Walker & O'Neill, P.A. (LexBlog Jamaica)

Late Thursday night, a brawl erupted on a MSC cruise ship which had been denied permission to dock in several Caribbean ports this week over fears of coronavirus, according to several news outlets. Jamaica and the Cayman Islands blocked the MSC Meraviglia from docking when the ship called on Ocho Rios, Jamaica and later when...

Four years ago today, Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas caught on fire as it approached the port of Falmouth, Jamaica. A former Royal Caribbean crew member, Kevin Chambers who lives near Falmouth, and who we previously represented, videotaped the blaze. The video below has been viewed on Facebook over 1,200,000 times.   When Royal Caribbean tried to spin...

Three years ago today,  the Freedom of the Seas caught on fire. When we learned that the Freedom was on fire while heading to port in Falmouth, Jamaica, we called a former client who lives near the port (in Montego Bay) and asked him to video the fire. He videotaped the ship coming into port, billowing a huge amount of...

The U.S. Coast Guard medevaced an 89-year-old man suffering from a stroke from a Carnival cruise ship on Monday. The Carnival Vista was heading from Miami to Ocho Rios, Jamaica, sailing around the north-eastern corner of Cuba, when the Carnival cruise ship contacted the Coast Guard for medical assistance. The Carnival ship had left Miami...

The Jamaica Observer reported yesterday that three U.S. citizens did not return to the Carnival Sensation which docked in Ocho Rios, St, Ann on Wednesday. The newspaper identified them as Glen Triston, age 35, Tricia Tahecia Forrester, age 24, both of New York, and Clinton Hill, age 42, of North Carolina. Reports are that all...

In Falmouth, Jamaica, the Port Authority of Jamaica is continuing to pursue dredging projects in order to permit the gigantic “mega liners,” including Royal Caribbean’s Oasis Class (sometimes called “Genesis-class”) cruise ships to squeeze into the port, which was rebuilt in 2011. During the construction of the two new two piers, the port was originally dredged. ...

The U.S. State Deparment issued a travel warning effective January 18, 2018 that U.S. citizens use exteme caution in traveling to certain locations in Jamaica, following a State of Emergency for St. James Parish, Jamaica which was declared by the government of Jamaica to counter the out-of-control criminal activity. St. James Parish covers the popular...

Yesterday, the Jamaican police reportedly seized a pound of cocaine and arrested a man at the cruise port in Falmouth, Jamaica, according to the Jamaican Observer newspaper.  The Observer reported that around 4:30 on Monday, January 15, 2018, “security checks were being conducted on passengers and crew returning to a cruise ship that was docked...

The Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ) intends to again dredge the port of Falmouth in order to extend the Falmouth cruise ship pier, according to the Jamaica Gleaner. A PAJ representative stated that the new project will permit the Jamaican port to allow two of the Royal Caribbean’s Oasis Class (originally known as the Genesis Class) cruise...

Royal Caribbean and sister cruise line Celebrity Cruises are pulling some of their cruise ships from the port of Falmouth, Jamaica, according to the Jamaican Gleaner. Yesterday, the Gleaner published an article titled Major Cruiselines Pull Out Of Falmouth Port, Financial Fallout Expected. The article is admittedly confusing. It quotes Falmouth’s mayor, Colin Gager, referring to...

The Jamaica Gleaner reports that Royal Caribbean and it’s subsidiary, Falmouth Jamaica Land Company, are required to disclose their contractual arrangements with the Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ) to build Falmouth Port because they were a day late in filing a notice of appeal. An environmental watchdog group, the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET), had previously requested...

The Jamaican Observer reports that police arrested a man from Ocho Rios at the cruise port in Falmouth, Jamaica last Tuesday (June 28th) when he attempted to board an unidentified cruise ship.  The newspaper says that the man was arrested with two packages, containing five pounds of cocaine, found in a false compartment of his laptop...

The Jamaica Observer reported today that the police in Jamaica are seeking the public’s assistance in locating two cruise ship passengers who went missing yesterday. The newspaper identified U.S. citizens, 33-year-old Hayden Gerson and 32-year-old Alisha Frank. These two Americans were passengers on a unidentified cruise ship which docked in Falmouth Jamaica. (Readers have quickly told...

A passenger on the Freedom of the Seas sent us a copy of the video that he took of the fire. There are a couple of things to note. First, as you can hear on the video, this passenger and his wife were on their balcony and had seen black smoke 15 minutes earlier. The...

I have received several calls this morning from friends in Montego Bay and Ocho Rios that the Freedom of the Seas is on fire as it approached the port of Falmouth, Jamaica. I also have friends / former Royal Caribbean crew members in Falmouth who are going to obtain photographs of the blaze on the Royal...

The Caymans is the latest island in the Caribbean where the cruise lines are beating their drums for a new multi-million dollar pier to be built for them in order to expand the business of cruising. I saw this same scenario unfold in Falmouth, Jamaica where Royal Caribbean ram-roded a plan to dredge ancient coral...

On January 14th I wrote an article about two passengers who arrived in Falmouth, Jamaica on January 12th, and did not return to the Carnival Victory when the cruise ship departed. Local newspapers in Jamaica said the two men “disappeared.”  Carnival’s PR department subsequently contacted me and said essentially not to worry about it, saying...

Newspapers in Jamaica are reporting that two U.S. citizens from a Carnival cruise ship are unaccounted for after disembarking in Falmouth on Monday, January 12th. The two men are identified in the Jamaica Observer as 42-year-old Shelby Person and 45-year-old Tyrone Rideout, both of Weeping Willow, Maryland. They disembarked from the Carnival Victory shortly after...

There’s an excellent article in Travel Pulse today entitled Caribbean Tourism Officials Talk Marijuana Tourism. Written by Brian Major, the article takes a look at how the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) may capitalize on marijuana tourism. The article cites the growing legalization of pot here in U.S., and the fact that several Caribbean islands, like Jamaica, St....

The Jamaica Gleaner reports that 2 U.S. men aboard Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Sea, which docked in Falmouth Jamaica yesterday morning, are accused of raping a female passenger aboard the cruise ship. The Gleaner says that the “men were accused of raping a female passenger who they were partying with the night before on the...

There’s an interesting article today by the Associated Press about the lesser publicized side of cruise ship excursions entitled Jamaica’s “Ganja Tours Draw the Tourists” (with subtitle: “Cannabis connoisseurs can enjoy trips to hidden plantations and sample strains of the drug that inspired Bob Marley.”) Jamaican ganja like “purple kush” and “pineapple skunk” are some...

I have been interested in the port town of Falmouth in Jamaica for the past many years after cruise giant Royal Caribbean convinced Jamaica to invest well over $200,000,000 (U.S.) to accommodate its Oasis class cruise ships,  The project involved the dredging of the port’s waters, the destruction of mangroves, the dislocation of its fishing...

The Miami Herald tells us this evening that a Princess cruise ship heading to Ocho Rios rescued five Jamaican nationals who reportedly have been drifting on a small boat in the Caribbean for three weeks.  The Island Princess cruise ship brought the five Jamaicans onto the ship and is now sailing to Jamaica with them.  The Princess...

Today the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper published an article about our trip this week to Jamaica entitled “Know Your Rights!” The article is below: “CRUISE-SHIP workers are being urged to empower themselves by obtaining knowledge about their rights to benefits from their employers. Several cruise-ship workers turned up on Wednesday at the Hibiscus Lodge in Ocho...

We returned to Miami from Jamaica last night after a three day trip where we visited crew member clients in Montego Bay, Falmouth and Ocho Rios. The weather was fantastic and the Jamaican people were warm and friendly, as usual. It is always delightful to travel to Montego Bay, which is an easy one and...

The lawyers here at Cruise Law are traveling again to Jamaica. We will be visiting our clients to see how they are doing. We will also make ourselves available to meet with any crew members (or their family members) who need to learn about the legal rights of cruise ship employees if they become ill or...

The AP published an article today regarding the plight of Falmouth. The world’s biggest cruise ships are sucking most of the money out of the Jamaican port and leaving little behind except crushed expectations of the local community. “World’s Biggest Cruise Ships Drop Anchor in Caribbean, But Ship-to-Shore Feud Brews Over Cash” takes a look...

Jamaica’s Gleaner newspaper reports that the average amount of money spent by a cruise ship passenger in Jamaica has dropped to just $71. The hardest hit Jamaican port has been Falmouth where Royal Caribbean convinced the county of Jamaica to spend over $160,000,000 so far to develop the port (at great destruction to the reefs...

Multiple news sources are reporting that three U.S. cruise passengers from the Carnival Freedom cruise ship are missing since yesterday after disembarking the cruise ship in Ocho Rios. USA TODAY states that the three passengers, all from the same family, failed to return to the cruise ship on Thursday following a day-long call in the Jamaican...

Cruise expert Professor Ross Klein reports that a NCL passenger went overboard from Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Sun shortly after the cruise ship pulled out of the Falmouth shipping pier in Jamaica late Wednesday.  Professor Klein has the most complete list of passenger overboards over the course of the last ten years. Professor Klein’s website refers to an article...