has been an increased incidence of a gastrointestinal illness among the passengers on Ventura over the last three days ...  "Enhanced sanitation protocols have already been implemented to help minimize transmission to other passengers. The captain is regularly updating the passengers and crew on the situation. Unwell passengers are asked to comply with the doctor's instructions and isolate themselves in their stateroom until non-contagious. "They have been asked not to proceed ashore, and any shore excursion costs are refunded. Room service is provided to affected passengers and every effort is made to make them as comfortable as possible." The latest cruise left Southampton last Friday and is due to call next at Cannes in France and then Rome. It is due back in Britain June 13 after further visits to Corsica and Gibraltar.	Illness
June 5	Century Celebrity Cruises	According to media in the UK, a woman was dramatically plucked from the water after she tripped and plunged from the gangway of the ship while docked in Belfast. The woman is believed to have fallen while talking and walking backwards. An Australian member of the luxury liner's crew dived into the water at Stormont Wharf and rescued the woman before officers from Belfast Harbour Police arrived to administer first aid. She was transferred by ambulance to hospital where she was said to be in a stable condition.	Fall from gangway
June 4	Spirit of Alaska Cruise West	The ship touched bottom in Tracy Arm, 45 miles south of Juneau on the third day of its cruise. The ship is not grounded; it is anchored in the arm's Williams Cove awaiting a Coast Guard inspection. It did not take on water and did not have interior damage but is having a problem with its propulsion system and awaiting a Coast Guard inspection to determine whether evacuation is needed. UPDATE June 5: The ship has been towed to Juneau for inspection and repairs and passengers have been transferred to Cruise West's sister ship, Spirit of Endeavour.	Touched bottom
May 31	Norwegian Spirit Norwegian Cruise Line	The Daily News reports on a couple who were on the ship in late April. A woman says perverts turned her Bahamian cruise into a shipwreck, opening her cabin door as she slept naked and grabbing her buttocks on a dance floor. The article may be of interest to some.	"Perverts ruined my cruise"
May 27	Ventura P&O Cruises	The 3,000-passenger ship was turned away from La Rochelle after striking port authority employees blockaded the road in and out of the port. A scheduled call in Brest May 28 was also disrupted by shipyard workers who formed picket lines and burned tyres and wooden palettes on all routes out of the port and into town.	Canceled port call
May 27	Discovery Voyages of Discovery	It has been reported that the ship has a crankshaft fault and is cruising at reduced speed.  She has altered itineraries and dropped ports.  There is no indication as to when she will be repaired or when the problem started.  Additional details will be posted as they become available.	Engine problems -- Changed itinerary
May 27	Sun Princess Princess Cruises	A passenger reports there was a large outbreak of gastrointestinal illness on the cruise from Freemantle (Australia) to Vietnam/Asia. Exact numbers have not been reported and are not required by the CDC to be reported given that the cruise does not include any US ports.	Illness
May 25	Norwegian Pearl Norwegian Cruise Line	FROM A PASSENGER: We were on Inside Passage Alaska cruise May 18-25, 2008, and there was illness on the cruise. We were told at the start of the cruise that they had had 500 people sick the previous week on the ship. Not sure how many were sick on our cruise, but they never did open the buffet line. All food was served by crew. I contracted the virus on the 2nd to last day of our cruise and my husband and I were both quarantined. One visit from the nurse with shot for nausea and meds for vomiting and diarrhea and stomach cramping. Two check-up calls from the reception desk the next morning. We had to order all food from room service and it took more than 8 hours to get Gatorade and saltines. No further contact with any crew other than room steward. No instructions as to how long this would last. FROM ANOTHER PASSENGER: I was aboard the ship at the time. Please note that the number of ill passengers and crew were less than 2% - the percentage that they are legally required to report to CDC. With 4000 guests and crew onboard, 500 sick would mean 8 percent were ill. Granted, they had an elevated number of cases, which by NCL policy (8 or more new cases in a 24 hour period) they go to extreme control measures to ensure it does not become higher. Those measures include the elimination of self-service (for guests and crew alike).	Illness
May 25	Norwegian Spirit Norwegian Cruise Line	While docking in NYC (Manhattan) the ship apparently took a turn too wide and rammed into Pier 90 at 50th St. and 12th Ave. No one on board was injured. The city Buildings Department said the accident damaged beams supporting upper-level parking lots. There is need for reinforcements to be built, but there's apparently no danger of a collapse.	Collision with pier
May 24	Norwegian Dream Norwegian Cruise Line	FROM A READER: the Norwegian Dream, for the past 2 weeks, has not been able to call in St. Georges Bermuda. It had instead stayed docked in Hamilton. The reason apparently was that high winds didn't allow her to enter the "town cut" or leave it latter in the week. Norwegian Dream currently docks in Boston on Sunday and spends tuesday thru Friday in St Georges.	Itinerary change
May 21	Carnival Conquest Carnival Cruise Lines	On the afternoon of May 21st, 2008, a crew member was seen arrested at the Bobsled Cafe in Montego Bay, Jamaica. He was taken away by about 20 police officers for purchasing cocaine. Later reports found that the crew member claimed to have been looking for an ATM machine and got upset with a local Jamaican for following him to one. A local Jamaican security guard apparently snuck drugs in his pocket and called police to get revenge being arrogant and violent with the guard.  The crew member had no idea that anything was in his pocket.   He was put in jail overnight and bailed the next morning for $1000.00 USD (on his 24th birthday).  He was permanently dismissed from Carnival Cruise Lines.	Crew member Arrested - Cocaine
May 20	Norwegian Cruise Line	Norwegian Cruise Line was ordered by federal court judge in Florida to pay a $1 million fine and $13.75 million preliminary restitution to the victims of the deadly boiler explosion on the Norway May 25, 2003. All the dead suffered severe burns from the superheated steam and oil that burst from the ruptured boiler, the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office ruled at the time. The company agreed to plead guilty earlier this month (see May 2) to a charge of gross negligence, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The company admitted it had "failed to insure that proper inspections, maintenance, and repairs of boiler components were carried out."	$14.75 Million judgment
May 19	Royal Caribbean International	Expert Cruiser dot Com reports on a couple that has been banned from RCCL's ships forever. The headline says they complained too much, but the details say they were banned after refusing to retract a negative on-line review at Cruise Critic. RCI had provided $500 in compensation for the difficulties experienced. The passenger "...had posted a negative review and had shared the compensation information on Cruise Critic’s boards. RCI asked Brenda to take down her review “at once.” She refused and cited her right to free speech.  The following day the passenger received another phone call from RCI stating the couple was banned forever from the cruise line. They were stunned. They didn’t believe it was true until an official letter was delivered citing the ban. It also contained a $500 check — their additional promised cruise credit."	Passengers banned
May 18	Norwegian Pearl Norwegian Cruise Line	There was a large outbreak of gastrointestinal illness on the May 11 - 18 cruise. There has been no official report from the CDC. (see May 25 for what details we have.)	Illness
May 16	Norwegian Jade Norwegian Cruise Line	As reported at Cruise Critic, the ship experienced an eight degree list while en route from Venice to Naples this past week. According to an official statement from the cruise line, Jade "experienced a temporary technical issue that affected the ship's steering.". The list only lasted for a few seconds, and was the result of a technical issue with an electrically powered compass. According to online reports, Jade's list emptied water from pools and toppled a buffet.	Eight degree list
May 16	NCL America	The company agreed to pay $485,000 to settle a discrimination lawsuit involving former Middle Eastern crew members who worked aboard the Pride of Aloha. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says the cruise ship company also agreed to revise its policies to ensure a workplace that promotes equal employment opportunities.	Fine for discrimination
May 14	Veendam Holland America Line	The ship was forced to skip its port call at Ketchikan today because of winds of 40 knots. It was en route from Skagway and continued on to Vancouver where the cruise disembarks.	Missed port
May 14	Queen Victoria Cunard Line	The ship, on its maiden call in Malta, hit the quay of the Valletta Waterfront, denting the stern of the ship. The unofficial reason for the incident is that the throttles of the 90,000 tonnes luxury liner got stuck. In a statement later in the evening the Malta Maritime Authority officially attributed the incident to a mechanical failure in the ship. Carnival Corporation Chairman and CEO, Micky Arison, was onboard the ship when the accident happened. The ship remained in port for repairs and left the following day, having to cancel its port call in Tunisia. Carnival Corporation is reported to be considering a lawsuit against the port because a Maltese pilot was steering the ship at the time; the local government claims the accident was the result of a mechanical failure on the ship and is the fault of the cruise line. Investigations continue.	Collision with pier
May 11	Norwegian Dawn Norwegian Cruise Line	A 46 year old woman was reported to have fallen overboard from the ship at about 7:50 PM on a cruise from New York City to Bermuda. A search was called off because of bad weather. The cruise line asserted that video tapes show she was apparently trying to climb between balconies when she fell overboard near Atlantic City, NJ. Her family believes foul play was likely involved, which has been disputed by the cruise line.	Person Overboard
May 11	Spirit of Columbia Cruise West	The ship, with 89 passengers onboard, arrived safely this afternoon in Juneau's Auke Bay. It had lost power to both generators at 8PM last night (two miles from Warm Springs Bay and 80 miles south of Juneau) when both generators and one of two propeller engines stopped working. The ship made it to Juneau on its own power, accompanied by the Coast Guard cutter Liberty. A Coast Guard spokesman said the ship's crew was able to repair the generators, but one of the propeller engines remained disabled.	Propulsion problems
May 11	Freewinds Church of Scientology	According to Asian News International, the ship has been was said to be "under seal" on the Caribbean island of Curacao after cancer-causing particles were found on the vessel. According to reports, deadly blue asbestos dust was released during refurbishment of the ship, used by the church as a floating "education centre" and for VIP parties. The ship was originally built in 1968 and sailed as Commodore Cruise Line's Boheme until 1981. Commodore Cruise Line, which predated Carnival Cruise Lines, had the tagline, "A Happy Ship." UPDATE June 6: The ship remains under seal since it was quarantined on April 26. Experts advise that decontaminating the ship would cost millions of dollars and may not even be possible. Meanwhile, the church continues to solicit funds for cruises that will not happen. The ship is contaminated with raw blue asbestos, the most dangerous type of asbestos because the fibres are smaller than the white asbestos and can penetrate the lung more easily.	Asbestos scare
May 8	Aquamarine Louis Cruises	The ship is heading to the Greek island of Milos for an emergency inspection after its hull was damaged. The ship with 1200 people onboard suffered a 5-foot (1.5-meter) gash above the water line. The Associated Press reports the ship "scraped against a pier" as it was leaving Iraklion (Crete).	Collision with pier -- Holed hull
May 4	Mona Lisa	The ship ran aground early in the morning on a sandbank about 10 miles from the Latvia coast. It was on its way from Kiel (Germany) to Riga (Latvia). Attempts to free itself were unsuccessful  which meant that almost 1000 passengers needed to be evacuated by the Latvian Coast Guard. There were no known injuries and no known environmental issues. The ship previously ran aground in Venice May 12 2004 and July 26 2003.	Aground
May 3	Pacific Sun P&O Australia	The ship was on its way to Noumea (from Brisbane) when it was forced to drop anchor in a shipping channel near Moreton Island due to engine problems. The ship remained anchored overnight (while repair crew tried to fix the problem) and resumed its voyage the following morning (after being stationery for more than 15 hours). It is not known how the delay will affect the itinerary.	Engine problems
May 2	Norwegian Cruise Line	Norwegian Cruise Line agreed to plead guilty to a charge of criminal negligence in connection with 2003 boiler explosion that killed eight crewmen and injured another 20 (some seriously). A report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board determined the explosion was likely the result of deficient boiler operation, maintenance and inspection.	Guilty Plea
May 1	Diamond Princess Princess Cruises	The ship reported 5 (0.45%) crew and 92 (3.37%) passengers had reported ill on a 14 day cruise to/from Los Angeles.	Illness
April 30	Explorer of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	The port call at Bermuda was cancelled because of a medical emergency that required the ship to head back toward the New Jersey coast so it would be in range for a helicopter rescue by the Coast Guard. As a consequence, the itinerary now included an extra day and night at sea.	Port call cancelled
April 28	Norwegian Dream Norwegian Cruise Line	The ship reported 10 of 726 (1.38%) crew and 99 of 1579 (6.27%) passengers had reported ill on an 18 day cruise that began April 13 and which disembarks May 1.	Illness
April 26	Grandeur of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	From a passenger: The Ship developed propulsion problems on April 23 resulting in a 3 hour delay arriving in Bermuda on April 24th. Passengers had tours shortened or cancelled. Midday on April 25 the Captain advised propulsion problems continued and the ship would arrive 3.5 hours late in Baltimore on April 26 (10:30 AM). Those passengers with flight times prior to 2:30 pm were advised to make alternate airline arrangements. A letter was delivered to each stateroom that confirmed the arrival times and stated that a refund of $100.00 per passenger would be offered to cover the cost of ticket changes. (There was no offer to actually cover the increased cost of obtaining last minute flights.)  Many people took the information at face value and made arrangements for flights departing between 3:00 pm and 4:00 pm.  The ship actually arrived at the pier in Baltimore at 2:30 pm and disembarking did not start until 4:00 pm. Many people were unable to get to the airport in time to make their “new” flight times. Not a lot of happy campers!	Propulsion problems -- Delays
April 25	Majesty of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	WFTV reports that a family of five were evicted from the ship late at night on Tuesday (the second day of the cruise) when their 7-month-old child became sick. They think they were kicked off the ship because her symptoms were similar to the Norwalk virus. The child was throwing up and had diarrhea. A doctor on the ship said she was dehydrated and had to be treated in a hospital. The family said a security guard gave them 10 minutes to pack their bags and get off the boat. It was 11 o'clock at night.the father asked if his wife could get out of her pajamas but the response was that there was no time for that. A doctor at the emergency room diagnosed the infant with a cold, not dehydration. He signed a form and cleared her to travel, but the ship had already left and they were stuck in the Bahamas with no passports to get home. They spent $455 on emergency passports, $650 on plane tickets home, and $600 for the emergency room on top of the cost of the five night cruise. RCI refuses to reimburse the family for their expenses but did offer to provide  credit on a future cruise. Royal Caribbean takes exception with the parents' account (see Fox News - April 29) and has agreed as a gesture of good will to provide the family with a refund of its cruise fare and reimbursement for its flights home.	Family of 5 kicked off cruise
April 23	Navigator of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	A poster at Cruise Critic writes that the ship is stuck in Lisbon with a problem with a stabilizer. The ship was initially anchored in the Tagis River but was later moved to a berth in port. According to the discussion thread, the ship is not permitted to leave Portugal until the problem is fixed and apparently the ship will go to Cascais for repairs (the stabilizer fin is apparently going to be cut off/removed). The next two port calls (Cadiz and Malaga) have been cancelled and there is some concern as to whether the ship will make it Barcelona on Saturday as is scheduled. The ship also skipped its scheduled call at Azores which means the only port calls on the transatlantic cruise were Bermuda and Lisbon. UPDATE: The "repairs" in Cascais involved cutting off both aft stabilizers. The ship then left for Barcelona and arrived Friday night. As compensation for missing the three ports and being stuck in Lisbon passengers were given a 20% credit (based on what they paid for their cruise) to be used toward a future cruise.	Stabilizer problems -- Ports cancelled
April 22	Carnival Victory Carnival Cruise Lines	A 44 year old man was reported missing by his wife. It is believed he fell overboard 40 miles northeast of Cozumel. A rescue crew from Clearwater's (Florida) Coast Guard Station are helping in the search. While the FBI says there was no foul play, family members disagree saying that man was not suicidal. He was apparently last seen in the ship's casino.	Person missing
April 22	Serenade of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	A passenger writes On the second day of the cruise, the 21st of April, at 5.00 in the morning a helicopter of the US Coast Guard rescued an injured person. The accident happened a few hours before. The ship had to turn and now there is a delay in the next port Cartagena, Colombia. The ship is on its repositioning cruise to Alaska for the summer season.	Shortened Port Call
April 22	Sapphire Princess Princess Cruises	The was prevented from making its scheduled port call at Dunedin because of bad weather. Winds were expected to whip up to 110 km per hour in the afternoon so even though the ship could get into port at 6AM, there was concern it would not be able to leave with winds so high. It was to be the last cruise ship visit of the 2007-08 season. The ship continued on to Auckland.	Missed Port
April 14	Carnival Conquest Carnival Cruise Lines	KHOU in Houston reports a Houston man needed 20 stitches after a bloody brawl aboard the ship. According to the news report, the Chapman family  say they were having a good time in the cruise ship’s nightclub when a passenger started beating three members of the family with a metal baton. “He was just watching us, leaning by the bar by himself,” Brenda Chapman said. A Carnival spokesperson said the man was removed from the ship in Jamaica as a result.  They confirmed the altercation happened and said the FBI is handling the investigation. Krystal Chapman said she wanted to fly home when they got to Jamaica but the family had to stay onboard the ship until Sunday, a full 7 days after the fight.	Pax on Pax altercation
April 9	Aurora P&O Cruises	The Hong Kong Information Services Department reports that the Centre for Health Protection is following up on a British report concerning four cases of hepatitis-E infection involving four men on the world cruise which took place January 7 to March 28. The UK Health Protection Agency has been working with the cruise operator and port health authority to distribute health advice to all passengers. People who have been aboard the vessel should seek medical advice if they come down with hepatitis symptoms. Hepatitis-E is a viral infection highly endemic in Central and Southeast Asia, and North and West Africa, as well as Mexico. It is acquired by ingestion of contaminated food or water. Its incubation period ranges two weeks to two months. Symptoms include fever, malaise, anorexia, nausea, abdominal pain, dark urine and jaundice. UPDATE APRIL 30: The BBC reports the number reported coming down with Hepatitis E is now confirmed at 7.	Hepatitis on World Cruise
April 8	Queen of the West Majestic America Line	Fire broke out in the engine room while the ship was near Maryhill, WA on the Columbia River. The fire was quickly extinguished but the ship had to be towed to a state part where it was nudge into the river bank for evacuation of th124 passengers and 53 crew. The only reports of injury were from crew members who suffered smoke inhalation while fighting the fire.	Fire
April 4	Le Ponant Compagnie des Iles du Ponant	Pirates took over the ship with 30 crew on board off the coast of Somalia. The luxury sailing ship was heading from the Seychelles to the Mediterranean Sea when pirates stormed it in the Gulf of Aden. There were no passengers onboard at the time of the attack. The ship was subsequently freed by French military and some pirates arrested following a ransom payment.	Pirate Attack and Seizure
April 3	Zaandam Holland America Line	The ship reported 13 of 611 (2.13%) crew and 100 of 1428 (7.00%) passengers had reported ill on a 15 day Hawaii cruise that began March 19 in San Diego and which disembarked April 3.	Illness
April 1	Van Gogh	The ship was detained by authorities in Funchal, Madeira over unpaid bills by its previous owner, Travelscope. An agreement between the administrators of Travelscope and the current operator, Van Gogh Cruise Line Ltd was reached after a couple of days and the ship was on its way back to the UK. It was on the last leg of a world cruise.	Ship seized
April 1	Inspiration Carnival Cruise Lines	The ship appears to be having propulsion problems that are affecting port calls. Those interested my wish to check Cruise Critic.	Propulsion problems
March 31	Grand Princess Princess Cruises	Press in Jamaica reported what appeared to be a fire when the ship was in Ocho Rios -- residents in the area reported the ship came to a halt and there was thick smoke surrounding the vessel. Princess Cruises later reported there had been a breakdown of one of the ship's engines and damage to another. The ship cruised at reduced speeds with delayed arrivals in ports. Repairs were planned without taking the ship out of service.	Engine breakdown
March 31	Ecstasy Carnival Cruise Lines	The ship returned to Galveston approximately 6 hours late. The reason given by Carnival was propulsion problems. Disembarkation and embarkation were both delayed. According to the Sun Sentinel, A clogged deck drain existed in the 2nd deck incinerator room onboard a cruise ship. There was a notable amount of wastage in bulkhead at deck level allowing greywater to seep into overhead insulation above portside transformers. Once the insulation was soaked, it began to drip through a seam over transformers; 'A' bank, No. 3, therefore, causing the system to short. The cruise ship lost propulsion with a momentarily loss of the starboard main engine.	Loss of propulsion
March 29	Inspiration Carnival Cruise Lines	The Sun Sentinel reports a clogged deck drain existed in the 2nd deck incinerator room onboard a cruise ship. There was a notable amount of wastage in bulkhead at deck level allowing greywater to seep into overhead insulation above portside transformers. Once the insulation was soaked, it began to drip through a seam over transformers; 'A' bank, No. 3, therefore, causing the system to short. The cruise ship lost propulsion with a momentarily loss of the starboard main engine.	Propulsion problems
March25	Sky Wonder Pullmantur Cruises	The ship ran aground as a result of strong winds while the port of Kusadasi (Turkey). A total of 1,029 passengers were evacuated and brought to Kusadasi safely; the cruise was canceled. According to Think Spain: It seems that the captain of the 'Sky Wonder' made a mistake as he was maneuvering the elderly vessel towards the dock, and given that the ship's reverse gear was not working and that the Turkish port's tug boats were out of action, could do nothing to prevent her from slowly drifting on to a sand bank where she became stuck. The passengers only agreed to abandon ship after receiving guarantees from the Pullmantour company that organized the cruise. According to one of the passengers, Marta (26, from Madrid), "at the start they only offered us a 50% discount on our next cruise. "A protest meeting was organized and the passengers - already fuming about not being kept informed about the situation - opened negotiations, eventually agreeing to accept not only a full refund (around €900 euros), but also the promised 50% discount. The ship previously ran aground January 2007 -- click here for details.  Turkish-language media in Kusadasi write that the ship's grounding did major damage to the city's sewage system. They report that The ship has landed on the sand at a distance of only 20 meters from the yacht harbour (see here and here). The main reason is the failure of small 'guide boats' which help the cruise ships. The experienced- skilled staff of guide boats have been totally substituted after the takeover of the harbor by Royal Caribbean with cheap and uneducated labor. Now, after the destruction of the underwater sewage system, the beaches are full of 'shit'; and the reparation process needs at least 2 months - at the high season of tourism industry. UPDATE:  As of May 9, repairs have not been made and the area stinks (as you'd expect with raw sewage in the harbour).	Aground --- Damage to sewage system in Kusadasi
March 25	Balmoral Fred Olsen Cruises	The US Coast Guard reports the ship experienced a problem with "material failure."	Material failure
March 22	Grandeur of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	The Sun Sentinel Sector St Petersburg received a report from Commercial Vessel Traffic Service in Tampa, Florida advising that the Cruise Ship Grandeur of the Seas temporarily lost all power due to unknown reasons, approximately 30 minutes before the departure. Further investigation found that there was a sync issue with generator #3 and that a short circuit inside generator #3 which caused damage to the winding ends and leads. Repairs were made and all generators tested satisfactorily.	Power loss
March 20	Port of Barbados	Three ships (RCI's Serenade of the Seas, HAL's Maasdam, and Pullmantur's Holiday Dream) were prevented from docking at Bridgetown because of high seas. Two of the ships made it into port, but a decision was made to not disembark passengers. A fourth ship, Silversea's Silver Wind cancelled its call for March 21, also because of sea conditions.	Canceled port call
March 19	Carnival Conquest Carnival Cruise Lines	The port call at Montego Bay was cancelled -- the Captain announced it was because of a medical emergency. The next scheduled destination is Grand Cayman.	Skipped port call
March 18	Norwegian Spirit Norwegian Cruise Line	A 44 year old woman fell 65 feet to her death during a zip line ride through the jungle on the Caribbean island of Roatan. She was riding along a steel wire hung between trees in the jungle when either a harness holding her broke or the line snapped -- she and another person (a worker) had both fallen. She was taken to a private clinic on the island, then transferred to a hospital in the mainland city of San Pedro Sula, where she died on Wednesday. The excursion was reportedly at Gumbalimba Park.	Fatal accident on shore excursion
March 17	Legend of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	Several persons from the Dominican Republic were not allowed to leave the ship in Sint Maarten after authorities were tipped off that they intended to stay in the country. The ship home ports in Dominican Republic, making it a good cover for people wanting to leave DR in search of better economic opportunities. Local sensitivity to the issue is raised by past incidents of "ship jumpers."	Some pax not allowed to disembark
March 13	Georgis Piraeus-based	The ship was evacuated (278 passengers and 35 crew) after it ran aground off the Saronic Gulf island of Poros, near Athens.  The Greek-flagged ship is believed to have hit a reef three nautical miles from the port of Poros, a small island in the Saronic Gulf an hour's distance from the capital that is popular with tourists. Winds up to 40 kilometres (25 miles) an hour were blowing in the area at the time.  The ship was on a day cruise from Piraeus to the Saronic islands of Aegina, Hydra and Poros.	Run Aground
March 12	Carnival Victory Carnival Cruise Lines	The Daily Times (Knoxville) reports on a 12 year old girl who was allegedly raped by a 23-year-old male passenger and left drunk, alone and semiconscious in a hallway at 1:30 a.m. on a cruise that began November 25, 2007.The girl had disappeared and was found on a search of the ship. According to the girl's grandmother, a 14-year-old girl on the ship was approached by the same 23-year-old male passenger and offered alcohol the day before the incident involving her granddaughter occurred. In that incident, the male passenger allegedly threatened to throw the 14-year-old girl's boyfriend overboard after the girl refused the man's offer to join him for drinks.	Rape of Minor (Pax on Pax)
March 11	Artemis P&O Cruises	The ship left Southampton for the Caribbean on March 10 but was forced to detour to Falmouth for repairs after suffering damage to the anchor stowage area on the bow in stormy weather. The damage does not affect safety but repairs were needed before the ship headed across the Atlantic. The ship should be ready to leave Falmouth March 12.	Storm damage
March 10	Voyager of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	According to a passenger, there was a small fire onboard that did something to damage the propulsion system of the ship.  As a result the ship's schedule was altered, although it did go to all 3 destinations.  However shore excursions were all shortened.	Minor fire
March 9	Sun Princess Princess Cruises	The cruise ending today (14 day Sydney to New Zealand return) reportedly had an outbreak of norovirus affecting approximately 100 passengers. According to a passenger, The increased sanitization program that was put in place made things unpleasant; instead of relaxing on board you were constantly on guard not to touch the banisters, walking the stairs instead of using the lifts, avoiding contact with any other passenger, waiting in long queues for food because services were disrupted, having to walk around with hand sanitization gel etc. Staff attitudes were also affected -- deck hands were used as sanitization crews and were putting in many hours extra, and Wait staffs had to do much more as well, like putting salt and pepper on food, as all salt and pepper pots had been removed. All SPA baths were closed; so were the laundry facilities (which made things unpleasant as under clothes had to be washed in the staterooms and after 14 days at sea fresh clothes were becoming a problem).	Illness
March 9	Costa Mediterranea Costa Crociere	A 39-year-old woman who became angry with her boyfriend reportedly jumped off the ship at 11:56 PM Saturday night. The ship had left Port everglades earlier on a 7 day cruise of the western Caribbean. The Coast Guard was notified at 1:18AM on Sunday, prompting a search for her in the Florida Keys. The unnamed woman jumped overboard about 20 miles southeast of Key Largo. The ship's port call at Key West for the day was cancelled.	Person overboard
March 8	Disney Magic Disney Cruise Line	According to a poster at DisBoards, the ship is experiencing propulsion problems  which are affecting arrival times in port and are also affecting how smoothly the ship cruises. Passengers were apparently given an onboard credit of $100 because of the problem.	Engine problems
March 8	Celebration Carnival Cruise Lines	The US Coast Guard reports the ship had an allision (unspecified)	Allision
March 6	Norwegian Jewel Norwegian Cruise Line	Two Canadian passengers were robbed at knife point in Castries (St. Lucia).  They had ventured into Pavee thinking the area’s great view made it the perfect place to take pictures. It was 1:30 in the afternoon and being robbed was the last thing on their minds; the cruise line never warned that trekking into villages away from the town center could be dangerous. They paid little attention to three men they saw coming out of their homes on their way up the hill. They reveled in what they saw, the preschoolers and the scenery. The couple stood taking pictures for a few minutes then turned around to head back into town. This time, two men trailed close behind. A third jumped from a nearby bush and that's when they were attacked and robbed. See news story here.	Onshore robbery
March 1	Oosterdam Holland America Line	From a passenger: We just returned from a 7 day Baja cruise.  Two days into the cruise my fiance became very ill and was quarantined to the cabin for 48+ hours. It was the virus. Naturally this ruined the cruise for us which was an Air America  Progressive Radio cruise, with 400 others. I never could find out how many others were ill, but I believe several. We were offered $200 in ship credit for this disaster, which we refused, going all the way to the Hotel Manager. There were inadequate services in place to deal with this quarantine and I was forced to carry meal trays and clean the bathroom! Regular stewards were not allowed to attend us.	?Illness?
March 1	Azamara Quest Azamara Cruises	The ship reported 2 (0.50%) crew and 21 (3.13%) passengers had reported ill on an 14 day cruise to/from Miami.	Illness
March 1	Carnival Freedom Carnival Cruise Lines	The ship left Miami for a seven day cruise to the western Caribbean but was forced to return to port at 3:15 AM (next day) for a medical emergency. It is unknown how the delay will impact the itinerary which includes Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Ocho Rios.	Return to port
February 29	Vistamar Plantours & Partner	The ship had an unscheduled port call at St. Kitts after it docked at the Port Zante Pier. Wind speeds of 25 knots gusting at 30 knots prevented the 11:30 p.m. unberthing of the ship, extending its stay in St. Kitts until Saturday afternoon. See SKN News.	Delayed departure (high winds)
February 28	Celebration Carnival Cruise Lines	A fugitive wanted by the Atlanta Police Department on charges of felony murder and aggravated assault was arrested by U.S. Marshals just before the ship entered international waters. Derron Williams, 29, was taken into custody aboard the ship at 7 p.m. as the ship was steaming for Freeport, Bahamas. After marshals learned that Williams had flown to Jacksonville and boarded the ship, the Coast Guard ordered the ship to stop before reaching international waters, where federal agents boarded.	Passenger arrested
February 28	MV Saurav Bangladesh Ferry	The ferry, carrying more than 100 passengers, capsized Thursday after hitting a cargo vessel on the Buriganga River. Most of the 39 dead were women and children who were traveling on the lower deck of the boat; about 20 people remain missing. The ferry had been traveling from Dhaka to the nearby town of Taltala.It sank near shore in the calm river after colliding with a small cargo vessel and many people were able to swim to safety. The cargo vessel was slightly damaged.	Sank
February 26	Artemis P&O Cruises	The ship reported 7 (1.22%) crew and 61 (5.57%) passengers had reported ill on an 18 day cruise ending in Fort Lauderdale today.	Illness
February 25	Saga Rose Saga Holidays	An 82-year-old British man drowned while snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef shortly after assuring worried cruise ship staff he was fine and wished to continue his swim.  He was found unconscious in the water a short time later. Despite attempts at resuscitation, the man was pronounced dead at the Hamilton Island Medical Centre. He was traveling with his partner on an over-50s, round-the-world cruise; the ship was anchored near Hamilton Island, when the accident happened.	Death on snorkeling excursion
February 25	Ryndam Holland America Line	The ship reported 8 of 556 (1.44%) crew and 113 of 1226 (9.22%) passengers had reported ill on a 108 day Mexican Riviera cruise that began February 15 in San Diego and which disembarked February 25.	Illness
February 24	Sun Princess Princess Cruises	The ship's arrival/departure (debarkation/embarkation) from Darling Harbour (Sydney, Australia) was delayed by more than eight hours. The reason for the ship's late arrival is not known. According to a passenger:  We learned in the morning that the ship was running late and instead of a midday embarkation we would have to wait until 18:00. On arrival at the Passenger Terminal at about 17:30, we were met with chaos -- passengers were still in the process of disembarking and check-in was terribly long with a huge degree of confusion at all points. We were issued with a number and then promptly stood around trying to look intelligent but feeling distinctly like a herd of sheep. There must have been about 1500 people in an area designed to hold about 500. The public toilets were over loaded and much to be desired, in fact were disgusting. There were attempts to distribute water bottle amongst the crowds with the occasional fruit and crisps, however this was not a very effective exercise either. We finally cleared check-in and boarded the ship at 20:00 with tempers flaring; the ship offered late dinning which I suppose was a small compensation. We set sail at 23:00 and left Sydney in the dark. I think our baggage was finally delivered to our stateroom at about 03:00 in the morning. We were then woken at 10:00 in the morning with a Fire Drill, so not much sleep for many!	Delayed  Debarkation & Embarkation
February 24	Carnival Liberty Carnival Cruise Lines	The ship's arrival in Port Everglades was delayed by more than six hours because of a medical emergency requiring a diversion to Grand Cayman for a 15 year old passenger. Instead of arriving in port between 5:30 and 6:00 AM, it arrived after 11:30 AM. The ship was on an 8 day cruise of the western Caribbean.	Delayed arrival & departure
February 20	Millennium Celebrity Cruises	A passenger from the ship this morning after a snorkeling excursion at Savannah Bay, Virgin Gorda. The 65-year-old man went on a snorkeling excursion with his wife and several others. After about half hour of snorkeling, he reported feeling tired so they decided to return to the beach. While at the water’s edge, he developed difficulties breathing and reported feeling chest pains. He was assisted by other persons from the excursion, one of whom happened to be a doctor. An ambulance was called in. He was taken to the Iris O’Neal clinic where he lost consciousness and stopped breathing. He was pronounced dead at about 11:20 a.m.	Death on snorkeling excursion
February 20	Sky Wonder Pullmantur Cruises	A failure in the steam system left the ship with no electric power -- it took place 10km far from Punta Del Este. The lack of energy left a lot of passengers worried. According to CVC, no one was hurt, despite the turmoil. By morning the crew brought passengers on tenders ashore and the ship was pushed to the local port for repairs. At the end of the afternoon, when passengers returned to the ship from tous, the problem was solved and the trip resumed.	Power failure
February 20	Emerald Princess Princess Cruises	The port call at Basse-terre, St. Kitts was canceled for both ships because of high winds. An explanation is given in Caribbean Net Newspaper: “As we are all aware, the pier in St. Kitts lies in a north to south direction on the windward side of the island which means it is fully exposed to the winds out of the east. Ships the size of Crown and Emerald have a very large profile surface area. They also have a large number of balcony cabins providing pockets of further resistance to the wind,” said Nielsen, who added: “With winds in excess of 30 knots out of the east, it is nearly impossible to safely come alongside the berth and even more difficult to maneuver off the berth if the winds conditions do not improve at the time of sailing."	Port call canceled (weather)
February 18	Crown Princess Princess Cruises		Port call canceled (weather)
February 18	Constellation Celebrity Cruises	A 28 year old Chinese crew member went missing as the ship approached Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale). He had last been seen at 5AM and then did not show up for morning muster an hour later at 6AM. A search of the ship was undertaken but was unsuccessful. The Coast Guard was notified of the disappearance at 1:40PM.	Person missing
February 17	Holiday Carnival Cruise Lines	According to WKRG in Mobile, a Carnival spokesperson said the ship returned briefly of a medical emergency. Holiday left Mobile yesterday afternoon on a 5-day cruise to Mexico. The ship turned around 1:30AM because of the medical emergency. Carnival says the the ship was evacuated while the passenger was taken off. Once things were cleared, the remaining passengers got back on and headed to Mexico. The port call at Progresso was cancelled; the ship will stop in Cozumel.	Strange return to port
February 14	Explorer of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	A passenger reports there was an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness in the first half of the 12 day cruise from New Jersey to the Eastern Caribbean. On its return to Cape Liberty, the ship encountered a violent storm, waves in excess of 25 feet, and gale force winds-force 11) -- this data was reported on our stateroom TV’s (channels 41 or 15). The captain had warned us the day prior that we would be following the storm, but this was not the case-we were in the middle of it. In a question and answer period with some of the officers on Feb. 14, including the assistant captain, he mentioned we had the misfortune of passing through 2 cold fronts and the gulf stream within the same day. The rough sea conditions lasted for 12 hours. The ship was rocking side to side, elevators were padded in the event of injury, wait staff in the dining areas reported feeling dizzy and ill, plates were dropping, and 2 elevators that day were out of service.	Extremely Heavy Seas
February 7	Veendam Holland America Line	From a passenger: The ship arrived late today at St. Thomas (approximately 2pm, instead of normal time of 8 am) due to a medical evacuation that happened at 3 am yesterday morning. A helicopter was called to evacuate the passenger. The delay was also caused by engine trouble, which the Captain described as "oil overheating", and had to reduce speed to reduce the temperature of the oil. Once arriving in St. Thomas, the passengers will have to see immigration officials, as per the Jones Act, and the Veendam will have to depart at 5pm to make it's next port of call in Dominica. All shore excursions are cancelled. According to rumor, Head Office in Seattle would not let the Captain skip the port of St. Thomas as they insisted they stop there.  The ship left Tampa Feb 3 on a 14 day cruise.	Delayed arrival in port
February 4	Ecstasy Carnival Cruise Lines	The ship's arrival in Galveston was delayed close to seven hours as a result of fog -- it was just ending a four night cruise to Cozumel. Departure of the following cruise, a three night cruise to Progresso, was also delayed -- it departed Tuesday instead of Monday.	Fog delays
February 1	Island Star Island Cruises	A Brazilian newspaper reports (precise date unclear) the ship was adrift for 9 hours and without onboard power for 6 hours in an area between Sao Paulo and Rio. Repairs were made (there was apparently water mixed with fuel) and the ship went on its way.	Loss of power Adrift
February 1	Carnival Glory Carnival Cruise Lines	NBC6 in Miami and Coast Guard News report that a 46 year old Indian crew member failed to show up for work at 6:30 AM and is presumed missing at sea. The crew searched the ship and reviewed security tapes before notifying the Coast Guard around 12:30 PM. The COast Guard search was unsuccessful. The ship was en route to Nassau, the last stop on a seven day cruise embarking at Port Canaveral and that included Belize City and Cozumel.	Person missing
February 1	Riverdance Seatruck Ferries	23 people were airlifted off the ferry in the Irish Sea after the ship ran into difficulties in bad weather. The ferry had apparently been traveling close to Fleetwood in Lancashire, northwest England, when it ran into difficulties after its cargo suddenly shifted. The ship was listing badly and bad weather was hampering the rescue effort. A spokesman for Seatruck Ferries said the ship, bound for Warrenpoint, Ireland, was carrying trucks and trailers. The ship ran aground on the north shore of Blackpool Beach.	Heavy list -- Abandon ship
January 31	Pride of Canterbury P&O Ferries	The ferry grounded on a charted wreck while sheltering from heavy weather in an area known as ‘The Downs’ off Deal, Kent. The vessel suffered severe damage to her port propeller system but was able to proceed unaided to Dover, where she berthed with the assistance of two tugs. The vessel was on a scheduled crossing from Calais to Dover in severe weather when she learned that Dover Port was to be temporarily closed due to the weather and sea conditions. She proceeded to The Downs to wait for the reopening of the port.	Grounded - Propellor damage
January 31	Navigator of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	A 29 year old Jamaica crew members was arrested in Belize today. Ship security officers found the crew member him with a parcel of white powder believed to be cocaine taped to the inside of his thighs. The ship was 5 miles out of Belize City - but they figured he had picked up the drugs when he came onshore, so they called the CIB Office in Belize City. The crew member was arrested and the powder was sent for testing. And while it looked like cocaine and was concealed like cocaine, it was not. A test showed that it was just non-narcotic white powder. But still, police believe the man had bought what he thought was cocaine - which is still an offence - but not nearly as serious as trafficking cocaine. He was charged with the rarely used offence: "supplying a substance otWindsher than controlled drugs."	Non-drug drug bust
January 28	Oceana P&O Cruises	A passenger was gunned down after docking on Venezuela’s paradise island of Margarita aboard the ship. According to The Sun, the 53 year old man was  buying a cold drink as his wife popped into a shop when the mugger thrust a pistol in his chest and demanded his cherished £10,000 Rolex watch. He ignored him, turned away – and was shot. As he collapsed with blood pouring from his wound, the gunman fired two more bullets which narrowly missed him. The attacker then pistol-whipped him around the head before grabbing the 18-carat gold watch. Amazingly, the bullet had missed the man’s heart by millimetres and passed straight through his body with only minor damage. He returned to the ship after a hospital visit and continued on the cruise (although he refused to leave the ship the remainder of the 14 day cruise).	Passenger shot on shore
January 28	Enchantment of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	The ships was unable to make our port call in Grand Cayman due to rough seas.  Shore excursion fees were refunded however no credits or allowances were provided. The ship arrived at the next port, Ocho Rios, the following morning	Canceled port call (Rough seas)
January 28	Holiday Carnival Cruise Lines	WKRG in Mobile reports the CDC is looking into an outbreak blamed for making 22 of 686 crew (3.21%) and 121 of 1548 passengers (7.82%) sick onboard the ship, which returned this morning from a 5 day cruise to Cozumel.	Illness
January 28	Balmoral Fred Olsen	The ship's inaugural sailing scheduled for January 30 has been canceled. After arriving in Dover four days later than panned, a number of unforeseen technical issues emerged and led to the cancellation The Caribbean cruise scheduled for February 13 remains on schedule.	Canceled Sailing
January27	Norwegian Star Norwegian Cruise Line	The ship reported 32 of 1104 (2.9%) crew and 228 of 2430 (9.39%) passengers had reported ill on an 8 day Mexican Riviera cruise that began January 19 in Los Angeles and which disembarked January 27.	Illness
January 24	Arcadia P&O Cruises	The ship reported 11 (1.24%) crew and 80 (4.16%) passengers had reported ill on a cruise ending today in New Orleans.	Illness
January 22	Pacific Star P&O Australia	The ship returned one day late from an 8 day cruise from Auckland to Vanuatu and Mystery Island after confronting high seas (7 metres) associated with Cyclone Funa. According to the New Zealand Herald, five passengers reported injuries. The ship sailed into the worst of the storm on Sunday night (January 20), which smashed glasses, moved furniture, and caused the cruise ship to issue warnings asking passengers to take care around the ship and avoid exposed decks. An announcement at 10.50pm asked passengers to return to their cabins or remain seated, explaining that the "rolls" the ship was experiencing were due to two swells coming from different directions.	Extremely  heavy seas  -- Delay
January 21	Inspiration and Imagination Carnival Cruise Lines	Both ships were prevented from making their call at Grand Cayman Island because of weather conditions. The ships had a day at sea and continued on to their next port of call.	Canceled port call (Weather)
January 17	Norwegian Pearl Norwegian Cruise Line	Reported in the St. Lucia Star January 21:   "Six cruise ship passengers, two Americans and four Canadians were on a forest trail above the Botanical Gardens [at Soufriere] when two masked men, one yielding a machete and the other a gun, robbed them of their ID, jewelry, purses and wallets.  The two tour guides were robbed of their monies and one of them, Katia Polius, attempted to call for help on her cell phone. The bandits noticed and landed her with several kicks. When the masked men left, it is reported that the female guide reassuringly escorted the guests to their taxi . . . then fainted."	Robbery on shore excursion
January 16	Lyubov Orlova Quark Expeditions	From a passenger: We took a trip to Antarctica for a study abroad program with the University of Delaware. Aboard the Lyubov Orlova through Quark Expeditions, we traveled with 25 students and 2 advisors on a 10 day Antarctic cruise January 6-16. While aboard, we witnessed dumping of trash, including plastic garbage bags, overboard. Luckily, we were able to catch the act on video and are extremely unhappy with current dumping regulations. Editor's note: Sadly, the Orlova has a long history of this type of behaviour though no government or authority has yet to address the problem.	Environmental
January 16	Noordam Holland America Line	The ship reported 12 of 816 (1.47%) crew and 103 of 1980 (5.2%) passengers had reported ill on a Southern/Eastern Caribbean cruise that began January 5 in New York City and which disembarked January 16.	Illness
January 15	Windstar Cruises	The company reported to the FBI that a non-US national crew member jumped off the ship while it was off the coast of Costa Rica.	Person overboard
January 13	Norwegian Spirit Norwegian Cruise Line	The ship reported 4 (0.42%) crew and 67 (3.18%) passengers had reported ill on a cruise to/from New Orleans.	Illness
January 13	Dawn Princess Princess Cruises	A passengers writes that "many, many passengers" came down with gastrointestinal illness during the seven day cruise from San Diego to the Mexican Riviera. The CDC has not reported an outbreak. which requires 3% or more of passengers to report illness to the infirmary -- in the case of this ship there would need to be 60 passengers reporting ill to meet the CDC threshold. NOTE: A passenger on the cruise embarking January 20 also reports a large number of passengers with gastrointestinal illness during the cruise.	Illness
January 12	Volendam Holland America Line	The ship reported 7 of 608 (1.15%) crew and 85 of 1451 (5.86%) passengers had reported ill on a Southern/Western Caribbean cruise that began January 2 in Fort Lauderdale and which disembarked  January 12.	Illness
January 11	Star Princess Princess Cruises	From a passenger:  There was a fire in the incinerator room on deck 3 on the Star Princess this morning (Jan 11). We knew that something was up when the captain called for an assessment crew for the incinerator room on deck 3. I was at the purser's desk when a bell sounded an alarm and the captain announced that the crew was to respond to an emergency. The pursers ran out of the room, the gift shops closed and we could see the crew with their life jackets on. In a few minutes the captain came on and announced that a small fire in the incinerator had been put out. I was impressed with how fast the crew responded and that the captain let us know what was going on as soon as he could. The ship left Buenos Aires yesterday and is en route to Port Stanley (Falkland Islands).	Fire
January 10	Pacific Princess Princess Cruises	The ship reported 3 of 369 (0.81%) crew and 33 of 642 (5.14%) passengers had reported ill on a cruise that began December 15 in Tahiti and which disembarked at Ft. Lauderdale January 10. The illness was confirmed as caused by e. coli. UPDATE: The numbers have been revised to 6 of 369 (1.63%) crew and 50 of 642 (7.70%) passengers reporting ill	Illness
January 10	Norwegian Majesty Norwegian Cruise Line	The Sun Sentinel reports the ship experienced an equipment failure in 2 of it's 4 generators. After conducting a preliminary investigation it was discovered that a pressure sensor switch was transmitting false readings thus shutting down the fuel booster pumps that fed 2 generators.	Failure of generator
January 8	Pacific Sun P&O Australia	Another pedophile has been evicted from a P&O ship. According to the Daily Telegraph, "In relation to the latest pedophile ... the company had become aware of his prior offence and exercised their right to disembark him from the Pacific Sun cruise ship in Noumea." According to Radio New Zealand International police in New Caledonia deported the man after he and his family were taken off the ship -- he was believed to pose a risk to the 250 children on board.	Passenger evicted / deported
January 5	Oosterdam Holland America Line	The ship reported 4 (0.5%) crew and 76 (3.84%) passengers had reported ill on a seven day cruise to/from San Diego ending today.	Illness
January 5	Maasdam Holland America Line	Dozens of people, just disembarked from the ship, were injured when a car collided with their bus while traveling west on I-595 near the interchange with Florida State Road 7 and Florida Turnpike. According to Associate Press, at least four people were critically injured, four others seriously injured and at least 20 people sustained minor injuries.	Onshore bus accident
January 5	Pacific Star P&O Australia	According to TV New Zealand, French police were called to the ship during a stopover in Lifou Island, in New Caldedonai's Loyalty Islands group where they removed and sent home a 37 year old Australian man who allegedly attacked a 46 year old New Zealander. The woman was found in a state of shock and and suffering bruises in the early hours of the morning of New Years day. She told police in New Caledonia she had been raped in the man's cabin while the ship was docked, but said she was too drunk to recall all the details, local sources said. It is understood the Australian man said he had engaged in consensual sex with the woman. Police are also investigating accusations of drink-spiking during the cruise (see Daily Telegraph).	Rape
January 4	Constellation Celebrity Cruises	A Canadian woman died during a dive excursion to the Proselyte Reef, a few miles off Great Bay Harbour. According to her husband, she was a certified diver. Shortly after descending to the dive site she indicated she wanted to return to the surface and was brought to the surface by the dive guide and her husband and taken into the dive vessel. She became unwell shortly after. After security personnel went to get her some water she was found lying on the floor with “foam” running from her mouth and nose. Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) was administered, while the dive company’s office was called for help. After the other divers had come to the surface the victim was immediately brought ashore. She was pronounced dead at approximately 10:45am by a medical doctor after she was brought back to shore by dive company Scuba Fun.	Death on Shore Excursion
January 4	Pacific Dawn P&O Australia	Radio New Zealand reports French police in New Caledonia on December 22 deported an Australian citizen with a pedophile history who was on board the ship.  The 43-year-old was arrested during a stopover in Noumea after police received information from their Australian federal counterparts, that the individual was a high risk repeat offender, and had served 18-months jail in New South Wales in 2004. At that time he was found guilty of disseminating pedophile pictures and indecent assault on minors. This brings to four the total of arrests of Australian citizens with a pedophile history since October last year.	Passenger deported
January 4	Oriana P&O Cruises	A passenger writes that after departing Madeira for Southampton on the homeward journey the ship experienced a force 10 storm which lasted for at least 12 hours.  It was difficult  to remain in bed during the night due to the pitching and rolling. On comparing notes with other passengers in the morning (walking wounded) many experienced cuts and bruises - but the main thing that emerged was how terrifying the whole experience had been and people were amazed how a ship the size of the Oriana had been so badly buffetted.  Bizarrely, when we received the 'captain's log' of the journey on the final day of the cruise there was absolutely no mention of the force 10, nor about the fact that we had a loss of all electrics (no engines, toilets, lifts, etc) for about an hour mid Atlantic when we just drifted, on the outward journey. The ship was on a 21 day cruise from/to London which crossed the Atlantic to BVI and returned from Barbados via Madeira.	Extremely high seas
January 3	Carnival Liberty and Imagination Carnival Cruise Lines	Both ships were prevented from making their call at Ocho Rios because of rough seas associated with a weather cold front. The ships had a day at sea and continued on to their next port of call. See Jamaica Observer for the story.	Canceled port call (Weather)
January 3	Radiance of the Seas Royal Caribbean International	Passengers spent up to two hours bouncing around on small tenders in rough seas after it became impossible to get them back to their ship in George Town Harbour (Grand Cayman). Cruise lines had been advised to make the last tender at 2pm, but a weather front came through sooner than anticipated, which forced tendering from George Town to Spotts Dock on the south side of Grand Cayman. Rather than using the services and larger tendering vessels of Caribbean Marine Services, Radiance of the Seas chose to use their own lifeboats to tender passengers. The experience for passengers was not pleasant, as described in an article in the Cayman newspaper.	Rough sea for tendering
January 2	Grand  Princess Princess Cruises	The port call at Cozumel was canceled because of rough seas and weather. On January 4 the ship stopped at Freeport instead of Princess Cays.	Canceled port call (Weather)
January 2	Veendam Holland America Line	The port call at Belize was cancelled today because of rough weather. Passengers were refunded ports fees and plied with free champagne.	Canceled port call (Weather)
January 1	Ecstasy Carnival Cruise Lines	Port call at Progresso canceled because of high winds. Passengers were compensated with an onboard credit of $25 (roughly equivalent to port fees associated with the port call).	Canceled port call (Weather)
January 1	Fram Hurtigruten	The ship's January 2 cruise has been canceled so the ship can undergo repairs after its brush with a glacier December 28. The cruise scheduled for January 10 from Ushuaia is expected to proceed as planned.	Cancellation
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