CARNIVAL LEGEND is Cruise Line’s Fourth Ship to Have Issues at Sea

As this video from Canada’s Global National newscast notes, the CARNIVAL LEGEND became the cruise line’s fourth ship in less than a month to experience problems while at sea when it was forced to cancel a port of call to Grand Cayman on March 15 after a propulsions system issue. The ship carrying approximately 2,500 passengers and 930 crewmembers returned to its home port of Tampa, Florida, on March 17, and Carnival expected it to set sail again later that evening despite the problems. On March 13, the CARNIVAL DREAM stalled at port with a generator problem, forcing the cruise line to fly more than 4,000 passengers back to Florida. The CARNIVAL ELATION required tugboat assistance following a propulsion failure on March 9, and an engine fire on the CARNIVAL TRIUMPH last month became national news when over 3,000 passengers and more than 1,000 crewmembers were stranded for five days in the Gulf of Mexico.

This spate of issues with the cruise line garnered the attention of lawmakers in the nation’s capital. On March 13, John D. Rockefeller IV, West Virginia’s senior United States senator and the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, tweeted that the US Coast Guard responded to 90 incidents with Carnival ships in  five years—with passengers onboard. “This needs to change,” Rockefeller said in his tweet.

“Just today, we’ve been reminded of Carnival’s dismal safety record with reports that the Carnival Dream is experiencing problems,” Rockefeller said in a March 14 letter sent to Carnival CEO Mickey Arison. “The ship is stranded in a Caribbean port with no power and thousands of passengers trapped onboard. Last month, the Coast Guard spent almost $780,000 in responding to the Carnival Triumph incident – costs that are paid by federal taxpayers. … It seems that Carnival has failed to take any meaningful course of corrective action after these continual incidents.”

Three days later, the Associated Press reported that New York’s senior US Senator, Charles Schumer, said he was calling on the cruise ship industry to adopt a “bill of rights” to guarantee ships have sanitary conditions, back-up power, medical staff and other standard procedures. The senator’s plan would also give passengers the right to a full refund if mechanical problems caused a trip to be abruptly canceled, and Schumer said he would call on US Secretary of State John Kerry to negotiate with countries that host cruise ships to adopt the rights.

Of course, many of these issues with Carnival have existed for a long time. As Christopher Mims, a reporter for the Atlantic Media Company’s Quartz publication, said in a tweet, “Carnival Cruise’s awesome biz model: Pay no US tax, evade all US labor laws, get free rescues from US Coast Guard.”

Whether you have been on a cruise or are planning on going on a cruise, it is important that you understand your legal rights.  The problem when you go on a cruise, many of your legal rights disappear or are extremely limited by the cruise ship ticket.  In particular, there are time limitations as to when you can file a claim as a result of an injury or death and limitations as to claims of property damages.

Through the years,  Latti & Anderson LLP helps clients pursue compensation for injuries or wrongful death on cruises, and additional information about cruise ship injuries is available on our website. You can contact our firm at (800) 392-6072 to schedule an initial free consultation or use the form on this page to have our Boston maritime attorneys review your case if you or a loved one sustained injuries on a cruise ship.

Latti & Anderson LLP – Boston maritime trial lawyers

Latti & Anderson’s Little Extra: Last June, the news website Salon reported that the number of crimes reported onboard cruise ships “had all but vanished” since Congress passed the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010. However, there were zero crimes reported in the third quarter of 2011 despite the FBI saying that alleged crimes had occurred.