The rest of the year saw more of the same. Problems with the Regent Seven Seas Voyager (propulsion),

It's been a long year for the cruise lines. Cruise ship fires, engine failures and other mishaps have dominated coupons for budget car rental the travel news in 2013. We have written coupons for budget car rental several hundreds of articles this year under our motto: everything the cruise lines don't want you to know.
2013 has been the year of the disabled cruise ship. First, we suffered through the 24-hour-a-day CNN coverage of the infamous coupons for budget car rental Carnival Triumph poop cruise . Next came the Carnival Dream , which experienced propulsion problems followed by the Carnival Legend which also experienced propulsion issues attributable to poor maintenance. Then the Carnival Legend and the Carnival-owned P O Ventura joined the growing list of disabled/impaired cruise coupons for budget car rental ships. It was only mid-March. Carnival's reputation was circling the drain!
The rest of the year saw more of the same. Problems with the Regent Seven Seas Voyager (propulsion), Carnival-owned Crown Princess (sewage), Carnival Ecstasy (propulsion), coupons for budget car rental Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas (fire), NCL's Breakaway (loose nuts broken welds), Royal Caribbean-owned coupons for budget car rental Pullmantur's Zenith (fire causing loss of power), Bimini SuperFast (propulsion), Celebrity Millennium (propulsion), Carnival-owned Sun Princess (propulsion), Carnival-owned Royal Princess (propulsion), Carnival-owned Noordam (fire), Royal Caribbean's coupons for budget car rental Allure of the Seas (propulsion), Carnival-owned Dawn Princess (fire), MSC Magnifica (allision), Royal Caribbean's Rhapsody of the Seas (hull repair), Saga Ruby (generator break down), and Celebrity's Constellation (propulsion).
So what's the criteria for inclusion on the top 10 list of outrageous cruise stories you may ask? If it makes you spit on the ground, shake your head and stomp your feet in disgust, the story has a chance to make the list. I start with the least outrageous (still pretty outrageous), at number 10, and end with the most outrageous at number 1.
In January, I wrote about a nasty tendency of the cruise industry: Stonewalling at Sea - Cruise Lines Continue to Cover Up Disappearances on the High Seas . This involved crew member Rebecca Coriam coupons for budget car rental who disappeared coupons for budget car rental from the Disney Wonder. Disney continues to refuse to provide meaningful information to the Coriam family about what happened to Rebecca, who was age 24 when she vanished. Although Disney's legal and security departments conducted investigations, Disney deflects questions about the mystery off to the flag state of the Bahamas. The Bahamas sent one police officer from Nassau (Officer Rolle, more about him below) to Los Angeles to conduct what everyone now agrees was a Micky Mouse investigation . The Bahamas refuses to provide information to the grieving Coriam family (photo right). Why? To avoid embarrassing Disney it seems. Watch the video .
The alleged cover-up coupons for budget car rental by Disney and the Bahamas is, in my view, a chilling insight into the sinister nature of the cruise industry. Disney coupons for budget car rental promises a fun filled coupons for budget car rental family vacation, coupons for budget car rental until a crime occurs or a person goes overboard. Then the floating Magic Kingdom becomes your worst nightmare in my opinion. Undaunted, coupons for budget car rental the Coriam family created an international maritime victim's website to assist other families.
Yes, crime and armed robbery during cruise excursions happen, although the cruise lines and travel agents coupons for budget car rental hate to talk about it. Robbery at gun point of cruise passengers of their Rolexes, iPhones, cameras and cash in the Caribbean and Mexico is increasing. The cruise lines and local tourism bureaus deny it, but they're usually lying . The most dangerous port of call? Nassau coupons for budget car rental , without a doubt. We've written about murder, robbery, purse snatching, and rape of tourists, in addition to the usual drug solicitations. Read a compilation of crimes against tourists here . Read this local Bahamian man's view of crime in the islands, published coupons for budget car rental just today. The local police in Nassau can't even keep the teenage girls sailing from Miami safe while walking back to the ships from Senor Frogs. And this place is in charge of flag state investigations into missing coupons for budget car rental persons and ship fires regarding cruise ships flying the flag of the Bahamas?
This was a year where cruise executives' greed reached a zenith. And Royal Caribbean led the way. It took away cash tips direct-to-the-crew , ripped off a percentage of the tips , decreased pay of officers, staff crew , increased work, and fired over a 100 (mostly women) jobs from its corporate headquarters. When a popular YouTube video Screw the Crew revealed the tip-snatching scam, the cruise coupons for budget car rental line banned the video. No one can abuse its crew better than Royal Caribbean, except maybe Carnival (discussed below).
In 2010, President Obama signed the Cruise Vessel Safety Security Act into law. It became effective in 2012. Cruise lines are required to install state of the art technology to respond immediately to persons going overboard. The technology exists . But except for one or perhaps two cruise lines, the cruise industry refuses to comply with the law . Passengers and crew, who could be quickly rescued, die because of the cruise industry's lawlessness. The non-compliance by the non-tax paying foreign flagged cruise industry also causes the U.S. Coast Guard to spend millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars in unnecessarily-wide search and rescues which are rarely successful. Making matters worse is the cruise industry's substantial under-reporting of persons overboard . With a few million dollars spent lobbying Congress and federal agencies like the Coast Guard and the FBI, the cruise industry can do, or not do, pretty much anything it wants.
Two days ago, a Celebrity crew member was sentenced to 8 years in jail for child porn. Here's the full story . I'm tired of these perverts. In April a 15 year old boy was sexually assaulted on Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas . In May, a Royal Caribbean passenger was sentenced to jail for transporting thousands of child pornography photos and videos on the Monarch of the Seas from Port Canaveral. No it's not rare. In the same month, a woman on her 17th cruise encountered a man stalking her and masterbating . She says Royal Caribbean could of cared less. Earlier this year, I wrote about Sexual Perverts Pedophiles on Royal Caribbean coupons for budget car rental Cruise Ships . Some say that sexual crimes and weirdos are everywhere and such incidents are not limited to cruise ships. They're right. Don't believe the cruise lines for a second when they say their ships are super safe. Lesson to be learned: Watch your kids.
What do you do when you are a Rear-Admiral coupons for budget car rental and ready to retire? Go into business with the cruise industry as a consultant. Write editorials praising the cruise lines . Leave glowing comments whenever CLIA CEO Christine Duffy writes an article praising the cruise lines. When cruise ships begin to ignite coupons for budget car rental to the right and left of you, tell the public that cruising is the safest and most regulated form of transportation. Be sure to say that you and your family love to cruise all of the time. Use photos of yourself coupons for budget car rental still wearing your uniform and medals. Use the official logo of your former federal agency you no longer work for. No one will know the difference. But whatever you do, don't admit that you work for CLIA. Don't explain that the Splendor and the Triumph cruise ships both caught on fire the day or two after the so-called rigorous Coast Guard inspections.
Don't worry that the Coast Guard will protest your unauthorized use of federal uniforms coupons for budget car rental and official coupons for budget car rental logos. That's because everyone at the Coast Guard will eventually end up working for the cruise lines too.
Carnival's outrageous conduct this year has not been limited to the Triumph poop cruise. It terminated its crew members' retirement program leaving many of its crew, particularly its loyal Filipinos, feeling betrayed. Its brands dipped into the crew's tips . The crew can't protest, because they will be fired and black-balled . Carnival has spent millions lobbying Congress for favorable legislation which insulates itself from legal and financial liability when crew members (as well as passengers) are seriously injured or killed on its cruise ships. Carnival's brands, like Princess, also over-work their crew and subject them to grueling hours . Carnival pays no U.S. taxes .
A ship doctor employed on Oasis of the Seas allegedly commits gross malpractice coupons for budget car rental on an ill passenger leading to sepsis, multiple organ failure and cerebral hemorrhage . Think that the cruise line will be responsible for the doctors who are officers on the ship, wear cruise line uniforms and work in the cruise ship infirmaries? Think again. The cruise line and the doctor reportedly coupons for budget car rental tell the patient that its impossible to arrange for a medevac helicopter from the Coast Guard. They neglect the poor woman and cruise on to Mexico. This case makes me sick.
We always knew that cruise lines played hide-the-ball games with the USPH inspectors, but haughty Silversea Cruises was particularly good at it. Crew members complained to us about the hide-the-food-from-the-inspectors coupons for budget car rental games so we wrote to Silversea for an explanation. It ignored us. So we wrote about it . Silversea ignored us again. So we wrote about it again and posted photographs . Then we pitched coupons for budget car rental the story to CNN which broadcast the disgusting story to a national audience in a well produced video .
A 33 year old waiter from India brazenly follows an 11 year old girl out of the dining room and into an elevator where he kisses the child and gropes her breast. The little girl tells her grandmother who immediately reports the crime to ship security. But Disney doesn't promptly report coupons for budget car rental it to the local port police in Port Canaveral, or the Brevard County police or sheriff's office, or the FBI. Disney instead sails the ship, and the assailant and the crime scene, out of U.S. waters to Nassau, Bahamas. Even though the Bahamas is the flag state for the Disney Dream and is required to investigate crimes on Bahamian-flagged ships, the Bahamas declines coupons for budget car rental to make an arrest or prosecute. Law enforcement and prose