Cruise Injury Blog

There’s a certain thrill in being amongst the first few to enjoy a new experience, so it’s no surprise that many vacationers jump at the opportunity to be on a new cruise ship’s maiden voyage. But does that mean it’s actually a good idea? While it can be exciting to set sail on an inaugural cruise, you may also have to contend with a few kinks in the service, entertainment, and maintenance departments.

 

For some cruise passengers, a few setbacks are a small price to pay for being able to experience a brand new cruise ship, but for others, it may be much more relaxing to book a trip on a seasoned cruise ship. It ultimately comes down to an individual preference.

We’ve outlined a few of the disadvantages and advantages of going on a cruise’s maiden voyage to help you decide for

Following the death of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first US Ebola patient, and the hospitalization of two nurses who had been treating Duncan, health care workers who had any kind of contact with the patient were warned not to travel. Unfortunately, this warning came after a lab worker who had handled Duncan’s samples embarked on a Carnival cruise to Belize and Mexico.

CNN reported that the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital worker never came into direct contact with Duncan, but did handle samples that contained Ebola. She exhibited no symptoms of Ebola on the cruise, but elected to quarantine herself in her cabin as a precaution. She was on the cruise during the 21-day stretch of time that could have been the incubating period for Ebola if she had contracted the virus from Duncan.

 

The more than 4,000 passengers who were on the Carnival

If you’re going on a cruise to the Caribbean this October, you may be seeing some itinerary changes. That’s because Tropical Storm Gonzalo has swept into the region, and several major cruise lines have already changed course in order to keep passengers safe.

 

Cruise Fever reported on October 12^th that Royal Caribbean was the first cruise line to change one of their ship’s itineraries. The Explorer of the Seas bypassed St. Marteen, where there was a scheduled stop, and went straight to San Juan. Disney and Carnival have also made changes on several of their cruises, with Disney rearranging the order of stops for the Disney Magic, and Carnival outright cancelling a port stop in the Dominican Republic for the Carnival Breeze. The Carnival Liberty and Carnival Conquest, meanwhile, were rerouted from eastern Caribbean to western Caribbean itineraries.

 

As of this

The appeal of going on a cruise, for many passengers, is the opportunity to travel to a number of different ports and visit parts of the world that they might not otherwise have seen. Unfortunately, while cruise lines play up their various destinations as tropical paradises, the reality is that many of the countries and cities they visit have high rates of violent crimes, and passengers are sometimes the victims of these crimes.

 

Last year, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime released a ranking of the most dangerous countries based on homicide rates, and over half of the top ten countries—including Colombia, Jamaica, Venezuela, and Honduras—are also popular cruise stops. Knowing this, should cruise lines be liable for taking tourists to potentially dangerous ports and failing to warn them about the risks?

 

Lawsuit against Carnival Highlights Unexpected Dangers at Port

 

 

 

 

The good news about cruising is that tickets have been getting less expensive as cruise lines fight to stay competitive in the industry. The bad news, though, is that those cruise lines have been coming up with creative extras to get passengers to part with more money once they are onboard. There’s nothing wrong with treating yourself to a few extras on your next vacation, but try to avoid the following five things if you don’t want to end up paying double your original ticket price by the end of the trip.

 

On-Board Casinos

 

Many cruise lines have on-board casinos that are strategically positioned so that you have to walk by them—or even through them—on a regular basis. While spending time in one of the casinos might seem like a good way to kill some time on a leisurely

Some of the biggest cruise ship accidents in history have, unsurprisingly, received a lot of media attention. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone in the US who is unfamiliar with the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, and in more recent history, disasters including the sinking of the Costa Concordia and the loss of power on the Carnival Triumph have garnered significant press. However, sometimes significant cruise ship accidents are overlooked by the mainstream media, either because a cruise line withholds information or because other news stories are dominating the headlines at the time. Here are five cruise ship accidents that should have received more attention.

 

Achille Lauro Sinking Is Last Incident in Ship’s String of Disasters

 

The Achille Lauro, a ship owned by Starlauro (which has since been rebranded as MSC), caught fire in the Indian Ocean in 1994.