Cruise Bruise Blog
May 3, 2009
May 4, 2009
How To Get A Free Cruise - The Fun Way
German company TUI Cruises is offering to refund the fares of brides who become pregnant while on their new liner, Mein Schiff, during their honeymoon cruise.
The company, a joint venture with US-based Royal Caribbean Cruises, says the promotion backs a German Government campaign to lift the country's declining birth rate.
Perhaps RCCL is looking at it as a way to keep passengers out of the buffet, by encouraging them to stay in bed the entire cruise.
May 3, 2009
Children On Cruise Ships Being Molested In Their Cabins By Crew
I happened to be on Twitter today, when a tweet came through from Travel Talk Radio (@traveltalking), that they had Florida Maritime Attorney James (Jim) Walker on live (@cruiselaw).
Since Jim Walker is a Cruise Bruise partner, I was of course interested in what he had to say. Because the technical side of the Travel Talk Radio web site was not updated to reflect the current show, I missed the live show.
However, I popped in later to hear the pod cast archive of the show. Mr. Walker brought to light some facts that are not well-known to passengers and potential passengers.
First, Walker says that he has had about 55 cases since 1999 and that he sees a problem with crime aboard cruise ships. Specifically, he says that the crimes are primarily against women and children.
The problem of crime against children is rather shocking to me, and is highly under-reported. Mr. Walker explains the situation in some of the cases he sees, saying that after a few days on a cruise, children become worn out from all the activities and time spent in ports of call.
This is when parents who want to go to a late seating of dinner or to a show, leave the tired children in their beds to rest around 8pm or later, thinking it is safe if they are locked in.
However, this is when Mr. Walker says things go wrong. He has been seeing
"a number of cases" where the cabin attendant uses his employee card key to enter the cabin to attack and molest the children.
Not only that, women are being attacked while asleep in their beds by crew members accessing the cabin with their employee card key. These are not women who have signaled that they are up for anything. They were in their beds, asleep, and through no fault of their own were viciously attacked.
Attorney Walker also mentions that in the past ten years around 100 passengers have gone missing at sea. For these reasons, he, I and the International Cruise Victims Association as well, are supporting the current piece of legislation before congress, S-588 in the Senate, The Senator John Kerry bill and H-1485 in the House Of Representatives, the Doris Matsui bill.Passing of the bill would ensure that crimes have to be reported and are handle in a uniform manner protecting the gathering of evidence.
In addition, the Florida attorney says that at this point in time, if a ship is outside territorial waters they are not required by any law to report the crimes. This means passengers board, really not aware of the dangers they face. If the crimes were reported, one cruise line could be compare to another, and one to ship to another to compare their safety records, giving the passenger the information they need to make an informed decision, before they book a cruise.
This of course is why Cruise Bruise exists. I believe that just as travelers research potential towns, states and countries for vacation, they should also have available information about each cruise line and their ships.
Even with the passage of these two bills, many of the incidents that take place on ships will not become public, leaving Cruise Bruise still the primary source for incident information in all categories. You can listen to the entire pod cast here
May 4, 2009
Carnival Ecstasy Cruise Rerouted And Shortened
Not only did passengers not get the port of calls they booked, they also lost a half day of their cruise, arriving back to Galveston, Texas about eleven hours early.
Ecstasy was on a 5-day cruise that was suppose to call at the Mexican ports of Progreso on the Yucatan Peninsula and Cozumel. Instead, the ship sailed to Montego Bay, Jamaica and Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.
Then, according to Carnival Cruise Line's spokeswoman Jennifer de la Garza, a female passenger on the ship had heart problems. So, the ship headed back to Galveston early.
May 4, 2009
Passengers Trade Tips On Defrauding Cruise Lines
Had I not read it myself, it would be hard to believe. A website, titled
"BelieveInAmerica.net" saw a post on Saturday, under the category, "Home And Health" by a person who identified himself as "Sean Rhodes", as he questioned others using the site, "How Can You Get Alcohol On A Cruise Ship To Keep Onboard Cost Down?"
What Mr. Rhodes wants to know is, how to smuggle booze onto a cruise ship, so he doesn't have to pay for it aboard. Not being able to afford booze, apparently is not a reason to avoid alcoholic beverages.
The responses range from pointing out that taking the booze aboard is "Illegal" by a poster who calls herself Queen Mum Linda to tips on how to get away with it.
A poster named "cruise junkie", who I am sure is not CruiseJunkie.com web site owner Ross Klein from Canada, offered the tip "I pre-mix jack and coke in soda bottles and put it in my checked bags ..works every time"
That suggestion and many others were outlined, including just placing it the check-in luggage, using water pillows, with several agreeing. Poster "Randall" gives his suggestions then says... "Everyone does it."
