Sometimes when you float massive (and massively polluting) multimillion-dollar resort hotels on the high seas, you run into problems. As it happens, Carnival Cruise Lines has bumped up against a couple of big problems recently, ones that have migrated from the oceans to the courts.
Passengers stranded on the Carnival cruise ship that was stuck in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this month have filed a lawsuit seeking damages for “mental and emotional anguish” sustained on their ill-fated trip. (Next time, might I humbly recommend a staycation?)
Meanwhile, in Italy, prosecutors are seeking to indict the captain and five other crew members who drove the massive Costa Concordia cruise ship into a marine sanctuary and killed 32 people in January 2012. The Costa Concordia is also owned by Carnival. Chief prosecutor Francesco Verusio told The Guardian that an investigation has proven “the determining cause of the events of the shipwreck, deaths and injuries, is, unfortunately, dramatically due to the human factor.”
Speaking of dramatically due to the human factor: Yes, the ship is still stuck on that delicate protected coral reef.
And that’s not even the reason Carnival got a D+ on Friends of the Earth’s recent Cruise Report Card.
