Cruise Ship Lawyers Blog
Pitfalls for Passengers:
Disney Cruise Lines re-opens June 26 with all major cruise lines to follow.
Beware of injuries on Inaugural cruises. . . The cruise industry is re-opening with a fury. There is no certainty on how they will handle COVID, or how well their reinstated crew is trained. Remember, even before COVID, numerous cases of Norovirus were reported annually as ships came to port. So, Sanitation and safety issues must be paramount along with crowd control and CDC compliance. Will your co-passengers be vaccinated? Are you willing to spend days or weeks with those likely to spread the virus? Or, worse yet, confined in a ship’s infirmary?
We are on the threshold of re-opening one of the most powerful and sought after travel industries, serving millions of Americans and foreign visitors. All of the major cruise lines report very high bookings and a lot of enthusiasm from passengers who have been “locked down” for the past 15 months. 
As in the past, there are certain pitfalls, dangers and injury threatening activities passengers must be mindful of. Beware that re-opening crew may be new and inexperienced or otherwise untrained to handle the everyday hazards associated with cruising. Onboard injuries with defective equipment, slip and falls, unattended decks with liquid spillage, as well as unrepaired or unnoticed defective equipment and surfaces may be expected. Tens of thousands of passengers are seriously injured every year by lack of proper inspection and maintenance of cruise ship surfaces.
Traditional passenger injuries and losses may be enhanced, depending on crew training, as well as physical inspections/repairs to the ship. Past cases have arisen in the following categories.
Many sexual assaults and actionable incidents reported by cruises stem from crew activities and uncontrolled passengers. Alcohol plays a role in many of these cases. While the cruise ship industry encourages and profits from alcohol consumption, it also produces inappropriate, illegal and uncontrollable behavior by both crew and passengers.
Shore excursions continue to bring perilous activities and this is especially so, after a 15- month shut down.
Cruise line shore excursions don’t necessarily take proper care and due diligence for the activities you are about to embark upon. Each year, hundreds of unknowing cruise passengers are seriously or fatally injured by hyper dangerous, enticing activities that are unsafe and inappropriate for many passengers. Stay diligent, “don’t sail on cruise control.” Stay alert, aware and sober.
The law firm of Leesfield & Partners has represented passengers from all over the world who have lost loved ones and family members to poorly designed and misrepresented shore excursion activities.
Likewise, our law firm has won record-setting verdicts and settlements for medically impaired passengers in need of timely evacuation, which was refused by the cruise line and to save them time, money and inconvenience. Be sure to purchase travel and evacuation insurance.
Leesfield & Partners has forged a leadership role in handling the most diverse number of medical negligence cruise ship cases in the country and the world.
Cruise line re-opening will be an exciting event, but please realize that you may be the last case and your cruise adventure vulnerability could be higher than usual.
For a full report and information on over 1,000 cruise ship results, please visit Leesfield & Partners’s website or contact us either via email or call us at 1-800-836-6400.
Ira H. Leesfield
Managing Partner
