U.S. Federal agents arrested a man working as a crew member for Disney Cruise Line on two federal charges for possessing numerous child sexual abuse material, according to a criminal complaint filed yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida (Broward County). Tirso Anthony Neri, age 44, was identified in court records as a crew member on the Disney Dream cruise ship based in Port Everglades. Neri was charged with violating 18 USC 2252(a)(i) (transportation of child pornography) and 2252(a)(4)(B) (possession of child pornography) after agents for the U.S. Customs ..read more

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that the Silver Nova cruise ship operated by Silversea Cruises is experiencing a gastrointestinal (GI) outbreak which has sickened 23 of 633 passengers (3.63%) and 1 of 538 crew members (0.19%). The predominant symptom reported by the CDC is diarrhea. The CDC has not yet identified the causative agent for the GI outbreak. Sixteen (16) of the last seventeen (17) GI outbreaks on cruise ships, dating back to the beginning of last year, were due to norovirus (with one case attributable to Salmonella and E. coli). The CDC does n ..read more

On Saturday morning, Holland America Line (HAL)’s M/S Rotterdam arrived at Port Everglades after a six day cruise to Mexico and the Western Caribbean without one of its crew members. HAL didn’t realize that one of its ship employees disappeared during the cruise until, apparently, another crew member noticed that he had not reported to work on Saturday morning. The HAL cruise ship then reviewed its shipboard closed circuit television (CCTV) images and eventually observed the unidentified crew member going into the water the preceding evening as the ship was returning to port. A local CBS stati ..read more

A dancer employed on an unidentified cruise ship was recently arrested in Broward County on one charge of possession of child pornography and a second count of receipt and distribution of child pornography. Twenty-six year old Jamaal Wade appeared in federal court in Fort Lauderdale in case number 0:24-mj-06151-PMH. A special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) verified in a complaint alleging violation of 18 USC 2252A that Wade engaged in prior criminal sexual abuse of a child, in addition to the following criminal acts of possessing and distributing graphic images of child por ..read more

A twenty-year old man cruising with his family went overboard late last night as the Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas was returning to Port Everglades following a four day cruise to the Amber Cover cruise port in the Dominican Republic. The Miami Herald reported that the passenger went overboard “about 57 miles off Great Inagua, the southernmost island of the Bahamas, located near the eastern tip of Cuba, according to information from the U.S. Coast Guard.” Other newspapers, including the New York Post, report that the young man was in an obvious state of intoxication after drinking through ..read more

Today noted maritime historian, mariner, and host of the popular maritime YouTube page “What’s Going On With Shipping?” Sal Mercogliano  posted a reference to the Crystal Symphony sailing the Red Sea: While a lot of focus has been on #Baltimore, in the #RedSea the cruise ship…yes, cruise ship #CrystalSymphony of Crystal Cruises just transited an area that half the world's ships are avoiding. THE LOVE BOAT!!! pic.twitter.com/FTmUhI9Dph — Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) ?⚓???‍☠️ (@mercoglianos) April 2, 2024 Yes, the Crystal Cruises ship actually transited the dangerous Strait of Bab el ..read more

Miami-Dade police officers arrested a cruise passenger from Indianapolis, Indiana last Friday on charges that he molested a teenage girl on a recent Carnival cruise, according to Miami’s local 10 News. Police arrested Jason LeFavour, age 44, when the Carnival Conquest returned to PortMiami, on a charge of “lewd and lascivious molestation of a child.” The Carnival Conquest operates short (three or four day) cruises to the Bahamas. The local news stations report that LeFavour grabbed the “left buttocks” of the girl “with his hand” as he walked past the 13-year-old child on a lower deck “just bef ..read more

Today, I watched a TicTok video posted by Crystalmerier3 who recently went on a four day vacation cruise from Galveston, Texas to ports in Mexico with her seven-year old daughter. During the cruise, they went together to a movie on the Lido Deck to watch Spiderman when mom went for about one minute to get a drink for her child. When she returned, her daughter was upset and crying. Another passenger, a man, approached her daughter in the dark and attempted to entice her to leave with him, saying “you need to come with me.” He claimed that he had lost his cell phone and needed help finding it. S ..read more

In an exclusive story, Cruise Law News has learned that cruise industry giant Carnival Corporation plans to incorporate its business in the United States (in Florida). Carnival intends to announce this historic development tomorrow, April 2nd, at Carnival’s headquarters in Miami.  Since 1972, Carnival has incorporated its business and registered its cruise ships in the country of Panama. For over 50 years, Carnival cruise ships have flown the flag of Panama in order to avoid the onerous safety regulations, excessive labor laws, unreasonable environmental laws, and high taxes of the United ..read more

A twenty-three (23) year-old man from Scotland went overboard from the MSC Euribia last week. We first heard of the incident via an inquiry on Facebook asking for information about a young man missing from the MSC ship. We subsequently learned that the full name of the passenger is “Liam Brody Wilkie Jones,” from Dundee, Scotland. One newspaper, Daily Record, referred to the young man as “Liam Jones.” Mr. Jones was traveling with family members and friends on the MSC cruise ship. He reportedly was last seen on deck by his sister after texting his wife back home complaining that he was fee ..read more