Queen Mary 2 fails US Public Health Inspection

(CNN) -- Queen Mary 2, billed by its owners as "the most magnificent ocean liner ever built," isn't getting such rave reviews from government sanitation inspectors.

The ship was checked earlier this month as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Vessel Sanitation Program, which aims to prevent gastrointestinal illnesses on cruise ships.

During the visit on June 10, inspectors found a number of violations, including "extremely dirty" water and floor tiling in a splash pool; a human hair in an ice machine; and various chemicals stored near napkins, paper cups and utensils.

As a result, the ship received a score of 84. The government has two score classifications: Anything 86 or higher is "satisfactory," while scores of 85 or lower are considered "not satisfactory."

Failing grades for ships, especially the larger vessels, are extremely rare, according to CruiseCritic.com. There have been no failing scores since Albatross, a private ship, received a score of 69 in February 2010, the site reported.

The kind of violations found on board the Queen Mary 2 are unacceptable, especially the dirty pool water, said Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor in chief of CruiseCritic.com.

"I've been chronicling the CDC scores for 14 years and this one is unusually bad," Brown said. "What really bothered me was the use of the word 'filthy' five times."

Cunard Line, which operates the Queen Mary 2, called the ship's most recent grade "an uncharacteristically low score." It stressed that on most previous inspections, the ship scored over 95 and achieved the maximum of 100 on three occasions.

"The poor assessment on 10 June resulted largely from one small area of the ship's overall operation. All the issues raised in the report were immediately addressed and have now been corrected," said Cunard spokeswoman Jackie Chase in a statement.

Ship and shore management have now "redefined certain roles and responsibilities" and the company's training schedule has been stepped up, Chase said.

"The Company is confident that failings of this nature will not occur again, and that the ship's VSP scores in future will return to the customary consistently high level."

So should you worry if you have a cruise coming up on the Queen Mary 2? Brown said you shouldn't have second thoughts.

"I'm sure after this, it's probably the cleanest ship out there," she said.

Man Arrested for Dropping Cruise Ship Anchor

(Updated 11 a.m. EST) -- A California man has been arrested and is facing charges of attempting to damage a vessel and endangering a ship's navigation after he dropped the anchor of Holland America's Ryndam over the weekend. A Cruise Critic member was onboard and recounts what happened on our message boards.
The Press Association is reporting that 44-year-old passenger Rick Ehlert entered a restricted area on Deck 11 of the 55,819-ton, 1,266-passenger ship while it was heading from Costa Maya back to Tampa after a seven-night Caribbean cruise.
An FBI affidavit says the man -- who claims he was drunk when the incident occurred -- put on work gloves and entered the area and released the ship's rear anchor. It is also said that Ehlert threw a life buoy overboard.
Cruise Critic member woodofpine, who was on the Ryndam at the time of the Saturday incident, corroborates the account on our boards: "At about 7:15 a.m., the Captain announced that the aft anchor had been 'engaged' (meaning exactly what?) by someone at about 5:25 AM and that a ring/buoy was tossed from an upper deck at about 5:55 a.m. I wondered when the bridge became aware of the anchor 'engagement' as the ring toss was nearly half hour later.
"The Captain indicated that a rescue maneuver had been undertaken to retrieve the ring. The Captain encouraged (ie. demanded) that the responsible party step forward (nada) or general muster and head count would be required; this followed about 15 minutes later (and took about 75-90 minutes)."
Prior to disembark, woodofpine continues, Ehlert's name was announced on the P.A. He ends his report with a thought being echoed by many CC fans: "Sorry to say that passengers have to be treated like children."
According to the Tampa Tribune, Ehlert was identified on a security video (reportedly in formal-night attire), then interviewed by the FBI and the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service. The paper reports that the affidavit indicates "he told investigators he knew how to release the anchor because he owns a 50-foot boat with a similar anchor."
The affidavit states the ship wasn't damaged, says the Tribune, but it could have been, inasmuch as "releasing an anchor on a moving cruise ship could damage the rudder and propeller, disabling the vessel's ability to maneuver. It could puncture the ship, causing it to flood or sink."
In a statement, Holland America states it "will not provide any information beyond what has been included in the Criminal Complaint." However, the line does confirm the information in the affidavit and thanks the authorities for the "professional manner in which the investigation has been conducted."

New Law Targets Dangers Aboard Cruise Ships

LOS ANGELES (Nov. 28) -- Missing persons. Assault. Child molestation. Rape. Death. Those are some of the extras the cruise ship lines don't tell you about.

The industry suffered a black eye for the recent nightmare cruise aboard the Mexico-bound Carnival Splendor, but that's just a small sampling of the safety issues plaguing one of America's favorite vacation modes, victim advocates say.

Denis Poroy, AP

Tugboats tow the disabled cruise ship Carnival Splendor, which lost power with nearly 4,500 passengers and crew aboard, into San Diego Bay on Nov. 11.

All sorts of dangerous incidents happen on ocean liners. But beginning next year, portions of a new federal law will give the FBI authority over crimes that occur on ships that have docked at U.S. ports.

"It's like a town serving unlimited drinks with no police," Kendall Carver said of the cruise industry. His 40-year-old daughter disappeared from a Celebrity cruise ship in 2004.

"Every two weeks someone goes missing from a cruise ship somewhere in the world – and those are only the ones we know about," Carver said.

Last year, the FBI received reports of 349 incidents on cruise ships. It opened investigations into 32 cases involving "serious crimes" -- including one death, three missing people, 20 sexual assaults and six assaults with great bodily injury. The names of the cruise lines involved were not available, nor were statistics from this year, an FBI official told AOL News.

A database of FBI reports from December 2007 to October 2008, available on the Sun-Sentinel website, shows 363 incidents. The vast majority were on Carnival and Royal Caribbean cruises.

Related Stories

• Carnival Splendor's 'Nightmare' Cruise Ends
• Carnival Splendor Fire: 4 Other Cruise Ship Horrors
• Illness Sweeps Cruise Ship Again

None of this surprises Carver, who hears of incidents like this frequently as the founder of the non-profit International Cruise Victims, which represents hundreds of people and is now in 20 countries.

Carver told AOL News he started the organization after spending years trying to find his daughter, Merrian Carver. During that time, he said, he ran into a cover-up by the cruise line, missing evidence and employees who were ordered not to talk.

The case has since been settled for an undisclosed sum, but Carver is still waiting for the answers he was looking for.

Merrian lived in Massachusetts and her father found an ally in the state's U.S. senator, John Kerry. They discovered that there were no laws pertaining to crimes aboard ships at sea. Soon they began to lay groundwork to change that.

"My daughter was the subject of five Senate hearings," Carver said. "The cruise lines spent $11 million in lobbyists to defeat this, but we still won even though we are just a group of regular citizens."

President Barack Obama signed the Cruise Vessel and Safety Act of 2010 on July 27.

"This law will finally do away with the murky lines of jurisdiction that have put American cruise ship passengers at risk in the past," Kerry said in a statement. He also noted Carver's help in getting the legislation passed.

It will be 18 months from the date of signing before the law is fully implemented. However, parts of it will be enforced in stages. Beginning early next year, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation must have guidelines to carry out enforcement. By summer, training standards must exist for ship personnel.

The law requires:

• Peep holes and security latches on all passenger and crew doors
• Electronic video surveillance that documents crimes to be made available to law enforcement
• Passenger security guides with information on reporting crimes to U.S. law enforcement
• Limits on crew access to passenger cabins
• Staff with knowledge and equipment to perform rape exams
• Free and immediate access to law enforcement
• Prompt reporting of crimes, which must be contained in a log

"It's too soon to tell if it will matter," said Mike Ehline, a Los Angeles attorney who handles lawsuits against cruise lines. "I'm still getting the same types of issues with the cruise lines refusing to hand things over. They always have some excuse – like the video was out that day, it got lost, or it was erased on accident."

A Carnival spokesman did not want to comment on the new law. However, noting the high number of incidents reported on the Sun-Sentinel website, he said that Carnival carries more guests than any other cruise line with an estimated 3.9 million passengers this year.

"We have a zero-tolerance policy for crime and any and all allegations reported to us by guests or made known to us via any other channel are reported to the FBI," Carnival's Vance Gulliksen said.

No one from Royal Carribean was available for comment Friday.

According to language in the new law, "It is not known precisely how often crimes occur on cruise vessels or exactly how many people have disappeared during ocean voyages because cruise line companies do not make comprehensive, crime-related data readily available to the public."

It states sexual assault and physical assault as the leading crimes investigated by the FBI on cruise ships and it's difficult for law enforcement to gather evidence and conduct an investigation.

"Before, cruise lines would just say 'We are registered in this island or that, and we don't have to do this,'" Carver said. "Now, they will be banned from coming into our ports if they don't."

Carnival Splendor Catches Fire Mid-Cruise - Passengers Flown Home

(CNN) -- A cruise ship with nearly 3,300 passengers on board was
stranded off the coast of Mexico Tuesday after it lost power following an engine
room fire, Carnival Cruise Lines said in a statement.


The fire occurred about 6 a.m. Monday in the aft engine room of the Carnival
Splendor, the cruise line said in a Monday night statement posted on its
website. The blaze was extinguished and no passengers or crew were injured.


However, engineers were not able to restore power to the ship, which was
operating on auxiliary generators Monday, the statement said.


"Currently, several key hotel systems, including air conditioning, hot food
service, flushing toilets and telephones are not available," the cruise line
said. "The ship's crew is actively working to restore partial services."


There was no further update besides Monday's statement.


The voyage -- a seven-day cruise along the Mexican Riviera that departed
Sunday from Long Beach, California -- was terminated, Carnival said. Tugboats
were en route to the ship, located off the Mexican coast about 150 miles south
of San Diego, California, and would tow the vessel to Ensenada, Mexico "in an
effort to get the guests home as quickly as possible."


Guests will receive a full refund and reimbursement for transportation costs,
and will also receive a complimentary future cruise equal to the amount they
paid for this voyage, Carnival said.


Announcements advising guests of the situation began early Monday, the cruise
line said. Guests initially were asked to move from their cabins to the open
upper deck areas of the ship, but later were given access to their cabins and
were able to move about the ship, Carnival said. Bottled water and cold food
items were being provided.


The vessel is in contact with the U.S. Coast Guard, which said in a Monday
statement it was responding to reports of a fire and had dispatched three
cutters and an HC-130 Hercules aircraft, among other vehicles.


"We know this has been an extremely trying situation for our guests and we
sincerely thank them for their patience," Gerry Cahill, president and CEO of
Carnival Cruise Lines. "Conditions on board the ship are very challenging and we
sincerely apologize for the discomfort and inconvenience our guests are
currently enduring. The safety of our passengers and crew is our top priority
and we are working to get our guests home as quickly as possible."


The ship's normal itinerary included stops in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

The 952-foot Panamanian-flagged ship is carrying 3,299 guests
and 1,167 crew members, according to the cruise line and the Coast Guard.

Crown Princess, Halloween Cruise

Dear Readers:

I will be away for the next 10 days relaxing onboard the Crown Princess. I've never been to Roatan, Honduras so I'm looking forward to this trip!

During my absence, I will be keeping an eye out for any cruise news to post upon my return, and I will attempt to post some non-incriminating photos of the ship and ports if I find anything especially interesting that you will enjoy.

Have a safe and happy Halloween!