Do passengers have any real recourse in a case like this?
There are all kinds of disclaimers in the ticket (Passenger Ticket Contract) about events like this. Frankly, we tend not to take cases where the only damages are that the passenger was inconvenienced. That is because of the disclaimer and because the damages usually are economic only. That is, recovery of any pain and suffering generally is not allowed without actual injury. In terms of dollars and sense, there is not a lot suffered by any one passenger. If you balance that with filing suit in Federal Court in Miami, Florida, which is required again in the ticket, the decision almost always is not to pursue it at least to that extent. That said, this is a public relations nightmare, and the cruise lines knows it should compensate people for the lost time, the lost cruise, and the horrible experience of being isolated out on the ocean without electricity and not knowing about your safety. They should remedy the situation and keep everyone happy to the extent possible.
Of course, where there has been an injury because of the situation there may be a substantial claim. For example, where the loss of power has caused something to malfunction and injure someone or where the ship’s loss of power results in bad medical care.
From where you stand, are cruise companies doing enough to keep their passengers safe, etc, and to keep their ships maintained… ie, is this simply an isolated incident?
First and foremost, a fire on a cruise liner or on any ship is the passenger’s worst nightmare. If the ship is far from port, it would be far away from fire extinguishing vessels. The designated fire patrol and fire extinguishing people on the ship are the relatively little trained crew members. Some of them will be the dish washers, some of them the cleaners, some the casino workers. There is of course nowhere to go except into another part of the ship, into a lifeboat or to dive into the ocean. If the fire happens at night which is often the case, there can be even more confusion, panic and futile efforts at fire extinguishing. Fires in turn as in this case not only burn a room or an area of the ship but affect the systems on the ship. In this case, the fire killed the engines to propel the ship and the engines to power the electrical plant. Lack of power to move and lack of power to provide electricity becomes a health problem (from food which is not refrigerated and from the lack of sufficient food), a security and safety problem (almost everything on a cruise ship is electronic and if you cannot track people or see down the hall or in an area there can be assaults and robberies. The ship is even subject to pirates and terrorists at this vulnerable point).
Second, this is not an isolated incident. Here is the history of some of the fires on Carnival ships and ships owned by a Carnival subsidiary, Princess Cruise Line.
1982: FIRE. Carnival Tropicale. Occurred on the inaugural cruise.
1995: FIRE. Carnival Celebration. This forced 1700 passengers to evacuate the ship into the lifeboats.
1996: FIRE. Carnival Ecstasy.
1998: FIRE. Carnival Ecstasy. 30 minutes after leaving port.
1999: FIRE. Carnival Tropicale. The ship was adrift in the Gulf of Mexico for 2 days while the engines were disabled apparently from the fire.
2006: FIRE. Princess Star. Fire began on a balcony. One balcony overlooked another below it, and the balconies had flammable furniture and cushions on them. When any passenger smoked on a balcony and threw a cigarette over the rail, it went down to another balcony. This fire burned hundreds of cabins and killed a passenger.
2009: FIRE. Royal Princess. Fire in the engine room on a Mediterranean cruise near Egypt.
2010: FIRE. Carnival Splendor. This ship entered service on July 2, 2008. This ship was built originally for Costa Cruise Lines, another subsidiary of Carnival Corporation. The ship has similar design to 3 Costa ships built at the same shipyard. The ship holds 3006 passengers and 1150 staff. All of those people were cast adrift when on Monday, November 8, 2010 the ship caught fire in its engine room completely disabling its engines and electrical systems. The ship was adrift 200 miles south of San Diego in waters off of Mexico. The ship was adrift for 2 days when the first of Mexican tug boats arrived. The ship is expected to arrive in San Diego on Thursday night.
We have heard about numerous problems in the last few years regarding food safety and cleanliness on other cruise ships… are things getting better?
Things were supposed to get better after Congress investigated crime and accidents on cruise ships. The problem is that the cruise industry has a stranglehold on Congress and little has been done. With the new Congress, it looks like even less will be done. Congress did enact the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010, but that required such things as peepholes and latches on doors which they already had installed for the most part. It also has a reporting requirement for certain crimes. The Act did not go far enough.
