A couple of my friends were recently involved in an incident aboard a cruise line. What happened was basically the guy and the girl (ages 23 and 22) got completely hammered and had to be hospitalized aboard the cruise ship's medical facility. The next day they were informed that they were considered a problem, a threat to themselves and that they were to be disembarked at the next port of call in Jamaica. At that point they were left in Jamaica with no Pass Ports and told to make their own travel arrangements and accomodations to get back home. The cruise line makes you sign a guest conduct policy in which it states that they have the right to remove passengers from the ship for any reason that they feel necessary. My question to all of you legal goo roo's is can you build a lawsuit off of any of this? Aside from their decision being completely unethical and too drastic, is there any legal loopholes in which they could pursue action against the company?
Man were they on the Carnival Conquest? I was just on that cruise last week, and we made a stop in Jamaica. That's kinda funny, but messed up. Why did they want to kick them off after they sobered up? Sounds like there is more to this story than they just got really drunk one night. The majority of people are pretty hammered at night on cruises.
No, it was Royal Caribbean. I don't remember the ship name though. I'm thinking their ages had a lot to do with it. I bet there's 10-20 cases at a time of people getting too drunk and vomiting on cruise ships. Do you really NEED to kick them off there? If they were 40, 50-somethings would the company have made the same decision?
Your friends are probably screwed. I'm sure if they check their tickets, they signed away the right to sue in the United States and have to sue in some forum that makes it very not fun to litigate.
#1: Every cruise ship I've been on has required you to carry a passport to get on the boat. #2: Your friends had to have gone beyond just getting hammered. There are tons of drunk people on cruise ships -- many of whom are drunk enough to be considered hammered. #3: This probably won't be litigated in the U.S.
They both vomited on the ship on the carpet or something. Once they did that I suppose they were escorted to the medical facility onboard the ship where they slept it all off. As for how they got home: $150+ cab fare to the nearest airport and about $500 a piece in airfare. Add to that their $500+ medical bills and you have quite the pricey vacation. As for the pass ports, I read something that said you weren't required to carry a pass port until the end of 2007 or something. It's on Royal Caribbean's website that it's not a requirement and apparently the cruise line printed out some sort of legal document that explained to the Jamaican authorities that they were to be allowed travel out of Jamaica without a passport.
Oh whoops, I guess i assumed you were in Houston... Thats actually funny, my family is from Pittsburgh also, he might know a lawyer up there...i'll let you know.....
They had to do more than just puke on the carpet. To be kicked off a boat they must have been pretty out of control and defiant to the on board police. Getting kicked off a cruise ship is no easy task. They want you to stay and spend money.
Ship captains have a lot of lattitude and it is hard to get US courts to intervene. In the early '90s, there were a spate of rapes on board cruise ships that were never prosecuted for this reason. The cruise companies preferred to sweep it under the rug and the US courts didn't want to claim jurisdiction.
That's what we all thought too when we heard about this. In fact, the dude they kicked off had a $170 bar tab from the first note alone. For some reason they went from money hungry to dishing out the death penalty for running a red light. I don't get it either.
i agree with the cruise ship on this one. The next night your friend gets "hammered" again and falls overboard. The family of your friend would probably want to sue the cruise line for letting him get to hammered.
There is something he is not telling us like: What happened was basically the guy and the girl (ages 23 and 22) got completely hammered, did lines of coke, and had to be hospitalized aboard the cruise ship's medical facility.
