Cruise Bruise Blog
January 23, 2009
January 23, 2009
Cruise Ship Near Miss Collision In Port Of Los Angeles

A commercial fishing boat, in violation of U.S. federal law came within the prohibited bounds of 200 yards in front and 100 yards behind or to the sides of a cruise ship that is under way.

The United States Coast Guard (USCG) refused to identify the two ships, but said the fishing boat was about 31 feet long and passed within 30 feet of the cruise ship while the two vessels were in the harbor channel at Los Angeles.

January 23, 2009
Unlucky Man Wins Lottery Then Dies From Cruise Ship Norovirus

Colin Halford, 52, from Tamworth, Staffordshire in the United Kingdom, won a £1,134,695  Lotto drawing on October 18, 2008. 

Then Halford took a Caribbean cruise with his wife Tina, 50, with their Lotto winnings a couple months later. While on the cruise he caught Norovirus and died from the complications.

January 23, 2009
Australian Businessman Suggests Gouging Cruise Ship Pax

A local businessman and Tauranga Chamber of Commerce chief executive Max Mason, in an interview for a local newspaper article said that business owners should increase their inventory and raise prices 30% so that they could make more money off cruise ship passengers while they were in port. 

Mr Mason's comments were published while the 3390 passengers and 1650 crew from the Millennium and Volendam cruise liners were still in town.

"It will be like a Boxing Day in reverse because this weekend we should increase prices by 30 per cent," Mason told a local newspaper.

It is not known how many business owners may have followed his advice.

Tauranga is a port city located in the western Bay of Plenty region of the North Island of New Zealand, approximately 205 km (127 mi) south-east of Auckland.


January 23, 2009
Diamond Princess Passengers Hospitalized After Accident

Two women and three children from Australia, who had arrived in the Bay Of Plenty aboard the Princess Cruises Diamond Princess rented a car while in port, then were involved in an accident.

The passengers are recovering in Tauranga Hospital after their rental car crashed into a bridge near Te Puke, 20km south-east of Mount Maunganui, on January 16, 2009.


The five passengers, from Sydney, Australia were passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship and had spent the day sightseeing in the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand. They were returning to the ship when the crash happened at 1710 hours.

Western Bay traffic policing boss Senior Sergeant Ian Campion said two women, aged 59 and 46, sustained serious injuries and had to be cut from the wreckage by the Fire Service.

A 13-year-old boy and girl were also seriously injured, while a 9-year-old boy had moderate injuries.