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Subscribe to RSSThe lawsuit, which was filed in Miami by a passenger from Texas, accuses Carnival Cruise Lines of negligence and fraud. She claims she was "injured by unsafe, unsanitary and generally despicable conditions" while onboard. NBC's Mark Potter reports.
A Texas woman was the first passenger to file suit, hours after the Carnival Triumph cruise that left about 3,200 passengers adrift was towed into Mobile, Ala.
Cassie Terry sought unspecified damages against Carnival Corp. in Miami federal court on Friday claiming she was "injured as a result of the unseaworthy, unsafe, unsanitary, and generally despicable conditions."
Terry also claimed a "breach of maritime contract, negligence, negligent misrepresentation, and fraud."
The cruise line has yet to issue a response. "We haven't yet seen the suit and are not in a position to comment," said Jennifer De La Cruz, a spokesperson for Carnival Cruise Lines.
The cruiser was hobbled after an engine fire broke out on the ship, leaving the passengers without power or working bathrooms for five days.
Mark Mazan, another passenger aboard the stricken ship, said he was less than satisfied with the crew.
"It was mistake after mistake after mistake, incompetence to a point I've never seen," Mazan told NBC's TODAY.
Not all agreed. Passenger Martha Vielhabe praised the cruise ship staff’s response to the crisis, calling them "absolutely fabulous and fantastic."
Passengers spoke of their five-day floating nightmare after filing ashore on Friday. Some said that that the corridors of the Triumph began to reek of sewage, and said they stood on long lines to get food. Others said they sought refuge from the ship’s overheated interior by sleeping on the deck.
Carnival Cruise Lines CEO Gerry Cahill apologized for the ordeal as passengers came ashore Friday. “We pride ourselves on providing our guests with a great vacation experience, and clearly we failed in this particular case,” he said.
Because the ship is registered in the Bahamas and the fire occurred in international waters, the official investigation is being conducted by the Bahamian Maritime Authority with assistance from the United States Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board.
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You bought the ticket and YOU assumed the risks. Same as:
Getting hit by a foul ball at a baseball game; getting in an accident while driving; stubbing your toe on the end table or coffee table at a friends house; etc., etc., etc.,.........
Stop with the BS and deal with it! S@@T happens!!!!!
Yup, yup. Going from A to B and then from B to A in a floating metal box is not my cup of tea when it comes to vacations. Your hard earned vacation money could be better spent in Vegas, baby!!!
These folks used their hard earned money to purchase a dream and instead got a nightmare!!
These lawsuits are frivolous and will be rejected fast. Just lazy stupid people looking to make a quick dollar. Let all of them visit other nations where they live in filth every day. We have it lucky here.
Not the people the Lawyers see dollar signs in their Eyes on this one, The one that do the sue will will wind up with just about noting the Lawyers take most of the money.. and then they can buy a ship with the money.
If they want to do a ocean cruse they should Join the Navy!!!!
I don't understand why another ship couldn't have pulled alongside and a gangplank or small boat could have transferred the passengers. If they can fuel planes in the sky, I would think they could get people off a ship.
I have wondered about that myself....
A GANGPLANK??????? really???? A small boat???????? There were 4000 people on that ship! It would have taken more than 5 days to transfer all of them.....................They have already stated they would NEVER transfer passengers if the ship was just disabled, like this one as it is too risky. They would transfer only if the ship were sinking! WHEW! glad to hear that! lol
The ships all sail under a foreign flag. It is just about impossible to sue them and win especially in such a frivolous case. The only one who will win is her attorney and i hope it costs her a bundle to find out. Maybe that will stifle her greed in the future.
What is ridiculous is how quickly these ships get turned around for the next voyage. Apparently the ship had problems and took off anyway. Somebody SHOULD be held accountable and suing is the only way to make sure this happens unfortunately. Or the next time the fire may not go out and your looking at deaths.
What kind of payment should she receive on the lawsuit?
should be class action and enough so that it wakes this company up to make changes to prevent this sort of things or at the very least have a better plan in place
They have stated this ship will not sail again until at least April
I don't agree... is millions of dollars going to really make the company more responsible... how many jobs will it cost for the employees who did nothing wrong? I think a full refund, a future cruise (I know, I don't think I'd ever go on a cruise again with them), paying for the entire logging, return trips home, and smaller compensation is sufficient.
Its like frivolous lawsuits when someone losses a limb... can you really put a price tag on the replacement?
Just some thoughts to think about.
Cost jobs?? Are you kidding? Carnvial pays these workers about $100 a week because they are foreign. The workers don't call in sick because if they did they would lose their jobs. So they work sick spreading disease around. That is how the norwalk (not sure of spelling) gets spread around. Then the ships pull into port with nowhere near the right amount of turnaround time to decon the ship or DO PROPER REPAIRS AND MAINTENANCE
. This industry is a wreck and people will end up dying so YES, SUE THEM FOR MILLIONS AND MILLIONS TO BRING THEM INTO LINE.
Yeah, and when suing them costs 1 person's job... by all means, please go up and tell them, you said to sue.. it doesn't solve anything.
Plus, seroiusly folks, those saying "oh, how dare they complain, look at poor countries", get real. You KNOW if YOU saved up for a year or longer to go on a nice trip with your family and instead you end up swimming in crap, you'd be considering a lawsuit. Self-righteous @!$%#s, who never have probably given a dime to a homeless person. Geeze. THAT is what pisses me off. You feel SOOOOO bad for those in filthy countries, yet I'm sure you have a nice 52 inch TV and two cars don't ya? Huh?
meant seriously, typing too fast, mad
Ive been worried, glad the media has down graded it to a Mishap.
There is no viable indication that the boat was unseaworthy prior to the fire. Did the cruise line purposely cause the fire? Did negligence lead to the fire? As someone else pointed out - doo-doo happens and it was a rough time for passengers but that doesn't mean they need to fall into a financial windfall for it. Plus, they signed contracts. Too bad, take what is offered and don't cruise again.
yeah, well, that is what a lawsuit will help hammer out better than Carnival's own internal investigation, lol. The ship did have issues shortly before departure:
Carnival spokesman Vance Gulliksen acknowledged the Triumph's recent mechanical woes, explaining that there was an electrical problem with the ship's alternator on the previous voyage. Repairs were completed Feb. 2.
Testing of the repaired part was successful and "there is no evidence at this time of any relationship between this previous issue and the fire that occurred on Feb. 10."
But according to the email sent to passengers on Jan. 28, the issue affected the ship's cruising speeds, delaying its arrival in Galveston. The email also informed Smedley and other passengers that the propulsion problem would prevent them from docking at two ports.
"Due to the limited cruising speed, our itinerary will be impacted. Depending on the progress of the repairs, we will either visit Progreso or Cozumel," stated the email, signed by Vicky Rey, vice president of guest services. "The good news is that we will remain docked overnight at either port."
Smedley said the ship was in poor condition overall. During her five-day cruise, a water line broke in the hallway ceiling near her cabin, and a separate sewer line broke outside the main dining hall, she said. Metal was protruding from handrails on the staircases, and the elevators often did not work.
It's dumb fux like this that give Texans a bad name!
This idiot had the money to go onn a cruise, something most WORKING, PRODUCTIVE people cannot afford to spend the time or money on, and then she bitch's when it doesn't turn out perfect.
Cry me a #$%#ing river!
I hope she is awarded $1.00 and the IRS takes $.99 of it.
aww Shut yo mouf Terry
This is again, another nasty situation on a Cruise ship! It doesn't sound like the passengers, according to disclaimers that they have to sign, can do much in a lawsuit either. The Cruise Lines should have to pay multi-millions of dollars in a case like this, if for no other reason than to make sure their ships are in tip-top condition after this. Otherwise, I believe, in the near future one of these Cruise Lines is going to have a MAJOR disaster!
You can't get out of liability by having customers sign a disclaimer. If they were negligent they can still be sued.
If the ship never should have sailed, then sue I say. They put lives at risk. Read up folks. It sounds to me like that ship shouldn't have been afloat:
Carnival spokesman Vance Gulliksen acknowledged the Triumph's recent mechanical woes, explaining that there was an electrical problem with the ship's alternator on the previous voyage. Repairs were completed Feb. 2.
Testing of the repaired part was successful and "there is no evidence at this time of any relationship between this previous issue and the fire that occurred on Feb. 10."
But according to the email sent to passengers on Jan. 28, the issue affected the ship's cruising speeds, delaying its arrival in Galveston. The email also informed Smedley and other passengers that the propulsion problem would prevent them from docking at two ports.
"Due to the limited cruising speed, our itinerary will be impacted. Depending on the progress of the repairs, we will either visit Progreso or Cozumel," stated the email, signed by Vicky Rey, vice president of guest services. "The good news is that we will remain docked overnight at either port."
Smedley said the ship was in poor condition overall. During her five-day cruise, a water line broke in the hallway ceiling near her cabin, and a separate sewer line broke outside the main dining hall, she said. Metal was protruding from handrails on the staircases, and the elevators often did not work.
To all of you who are making these negative comments and land blasting these people...You weren't on that ship. You have no idea what we went through. I do totally agree that some of this is uncalled for BUT, again, you WEREN'T there! We did not pay for a 3rd world country experience. We paid for a luxury cruise, 5 days long where we could then go back to our families.
Yes, the staff was wonderful! The crew did everything in their power to make our conditions tolerable. My issue is with Carnival themselves. This ship had problems on the 2 cruises before ours yet they let us board and we set sail anyway. From that point on nothing Carnival did was done the way we were told and promised. The Carnival staff when we got off of the ship had no clue what they were doing or what to expect. You would have thought it had just happened.
They had 5 days from when this all started to get everything right! Did they? NO!!!
I love cruises and I will go on another one but after this experience and seeing the way they treated their staff it may not be with Carnival.
My point is, again, you weren't there so you have no right to call anyone vultures or make negative comments about any of this until it happens to you!!!!
I have done nothing but cry for a week. I am sick. I can't stand smells, noise, stress or any kind of commotion all because of my "luxury" cruise where I was BRILLIANTLY stranded at sea.
Amen sister. That's what I'm saying. Bunch of self-righteous a-holes who probably don't even have jobs saying this crap. You know these same people walk by the homeless and do nothing, while people like you and I do and because we work hard and earn decent money we are the ones sending money to the foreign countries helping them out while these effers sit around trying to figure out how to save a damn owl somewhere while getting high.
Ruth, please do not book a cruise with Carnival again--do your due diligence like REALLY920 suggests (comment #10.1), research, and give your business to a responsible cruise line. I hope there are a few responsible cruise lines out there, I don't know if there are any but there might be (it's theoretically possible, anyway). As long as people continue to patronize cruise lines that act like Carnival does, nothing will change. My husband and I have been on 2 wonderful vacations, where no cruise lines were involved whatsoever. We flew to Sitka Alaska for one--we both ocean fished, hiked, and saw the sights. The other vacation we flew to the tip of Baja California, and fished, snorkeled, and saw the sights. We had a wonderful, relaxing time. It was beautiful!
I wish the best for you, and hope that you did not and will not come down with any nasty bugs (I immediately thought of some nasty germs in that situation).
you didn't pay for a "luxury" cruise. you paid for a Carnival Cruise.
so whats your point ? crap happens in this case literally next time you want an adventure do a risk analysis
Greed is killing our economy and society. These people got their money back in the form of a replacement cruise plus $500. Carnival has a decent reputation. Sometimes bad things happen. Ambulance-chasing lawyers have people convinced that if bad things happen to them, they can soak someone else and make that person pay for their own bad fortune. I say toss in any lost wages for the extra time out at sea and then have the cruisers suck it up. What do they think is going to happen when a ship that size breaks down for several days?
The Exxon Valdez ended up at the Breakers Beach in India just two days ago. It's probably already gone by now, in some scrap yard. It's final name was Oriental Nicety. This is probably where the Carnival Triumph get s it s maintenance.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/global-ship-breaking-business-booms-as-container-industry-suffers-a-883122.html
Since Carnival had another engine fire a few years back, they should have had a plan in place if another one occurred. Without the engines out of service very few things can function like water and bathroom services. I felt very badly for the passengers having to wate five days before they could get off the ship. I know the conditions were very bad with little food, no air conditioner, and having to pee in bags.
My husband and I have cruised with Princess and Carnival over 13th times and have never had any problems. But, we are always on the top floors of the ship instead of the ground floor where probably this all happened. Next time don't have an inside room and be a couple floors higher then ground. Next time, plan in your head what you would do if there were an emergency especially if the ship were carrying 4,000 passengers. Do you really think that the Captain and employees can solve ALL the problems for the passengers in an emergency??
I believe adults should be able to think out side the box and see what each one could do to HELP others and maybe the crew. Did anyone ever think of maybe getting a mop to help clean up certain areas of the ship that was bad? How about just giving help to those who are semi helpless or elderly.
From what I saw from pictures the ship was a mess but who made it that way. You folks who brought your matresses out onto the deck and just purched yourself there. I am sure you folks could have handled the situation better. The crew did everything possible to provide everything they had to comfort you all. There is so much they could do in this situation.
Stop crying!! Stop and ask yourself, what could you all have done better to help everyone out??
I figured there would be at least one bus load of lawyers waiting for the boat to dock. It was unfortunate that the incident happened but the cruise line did not cause it and did everything they could to make it better. They should consider themselves lucky that it wasn't much worse than it was and they were able to make it back alive.
The Exxon Valdez ended up at the Breakers Beach in India just two days ago. It's probably already gone by now, in some scrap yard. It's final name was Oriental Nicety. This is probably where the Carnival Triumph get s it s maintenance.
Click on the following link to see the final resting place of the Exxon Valdez. Posted two days ago;
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/global-ship-breaking-business-booms-as-container-industry-suffers-a-883122.html
To Ruth McGarrah: we've all suffered pain and discomfort in our lives, for you to suggest that other's here have no right to post comments simply becuase we were not a part of this cruise is quite baseless.
Yep, greed wins every time. Carnival already lost their shirt on this cruse. I do not know how many people were on board, but for ease of computation lets say 1,000. Now $500 cash to each give you a $500,000 loss. Then add in the repairs to the ship, towing cost, lost revenue from the future discounted fares and refunds. not to mention the cost of the buses and hotels when they reached shore, etc. YOU ARE TALKING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN LOSSES (not to mention the black eye their reputation took). Then some of you say "Gee, we need to punish the company, so they won't do it again!" Give me a break!
Companies do not stay in business long, if they make many mistakes like this.
Nothing like a greedy person coupled with a lawyer that will possibly collect 40-50% of the gross proceeds. Wee, lets file a "class action" the lawyer needs more for his yacht payment.
PS. Don't start whining about the loss of jobs, if you support running companies out of business for a mistake they attempt to rectify. Carnival did not want this to happen any more than BP wanted to Gulf oil spill. Accidents happen and you are not due some money every time something goes wrong in your life.
We all know about the Costa Concordia and other Carnival Headlines and you say these Suits don't need a Wake up Call?
What Planet are you Living On, Republica?
This seriously cracks me up. You seriously think this is going to seriously hurt Carnival. The pay their staff (well the non-engineering/command staff) next to nothing because they base salaries on foreign tables. They rake in a fortune by having their ships flagged in other countires. ALL this will do will actually make all the cruise lines (because of collusion) RAISE THEIR PRICES. You seriously believe any huge biz in the country will take a big enough hit without lawsuits? You are fooling yourself. All they will do is pass the cost on to consumers. They will keep cutting corners until there are fatalities. Wake up man. Was BP hurt by any penalty the govt. handed down, um no. It was the lawsuits the really put a squeeze on them to make changes. I still see BP stations everywhere. Not a one shut down as far as I can tell. lol man
Of course ignorance always cracks people up. YES, it definitely will hurt Carnival without the law suits. Would YOU rush out a book a cruse with them after this? How many cruse tickets do you think they are going to need to sell just of make up for this one loss? Are you aware that the BP spill has ALREADY cost them over $40 billion (that is $1,000 million = $1 billion) in cash outlay and the "fat lady" ain't sung. BP has dropped in size from that of Exxon to the size of Conoco Philips - or in simple terms 30% of its value (It would be nice if people would know the factual data before that make a statement like "Was BP hurt by any penalty the govt. handed down, um no."). In the so called tobacco settlement there were MANY of the lawyers that became multi-millionaires with that one settlement (the law firm in Texas comes to mind as a perfect example) and Philip Morris broke up their company and moved most of its business overseas (Atria and chocolates to Europe, Miller to Australia - goodbye jobs). The Exxon oil spill cost that company over $2 billion and 10 years of court cases to resolve. And just why do you think lawyers constantly advertise on TV to join their "class action law suit". And who do you think pays for all this nonsense. YOU and me that's who. We pay for it with lost jobs and higher business cost. I'll bet you think the airlines or "government" pays for all this TSA stuff at the airports - WRONG. You do, when you buy the airline ticket. Well the same will happen with Carnival. They will have to increase prices to pay for their loses OR (if they can not cover them) go out of business.
So anyone that thinks these lawsuits are good for you remember that when you go looking for a job and when you go to buy something. Or if you really want justice, help get the law changed so that when there is a law suit the LOSER pays court cost and for the other sides lawyer (like in Europe) - of course our lawyer politicians (they are the majority in Congress) will never go along with that.
lawsuits by people like this sicken me more than the smell of sewage these people had to "endure"
they were watching movies and eating sandwiches and chips after the ship was disabled. what a hardship. okay, your vacation was a disappointment. too bad. things happen. get over it.
come on folks its a texass thing she won't get a dime
Cassie Terry???
U SHOULD BE ashame of urself LADY i don't know where's ur brain but u must BE INSANE in you old damn HEAD OF URSELF ...how ungreatfull u are to sit there not less then a day u want to sue for some @!$%# that u think u DESERVE to that more MONEY for yo ass ?? F U LADY u don't deserve sh!t ACTUALLY u deserve a P!MP SLAP ON YO FACE because u want to be greedy HELL U BEST BE GLAD THAT the crew's A@@ WAS THERE FOR U AND THE REST OF THE PASANGERS! damn I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW GREEDY U AND OTHER PEOPLE LIKE U ARE Cassie Terry!!!!
like i ALWAYS SAY NEVER TAKE THINGS FOR GRANTED BECAUSE U ONLY LIVE ONCE and yet U just keep TAKING THINGS FOR GRANTED....U KNOW WHAT MISSY i hope karma brings u ONE HELLA OF MISERY !! cause lady ...u deserve that much SINCE U WANT TO BE THAT MUCH GREEDY MS Cassie Terry AKA MR'S SQROOGE WIFE!!!! AND aka MISS DRAMA QUEEN! oh wait hold up does that mean that u are related to FREDDY FROM THE BAND QUEEN???? yeah SUITS U WELL lady
now STOP WITH UR STUPID DRAMA .
OH yeah one more thing Cassie Terry u must be a damn republican ...CAUSE most of them are that much of a back stabber like u FOOL
Ruth McGarrah
To all of you who are making these negative comments and land blasting these people...You weren't on that ship. You have no idea what we went through. I do totally agree that some of this is uncalled for BUT, again, you WEREN'T there! We did not pay for a 3rd world country experience. We paid for a luxury cruise, 5 days long where we could then go back to our families.
Yes, the staff was wonderful! The crew did everything in their power to make our conditions tolerable. My issue is with Carnival themselves. This ship had problems on the 2 cruises before ours yet they let us board and we set sail anyway. From that point on nothing Carnival did was done the way we were told and promised. The Carnival staff when we got off of the ship had no clue what they were doing or what to expect. You would have thought it had just happened.
They had 5 days from when this all started to get everything right! Did they? NO!!!
I love cruises and I will go on another one but after this experience and seeing the way they treated their staff it may not be with Carnival.
My point is, again, you weren't there so you have no right to call anyone vultures or make negative comments about any of this until it happens to you!!!!
I have done nothing but cry for a week. I am sick. I can't stand smells, noise, stress or any kind of commotion all because of my "luxury" cruise where I was BRILLIANTLY stranded at sea.
CRY ME A RIVER AND EXCUSE U ?? U GOT SOME LIES IN U first of all u best BE GLAD YO ASS IS STILL LIVE and u think it's ok to KEEP B!TCHING LOOK LADY IF U DON'T WANT KEEP DOING UR STUPID RICH TRAVEL GAME THEN USE GREYHOUND IT'S LESS CHEAPER AND u don't have to worry about going insane not unless u ain't down with going to the bathroom in the back of the buss now U TRY DEALING WITH THAT A@@HAT because i dealt with only lost my baggage ONCE chump so SHUT UP AND DON'T TALK TO ME about i wasn't there i don't give a care at LEAST ALL U ALL IS STILL ALIVE but i guess that AIN'T GOOD ENOUGH don't reply because i don't want to hear u whine!