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Published on: March 25, 2025

Cruise Line Narrowly Misses Failed Health Inspection, CDC says. What to Know about Leesfield & Partners’ Cruise Cases.

A Royal Caribbean ship scored just one point above “unsatisfactory” in a recent health inspection conducted by the Centers for Disease Control; now ship officials are working to fix the issue.

In February, Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas had its regular health inspection in which inspectors found over 50 hygiene and safety protocol violations, according to media reports. The violations included improper food storage and crew members handling ice with open forearm wounds. Youth programs also failed to properly report children with GI symptoms, a cause for concern given news reports of a recent string of norovirus outbreaks on ships.

Typically, cruise lines must score above an 85 to pass evaluations. Symphony of the Seas narrowly passed the threshold with a score of 86, according to media reporting. To correct the issues, the cruise line alleges some of the steps taken included retraining employees and amending standard operating procedures related to food storage and reporting illnesses in youth centers.

Published on: February 21, 2025

Over 100 Passengers Sick at Ship Docked at Florida Port. What to Know.

By Leesfield & Partners

A norovirus outbreak on a cruise ship docked at Port Everglades on Friday left at least 169 people ill, according to reporting from local media.

Holland America Line’s Rotterdam ship was headed to the Caribbean, Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica over a 12-day voyage when it reported the outbreak of norovirus, which causes gastrointestinal illness, to the Centers for Disease Control. There were over 2,600 passengers on board with more than 900 crew. At least 152 passengers and 17 crew members reported being ill during the voyage. Common symptoms of norovirus are vomiting and diarrhea but can also include headaches, muscle pain, cramps and fever.

Holland America officials reported that their crew increased cleaning and disinfection procedures and isolated the infected to mitigate the spread.

Published on: January 30, 2025

Cruise Ship Docked at PortMiami This Week Made Headlines. See Why.

By Leesfield & Partners

A new ship with the Cunard Line, a British shipping and cruise line owned by the Carnival Corp., docked in Miami last week, here’s a look inside the new ship on a line who will soon call South Florida home.

Queen Anne, which docked in PortMiami on Jan. 21, is Cunard’s first new ship in over a decade and precedes the South Florida move of Queen Elizabeth, its sister ship. That move is set to take place later this year, according to local media. The ship was docked in South Florida to give travel agents, tourism leaders and media a tour of the massive, 3,000-guest ship.

The ship is currently on a world tour, which began on Jan. 7, according to reporting from The Miami Herald. Locations already checked off the ship’s list include Hamburg, Germany, Mexico and Costa Rica. On Feb. 4, the ship will stop in San Francisco before continuing on to Honolulu.

Published on: December 13, 2024

Cruise Passenger Reports to Miami-Dade Police Rape by Crew Members. What to Know.

By Leesfield & Partners

Police are investigating rape allegations after an MSC Cruises passenger claims she was raped by multiple crew members on a recent voyage.

The woman, a 44-year-old from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, who was not named in the article, reported the incident to police on Dec. 7 when her ship returned to PortMiami. The woman alleges that while traveling alone for a week-long cruise she mistakenly mixed her anti-anxiety medication with alcohol and went to the ship’s buffet. The woman said she planned to take the food back with her to her cabin to eat before going to bed.

A waiter allegedly found her and took her plate to her room, according to reporting from The Miami Herald. Instead of leaving, the woman said the waiter lingered before raping her. The next day, the woman said what room she was staying in while speaking with a different crewmember.

Published on: September 18, 2024

Popular Tiktokers blasted online for allegedly leaving children alone in cruise cabins, monitoring them on FaceTime. Don’t be fooled, this isn’t a “parenting hack”

By Leesfield & Partners

Popular Tiktokers Matt & Abby Howard have come under fire for a video they posted to their millions of followers seemingly showing them leaving their toddlers in two separate cabins aboard a cruise ship so that they could enjoy dinner, child-free.

The video, posted to Abby Howard’s Instagram story which only appears for 24 hours before it vanishes, seemed to explain that the couple, who were on a seven-night cruise with family, was using FaceTime and baby monitors to check up on their boys, 1 and 2 years old, who they had allegedly left alone in two separate cabins.

“So we ended up taking them [to the cruise daycare] for 5 nights and it became apparent that they weren’t enjoying it and therefore we weren’t either,” Abby Howard wrote in the initial post. “So THEN we switched our dinner time to AFTER their bedtime and Facetimed the monitors while we ate. And that worked out muchhhh better for everyone.”