"Antigua 6" Return

The six Americans off Carnival Victory who got in a dispute with a taxi driver over a fare and were subsequently arrested by police on Antigua for fighting with them, have returned to New York after their month-long trial on the island. They ended up pleading guilty to lesser charges and paying a fine.

The New York Daily News reported on their return last week. There are two interesting things about the article posted online. One is that they don't seem to have learned anything by the experience. The incident began when they they believed the taxi driver was trying to overcharge them. There were eleven people in the taxi, and the amount that was in dispute was $50. The difference would have amounted to less than $5 per person. They were in a different country with different customs and different standards and different laws. They were detained for a month during which time it has been reported that some of them were in danger of losing their jobs, and one had to take a semester off of school. They (or someone) had to pay their air fare back and other expenses they incurred during their time on the island, and they lost the last part of their cruise. Not once did any of them say it would have been a better idea to just go ahead and pay the taxi fare.

The other interesting thing is how the tide of public opinion seems to have turned against them. The first couple of items posted in the Daily News seemed to have a lot of postings in the comments that supported them. This time there are few supporters posting, and they are far outnumbered by those who see the six as completely wrong.

But what about the taxi driver at the center of the original dispute? He has plenty to say on the subject in the Antigua Sun.

In any case, it's a safe bet that none of the six will be going back to Antigua any time soon.

The human side to the story

When we write about someone going overboard from a cruise ship, it's easy to overlook the lives they've left behind. A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about a woman who apparently committed suicide by jumping overboard from Sapphire Princess. The newspaper in her hometown ran an exceptionally nice piece about the human side of the tragedy.

Sentencing for 6 Carnival Passengers Detained on Antigua

The Antigua court today handed down fines for the five Carnival Victory passengers detained on Antigua, but no jail time.

The fines and restitution (for damages to the police officers' property) for the five who pleaded guilty totaled approximately $3,600. They were not sentenced to any jail time.

In the plea bargain agreed to on Saturday, the five pleaded guilty to lesser charges and the charges were dropped against a sixth American on trial.

Some of the Americans are reported to have lost their jobs in New York, and the law school student has had to withdraw from school for the semester.

The six, who have remained free on bail since the September 4 incident, are expected to leave Antigua on Wednesday.

More Details of the Alleged Murder aboard Carnival Elation

The man accused of killing his wife aboard Carnival Elation in July has made another appearance in federal court. An article in the San Diego Union updates the accounts of the alleged murder and details the defense strategy in the case.

Detained Tourists Change Plea to Guilty in Antigua

The prosecutor and defense attorney reached a plea agreement Saturday in the trial of six American tourists detained in Antigua after they fought with police officers who were trying to settle a dispute between the tourists, who had been aboard Carnival Victory, and a taxi driver. They have been detained on the island since the September 4 incident, and both sides had already presented their cases in the month-long trial.

The agreement has five of the six New Yorkers pleading guilty, and the charges against the sixth were dropped. The other five Americans in the taxi were not involved in the brawl and not charged.

The plea bargain is expected to carry a fine but no jail time. Sentencing is scheduled for Monday.

The dispute erupted when the Americans were ashore during a call by Carnival Victory. Eleven had hired a taxi and testified they thought they had negotiated a round trip fare of $50 for the taxi. The driver said the fare was each way, and when the tourists didn't want to pay the other $50, he took them to the police station. The six American's charged (four of them women) claimed they didn't know who the police officers were because most were in plain clothes and claimed they thought they were fighting for their lives. The most serious injury sustained was a bite inflicted on one police officer that needed stitches. The charges were all centered around the resisting of arrest.

According to the AP, the six have been staying with local residents on the island since they were released on bail early last month. Despite what families of the six charge about Antiguans delaying the trial, local court officials have said they delayed at least a dozen cases to expedite the Americans' case.

Update Oct 5, 7am
The Antigua Sun has details of the two sides reaching the agreement. Sentencing will be on Monday.

Antigua trade assns want laws to prevent repeat of taxi incident

The Antigua Sun is reporting that local trade associations are moving to distance themselves from the incident which happened there last week where six American tourists off Carnival Victory were involved in a brawl over a taxi fare and arrested for fighting with police officers.

The incident, by the way, is still not resolved for the cruise passengers. The court proceedings are in recess until Friday.

We know there was a fight

The court proceedings began yesterday (Sept 9) in Antigua for the six Americans accused of fighting with police officers. In our earlier entry, we reported the fight ensued when the six, who were ashore from Carnival Victory last Friday, refused to pay an additional $50 taxi fare the driver said was due, and he took them to a police station.

The Antigua Sun carries an account of Wednesday's proceedings. What we know from all accounts in yesterday's testimony seems to be that there was a fight and the "enthusiasm" with which the participants fought. The court is now in recess until Friday.

Video available of Rescue Passenger from Carnival Sensation

It's been widely reported that a passenger went overboard from Carnival Sensation late Wednesday evening (September 2, 2009). A search was immediately begun by Carnival Sensation and other ships in the area. The man was heard yelling for help and was recovered very quickly (within 90 minutes) by the crew of Disney Wonder, even before any Coast Guard assets could get on the scene.

WPBF tv in West Palm Beach has exclusive video of the rescue and the man being brought aboard the Disney ship, shot by a passenger. The entire video runs more than 15 minutes. If you want to skip ahead to the real action, it starts about 7 minutes into the run, but even the earlier scenes are interesting as you can hear the announcements to passengers on the open decks to remain quiet so they can hear the man in the water and the cheer that goes up when the man is rescued.

It's not often we have such a happy ending to report.

NCL: Waitlist Shows Unprecidented Interest in Norwegian Epic

On Monday Cruise News Daily told readers how Norwegian Cruise Line had opened a waitlist for Norwegian Epic's first revenue cruise, which will be a transatlantic crossing. The 150,000-ton ship is a new concept vessel currently under construction at the STX Europe yard in St. Nazaire, France.

The delivery date is not yet finalized so NCL has not yet set the crossing's itinerary, dates, the length or even where it will begin or end. All that they can confirm is that it will be in the early summer sometime before the July 17 (2010) inaugural cruise from Miami, and the lead rate will be $699.

Passengers can be put on a waitlist for the crossing, and will be contacted when the details are set this fall. Since the waitlist was opened this week, the line reports strong demand for space on the list, signaling unprecedented interest in the new ship, according to the line.

“We’ve seen great demand for the waitlist so far, as these guests will have the first priority to book this cruise before we open it to the general public,” said Andy Stuart, executive vice president of global sales and passenger services for NCL.

Information about Norwegian Epic is on the ship's website. Customers interested in the transatlantic crossing can call either their travel agent or NCL at 866-234-7350.

First-hand Account of the Royal Princess Fire

Remember Greg Surratt? He was the man aboard Royal Princess during the fire updating his Twitter account, which unwittingly was keeping hundreds, if not thousands, of people informed of what conditions were like aboard the ship, 140 characters (or less) at a time.

He's home now and has updated his blog, telling his story of his trip, the fire and his journey home.

As you can tell from his account, the emergency procedures were handled just as they should have been, and he has praise for the way Princess took care of the passengers and compensated them.

He mentions that several maritime personal injury attorneys began following his tweets. What he may not know is that they seemed to retweet his messages about the fire or things that weren't going well, but they didn't retweeted his postings that had anything positive to say about the way Princess handled it. So much for truth in tweeting.

He also seems surprised that Princess could update their website with information before the passengers had it on the ship. That speaks to miracle of modern communication and the ability it gives the home office (in California) to be very, very involved in every aspect of the ship's operation - in daily life and emergency situations.

We're glad Mr. Surratt and all the passengers are home safely. His blog is an interesting read.

Update on Oceanic Detention

After patching the hull of Oceanic with epoxy, the owners of the ship a/k/a The Peace Boat, have decided to have it drydocked at Bayonne (NJ) on Sunday to permanently patch the small hole. The Coast Guard has approved the movement.

The passengers will have to disembark and be put up at hotels in the New York area until the repairs are completed and the Coast Guard allows the ship to sail.

“The fact that the owners of the Oceanic are sending it to dry dock shows their commitment to repairing the vessel and ensuring its safety,” said Cmdr. Anthony Ceraolo, Coast Guard Sector New York.

The Coast Guard did not give an estimate when the ship would be allowed to sail.

Coverage of the original detention was in an earlier item here on Cruiseblogger.

Search Continues for Woman Overboard from Carnival's Holiday

The US Coast Guard continued their search through the night for the woman who went overboard from Carnival's Holiday last Monday evening.

The search seems to have been scaled back with only two Coast Guard assets engaged in the search this morning. The Coast Guard Cutter Cobia from Mobile is actively searching the area which originally began at a point 75 miles south southwest of Pensacola. It is assisted in the air by a HC-144 Ocean Sentry rescue plane from Mobile.

So far, the Coast Guard says they have searched approximately 3,215 square miles since Monday, an area larger than the state of Delaware. Coast Guard computers track the weather and sea conditions expanding the search area where the currents could most likely carry the woman.

Interviews with the woman's family members on shore by the local media indicate that the woman and her husband had dinner Monday evening and they retired to their cabin. The woman's husband was awakened by the announcement sending all passengers to their cabin for a headcount due to a report of a passenger possibly going overboard. He was surprised that she was not in the cabin where he last saw her.

Holiday departed Mobile Monday afternoon on a 5-day cruise. It will arrive at its first port of call, Cozumel, somewhat delayed, this today after spending more than 12 hours searching for the woman Monday night and Tuesday morning before it was advised by the Coast Guard that it should continue on its itinerary.

The video report below, from Fox10 the local Fox affiliate in Ft. Walton Beach, includes some background on the woman and an interview with her son.

From the different perspectives department:

Last week, Carnival Ecstasy left Galveston as Hurricane Ike was headed toward the port. The storm caused both a change of itinerary, to stay away from it, and delayed the return, first while the storm passed and then because the port was closed due to damage. While Carnival worked to find an alternate port for the ship, it went to New Orleans and disembarked passengers who wanted to fly home, and others stayed aboard the ship and ended the odyssey yesterday when the ship arrived in Houston.

Aboard the cruise was a group of 30 from the Wichita Falls Board of Commerce and Industry. (The group does different outings and is called "Just for Fun.") With the hurricane coming only four decided to cancel.

The group has now all returned home, and Tuesday the local news media began carrying the first interviews. It's interesting how they have entirely divergent perspectives. Two articles interview different people from the group, but they have entirely different outlooks. The first was in the local newspaper, the Times Record News. The person interviewed for that one seems to have a very balanced view that understands the situation and is accepting it in a very matter-of-fact manner. The second story is from the Texomas website (an outlet from a combination of three Wichita Falls TV stations) and quotes a gentleman, part of the same group, who enjoyed the company, but isn't at all happy with the way things were handled by Carnival.

These demonstrate why you shouldn't just accept one posting on a bulletin board or one article you read as speaking for the group. (How often have you seen someone say, "Everyone was complaining about it.")

For the record, contrary to what the second article says, it is safer to take the ship out when a hurricane is approaching since it doesn't sail through the hurricane, but rather stays far away from the strongest winds. Carnival was offering full refunds to passengers who asked for them, on the day of sailing, once the storm's path toward Galveston became clear.

From the ship update department:

We had a subscriber contact us this week to tell us that Norwegian Star was in need of some sprucing up.

We contacted Norwegian Cruise Line to see what they could tells us, and they know. That's why this week they are in the process of laying new carpet (while the ship is in service) in various parts of the ship.

The Norwegian Star is scheduled for a major drydock in November 2009.

At this time, however, all the Freestyle 2.0 elements are in place on the ship, except for the action stations in the Lido restaurant, and those will be done during the drydock.

From the Marconi department:

Earlier this week in Cruise News Daily, we reported that Princess Cruises had enhanced their Captain's Circle loyalty program for the Platinum and Elite levels. One of the perks of those levels (beginning with the customer's seventh cruise to attain that level) is an internet credit of $75 to $400 per person, depending on the length of the cruise.

Until now, that credit has applied only in the internet cafe; it has not applied if you connect to the internet via the ship's Wi-Fi. The program enhancement now allows members to use the credit on Wi-Fi connections as well as in the internet cafe.

The announcement said, however, it would be rolled out on a ship-by-ship basis through the end of the year.

Our subscribers asked if there was a schedule as to approximate date when the new plan will be offered on each ship. Princess tells us that it is dependent on new software being installed on each vessel. Currently it is installed and operating on all ships except Coral Princess, Golden Princess and Royal Princess. Princess doesn't have an exact schedule for those yet, but the software will be installed on each of them by the end of 2008.

(We will update this item if/when we receive updates from Princess.)

From the big new addition department:

When Carnival announced they would be homeporting Carnival Triumph in New Orleans, we've had several subscribers write to tell us they are excited about 7-day Carnival cruises returning to the city beginning in November 2009.

But knowing it will then be a ten-year-old ship, they've also wondered about its condition when it gets to New Orleans.

We checked with Carnival for any major refurbishment plans before it moves to its new assignment. Carnival tells us that they have been doing some ongoing work as they always do, and one of the most notable additions was the addition of Club O2, the teen club, which was constructed while Carnival Triumph was in service.

They did report that Carnival Triumph will go in for its biennial drydock next month. During that two-week time frame, in addition to the mechanical work (which is the main reason for these regular drydocks) they will do some general freshening (deep cleaning, carpet replacement, minor refurbishment, etc), and they will install one of the giant SeaSide Theater screens at the pool area.

So late in September, the ship should come out looking fresh and clean, but, of course, who knows what will happen to it over the next year. So to anyone sailing on it in the next year, we're sure the people in New Orleans would appreciate it if you keep your feet off the couches and use a napkin under your glass.

For those who are statistic-minded, here's something to keep you busy:

CARINVAL TRIUMPH
SIZE/CAPACITY:
GROSS REGISTERED TONNAGE: 102,000
LENGTH: 893 Feet
BEAM: 116 Feet
BEAM AT POOLDECKS: 125 Feet
MAXIMUM DRAFT: 27 Feet
TOTAL GUEST CAPACITY (INCLUDING UPPERS): 3,470
DOUBLE OCCUPANCY CAPACITY: 2,758
APPROXIMATE CREW SIZE: 1,100

SHIPYARD: Fincantieri at Monfalcone, Italy
INAUGURAL CRUISE: JULY 27, 1999
COUNTRY OF REGISTRY: BAHAMAS
SPEED: 22.5 Knots

From the norovirus everywhere department

As a follow-up to the post the other day about approximately 80 cases of norovirus being reported on Queen Victoria's second sailing, the same newspapers that were so excited about that are now reporting that there is a waive of norovirus sweeping Britain that is the worst in five years. The articles say there are about 100,000 new cases per week, and the figure could double this month.

The Guardian's article says, "Outbreaks are common in hospitals, care homes, schools and nurseries, as well as on cruise ships." So if they recognize that, why their excitement about 80 cases being reported over a week on Queen Victoria?

The Times' article said, "It is estimated that a norovirus outbreak could cost the NHS around £100 million as operations are cancelled and staff call in sick. It could cost the economy a further £12 million a week in lost productivity." Since they aren't on cruise, there's no one from whom to demand "compensation."

And it appears the Duchess of Cornwall has absolutely nothing to do with this at all.

Note: Links are valid at the time of posting.

From the Norway Department:

The US National Transportation Safety Board issued their final report on Norway's 2003 boiler explosion, which eventually caused the ship never to return to service.

While the report at the link mentioned above won't be for everyone, most of it is surprisingly "nontechnical" and interesting reading for those interested in cruise ships.

The Board found fault with the way the boiler was operated over the years, the way it was maintained and the way it was inspected.

It is important to note that NCL accepted responsibility for the accident right away. For those concerned about continued operation, NCL notes that no one who was directly responsible for operation, maintenance or inspection of Norway's boilers is any longer employed by the company, and the line has changed classification societies since the accident.

NCL issued the following statement:
Yesterday, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released its report on the 2003 S/S Norway steam boiler accident at the Port of Miami. NCL CEO and President Colin Veitch said "as evidenced by the highly technical nature of the discussion and the fact that it took 4½ years to complete the report, this was clearly a unique and unusual accident. NCL immediately accepted responsibility for the accident and compensated all of the victims. The Norway, which was the only steamship in the fleet, was sold in 2004. None of the management or contractors who were involved in the operation, maintenance or inspection of the Norway’s boilers are employed by NCL."

Veitch continued: "We appreciate the Board’s hard work and believe that the lessons learned from the report will benefit both shipping companies and classification societies. As evidenced by the lack of agreement among the investigating experts, NCL does not concur with all of the conclusions in the voluminous report, but we are hopeful that its publication will help bring to a close this tragic event."

As the NTSB noted in its report, in the months following the accident, NCL implemented a number of improvements and preventive measures to enhance its Safety and Environmental Management System (SEMS). NCL’s SEMS is now widely regarded as one of the best safety management systems in the maritime industry.

From the Superferry department:

The legal obstacles have been removed (at least temporarily), and the Hawaii Superferry has finally been able to set a new launch date of December 1 for the start of their service between Oahu and Maui. The line is offering an introductory fare of $29 per person, each way.

Service between Oahu and Kauai, part of the original plan, will start at a later date.

More information is available on the line's website.

From the fuel surcharge department:

From our letters to the publisher, a subscriber writes:

Good Morning,

In a very succinct writing may I just say that there are many ways to play the game. If the cruise lines want to take away my on-board money with a surcharge, I just take away money that I would have spent somewhere else. There is plenty of good food to be had in a variety of venues so I will simply choose not to dine at one of the specialty restaurant's a couple of times per cruise. Other people will cut back on cabin attendant's gratuities. People really aren't dumb!

Ron Young


Hi Ron,

I believe that the fuel supplements are justified. This isn't just a way for cruise lines to extract more money from the passengers. Just watching the price of crude oil or a trip to the gas pump proves it. Costs of everything are going up because of the price of fuel, not only goods and services where fuel is a major component, such as cruises, but even any product that has to be transported to the seller, and retailers are routinely passing those increased costs on to the consumer. It doesn't make sense that cruise lines wouldn't.

Naturally everyone has to stay within their vacation budget. Those who are going to recoup the fuel supplement by reducing the cabin steward's gratuity are grossly unfair. The cabin steward had nothing to do with the price of fuel or the fuel supplement, so I see no reason to punish him, because he didn't reduce his service to the passenger.

Reducing your other onboard spending would be a valid way to contain your cost, but in the end, I think you'd really only end up punishing yourself.

When I was a travel agent, occasionally I'd have people who would be on such a tight vacation budget that after buying the minimum accommodations on the ship, they really wouldn't have much money left to spend on the trip. I sometimes had people ask me to help them select one shore excursion because they could only afford one for their entire trip. Once I remember a couple telling me that to stay within their budget they were limiting themselves to only ordering one bar drink per day.

Those were the type of people I'd try to talk out of going on the cruise. I'd suggest to them delaying the trip a year and saving a little more so they could go and spend whatever they wanted. In my opinion, they would have a much better time going once and having the freedom of being able to do whatever they wanted rather than going twice and having to be careful about every cent they spent.

In the case of the fuel supplements, on most lines, for a week's cruise it's going to cost passengers between $35 and $50 (or $70 to $100 per couple). Whatever the reason for the increase, I believe that if your vacation budget doesn't have that much flexibility in it, like the people who can only afford one drink per day, you'd be better off cancelling the cruise and rescheduling a bit later when you've saved enough that you're not going to have to restrict things you might really want to do during the cruise, such as the specialty restaurant, as you suggest.

I suspect you really have that $100 worth of flexibility in your budget, and it's really just a matter of principle. In this case, my principles wouldn't tell me to punish myself along with the cruise line.