|
Date
|
Ship
Cruise Line
|
Event
|
Type of Incident
|
| December 30 |
Sea Princess
Princess Cruises |
Cruise Law News reports a news station in Australia (Channel 7 TV) reports that "at least 70 passengers on the cruise ship Sea Princess have been struck down by a severe gastro bug." Meanwhile, there are norovirus measures taking place on the Pacific Pearl heading toward Sydney following advice from the Australian Health Department, including not allowing passengers to use the self-serve buffet. The captain told passengers that the ship had no noro incidents on recent cruises but the cruise line decided to follow health guidelines because the number of outbreaks on other ships in the region. Also, the Pacific Jewel reportedly arrived back in Sydney a few days ago with suspected noro cases which required the closing at White Bay terminal for extra cleaning for a couple of hours. |
Illness |
| December 29 |
Quantum of the Seas
Royal Caribbean International |
CBS reports a Mauritius man is accused of engaging in sexual contact with a sleeping woman aboard a cruise ship. Karan Seechurn, who is a cruise line employee, was detained early Saturday upon the ship’s arrival in Bayonne, New Jersey. Federal prosecutors said the 25-year-old was responsible for restocking the minibars in passengers’ rooms and had key access to the rooms. Prosecutors said on Dec. 23 Seechurn used his key to enter the woman’s room without her knowledge and permission. The woman then awoke to find Seechurn touching her private areas and pushed him off her, prosecutors said. When the woman tried to leave, Seechurn allegedly pulled her back and threatened to burn down the ship if she reported the incident. |
Sexual assault |
| December 28 |
Dawn Princess
Princess Cruises |
From a reader: My parents are on Dawn Princess at moment berthed in Melbourne on 13 day Aust/NZ cruise. This cruise is directly after the cruise where a couple of hundred passengers came down with norovirus (see Dec 8 below). My dad confined to cabin with symptoms the same as norovirus. Some passengers have been talking amongst themselves at the lack of cleanliness in public toilets. They appear to have not been cleaned properly or at all since the ship departed Auckland on 20th Dec 2014. |
Cleanliness / illness? |
| December 28 |
Norman Atlantic |
Reuters reports passengers aboard a car ferry that caught fire off the coast of Greece early on Sunday pleaded for help as rescue vessels struggled to approach the burning vessel in high winds and rough sea. The Norman Atlantic, carrying almost 500 passengers and crew and more than 200 vehicles, was 44 nautical miles northwest of the island of Corfu when it sent a distress signal after a fire started in the lower deck, Greek coast guard officials said. It was unclear whether there had been casualties or if any passengers were in the water, though one man on board said strong winds were stopping rescuers from getting close. "We are burning and sinking, no one can save us," Nikos Papatheodosiou told Greek TV by telephone. "Please help us! Don't leave us," he said before hanging up. Cold winter temperatures would make survival in the sea difficult unless rescue came quickly. The fire broke out in the lower deck garage of the vessel but there were differing reports of when it started. Initial reports said the fire began at around 6.00 a.m. local time (11.00 p.m. EST/0400 GMT) but Italian officials put the time at 4.30 a.m. Officials said both Italian and Albanian authorities were taking part in the operation, which was being conducted in extremely difficult conditions with strong winds, heavy seas and very cold temperatures. UPDATE:24 hours later the fire had been put out and there remained 149 passengers to be removed from the ferry. It is expected that the ferry will be towed to Bandisi. According to Rappler the death toll rose to 10 on Monday, December 29 with dozens of passengers still unaccounted for. The Independent reports on January 2 that about100 people are still missing and eleven confirmed dead. |
Crippling fire |
| December 27 |
Prins Richard Scandlines
|
Cruise Law News reports on Dec 25, 2014, German and Danish authorities coordinated a large scaled SAR operation after a German passenger of the "Prins Richard" had gone over board north of the island Fehmarn. The ship had been underway from Puttgarden to Rødby. The water temperature was 6-8 degrees C. After 3,5 hours the search launched an investigation. |
Passenger overboard |
| December 26 |
Ryndam
Holland America Line |
Fox Tampa Bay reports the body of a man who was missing from a cruise ship washed ashore in Pinellas County, officials said Friday. Police had initially told FOX 13 that the body appeared to have been in the water for some time. Later, they identified him as Cliford B. Minej, a 27-year-old whose last known residence was Thane, India.He was a worker on the ship that was returning to port in Tampa on Dec. 21 Minej's body was found around 7:15 a.m. along Sand Key in the 1500 block of Gulf Boulevard. Someone walking on the beach saw it and alerted authorities. According to Times of India, Minej had arrived on the ship for his job on December 6; he was last seen on December 20. |
Crew overboard |
| December 24 |
Costa
neoClassica
Costa Cruises |
Cruise Critic reports a fire broke out in the funnel of the ship but was quickly extinguished by ship personnel while cruising the Red Sea yesterday (December 23). During the incident no onboard services were stopped and the ship reached its destination port in Aqaba, where it is now berthed. It is not clear whether the cruise -- a 25-day Indian Ocean itinerary -- will need to be abandoned. A statement from Costa said: "Proper investigations on root causes are in progress and situation is normal. According to the assessments now being performed, operations of the ship will be modified if needed." |
Fire |
| December 23 |
Costa
neoRomantica
Costa Cruises |
From a passenger : I was on the ship on her last cruise between Savona and Marseille. At the entrance of the Marselle port on 21/12, the ship was in total blackout for 1h10. And she leave again 2 hours after the beginning of the technical problem. During the blackout, the ship restart 2 times but with no succes. The 3rd time was good. Passegers did't panic but the ship drifted at the beginning of the blackout because the wind (Mistral) was very hard. The ship tilted really a lot. The anchors were dropped. Finally, the ship arrived in the Marseille Port 2h15 late. |
Loss of power - adrift |
| December 23 |
Queen Elizabeth
Cunard Line |
The Telegraph reports the ship, bound for the Christmas markets of Amsterdam, spent four days doing circles in the English Channel without getting to dock in the Netherlands because of weather conditions. Angry passengers staged a mini mutiny, chanting and demanding to speak to the captain, as the decision was taken to turn back early due to bad weather. Some stormed the ship's reception, shouting: "We want the captain." But their protests fell on deaf ears and the cruise got back to Southampton on Monday night. As compensation Cunard offered passengers the equivalent of £48 in spending credits on board the ship. A spokesman said the captain had looked at docking at two alternative ports, but both were unsuitable due to similar weather conditions. |
Missed port -- pax protests |
| December 20 |
Unknown-dam
Holland America
Line |
Cayman 27 reports the body of a snorkeller has been recovered from the water near on Public Beach. Police and paramedics were alerted after the wife of a cruise passenger reported him missing. The man was pulled from the sea by a Red Sail boat and taken the Cayman Islands Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Police tell us the 35-year-old man is from the Michigan area of the United States. He was aboard the cruise ship Holland America, and was travelling with his wife and 7-year-old child. This is the 6th death this year of a similar nature. |
Death on shore excursion (snorkeling) |
| December 20 |
Unnamed
MSC Cruises |
Yorkshire Evening Post reports a cruise ship musician has been jailed after being caught downloading child abuse images for the third time. Guitarist Howard Ellis, 60, was arrested by West Yorkshire Police officers when his ship came into port at Southampton after they discovered he had been accessing the illegal images from his home in Leeds. Leeds Crown Court heard Ellis has two previous convictions for downloading abusive images of children dating back to 2010. Ellis, of Priesthorpe Lane, Farsley, was jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty to 11 offences of making indecent images of children. Alisha Kaye, prosecuting, said West Yorkshire officers received information that illegal images had been accessed from an internet provider address linked to Ellis’s then home in Kippax. Miss Kaye said Ellis was a musician on a cruise liner and was away at the time the offences came to light in July this year. Officers went to the south coast to arrest Ellis as he returned from working on board a Mediterranean cruise. Three lap top computers, four hard drives and a mobile phone was seized and found to contain 625 images and movies of children being sexually abused. Three of the movies were at level A - the most serious category of offending. Some of the images featured children as young as seven being abused. |
Cruise musician arrested for child porn |
| December 17 |
Amarco II |
Egypt Independent reports local emergency crews rescued 29 tourists and 45 Egyptians on board a cruise ship in the Nile River at Aswan al-Malgam bridge. Aswan Governorate task room had received notification saying a cruise ship called Amarco II broke down in the Nile, on Tuesday evening, in front of the Aswan Malgam bridge. River rescue teams and the police headed to the vessel and the cruise was repaired swiftly before it could have sunk. |
Disabled - Evacuated |
| December 16 |
Noordam
Holland America
Line |
Sun Sentinel reports a night auditor is accused of stealing more than $10,000 while working aboard a cruise ship. Anthonius Novi Hartanto, 42, is charged with 11 counts of grand theft after $10,220 disappeared while he was auditing revenue aboard the Holland America Noordam during three voyages from Port Everglades, according to the arrest report filed in the case. Investigators say there were 11 thefts between Nov. 3 and Nov. 13, with the stolen amounts ranging from $500 to $1,320. When confronted about the missing money, Hartanto confessed. He identified each theft by dates, amounts and transaction numbers, the report stated. |
Theft by crew member |
| December 14 |
Ocean Star Pacific (originally RCCL Nordic Prince) |
Philippine Daily Inquirer reports the ship was on its way to Singapore when it ran aground off General Santos City on Friday. A report from the Philippine Coast Guard said the M/V Pacific was stranded some 150 meters from the shore in Barangay Bula, General Santos City. The PCG is concerned the ship may be washed closer to the shore, which is inhabited by squatters. The ship had come from Mexico and was bound for Singapore. It however ran out of bunker fuel in the middle of the trip (it presumably does not have passengers). The captain was trying to bring the ship to the port of General Santos but it ran out of fuel in the area where it ran aground. The owners of the M/V Pacific said they would hire a salvor to remove the ship immediately. The Coast Guard said the possibility of marine pollution as a result of the incident was minimal. Update Dec 17: The ship has been freed and is on its way. It is manned by 21 Indian crew members. |
Aground |
| December 13 |
Costa
Luminosa
Costa Cruises |
Cruise Law News reports a fire reportedly broke out in the early morning hours on December 11, 2014. Around 5 a.m., while the cruise ship was sailing in the North Atlantic, diesel engine number 4 reportedly caught on fire. The fire was confined to the engine room and was extinguished. There is no indication that any crew members were injured. |
Fire |
| December 13 |
Voyavger of the Seas
Royal Caribbean International |
Cruise Law News reports the operator of a fan Voyager of the Seas Facebook page (not operated by the cruise line) posted the following: "If you where on the Voyager of the Seas relocation cruise from Singapore to Sydney cruise and you have a really bad cough, then I suggest you got and see a Doctor as you may have Whooping cough . . . " A large number of passengers have posted comments in response to this post. Many passengers on the cruise say that they are ill. Many people say that they are having their blood drawn and are seeing doctors to have their throats swabbed. Others say that it has been confirmed that they have been diagnosed with whooping cough. Passengers complain that they have heard nothing from Royal Caribbean. One person who heard back from the cruise line remarked: "I've heard from RC and they told me they are not compelled to notify all passengers . . . " Whooping cough, also known as "pertussisis," is a highly contagious respiratory disease caused by the bacterium bordetella pertussis. Pertussis is known for uncontrollable, violent coughing which often makes it hard to breathe. Pertussis most commonly affects infants and young children. It can be fatal, especially in babies less than 1 year of age. The best way to protect against pertussis is immunization. |
?Illness? |
| December 11 |
Insignia
Oceania Cruises |
St. Lucia Online News reports three people have been confirmed dead after a fire broke out on Ocean Cruises’ Insignia at Port Castries this morning. At a press conference at the Saint Lucia Air and Sea Ports Authority (SLASPA) headquarters this afternoon, officials said the three crew members sustained severe burns. A 42-year-old male is also under observation at hospital for mild respiratory depression caused by smoke inhalation. The names and nationalities of the dead were not disclosed. According to the authorities, the fire started in one of the ship’s four engines. All 600 passengers were evacuated. The ship had 400 crew members. The cruise ship will be docked in Port Castries, until the engine is repaired. In the meantime, reservations are being made for the passengers at various hotels. The cruise ship came from Barbados and was heading to St. Vincent next. UPDATE:The next cruise scheduled for December 17th has been canceled. Thus, the next scheduled sailing is the January 10 Around the World Cruise, however subsequently it was announced the ship would re-enter service on March 22 from SIngapore on an altered world cruise. |
Fire - three crew deaths (cruise ended) - Canceleation of next cruises |
| December 8 |
Norwegian Star
Norwegian Cruise Line |
A poster at Cruise Critic reports: "at about 2.30pm (Nov 17) we watched the dock workers in Miami drop an entire cart of luggage into the water. They got some of it out by using long poles, but eventually they brought in a couple scuba divers to get down to the bottom and get them all. Muster drill got in the way of watching how many sunk to the bottom, but I did see they managed to bring up the cart itself. Ican't really say exactly how it happened as we weren't looking directly at them at that precise moment. We did however see the "oh crap!" look on their faces shortly after it happened. It looked like the guy driving the forklift put a full luggage cart down. That cart bumped the obviously top-heavy cart next to it, which then tumbled into the drink. The Star officer/security were out there taking photos and talking to the dockworkers shortly after it happened. There had to be maybe 15 or so cases that went in the water. Another poster writes: "after the mandatory safety drill, we returned to the cabin to find a message on the phone asking Aileen to call guest services. They explained there was a mishap with a luggage cart during loading and that her suitcase had fallen into the water and was recovered by the divers. She was instructed to meet house keeping staff on deck 4 to inventory all items in her suitcase. A list was made of every item. All clothing was either laundered or dry cleaned and returned to the stateroom closet on the afternoon of the second day. It was all pressed and hung on hangers. The dry suitcase and three pairs of dry shoes of showed up on the third day. Only her favorite pair of 12 year old tennis shoes showed any discoloration. I was pleasantly surprised at the professionalism exhibited by the Star's guest service and housekeeping staff during this unfortunate incident that was not the fault of anyone left cleaning up the mess. Hotel Director Hugo Vanosmael's staff did a real good job trying to make it right for the passengers involved. From the facts I gathered on-board, 12 passengers were affected. |
Luggage falls off pier |
| December 8 |
Dawn Princess
Princess Cruises |
New Zealand Herald reports about 200 cruise ship passengers have been confined to their cabins after the norovirus bug struck the Dawn Princess while on a trip around New Zealand. The ship, which was sailing around scenic Fiordland National Park, alerted local health authorities to the outbreak. It is now on its way to Australia. Dr Alistair Humphrey, Canterbury Medical Officer of Health said the ship alerted Wellington authorities to the issue late last week. That information was passed onto other public health units where the boat would dock. Dr Humphrey said when the ship later docked at Akaroa, the local doctor was alerted, but there was no evidence any passenger spread the virus from the ship to the mainland. It could take days before an infected person's symptoms were obvious. "Generally speaking [patients] are most infectious when they're symptomatic, which is why it's important to keep people isolated in their cabins..." NZTV reports a Dunedin-based tour operator says the crew of the Dawn Princess cruise liner failed to reveal the true extent of the norovirus outbreak which affected at least 200 passengers on-board. Speaking under a condition of anonymity, an onshore operator told ONE News that it was only when ship passengers talked about the quarantine style conditions that shore staff learned norovirus was on-board. |
Illness |
| Deember 6 |
Oasis of the Seas
Royal Caribbean International |
A passenger wrote at 11:15PM: On board oasis of the sea and we returned to Fort Lauderdale for a passenger to get off ship due to sickness but still at port 2 hours later. Not sure why we are still at port but no one is really telling us anything. Another reader writes: My In-laws are on board the Oasis and reported that after returning unexpectedly back to ft lauderdale, the ship was met by six police cars and a hearse....and that a body was taken off the ship. Haven't seen nor read any statement from RCC regarding the otherwise unexpected return to port. |
Delay |
| Deember 6 |
Independence of the Seas
Royal Caribbean International |
The Daily Mirror reportsvthe ship haas been operating on only two out its three propellers for much of the four years she spent sailing from Southampton, it has been revealed. A bearing failure on one of its three Azipod propulsion units left the 3,600-passenger vessel dependent on the remaining two pods – electric motors attached to the outside of the hull replacing conventional shaft-driven propellers. The failure – and the fact that it had only recently been repaired – was disclosed on the Facebook Cruise Lovers group. A contributor said: “Three years of going forward and back over the Bay of Biscay with only two pods is quite a feat.” Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Jo Briody confirmed the equipment failure on the 154,400 ton vessel. She said the propeller blades were removed to prevent further damage and as a result the ship was limited to 19.5 knots (22.5mph) instead of the design speed of 21.6 knots (25mph). “The removal did not cause any delays or missed ports,” she added. The dry dock repair took place in April 2013 - the ship had been with the failed Azipod since 2010. |
Propulsison problems |
| Deember 6 |
Fascination
Carnival Cruise Lines |
NewsJax4 reports dense fog in the Jacksonville area has slowed commuters for several days and now cruise ship passengers are feeling the effects of the unusual weather. A dense fog advisory was lifted at 10 a.m. Saturday, but at noon the "Carnival Fascination" was still waiting to pull into port at the JAXPORT cruise terminal. The ship was scheduled to leave port at 8 a.m. After the fog lifted and an all-clear from the Coast Guard, the Carnival Fascination arrived to port around 2:30 p.m. "Once debarkation is completed for the current cruise, embarkation for the next voyage, a five-day Bahamas sailing, is expected to begin at around 4:30 pm. The next voyage will depart this evening with no expected impact on the itinerary," Carnival released in a statement Saturday. |
Fog delay |
| December 5 |
Diamond Princess
Princess Cruises |
Western Australian reports concerns have been flagged about the lack of a designated cruise ship anchor point in Geographe Bay after Diamond Princess moored in the wrong location last Thursday. The Department of Parks and Wildlife admitted the ship did not anchor at the correct site because of a crew oversight, but said it did not come close to any reef. Recreational fishermen claim Diamond Princess moored above reef, potentially damaging the marine environment. "The cruise company apologised for not anchoring in the area suggested by Parks and Wildlife and indicated it was a result of an oversight by the crew," she said. "The company has assured the department it will take greater care in the future to follow advice in regards to anchoring in the bay." |
Dropped anchor in wrong place |
| December 3 |
Expedition
G Adventures |
Cruise Critic reports the company has canceled an Antarctica cruise after an engine failed on its expedition cruise ship. The ship was berthed in Ushuaia, Argentina, when its portside engine failed unexpectedly on November 18, and G Adventures' engineers and the engine's manufacturers have been unable to fix the problem. The line made the decision to cancel the ship's next sailing, on December 7, after being told that it was unclear whether the repairs would be completed in time. |
Engine failure - cruise canceled |
| December 2 |
Disney Magic
Disney Cruise
Line |
Cruise Fever reports the ship briefly lost power and was dead in the water for a few minutes this evening off of the northern coast of Cuba as the ship was sailing towards Cozumel, Mexico. Pete Werner, a passenger who is currently on the Disney Magic, posted on his Facebook page shortly after 5:00 p.m. about the outage and that a “huge puff of black smoke seen from the front of the ship followed by power failure”. He followed this status update with another stating that power was fully restored and they were moving once again towards Cozumel. He also said that he heard the maintenance staff saying that this happened on the Wonder in Alaska. |
Loss of power |
| November 27 |
2 NCL ships & 2 CCL ships |
7 News Belize reports four ships skipped their port call at Belize City because of weather conditions. Ships also skipped the port the following day on 28 November |
Canceled port call |
| November 25 |
Celebrity
Millennium
Celebrity
Cruises |
Cruise Critic reports he company cancelled two port stops in Indonesia this week due to an undisclosed 'dispute' with Indonesian authorities. The line has canceled a two-night stay in Bali scheduled for this Thursday and a port call in Komodo Island on Sunday (November 30) on Celebrity Millennium. The ship will call in at Ho Chi Minh City (Nov. 26 & 27) and Bangkok (Nov. 29& 30) instead. Millennium is on a 14-night cruise round-trip cruise from Singapore that had been scheduled to call in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. A statement from Celebrity reads: "We regret to inform our guests booked on the November 23 sailing onboard Celebrity Millennium that a dispute has arisen with local Indonesian authorities of a nature that we believe puts [our] legal and ethical standards at serious risk. Because of this dispute, we have been advised that local officials may either prevent guests from disembarking the ship in Bali, or prevent the ship from departing. We refuse to put our guests and crew at such risk. "While we have escalated this matter to the national level with the Indonesian government, we regret to inform our guests that resolution is not expected until after their scheduled Bali itinerary stop, forcing the cancellation of the stop." Several other ships are due in at Indonesian ports over the next few days, including Seabourn Odyssey, Holland America and Crystal Symphony. None of those lines have reported problems and will make their regularly scheduled stops. |
Canceled port calls |
| November 24 |
Oriana
P&O Cruises |
Daily Echo reports five passengers have been thrown off a Southampton-based cruise ship after reports of a fight on board. Crew of the Oriana, which is returning to the city today, asked the group - believed to be members of the same family - to make their own way home from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge. According to reports from other guests on board the 69,000 ton vessel, a disturbance involving fighting and arguments among a family party broke out between late Saturday evening and the early hours of Sunday. The five passengers were ordered off the P&O Cruises' ship when Oriana docked in Zeebrugge during a short two-night voyage which left Southampton on Saturday. After being interviewed by Belgium police, members of the group were refused permission to re-board Oriana and had to make other travel arrangements to return to Southampton. In a brief statement a spokesman for P&O Cruises said: “We can confirm five passengers were asked to disembark Oriana following an incident during the early hours of Sunday morning.” |
Pax evicted |
| November 24 |
Sun Princess
Princess Cruises |
Daily Telegraph reports thesearch for an elderly passenger who fell 25m from a cruise ship has been called off. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said there had been no sightings of the man since he went overboard at 8.40pm last night 175 nautical miles - or 324km - east of Sydney. "Expert medical advice received by AMSA indicated the man was very unlikely to have survived when he entered the water given the height,” a spokeswoman said. “The advice also indicated that the man would not have been able to survive in the water for an extended period of time given his age, clothing and weather conditions at the time of the incident. “Sea conditions in the area were rough with 25-30 knots winds and swells up to three metres.” The ship had been due to dock at Sydney’s White Bay terminal this morning after completing a 13-day New Zealand cruise. |
Pax overboard |
| November 22 |
Thomson Cruises and Living Sun Holidays |
Daily Mail reports that customers who signed up for a pre-Christmas cruise for Christians to Turkey, Greece and Israel are still waiting for a refund after the holiday was cancelled 10 days before departure. New Malden-based LivingSun Holidays sold a 10-day break leaving on October 13 but called it off less than a fortnight before setting off citing 'political instability' in the region for leading to a drop in numbers. Company director Bob Fleming said the tour to iconic religious destinations was booked through Thomson Cruises who had yet to refund money paid in advance, meaning LivingSun couldn't pass on the almost £2,500 paid by holidaymakers. However, Thomson Cruises say they have had no such dealings with LivingSun. Thomson Cruises said: 'Thomson Cruises is extremely concerned that LivingSun Holidays has been engaging in promotional activities using the Thomson Cruises trademark, as no permission has been granted for this use. 'Thomson Cruises does not have, and has never had, any association with LivingSun Holidays and no booking for this cruise was passed to us by LivingSun Holidays. |
Unpaid refunds |
| November 22 |
Dawn Princess
Princess Cruises |
The Dominion Post reports the ship sailed out of Wellington Harbour this morning when it could not berth because of a winch failure on one of CentrePort's new tugs, Tapuhi. It was scheduled to berth on Aotea Quay at 8am but was unable to do so as new tugs Tapuhi and Tiaki made no attempt to get lines on the ship. With a CentrePort pilot on board, Dawn Princess sailed parallel to Aotea Quay, preparing to berth, before the skipper made the decision to head immediately for Akaroa. CentrePort's General Manager, Operations, Steve Harris, said the tug crew on Tapuhi became aware of the automatic winch problem as the tugs prepared to get lines attached to Dawn Princess. When the automatic winch control system failed on Tapuhi, the crew then switched to manual winch mode. Harris said the master on Dawn Princess turned down the offer to berth the ship via Tapuhi's manual winch mode and immediately sailed out of Wellington harbour for Akaroa. |
Skipped port call |
| November 22 |
Braemar
Fred Olsen Cruises |
Daily Echo reports a woman called the Coast Guard on her cell phone after she got locked outside on her balcony outside her room. The Coast Guard contacted the ship and a crew member was sent to let the passenger back into her room. |
Passenger stuck on balcony |
| November 22 |
Celebration
Thomson Cruises |
The Gazette reports a man appeared in court after being charged with assaulting two other passengers. The woman received treatment for a fractured spine and a shoulder injury at Middlesbrough’s James Cook University Hospital. Her husband sustained serious injuries to his face. The attacker, 52, appeared at Teesside Magistrates’ Court yesterday charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm without intent. David Ward, prosecuting, told the court the incident occurred on the ship just off the coast of Lanzarote on January 29 this year.
The attacker was granted conditional bail and his case was committed to Teesside Crown Court to be heard on December 4. |
Charged with assault of fellow passengers |
| November 18 |
Oosterdam
Holland America
Line |
Herald Sun reports the ship missed its port call to Hobart earlier this week because of weather conditions. The ship's planned port call late-October was also canceled. |
Canceled port call (weather) |
| November 18 |
Unknown |
7 News Belize reports 35 year-old Jon Johnson tried to buy weed - of all places - in front of the police prosecution branch. He was busted by an on-duty officer - one of the many who populate that office. The arresting officer says that he was looking through a window from the Prosecution Branch office when he saw Johnson trying to buy weed from a local man. He detained Johnson and found him with 0.2 grams of cannabis - less than 1% of an ounce. Johnson was subsequently charged with possession of a controlled drug, and he was arraigned before the Chief Magistrate. He pleaded guilty to the offence and was fined $200. |
Drug bust |
| November 14 |
Crown Princess
Princess Cruises |
CDC reports 158 of 3009 passengers (5.25%) and 14 of 1160 crew (0.99%) have reported ill with gastrointestinal illness. A Vessel Sanitation Program environmental health officer will board the ship in San Pedro, CA on November 16th to conduct an environmental health assessment, and evaluate the outbreak and response activities.The ship was on a 28 day cruise ending in LA. |
Illness |
| November 12 |
Crown Princess
Princess Cruises |
Cruise Critic reports the ship's arrival into Los Angeles Saturday is expected to be delayed by one day due to a medical evacuation. The ship was sailing from Papeete, Tahiti, on a 28-day itinerary, when a crew member suffered "a serious medical emergency" requiring shoreside medical care. A decision was made to divert 380 miles to reach the nearest island with medical facilities -- Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands -- where the crew member was transferred to an onshore hospital. Crown Princess is now slated to arrive in LA on November 16. Onboard passengers have been provided with free phone calls and internet access to make any necessary changes to travel arrangements as a result of the delay. Those who booked flights independently will need to contact their agent or airline to rebook and then submit the change fee to Princess Cruises for reimbursement consideration. The cruise line has also notified passengers booked on the next sailing, which was scheduled to depart LA on November 15. The line has assisted them with hotel accommodation and flight changes, as well as a one-day per diem refund, onboard credit and a future cruise credit, Candy said |
Delayed arrival |
| November 11 |
Celebrity
Eclipse
Celebrity
Cruises |
Cruise Critic reports the ship's transatlantic crossing is being diverted because of a storm forecast to hit the mid-Atlantic today. The diversion will result in a one-day delayed arrival into New York City. Instead of its normal crossing route, the 2,850-passenger ship will take the longer southern route across the Atlantic, stopping at Funchal in Madeira. An overnight stop at Bermuda has been scrapped. According to Celebrity Cruises, the line has been monitoring the path and progress of the weather system, which is producing high winds and waves. "Given the storm forecast, Celebrity Eclipse's itinerary has been modified to provide a safe and comfortable sailing." Cruise Critic learned of the diversion from forum member WestLakeGirl, who posted from onboard the ship. Celebrity Eclipse left Southampton on Sunday, November 9. It will arrive, as scheduled, in Miami on November 22. |
Delayed arrival |
| November 8 |
Carnival Triumph
Carnival Cruise Lines |
Breitbart reports that a 43-year-old man pleaded guilty to transporting a minor across state lines for the purposes of having sex on a Carnival cruise ship. Paul Francis Grimm, age 43, from Wichita, Kansas flew a girl under 18 from her home in Ohio to Houston in order to take her on the ship sailing from Galveston, Texas. Grimm used to live in Ohio and his daughter was friends with the underage girl. Grimm falsely told the girl's mother that he was taking his children on the cruise and wanted the girl to accompany them. At the end of the cruise, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) became suspicious when they realized that Grimm and the minor had different last names. The CBP separated Grimm from the child and found out that Grimm possessed nude photographs of the girl, brought sex toys with him, and had engaged in sexual conduct with the underage girl. |
Sexual assault of minor (attracted from ashore) |
| November 8 |
Serenade of the Seas
Royal Caribbean International |
Onboard November 1: the ship had to turn back to the port of Ajaccio, Corsica three hours after departure due to an ill passenger. Captain came on the PA system and explained that the ill passenger needed immediate medical attention and that we would be turning back. We were not late to our next port of Palma. We did 21 knots back to Ajaccio having only been sailing towards Palma at 9 knots. We eventually set sail again for Palma approx 10:30pm |
Return to port (illness) |
| November 4 |
Norwegian Breakaway
Norwegian Cruise Line |
From a passenger: Cruise from NYC on 10/12 to 10/19. Glass was found in blueberry sauce that was served to my 2 year old and husband. Husband found it in his month. A few days later a broken plastic cup with very sharp edges was found on the top deck and was reported. After 2 hrs waiting for a clean up nothing was done. Small children were in the area. NOTE: I had a similar experience on a different cruise line a number of years ago: broken shards of plate in a chocolate mousse that cracked a tooth. The response of the cruise line was generally nonchalant and dismissive despite the potential for even more serious injury. The moral of the story: be aware and cautious. |
Safety issue |
| November 3 |
Explorer of the Seas
Royal Caribbean International |
Cruise Law News reports the ship was hit with rough weather. It is sailing on its 14 night re-positioning cruise to Port Canaveral. Two lifeboats on deck 4 were reportedly dislodged and water crashed through glass doors and flooded the interior of the ship. Allegedly the water temporarily disabled the aft elevators. These are are some of the things I am being told. A Cruise Critic member is leaving comments on the Cruise Critic message boards. You can see some dramatic photos of the rough weather here (I'm feeling sea sick just looking at them) and of the lifeboat damage here. |
Severe weather |
| November 1 |
Bahamas Celebration
Celebration Cruise Line |
Tribune 242 reports 700 passengers and crew members were evacuated after the cruise ship ran aground outside Freeport Harbour on Friday night. Salvage crews have spent the day assessing the damage caused by “a small hole in the side of the vessel” after it ran aground 200 yards outside the port around 9pm. The ship returned to port and all passengers and crew left the ship safely. James Verillo, owner of the Bahamas Celebration cruise line, said on Saturday afternoon that a small hole on the side of the vessel has been repaired and the ship is in no danger of sinking. “The ship is listing at about 10 per cent and there is a whole host of professionals on board dealing with the issue. There was a small hole on the side of the ship that has already been patched,” he said. Mr Verillo said they do not know the cost of the damages at this stage. Earlier reports had suggested there was a 50-50 chance the ship might sink. |
Aground - holed |
| November 1 |
Marco Polo
Cruise and Maritime Voyages |
The Daily Mail reports was the ship was manoeuvring to drop anchor in high winds near Leknes in Norway's northern Lofoten Islands when it became lodged in soft mud, British owner Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV) said. The ship is currently on a 14-night voyage to Norway and the Land of the Northern Lights with 763 passengers. The company hopes t the ship to be freed and leave on schedule after an operation at high water this evening, |
Aground |
| November 1 |
Coral Princess
Princess Cruises |
Cruise Law News reports on Friday October 24, 2014, a "rescue boat" on the Coral Princess was being raised on davits with two crew members aboard when a cable snapped. The vessel fell into the water. One crew member identified as Husnan Fauzan sustained mortal injuries and died. The second crew member identified as Steven Bagshaw sustained injuries and treated in the hospital. The fatal accident occurred in Colon, Panama. In 2012, the cruise industry's trade group, the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), adopted a new policy prohibiting crew members in lifeboats when they are being raised or lowered. But some ships still engage in this dangerous practice. |
Crew member death in lifeboat accident |
| October 29 |
Oosterdam
Holland America
Line |
ABC reports Hobart's first cruise ship of the season has had to abandon its visit due to bad weather. It was due to arrive this morning from Melbourne but because of high winds has gone straight on to New Zealand instead. UPDATE October 30: I am a passenger on Holland America’s Oosterdam. In addition to missing Hobart, Tasmania, we also skipped Milford Sound and Fiordland in NZ due to the storm. In return we were compensated with a free glass of champagne and a refund of $51 per passenger for port fees and taxes. We are now in Port Chalmers (Dunedin) for two nights and three days because of being a head of schedule. |
Port call canceled (weather) |
| October 29 |
Opera
MSC Cruises |
Independent Online reports thousands of cruise ship passengers were stuck aboard their ship after it docked in Table Bay Harbour on Tuesday, because too few customs officials were deployed to handle the number of passengers who wanted to step ashore and tour Capetown. The cruise line reacted with anger and disappointment when pre-booked package tours and other tourism arrangements could not be completed because of the problem at the quayside. “Only four customs officials arrived to deal with the passengers and South African passengers who were supposed to board the ship for the cruise to Namibia were also held up for hours,” he said. “At least the passengers on the ship had the comforts of the ship… but the passengers on the quayside had to wait in the sun and wind. This was purely organisational, a staffing issue.” The ship was due to set sail for Namibia at 3pm and the ship’s crew had their hands full trying to work through the backlog to try and meet the sailing time as well as the arrival time at Walvis Bay. The vessel left Cape Town just before 5pm on Tuesday. |
Canceled debarkation; delayed embarkation |
| October 28 |
Balmoral
Fred Olsen Cruises |
The Shelbourne County Coast Guard (Nova Scotia) reports the Shelburne Port Authority Committee wants to persuade harbour pilots to become certified for Shelburne Harbour. This problem came to light after a recent experience with the Balmoral cruise ship which was expected to visit Shelburne last month. It’s captain refused the visit at the last minute because of the unavailability of a harbour pilot. |
Missed port call |
| October 27 |
Celebrity
Solstice
Celebrity
Cruises |
Cruise Law News report they received messages from readers indicating that a passenger deployed a liferaft from a canister during a three night "cruise to nowhere" sailing from Australia. One person on the ship said: "I have just returned from a 3 night cruise on the celebrity Solstice out of Sydney, Australia. On the 2nd night we saw one of the inflatable life boats had been deployed and the ship had to actually turn around and go back to retrieve it. We were told by several people that it was actually a passenger that threw the capsule overboard." Other passengers mentioned that the cruise was a real booze fest during which someone apparently thought that activating the liferaft was a good college-type-of-prank to perform. October 27 2014 Update: We received a comment from the IP address of Royal Caribbean (see below) stating that "Nobody deployed the raft . . . the raft fell in the water as the strap failed . . . we did check the CCTV cameras on Deck and we also have the video already . . ." |
Life raft deployed |
| October 24 |
Adventure of the Seas
Royal Caribbean International |
Cruise Law News reports that earlier this month they were contacted by passengers aboard the Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas because of back-to-back norovirus outbreaks requiring "deep cleaning" of the cruise ship. A number of passengers complained of some pretty gross conditions: One lady said "i was swimming and had to go round feces, which was also in the jacuzzi...it was reported but nothing was said . . . " Another man said "the most serious issue on board the ship was the failure of its sewage system, a point admitted by its officers during the Q and A session. The ship stank like a Royal Caribbean Cruise Norovirus sewage farm throughout the 14 days. We also found the bed linen in our cabin filthy (pillows were brown and needed to be replaced) . . . This ship has problems!" And then there was the inevitable debate whether the virus outbreak was caused by the failure of some passengers to wash their hands versus noro-contaminated food or water versus a virus-laden ship itself. Passengers are now telling us that the norovirus outbreak continues on the third consecutive sailing of the Adventure which is scheduled for yet another so-called "deep cleaning" this weekend. Passengers received an email from the company explaining the the ship will undergo the enhanced cleaning before it leaves Southampton on Sunday, October 26th. Will the next cruise become the fourth consecutive "Norovirus on the High Seas?" Note that ships operating from non-US port are not required to report illness outbreaks to US authorities or the CDC. A passenger responded: We were on Adventure from 12-26 October. The personnel on board could not have done any more. Plenty of sanitisation everywhere most people washing hands. Corridors and cabin doors regularly being sanitised as well as all other public areas. Crew, piano player, dancers, etc brought in to serve everyone in the buffet. All rooms were steam cleaned where there had been a problem. The number of sufferers was very small. |
Illness and cleanliness of ship |
| October 22 |
Funchal
Cruise and Maritime Voyages |
The Liverpool Echo reports the ship was forced to dock in Liverpool today (a day later than initially planned) after suffering two days of extreme weather in the Irish Sea. The ship was returning from a Northern Lights cruise to the North Cape, off northern Norway back to Avonmouth near Bristol. Funchal was caught in storms caused by the tail end of hurricane Gonzalo blowing in across the Atlantic Ocean. Passengers due to board the liner in Avonmouth for her next voyage to Madeira and northern Spain will be bussed to Liverpool Cruise Terminal and the ship will sail on a revised itinerary around 4pm this afternoon. |
Delayed disembarkation |
| October 21 |
Golden Princess
Princess Cruises |
From a passenger: A charter cruise aboard the Golden Princess Oct 5th through 13th experienced mechanical difficulties including the failure of all air conditioning throughout the ship for 3 days. The captain reported in a letter to the rooms that mussels which had attached themselves previously to the hull in Alaska had died in the warm water of Mexico and had clogged the seawater intakes to the cooling system. This resulted in having to skip the final port (Cabo San Lucas) and the cruise line refunding $500 to the passengers on their stateroom accounts. |
No air conditioning; skipped port call |
| October 20 |
Unknown |
Bahamas Weekly reports a33 – year old man from Jacksonville, Florida is in custody after he was arrested for possession of a quantity of dangerous drugs on Saturday 18th October 2014. According to reports, around 4:30pm, Tourism Policing Unit Officers acting on intelligence went to a cruise ship moored at Prince George Wharf, where they arrested the suspect for quantity of marijuana. The suspect is expected to appear in court sometime tomorrow to be formally charged. |
Drug bust |
| October 17 |
Carnival Magic
Carnival Cruise Lines |
There were many media reports about a passenger being refused disembarkation at Belize City because s/he had tested a sample of an ebola patient at a hospital in Texas (see here). Now, it is reported by a reader that the ship waited off the coast of Cozumel, Mexico this morning to dock there for a scheduled port visit,but had not received clearance from Mexican authorities to do so by 12 noon eastern time today and therefore the decision was made to proceed to Galveston to ensure the ship arrives there on time on Sunday morning. The Texas healthcare worker on board continues to show no symptoms of illness and poses no risk to the guests or crew on board. The individual remains in voluntary isolation. Guests on the ship are being provided a $200 per person credit to their shipboard accounts and a 50 percent discount on a future cruise based on the missed visit to Cozumel. Update Oct 18th:NBC reports helicopter landed aboard a cruise ship Saturday to pick up a blood sample from a passenger who may have handled fluids (she is a lab supervisor) from an Ebola patient, ahead of the Carnival Magic’s planned docking at Galveston, Texas, Sunday. Carnival said Texas health officials requested that a sample be taken from the passenger and tested, but that the ship is still scheduled to arrive Sunday morning. The company said of the passenger, who is in quarantine, that “she’s feeling absolutely fine.” |
Refused entry to port |
| October 15 |
Oasis of the Seas
Royal Caribbean International |
Netherland Times reports Royal Caribbean has to pay at least €600,000 in fines for violation of rules and regulations while in the Netherlands; workers on board lacked proper residence papers and worked excessive hours. The Oasis OTS docked at Keppel Verolme in Botlek in Rotterdam last month for repairs and maintenance. The inspectorate of Social Affairs and Labor had hinted to RCI in advance already that when its ship would be here it would have to adhere to Dutch rules and legislation. When ten inspectors then visited the ship on Wednesday they found many things amiss; it warranted a second visit by 45 inspectors. It turned out that at least 48 crew members did not have proper Dutch work permits; most of them hail from the Philippines, the rest came from South America. Some of them worked way too hard, up to 16 hours per day the inspectors found; Royal Caribbean will also face a fine for this violation; the height will be determined when the investigation is completed. The inspectorate may levy a €12,000 fine per violation and since the company had been warned beforehand the fine will probably stand. With the repairs completed, the ship is set to leave Rotterdam tomorrow (15th) for Southampton. |
Fine for labour practices |
| October 9 |
Unnamed |
Jamiaca Observer reports polie in St Ann have launched a search for an American woman who has been missing since Tuesday. She has been identified as 28-year-old Rickita Bradford of Miami, Florida. Police report that Bradford, who arrived in Jamaica aboard a cruise ship which docked at the port in Ocho Rios, was discovered missing about 3:10 pm. |
Passenger missing ashore |
| October 6 |
Diamond Princess
Princess Cruises |
Cruise Critic reports a nine-night Japan sailing onboard Diamond Princess continues to see delays and port cancellations due to two back-to-back typhoons in the Pacific Ocean. The sailing, scheduled to depart October 6, has already been pushed back to October 8 due to Typhoon Phanfone, but now Typhoon Vongfong is hampering the ship's itinerary as well. According to a letter sent to passengers, Vongfong's forecasted path places it directly over Diamond Princess' planned itinerary route. Port calls to Kagoshima, Jeju and Nagasaki will be need to be canceled. The ship will call on Kobe and then sail the Inland Sea as planned, but will then head through the Kanom Strait for a call to Busan (weather permitting) before heading out to sea for three days. |
Itinerary change (weather) |
| October 6 |
Costa
Fascinosa
Costa Cruises |
Cruise Law News reports that ten days ago, the ship was hit by 90 knot winds after the cruise ship left Venice. The captain failed to give any warnings to the passengers and crew members before the storm struck. The cruise ship listed heavily and plates and glasses crashed to the decks and floors throughout the galleys and bars on the ship. Passengers experienced widespread panic. A Filipino pastry chef posted his accounts of the storm on Facebook and included photographs and video of considerable damage in the galley where he worked. Other crew members shared his account on Facebook. Several Italian newspapers published his photos and video accounts. Cruise bloggers (such as Cruise Fever, Cruise Hive, Cruise Currents, etc.) also recounted the story and included his images of the mishap in their publications. Costa issued a press release, downplaying the incident. Today, we learned that Costa terminated the pastry chef's employment for mentioning the incident on Facebook. Costa flew the crew member back to the Philippines where he remains currently jobless, unable to support his family. (See September 25 below) |
Worker fired for sharing photos |
| October 6 |
Freedom of the Seas
Royal Caribbean International |
A passenger writes: We just got off the ship on Sunday, October 5th. When the cruise started the previous Sunday we had to turn back immediately for a medical emergency. A man was taken off in port canaveral to a waiting ambulance. The very next day the ship was diverted to Nassau for another medical emergency and because of that we missed our port day in Labadee. Another passenger adds: I was B2B on the 21st and 28th Sept Sailings and it was a little bit more interesting than the story you have currently posted. Week one the scheduled stop in St Thomas was replaced by a few hours in San Juan following a medevac of reportedly a member of the crew to Nassau. Week two after about an hour from sailing we turned round but did not return to Port Canaveral, the ship entered, dropped off the patient and then backed out of what seemed to be a US Navy facility (note: it turns out this was a pier at Port Canaveral; just not the Royal Caribbean pier). Then as reported the ship diverted from Labadee to Nassau to drop off what rumour said was a mother and newly delivered baby. I was on deck 12 watching the entry to Nassau and the cruise director was fielding complaints behind me. Finally at the normal stop at Falmouth yet another passenger was taken by ambulance from the ship. |
Missed port call |
| October 4 |
Victory II
Victory Casino Cruises |
News 4 reports a fire broke out on the Victory II casino ship in Mayport on Friday, and the cruise for Friday night was canceled. Capt. Timothy Levensaler, of Victory Casino Cruises, said at about 11:30 a.m. the crew detected smoke in one of four engine rooms. They shut the engine room down and deployed the extinguishing system, which put the fire out, Levensaler said. He said there were 113 people on board and there was never any danger to any passengers. As a precaution, the ship was brought back to port. Firefighters said there were large fans brought aboard to clear the smoke. |
Fire - cruise canceled |
| October 3 |
Emerald Princess
Princess Cruises |
A poster at Cruise.co.uk reports there were two fires on her recent cruise (the review is dated September 30): We had a little upset the first night when the staff were called to stations because of a fire in the engine room. Unfortunately, we had another fire in the engine room a couple of days into the cruise, just a tad unnerving but no problems after that. |
Fire x 2 |
| October 3 |
Veendam
Holland America
Line |
Travel Weekly reports Holland America Line said it would need more time to complete propeller repairs so it canceled a second Canada/New England cruise. The Oct. 2 departure from Boston has been scrapped, after HAL canceled a Sept. 28 sailing from Quebec. USA Today reports October 4 that the October 11th cruise has also beenn canceled. The ship is being moved to drydock for the repairs. |
Cruise canceled |
| September 30 |
Veendam
Holland America
Line |
Travel Weekly reports the ship was forced to cancel a seven-day Canada/New England cruise to make emergency repairs on a propeller. Passengers boarded the ship on September 28, which was supposed to leave Quebec CIty the next day. Booked guests will receive a full refund of their cruise fare and all shore excursions booked through Holland America Line, plus a credit toward a future cruise equal to 100% of the fare paid. HAL said it was working with guests to assist with travel arrangements back home. |
Propeller issues/ cruise canceled |
| September 30 |
Vacance |
Global Post reports the cruise ship, carrying 105 passengers and five crew members, ran aground in waters off a southwestern island on Tuesday, but everyone on board was rescued with 10 people sustaining minor injuries, the Coast Guard said. The accident took place around 9:14 a.m., when the 171-ton vessel hit a submerged rock in waters not far from Hongdo Island, South Jeolla Province. The Coast Guard said its officers rushed to the scene upon receiving a distress call and rescued all of those aboard the ship in 30 minutes with the help of nearby fishing boats and cruise ships. The excursion ship left the Hongdo port early in the morning for a cruise around the scenic island. The accident came more than five months after the ferry Sewol sank in waters off the southwestern island of Jindo, killing more than 300 people. |
Aground / evacuated |
| September 29 |
Ecstasy
Carnival Cruise Lines |
The Record reports a 20-year-old cruise passenger plunged to his death Monday morning after climbing the forward mast of a ship in Miami. The man, who was travelling on the Carnival Ecstasy, fell the equivalent of two decks, about seven metres, and crashed onto the deck, said Jennifer de la Cruz, Carnival Cruise vice president of public relations. The ship had just arrived back in Miami from a Caribbean itinerary. The mast is part of a "restricted area" and there are signs warning passengers not to enter. |
Pax death onboard |
| September 29 |
Sea Princess
Princess Cruises |
The cruise scheduled to begin today from Sydney has been canceled because the ship is still in drydock. Passengers had first been notified that the cruise would begin one day later than scheduled (on September 30th), but then an hour later notification was given that the full cruise is canceled. |
Cruise canceled |
| September 26 |
Royal Princess
Princess Cruises |
A poster at Cruise Critic reports a false person overboard alarm. There had been a suspected person-overboard so a recovery maneuver was initiated and a head count undertaken. As it turned out, all were accounted for, and it was a fishing marker that caused the fear that a person was in the water. The ship is en route to NYC. |
False person overboard alarm |
| September 25 |
Costa
Fascinosa
Costa Cruises |
Cruise Fever reports the ship left the port of Venice on Monday evening and headed for the Greek Islands when the cruise ship encountered a water spout. The incident was first reported by several Italian newspapers and Cruise Law News.
The ship faced winds exceeding 90 knots and when one of the engines failed with passengers onboard the cruise ship describing the incident as “it was like being on a spinning top”. The captain gave the order for all passengers to put on life jackets and said that he had “lost control of the ship”. The rough weather lasted for 2 hours and caused a huge mess in the galley and inside rooms. Dishes, glassware, and furnishing were “flown in the air” by the high winds. There are reports of passengers crying and praying as the ship tried to weather the storm. |
Engine failure in rough seas |
| September 25 |
Salamis Filoxenia
Salamais Cruises |
BBC reports a cruise from Cyprus to Haifa has been canceled after 345 recued refugees (assumed to be Syrian) during the previous cruise refused to disembark the ship. Salamis Cruise Lines Managing Director Kikis Vassiliou said they were insisting they be taken to Italy. The cruise ship is in the port of Limassol and all those rescued are said to be in good health. The Cypriot defence ministry said 52 children were on the small fishing boat that had sent a distress signal. Of the 345 migrants plucked from the sea about 65 willingly left the ship at Limassol and were taken by bus to the Kokkinotrimithia camp not far from Nicosia. Negotiations with those refusing to leave were continuing on Friday morning. Meanwhile, 300 Russian passengers who had been due to continue their cruise to Haifa, Israel, had their journey cancelled and were put up in Limassol hotels. |
Cruise canceled after rescued refugees refuse to disembark |
| September 15 |
Unnamed |
Alaska Business Monthly reports that on September 11, 2014, the Alaska Section of Epidemiology was notified by the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Anchorage Quarantine Station of a suspected measles (rubeola) case associated with the cruise industry. An adult crew member had recent contact with a confirmed measles case abroad, and subsequently developed classic clinical symptoms of measles on September 9 while onboard a ship in Alaska waters. The patient had international and domestic air travel as well as cruise travel while infectious. CDC is conducting airline contact investigations, and alerting states who had individuals who might be at risk of infection. All cruise passengers will be informed of possible exposure directly while on board the ship. Measles is a particular concern for women of child bearing age. |
Measles |
| September 14 |
Pacific Pearl
P&O Australia |
Cruise Law News reports receiving a message from a Facebook friend that there was a search underway for a man overboard from the Pacific Pearl. The cruise ship was sailing off Newcastle, NSW. "But the only information I could find were a couple of posting on the Cruise Critic board. One person said that " . . . all passengers had to go back to cabins for over an hour and do a rollcall. The ship was stopped and they found 2 lights in the water, apparently lifejackets. It is believed someone threw them in the water." It was interesting to see the path of the cruise ship on a AIS tracking system. You can clearly see the ship make a Williamson maneuver to return to the spot where the ship thought the person went overboard. |
Palse alarm - person overboard |
| September 14 |
Sea Princess
Princess Cruises |
Perth Now reports passengers on the infamously nicknamed “Pandemic Princess” cruise ship were shocked with the announcement that the ship had cancelled its current cruise today. Princess Cruises, was forced to put its ship into dry dock because of technical problems; itwas due to embark on a 14-day voyage to Brisbane yesterday. But the cruise was cancelled about 9am today. The Sunday Times reported today that according to passengers, up to 400 people disembarked the same ship yesterday morning with norovirus. |
Mechanical problems - cruise canceled |
| September 13 |
Carnival Legend
Carnival Cruise Lines |
WTSP reports on dream cruise turning into a nightmare for Valerie O'Farrell and her husband, Paul, when they were thrown off their cruise ship. The couple was celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary on the Carnival Legend out of Tampa when Paul had a minor Alzheimer's episode, leaving his stateroom alone at 4 a.m. for a cup of coffee. Ship personnel found him disoriented. The ship's doctor then declared Paul a danger to himself, and the couple was escorted off the ship in Cozumel. After10 News contacted Carnival Cruise Lines, and the company said it investigated, it quickly admitted the situation was mishandled. Carnival issued a statement that reads in part: "Given the specialized circumstances in this case, we are now proceeding with a full refund for the unused days of the cruise as well as reimbursement for their flights home." |
Kick off ship |
| September 13 |
Serenissima
Serenisssama Cruises |
e-Nautilia reports a 23 year old female crew member has gone missing from the ship while enroute from Rhodes to Crete (between Karpathos and Kasou Mirabello Gulf). Press 24 writes :"Denisa mysteriously disappeared from a ship that sails the seas, in the early hours of September 13. Serenissima ship sailing under the Russian flag in the territorial waters of Greece. And no one saw what happened ... investigation is conducted with many gaps and inconsistencies by Greek police in Crete. says the disappearance is mysterious. |
Crew member overboard |
| September 10 |
Norwegian Sky
Norwegian Cruise Line |
The Tribune reports Frank Sangineto, a 22-year-old also from Miami, pleaded guilty to hiding 12 marijuana joints in a metal can in his cabin aboard the Norwegian Sky cruise ship. Around 8am on Saturday, the chief of security of the cruise line led Central Police Station officers to cabin 4217, where they informed Sangineto of their suspicions that there were drugs. After a scan of the room, officers discovered the 12 joints before cautioning and arresting the defendant and taking him to the DEU where he was interviewed and charged. He was fined $500. |
Drug bust |
| September 10 |
Majesty of the Seas
Royal Caribbean International |
The Tribune reports Jason Reyes, 25, of Miami, Florida, was fined $400 and faced two months in jail because he was found in possession of three grams of marijuana while on board the Majesty of the Seas cruise ship on Sunday. “I wasn’t planning on bringing it off the ship,” Reyes explained, adding that the drugs were given to him on the ship. “I was on the boat with my girlfriend. We were having a good time and was approached by someone who asked if I wanted some weed,” the Miami-native said. “In any event Mr Reyes, drugs in the Bahamas are illegal for the most part,” the magistrate told the defendant. “You don’t want to be spoiling your vacation and holidays sitting in a prison cell for seven years. Before travelling to any destination, Google it and find out the laws first.” |
Drug bust |
| September 10 |
Unknown |
The Tribune reports two passengers were arraigned for possessing pot.Jacquis Armstrong, 22, of Statesboro, Georgia, and Christopher Williams 25, of Dublin, Georgia, were arraigned before a magistrate on the simple possession charge. On Saturday, around 1:25pm, police officers were patrolling the Prince George Wharf where they observed Armstrong and Williams exchanging objects between themselves. The officers approached the pair and informed them of the suspicion that they were in possession of illegal drugs. Upon searching the two, officers found a package containing marijuana. They were cautioned, arrested and taken to the Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU) where they were interviewed and subsequently charged. Police prosecutor ASP Ercell Dorsett told the magistrate that the drugs weighed one gram. He added that they had no prior brushes with the law in the Bahamas jurisdiction. Magistrate Forbes fined each man $300, noting that their alternative was a month’s imprisonment. |
Drug bust |
| September 9 |
Sea Princess
Princess Cruises |
WA Today reports a gastrointestinal virus outbreak has felled about 100 passengers aboard a cruise ship on a round trip from Fremantle to Singapore. Listeners to radio 6PR, one currently on board the cruise and a caller who had returned home, contacted the Breakfast Show to confirm they had been infected by the virus during their holiday aboard the vessel. Princess Cruises confirmed about 100 of the 2000 passengers aboard reported being ill. Cruise Law News says the number reporting illness was in the hundreds -- MSN put the number at over 500. The West Australian quotes a passenger who said the number of ill 2 passengers was over 200 (10% of passengers).
|
Illness |
| September 6 |
Carnival Dream
Carnival Cruise Lines |
From a passenger: I just got home from a cruise on the Carnival Dream. We left from New Orleans, LA on Aug. 24 and returned Aug. 31. Ports of call were Isla Roatan, Honduras; Belize; Cozumel, Mexico. While in the port of Isla Roatan an older female passanger passed away on the beach from a diabetic coma. Another passenger writes that the death on the beach was a heart attack in Roatan on the beach; another passenger apparently died in Mexico while scuba diving. |
Pax deaths |
| Septemer 6 |
Princess Cruises |
Princess Chatter reports one passenger died, and the driver and another passenger were injured in a rollover wreck near Mile 173, Parks Highway Friday morning (see here for a pic). Only three people (all Princess employees) were onboard the Princess Tours bus at the time of the crash. The bus was owned and operated by Princess Cruise Lines. This marks the second serious incident involving a Princess-owned bus on a remote stretch of road in a month. An Aug. 18 collision injured 12 people, the majority not seriously, after a collision at a railroad crossing about four miles away. |
Pax death in tour bus accident - 2nd in a month |
| September 6 |
Dawn Princess
Princess Cruises |
Cruise Critic reports a volcanic eruption in Papua New Guinea has forced a change of itinerary. The ship, which was scheduled to call on the town of Rabaul -- home of currently erupting Mount Tavurvur -- on Sept. 9, will now spend the day at sea instead. A Sept. 8 call on Kiriwina Island has also been added to the voyage. There are no other ships scheduled to call on Rabaul this month. |
Volcanic eruption - itinerary change |
| September 4 |
Costa
Serena
Costa Cruises |
Repubblica reports tha last Monday (1 September), during the manouvre to approach the pier in Civitavecchia, the ship was hit by winds over 55 knots and even though assisted by 3 tugs,bumped into the pier causing damage to an hold door and a scrape on the side. The ship remained in Civitavecchia until the evening of the day after for repairs and Naple port of call was deleted. |
Collision with pier - delayed departure |
| September 2 |
Rotterdam
Holland America
Line |
From a passenger: A child onboard the HAL Rotterdam has been diagnosed with chickenpox. Passengers have been notified by letter delivered to their staterooms. (9/1/14). |
Chicken pox |
| September 2 |
Noordam
Holland America
Line |
A poster at Cruise Critic reports on the last night of the cruise, at 3.10am the fire alarm sounded while they were fast asleep. The officer of the watch came over the speaker in our cabin to say that a fire had been located on deck 3 aft and that fire crews were being dispatched and to remain calm. 15 minutes later the captain came on over the speaker to say there was indeed a fire in the incinerator room which had not yet spread to the passenger areas....that we are to remain calm and await further updates. I opened our cabin door and there were several other people also looking down the corridor and some were walking/running wearing life jackets! We remained in our cabins although others went to the life boats. After approx another 30/40 minutes the captain came back on to say that the fire had been put out and that fire crews would stay in the vicinity for a while to make sure it was safe, and that we could now go back to bed!
Needless to say....none of us got any sleep after this. It was a frightening experience and spoilt the end of our cruise. There was no announcement next morning or apology. |
Fire |
| August 29 |
Tung Trang #QN2477 |
Touritre News (Viet Nam) reports a cruise ship with 12 foreigners on board sank in Ha Long Bay due to violent winds in the northern province of Quang Ninh on Thursday afternoon but all of them were saved, according to local authorities. The accident occurred at 2:15 pm, when Tung Trang cruise ship #QN2477 was hit by powerful winds amid a downpour in the Ba Hang area, near Ga Choi Isle in the bay. The ship departed an hour earlier from the Bai Chay resort in the bay. Besides the 12 foreign tourists, the vessel was also carrying a Vietnamese tour guide and seven crew members. All of them put on life jackets in time before the vessel began sinking. After being informed of the accident, local rescuers dashed to the scene and saved all of the 20 people, who were later taken ashore safely. |
Sunk |
| August 28 |
Explorer of the Seas
Royal Caribbean International |
From a reader: While on her way back to Cape Liberty NJ, the ship lost power for approximately on hour on her shortened Bermuda stay trip..The ship needed tugboats to turn her this morning to dock in Bayonne.. The ship was expected to sail today on a cruise to Canada at 4 pm... it finally sailed four hours late. |
Propulsion problems - Delayed departure |
| August 28 |
Carnival Magic
Carnival Cruise Lines |
Cayman News Service reports the poor positioning of the ship which arrived in George Town on Wednesday led to an anchor being dropped on the reef, which local divers say is happening all too frequently. Concerns were raised yesterday by a local operator and it is understood that following intervention from dive operators and the Department of the Environment the ship was eventually relocated by the Port Authority but not until after its massive anchor had been dropped on the coral for several hours. Local divers told CNS that this is far from an isolated incident and when they noticed the ship's anchor was dropped pretty far south of the usual anchorage #4 spot they contacted the port. The Department of Environment confirmed that they had then pressed for the ship to be relocated and moved away from the reef and into the normal location at anchor # 4. Cayman Compass reports the damage was a pretty significant as the anchors on these ships are very large ... The impact where the anchor landed was very severe; there was a lot of crushed live coral and sediment. The Cayman Compass later reported an "early estimate based on a reconnaissance dive [Tuesday] and video analysis of data collected on that dive puts the total impact footprint at approximately 1,100 square meters (11,840 square feet). Within that footprint, approximately 500 square meters is severely impacted with near complete destruction. The remaining 600 square meters (6,458 square feet) has varying degrees of impact from severe to moderate.” |
Berths in wrong place - Drops anchor on reef |
| August 27 |
Multiple ships |
Tropical Cyclone Cristobal has impacted many cruise itineraies, including Florida, Bahamas, Bermuda, and the Northeast US and Eastern Canada. |
Itinerary changes |
| August 20 |
Princess Cruises |
Juneau Empire reports a Princess Cruises tour bus was involved in a collision with a truck Monday afternoon on Parks Highway near Cantwell. KTUU reported the cruise company said the bus was traveling from Mount McKinley Princess Lodge to Denali when it was rear-ended by a semi-truck with a double tractor trailer. Alaska State Troopers report the truck driver was flown to a hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening. Princess spokesman Bruce Bustamente says there were 44 passengers on the bus and 10 were injured, but the injuries do not appear to be life-threatening. They were taken to a hospital. Troopers say the bus had stopped at an Alaska Railroad crossing, but the truck did not stop. |
Collision on land |
| August 17 |
Independence of the Seas
Royal Caribbean International |
Cruise Law News reports a crew member disappeared earlier in the week. "We were first notified of the crew member's disappearance from another crew member who was concerned about the incident. Today we received confirmation that a crew member went overboard from a reliable separate and independent source." The missing crew member was reportedly a galley worker from India. The crew member went overboard early in the morning before the cruise ship called on its scheduled port in France. The ship is currently on a two week cruise, starting on August 9, 2014 from Southampton and sailing to Gibraltar, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, before returning to Southampton. |
Crew disappears |
| August 16 |
Pacific Pearl
P&O Australia |
The Chronicle reports the ship anchored early Saturday morning about one kilometre offshore from Mooloolaba carrying a full complement of 1800 passengers on a four-day cruise from Sydney. But the plan for passengers to disembark to visit the region was called off because of the appalling weather. The cruise ship was expected to return to Sydney. Sunshine Coast mayor Mark Jamieson urged locals to head down to Mooloolaba this weekend to support businesses and restaurants who stocked up in anticipation for bumper sales due to the cruise passengers. "I would encourage all Sunshine Coasters to get down to Mooloolaba and the Wharf to support those businesses that have stocked up for the even and are now at risk of not being able to sell that stock," Mr Jamieson said. This was the first-ever cruise ship visit to the port. |
Missed port call |
| August 15 |
A-Rosa Mia
A-Rosa Cruises
|
Cruise Critic reports the ship has been taken out of service and is undergoing repairs after striking a pedestrian bridge above a lock on the Danube River early Sunday morning. There were no injuries, but all 192 passengers and crew were evacuated and passengers were bussed from the Jochenstein lock on the German-Austrian border to Passau, Germany. Three cruise itineraries have been canceled; the ship is scheduled to return to service on August 25. Damage to the 410-foot Mia is reportedly severe, and has been estimated at 150,000 euros.
It has been towed to Linz, Austria, for repair. Website Seatrade Insider quoted a local police representative as saying the ship's wheelhouse -- situated on the ship's top deck and capable of being raised and lowered -- was "virtually shaved off" in the accident. A-Rosa told Cruise Critic that passengers on canceled sailings have been contacted and offered a replacement cruise. |
Collision |
| August 15 |
Norwegian Breakaway
Norwegian Cruise Line |
The Royal Gazette reports two passengers currently docked at Heritage Wharf and scheduled to leave later today, were fined for drug importation when they appeared in Magistrates’ Court this morning. Daniel Grogan, 36, from New York City, pleaded guilty to possessing 46.67 grams of cannabis and 4.76 grams of cocaine, and 25 pills of ecstasy. Another passenger, Elizabeth Turk, 55, from Eureka, California also pleaded guilty to having in her possession cannabis.
Grogan was fined $3950; Turk was fined $1000. The defendants were told they cannot leave the Island until the fines are fully paid. |
Drug bust |
| August 12 |
Caribbean Princess
Princess Cruises |
From a passenger: I was on a cruise on August 2, 2014 on the Caribbean Princess out of Fort Lauderdale. A 24 year old male passenger went overboard around 10 pm. We were stopped for about an hour. They did find him alive in the water. I think he jumped from the 8th deck. They took him to medical after rescue. Some passengers said he was a "special person" but I don't know if that is true. There was a group from a group home on board. That's really all I know. Another passenger writes: The man overboard happened around 7:50 PM - the "Man Overboard - Crew to your muster stations" announcement was made with just a little sunlight left, but by the time we stopped and turned around, and the rescue boat took off it was dark. The man was rescued relatively quickly (10-15 minutes). Either people threw him life jackets or he jumped with one. We also heard rumors of mental health, and we can confirm there was a group on board but we don't know if he was part of that group. We also heard he was put off at the next port (St Thomas) but cannot confirm. There appeared to be another rescue boat that helped with the search, possibly from another ship? |
Overboard - Rescued Alive |
| August 11 |
Westerdam
Holland America
Line |
It is reported below that the ship experienced a fire that caused it to return to port. The ship left again then next day but ended up missing one port. The CEO of the cruise line addressed passengers (recording can be found here) and said they would receive a 25% discount on a future Holland America cruise. When one passenger attemped to use the offered discount they were told that the CEO had misspoken and that the cruise line would not stand behind his promised compensation. Something tells me that after media attention to their callousness the company will change its policy (at least in this case). |
CEO makes false promise |
| August 11 |
Sapphire Princess
Princess Cruises |
Shanghai Daily reports a passenger on a cruise from Shanghai was found dead in the ship's pool, the operator said yesterday. Princess Cruises confirmed the death of the 29-year-old woman onboard the Sapphire Princess. It is thought that she drowned. The cruise left Shanghai for South Korea's Chejudo Island last Wednesday. The woman was found dead in the swimming pool the next day. It returned to Shanghai on Sunday. |
Pax drowns |
| August 9 |
Grandeur of the Seas
Royal Caribbean International |
Cruise Law News reports a person allegedly went overboardas the cruise ship was returning from Bermuda to Baltimore earlier this week. The incident reportedly occurred around 3:00 AM late Wednesday night / early Thursday morning, August 7th. According to a person on the cruise ship who wishes to remain anonymous, a state room attendant found a note when he entered the cabin on Thursday. The ship was searched, the CCTV cameras reviewed, and the overboard was eventually discovered. The passenger was reportedly a U.S. citizen, 70 years old and traveling alone. The missing person alert was raised 12 hours or so after the overboard (from the CCTV review). The cruise ship continued on to Baltimore. It didn't go back. There appears to be no search. |
Pax disappears |
| August 7 |
Sea Princess
Princess Cruises |
NBC Los Angeles reports the ship has experienced technical difficulties which have resulted in its inability to operate at full speed. Consequently, the ships itineraries are being changed. It sails August 18th on a 26 day cruise from Sydney. |
Engine problems |
| August 4 |
Unnamed river boats |
Associated Press reports a boat carrying gravel capsized on the busy Rhine river in the Swiss city of Basel on Monday and then collided with two passenger ships, authorities said. No one was injured. It wasn't immediately clear what caused Monday morning's accident. The vessel first collided with a river cruiser that was sailing along the Rhine with about 50 passengers on board, and then with a second cruise ship that was tied up to the quay with some 100 passengers aboard, said Andreas Knuchel, a spokesman for Basel's justice and security department. The passenger ship that was underway at the time of the accident was able to reach the river bank without difficulty for those on board to disembark. Officials in Basel, which is on Switzerland's border with Germany and France, were examining the two river cruisers for any damage. |
Collision |
| August 4 |
Grand Princess
Princess Cruises |
KIRO TV reports the ship, bound for Alaska, returned to Seattlewith the assistance of a tug after experiencing a problem with an engine and sat for almost four hours. The U.S. Coast Guard told KIRO 7 a port-side engine died on Grand Princess around 4:50 p.m. when the ship was near West Point. David Meers, one of the 2,600 passengers on the ship, said he wished there was more communication about what was going on at the time. “Thirty or forty minutes into the cruise, the ship listed to one side. Shortly after that, we turned around. We started asking the crew members what happened, and nobody seemed to know anything,” Meers said. Forty minutes after turning around, Meers said the captain announced there was a propulsion alarm that required them to go back to Seattle. For the next four hours, Meers said there was little communication at all, about any possible changes to their itinerary or whether customers would be compensated for the delay. “It certainly left a lot of confusion, among the folks that we were asking. And most of the passengers around us were also very confused,” he said. At around 9 p.m., the U.S. Coast Guard told KIRO 7 they had cleared the ship to depart again. Grand Princess left shortly before 10 p.m. |
Propulsion problems - return to port |
| August 4 |
Norwegian Pearl
Norwegian Cruise Line |
KIRO TV reports
the ship, bound for Alaska, returned to Seatle because of a passenger’s medical emergency. The delay was not long enough to effect the itinerary. |
Return to port for medical emergency |
| August 3 |
Unnamed
Carnival Cruise Lines |
From a passenger: There was a man overboard that happened when I took my cruise. It was a Carnival Cruise that left Fort Lauderdale on Aug 2, 2014. The incident happened on August 3, 2014. It was early evening (maybe 7 pm) and they announced "man overboard! Man overboard". There were helicopters and lights and loads of excitement. The gentleman was recovered and the captain announced he was in the medical center. The next day, they announced that he and his family were no longer on the cruise. Rumour had it that he was traveling with his grandparents and had some type of intellectual disability. He was upset screaming "I want to go home!" before he ran and jumped into the water. |
Pax overboard |
| August 2 |
Carnival Liberty
Carnival Cruise Lines |
Cruise Hive reports the ship's has cancelled the ship's call at Grand Turk on Sunday and has replaced the port with Nassau, Bahamas which the ship will visit on Friday. Departure and arrival times have also been changed when the ship visits San Juan, St Thomas and St Maarten. This is to ensure the ship stays away from Tropical Storm Bertha for passenger and crew safety. Carnival has also announced on its site that the Carnival Valor could be affected by the storm if the port of San Juan closes on Sunday which is when the vessel is scheduled to visit the popular Caribbean destination. |
Canceled port calls due to weather |
| July 31 |
Silver Discoverer
Silversea Cruises |
Travel Weekly reports tourists have been stopped from disembarking a Silversea cruise ship in the Bay of Providence in Russia (east coast across the Bering Strait from Alaska). It has been claimed that the British, German, Australian and US tourists have had to remain on board the Silver Discoverer ship at Provideniya, under orders from Moscow, although the exact reasons are not yet known. The Siberian Times has quoted tour organiser Alexey Frolov, general director of Pacific Network, as saying that the “majority of our guests are from America. All of the tourists have visas and the cruise was agreed with the government in Russia. “But none of the passengers can go ashore because the border authorities do not permit them to do so. Allegedly there was an order from Moscow not to let the foreigners off the boat.” All of the travellers, most of who are in their 70’s, have tourist visas, according to Frolov, but the local FSB (Russian security) will not allow them to enter. However, the FSB press service contradicted the claims telling Russian website Lenta.ru that the passengers lacked the necessary paperwork. The vessel had applied for permission to leave the waters of Russian Federation, which meant that the programme for the tourists was cut from four days to one. |
Landing at port refused - Itinerary change |
| July 31 |
Sea Adventurer
Adventure Canada |
CBC reports passengers heading to Greenland and then the Canadian Arctic have had their trip cut short because of engine trouble. The vessel's secondary engine was having mechanical difficulties off the west coast of Greenland in Ilulissat on Saturday. Those aboard the Sea Adventurer started their cruise on July 23. The vessel was to arrive in Canada on July 30. The repairs are expected to take about two weeks so passengers were flown back home. These costs were covered by their travel insurance policies. |
Engine problems - cruise ended |
| July 28 |
Bahamas Celebration
Celebration Cruise Line |
CDC reports the ship failed its health inspection on July 31 with a scrore of 84 (Inspection scores of 85 or lower are considered unsatisfactory) |
Failed health inspection |
| July 16 |
Hlin
Viking River Cruises |
Donaukurier reports a 100-meter-long motor tanker "Apollon" was traveling towards Nuremberg. It had gasoline loaded. The 135-meter-long river cruise ship "Viking Hlin" was on the drive from Nuremberg to Budapest. In the narrow point of the Main-Danube Canal in Berching the ships touched with her larboard side. Both ships were damaged. The amount of damage is not yet known. The cause of the accident is still unclear. It ran out of gasoline or diesel. It is clear so far, according to police only that the required communication on marine radio was defective. A poster at Cruise Critic writes: Sometime between 10:30 and 11:00 PM on July 24, we were cruising down the Main-Danube canal when the Hlin experienced a sudden bump. It wasn't enough to make me lose my balance, but it was jolting and surprising. If you have ever been in a boat when it hits a dock a little faster or harder than planned, then you know the feeling. My wife looked out our sliding door on port side (we were near the stern) and noted a fast-moving commercial barge moving in the opposite direction, very near to us. I stepped into the hall, and noted a crewman moving up our hall toward the stern with a concerned expression and an urgent pace. The next time we looked out the window, we noted that we were dead in the water. No announcement was made, and later, one fellow passenger said that a crew member told him that we had hit the wake of the fast-moving barge. We started moving again, and nothing else was said. A couple of days later, we were side-by-side another cruise line's ship in a lock, and I was having a conversation with one of their passengers. He said, "I heard you had an accident". Startled, I replied "We felt a bump a couple of night's ago, but we didn't hear about any accident." He replied, "We did." Later that day (or maybe the next), our Program Director announced that our Captain had "left the boat to begin his vacation" and that a new Captain was now on-board. This was presented very casually, implying that this was all as-planned. It struck us as very odd that the Captain of a new ship would depart unannounced for a vacation in the middle of a cruise, and we started to suspect that we were being given a bunch of horse manure. |
Collision |
| July 19 |
Millennium Time
City Cruises |
London Evening Standard reports an investigation was launched today into a crash between two boats that injured seven tourists on a sightseeing trip down the Thames. The bow of the City Cruises boat, named Millennium Time, was badly damaged in the collision around 2.25pm yesterday. Of the seven injured, at least one was hospitalised. Today passengers spoke of their terror as the cruise liner staff tried to avoid the oncoming barge. Passengers were ferried from the stricken ship by another City Cruises boat to the South Bank. In a statement the tour operator said: “Passengers were guided off the boat promptly by City Cruises, who continue to do everything they can to support the authorities and those involved."
|
Collision |
| July 19 |
Silver Discoverer
Silversea Cruises |
The Vessel
Sanitation Program reports the ship failed its
sanitation inspection with a score of 75. |
Failed health inspection |
| July 18 |
Costa
Victoria
Costa Cruises |
The
China Post reports a woman passenger went missing
during a trip to Japan on a cruise ship that returned to
Taiwan Thursday, the Coast Guard said yesterday. The 53 year
old woman was supposed to get off the ship at Keelung
Harbor, but did not, the Coast Guard said, adding her
belongings were left in her cabin. She was with a tour group
that left Keelung for Japan on July 12. The ship returned on
Thursday evening, according to the Coast Guard. Electronic
key records showed that she last entered her cabin on
Wednesday evening. When the crew went to check why she had
failed to get off the ship, the door of the cabin was
locked. the woman is a Taiwanese American. |
Pax disappears |
| July 16 |
Escapade |
WJCL
News reports the US Coast Guard is reporting that
evacuation is now complete of the passengers aboard the
casino cruise liner that ran aground around 12 a.m.
Wednesday morning. Coast Guard officials said that 113
people had been evacuated by boat and four had to be flown
from scene due to inability to use the ladder. The evacuees
of the ship were transported to a Coast Guard station on
Tybee Island – 45 minutes away from the scene of the scene
of the cruise ship. Officials are reporting no injuries or
medical evacuations. A Coast Guard spokesman said that the
boat ran into a sand bar around midnight stranding
passengers and crew until over 12 hours later. Despite the
impact, officials said the boat is not leaking fuel and
transport of the cruise-liner will continue at 1 a.m. during
the next high tide. The cruise – a two hour shakedown or
dry-run for the new casino cruise service – was set to come
back to port at 12 a.m. according to the husband of a person
working in the food and beverage crew who did not wish to be
named. But the boat ran aground between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m.
they said. |
Aground |
| July 16 |
Costa Serena
Costa Cruises |
MediTelegraph
reports the ship collided with a tanker vessel in the Port
of Naple yesterday causing only minor damage. There were no
injuries. The ship continued to its next port of call, Palma
de Mallorca where it will arrive 17 July.. |
Collision |
| July 15 |
Pearl Mist Pearl Sea Cruises |
The Vessel
Sanitation Program reports the ship failed its
sanitation inspection with a score of 61. |
Failed health inspection |
| July 15 |
Splendor of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International |
Cruise
Law News reports it received inquiries from passengers
about a man overboard from Royal Caribbean's Splendour
of the Seas last month. The incident seems to involve
a passenger who jumped into the water early one morning. He
was promptly rescued. Most people are asking why
hasn't there been any news account of the incident?
One passenger provided the following account, and asked "is
RCCL keeping this under wraps? The Captain and crew should
be congratulated." "He was a 20ish American male passenger
on ship with his parents and a brother. He apparently tried
to start a fire in the early morning and security was
called. He was extremely inebriated. When security arrived
he ran and jumped overboard. This happened around 4:30 a.m.
on the 13th of June. Around 4:45 or so Oscar, Oscar, Oscar
was called out by security who saw him jump, and the Captain
turned the ship immediately. I was awoken at 5:00 a.m. from
the loud sound of the stateroom as the ship was sharply
turning. The walls of our room "groaned" loudly. As I got up
and walked to my veranda, I realized we were listing badly
toward the sea. As I got outside, I smelled smoke. Then we
spotted someone (we were on the 8th deck) below us throwing
out a flare. There were 3 flares in the water by now - thus
the smell of smoke. We then heard "help" hollered out 6
times just off our side of the ship. Then a life boat came
about around the front and went directly to him. We were
very close to this but could not actually see them lift him
out. It was black out. However, they announced "we have him,
he's alive, will be going to Medical." We heard a very few
folks clapping from above us. We heard he went to Medical
and stayed there until we disembarked on Saturday the 14th
in Venice. As we came into port, the pier was on our side of
the ship. We saw Policia drive up and 3 uniform men got out
and boarded our ship. This was the "7-Night Greek Isles
& Turkey" cruise from June 7-14, 2014." |
Pax overboard (rescued alive) |
| July 12 |
Celebrity
Silhouette
Celebrity
Cruises |
Cruise
Critic reports a propulsion problem is preventing the
ship from reaching its normal speed, forcing the cruise line
to shorten select port calls through much of the fall. The
line is not yet sure when the problem will be fixed.
According to Celebrity Cruises spokeswoman, Stephanie
Holder, the "slight restriction" on the ship's top speed "is
due to a portion of the propulsion system operating at less
than optimal efficiency." Though the problem is slowing the
ship down and affecting passengers' times in ports, it does
not affect the maneuverability of the ship or the safety of
passengers and crew. Holder told Cruise Critic Celebrity is
exploring options in regards to getting the problem fixed .
|
Propulsion problems |
| July 11 |
Costa
Victoria
Costa Cruises |
The
Standard reports passengers on the ship, which had to
berth in Hong Kong, have complained that cruise organizers
already knew that Typhoon Neoguri was heading for their
destination, Japan, before sailing. The berthing at the Kai
Tak Cruise Terminal was unexpected as its docks are closed
for the typhoon season between May and August. The change in
the itinerary was announced on the first day of the cruise.
A Taiwanese passenger surnamed Liu said: "I think our rights
are neglected because there was already news of the typhoon
before we left for Japan. We had protested strongly before
the cruise departed, but they said it would be all right."
Another Taiwanese passenger surnamed Chan joked: "We are not
greedy. Pay us ten thousand dollars and we'll be happy.
"Taiwanese dollars! Not Hong Kong dollars. We are not
greedy. I just think this will make us feel better," she
added. Five Taiwanese tours were on board the cruise. Fees
for the tours ranged between NT$20,000 (HK$5,175) and
NT$60,000. The travel agency for the tours is said to be
offering compensation of NT$5,000 for each passenger, but
the exact amount has yet to be confirmed. |
Itineray change |
| July 11 |
Diamond
& Sapphire Princess
Princess Cruises |
Cruise
Critic reports the two Princess Cruises ships sailing
Asian waters have been forced to change course due to
Typhoon Neoguri, the strongest storm to hit Japan this year.
Diamond Princess missed a scheduled Kobe port call, as well
as a day of Inland Sea scenic cruising. Instead, the ship is
taking an "avoiding route" around the north end of the
island of Honshu, through the Kanmon Straight to Beppu on
the island of Kyushu, where it will arrive on schedule.
Sapphire Princess, which departed Shanghai on July 8 also is
sailing a slightly altered itinerary, skipping scheduled
stops at Jeju, South Korea and Kagoshima, Japan. In their
place the ship visited Inchon, South Korea on Wednesday and
sailed one extra sea day. |
Itinerary change |
| July 8 |
Carnival Spirit
Carnival Cruise Lines |
Sydney
Morning Herald reports a search and rescue operation
is under way near Vanuatu after a man on board a cruise ship
went missing and was presumed to be lost overboard. The
Indian man, believed to be a member of the kitchen crew, was
aboard a voyage between Vanuatu and Fiji. A passenger on the
ship, who did not wish to be identified, told Fairfax Media
an announcement was made about 9am local time that a crew
member had gone missing. The vessel did not turn around
until about 2pm, she said. He could have been missing since
the night before, when the cruise liner left Vanuatu, the
passenger said. "Several messages later, the captain
announced we were going to turn the boat around to search
for him." |
Crew overboard |
| July 7 |
AIDAdiva
Aida Cruises |
ETN
Global Travel News reports the ship, carrying German
passengers on board, was under rocket fire attack when
leaving the Israeli port of Ashod. Ashod is the
fifth-largest city in Israel, located in the Southern
District of the country on the Mediterranean coast. It is
located 32 kilometers south of Tel Aviv, 20 kilometers north
of Ashkelon, and 53 kilometers west of Jerusalem. The Port
of Ashdod is Israel's largest port. It is unclear if the
rockets were those from the Israel Defense Force or from
Hamas, the radical Palestinian organization currently firing
dozens of rockets at cities in Israel. When the cruise ship
left Ashod, sirens were sounding in Ashod and other Israeli
cities warning of attacks by the radical Palestinian Hamas
organization. Rocket parts landed on the cruise ship.
Fortunately the rockets exploded before hitting the vessel
deck. No casualties or significant damages to the cruise
ship have been reported. The ship is currently on its way to
the next port of Crete in Greece. It should reach Crete on
Wednesday morning. Travel
Weekly reports AIDA subsequently announced that port
calls to Ashdod would be canceled for the next two months.
On remaining July and August itineraries, the Greek island
of Santorini will be substituted for scheduled port calls in
Ashdod |
Hit by debris |
| July 6 |
Carnival Liberty
Carnival Cruise Lines |
From a passenger: We were supposed to set sail at 4pm. We did not leave until 6:30pm with only one message from the cruise director saying "there is a minor problem and no matter how late we left we would be in Nassau at the scheduled time." It was raining but that was not the issue as a Royal Caribbean ship and a Carnival ship.I asked multiple crew members why we would be late leaving I got everything from I don't know to there refilling the ship with water. Ya, I don't know either. That's not the only problem -- as I was walking to my cabin I regrettably did not put my flip flops on. I held them in my hand and as I walked down the 2nd deck it smelled horribly of sewage. I thought nothing of it untilI stepped in what seemed to be water. I put my flip flops on and felt the water sloshing under my feet for a good at least 30 cabins. I called the steward and alerted him about this. He said "he was already on it" as I walked by later that day there where fans on the floor. And don't even get me started on the emergency drill. It was so unorganized and hot. When the alarm rang we went to the 4th floor. My 84 and 86 year old parents said they felt like they were going to pass out BEFORE they started talking about what to do in an emergency. They asked to sit down but were told to stand until it was over. We also could not hear because the crew members kept telling people to be quiet and put away there phones. That was my 4th cruise with carnival and by far the most disappointing not because it wasn't fun or anything but because the lack of wanting to provide a safe environment. |
Delayed departure and various other things |
| July 6 |
Celebrity
Reflection
Celebrity
Cruises |
Cruise
Critic reports the ship was forced to stay overnight
in port and skip a port stop due to an unspecified
mechanical issue yesterday (July 5). The ship was delayed in
Civitavecchia (Rome) overnight until 3 p.m. (CET) yesterday,
meaning it could not stop in Messina, Italy. It is now on
its way to Piraeus, Greece, where it is due to arrive
tomorrow (July 7) and the rest of its itinerary will
continue as planned. Passengers received an unspecified
amount of onboard credit as a gesture of good will from the
cruise line, |
Delayed departure (24 hours) |
| July 6 |
Queen Mary 2
Cunard Line |
From a passenger: Boarded
shortly after noon on Tuesday (July 1) in Brooklyn. Went
directly to Kings Court buffet for lunch. Surprised to find
minimal effort to eliminate cross contamination. Although
salt and pepper shakers were not in use, buffets were
primarily self-service, with multiple customers handling the
same utinsels. This was particularly worrisome because some
passengers were in transit. Whether or not there was any
wide-spread sickness on board I do not know. But an
anecdotal report by a friend stated that one passenger,
feeling unwell, called the medical office for advice and was
confined to her cabin without so much as a physical
examination. |
Sanitation |
| July 4 |
Multiple ships |
Travel
Mole reports some cruise ships have rearranged
schedules and cancelled Bahamas port calls. Norwegian
Gem scrapped a scheduled stop at Great Stirrup Cay
and instead left Nassau at midnight "to stay ahead of the
storm in more pleasant weather," Norwegian said. Three Royal
Caribbean ships - Majesty of the Seas, Enchantment of
the Seas and Grandeur of the Seas - missed
out port calls at CocoCay to give extra time at sea and
ensure breathing space ahead of the storm, which is expected
to reach hurricane force speeds today. The recently-launched
Florida-based Victory Casino cruise ship remained docked at
Mayport, Jacksonville, yesterday but may resume sailing
later today, according to the company. |
Itinerary change - Weather |
| July 2 |
Carnival Liberty
Carnival Cruise Lines |
Orlando
Sentinel reports a Grenada man remains jailed in
Seminole County after federal agents said he hid 12 pounds
of cocaine in his suitcase while on a cruise that recently
docked in Port Canaveral. Ishermon Tafari, 31, was arrested
Saturday when authorities made the discovery in his cabin.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Orlando federal
court, authorities identified Tafari as a person of interest
before the ship arrived. He was traveling alone on the
eight-day southern Caribbean cruise, which departed from
Port Canaveral on June 20, records said. Authorities
searched Tafari's cabin and when they examined his suitcase,
they found roughly 12 pounds of cocaine inside. |
Drug bust |
| June 30 |
Viking
River Cruises |
Travel
Weekly reports the company has decided to cancel its
remaining Ukraine sailings for 2014. “When the conflict
began, we, like many, were hopeful for a quick and peaceful
resolution,” Richard Marnell, Viking’s senior vice president
of marketing. “With tension on the ground continuing,
combined with questions about Russian visa requirements for
Crimea — and the U.S. State Department warning on travel to
the region — we were not confident we could deliver our
standard high-quality experience in the near future.” Viking
is repositioning the newly refurbished 196-passenger Viking
Sineus to a 12-day itinerary between Bucharest and the Black
Sea. The ship was scheduled to sail a 12-day Footsteps of
the Cossacks cruise from Kiev into the heart of the Crimean
Peninsula. |
|
| June 28 |
Westerdam
Holland America
Line |
Kiro
TV reports the ship returned to Pier 91 in Seattle
after a fire earlier today. The Seattle Fire Department was
initially called to make sure flames were out. Fire
department spokesperson Kyle Moore said the ship had some
fire suppression systems in place. High-powered misters
along with the crew’s use of fire hoses extinguished the
flames. Moore said the fire was contained to the boiler room
on the port side. Petty Officer 2nd Class George Degener of
the U.S. Coast Guard said, “My understanding is that (after)
the first attempt at extinguishing it, it then re-flashed
(before) they were able to successfully extinguish the fire.
And, once again, thankfully, again, no one was hurt during
this incident.” Several cruise passengers tweeted during the
incident. One woman, Julie Estrada, tweeted: “Stunned at
communication to guests re: boiler fire. ‘Safety of guests’
& ‘precautionary measures’ should be said from top!”
Estrada later called KIRO 7 and said the fire happened just
30 minutes after they departed. “They came across and told
us there was a fire in the boiler room and they’re keeping
us posted. And then, after a while, pretty much every 15
minutes we were getting updates from the captain or the
cruise director telling us it was contained and then not
contained and then still not contained, and then they found
the source.” The ship was subsequently given clearance to
again leave Seattle on the planned cruise. Passengers told
KIRO 7 they heard announcements saying they will skip the
Port of Sitka when the cruise resumes. |
Fire |
| June 28 |
Multiple ships |
Cruise
Critic reports a number of itineraries on the Danube
river have been changed, some cruises canceled, and many
ships have been swapped given low water coniditions on the
river. Companies effected include Viking Cruises, Scenic
Tours, Avalon Waterways,Uniworld and Riviera Boutique
Cruises. |
Itinerary changes |
| June 23 |
Emerald
Princess
Princess Cruises |
From a passenger:We had a Red
Level Advisory yesterday but no-one will tell us how many
passengers are affected?? Any news will be helpful to other
passengers.....another Blame Game by Princess and this time
they are blaming the high levels of Norovirus in the Uk and
saying someone brought it aboard ......on 11th??? How about
the crew and the fact that until last night there was no
hand sanitizer in the restaurants other than the buffet and
none in the Casino! UPDATE (June 24th):
Today the Captain’s noon message included the figures of as
at today 37 quarantined passengers and 4 crew. He did say
that this was not the total numbers, just as at today.
However this morning at the dining room when being asked if
we wanted a sharing table or one on our own there was a lady
saying that she should probably have one on her own as her
husband was quarantined with the virus. When we asked if she
too had not been told to stay in the cabin and order room
service she said that when she did that yesterday the
breakfast was awful so she asked if she could order from the
normal menu and was told that she couldn’t but she should
go, not to the buffet but the dining room for her meals. It
was easy for her to get a table alone! We sat at a table for
eight, with just six other passengers and suspected from his
silence that one of the men there was also in a cabin with
someone quarantined. From the embarkation (and every port
since) there has been not sanitizing lotion at the foot of
the gangway. When there was not hand sanitizer at the
entrance to the restaurants, in the casino or anywhere else
about the ship except in the buffet we asked and were told
that they only had it when there was a problem???? There is
STILL none in the Casino but staff insist that they are
sanitizing every hour – and every where was wet when we sat
at a machine last night, but there are no wipes or gel to
use either on entry or before leaving. If they insist on
blaming the passengers then why are they so loathe to spend
the money on the provision of some prevention measures? It
does not make sense. I have also failed to EVER see a crew
member, in any capacity, actually wash their hands, yet we
are being told daily that this the best way to stop the
spread of infection? UPDATE July 7: One
week on – home last weekend, and both of us very ill since
with a flu type virus! I am guessing that every surface was
so well sanitized that the only germs surviving were the
airborne ones. I guess without wearing a mask we were going
to pick up one of those! It is such a shame when cruises are
spoiled because of a viral outbreak. Mind you, I feel
happier on a ship which treats the first 48 hours as if
there is a problem to stop the spread of anything brought on
board inadvertently by a passenger, to one like the Emerald
who openly admit that they only take precautions after they
have a problem..........dah? |
?Illness? |
| June 23 |
Britannia
Nicko Tours |
SRN
News reports the ship carrying 154 passengers and 40
crew was evacuated after it sprang a leak on a river in the
eastern Netherlands early on Sunday morning, emergency
services said. All the passengers, mostly pensioners from
Germany and Austria, were safely helped off the 110-metre
(360-foot) long Britannia and taken to shelters.The cause of
the leak was not immediately known. No one was injured, a
spokesman said. The multi-deck river cruise ship was on the
IJssel river, 110 kilometers (68 miles) east of the capital,
Amsterdam, on its way to Cologne, Germany, when it ran into
trouble. Divers were on their way to determine the cause. |
Holed - evacuated |
| June 18 |
Divina
MSC Cruises |
Tribuna
Digital reports a 20 year old intoxicated Mexican
passenger went overboard from the ship as it was cruising between Fortaleza and Recife. The cruise was
transporting fans between wrld cup venues. The article
suggests the passenger fell overboard from deck 15. The
Examiner
reports the man had been drinking quite heavily
throughout the trip, seemingly having brought his own
alcohol onto the cruise. Witnesses have said that he
indicated to people he was going to jump. It sounds as
if people essentially ignored him and thought he was
just drunk. Then, witnesses say, he “suddenly put his
arms over his chest and jumped directly from the 15th
floor.” The Daily
Mail says the man jumped overboard to impress a
woman; it took an hour for the ship to maneuver back to
the location where he jumped. |
Pax overboard |
| June 16 |
Unknown |
The Royal
Bahamian Police report a 23- year of American man of
South Carolina is in custody after he was arrested for
possession of dangerous drugs on Sunday 15th June 2014.
According to reports, shortly before 5:00pm on Sunday 15th
June 2014, officers from the Tourism Policing Unit acting on
intelligence went to a cruise ship moored at Prince George
Wharf, where they found the suspect in possession of a
quantity of marijuana. The suspect was taken into custody
and is expected to appear in court early this week to be
formally charged. |
Drug bust |
| June 13 |
Scandanavian Star (1990) |
Maritime
Today reports Norwegian police on Friday recommended
reopening an investigation into a ferry fire in 1990 that
killed 159 people after a police review cast doubt on
findings that a Danish man who died on board had started the
blaze. Survivors and relatives of passengers who died on the
Scandinavian Star have long campaigned for the case to be
reopened, because of doubts that a single passenger could
have started all the fires that broke out in several parts
of the vessel as it headed from Norway to Denmark. Last
year, with Norway's 25-year statute of limitations for
murder cases looming, police agreed to review their work on
the case. "When 159 people are killed in a fire that was
probably started deliberately, there's reason to do what we
can to get as many answers as possible on what happened,"
Oslo police chief Hans Sverre Sjoevold told a news
conference. "The investigation that was conducted in 1990-91
did not have the full scope that we would demand today,
particularly regarding potential economic motives behind a
fire like this." "The factors that resulted in a Danish
citizen being named the perpetrator were insufficient as
evidence." A survivors' group has pointed to new witness
testimony that some people slipped away from the ship after
the accident without being registered. Sjoevold did not name
any possible suspects and cautioned there was no certainty
that a fresh investigation would uncover significant new
evidence. A final decision on whether to reopen the case
rests with the national prosecutor's office. |
Accident investigation reopened |
| June 11 |
Ryndam
Holland America
Line |
From a passenger: Yesterday,
the ship turned back to Kristiansand after approx. half an
hour after departure.
The cause was acute illness of a male passenger. The ship
docked again after approx. 25 minutes and the passenger was
taken by ambulance to the hospital in Kristiansand. The
condition is uncertain. After a two-hour delay the ship
continued again to Stavanger and arrived on time this
morning. |
Delay for medical emergency |
| June 7 |
Crystal Syphony
Crystal Cruises |
The
Telegram reports the second cruise ship of the season,
the Crystal Symphony, has cancelled its call to port in St.
John’s on June 8. The ship, which was due to dock Sunday,
will bypass St. John’s due to “poor marine conditions.” The
Symphony’s schedule takes it to Reykjavik, Iceland, after
leaving port in New York on June 1. |
Canceled port call |
| June 7 |
Carnival Valor
Carnival Cruise Lines |
SKN
Vibes reports the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis
Police Force is making investigations into an incident of
assault that occurred on a cruise vessel which was berthed
at Porte Zante yesterday (Jun. 6). Unconfirmed reports
suggest that an act of sexual assault may have been
perpetrated against one of the cruise passengers by one of
the vessel’s crew members.SKNVibes understands that the
authorities on St. Kitts were made aware of the situation
and investigations had begun. The Police Force’s Press and
Public Relations Officer Inspector Lyndon David - when
contacted by this publication and questioned about this
issue - declared that he could not confirm or deny at that
moment. St.
Kitts and Nevis Observer reports local police took a
crew member into custody on June 6. The cruise vessel left
port later than its scheduled time due to the incident.
|
Sexual assault |
| June 5 |
Elation
Carnival Cruise Lines |
From a passenger:
At 7:20 am Thursday June 5 just before debarkation in New
Orleans a passenger on Main M51 was arrested by several
ship security guards as well as custom agents on hoard. He
was led off the ship with his hands cuffed behind his
back. About a 40+ yr old white male. Passengers we're not
allowed to enter their cabins or walk past the cabin as
the agents we're arresting the man. If anyone has
further details about this, please send them along. |
Pax arrested |
| June 5 |
Grandeur
of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International |
From a passenger:
I was on the May 23rd departure from Baltimore and I over
head security saying someone was missing. It ended up
being this woman named April. She was seen (the night
before) at the Schooner Bar fighting with a male, knocking
drinks over on the piano. Next day, she was missing and
TSA boarded our boat when we reached shore on May 30. If
anyone has details about this, please send them along. |
Pax missing |
| June 5 |
Disney Fantasy
Disney Cruise
Line |
From a passenger:
We were on the disney fantasy on May 24-31st. We had
a very large group with us. Out of thirty eight people 12
people with vomiting. |
?Illness? |
| June 5 |
Millennium Diamond
City Cruises |
The London
Evening Standard reports 9 people have been injured
after a pleasure cruiser crashed into Tower Bridge today,
lifeboat crews said. The ship hit the iconic bridge at
around 11.55am, leaving one woman with serious injuries and
a further eight people needing treatment. One woman, aged
64, was taken as a priority to the Royal London Hospital for
treatment for pelvic and head injuries. She is believed to
have tumbled down a flight of metal stairs aboard the boat
upon impact. It is unclear what caused the collision. |
Collision |
| June 1 |
Infinity
Celebrity
Cruises |
From a passenger: On the 5/12
sailing of the Infinity, during dinner time just after
leaving the port of Le Havre, France on 5/13, the Infinity
suffered a total loss of all power and propulsion, while
still in the shipping lane. Emergency lights did come right
on, and the cruise director made regular reports about the
resoration of power. Two tugs raced to the scene to keep
this ship from drifting into nearby obstacles. Power and
propulsion were restored within about two hours, but we were
surprised that a total failure could occur. No explanation
has yet been provided by Celebrity as to what caused the
problem and why hotel power AND propulsion were both lost.
The Chief Engineer told some passengers that it was a power
maangement problem. This could have been a very dangerous
problem in this location. |
Loss of power |
| May 30 |
Navigator of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International |
Jamaica
Gleaner reports two American male cruise ship
passengers are now in custody aboard the ship, which docked
in Falmouth yesterday morning. The men were accused of
raping a female passenger who they were partying with the
night before on the vessel. The rape reportedly occurred at
5:30 yesterday morning, some 50 miles outside Jamaican
waters. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance
from the Jamaican police is investigating the incident. The
ship returns to Galveston on Saturday, where the accused
will be processed. |
Rape |
| May 28 |
Independence of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International |
BBC
reports a six-year-old British boy is in a "grave" condition
in a French hospital after being found unconscious in a
cruise ship's swimming pool. The child's heart had stopped
when he was found, a port official told the AFP news agency.
The ship's doctor got his heart beating again and he was
transferred to hospital in Brest by helicopter. |
Child found unconscious in pool |
| May 27 |
Louis Joliett
Croisieres AML |
Global
Post reports 12 people suffered various injuries
Monday afternoon when the ship slammed into a pier during
berthing at Quebec City. Quebec ambulance officials say a
few of the injured were transported to hospital but none of
the injuries are life-threatening. The Transportation Safety
Board of Canada says it is sending a team of investigators
to the scene to find out what happened. The ship was
carrying about 60 people at the time of the incident.
It has capacity of 1,000 passengers. |
Collision with pier |
| May 25 |
Safari Endeavour
Un-cruise Adventures |
The Vessel
Sanitation Program reports the ship failed its
sanitation inspection with a score of 68. |
Failed health inspection |
| May 23 |
Norwegian Breakaway
Norwegian Cruise Line |
The Royal
Gazette reports a 25-year-old American cruise ship
passenger has been fined $500 for calling a police officer a
“f***ing stupid b***h.” she was arrested by police and
Customs officers as part of an investigation into possible
drugs on board the ship. She said she was not told why she
was being arrested, and that the arresting officer
repeatedly ignored her cries of pain when placed in
handcuffs, intimating that the officer intentionally tried
to hurt her by twisting the middle part of the handcuffs.
She said that it was only after she repeatedly informed the
officer that she was being hurt that she began cursing.
Police eventually found two grams of marijuana within her
cabin’s safe, which was subsequently claimed by the man
sharing her cabin, Vega told Magistrates’ Court yesterday. |
Drug bust |
| May 23 |
Norwegian Breakaway
Norwegian Cruise Line |
Bermuda
Sun reports the death of 60-year-old who was a guest
on board the Norwegian Cruise Line. The man was traveling
east along Cockburn Road in Sandys on livery cycle, with a
pillion passenger, when it appears that he veered into the
westbound lane and collided with a boundary wall and a tree
along the sidewalk. He was taken to hospital where he was
pronounced dead at 8:15pm (Thursday Evening). |
Death ashore |
| May 22 |
Swiss Diamond |
The Slovak
Spectator reports the ship struck a pillar of the Old
Bridge in Bratislava, which is currently being disassembled
and replaced. The accident was reported to the medical
rescue Service around 9:00 AM, spokesperson of Operational
Centre Boris Chmel told the TASR newswire. Chmel added that
seven people were injured in the crash - six women and one
man. Three ambulances were sent to the site, as well as
firemen and one fire car. The ship was hauled away to a
nearby harbour. Five people were taken to three hospitals
falling under the University Hospital Bratislava, with four
minor and one medium-to-serious injury, hospital
spokesperson Petra Stano Ma?ašovská told TASR. Chmel
specified the injuries sustained were flesh wounds on
people’s heads and limbs. Swiss Diamond belongs to the Swiss
shipping company Scylla AG. It was produced in 1996 and
operates on the Danube river between the German city of
Passau and Hungary. |
Collission with bridge |
| May 22 |
Independence of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International |
Norwegian
Coastal Administration reports the ship was arrested
and detained at Alesund for nonpayment pilot fees. Pilot
associations complain that it can take three months to a
year for some cruise lines to pay their bills. In this case,
the unpaid bill of $1 million is from October 2013; it was
paid within an hour and the ship released. |
Arrested for not paying bills |
| May 19 |
Bahamas Celebration
Celebration Cruise Line |
CDC reports the ship failed its health inspection on July 31 with a scrore of 82 (Inspection scores of 85 or lower are considered unsatisfactory) |
Failed health inspection |
| May 19 |
Hermod
Viking River Cruises |
From a passenger: on Friday,
May 16, at approximately 3:35 PM local time. We had left
Lyon, France, cruising north on the Saone River. The Chief
Engineer had started giving a talk about the operational
features of this new ship when his pager went off and
sounded an alarm. He looked at the pager, and said it was a
minor alarm and that someone else would take of it. Not two
minutes later, the ship went straight into the riverbank. It
was at a point in the river where we had just passed under a
bridge and the river made a left turn. But the ship did not
turn to follow the river channel. We had been cruising at
about 8-10 knots, and there was no indication that anyone on
the bridge had tried to avoid hitting the bank or tried to
slow the forward progress of the vessel. We slammed into the
riverbank, and broke several trees along the bank. The tree
branches broke several glass panes that line the terrace on
the bow of the ship. Fortunately, the damage to the ship was
minor. There was no structural damage, and no one on the
ship was injured. The crew has now replaced the broken glass
with some temporary plastic panels, and the ship has sailed
on its next scheduled voyage. |
Aground |
| May 19 |
Costa
Deliziosa
Costa Cruises |
Seatrade
Insider reports the electrical power supply and all
essential services were restored 'after a few hours.'
However, the problem delayed yesterday evening’s departure
and the ship remains in port. The cause of the technical
problem is still under investigation and specialized
technicians are on site, Costa said. Passengers have been
offered complimentary shore activities today in Valencia and
the line’s care team is providing assistance on the ground.
The company has planned return charter flights to Rome and
Genoa on Tuesday for those passengers scheduled to disembark
and end their cruise in Italy. Costa is also
extending a refund of 50% of the ticket price and a credit
of €100 per person toward expenses incurred on board, in
addition to the free Valencia tours. In a statement Monday
afternoon, Costa said it is working to find alternative
options for passengers scheduled to join the vessel in
Civitavecchia May 20. The line said a solution was expected
to be fixed and communicated over the next hours -- it is
understood that that cruise has been canceled. |
Loss of power / canceled cruise |
| May 17 |
Sapphire Saga
Saga Cruises |
BBC
reports the ship was stranded off the Isle of Mull after an
electrical fire. An emergency was declared on the Saga
Sapphire when the fire broke out at about 10:00 on Friday,
knocking out the ship's power supply. Coastguard crews
provided support while the ship's own crew dealt with the
problem. The liner was expected to resume its voyage on
Saturday following repairs. There were no reports of
injuries. Saga Holidays UK tweeted: "The ship is currently
anchored, in fine weather, off the Isle of Mull whilst the
damaged electrical panel is repaired and tested. |
Electrical fire |
| May 15 |
Sovereign
Pullmantur
Cruises |
Cruise
Law News reports the ship suffered an engine failure
on one of its two main engines on May 10th while sailing
from Barcelona to Tunis. It then limped instead to
Naples for repairs. Its current owner/operator, Pullmantur
Cruises, attempted to repair the cruise ship in Naples but
the repair pair attempts were unsuccessful. The ship was
re-positioned to Civitavecchia and the cruise was
cancelled. The plans are now to undergo repairs at a
shipyard in Marseille in the hope that it will be able to
cruise under full power at the end of May. According
to one
news account, the cruise line company said it
regretted "deeply" the interruption of the cruise, thanking
passengers for "patience and collaboration." It said
that it will return the fare for the cruise, and reimburse
passenger expenses related to the problem with the ship. It
also offered a 60% discount on the purchase of another
Pullmantur cruise. |
Engine problems/ Cancelation |
| May 10 |
Oasis of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International |
From a passenger: Stumbled
upon your site looking for some more details beyond what was
said onboard on the Oasis early Saturday morning. It was
pretty stressful and woke up everyone on the ship! Here's a
quick timeline of what went down a few hours before we
returned to port: 3AM EST - Announcement in halls with
something along the lines of "Bravo Bravo Bravo, incinerator
room deck 1 zone 7" 3:10AM EST - Another in hall, not rooms
- "Staging area - rear aft luggage area deck 2" 3:15AM EST -
"Front line, engine control room, deck 1" ... nothing for an
hour except a lot of crew running around. roughly 4:10AM EST
- captain comes on and addresses everyone, in room, in both
english and a translator in Portuguese. Summary was - "Was
an incident in the incinerator room that caused a lot of
smoke, it is under control and you can return to bed" |
?Fire? |
| May 10 |
Maasdam
Holland America
Line |
The Cape
Breton Post reports high winds have led to the
cancellation of the second cruise ship visit of the 2014
season to Cape Breton. The ship was scheduled to dock in
Sydney this morning, but the threat of high winds later in
the day led to a decision to bypass the port this time
around. |
Missed port call |
| May 7 |
Queen Mary 2
Cunard Line |
BBC
reports the cruise line has abandoned plans to release
10,000 balloons following concerns about the impact on
wildlife. Cunard said it had cancelled the planned release
from Queen Mary 2 following a social media campaign. Posting
a message on its Facebook page, the cruise company said: "We
have taken your advice and we will no longer be doing the
balloon release." The event formed part of the ship's 10th
anniversary celebrations in Southampton on Friday. |
Cancel balloon release |
| May 7 |
Seven Seas Navigator
Regent Seven Seas |
A passenger reports the ship arrived in San
Diego 30 minutes late and passengers were not allowed to
disembark for three hours. It is unclear what happened,
except it is known that law enforcement authorities boarded
the ship when it arrived. If anyone has additional details please let us know. |
Delayed disembarkation |
| May 7 |
Carnival Paradise
Carnival Cruise Lines |
Cruise
Law News reports last night a cruise passenger, @omasaid, tweeted
that a fire may have broken out after the cruise
ship left Cozumel. Around 12:36 AM, he tweeted: "Keep
us in ur prayers folks, white smoke maybe a fire is
billowing from top of our cruise #carnival#paradise
we r in the middle of ocean" At 12:40 AM he
tweeted: "Update #carnival #paradise still no A/C
people appear to be calm, Captain stated we r proceeding
to Tampa maybe cruise is shortened..." At 1:29 AM,
he left this final tweet: "Update: #carnival #paradise
all systems appear to b stable. A/C is operational,
although another carnival ship traveling oddly close to
us" We received this statement from Carnival this
morning: "Earlier this morning while the Carnival Paradise
was en route from Cozumel to its homeport of Tampa, an air
conditioning compressor overheated causing some smoke in the
forward section of the ship. Shipboard personnel immediately
responded and addressed the situation. All safety and hotel
systems are operating normally and the ship is expected to
arrive in Tampa Thursday morning as scheduled. Announcements
were made keeping guests apprised of the situation and the
U.S. Coast Guard was notified as per standard protocol.
Carnival Paradise is currently operating a five-day cruise
that departed Tampa on Saturday, part of its year-round
four- and five-day schedule from that port." |
?Fire?
Smoke
|
| May 6 |
Poesia
MSC Cruises |
The
Portugal News reports 132 kilos of cocaine was seized
on board a cruise liner docked in Funchal over the weekend,
the police in Portugal’s Special Administrative Region of
Madeira announced Monday. Madeira police arrest three
foreign cruise passengers over cocaine smuggling. In a
statement, the police said three non-national males, aged
29, 32 and 33, had been taken into custody in relation to
the find. The same source said that the drugs were found
inside their backpacks, on their bodies and also stored away
inside their cabin. The find was made onboard the vessel
"MSC Poesia" that had stopped off in Funchal after having
arriving from Argentina, Brazil, the Canaries, Spain and was
due next in Vigo. |
Drug bust |
| May 4 |
Norwegian Breakaway
Norwegian Cruise Line |
NBC
New York reports the ship became stuck in the Hudson
River off Manhattan Sunday morning after one of the vessel's
thrusters malfunctioned, officials said. According to the
Coast Guard, the ship reported a problem with its steering
system at around 7:40 a.m. The Coast Guard issued a tug
assist plan and the boat was tugged to Pier 88 on West 48th
Street just after 10 a.m., once the tide had changed. A
passenger aboard the cruise ship said they were coming back
from a 7-day Caribbean cruise and had been scheduled to
unload at the pier at 7:30 a.m. NCL released a statement
Sunday saying the ship had been delayed because of "strong
currents in the Hudson River." NBC
New York subsequently reported a dead 30-foot whale
found on the Brooklyn side of New York Harbor Monday morning
may have gotten tangled in the steering system of a cruise
ship, disabling the boat for several hours, authorities said
Tuesday. The 45-year-old whale was found near Pier 4 on
Monday, and towed to the New Jersey side of the harbor. It
was found during a necropsy Tuesday to have blunt force
trauma and broken ribs. The NOAA Fisheries Service said it
is believed to have been struck by the Norwegian Cruise
Lines ship, which then stalled for several hours in the
Hudson River as it was preparing to dock in Manhattan
Sunday. The fisheries service said it's not known if the
whale was killed by the ship or if it was already dead when
it was hit. |
Mechanical problems - delayed debarkation |
| May 2 |
Norwegian Gem
Norwegian Cruise Line |
From a passenger: I was on the
ship on (4/23/14 - 5/2/14) ..when we left NY we had to turn
around because of a "medical emergency" which ended up
making the news and TV a woman got injured in the eye with a
flying champagne cork (see NY
Post) ..then while at sea the stablizers stopped
working and the boat was rocking...then after we left
St.Thomas on 4/28/14 the Captain came on and made an
announcement that a few people reported stomach pain to the
infirmary and to wash you hands and they put the hand
santizer machine thingys in every elevator to prevent any
more people from getting sick. |
Multiple items |
| May 1 |
Multiple ships |
CTV
reports an international trade union is calling on a cruise
ship to bypass Cape Breton until a simmering labour dispute
is settled at the Port of Sydney.
Gerard Bradbury, an inspector with the International
Transport Workers' Federation, says he has submitted the
request to Nautilus, the union in the Netherlands
representing workers aboard the MS Veendam, a Holland
America Lines cruise ship. The vessel is slated to be
Sydney's first cruise ship of the season on May 7. The
federation is protesting a recent decision by Sydney Ports
Corp. to replace 13 unionized stevedores with six
non-unionized workers. The stevedores, member of the Unifor
Local 4624, had handled cruise ship arrivals and departures
for years. Sydney Ports Corp. has said it chose to end its
reliance on third-party contractors after a workplace
accident in October involving a stevedore. The non-profit
corporation has said it hired its own people to bring them
under its safety rules. |
Dispute over unionized labour |
| April 30 |
Unkown |
The
Bahamas Weekly reports a 58 year old man of Spring
Hill, Florida is in custody after he was arrested for
possession of dangerous drugs on Tuesday 29th April 2014.
According to reports, around 3:30pm, Officers from the
Tourism Police Unit (TPU) acting on information, went
onboard a Cruise ship docked at the Prince George Wharf,
where they arrested the man who had a quantity of marijuana
in his possession. The man will appear in later today to be
formally charged. |
Drug bust |
| April 28 |
Thomson Majesty |
FYI -- Recently released: Marine
Safety Investigation Report: Safety investigation into the
failure of a lifeboat wire rope fall resulting in five
fatalities and three injuries onboard the Maltese
registered passenger ship Thomason Majesty while alogside
in Santa Cruz de Palma on 10 February 2013, Marine Safety
Investigation Report No. 05/2014, Transport Malta |
Accident investigation report released |
| April 27 |
Bahamas
Celebration
Celebration
Cruise Lines |
CBS
reports the U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a 30 year old
man who went overboard from a cruise ship returning to South
Florida. Shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday, they received word of
a male who went overboard from the crew of the Bahamas
Celebration. The ship had departed Freeport, Bahamas on
Saturday around 6 p.m. and was heading to West Palm Beach
when the man went overboard. The company said the ship did
turn around when they realized the man, who was from South
Carolina, was missing and searched for him but was
unsuccessful. The ship arrived back in West Palm Beach
around 9:30 a.m. Fox
4 reports the ship was unprepared to launch a search
-- that it was hapahazard and poorly orchestrated. |
Pax overboard |
| April 26 |
Unkown |
The
Bahamas Weekly reports a 28 year old woman of
Southbridge, Massachusetts and a 27 year old woman of
Waltham, Massachusetts are in custody after they were
arrested for possession of dangerous drugs on Friday 25th
April 2014. According to reports, around 9:30am, Officers
from the Tourism Police Unit (TPU) acting on information,
went onboard a Cruise ship docked at the Prince George Dock,
where they arrested the two women who had a quantity of
marijuana in their possession. The two women will appear in
court early next week to be formally charged. |
Drug bust |
| April 26 |
Crystal Serenity
Crystal Cruises |
Keith
on Cruise Critic reports he learned that last night
at around 1:30 AM a rogue wave likely hit the ship because
three windows in the Crystal Dining Room were blown in and
of course water also came in. Thankfully this occurred at
the middle of the night and not when the dining room was
open and thankfully the night crew who was in the dining
room doing their nightly cleaning was on the other side of
the room when this occurred. As a result, no one was
injured. They have already begun making repairs and the
Dining Room will be open for dinner. It was closed for
Breakfast and will be closed for lunch so guests will dine
at the other dining venues including The Lido Cafe, Tastes,
The Trident Grill (lunch and late eating) and The Bistro.
|
Rogue wave breaks out windows |
| April 25 |
Island Escape TUI Cruises |
The Daily
Mail reports nearly 200 passengers have been awarded
hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation after being
struck down by a vomiting bug on board ‘atrocious’ cruises.
Holidaymakers had to endure overflowing toilets,
urine-covered floors and lukewarm food on the Island Escape,
on which they suffered diarrhoea, stomach cramps and severe
sickness. TUI, the cruise operator, has now agreed to pay a
substantial six-figure settlement to the passengers, who
travelled on board the ship to destinations including
Morocco, Gibraltar, Madeira and Las Palmas between December
2009 and June 2010. The cruise line denied liability.
But travel lawyers at Irwin Mitchell have now secured a
settlement of ‘several hundred thousand pounds’ from TUI in
compensation. This was for more than 100 passengers who have
been ill and dozen whose holiday was ruined as a result.
Passengers affected are expected to receive up to £10,000
each. Irwin Mitchell is also representing a 117 further
passengers who have made similar claims following trips on
the same cruise ship in 2012 and 2013. |
Lawsuit - payout for illness outbreak |
| April 25 |
Explorer of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International |
North
Jersey dot Com reports Aislinn Hamilton, 33, of New
York City was passing through U.S. Customs around 10:30 a.m.
when agents detected a strong odor of marijuana. Agents
searched Hamilton and her luggage and uncovered six grams of
marijuana and one gram of cocaine, plus a grinder with
marijuana residue, Port Authority police said. Port
Authority police charged Hamilton with possession of
controlled dangerous substance and possession of drug
paraphernalia. She was released and faces a court appearance
on April 30, Port Authority police spokesman Joe Pentangelo
said. The Explorer of the Sea had returned from Bermuda
around 10 a.m. Thursday. |
Drug bust |
| April 25 |
Volendam
Holland America
Line |
KTOO
reports the ship skipped its port call at Kodiak because of
weather conditions and instead will make a port call at
Juneau. According the
Kodiak Mirror the ship dropped anchor in Kodiak
harbour but didn't deploy its tenders. It is on its way from
Japan to Vancouver. But a passenger says, "We did skip the
port of Kodiak Alaska due to bad weather but we never
dropped anchor there. The nearest we got to Kodiak was about
300 miles due south. On 24 April, the day before getting to
Kodiak, the ship's captain told us that the itinerary had
been changed to Juneau because of high winds in the Kodiak
area. After Juneau, we were back on schedule for Glacier Bay
and Ketchikan." |
Skipped port |
| April 24 |
Veendam
Holland America
Line |
From a passenger: Currently
waiting to board the Veendam. The checkin time was moved to
4pm early this morning and now at the terminal they are
telling us the ship will not be arriving until 6:30pm and
checkin will start at around 7pm. Apparently the ship was in
Freeport's drydock for a week and had a late departure from
there. HAL is offering shuttles to downtown FLL locations
and is providing box lunches and refreshments for those
waiting in the terminal. |
Delayed embarkation |
| April 24 |
Oscar Wilde
Irish Ferries |
The Independent
reports about 50 passengers spent their second night on a
broken-down Irish Ferries cruise liner after a technical
fault cancelled a Cherbourg to Rosslare sailing. A
spokesperson for the company said the nature of the problem,
which relates to an integral part of the ship's radar
system, is very technical and a specialist engineer and
parts are this morning en route to the stricken liner.
However, he said it is likely to be this evening "at the
very earliest" before the problem is resolved and passengers
may have to spend a third night on the vessel. The problem
surfaced on Tuesday afternoon – at which point passengers
went on social network sites to vent their frustration after
they were told they would have to spend the night on the
Oscar Wilde craft. One said a protest had begun on board,
after ferry staff had failed to inform passengers of
alternate arrangements. The majority of the stranded
passengers made new travel arrangements on alternative
sailing routes arranged by Irish Ferries and arrived home
yesterday afternoon. But last night a spokesperson said a
group of approximately 50 people had decided to wait for the
vessel to be repaired and remain in Cherbourg. "We have
sourced the part and an engineer will now have to travel to
Cherbourg to do the work . . . I'd say we'd be lucky to get
the work done by tomorrow evening," the spokesperson said. |
Broken down |
| April 23 |
Pacific Pearl
P&O Australia |
Coastal
Leader reports The ship's port call at Robe, Australia
was called off at the last minute because of sea conditions.
The decision angered and disappointed locals, who had gone
to great lengths to plan for rolling out the red carpet and
had expected $40,000 to be injected into the region's
economy. It's the second time in 18 months a planned cruise
ship visit for Robe has fallen through. |
Skipped port call |
| April 19 |
Safari Quest
Un-cruise Adventures |
The Vessel
Sanitation Program reports the ship failed its
sanitation inspection with a score of 84. |
Failed health inspection |
| April 19 |
Grace
Viking Line |
The
Local reports three Saturday morning sailors had a
lucky escape after their small boat collided and sank after
it crashed into a cruise ship whilst sailing in the
Stockholm archipelago. The incident unfolded just before
midday when the little vessel smacked into the Viking Line
cruiser, which was en route to Finland. The cruise ship
Grace had left Stockholm earlier in the morning carrying
1,827 passengers. Emergency services were quickly on the
scene and locals from the island of Marö assisted with the
rescue. Two men and a woman were retrieved from the water
and treated for shock. Eyewitness Sara Eklund said foggy
conditions likely contributed to the accident and described
the trio's survival as "miraculous." She estimated that the
incident took place 200 metres from the shore. "They must
have missed the boat and sailed straight into the Finnish
ferry. It's a pretty big boat. They sunk and all went in at
once," she told TT. The incident temporarily delayed the
cruise ship which was heading to Åbo via Mariehamm but it
resumed its course shortly after the drama. |
Collision with cruise ship |
| April 18 |
Carnival Miracle
Carnival Cruise Lines |
USA
Today reports has had to slow its maximum speed from
21 knots to 18 to 20 knots, depending on wind and sea
conditions, due to what it is calling a "technical issue."
Carnival says all safety and hotel systems on the ship are
operating normally, but the slower speed will force changes
to more than a dozen of the vessel's upcoming Alaska and
Hawaii sailings -- 15 port calls to Ketchikan have been
canceled and many port calls to Skagway have also been
canceled. A repair to fix the problem won't be done until
the Carnival Miracle enters a drydock in early 2015 for
previously scheduled maintenance, the line says. In a post
on his Facebook page, Carnival senior cruise director John
Heald says the company considered sending the ship to a
drydock immediately for repairs but concluded that would
disrupt the vacations of too many customers as it would have
resulted in entire cruises being canceled. Executives
decided to keep the ship in service operating modified
itineraries "primarily to avoid the cancellation of Alaska
vacations for thousands of our guests, and that may have
included your cruise," NOTE:The company
would prefer to inconvenience people with changed
itineraries and not delivering what was promised when
booked, then inconveniencing itself by losing money by
canceling cruises and putting the ship in drydock to fix a
problem. As the cruise line would say, "they are altering
itineraries and varying the product for the convenience of
their passengers." |
Propulsion problems |
| April 17 |
Independence of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International |
From a passenger: I am on the
April 12 sailing and there is a noro outbreak. Only numbers
I have heard was 30 cases two days ago and 10 yesterday by
noon. Apparently it was bad yesterday afternoon and evening.
Buffet is no longer self serve. Captain and CD repeatedly
tell everyone to wash their hands and sanitize. Purrell
stands everywhere. |
?Illness? |
| April 17 |
Carnival Victory
Carnival Cruise Lines |
KeysInfoNet
reports Matthew Brennecke, 38, of Cuday, Wis., was booted
from the ship while it was in port Friday. Stephanie Bunzel,
40, of Milwaukee was allowed to stay on the vessel and
continue the journey to Mexico. Apparently the couple was on
a trip to celebrate Bunzel's birthday, which was Thursday.
Key West police say the tussle started at a Best Western
hotel in Miami because Brennecke was upset about being late
for a shuttle to the ship. Then it became a case of he said,
she said. Bunzel told Key West police officer Derek Wallis
that Brennecke threw a drink at her and pushed her, and said
she only got on the shuttle because Brennecke had her
luggage. Brennecke told Wallis there was no physical
confrontation, only an argument, except that Bunzel had
burned him on his arm with a cigarette and that she had
"lost her mind." He said he never touched Bunzel, and Wallis
found no signs of an altercation in their stateroom, even
though Bunzel told the officer Brennecke tried to put a
pillow over her face. She ran off and found a security
officer, who called police. |
Man evicted |
| April 16 |
Enchantment
and Adventure of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International |
The
Tribune (Bahamas) reports five poassengers have been
arrested and fined, four for possession of a small amount of
marijuana; one for a small amount of cocaine. In most cases
the drugs were brought onboard when the passengers joined
the shop, and they were arrested after police were invited
onboard by the cruise line. Acccording to the news report, a
28 year old man was arrested with 1 gram of pot, a 27 year
old was caught with 2 grams of pot, a 37 year old man was
arrested with 2 grams of cocaine, a 61 year old was caught
with 5 grams of pot, and a 60 year old woman was arrested
with 5 grams of pot. Each was fined(collectively $3100) and
released. |
Drug busts x 5 |
| April 16 |
MV Sewol Korean ferrry |
BBC
reports almost 300 people remain unaccounted for after a
ferry carrying 459 people capsized and sank off South Korea.
The ferry (built in 1994), carrying mainly school students,
was travelling from the port of Incheon, in the north-west,
to the southern resort island of Jeju. Emergency teams are
using floodlights and flares to search the stricken vessel
through the night. Those rescued have been taken to a nearby
island. Four people are now said to have died and dozens of
others have been hurt. South Korean officials had earlier
said that 368 people had been plucked to safety, but later
said there had been a counting error. They have now revised
down the number rescued to 174. Images showed the ferry
listing at a severe angle and then later almost completely
submerged, with only a small part of its hull visible. It
sank within two hours of sending a distress signal, reports
said. There are fears this could turn out to be South
Korea's biggest maritime disaster for more than 20 years. It
is not yet clear what caused the incident, but witnesses
described hearing an impact, before the ship listed and
quickly sank. One passenger told the YTN news channel: "We
heard a big thumping sound and the boat stopped." |
Sunk |
| April 15 |
Marina
Oceania Cruises |
Pacific
Islands Report reports the ship has shortened its
two-day trip to Rarotonga after finding out its that
passengers and crew members would each have to pay a NZ$65
[US$56] departure tax. Oceania Cruises’ Marina had planned
to arrive on Monday morning and leave today, making it one
of few cruise ships to have ever stopped over for a night.
Under the Departure Tax Act 2012, anyone who stops in the
Cook Islands for longer than 24 hours must pay a $65 tax
upon leaving the country. When informed of this law a week
ago, Oceania Cruises decided to skip Monday and arrive today
so its 1250-odd passengers and crew of 760 would not be
liable for the tax. Matina Travel, the ship’s local agent,
said it is "very disappointed" with the Revenue Management
Division’s decision to charge departure tax. "What would
they prefer, for us to make about $100,000 on departure tax
and lose these ships coming in? The ship has said if there
are too many difficulties they’re not going to come back at
all," said ports operations manager Vina Manuel. It will be
a big loss to the economy if cruise ship companies decide to
take Rarotonga off the itinerary, she said. She said the tax
should have been waived because the visitors are not staying
on land. Metua Vaiimene, Cook Islands Tourism Corporation’s
(CITC) Director of Destination Development, said the problem
stems from a lack of communication from Matina Travel.
Matina notified CITC and the relevant Government agencies
only last week that the ship was coming for two days.
Everyone thought the ship was arriving and leaving on the
same day, April 9. "Matina Travel needs to improve its
communication," Vaiimene said. If it the information had
come through earlier, there may have been more time to
negotiate waiving the tax, he said. Alternatively, the
shipping company could have had time to look at including
the departure tax in its passenger fees. |
Change in itinerary |
| April 13 |
Grand
Princess
Princess Cruises |
From a passenger: Left on
schedule from Sam Francisco at 4pm ( or so) and did not make
it to the golden gate before turning around and heading back
in.. do not know why... as of this moment, cruised beyond
terminal. An hour later: looks like it is
now headed back toward the bridge... different |
Delay |
| April 11 |
Empress
Pullmantur
Cruises |
G1
Globo reports police in Santos
arrested a Honduran crewmember with almost 100 pounds of
cocaine.The drug had the
final destination of Europe.According to police,
the ship docked at the Port of Santos at around 7am on
Thursday (10) . The Federal Police
conducted a routine inspection with the crew and found
333 casings of drugs packed in PVC film and packaging of
coffee. They were
in two bags and two travel bags. He used coffee to disguise
the characteristic smell of cocaine. The
crewmember said the drug would have been shipped,
gradually, in three ports : Buenos Aires , Santos and
Itajai.According to
the Federal Police investigations continue to identify
suppliers, intermediaries and buyers of drugs. |
Drug bust |
| April 11 |
Grandeur
of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International |
CDC
reports 97 of
2120 passengers (4.58%) and 8 of 808 crew (0.99%) have
reported ill with gastrointestinal illness. Two CDC
Vessel Sanitation Program environmental health officers
and an epidemiologist will board the ship in Baltimore,
MD on April 12, 2014 to conduct an epidemiologic
investigation, environmental health assessment, and
evaluate the outbreak and response activities.The ship
was on a 7 day cruise from Baltimore (2nd illness
outbreak in a row). |
Illness |
| April 11 |
Disney Dream
Disney Cruise
Line |
My
News 13 reports a Disney Cruise Line crew member was
arrested Thursday morning and accused of molesting a 13 year old girl. Canaveral Port Authority Police responded to Cape
Canaveral around 8 a.m. in reference to a lewd or lascivious
molestation that occurred aboard the Disney Dream cruise
ship while it was docked in Port Canaveral. Ahmed Sofyan,
36, of Jakarta, Indonesia, was arrested and charged with two
counts of lewd or lascivious molestation and one count of
false imprisonment on a 13-year-old girl. He is accused of luring a 13 year old passenger into an empty cabin on the last day of the cruise and molesting her. |
Sexual assault of child |
| April 11 |
QN3736 Vietnamese Cruise Ship |
Tuoitrenews
reports reports a cruise ship carrying 23 people, including
over a dozen foreign tourists, suddenly caught fire on
Thursday morning in Ha Long Bay, located in the northern
province of Quang Ninh. At the time of the fire, there were
five crew members, one catering attendant, and 17
passengers, including 15 foreign tourists. However, there
were no immediate reports of human casualties. Preliminary
investigation found that after touring the bay on Wednesday
and staying overnight, people on board ship number QN3736
headed ashore at around 10:30 am today. The flames were then
detected by the boat’s crew members when it was traveling
near Trong Mai Islet. The crewmen immediately sent distress
signals while collaborating with other ships nearby to
evacuate those onboard the fire-hit ship. After receiving
the signals, local rescuers arrived at the scene and put the
flames out around one hour later. Authorities in Ha Long
City has confirmed the fire and said QN3736 belongs to Cuu
Long Ltd. Company, a Vietnamese firm. |
Fire |
| April 10 |
Grandeur of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International |
From a passenger: Received the
following from RCI - Hello, this is Royal Caribbean
International. We would like to provide you with some
important information regarding your Saturday, April 12th,
sailing onboard Grandeur of the Seas out of the Port of
Baltimore. During the ship's last sailing, a number of
guests experienced a gastrointestinal illness. We will
conduct enhanced sanitizing onboard the ship and within the
terminal to help prevent any illness from affecting your
cruise. Therefore, your check-in and boarding will be
significantly delayed. Because space and seating is limited
in the facility, guests will not be able to access the
terminal until 3:30 PM. Check in for your cruise will now
take place between 3:30 PM and 5:30 PM. We appreciate your
understanding and cooperation and we look forward to
welcoming you onboard. NOTE:The same email
was sent to passengers last week - see April 4. |
?Illness? |
| April 8 |
Crown
Princess
Princess Cruises |
CBS
in San Francisco reports thirty-seven passengers have
contracted gastrointestinal intestinal illness caused by the
Norovirus, which is common but extremely contagious. The
ship’s crew has stepped up sanitation procedures on the ship
to prevent further spread. None of the stricken passengers
left the ship after docking in San Francisco, opting to
continue sailing on the seven-day coastal cruise that
departed from Los Angeles. The ship is on its way to Santa
Barbara. CNN
reports the number of ill has increased to 66 passengers and
17 crew members. The LA
Times reports there are 83 sick passengers. UPDATE
April 11:
CDC reports 122 of 3161 passengers (3.86%) and 30 of 1176
crew (2.55%) have reported ill with gastrointestinal
illness. A CDC Vessel Sanitation Program environmental
health officer will board the ship in Los Angeles, CA on
April 12, 2014 to conduct a targeted environmental
health assessment, and evaluate the outbreak and
response activities. The ship was on a 7-day cruise from
Los Angeles. |
Illness |
| April 8 |
Norwegian Dawn
Norwegian Cruise Line |
From a reader: My Mother and
Father are on the Norwegian Dawn cruise ship, they left
yesterday at 4pm (4/6/14). The captain came on the overhead
system today (at around 6:00pm) and announced that due to a
recent shooting in Honduras they would be bypassing
Honduras, where they were scheduled to go tomorrow at
10:00am. They will have a extra Sea Day instead. They said
at this time they do not feel it is safe to go into Roatan
and they believe that the gunman has been apprehended. |
Skipped port call |
| April 6 |
Norwegian Pearl
Norwegian Cruise Line |
Cruise
Law News reports it received reliable information that
a Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) crew member was shot and
killed in Roatan, Honduras earlier today. The 27 year old
Filipino crew member reportedly was from NCL's Norwegian
Pearl cruise ship. The only information we received
is that a Pearl crew member named "Jacob" from
the Philippines was killed by a gun shot today while the Norwegian
Pearl was in Roatan today. See also GMA
News. |
Crew member shot ashore |
| April 5 |
Ruby
Princess
Princess Cruises |
Clawson
Patch reports a lawsuit in which a Michigan man says
he fell into one of the famed canals in Venice, Italy, when
an excursion guide loosened his hold on one his hand while
assisting him out of a gondola. The 82 year old man alleges
negligence and breach of contract. His 76-year- old wife
witnessed the fall and is suing for emotional distress and
loss of consortium. According to the complaint, the Luks
were passengers on a cruise from Citavecchia, near Rome, to
Venice when they took a shore exclusion billed as an
"Evening Gondola Ride with Serenade" last May 23. Princess'
website touts its shore excursions as "carefully selected
and provided by reputable tour operators who meet high
standards of Princess," and assures passengers that their
"security and comfort are of paramount importance," the suit
states. The suit says that while the plaintiff was being
assisted in disembarking from the gondola at the end of the
excursion, the tour guide "let go of Luks' hand, causing him
to fall forward on the uneven, wet surface of the canal dock
stairs, striking his head and falling into the waters of the
Venetian canal." Luks ingested canal water, causing him to
suffer anoxia, pneumonia and an infection that left him on
life support, including a respirator, for 10 days, according
to his suit. |
Lawsuit - shore excursion |
| April 5 |
Preziosa
MSC Cruises |
MediTelegraph
reports the ship collided with the pier when docking at
Venice. Despite
the presence of two tugs and a pilot onboard, the ship
was too close to the bow toward the dock consequently
striking one of the finger piers (a passenger corridor
that allows passengers to disembark from higher decks to
the terminal building). The
collision, which damaged the starboard bow of the ship,
occurred on the day of the reopening of the San Marco
Basin to the mega- ships. |
Collision with pier |
| April 5 |
Carnival Pride
Carnival Cruise Lines |
Cruise
Critic reports three sailings have had their
itineraries cut short by one port to account for an
electrical transformer malfunction. According to Carnival PR
frontman Vance Gulliksen, the glitch means the ship must
sail more slowly than usual, so scheduled calls on Freeport
have been scrapped on the ship's current sailing, as well as
on its voyages departing April 6 and 13, to make up for lost
time. Passengers on the current voyage, which departed on
March 30, were each given $50 in onboard credit and 25
percent off a future cruise. On the April 6 voyage, Freeport
will be replaced with a call on Charleston, but calls on
Port Canaveral and Nassau will remain as scheduled.
Passengers will be offered 25 percent off a future cruise,
or they have the option to cancel their bookings pre-cruise
for a full refund. The April 13 voyage will call only on
Grand Turk and Half Moon Cay, with no substitute for the
missed call on Freeport. Passengers on that sailing have the
choice of cancelling for a full refund pre-cruise or opting
for $50 per person in onboard credit and 25 percent off a
future sailing. |
Electrical transformer malfunction -
itinerary changes |
| April 5 |
Pacific Dawn
P&O Australia |
Courier
Mail reports a night of “pole dancing” on a cruise
ship has ended in a $330,000 court battle for a Gold Coast
woman after she injured her arm. She lodged a claim in the
Southport District Court against P&O Cruises and its
parent company, Carnival, for $329,251. In the statement of
claim, it is alleged a group of women were “swinging and/or
pole dancing” next to a swimming pool on P&O’s Pacific
Dawn on February 8, 2012, uninhibited by staff. About 11pm
she also swung around the pole – but with painful
consequences. “One of the hooks on the pole penetrated the
skin on the plaintiff’s right arm,” court documents say. The
extent of the injury is not disclosed, but scarring and
psychological consequences are alleged. A Carnival spokesman
said it would defend the claim. |
Lawsuit |
| April 5 |
Oceana
P&O Cruises |
The
Daily Echo reports the ship will have to spend an
additional three days in Barcelona as the vessel undergoes
emergency repairs. In a letter to passengers, the company
said the ship has developed an issue with the seal that goes
around the propeller shaft. It means calls to Alghero,
Cartagena and La Courna have been replaced with an extended
stay in Barcelona. The company says sustomers will receive a
25 per cent cash refund. |
Propulsion problems - Stuck in Barcelona for
3 days |
| April 4 |
Boudicca
Fred Olsen Cruises |
Travel
Weekly reports a settlement of £42,500 has been
reached with 26 cruise passengers affected by norovirus.
Outbreaks hit six separate cruises on board the Fred Olsen
Cruise Lines ship Boudicca between November 2009 and April
2010, including the Christmas period. Many elderly
passengers were on board during the outbreaks which led to
severe symptoms including sickness, diarrhoea, and stomach
cramps. Fred Olsen agreed to the £42,500 settlement without
accepting responsibility for the outbreaks of norovirus. |
Lawsuit settled |
| April 4 |
Magnifica
MSC Cruises |
BBC
reports Brazilian police say they have rescued 11 crew
members working in "slave-like conditions" on an Italian
cruise ship. The operation was carried out the north-eastern
city of Salvador, where the MSC Magnifica had docked for the
day with more than 3,000 passengers. Brazilian officials say
the 11 crew members were forced to work up to 16 hours a
day. Some were alleged to have been victims of sexual
harassment. Italian cruise operator MSC Crociere has
adamantly rejected the allegations Brazilian Federal Police
officers boarded the ship on Tuesday, before it departed for
the city of Recife, on its way back to Europe. But the
operation has only now been made public. It comes at the end
of a month-long investigation, following a tip-off from crew
members on the MSC Magnifica. The labour ministry identified
13 staff who had allegedly been submitted to slave-like
conditions. Two of them refused to leave the vessel and
decided to carry on working, while the other 11 were taken
to a hotel in Salvador. Their nationalities have not been
released. "The fact that they had signed a contract, even an
international contract, does not mean that the basic human
rights should not be respected," Labour Ministry director
Alexandre Lyra told Folha de Sao Paulo. This was first
reported by Blog
do Sakamoto. |
Labour issues - workers rescued |
| April 4 |
Grandeur of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International |
From a passenger: Just
received this e-mail from Royal Caribbean about a cruise I
was to take tomorrow: Hello, this is Royal Caribbean
International. We would like to provide you with some
important information regarding your Saturday, April 5th,
sailing onboard Grandeur of the Seas out of the Port of
Baltimore. During the ship's last sailing, a number of
guests experienced a gastrointestinal illness. We will
conduct enhanced sanitizing onboard the ship and within the
terminal to help prevent any illness from affecting your
cruise. Therefore, your check-in and boarding will be
delayed. Because space and seating in the terminal is
limited, we ask that you not arrive to the port before 2:00
PM. Check in will take place between 2:00 PM and 4:30 PM. CDC
reports 111 of
2122 passengers (5.23%) and 6 of 790 crew (0.76%) have
reported ill with gastrointestinal illness. The ship was
on a 7 day cruise from Baltimore. |
Illness outbreak |
| April 3 |
Unknown |
7
News Beize reports two cruise tourists and their
driver were involved in a serious collision within Belize
City limits this afternoon. The collision happened at around
2:30 at mile three and a half on the Western Highway - right
at the spot where a new speed bump was installed just last
week. The circumstances of the accident are unknown but it
seems two mini-vans collided at the speedbump and the impact
sent the gold van spinning across the highway, causing it to
violently flip. The tourists were taken to a private
hospital for treatment, while the condition of the driver is
not known. |
Pax injured ashore |
| April 2 |
Independence of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International |
CNN
reports two men tragically lost their lives in an accident
on St.Kitts . Reports are that the two men apparently were
assisting with the unberthing process of the cruise vessel
when it overturned while the ship was pulling out of port.
Eyewitnesses the ship may have pulled out before the men had
enough time to clear the berthing area. As a result the sea
currents created by the massive cruise liner may have caused
the smaller berting boat to capsize and the men were
apparently sucked below water by the current and drowned. A
member of the crew on the ship said “The small boat was
capsized when our rear azipods pushed us away from the dock.
The two men where thrown overboard and never resurfaced,
only one had on a life vest, the other man's life vest came
off when he was thrown into the water. The capsized boat was
then pushed into the back of the Silhouette. All of this
viewed from my aft balcony, kinda puts a damper on an
otherwise wonderful cruise. Very sad for the families of
these two men.” |
Two dead in unberthing accident |
| April 1 |
Queen Victoria
Cunard Line |
San Francisco Examiner reports rough conditions
knocked a cruise ship off its moors while docked in the Port
of San Francisco during a powerful storm moving through the
Bay Area Monday. Port officials responded to a call shortly
after 1 p.m. that the Queen Victoria cruise ship was coming
off its moorings and listing towards the Bay. Lines holding
the vessel to the berth snapped, causing cleating to pull
away from the ship. A person who worked along the water said
that the 6,000 pound gangplanks had to be put back in place.
Passengers were eventually allowed to board the ship. |
Blown from moorings |
| April 1 |
Royal
Princess
Princess Cruises |
Cruise
Fever reports several power outages over the past 24
hours have caused delays. The ship is now expected to arrive
in St Thomas on April 2 at 12:00 p.m., 4 hours later than
originally scheduled. The cruise ship began having power
issues on March 31 when the power went out at 8:10 a.m. as
the ship was in route to Princess Cays. Emergency lights
came on but the ship was without propulsion and basic hotel
functions (running water etc). Power was restored to the
ship within 15 minutes but the outage caused the ship to
arrive later than scheduled into Princess Cays. The power
problems continued into the night as the ship experienced 2
more short outages at 1:15 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. on April 1.
Captain Draper said that these two outages were unrelated to
the first one and were caused by a generator problem. Due to
the outages, basic hotel functions and the ship’s propulsion
were affected. This caused the ship to sail at a reduced
speed of 15 knots. The ship is currently on a 7 night cruise
to the Eastern Caribbean out of Ft. Lauderdale with stops in
the ports of Princess Cays, Bahamas; St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.;
and Philipsburg, St. Maarten. |
Loss of power / propulsion problems |
| March 31 |
Ship unknown
Grimaldi Lines |
Gazetta
del Sud reports a 15-year-old high school student from
the southern Italian city of Catania died Sunday night when
he went overboard from a cruise ship docked at the Spanish
city of Barcelona. He was participating in Amare Leggere
(Loving to Read), a floating literature festival for kids
organized in collaboration with Italy's National Association
of School Principals, the Italian Cultural Institute, and
Italian House in Barcelona. School authorities alerted the
boy's parents, who left for Spain on Monday. "The tragedy
happened overnight, while the ship was docked", deputy
principal Maria Teresa Rizzo explained. She described the
victim as "a totally normal kid". |
Overboard |
| March 30 |
Carnival Miracle
Carnival Cruise Lines |
From a passenger: I was on the
Carnival Miracle's 22 March sailing, a 7 day Mexican
Riviera. On Monday, 23 March at around 4 p.m., the ship
changed course and went back north in the direction we came.
At around 4:30 p.m., the cruise director made an
announcement that one of our fellow guests needed urgent
medical care, but there was no indication of where exactly
we were going. At around 8:30 p.m., it was announced that we
would be meeting with a coast guard helicopter, which would
hoist up the guest and take him to San Diego. 230 miles
sound of San Diego, at around 10:30 p.m., we rendezvoused
with the coast guard helicopter, and the guest was taken
from the ship. At which point we turned back around and made
our way south again, nearly at full speed. Regarding
itinerary, we were about 4 1/2 hours late to our first port
of Puerto Vallarta (scheduled for 12:00 noon, arrived around
4:30). It was an overnight call, though, and our following
day was extended to a 4:00 p.m. departure instead of the
scheduled 3:00 p.m. No compensation of any kind was given to
guests, but the overall mood on the ship was a steady,
carefree one. And I didn't talk to anyone who was angry
about the delay. |
Delay |
| March 29 |
Carnival Ecstasy
Carnival Cruise Lines |
Bay
News 9 reports the ship's itinerary was modified fom a
stop in Cozumenl to a stop in Bahama's. According to the
company, the itinerary had to be modified based on the
amount of time it took for the rescue of Cuban refugees
adrift at sea. "When it comes to assisting individuals
stranded at sea, conducting rescue operations and
potentially saving lives takes precedence over maintaining a
scheduled itinerary. Passengers were not happy with the
change (see News
13). |
Change of itinerary |
| March 28 |
Grandeur of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International |
ABC
27 reports a rogue wave had hit the ship, causing the
top deck to collapse, as it approached on its return to
Baltimore. According to a passenger, "The captain came on
and said we were averaging 20 foot waves. This is the very
high winds that are coming from the Nor'easter which is
ahead of us. But the wind is still blowing down here and
around Cape Hatteras is really bad any way." |
Rogue wave |
| March 27 |
Adventure
of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International |
Travel
Weekly reports the ship finally departed San Juan on
Wednesday morning on an abbreviated Caribbean itinerary to
Antigua, St. Lucia and St. Croix. The ship was stuck in port
while propellers were replaced. It had been scheduled to
depart on Sunday on a seven-day cruise, its final one before
going into a scheduled drydock for maintenance. But the ship
encountered a repeat of propulsion issues that interrupted
its previous cruise, when an oil leak was discovered while
docked in St. Kitts. The ship skipped calls in Aruba,
Curacao and St. Croix, and arrived in San Juan behind
schedule. Passengers waited in long lines at the cruise pier
in San Juan on March 23 to board the ship. A number of them
turned to Facebook and Twitter to complain about a lack of
information, water and food from Royal Caribbean during the
wait. Regarding the three days in port, a Royal Caribbean
spokesperson said, "The removal of propeller blades has
taken a lot longer than expected, and this has been because
of a number of technical challenges. Since Sunday, divers
have been removing the 32 bolts attached to the four
propeller blades. It has proven extremely difficult to
remove these bolts." |
Delayed departure (3 days) |
| March 27 |
Infinity
Celebrity
Cruises |
The
Telegraph reports a cruiseship dancer who claims she
was dropped by her “incompetent” partner while she was in
the splits position is suing her former employer for
negligence. Jessica Holman, 23, dreamed of starring in the
West End but her hopes were shattered after 14 years of
training when the fall left her with a severely damaged hip
socket. Lawyers claim dance leaders at Celebrity Cruises
knew Miss Holman’s partner was not “seaworthy”, and her
injury could have been prevented if he had been pulled from
the shows. The holiday company deny any wrongdoing over the
incident, which occurred on the second day of a South
American cruise tour in October 2010. After the fall, Miss
Holman said she was given no painkillers or ice to treat her
hip. She also claims the doctor on board the ship repeatedly
sent her out to dance, delaying treatment and exacerbating
her injury. |
Lawsuit |
| March 27 |
Disney Wonder
Disney Cruise
Line |
BBC
reports the parents of a British woman who went missing at
sea from a Disney cruise ship are suing the company for
$75,000 (£45,000). Crew member Rebecca Coriam, 24, went
missing from the Disney Wonder, off the coast of Mexico,
three years ago. Her parents Mike and Ann Coriam from
Chester have filed papers against Disney claiming the
entertainment giant failed in its duty of care. A Disney
spokeswoman said there was no "merit" in the legal action.
Rebecca, who was a youth worker on the ship, was last seen
on 22 March 2011 at 05:45 GMT, when CCTV footage showed her
making a phone call to a friend from the staff quarters. The
alarm was raised four hours later when she failed to turn up
for the start of her shift. |
Lawsuit |
| March 26 |
Maasdam
Holland America
Line |
CDC
reports 65 of
1096 passengers (5.93%) and 8 of 569 crew (1.41%) have
reported ill with gastrointestinal illness. Three CDC
Vessel Sanitation Program environmental health officers
will board the ship on arrival in Ft. Lauderdale on
March 28, 2014 to conduct an environmental health
assessment and evaluate the outbreak and response
activities. The ship was on a 26 day cruise. |
Illness |
| March 25 |
Port of Southhampton |
Daily
Echo reports hundreds of passengers ended up trapped
in carparks after gridlock struck at Southampton's cruise
terminals this morning. The chaos began when holidaymakers
disembarked from two cruise ships. Some have reported they
have been stuck in the car park for the last two hours
waiting to leave Ocean Terminal. According to Southampton
Cruise Parking Services the problem was a result of two
cruise ships - the Oriana and the Aidasol - docking close to
each other combined with road works both inside and outside
of the port. Although traffic was moving, exiting the car
parks was particularly slow due to the impact of the road
works. Passenger Jean Parker from Chandlers Ford returned
from a 12-day trip to the Arctic Circle with P&O Cruises
with her husband only to find Southampton had ground to a
halt. She said: “We have all been standing here for 90
minutes waiting to get out of the car park. It's an absolute
standstill. We have moved one car length. We're all just
sitting here at Ocean terminal. No comment was available
from Associated British Ports. |
Gridlock at port |
| March 24 |
Navigator of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International |
Sydney
Morning Herald reports an elderly Chilean cruise ship
passenger with a medical condition has gone missing in
Adelaide. Jorge Sepulveda, who speaks very little English,
disembarked from The Voyager of the Seas cruise ship on
Sunday morning to tour the city. Police say he was expected
to return no later than 5.30pm Adelaide time and was last
seen in Rundle Mall two hours earlier. Nine
News subsequently the man had been found the next day.
Arrangements are being made for him to travel to Perth where
his cruise is scheduled to end. |
Pax lost & found on shore |
| March 23 |
Bahamas Celebration
Celebration Cruise
Line |
Palm
Beach Post reports a 30-year-old man is facing federal
drug charges after authorities say he smuggled cocaine and
heroin from the Bahamas to Palm Beach County. Adrian Bradley
Trench was arrested Thursday and faces federal charges of
importation of more than 500 grams of cocaine and
importation of more than100 grams of heroin. On Thursday, he
arrived at the Port of Palm Beach where U.S. Customs and
Border Protection officers tried to inspect him as he got
off the ship through the crew gangway. Officers asked Trench
for his CBP I-95 form, which allows the crewman’s landing.
Trench said he forgot it in his room and ran back toward the
vessel. Officers told him several times to stop, and he was
apprehended. As officers gave Trench a pat-down, they
noticed two packages wrapped around Trench’s calves. One
package contained 1,043 grams of cocaine — about 2.25 pounds
— and the other contained 674 grams of heroin, or about 1.5
pounds, the complaint says. Trench admitted he knew he was
transporting drugs and said while he was expecting to be
paid some amount of money, he wasn’t sure how much. |
Drug bust |
| March 23 |
Multiple ships |
KXAN
News reports the Caribbean Princess is stuck in
port while crews cleanup an oil spill in the channel leading
to Galveston and Houston. It is unknown when the ship will
be able to depart. At the same time, Coast Guard officials
made arrangements to bring Carnival Magic
and Navigator of the Seas into the isle
port to disembark passengers (about 11 hours later than
scheduled). A passenger told KXAN the captain said if they
don’t leave port by Monday, they could consider letting
passengers off the ship if they wish. For now, passengers
are stuck onboard. Carnival Truiumph arrived in
Galveston on March 24. The ships are not able to depart at
least through Tuesday, March 25.UPDATE:RCI
canceled the Navigator of the Seas cruise. The
other three ships departed Tuesday afternoon on shortened
itineraries. |
Delays -- stuck in port |
| March 20 |
Ship unnamed
Carnival Cruise Lines |
Turks
and Caicos Weekly News reports a passenger was
captured on film jumping over the railing and into TCI’s
turquoise waters recently. The unnamed man, who said he
could not resist the beautiful ocean, was quickly detained
by Turks and Caicos Islands authorities and sent home. An
entertainment news station called Right This Minute managed
to get hold of the footage that was filmed on the man’s
personal waterproof camera, and exposed his act. The video
showed him jumping into the clear water and he looked
delighted as he floated about before swimming for shore. The
news station explained that police brought the man back onto
the ship but he was kicked off again and sent home without a
refund. He was banned from holidaying on any Carnival Cruise
Lines ships again. The video can be watched here
www.rightthisminute.com/video/jumping-ship-puts-man-no-cruise-list. |
Pax jumps overboard in port |
| March 19 |
Maasdam
Holland America
Line |
The
Global Dispatch and Travelers
Today report a norovirus outbreak on the current
cruise from Rio de Janeiro to Ft. Lauderdale, arriving on
March 28. According to one passenger, "I am on the sick
Holland America Maasdam which has had Noro virus ever since
the departing Rio and won't be scheduled to be back in Fort
Lauderdale until the end of the month. I'm getting tired of
hearing the Captain blame the passengers for the spread of
the disease. As a physician, I've clearly noted that the
disease is passed by vectors such as cruise cards, bar staff
and wait staff never washing their hands, and the tables and
chairs being cleaned with the same rag. Captain it's not the
passengers its your staff." |
?Illness outbreak? |
| March 19 |
Adventure
of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International |
Cruise
Critic reports the ship has been forced to cancel two
port calls after an oil loss from the ship's fixipod
propulsion unit forced the shutdown of the pod. The fixipod
cannot be repaired until the ship goes into dry dock March
30, though the line said the ship's next sailing should not
be affected. Royal Caribbean confirmed the issue. Work on
the problem necessitated the delay of the ship's departure
from St. Kitts until 3 a.m. Furthermore, because engineers
could not complete a permanent repair, the fixipod will
remain offline until the ship goes into dry dock March 30.
This will cause the ship to sail at a reduced rate of speed.
The combination of the delayed departure from St. Kitts and
the reduced speed has forced the ship to cancel its
scheduled port calls to Aruba (March 20) and Curacao (March
21). Instead, Adventure of the Seas will visit Antigua
today, St. Maarten on Thursday (staying overnight) and St.
Croix on Saturday. |
Propulsion problems / oil leak |
| March 19 |
Costa
Fascinosa
Costa Cruises |
Clarin.com
reports a Brazilian businessman who was found dead on the shores of Punta Lara,
had been last seen on Wednesday
on the cruise ship. His wife
reported that the trip had been a gift from their
children. The body was
found by Odair Prefecture Punta Lara on Thursday, the
13th, engaged in some reeds 50 meters from the shore of
the Río de la Plata between CECO and the Bachelors
camping club. The passenger was shirtless and wore only a
bathing suit. |
Pax overboard |
| March 10 |
Norwegian Jade
Norwegian Cruise Line |
Ha'aretz
reports Israeli tourists aboard the ship were barred from
disembarking in the Port of Tunis Sunday. They were forced
to remain onboard, while non-Israeli Jewish passengers were
allowed off. A Jewish Canadian passenger on the ship who
preferred to remain nameless told Haaretz that there were
approximately 20 Israelis on the ship and that at first, no
one knew they were denied entry because "the ship kept it a
secret." They only found out because some had become
friendly with a few Israelis on board. "We met with the
captain twice and his story kept up that he was waiting for
instructions from head office in Miami... We told him he was
making a political statement by not allowing the Israelis to
leave the ship and he said it was out of his hands. We
reminded him that he was the captain," the passenger said,
adding that a "handful" of them decided to remain on board.
He said they were told there were more Israelis on the MSC
Line ship that was docked next to them in Tunis. According
to a report in Algemeiner, B'nai Brith Canada issued a
statement criticizing the operator NCL for failing to notify
passengers ahead of time that they were not welcome on
Tunisian soil by the government. Update:
NCL has subsequently announced it will cease further calls
to Tunis. |
Israeli pax not allowed to disembark |
| March 10 |
Magnifica
MSC Cruises |
A
Tribuna reports the
ship's departure from Santos is delayed. While the ship
performed the undocking maneuver, a tether ( rope used
to attach the ship to the pier ) tangled in a propeller
. The operation was
canceled and divers were deployed to try to solve the
problem. A
spokesperson for the MSC merely siad that the vessel
encountered "technical- operational" problems. It is unclear how long the
delay will be. |
Delayed departure - technical issue |
| March 8 |
Discovery
Cruise and
Maritime Voyages |
Shetland
News reports the ship canceled its call at Lerwick.
Gale force winds and huge seas in the northern North Sea
made the captain rerouting her voyage from Stavanger further
to the south. The Discovery is instead expected to call at
Kirkwall, in Orkney, on Sunday. However, the ship is still
scheduled to call at Lerwick on Thursday, marking the start
of what looks to become a busy cruise liner season. |
Missed port call |
| March 7 |
Costa
Classica
Costa Cruises |
Hamburger
Abendblatt reports a 70 year old male German
passenger has gone overboard from the ship after it sailed
from Casablanca, Morocco en route to Madiera. |
Pax overboard |
| March 6 |
Diamond
Princess
Princess Cruises |
From a passenger: A female
passenger was evacuated from the ship and flown by
helicoptor to Singapore; it occurred at 3:45 am. The Captain
ordered passengers from three decks near the evacuation area
to leave their cabins and he made sure some ship rescue
craft were ready to deploy. The helicopter lowered a doctor
and a medic before lifting the stretcher. The only snag
occurred when the helicopter, at first, couldn't find the
ship. When that happened the crew turn on some extra beacon
lights. The ship sailed at a slower speed all during the
evacuation. |
Cabins evacuated during medical evacuation |
| March 5 |
Bahamas Celebration
Celebration Cruise
Line |
Palm
Beach Post reports a man’s vacation quickly ended
Sunday morning when federal agents found child pornography
on his computer. The ship came into the Port of Palm Beach
on Sunday around 7:30 a.m; Border protection agents started
to inspect passengers and their luggage and when they
inspected the man’s they found an Acer laptop. Agents asked
him to punch in his password to unlock the laptop. They
found a folder containing several images and videos of child
pornography. According to the criminal complaint, he
admitted that he downloaded the images and he knew child
pornography is considered illegal. |
Passenger arrested with child porn |
| March 3 |
Oriana
P&O Cruises |
The
Daily Echo reports the ship left Southampton more than
12 hours late for its North Cape cruise. Though not stated,
it is assumed the problem was with the propeller that was
being repared following the previous cruise, which ended
three days early. |
Late departure |
| March 3 |
Oriana
P&O Cruises |
The
Daily Echo reports the ship returned to Southampton
with 57 passengers suffering from gastrointestinal illness. |
Illness outbreak |
| February |
Queen Elizabeth
Cunard Line |
The Daily Mail reports more than 80 passengers came down with gastrointestinal illness on a cruise between Singapore and Dubai. |
Illness outbreak |
| February 27 |
Unknown |
The
Australian reports a British passenger will face
court after she allegedly attempted to smuggle 1.5 litres
of liquid cocaine in a lava lamp. The woman, 22, was
stopped by customs officers at White Bay Cruise Terminal
in Sydney on Tuesday after disembarking from a cruise ship
from New Caledonia. Initial tests on liquid inside a lava
lamp returned positive results for cocaine and triggered a
response from a customs dog. If found guilty, the woman
faces a maximum penalty of 25 years imprisonment and a
fine of up to $850,000.
|
Drug bust |
| Febraury 27 |
Costa Pacifica
Costa Cruises |
Il
Messaggero reports dozens of
passengers, probably infected with the virus that causes
measles, were disembarked in the afternoon from a cruise
ship docked in the port of Civitavecchia. According to what has been
learned travelers, including many Italian and foreign
tourists were on board the Costa Pacifica. At least 9 people were
hospitalized at the hospital Spallanzani in Rome, but
others , from the port were transferred to hospitals in
the capital and Orbetello . Along with the passengers, 59 crew
members wer disembarked. Given that measles has an
incubation period of 7 to 21 days, the number effected
will likely be much higher. |
Measles outbreak |
| February 26 |
Sun
Princess
Princess Cruises |
Cruise
Critic reports as Fiji prepares for heavy rain and a
possible category one cyclone to hit, the ship has been
rerouted in order to avoid the system. Four Fijian ports
have been canceled as a result. Sun Princess will bypass
Port Denarau, Suva, Savusavu and Dravuni Island and call
instead on two ports in Vanuatu and two in New Caledonia.
Passengers will receive a refund for port fees and taxes, as
well as for any shore excursions booked through Princess. |
Port calls canceled (weather) |
| February 26 |
Norwegian Pearl
Norwegian Cruise Line |
TV
10 News reports an antique military compass triggered
a security alarm that forced the evacuation of a Port of
Miami terminal Wednesday morning. The Miami-Dade Police
Department bomb unit was called to Terminal B after a
disembarking cruise ship passenger caused an alert from
security instruments. While passengers of the Norwegian
Pearl remained on the ship, the terminal was evacuated while
police and hazardous materials crew investigated. After it
was determined that the compass caused the alert, the area
was deemed safe and the terminal was reopened. The end
result was an inconvenience for some cruise ship passengers
who had no choice but to wait until it was all over. |
HazMat scare - disembarkation halted |
| February 26 |
Azamara Journey
Azamara Club Cruises |
USA
Today reports the current cruise in Asia is being cut
short due to propeller damage caused by debris, the cruise
line said. The ships was sailing towards Tokyo yesterday
when "the ship noticed an unusual vibration." Further
inspection showed one of the ship's two propellers had been
damaged by debris. "The ship is now traveling at a reduced
speed to Kyoto (Osaka), and will arrive on Friday, February
28. Due to the required repairs, we regrettably must end the
current voyage in Kyoto (Osaka)," according to the company.
The next scheduled voyage of the ship, out of Shanghai on
Monday, might also be impacted. Passengers on the current
cruise will remain on the ship in Kyoto until Sunday, when
they will be flown to Shanghai, where the cruise was
originally scheduled to end on Monday, the line said. The
ship departed Hong Kong, China, on Monday, February 17, with
port calls to Xiamen, China; Taipei (Keelung), Taiwan;
Ishigaki, Okinawa, Tokyo and Kyoto (Osaka) Japan. Guests on
the disrupted cruise will receive a refund for the lost
cruise days as well as a 25% credit for a future cruise, the
line said. UPDATE: Travel
Weekly reports the cruise scheduled for March 3 has
now been canceled. |
Cruise cut short - mechanical problems |
| February 24 |
Carnival Miracle
Carnival Cruise Lines |
Cruise
Law News, quoting Cruise
Critic, reports that a passenger apparently went over
her balcony railing on the Carnival Miracle during
the most recent (February 15 - 22) cruise. A poster
left a message that the cruise ship turned around to begin a
search for the passenger. However, it was announced that the
passenger was recovered on board. She was taken to the
infirmary. One passenger suggested that "the person was
pushed off the balcony and the people responsible were
turned over to the authorities in Cabo." Other people
posting on the message board indicate that the passenger may
have fallen from deck 6 to deck 4 and struck a lifeboat. |
Fall to lower deck |
| February 24 |
Serenade of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International |
G1
Globo reports public environmental officials in Brazil
reportedly believe that one of three cruise ships in the
area illegally discharged sewage and/or wastewater in an
area off the coast near Turtle Beach.. Samples were taken
from the three cruise ships which called on the city of
Búzios (north of Rio de Janeiro) to compare them with
contaminated water collected at the public beach. The
three cruise ships have not been identified. However, the
newspaper contains a photograph of the Royal Caribbean Splendor
of the Seas. The newspaper indicates that the aerial
photograph was taken by Secretary of State for
Environment, Indio da Costa. Discolored water was observed
around the cruise ship. The Brazilian official is quoted
saying (translated): "Still can not know what
contaminated water, but we are almost certain that the
problem was caused by the release of untreated sewage or
treated irregularly by one of the ships docked in
Buzios." The health authorities closed the
beach due to the polluted water. The newspaper states
that fines for polluting the waters of Brazil can reach
$50 million, according to Brazil's Secretary of State for
Environment. |
Envirornmental |
| February 23 |
Veendam
Holland America
Line |
CDC
reports 114 of
1273 passengers (8.96%) and 10 of 575 crew (1.74%) have
reported ill with gastrointestinal illness. A CDC Vessel
Sanitation Program environmental health officer and an
epidemiologist will board the ship on arrival in Ft.
Lauderdale on February 22, 2014 to conduct an
environmental health assessment and evaluate the outbreak
and response activities. The ship was on a 14 day cruise. |
Illness |
| February 22 |
Oriana
P&O Cruises |
The
Daily Echo reports the ship will be returning to port
three days earlier than planned after propeller problems
forced the trip to be cut short. P&O Cruises said it
needed to carry out vital repairs to one of Oriana’s two
propeller shaft seals. Now holidaymakers will have the
choice of spending their final three nights on board the
vessel docked in Southampton, or go home early. Customers
will have the choice of receiving a credit of 100 per cent
of their current cruise to use on a future Oriana cruise in
2014 or 2015, or a 40 per cent cash refund. Bosses of the
liner say the extent of the damage is not yet known but an
underwater inspection by specialist divers will take place
while the ship is docked in Tenerife today. After docking in
Fuerteventura the ship will begin its journey back to
Southampton and will arrive on Wednesday. |
Engine problems - cruise ends 3 days early |
| February 22 |
Carnival Victory
Carnival Cruise Lines |
Inside
Edition reports a 28 year old woman says she was
brutally raped on board a Carnival cruise ship last year.
She said it was two Carnival crew members who allegedly held
her down in their cabin and raped her, repeatedly.
“One of the thoughts that kept going through my head was 'my
God,' they're going to throw me overboard and no one is ever
going to find me,” she said. She went to security and told
them she was attacked. The crew members say the sex was
consensual. She admits that she was drinking a lot that
night; and she doesn't remember how she even ended up in
their cabin. But she says the sex was not consensual. “It
was not consensual. I was violently raped. I thought they
were going to kill me,” she said with tears streaming down
her face. |
Rape by two crew members |
| February 20 |
Discovery
Cruise and
Maritime Voyages |
This
is the West Country reports the ship has been diverted
to Falmouth after a small leak in the hull was discovered
when she was enroute to Avonmouth from the Mediterranean.
With the aid of two tugs Discovery berthed on County Wharf
where divers examined the hull. Underwater repairs to the
hull are underway and the ship is expected to sail on
Friday. |
Leak in hull - towed to port |
| February 20 |
Infinity
Celebrity
Cruises |
A poster at Facebook reports that as the ship
was preparing to leave the Falkland Islands the oil tanker
came beside the ship and collided, damaging a lifeboat. The
lifeboat was removed from the ship and left in the Falklands
for repairs. As well, repairs of the ship continued (welding
etc) until after 12:30AM. The delay has effected the ship's
itinerary. |
Collision - damage of lifeboat |
| February 18 |
Oriana
P&O Cruises |
Cruise Critic reports the ship is missing a
port of call in the Canary Islands after being slowed by a
'technical issue,' according to the line. The
1,800-passenger, 69,000-ton vessel was due to arrive at La
Palma on Thursday, February 20, but instead the ship will
spend extra time at Madeira and then cruise to the sister
Canary Island of Gran Canaria, arriving slightly later than
scheduled on Friday, February 21. Oriana, which mainly
caters for British passengers, left Southampton on Saturday,
February 15, on a 14-night itinerary to Madeira, the Spanish
islands and Portugal. The ship is sailing at reduced speed
due to an overheating shaft bearing.
|
Delayed by technical issue (engine problems) |
| February 17 |
Seabourn Odyssey
Seabourn Cruises |
Timaru
Herald reports the ship was due to berth in Timaru at
6.30am but thick fog has delayed her arrival. She was
waiting off the coast for the fog to lift, and passengers
were expected to disembark about 12.30pm. Originally she was
due to sail for Port Chalmers at 4.30pm. |
Fog delay |
| February 16 |
Norwegian
Star
Norwegian Cruise Line |
The Vessel
Sanitation Program reports the ship failed its
sanitation inspection with a score of 82. |
Failed health inspection |
| February 15 |
Nieuw Amsterdam
Holland America
Line |
Cruise
Critic reports a crewmember assaulted a woman early
Friday morning. She is in stable condition, according to the
line. Holland America says the assailant is under guard on
the ship. Holland America released this statement: "A
31-year-old female U.S. citizen on board ms Nieuw Amsterdam
was assaulted by a crewmember in her cabin early this
morning. The female guest was cared for in the ship's
hospital and was in stable condition prior to disembarking
the ship today in Roatan, Honduras, for air transfer back to
the U.S." The crewmember was placed under guard where he
will remain until remanded to authorities. The FBI and other
appropriate authorities were notified. A thorough
investigation is in progress. The ship is on a seven-day
Western Caribbean cruise which departed on Feb. 9, sailing
roundtrip Fort Lauderdale." The Sun-Sentinel
reports the cruise worker confessed to raping a passenger
and trying to throw her overboard from her stateroom
balcony, claiming the Valentine's Day assault was revenge
for an alleged slight, authorities said Tuesday. The vicious
attack happened on a Holland America cruise ship that
departed from Port Everglades, according to court records.
The worker, Ketut Pujayasa, 28, was quickly detained on the
MS Nieuw Amsterdam and arrested by the FBI when the ship
returned to Fort Lauderdale on Sunday. The victim told
investigators that her attacker appeared with no warning
inside her darkened stateroom in the middle of the night,
raped, beat, punched and strangled her and then tried to
throw her from the balcony into the ocean in international
waters somewhere off the coast of Roatan, Honduras. The
woman, who is from the U.S. but was identified only by her
initials in court records, said she lost consciousness at
least once during the assault and firmly believed her
attacker was trying to kill her. Pujayasa, an Indonesian
citizen employed as a room service attendant for Holland
America, claimed he was punishing the woman because he
believed she had insulted him and his family, according to
FBI agents who interviewed him. |
Pax raped by crew member; planned to throw
her overboard |
| February 14 |
Marco Polo
Cruise and Maritime
Voyages |
ITV
reports a passenger has died after the ship was hit by a
freak wave in the English Channel today. The wave battered
the ship as it headed for its home port of Tilbury in Essex
at the end of a 42-night voyage. Water crashed through a
window injuring a number of the 735 passengers, who were
mainly British (four windows were broken out). An
85-year-old male passenger and a woman passenger in her 70s
were airlifted off the ship. The male passenger later died.
In addition, 12 passengers were injured. Update: BBC reports (Nov 15) the shoip had leaking and rusty windows, an investigation has found. A Bahamas Maritime Authority report said passengers noticed "a number of windows" had "leaks or rust stains". The victim was in a restaurant with his wife when the wave hit, forcing two windows out of their fittings and shattering two others. The report says according to the doctor's assessment, that the victim had been "struck by one of these complete panes". Sixteen passengers and crew were injured, mostly by flying glass. The report said an inspection of the ship found cracks in window frames. |
Passenger accidental death |
| February 14 |
Unknown |
Jamaica
Observer reports a 67 year old man has been reported
missing since February 13. The Falmouth Police in
Trelawny report that he disembarked a vessel at the Falmouth
Cruise Ship Pier about 4:00 pm and headed to an undisclosed
location. |
Passenger missing ashore |
| February 14 |
Oceana
P&O Cruises |
Cruise
Critic reports the ship has been forced to delay its
scheduled departure from the UK port of Southampton today
after the Met Office issued gale warnings for the UK. It
will remain docked in Southampton at Ocean Terminal and sail
tomorrow morning (February 15), according to the line. A
statement from the line said: "We are looking at the
itinerary but any impact will be minimal. Compensation will
not be awarded in this instance, as our change to the
itinerary is due to the adverse weather conditions currently
being experienced in the UK and in the Atlantic. The safety
of our passengers and crew remains the Captain's priority at
all times." |
Delayed departure |
| February 13 |
Thomson Celebration
Thomson Cruises |
Gazette
Live reports an elderly Teesside couple were brutally
assaulted by a fellow holidaymaker. The couple were attacked
while travelling aboard the Thomson Celebration from
Tenerife on the Colourful Coasts itinerary. Cleveland Police
have confirmed they are investigating a “serious unprovoked
assault” although no arrest has yet been made. The assault,
which happened late last month, left the woman with serious
spinal injuries and her husband with serious facial
injuries. The pair, who have not been officially named, were
treated at Middlesbrough’s James Cook University Hospital. A
spokeswoman from Cleveland Police said: “On February 1,
Cleveland Police received a report of a serious unprovoked
assault on an elderly couple from the Cleveland force area
whilst on board a cruise ship at the end of January. "The
man received serious facial injuries and the woman suffered
spinal injuries requiring hospital treatment. “We are
liaising with the holiday company and inquiries to identify
the suspect are ongoing.” |
Couple assaulted |
| February 11 |
Oceana
P&O Cruises |
From a passenger: the ship is
currently returning back to Southampton from Madeira and has
been diverted to Vigo due to a urgent medical emergency
onboard. The decision to divert was made last night and the
ship will reach Vigo within the next hour. Passengers have
been informed that this should not delay their scheduled
arrival in Southampton on Thursday morning. |
Diversion |
| February 10 |
Carnival Valor
Carnival Cruise Lines |
Cruise
Critic reports a cabin fire delayed the ship's
departure from St. Thomas by a couple of hours Monday. The
fire broke out in a cabin on deck 8 while the ship was
docked in St. Thomas. The ship's sprinkler system put out
the fire quickly, and hotel and safety systems functioned as
normal. Passengers in the affected cabin were relocated, and
nearby cabins are being aired out. One passener writes, "No
power at lido buffet and still have not left port and we are
an hour late. Some aft stairwells have been blocked off and
aft elevators are not operating." The ship, which was
scheduled to depart at 5 p.m., left St. Thomas just before
8. It's expected to arrive as scheduled to Barbados, at 8
a.m. Wednesday. Valor was on the second day of a seven-night
sailing. |
Fire |
| February 10 |
Multiple ships |
Cruise
Critic reports that fog in Galveston has delayed the
departure and arrival of several ships. |
Fog delays |
| February 9 |
Splendor of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International |
G1
Globo News reports a 47 year old
Brazilian man died early Friday (7) after falling into
the sea. The ship was in Uruguay when the
incident occurred. The ship docked at the Port of
Santos (at the end of a seven day cruise), on the coast
of São Paulo, Sunday (9). Police
are investigating the case and believe in the
possibility of suicide.
According to
witnesses, the man had thrown himself overtboard while
wearing his lifesaving vest. Ship passengers who disembarked at the Port of
Santos on Sunday claim the ship searched for the body
and managed to locate the victim at sea.
The
captain immediately stopped the ship and notified the
Uruguayan Coast Guard. NOTE: Thanks to
Cruise
Law News for alerting me to this incident. |
Pax overboard |
| February 9 |
Constellation
Celebrity
Cruises |
Cruise
Fever reports the ship lost power on Sunday morning
(February 9, 2014) after docking in Key West, Florida. Power
went out at approximately 7:15 a.m. and came back on 90
minutes later at 8:45 a.m. This comes less than 2 months
after the same ship had engine problems which caused the
ship to stay overnight in Key West. During the power outage,
the toilets did not work, there was no running water, and
the elevators were out. The staff onboard the Constellation
was able to serve hot coffee to the passengers as well as a
basic breakfast. Also, the staff was selling bottled water
(tacky, or what?) as the passengers ate breakfast. Emergency
lights came on in the hallways during the outage. The
captain made an announcement after the power came back on.
He said that they were having a few problems, but said that
the power outage was not caused from a fire. |
Loss of power |
| February 9 |
Black Watch
Fred Olsen Cruises |
Belfast
Telegraph reports the ship has been forced to stop
near the tip of South America (50 miles north of Cape Horn)
after suffering mechanical problems, its owners said. The
ship, which set-sail from Southampton on January 14, has
anchored off Chile while its steering gear is fixed. The
ship's next port of call is Valparaiso in Chile, where it is
expected to arrive on February 15. |
Steering problems |
| February 8 |
Aida Luna
AIda Cruises |
Cruise
Law News reports a cruise passenger was murdered while
ashore in Venezuela's Margarita island. The international
press reports that "a gunman shot dead an elderly
(76 year old) German tourist on Venezuela's Margarita
island," in the latest incident "illustrating the country's
rampant crime." A German
cruise blog explains that the cruise tourist had gone
ashore on an excursion from the Carnival owned Aida
Luna cruise ship. The crime occurred at a tourist
shop in a shopping center. The El
Universal newspaper says that two armed robbers on a
motorcycle tried to rob the tourists. A struggle ensued and
Mr. Kurt was shot and killed. |
Pax murdered ashore |
| February 6 |
Costa Victoria
Costa Cruises |
South
China Morning Post reports hundreds of disgruntled
passengers refused to leave a cruise liner upon their
return from Vietnam on Thursday morning, after a half-day
local tour was cancelled during their trip. The tourists
were protesting onboard the ship Costa Victoria, now
berthed at Ocean Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui after their
six-day tour ended, to demand compensations from their
travel agency. Tour operator Miramar Travel has promised
to pay each of the about 1,000 passengers a HK$300
compensation while the cruise company agrees to pay US$50
as compensation per room. But some passangers rejected the
offer. When the cruise returned to Tsim Sha Tsui around
6am, some 300 of them refused to disembark, demanding a
refund of 70 per cent of the cost of their package, which
ranged from HK$8,000 to HK$18,000. Chanting slogans, they
demanded to meet senior management from Miramar Travel.
They also complain the ship stopped fresh-water supply
after it was berthed. By 11.30am, the protest is still
ongoing. The ship is now berthed at Ocean Terminal, with
about 340 passengers left on board – some 80 from Macau
and the rest are local Hong Kong tourists. The protesting
passengers claim many Taiwanese and mainland tourists have
accepted compensation reluctantly because they have to
leave to catch the connecting flights. Police have been
called in. UPDATE: The protest continued
for 17 hours, until 11:00PM causing the next cruise to be
delayed. There is a followup story here.
|
Pax Protest - Refuse to disembark |
| February 5 |
Black Watch
Fred Olsen Cruises |
The
Sunderland Echo reports a Sunderland journalist is
suspected to have drowned after going overboard from a
cruise ship in South America. Bob Horn, aged 69, had been on
an Atlantic cruise with his brother when he is believed to
have fallen from the liner shortly after a visit to
Montevideo in Uruguay. A passenger has since
written: Friday January 31, 2014 someone
jumped overboard off Fred. Olsen's Black Watch when it was
enroute to Montevideo from Rio. Passengers and crew were
well aware of this because the ship turned around and sent
the rescue boat out to collect the body although they were
unable to do so. Why has this not been reported anywhere?
Can Fred. Olsen really keep this a secret? |
Pax overboard |
| February 4 |
Starlite Atlantic
Roble
Shipping |
The
Philippine News Agency report a passenger of a roll
on, roll off (RoRo) vessel went missing after jumping off at
mid-sea on Romblon waters. The ferry was sailing around 3:30
a.m. on Monday somewhere in the vicinity of Carabao Island
off mainland Romblon when 27-year-old Adonis Rocio jumped
off. Following the incident, the crew members immediately
conducted tedious search and rescue operations but their
effort to find the missing passenger proved futile. They
sought the help of PCG-Caticlan which scoured the seas in
the vicinity of Carabao Island. Passengers aboard were
stranded at mid-sea for almost two hours after the ship
decided to drop anchor to find Rocio who is a resident of
Cotabato Street, Bago Bantay, Quezon City. The Starlite
Atlantic was on its way to Caticlan jetty port in Malay,
Aklan. The Ro-Ro vessel arrived at Caticlan jetty port early
Monday with majority of passengers on their way to Iloilo. |
Pax ovverboard |
| February 3 |
Norwegian Breakaway
Norwegian Cruise Line |
Fox
News reports a 4-year-old child died after being
pulled unresponsive from a swimming pool on a Norwegian
Cruise Line ship off the coast of North Carolina on Monday,
cruise line and Coast Guard officials said. Crew members
were able to revive a 6-year-old boy also found in the pool.
He was airlifted to a hospital, where his condition was
unknown. The two children were found in the morning on the
Norwegian Breakaway, the cruise line said in an announcement
on its Facebook page. The statement did not give the ages of
the children, but Coast Guard Petty Officer Adam SanSoucie
said they were 4 and 6. An emergency medical team on the
ship gave both children CPR, but the younger child died, the
cruise line's statement said. The older child, a boy, was
airlifted with his grandmother and a nurse to a hospital,
the company said. It did not identify the gender of the
younger child. |
Child drowns |
| February 2 |
Oriana
P&O Cruises |
From a reader:The ship was 2
hours late sailing from Southampton on evening of Wednesday
29/01/2014 as a result of a failure of the P.A. system! Two
days later whilst at sea en-route Lisbon at noon on Friday
31/01/2014 an emergency signal was sounded because some
rubbish had caught fire onboard. Crew were called to
emergency stations but not passengers. All food areas were
closed. All clear sounded after 30/40 minutes. |
Delay / Fire |
| February 1 |
Costa Concordia
Costa Cruises |
ABCNews
(Australia) a Spanish diver died on Saturday during work to
salvage the Costa Concordia cruise liner, which capsized off
the Italian island of Giglio two years ago. The diver worked
for the Spanish company UCS (Underwater Contractors Spain)
and was involved in an underwater operation when the
incident occurred, said an official at Titan Micoperi, the
company in charge of the salvage work. Divers are working to
attach 30 massive tanks filled with air to the liner so that
it can be lifted off the seabed in June and towed away to be
dismantled. |
Worker death |
| January 31 |
Carnival Triumph
Carnival Cruise Lines |
KATC
reports the ship lost power for eight minutes after an
electrical breaker failed. Carnival says the loss of power
affected ventilation in the ship's incinerator, sending
smoke into limited areas of three decks. Carnival officials
say no fires broke out on the ship as a result of the
electrical outage. Family members of a person on the ship
tell KATC that their relative is still on the deck waiting
for the smoke to clear. Cruise
Law News reports hearing that the power loss was as
long as an hour or two. One person said the power was out
for almost one hour. A second person said there was
considerable confusion with the crew telling them to put on
their life jackets and go to the muster station while other
crew members told them to take their life vests off and
report to the Lido deck. A third person said that the outage
was 1 to 2 hours and there was substantial confusion. A
fourth person said the power was out for one hour but the
crew handled the situation well. Another person said there
was burnt and frazzled wiring which caused the smoke.
Carnival said yesterday that it was just some smoke from an
incinerator. |
Loss of Power |
| January 30 |
Caribbean
Princess
Princess Cruises |
Houston
Chronicle reports the ship will return 36 hours early
because of an illness outbreak. According to the CDC
181 of 3102
passengers (5.8%) and 11 of 1148 crew (0.96%) have
reported ill with gastrointestinal illness. Two CDC Vessel
Sanitation Program environmental health officers will
board the ship in Houston, TX on January 31 and February
1, 2014 to conduct an epidemiologic investigation,
environmental health assessment, and evaluate the outbreak
and response activities. The ship was on a seven day
cruise. NOTE: There had been reported
increased illness on the ship two weeks before (see
below). UPDATE: KTRK
reports Princess Cruises said: "Caribbean Princess is
being forced to return to Houston one day early because we
were informed that dense fog is expected to close the port
for much of the weekend, and we are mindful of our
passengers' safety and comfort, as well as the disruption
the port's closing will have on their onward travel plans.
This has, unfortunately, necessitated the cancellation of
the scheduled call to Belize. The seven-day cruise, which
departed January 25, is sailing on a Western Caribbean
itinerary, also calling at Cozumel and Roatan ...
Simultaneously, onboard the current sailing, Caribbean
Princess has experienced an increase in the number of
cases of gastroenteritis among passengers" |
Illness / Canceled port call |
| January 30 |
Caribbean
Princess
Princess Cruises |
Seattle
Times reports Carnival Corp., the world’s largest
cruise operator, said the U.S. Justice Department joined a
U.K. investigation into whether its Caribbean Princess ship
violated international pollution laws. Carnival is
cooperating with the probe and is also conducting an inquiry
of its own, according to a filing today. The U.K. Maritime
& Coastguard Agency had initiated an investigation on
Aug. 28, the Miami-based company said in a separate filing
last year. |
Environmental |
| January 29 |
Constellation
Celebrity
Cruises |
Cruise
Law News reports a crew member went overboard from a
cruise ship sailing off of the coast of Mexico. Crew member
Inyoman Bagiada, age 45, reportedly disappeared from the
Celebrity Constellation at around 2:30 AM today, according
to a press release by the U.S. Coast Guard. The ship was
returning from Cozumel, Mexico, to Port Everglades, Florida,
after a five-day cruise. The incident reportedly occurred
between Mexico and Cuba. |
Crew overboard |
| January 28 |
Golden Princess
Princess Cruises |
From a passenger: The
following is the official statement from the ship's Captain:
"We wish to inform you of a change to our scheduled
itinerary. Former employees of a closed fishery are planning
to strike in Puerto Madryn today. We have been advised that
they will allow passengers and tours to the tour area, but
will prevent passengers and tours from returning to the
ship. As the safety and security of our passengers and crew
is our highest priority, we have decided to cancel our call
to Puerto Madryn. Instead, Golden Princess will now sail
directly to Montevideo where we will arrive at 12 noon on
Wednesday....." |
Missed port |
| January 27 |
Ocean
Princess
Princess
Cruises |
The Vessel
Sanitation Program reports the ship failed its
sanitation inspection with a score of 81. |
Failed health inspection |
| January 26 |
Splendor
of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International
Empress
Pullmantur
Cruises |
G1
Globo reports a storm scared the passengers and
crew late on Thursday ( 23rd). The ship
passed through the channel of the River Plata between
Argentina and Uruguay. Passengers disembarked on Sunday morning
(26th ) at the Port of Santos, on São Paulo coast, and
reported to G1 moments of apprehension. Because of rain, accompanied by
strong gale, dozens of dishes and bottles also broke on
the ship (the ship tilted 7 - 10 degrees). The broadcaster Pacific Natália
Alves was one of the passengers who was in the
restaurant area when the ship tilted. "What we saw impressed more than the actual
situation. Had water running down the stairs. Many
beverages fell to the ground. And it all happened
because the wind was too strong. More than rain. Was
shocking," he says. The captain said the vessel tilted seven degrees. A similar
story is told by pasengers aboard the Pullmantur ship.
The newspaper article includes pictures. |
Stormy seas |
| January 26 |
Veendam
Holland America
Line |
Cruise
Critic reports that due to a medical emergency that
required a medical evacuation, the ship will arrive in
Hawaii on Tuesday -- one day late. Passengers will miss a
planned call on Hilo on Monday, and they're slated to arrive
later than scheduled in Honolulu, Tuesday's planned port of
call. |
Missed Port |
| January 25 |
Carnival Miracle
Carnival Cruise Lines |
From a passenger: my wife and
I sailed from LA to the Mexican Riviera on a 6-day cruise
between January 12th and 18th. On that cruise she got
extremely sick with what was later diagnosed as a lower GI
infection, and as the cruise progressed at least 40-50 other
passengers got really sick. While Carnival refunded our
planned Puerto Vallarta shore excursion they refused to
refund even a portion of the all-you-can-drink alcohol pass
that we purchased, even though my wife was too sick to even
drink alcohol for half of the cruise. Carnival did not
charge us for my wife's two visits to the ship's infirmary
too, and on our 2nd visit my wife saw a computerized list of
passengers on sick restrictions that was more than a single
webpage in length. We also made an unscheduled stop on our
way back to LA from Puerto Vallarta when an older male
passenger had to be evacuated at Cabo. That stop was on
Thursday, January 16th, which was supposed to be a "fun day
at sea". |
Illness |
| January 25 |
Ruby Princess
Princess Cruises |
From a passenger: Jan 20, 2014
-- We were on our way back from shopping in Cozumel, just
going thru the security, when all the security guys started
running up the dock, towards the ship. A passenger ended up
in the water, he fell off the long dock! He was floating on
his back, they threw a life preserver to him and then guided
him to the ladder, but he could not get up, he was exhausted
and started drifting under the dock, so one guy got down the
ladder and grabbed him, but could not get him to the ladder
so another guy(security) jumped in and together they hauled
him up. It was not easy for them, he was dead weight. They
called an ambulance, but he declined and instead they got
him in a wheelchair. People coming back from the beach gave
them their towels for him, then they wheeled him unto the
ship to the medical. We have since seen him around the ship,
seemed to survive just fine. |
Fall from dock |
| January 25 |
Explorer of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International |
CDC
reports 281 of
3050 passengers (9.21%) and 22 of 1165 crew (1.15%) have
reported ill with gastrointestinal illness. A CDC Vessel
Sanitation Program environmental health officer and an
epidemiologist will board the ship in St. Thomas, USVI on
January 26, 2014 to conduct an epidemiologic
investigation, environmental health assessment, and
evaluate the outbreak and response activities. Specimens
are being collected and will be sent to the CDC lab for
testing. The ship is on a ten day cruise, beginning
January 21 and ending January 31. It had departed Cape
Liberty, New Jersey on January 21 for a scheduled 10-day
cruise to the island of St. Maarten, which included
scheduled stops in Haiti and Puerto Rico. UPDATE:
CNN reports the ship will return two days early after an
outbreak of gastrointestinal illness, the cruise line said
Sunday. According to the CDC, 634 of the 3,050 passengers
(20.6%) and 55 of 1,165 crew members (4.7%) have reported
being ill. |
Illness |
| January 21 |
Balmoral
Fred Olsen Cruises |
Bedford Today reports an elderly man who died while taking a Christmas cruise in rough seas had told his family he felt it would be his last one. Garth O’Donnell, 73, was on his second back-to-back cruise when he was found unconscious and bleeding at the foot of a stairwell. He had been aboard the ship for about 10 days on a North Sea cruise and stayed on for the voyage to Madeira and the Canary Islands. The ship had set sail from Southampton at 5pm on December 21, last year, in rough seas, with force 7-9 winds predicted. During the voyage announcements had been made to warn passengers about the weather and advise them to always use the handrails. At 10am the next day Mr O’Donnell was found unconscious. He was found with his head on the floor and legs still lying on the stairs by the ship’s hotel manager who was investigating a ‘loud bang’. The ship’s medical team gave Mr O’Donnell first aid while a paramedic was helicoptered aboard from France. |
Pax death onboard |
| January 21 |
Norwegian Star
Norwegian Cruise Line |
CDC
reports 130 of
2318 passengers (5.61%) and 12 of 1039 crew (1.15%) have
reported ill with gastrointestinal illness. CDC Vessel
Sanitation Program environmental health officers and an
epidemiologist boarded the ship on arrival in Miami,
Florida on January 19, 2014 to conduct a targeted
environmental health assessment and evaluate the outbreak
and response activities. Specimens were sent to the CDC
lab for testing. The ship was on a 14 day cruise ending
January 19. |
Illness |
| January 20 |
Carnival Splendor
Carnival Cruise Lines |
Bali
Discovery Tours reports a 21-year-old Balinese man
working as a crew member diedon Deember 23, 2013 just days
after joining the ship's crew on December 6, 2013.
The young man was said to be diligent in calling or texting
his family and girlfriend on a daily basis, contact that
suddenly stopped on December 21, 2013, when he told his
family he had developed a cough. Two days later on December
23, 2104 a manager from Carnival Cruise Lines
telephoned the Barsiana's mother to advise her son had died
in his crew cabin. According to NusaBali, the
crewman’s family has received no further details in
connection with the circumstances or cause of their son’s
death. |
Crew death (unexplained) |
| January 19 |
Carnival Magic
Carnival Cruise Lines |
Cruise
Law News reports they received the following
information from a passenger on the Carnival Magic
returning to port in Galveston: "We sit outside the
harbor in the fog this morning. Last night the coast guard
had to airlift a passenger for medical reasons and
yesterday morning we had a fire. Deck 11 forward. The crew
says it was not a fire but hot electrical. Smoke was
coming down to other decks, there is water and wet floors
up there so they can call it what they want . . . Pic of
the chopper attached." Passengers are now
disembarking from the cruise ship. Carnival responded: "On
Saturday morning aboard the Carnival Magic, there was a
smell of smoke reported along a guest corridor. The issue
was identified as an overheated electrical component
within an air conditioning vent located within a guest
stateroom. There was no fire. The issue has since been
fixed. Guests were kept apprised of the situation with
announcements over the ship’s public address system and
shipboard staff were positioned in the area where the
smoke was reported to advise guests and answer any
questions." |
Smoke/fire |
| January 18 |
Seadream
I Seadream Yacht Club |
The Vessel
Sanitation Program reports the ship failed its
sanitation inspection with a score of 83. |
Failed health inspection |
| January 18 |
Majesty of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International |
WSVN
News reports the ship arrived at PortMiami with 68
people experiencing an illness thought to be norovirus,
according to the cruise line. Royal Caribbean released a
statement Friday that said several people onboard the cruise
ship began to experience a gastrointestinal illness believed
to be norovirus. Over the course of the five day sailing, 66
out of 2,581 guests and two out of 844 crew members
experienced the illness. |
Illness |
| January 18 |
Dawn Princess
Princess Cruises |
New
Zealand Herald reports high winds and a critical time
schedule revolving around tides led to the cruise liner Dawn
Princess bypassing Napier yesterday. The ship had been
scheduled to tie up at Napier Port just before 6am - and was
set to be the first of three liners arriving over three
days. But Napier Port senior pilot Captain Trevor Morrison
said the captain of the liner had been concerned over
reports of high westerly winds sweeping the Bay as well as
possible rising southwesterly winds later in the day. He was
also aware that the ship needed to stick closely to its
scheduled 2pm departure time to keep to the tide schedule
for its next destination, Tauranga. The Dawn Princess had
sailed from Wellington. The cancellation was a blow for
tourism operators who had bookings arranged. One tourism
operator said the industry effectively worked on the basis
that up to 10 per cent of scheduled cruise ship arrivals
could be cancelled in a season. The non-arrival brought to
four the number of liners that had, due to weather and
rescheduling, bypassed Napier since the start of the cruise
season in October. |
Missed port call |
| January 17 |
ASEAN Raider Passenger ferry |
Asia
One reports the Maritime and Port Authority of
Singapore (MPA) is conducting a search-and-rescue operation
after a man had fallen overboard from a passenger ferry
about 4km South-east of Kusu Island in the Singapore Strait
on Thursday at about 7.30pm. According to a statement issued
by MPA, the Singapore-flagged ferry "ASEAN Raider 2" was en
route from Singapore's Regional Ferry Terminal (Harbour
Front), to Batu Ampar, Batam, Indonesia when the incident
happened. Two MPA craft, one Police Coast Guard craft and
one Republic of Singapore Navy patrol vessel are currently
involved in the search-and-rescue. MPA added that it is
investigating the incident, and has issued urgent safety
broadcast to vessels in the vicinity to keep a lookout and
report any sightings of the missing person. Kusu Island is
part of Singapore's Southern Islands cluster, which includes
Sentosa, Lazarus Island, Pulau Seringat, Pulau Tekukor,
Saint John's Island, and the two Sisters' Islands. |
Overboard |
| January 15 |
Diamond Princess
Princess Cruises |
New
Zealand Herald reports cleaners are working to
sanitise a cruise ship before the next group of passengers
boards after dozens of people caught a violent stomach bug
on its last voyage. The ship docked in Tauranga yesterday at
the end of a cruise that began in Australia 12 days ago. It
is due to leave on its next voyage from Auckland today but
check-in will be delayed by about four hours while the ship
is thoroughly sterilised after about 60 of 3,500 passengers
and crew contracted norovirus on the latest trip. |
Illness |
| January 14 |
Carnival Conquest Carnival
Cruise Lines |
Cruise
Critic reports just days after the U.S. State
Department issued a Honduras travel warning, a family of
five were robbed at gunpoint during their Roatan port of
call. No one was hurt, but the incident highlights the
dangers many Caribbean port calls can present. Carnival
Conquest passenger Jeff Smith, his wife and three daughters
were in Roatan on January 2 when a masked gunman jumped out
of the bushes on a beach access road on the northeast side
of the island and began shooting at the rental car Smith was
driving. "My immediate reaction was to put the car in
reverse and try to back down the gravel/dirt access road to
distance my family from the gunman," Smith told Cruise
Critic. Instead, he wrecked the car, and the gunman who had
pursued the family on foot robbed them of their cash,
iPhones and a camera, all while pointing his gun at either
Smith or his daughters, ages 15, 14 and 8. The encounter
lasted three minutes, but Smith said it is not easily
forgotten, nor should it be. Cruise
Law News reports on the same day, another cruise guest
had a shotgun pointed at his family while on a sight-seeing
guided van tour. They were also on a remote un-paved side
road. |
Pax robbed |
| January 12 |
Caribbean
Princess
Princess Cruises |
From a passenger: Caribbean
Princess 1/4 - 1/11: We did not dock at the port in Roataun
Honduras on 1/7 due to "severe weather" high wind and waves
although we spent the day circling the island and saw
another cruise ship was in the port. Also, NoroVirus
Outbreak on board from from 1/8-1/11. Cabins on both sides
of us had to be sanitized due the passengers being sick.
Luckily we were not ill! Lastly, Disembarked 4 hours late on
1/11 due to dense fog in port. Rain, waves and sick
passengers all cruise long; we wanted off the ship! |
Illness? / Delayed disembarkation / missed
port |
| January 12 |
Sun
Princess
Princess Cruises |
The
Morning Bulletin reports Attorney-General Jarrod
Bleijie has ordered an investigation into the death of a
passenger aboard a cruise ship. Betty Virgo, 72, died after
becoming sick during a trip around New Zealand on the luxury
liner Sun Princess in November 2012. Her daughter Gayle
Virgo, who was also on board, has complained about the
medical treatment and care her mother received in the hours
before her death and the fact that her body was embalmed
before an autopsy could be carried out. A spokesman for
Carnival Australia, which owns Princess Cruises, rejected
any suggestion of inappropriate or inadequate medical care
and said all policies and procedures were followed after Mrs
Virgo's death. Mr Bleijie has directed State Coroner Terry
Ryan to conduct an investigation into the Gold Coast woman's
death. The Courier
Mail has an aricle with more details. |
Investigation into medical treatment |
| January 11 |
Serenade
of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International |
From a passenger: high seas
and winds delayed tender operations in grand Cayman on
current cruise. Passengers waited in line taking up two or
more decks for the line . Some waited over two hours to
disembark, only to find their tours cancelled when they
arrived ashore. Although cruise lines cannot control the
weather, they could be more realistic with passengers
instead of protecting their excursion partners. Similarly,
bad weather for the ferries in Cozumel created very rocky
seas for the ferry ride to the mainland from Playa del
Carmen. At least a half dozen passengers vomited on that
ride. No one was in formed of sea conditions for the ferry
ride.. Some of us would have taken Dramamine, or worn
patches or wrist bands. It was this seasoned traveller and
cruiser's worst travel experience in 40 plus years of
travel. No attempt was made to keep us informed or tell us
of the weather conditions. They had cancelled excursions the
day before. Reporting from Serenade of the Seas. |
delayed disembarkaton / lack of information |
| January 11 |
Caribbean
Princess
Princess Cruises |
From a reader: Passengers have
been notified that during the current cruise there has been
an increase in the number of cases of gastrointestinal
illness amongst passengers caused by Norovirus. In response,
we have arranged for the ship to undergo a prolonged and
additional disinfection in Houston on Saturday, January 11,
2014. As a consequence, cruise check-in and embarkation will
be delayed until 2:00 pm. |
?Illnesss?/ Delayed embarkation |
| January 8 |
Divina
MSC Cruises
|
The ship missed its port call to Half Moon Cay
(private island) because of sea conditions. |
Missed port call |
| January 7 |
Multiple ships |
Cruise
Critic reports anumber of cruise ships have been
severely delayed by the storms that continue to batter the
U.K. All three of Saga Cruises' fleet have been delayed by
the weather -- Saga Ruby and Saga Pearl II have been stuck
in Lisbon all weekend, while Saga Sapphire was delayed
leaving Southampton. Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines' Balmoral has
been in the English Channel for two days and will be forced
to skip two ports of call. And P&O Cruises' Adonia came
back a day early from a Mediterranean cruise, arriving
yesterday instead of today to avoid the bad weather. Both
Saga Ruby -- which is on its last voyage with the line --
and Saga Pearl 2 were due in to Southampton today (Tuesday
7th). However, the ships have only just left Lisbon and are
now due in on Thursday evening. They will be forced to skip
one port stop -- Porto -- and all passengers who have booked
shore excursions will be refunded. A spokeswoman for Fred.
Olsen said: "We can now confirm that Balmoral has suffered
delays due to bad weather. As a result, the ports of Cadiz
and Mahon have been cancelled, and Balmoral will now call
into Gibraltar arriving on 10th January, and Valletta on
13th January. This allows for Balmoral to get back on
schedule, and continue with the remainder of the itinerary."
A spokeswoman for P&O said there will be no compensation
offered as the early return was weather-related and not a
significant change. |
Delays / missed ports |
| January 7 |
Grand
Princess
Princess Cruises |
San
Francisco Chronicle reports acruise ship that left San
Francisco for Hawaii on Saturday was delayed Tuesday as
search crews scoured the ocean water for a ship worker who
jumped overboard. Surveillance video showed a 35-year-old
Filipino employee plunging off the vessel early Tuesday
morning. The man, whose identity was not released, went
overboard about halfway between San Francisco and Hilo,
Hawaii. Cruise line officials believe the plunge was
intentional. |
Crew overboard |
| January 3 |
Veendam
Holland America
Line |
Several passengers have reported an 88 year old
woman going overboard from the ship on its return to San
DIego from Mexico. To date, this has not been reported in
the media. According to one passenger: her body was
recovered after the incident. The FBI came aboard when the
ship arrived in San Diego and conducted a 3 hour forensic
investigation. According to 10
News, the Medical Examiner has ruled the death a
suicide, but one passenger who watched it all told 10News
there is more to the story. The witness did not want to be
identified but says he saw the elderly woman climb out on
her balcony and appeared to lean over the rail to jump, but
when she turned around to go back inside she slipped and
fell. |
Overboard |
| January 3 |
Oasis of the Seas
Royal Caribbean
International |
From a passenger: The ship lost power for about
20 minutes at 11:52 PM. The Captain subsequently reported
there had been a failure of a generator. |
Generator failure / power loss |
| January 4 |
Queen Mary 2
Cunard Line |
Cruise
Fever reports a winter storm that dumped up to 2 feet
of snow on the Northeast, has
delayed the Queen Mary 2 in New York City. The cruise
ship was scheduled to leave port at 5 p.m. on Friday,
January 3. Cunard released a statement saying the the
ship will notthat depart before midnight and that check-in
will close one hour prior to sailing. The cruise line
decided to delay the departure of the ship to allow extra
time for passengers who have been delayed arriving in New
York. |
Delayed departure |
| January 3 |
Sun
Princess
Princess Cruises |
Cruise
Critic reports the cruise ship is experiencing an
outbreak of what is described as norovirus which is
diminishing the cruise experience of the passengers. The
primary complaint seems to be that the cruise line allegedly
knew about the noro outbreak but did not tell the passengers
until after the ship sailed. Earlier, on December 26th, we
previously posted comments about noro virus on the Sun
Princess. Here's what we received this evening: "The
Sun Princess is again out in the South Pacific with about
2,000 "Guests," all of whom were boarded without advice
that the ship was sailing at 'RED ALERT' levels for the
NORO virus raging in the vessel. The company is clever at
preserving their profits at the risk of passenger health
in not advising passengers of the outbreaks until well out
on the ocean. Holiday pleasures diminished, no condiments
on tables, no self-service buffers, constant urgings to
use expensive bottled water, very expensive medical centre
visits, confined to cabins etc. etc. etc This concealment
of health risks is deeply concerning and must be addressed
by the industry at large right now." |
Illness |
Click here for events in 2013 |
Report of Investigation into
the Fire Onboard the Carnival Splendor which Occurred
in the Pacific Ocean Off the Coast of Mexico on
November 8, 2010, which Resulted in Complete Loss of
Power