Cruise Bruise Blog
January 18, 2009
January 18, 2009
A Rough Month For Passengers At Sea - Five Have Gone Overboard

It is with great sadness I have added another missing person case to the web site. This is four cases in the past month, five have gone overboard, with only one being rescued.

A Southern California couple were missing from their cruise ship, the Carnival Paradise,  when the vessel arrived back to the Port Of Long Beach, in California. The United States Coast Guard did a very limited search for the couple, as it was three days before they were reporting missing, when the ship arrived back in port. The story is here

January 18, 2009
The First Major Cruise Ship Norovirus Outbreak Of The Year

While I was adding the first major Norovirus outbreak of 2009, I came to realize, the Epidemic category was in severe disrepair. Sometimes, it takes a great distance, then a return, with a fresh look, to see the error of our ways. So, after adding the case of Norovirus aboard the Celebrity Mercury, that racked up over 150 victims, I decided to upgrade the Epidemics category. A quick note. Mercury has a nasty Norovirus history. Read it here

The new and improved category has all the CDC reportable cases of mass illness by date. I have the count of passengers along with the percentage of those ill. This make is easier to compare one ship to another, even though the ships are of different sizes. The same holds true for the crew numbers.

New, I have totaled the outbreaks for each incident, for easy reference. Also new, I have added the scores for the CDC inspection most recent before the outbreak, and then the next inspection after the outbreak. This might give you some indication of contributing factors, if any.

The great thing about the Epidemics category is all this information is on ONE page, making it easy to do extensive research, without loading page after page and having to go back and forth.

You will note my grading system, that puts the numbers into perspective, and aligns with the same system land-based restaurants are graded by in the U.S.
I decide to add the grading system I use, on the Outbreak pages, because I recently saw a major media outlet say that a score of 90 was excellent. A score of 90 is actually a 'C' grade, far from excellent, only five points away from failing 'D' grade, and being held in port.

January 18, 2009
Royal Caribbean Faces Complaint Of Fraud & Conspiracy Over Artwork

A Complaint and Demand for Jury Trial was filed on December, 23 2008 against Park West Galleries, Inc., Albert Scaglione and Morris Shapiro (owner and gallery director, respectively) and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., by the Farmington Hills, Michigan, attorneys, Kaufman, Payton and Chapa, for Plaintiffs Albert and Vivian Best, Sharon Day, Julian Howard, Deborah Austin, Cheryl Crist, Heidi Rice, Michael and Maria Vallillo and Martha Szostak, all customers of Park West Galleries and all, except for Albert and Vivian Best, Fine Art Registry members.

All the Plaintiffs were sold artwork by Park West Galleries. Their allegations include violation of Michigan’s warranty in fine arts statute, fraud, violation of the Michigan Consumer Protection Act, breach of contract, violation of the Michigan art multiple sales act, negligent misrepresentation, conspiracy and unjust enrichment. The Plaintiffs combined purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of art which was later found by experts to either be fake or have forged signatures, or to be heavily overpriced and misrepresented as bargains and investments by the Park West auctioneers and sales people responsible for the sales.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. is included as a Defendant in the case of Sharon Day and Julian Howard because payment for their purchase was arranged and facilitated through Royal Caribbean Cruise Ltd. account, so the cruise line company was obviously directly involved in the sale.

All of the Plaintiffs have demanded refunds of the money paid for their purchases but all were refused by Park West, and Royal Caribbean denied responsibility and refused to help.

Ralph C. Chapa, Jr. Partner of the legal firm said, “The decision to file a Complaint against Defendants Park West Galleries, Inc., Albert Scaglione, Morris Shapiro, and Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. on behalf of our clients was not taken lightly. Our clients all purchased art in good faith from the Defendants, and were shocked to learn that the artwork they purchased was either fraudulent, misrepresented, and/or its price was grossly inflated."

Chapa further states, "Only after having their reasonable requests for a full refund rebuffed by Defendants, did our clients come to the conclusion that their only hope to be made whole again was to resort to the court system. Throughout the course of this litigation, we look forward to the opportunity to protect the interests of our clients, and to get them the justice they deserve.”

Fine Art Registry CEO, Theresa Franks, whose company offers advocacy to victims of art fraud and abuse said, “This suit represents only a handful of the 220 or more Park West customers who have come to us for help with what they consider fraud and misrepresentation. We are hoping that the judge will help put a stop to this abuse.”

January 18, 2009
USCG Medevacs Man Off Fantasy In Gulf Of Mexico

The United States Coast Guard (USCG) medevaced a male passengers, age 44, off the Carnival Cruise Line's Fantasy, whilte the vessel was on a Caribbean Cruise. The USCG airlifted the man off the vessel approximately 200 miles southeast of New Orleans today.

A watchstander at the Eighth Coast Guard District Command Center received a call at approximately 1320 hours, from a crew member aboard the Fantasy, stating that a passenger aboard the ship was suffering from abdominal pains.

January 18, 2009
Consolidation Of The Blog

As you can see to the left, if you are reading this before January 20th, the long list of links to the left, that take you to the pages, day by day, needs consolidation. I need to do something about it, and I need to do it soon, as we are running out of room. The consolidation for the first round of changes will be by the week.

Each link to a week, will take you a page that summarizes the blog entires for that week, and will give links to the daily pages of each summarized entry. This should last us about a year, and then I will have to consolidate again, and list the blog entries by months. Once I resort to that, we will be good for quite a few years.