Royal Caribbean class action lawsuit

[Dennis#1]

..........Once the lawyers take their cut, every passenger will get a check for $50.

 

Or maybe a $50 voucher than can only be used on a RCI cruise within the next 12 months.

[Giantfan13]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/royal-caribbean-sued-over-hurricane-harvey-cruise/ar-AAsVDPr?ocid=spartandhp

 

 

Royal Caribbean (RCL) is being sued for allegedly pressuring passengers booked on a cruise into traveling to Houston even as Hurricane Harvey was set to strike the region, or risk losing the ability to get a refund on their tickets. Royal Caribbean's "Liberty of the Seas" had a scheduled voyage from Galveston, Texas, to Cozumel, Mexico, from Aug. 27 through Sept. 3.

Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas on Aug. 25 near Houston, which is the nearest major airport to Galveston, home port for the "Liberty of the Seas" cruise ship. The suit alleges that Royal Caribbean made it appear to travelers that the trip would leave as scheduled despite the challenges wrought by Harvey.

 

"Consequently, hundreds of passengers were subjected to days of danger, terror, and trauma as a result of being forced to travel into the path of a category four hurricane," said the 20-page lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Florida. The company's "misconduct was predicated on a profit motive because, simply put, cruise lines ...make no money when passengers don't sail," said the suit.

Even so, the suit alleges that Royal Caribbean on Saturday, Aug. 26, informed passengers that the massive hurricane would only delay the ship's planned departure to Aug. 28. But then, the voyage was canceled on Aug. 27.According to the suit filed by Nikki McIntosh of Canada, the Port of Galveston suspended operations on Aug. 25. On that same day, rival Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL) rerouted two of its ships that had been set to arrive on Aug. 26. Another Carnival ship stayed an additional night in Cozumel as the National Hurricane Center declared that the entire Texas coast was in the hurricane's "cone of danger."

"Simply put, had the cruise been canceled a day or two earlier, just like Carnival did, then these passengers would not have been trapped [in Houston] in the path of Hurricane Harvey and subjected to 5-6 days of terror, hardship and inconvenience in a place foreign to them," the lawsuit said.

A spokesperson for Royal Caribbean couldn't be reached for comment.

[ncsteeler]

I use travel guard and the standard policies always have a clause for declaration of state of emergency at any Port on the trip

[mollyeilis]

One of the cruisers had the RC insurance. When the cruise was canceled, her insurance was canceled too, so she was out all the money she had to pay while stranded in Houston.

 

Everyone says ‘serves them right for not having insurance’ but they wouldn’t have been covered unless they had cancel for any reason...

 

 

They needed to have third party insirance. Royal's was never going to cover hotel rooms and flights not booked through them in this circumstance.

 

I sorry you miss the post on the Port of Galveston website. My sister lives on Galveston. her neighbors work at the port they were told Thursday the port would be closed till Tuesday. if you want to believe FB go for it.

 

 

Usually websites and social media of businesses are handled by the same person. Why would the guy in charge of the site and the FB page have different info?

 

 

This is why it's so important to buy a stand alone policy from a provider like insuremytrip, as that coverage will typically start as soon as travel commences, and not end until you return home.

 

 

Agreed.

[Oak Hill Cruisers]

So, to sum up, improper instruction, quod est necessarium est licitum, Sixth Amendment. My milk stool is complete. ;-)

[crazy4cruisin51]

And have Good Insurance! Was in car accident in 1999, out work 2 yrs & had neck fusion. 4 kids in car with me but none hurt. Other driver hit me from behind at 45 mph while at standstill. I sued, she only had 50000 auto insurance, which my lawyer got 30%. At time I carried 50000/100000 then and since carry 500,000/500,000, so that I'm covered in case others aren't...

We also have 500,000/500,000 with a 1,000,000 umbrella.

 

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[Bigbluegal]

Insurance isn't necessary when the cruise line cancels the trip. You can't collect if your money is refunded right?

[rukkian]

Insurance isn't necessary when the cruise line cancels the trip. You can't collect if your money is refunded right?

The difference here is people are suing for other expenses- lodging, food, etc after being stuck in Houston. Trip insurance would have covered it, but the cruise line will not.

 

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[grandgeezer]

Class action are not the same as an individual suit on contingency. The fee structure is different. And the judgement is spread out over everyone who was affected. So payouts to individuals are on the order of a few dollars or so.

 

Even in an individual case, there are different agreements, depending on the lawyer. Who pays expenses? Who pays for expert witnesses. I know of a number of cases, where the judgement was in the millions, that the client got a hundred thousand or so, after the lawyer got their cut, and charged expenses against the client's portion. Some lawyers have been known to bill their time on the case against the client portion, and take the contingency fee as pure profit. Some of these lead to lawsuits against the lawyer.

 

The legal term is "preponderance of the evidence" in a civil case. That is, the evidence supports one side over the other.

 

Interesting, that you are an "expert" on civil law from sitting on a jury.

 

I never said I was an expert, I just have some first hand experience versus reading about it or hearing about it second or third hand, or more.

[nealstuber]

Insurance isn't necessary when the cruise line cancels the trip. You can't collect if your money is refunded right?

 

 

 

Exactly. The issue here is the original plaintiff left for Texas before any line made a definitive decision on what they were doing. Wants to be paid for his airfare, hotel and lost vacation time. Once the cruise was cancelled he knew he had his cruise fare cash at his disposal, to do any number of things besides sit in a hotel in Galveston for a week. Sure it’s not the vacation he thought he was getting, but how is that any different than if you fly in to a land resort on Friday, and the weather turns bad on Saturday and stays bad through Thursday? The Resort is not going to compensate you for your air and lost vacation time.

 

 

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[MoniMommy]

Most travel insurance policies do not cover cancelling a trip because of weather forecasts, no matter how bad those are. We were booked on this cruise and had RCI's travel insurance, as usual. We cancelled on Aug. 25, filed our claim for the "cancel for any reason" on Aug. 29 and received notice on Sept.8 that RCI would be giving us 75% of unrefundable payments as future cruise credit. All taxes and port fees were refunded back to the credit card by RCI just a few days after we cancelled. Most travel policies do not offer "cancel for any reason". So, unless anyone had this type coverage, travel insurance would have done them no good. Regardless of the positive outcome for us, I do feel that RCI owes something to the folks they demanded to travel or lose their money for hotel, meals and any other travel costs to those who were stranded. I wish them good luck with this suit.

 

When RCI did cancel the cruise did you then get all of your money back rather than the just 75% credit?

[SRF]

I never said I was an expert, I just have some first hand experience versus reading about it or hearing about it second or third hand, or more.

 

But you DON'T have any experience with class action suits.

 

And did you get to actually see the contract between the lawyer and the client? So how do you know what their arrangement was??????

 

Also, still trying to figure out how sitting on a jury is first hand experience with how things work with the money.

 

BTW, I am not a lawyer, but have been involved first hand with both class action and contingency lawsuits.

[2thesea]

I have wondered if RCI is continuing to make late "bad" decisions. DCL and Carnival (just to name 2) have projected thru late December their itinerary changes. No St Maarten and No St Thomas. What is RCI waiting for? Everything I read is saying those islands are STILL not ready for tourism and most likely not even be close to doing so until after the 1st of year at the earliest.

 

That leads me to my next question or observation. How can they continue to "sell" sailing with no idea what islands the sailing will offer? Eastern Caribbean for the most part is a train wreck, yet the itineraries are still offering St Maarten? Also, at what point can you as a traveler claim that the changes are a a permenant f(or the foreseeable future) change to your itinerary and not a last minute change. By RCI waiting only weeks before departure to advise itinerary changes does this favor them if you as a passenger complain or want compensation? I understand the contract advises Itinerary changes are allowed......BUT who would have ever thought that the next 12 weeks + of cruises would not offer the Eastern Caribbean ports?

 

I am sailing on the Dec 2 of the Harmony, we NEVER sail Western only Eastern, this is for medical reasons for my daughter. I have insurance BUT it does not include Cancel for any Reason. We have been sailing for 35 years and we have NEVER cancelled a cruise so the cancel for any reason option has never been entertained. So if we are stuck wth Western and RCI only advises us weeks prior to departure when the writing is already on the wall........where does that leave passengers wanting something in return?

[ColoradoGurl]

 

 

 

I am sailing on the Dec 2 of the Harmony, we NEVER sail Western only Eastern, this is for medical reasons for my daughter.

 

 

What kind of medical issue makes it so a person can only sail Eastern and not Western???? That's a new one. Or is this just a really poorly written sentence where you place a comma between two things that have nothing to do with each other? I can't for the life of me think of a medical issue where the Western ports need to be avoided but Eastern is ok.

 

 

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[2thesea]

What kind of medical issue makes it so a person can only sail Eastern and not Western???? That's a new one. Or is this just a really poorly written sentence where you place a comma between two things that have nothing to do with each other? I can't for the life of me think of a medical issue where the Western ports need to be avoided but Eastern is ok.

 

 

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It's because of our medical insurance. It will not cover medical treatment provided in Mexico. And sadly, we have known folks that have had medical treatment in Mexico and had to provide payment before being discharged.

[ONECRUISER]

We also have 500,000/500,000 with a 1,000,000 umbrella.

 

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Great, Only way to go.....

[ONECRUISER]

It's because of our medical insurance. It will not cover medical treatment provided in Mexico. And sadly, we have known folks that have had medical treatment in Mexico and had to provide payment before being discharged.

Unfortunately you can sail, a storm/Hurricane pop up and ship will change ports. I've had this happen over dozen times and one Eastern to Western all ports. All this with no compensation which I don't expect anyway. Good luck to you...

[ColoradoGurl]

It's because of our medical insurance. It will not cover medical treatment provided in Mexico. And sadly, we have known folks that have had medical treatment in Mexico and had to provide payment before being discharged.

 

 

Ah, gotcha. That would be scary to travel without medical evacuation insurance then, since they can change an itinerary at any time, and you might end up in Cozumel, or Costa Maya, even when there isn't a hurricane present (there could be port issues).

Or be sure to bring a high limit credit card.

 

 

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[2thesea]

Ah, gotcha. That would be scary to travel without medical evacuation insurance then, since they can change an itinerary at any time, and you might end up in Cozumel, or Costa Maya, even when there isn't a hurricane present (there could be port issues).

Or be sure to bring a high limit credit card.

 

 

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What's really scary is I did not buy Travel Insurance since our medical follows us when we travel (as long as its not Mexico, Europe) and now it's too late to buy insurance that would cover pre-existing conditions. :(

[broberts]

What kind of medical issue makes it so a person can only sail Eastern and not Western???? That's a new one. Or is this just a really poorly written sentence where you place a comma between two things that have nothing to do with each other? I can't for the life of me think of a medical issue where the Western ports need to be avoided but Eastern is ok.

 

 

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What would this information add to the discussion?

 

What business is it of readers not related or associated with the subject?

 

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

-

Hamlet

(1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio

[nealstuber]

When RCI did cancel the cruise did you then get all of your money back rather than the just 75% credit?

 

 

 

“39August” Cancelled on 25 August. Irma was not even a named storm until August 30th and it was several days later before it was clear that her path would have some impact on Gulf Coast Ports departure ports. So 39August cancelled for some other reason as was his/her right to do with his/her policy.

 

I think what you’re really asking is did those with RCCL insurance who cancelled one or two days before the cruise was cancelled (probably because their flights were cancelled) get a full refund or the partial FCC?

 

In all the threads on this topic, I have not seen an answer to that question, but I’m guessing since their is always a lag time between the claim and the approval, and it was a weekend, it worked out to the benefit of those in question - not only did they get their cruise fare back in full, but the insurance too.

 

 

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[ColoradoGurl]

What would this information add to the discussion?

 

 

 

What business is it of readers not related or associated with the subject?

 

 

 

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

 

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

 

-

Hamlet

(1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio

 

 

Well, they opened it up for discussion by posting it. It's not unreasonable to question it, because it didn't make sense. I was either misreading what they were trying to say because of the way the sentence was written, or they were really saying that there was a medical issue that made it so they couldn't travel to western islands. To me, that warranted questioning. If they weren't willing to discuss it, they wouldn't have posted it.

 

And as it turned out, there wasn't actually any medical issue that made it so they can't travel to western islands, it was a medical INSURANCE issue because the insurance can't be used in Mexico. That makes a lot more sense, and was cleared up with my question.

 

But I'll give you an B- for effort in trying to quote Hamlet and sound deep and insightful [emoji57]

 

 

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Edited October 10, 2017 by ColoradoGurl

[rukkian]

What's really scary is I did not buy Travel Insurance since our medical follows us when we travel (as long as its not Mexico, Europe) and now it's too late to buy insurance that would cover pre-existing conditions. :(

If you had a pre exiting medical condition you are worked about, then you should have probably looked at travel insurance before now. Instance is not meant to pay off for you each time, it is a gamble. You always hope you will not need insurance, but really want to have it in place when you need it.

 

As for going Western, unless you bought travel insurance which includes coverage for Port changes, you are not going to get anything if they decide to change. You booked a trip in a boat, that might happen to stop somewhere in the Caribbean. If you booked a Western to save money and they had to change, would it make sense for the cruise line to then turn around and charge everybody more?

 

Other lines might be skipping certainly ours for a longer period of time, and whole that sounds great, as soon as some of these ports open, and it is safe and ready to accept, they will need the money coming in. While there are doomsayer's that will say St. Maarten won't be ready until 2019, there were also people saying hey West wouldn't be a stop this year. Ports will prioritize what is needed to get ships coming in.

 

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[nealstuber]

It's because of our medical insurance. It will not cover medical treatment provided in Mexico. And sadly, we have known folks that have had medical treatment in Mexico and had to provide payment before being discharged.

 

 

 

In your previous post you said you had insurance...I’m surprised that even the most bare bones Travel insurance policy would not cover medical in Mexico.

 

 

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[nealstuber]

In your previous post you said you had insurance...I’m surprised that even the most bare bones Travel insurance policy would not cover medical in Mexico.

 

One of the problems with changing itineraries so far advance is this storm season is not over yet. If Nate has been a tad stronger or slower, even the announced changes would have changed again.

 

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