General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: CARNIVAL Cruise included a prohibition against class action suits in the small print [View all]MADem
(135,425 posts)Your other examples are rather apples and oranges--one person here, one person there. Dribs and drabs. Certainly, their damages were egregious, but what they didn't have was MASS. If a thousand people were injured or assaulted all at the same time, on the same ship, and in effect, held hostage for a week, you can be damn sure folks would sit up and take notice. Oftentimes, the media coverage that one poor soul gets from a tramatic event aboard a ship depends on the Q rating of the victim--if they're personable, the networks find them to be worth covering. Crabby old granny falling down on a slippery deck? She's lucky if she gets an affiliate interview. Blond teenager assaulted by swarthy crew member? Light up those phones! She'll do every network and the cable newsers until another "event" pushes her off the top of the heap. It's all about those Nielsens, after all.
The USG could also tell Carnival that they're no longer welcome in US ports until they get their shit together. Then they can see how many ships they can fill sailing out out of the Bahamas.
You know, just because other people suffered terribly on other cruises doesn't mean that these people didn't suffer too. It's not about meeting a threshold of pain or inconvenience. These folks didn't sign up to shit in a bucket on the "poop deck." They had an expectation of sumptuous meals, delightful cabin service, disco dancing in ship nightclubs, gambling, and swimming in shipboard pools--not sleepy on a damp mattress under the stars to escape the stench of sewage.
I wouldn't count on a "fail." I think these people will get redress.