A small (178 foot) expedition cruise ship sailing in Glacier Bay National Park caught on fire yesterday morning. The engine room fire required the Wilderness Discoverer to evacuate fifty-one guests and sixteen crew members. UnCruise Adventures, which operates the ship, said there were no injuries from the fire. Press update: Smooth operations continue with local & federal authorities getting guests & crew to GBNP headquarters, where they will have flights provided home. Full refunds will be provided to all affected guests. Thank you to those who've assisted. https://t.co/AHXJqL5XVE ..read more

The Celebrity Summit is the latest cruise ship to experience a gastrointestinal outbreak requiring the involvement of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) this year. The Celebrity operated cruise ship reported 152 of 2,144 (7.09%) passengers and 25 of 963 (2.60%) crew members experienced gastrointestinal (GI) illnesses . A total of 177 people were sickened on the May 15–May 25, 2023 cruise and experienced symptoms which included diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, and headaches. This is the twelth GI outbreak so far this year, which exceeds the average number of yearly GI ou ..read more

The Federal Bureau of Investigations (“FBI”) arrested a cruise passenger last week on charges of abusive sexual contact with a young girl on a cruise ship, according to documents filed in federal court for the Southern District of Florida. The FBI arrested 47 year-old Justin Dale Sigmon on the Carnival Sunshine when the cruise ship returned to port in Miami, Florida. According to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office’s website, Sigmon was an employee of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office at the time of the arrest. .@FBI arrests employee of Franklin County (VA) Sheriffs Office, 47 year ..read more

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has indicated that it is involved in the investigation of the disappearance of 35 year-old Ronnie Peale, Jr. from the Carnival Magic last weekend. A local news station in the cruise ship’s home port in Norfolk, Virginia, 13 News Now, reports that according to the FBI’s Norfolk office, the FBI “has joined the investigation” into this disappearance. The FBI “is now the lead investigating agency with the assistance of multiple other agencies.” A @FBI spokesperson for Norfolk office said FBI is now lead investigating agency regarding disappearance of 35 ..read more

The Carnival Magic returned to its home port in Norfolk, Virginia early this morning without one of its guests. The Carnival cruise ship arrived back in Norfolk at 5:30 a.m. following a five day cruise to the Bahamas. Yesterday, a passenger was reported missing from the ship “late Monday afternoon,” according to a statement released by the company’s corporate communications department. Carnival eventually reviewed its shipboard security videos and observed a guest going overboard from his balcony. Carnival’s PR statement (which you can read here) released early today claims that the missing gu ..read more

A fire erupted on the balcony of a guest cabin on the Pacific Adventure cruise ship around 3:15 A.M. yesterday (Australian time) off the coast of New South Wales. The P&O Cruises’ cruise ship was carrying over 3,000 guests and a crew of over 1,000. Newspapers reported that many guests were forced to evacuate from their cabins as the crew worked to extinguish the blaze. Accounts range that from several hundreds to over a thousand guests were displaced. As usual, a cruise line spokesperson claimed that the fire was “small” and “quickly extinguished.” Numerous newspaper repeated the “small an ..read more

Yesterday, we were informed by a number of guests onboard the Carnival Sunshine that the cruise ship encountered severe weather as the vessel was returning from a cruise to the Bahamas. What’s the Chinese Proverb? A picture is worth a thousand words? Rather than try and explain what happened, we will just post some of the videos of the ordeal from Facebook and Twitter, here: The aftermath aboard Carnival Sunshine after a severe storm. The crew from Deck 0-4 evacuated to the theater, and anywhere they could rest… the crew bar destroyed. pic.twitter.com/MqsDJYvrSG — Crew Center (@CrewCenter) M ..read more

The cruise passenger, Jeremy Froias, arrested by the FBI for installing a secret WiFi camera in the unisex public bathroom on the top deck of the Harmony of the Seas last week was released by a federal judge in San Juan Tuesday morning after his wife posted a $25,000 bond. We previously reported on this crime which has now received national attention. You can read the affidavit by a FBI agent involved in the arrest which contains a description of the crime and photographs of the bathroom and camera. The federal court case number 3:23-mj-00487-GLS convened a “detention hearing” Tuesday morning ..read more

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested a cruise passenger last week after it was discovered that he installed a secret camera in a public bathroom on a cruise ship sailing from Miami on a cruise to the Caribbean. An affidavit from a FBI agent verified that on April 29th, Jeremy Froias boarded the Royal Caribbean Harmony of the Seas in Miami for a seven-day cruise to Philipsburg, St. Maarten, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Coco Cay, Bahamas, returning to Miami last Saturday, May 6th. On April 30th, Froias installed a “hidden Wi-Fi camera in a public bathroom on the aft of the Harmony‘s ..read more

The MSC Seaside failed a recent health inspection conducted by inspectors at Port Canaveral with a score of just 67. Such a low score is virtually unheard of. There have been only three lower USPH inspection scores in the last twenty years, all involving smaller ships from lesser or hardly known cruise lines. A couple of years ago, a “little-known Caribbean ferry” (the Miami Herald’s characterization) named Kydon, scored a low USPH inspection score of just 61. The inspection report, dated April 27, 2023, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the MSC Seaside totals 18 page ..read more