dd/mm/yy
|
Event
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Incident
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| 4.12.09 |
From a passenger: Have just been informed by Cunard that the upcoming Winter Wonderland cruise next week will not be calling at Copenhagen, due to risks of on shore riots during the World Climate Change Conference. We shall be calling at Amsterdam instead. |
Itinerary change |
| 4.12.09 |
The Sunday Mail reports on a lawsuit in which a couple was awarded £60,000 as a result of disappointment on a cruise -- the metal floor underneath them began to flex loudly in high seas, creating an unbearable racket that kept them awake. The couple sailed from Southampton on the ship's 15-week maiden voyage in January 2009 and hit heavy seas in the Bay of Biscay when the floor began to flex loudly. They were offered an alternative cabin for the New York to Los Angeles leg then upgraded to a 'penthouse suite', complete with a butler. But they 'could not unpack' and relax as they didn't know when the couple who booked the suite would be joining the cruise, the court heard. They returned to their original cabin only to face the noise once more and were offered a mid-range suite which they rejected as it ' didn't feel right'. By now, the experience had left them feeling like 'gipsies' so they disembarked in Honolulu, Hawaii and spent six weeks in a luxury hotel before returning home on the Queen Elizabeth II. They were refunded £48,240 of the £59,052, cruise cost and pursued a damages case. A judge at Bradford county court awarded them £22,000, of which £15,000 was for 'distress and disappointment'. The cruise line said the award was likely to encourage speculative court action and the correct level was between £2,000 and £3,000. Judgment was reserved. |
Law suit |
| 2.10.09 |
The Halifax
Chronicle reports the captain abruptly ended a press conference
when asked, “How environmentally friendly is this vessel?" The
newspaper article says he literally went off the deep end.“I’m not even
going to go there. No," he snapped. He muttered a few more words and
walked off in a huff. A few metres away he turned and said with
disdain, “You should know better than that!" In a flash he was gone. No
explanation. No apology to the other media people taken off guard
by the response and obviously somewhat embarrassed. The obvious
question: what information did he not want to give? |
Environmental |
| 16.9.09 |
The Gibraltar
Chronicle reports some passengers were not amused yesterday when
they found they had not docked as expected. Instead, the Independence
of the Seas had docked. One Yorkshireman aboard called the
Chronicle from his mobile and pointed to the fact that some elderly and
disabled passengers were not able to come on shore aboard the tenders,
especially with choppy seas. A spokesman for MH Bland, the agents,
however, said that the ship had been given the option to dock alongside
an inside section of the quay but had decided against this. |
Changed berthing |
| 14.5.08 |
The ship, on its maiden call in Malta, hit the quay of the
Valletta Waterfront, denting the stern of the ship. The unofficial
reason for the incident is that the throttles of the 90,000 tonnes
luxury liner got stuck. In a statement later in the evening the Malta
Maritime Authority officially attributed the incident
to a mechanical failure in the ship. Carnival Corporation Chairman and
CEO, Micky Arison, was onboard the ship when the accident happened. The
ship remained in port for repairs and left the following day, having to
cancel its port call in Tunisia. Carnival Corporation is reported to be
considering a lawsuit against the port because a Maltese pilot was
steering the ship at the time; the local government claims the accident
was the result of a mechanical failure on the ship and is the fault of
the cruise line. Investigations continue.
|
Collision with pier
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