Accidents and injuries can happen anywhere on cruises. After all, the “cruise” is really a vacation experience. That is, what the cruise line offers is a vacation experience involving the ship itself and events on the ship and off the ship. Accidents on cruises can happen anywhere on the ship itself, on the gangway getting onto and off of the ship, on the tender boat taking the passenger to or from the ship, and on the excursion once you get to the destination on the island or land.
Accidents that happen on the ship commonly include slip and falls, trip and falls, doors slamming on hands and fingers, sexual assaults and rapes by crew members and other passengers, assaults and batteries by crew members and by other passengers and medical malpractice by the ship board doctors and nurses.
Accidents occur on the gangway getting to and from the ship. The cruise ship owes a duty to use reasonable care under the circumstances in order to get the passengers safely to and from the ship. This includes the gangway. The gangway is not just a stairway. Often times, it is a ramp. The ramp’s walking surface is either aluminum, wood, or carpet. Because of the tide difference, the ramp angle can vary from port to port and from cruise to cruise. The cruise line needs to make sure that the ramp is not angled to steeply and that the walking surface of the ramp is not wet and is not slippery. Often times, however, it is slippery. The ramp also needs to have rails accessible by both hands so that the passenger walking down or up can hold on by both left hand and right hand.
Cruise ships, especially in the Caribbean, call at ports which do not have deep water. These ports require the cruise ship to anchor off of the island or land mass and carry the passengers to land by a boat called a tender. The cruise lines know that cruise ship passengers are not necessarily experienced seamen and may not be in excellent physical condition. They also know that on many cruises, there are numerous people over the age of 55 who may have balance problems. For this reason, the cruise lines under those circumstances should provide assistance for passengers making the transition from the ship, the platform, end of the gangway, or other fixed object to the tender boat. The tender boat will be moving, bobbing up and down, moving in and out and in every direction with the waves. This transition is very tricky and often times people fall either getting onto the vessel or getting off. Passengers fall in the gap between the tender and the platform or ship or end of the gangway. People have fallen getting off the gangway when their equilibrium, their balance, is still a little rocky from having been on the boat. The cruise lines know this. They know that they should provide assistance because of these circumstances.
Now, each of the major cruise lines own either islands or pieces of land in the Caribbean. Carnival, for example, just purchased and constructed a $62 million dollar “resort” called Mahogany Bay on Roatan in Honduras. Roatan is an island in the Central American country of Honduras. The Mahogany Bay “Resort” is really a series of shops isolated from any other civilization. Carnival and its partner built this area and reap the profits from those shops. Essentially, the passengers are delivered to that area with the expectation that they spend money and then get back on the ship that very same day. The walking surface of Mahogany Bay is extremely slippery when wet and caused numerous passengers to slip and fall. Norwegian Cruise Line, NCL, owns an island called Great Stirrup Cay. Royal Caribbean owns Labadee, a piece of land on Haiti. These properties owned by the cruise line are an extension of the cruise. They are just another place to take the cruise passengers to spend money and get back on the ship.
Finally, the excursions on each of the port destinations of the cruise ships are a significant source of income for cruise lines. The cruise lines market and promote the excursions because the excursions are part of the cruise experience. The cruise lines will publish brochures not only listing the excursion but also describing them, having photographs of them, and providing videos on board about them. The cruise lines also allow the passengers to pay for the excursion through their onboard charge account. The cruise lines often times make representations about the value, safety, and other aspects of the excursion. That is because the cruise lines profit from these excursions. The cruise lines take 30-60% of the gross revenue, splitting the remaining amount with the excursion operators. This clearly is a joint venture between the cruise line and the excursion operator and certainly the excursion operator is an agent of the cruise line.
Accidents happen on excursions. These accidents can include car accidents, bus accidents, motorcycle accidents, zip line accidents, boating accidents, scuba accidents, dive accidents, slip and falls, and trip and falls.