The news stories are filled with the mystery surrounding nurse Mindy Jordan’s cruise vacation over Mother’s Day weekend:  she’s missing, and it’s being reported that she fell into the ocean while trying to climb from one balcony to another (her cabin was on the 9th deck of a Norwegian Cruise Line ship, sailing to Bermuda).  Jordan’s mother has told reporters that she is certain that foul play was involved — her boyfriend says they were just “clowning around” when she fell over the railing.  Mind you, she was under 5 feet tall, weighed less than 100 lbs. and it was storming at the time this happened. 

 BloomLegal once again warns cruise line vacationers about the risks that this case exposes once again:  there are no policing authorities aboard ship, making evidence collection - and preservation - very difficult, and the laws that apply to cruise vacations are not always going to be American.  Missing passengers on cruise vacations are far from uncommon, just check the stories at HelpFindTheMissing.Org – where lots of passengers leave eyewitness accounts on what they saw, and when.

CruiseNews reports that Bermuda’s police as well as the FBI are waiting in Bermuda to become involved in Mindy Jordan’s case — NO official investigation has started yet.  That’s right:  nothing will be done from around 8 o’clock on Sunday night until the ship docks in Bermuda - it’s Wednesday afternoon, and they’re not there yet (the Coast Guard held the ship while a search and rescue effort was begun for Mindy). 

CruiseBruise keeps an online list of those individuals who have mysteriously died while on a cruise.  Their list is kept by cruise line, and Norwegian shows Mindy Jordan as as “missing passenger” and reports an overboard passenger in 2006, Belinda Clarke. The link also provides the stories behind these reports:  in Clarke’s case, fellow passengers report that there were rumors that she had intentionally jumped; her cabin was sealed off and the FBI searched it after the ship returned to US waters. 

CruiseBruise is reporting that in Mindy Jordan’s case, the Coast Guard is still searching the waters for her, and the FBI is waiting to board the ship in Bermuda.  Her boyfriend, who shared the cabin with her, has reportedly told Jordan’s family and the authorities that Jordan was trying to climb from one balcony to another when she slipped and fell into the water.  CruiseBruise points out that she would have been doing this while the ship was pounded with heavy rains and winds – weather conditions that continue today, making the search efforts difficult.   

For more information:

Bloom Legal on the Dangers of Cruise Lines 

Bloom Legal on 5 Things to Know Before Taking a Cruise Vacation

Bloom Legal on Cruise Vacation Risks that Are Not Being Reported

BloomLegal’s entry into representing cruise line injury victims brings with it all sorts of interesting tidbits of information, such as:

1.  Cruise Ships aren’t Made in U.S.A.  While it may sound down-right unpatriotic that most of the cruise ships fly the flags of foreign countries, not the Stars and Stripes, it’s partially due to American law and the U.S. marketplace that this occurs.  For almost a century, federal laws have existed to protect U.S. cruise-ship builders by requiring that cruise ships sailing entirely between U.S. ports — with no stops in any foreign port — must be built in the United States, and both owned and operated by Americans.  (The laws are the Jones Act of 1920 and the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886.) 

Today’s reality is that no big cruise ship has been built in America since Eisenhower was president, and no large cruise ships built in the U.S. are even on the seas today.  Cruise ships simply aren’t built in the U.S., and under these existing federal laws, they’ve got to have at least one foreign port stop if they are otherwise sailing between U.S. ports of call.  

What does this mean to you?  Foreign law — not U.S. law — may well impact any incident or injury that occurs during your cruise vacation. 

2.  What You Pay Depends Upon When You Buy.  The best cruise vacation deals can be found either as “early bird” specials (5-6 months in advance) or as last minute bookings (within 2 weeks of departure).  You can save 50-75% this way. 

It’s entirely legal for the same cruise package to cost vastly different sums for passengers on the same ship, in neighboring cabins. 

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 Thinking of taking a cruise, leaving New Orleans for a sweet spin through the Caribbean? 

Have you seen those inciting ads — 75% off vacation packages for a long weekend, or even a couple of weeks? 

Heck, Affordable Tours is offering a 4-day cruise on Carnival’s Fantasy cruise ship through the Caribbean and with a Mexico stop or two, all for $250! (It leaves February 28th and gets back March 3d, if you’re interested ….)

Lots of people are taking advantage of these deals — and packing in the added bonus of a New Orleans holiday before jumping on board a Carnival or Royal Caribbean or Norwegian cruise ship and heading out to sea…. We’re almost back at pre-Katrina vacation volume.

In fact, Western Caribbean cruises are the most popular packages being sold today, and New Orleans is one of the most popular ports for Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian Cruise Lines’ Caribbean vacations.

And yet, no one is paying much attention to the sobering realities.

Did you know …

–  you may not be protected by American law, or U.S. authorities, once you are aboard ship and underway?

Almost every cruise ship is registered in a foreign country, and flies a flag of that nation - not the United States.  The laws of that country, as well as international treaties, may decide your claim, not the federal or state law you may assume applies.  At least the cruise line will argue this to be the case.

–  serious crimes occur onboard everyday — including sexual assaults, thefts, even unexplained disappearances?

Your risk of being raped is reportedly higher on a cruise ship than in any major American city, according to the International Cruise Victims organization. 

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