Outbreaks, brawls, pirates, deaths, disaster: 13 nightmare cruises
From illness outbreaks to natural disasters, shipwrecks, brawls, pirates, dead bodies stored in drink fridges and passengers left behind — here are 13 high seas holidays that took a hell turn.
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From mass gastro and Covid outbreaks to ugly brawls, being kept prisoner, pirates trying to seize the ship, people falling overboard and sailing with dead bodies on board, the stranding of passengers on a remote African island is far from the only time a luxury holiday on the high seas has turned into a hellish nightmare.
April 2024: Left behind on African island
Two Australians stranded on a remote African island after a cruise ship left them behind have spoken out saying it’s the “worst experience of our lives”.
Doug and Violeta Sanders were on a private tour when they missed the last tender back to the Norwegian Cruise Line ship and failed to make boarding time on March 27.
They are among a group of eight passengers left behind in the African island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe.
“It’s been the worst experience of our lives to be abandoned like that in a strange country, can’t speak the language,” the Sanders’ told 7 News.
“We have no money, our credit cards aren’t accepted.”
The group is said to include a pregnant woman, a person suffering from a heart condition, a paraplegic and an elderly woman who recently visited hospital.
In a statement, Norwegian Cruise Line said that the passengers’ passports were handed over to local port agents for the guests to collect.
The cruise line said that guests are responsible for the cost of getting to the next available port of call to rejoin the ship.
“Eight guests who were on the island on their own or with a private tour missed the last tender back to the vessel, therefore not meeting the all aboard time of 3pm local time,” the statement said.
“While this is a very unfortunate situation, guests are responsible for ensuring they return to the ship at the published time, which is communicated broadly over the ship’s intercom, in the daily communication and posted just before exiting the vessel.”
April 2023: Body stored in drink cooler
The Miami Herald reported in April last year a dead body had been allegedly stored in a cruise ship drink cooler, where it decayed.
It said a lawsuit alleged when a funeral services employee went to retrieve a man’s body after he died aboard a Celebrity Cruises ship, the passenger wasn’t inside the ship’s morgue.
Instead, the body of Robert L. Jones of Bonifay, Florida, was found in the Celebrity Equinox ship’s drink cooler, where it lay in a body bag on a floor palette for days and was badly decayed, his family’s lawsuit, filed April 19 in Miami’s federal court, claims.
The drink cooler was not cold enough to properly store a body and prevent it from decomposing, according to the complaint. As a result, the family’s plans to have an open casket funeral for Jones after the ship returned to Fort Lauderdale from the Caribbean were no longer possible — as his remains were “so far gone in the decomposition process” and couldn’t be salvaged, the complaint says.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Marilyn Jones, Jones’ wife of 55 years, his daughters Robin Phillips and Teresa West, and his three grandchildren, who are seeking $1m in damages.
March 2020: Ruby Princess deadly Covid cruise
Last year a court ruled that the cruise ship company at the centre of a major Covid outbreak should have cancelled the Ruby Princess trip that led to 28 deaths.
The Ruby Princess outbreak resulted in almost 700 passengers becoming infected with the virus.
A judgment handed down in the Federal Court in October last year found Carnival Australia negligent in allowing the ship to set sail on March 8, 2020, in the early stages of the global Covid pandemic.
“There are a number of considerations that have led me to conclude that cancellation of the cruise would not have been so burdensome that a reasonable person in the respondents’ position would not have cancelled the cruise,” Justice Angus Stewart said in his summary.
Retired nurse Susan Karpik was the lead applicant in the class action.
Ms Karpik’s husband, Henry, fell ill with Covid-19 after boarding the cruise ship. He became very ill and required intubation and ventilation, was placed into an induced coma, and at one point was given only a few days to live.
He spent nearly two months in hospital.
Justice Stewart found that it was most likely the couple both contracted the virus while on-board the cruise, probably during the crowded safety muster shortly after boarding.
Shine Lawyers joint head of class actions Vicky Antzoulatos, who ran the case, said the result was “a warning for cruise companies to put passengers ahead of profits”.
“Carnival should now do the right thing and compensate all the passengers rather than prolong the matter through further litigation,” she said.
The decision came after Carnival Australia argued that 696 passengers who purchased their tickets from a US company, whose terms and conditions contained a class-action waiver clause, shouldn’t be included in the class action.
March 2020: Costa Victoria ‘death ship’
More than 200 Aussies on board a cruise ship who feared they would be sent home in “body bags” flew back to Australia after a harrowing experience in Europe.
The Aussies on board the Costa Victoria were told in March 2020 they would be disembarking in Venice, Italy — at that time the worst hit Covid country in the world with more than 10,000 deaths at the time.
They quickly dubbed it the “death ship” as the 28-day cruise turned into a nightmare.
They were not given any indication that travel arrangements would be made to get them safely back to Australia, but the cruise company finally organised for them to be flown back.
“It’s real, it’s real, so thanks so much, crying happy here,” Sue Morgan from Melbourne said on social media.
She was just one of many Melburnians aboard the ship.
December 2019: Cruise daytrip volcano tragedy
The Melbourne Browitt family was on a holiday of a lifetime, enjoying a New Zealand cruise on the Ovation of the Seas when a day trip to volcanic White Island ripped their lives apart.
Stephanie, Krystal and Paul Browitt were part of a group of people from the Ovation of the Seas cruise ship on a day trip to White Island, while their wife and mother Marie stayed on the ship docked in the Bay of Plenty.
Twenty-two people, including 17 Australians, died when the island’s volcano erupted on December 9, 2019.
While Paul and Krystal tragically succumbed to their injuries, horrifically burnt Stephanie miraculously survived.
In March this year a New Zealand judge ordered tourism companies to pay out $NZ10.2m ($9.56m) in compensation to the victims of the Whakaari/White Island disaster.
The island’s management company, as well as tour operators, were sentenced in Auckland District Court, and handed millions of dollars in fines, and ordered to pay millions more dollars in damages.
March 2019: Ship leaves without honeymoon passengers
In 2019 a video went viral of a honeymooning couple desperately running after their cruise ship as it sailed away without them after time in port for an excursion.
The bride later revealed the “nightmare” they endured after turning up a few minutes late and not being able to board their cruise.
Actor Maria Gonzalez Roesch and her new husband Alessandro Di Palma believed they arrived early as the ship usually left at 5.30pm, however, in Nassau, in the Bahamas, this particular trip departed two hours earlier than they expected, the New Zealand Herald reported.
“We were there 4.10pm or 4.15pm and we heard the call from the ship — but there were so many cruises we thought it was another ship,” Ms Roesch said.
The couple then heard the horn and when they arrived at the pier they were in shock.
Roesch said they saw a platform with two crew members who were angry at them, but the couple was eager to get on the ship.
“We started yelling to them, ‘Please, please let us on, the cruise is still here’,” she said.
“But the guys said, ‘You are not going to be so lucky and we are closing the doors and leaving’.”
Feb 2018: Bruise cruise
A wild cruise ship brawl that garnered global headlines and ended with family members being escorted from the boat was sparked after one of them stepped on another passenger’s shoe, court documents alleged in 2021.
Members of a Melbourne family at the centre of the violent mid-sea brawl launched legal action against the cruise liner after the Carnival Legend “bruise cruise” captured worldwide attention when multiple members of the same extended family were escorted from the ship mid voyage.
It came after days of fighting with the ship’s security aboard the 10-day South Pacific cruise in February 2018.
The clashes on the pool deck, nightclub and a massive brawl near the restaurant area resulted in some passengers locking themselves in cabins and demanding refunds.
Three years later, three members of the family group launched legal action against the cruise company, claiming they were “assaulted and battered” by security staff.
In County Court documents obtained by the Herald Sun, George Barkho and Gabriela and Zaki Zakhour claimed Carnival PLC – the operator of Carnival Legend – employed the security staff aboard the ship and therefore were vicariously liable for the alleged assaults and batteries.
Footage of one brawl showed security guards repeatedly kicking a man as he is pinned to the floor before a screaming woman throws herself on top of the restrained man.
Another man in a security uniform could be seen cocking his fist and threatening to punch a woman in the face.
The video footage was broadcast around the world as the “holiday from hell” and made international headlines.
The three plaintiffs sought damages, claiming they suffered injury, loss and damage as a result of what they claimed were assaults by security.
The operators of Carnival Legend ejected six men and three teenage boys, who were met by a police escort boat at Twofold Bay, Eden, on February 16, 2018.
A further 14 passengers, including women and children, also left the ship voluntarily.
NSW police said at the time they were investigating a fight between several men on-board the cruise ship which occurred while it was about 220km off the coast of Jervis Bay. No charges were ever laid.
Jennifer Vandekreeke, vice president and general manager of Carnival Cruise Line, said at the time the decision to remove the family members was “unprecedented” and disgruntled passengers were offered a 25 per cent credit.
It’s understood the family and Carnival reached a settlement before trial
Dec 2016: Claim man a ‘prisoner’ on Fiji cruise
A Victorian man was allegedly kept prisoner on a ship that saw a Christmas cruise turn into a holiday from hell.
The man was on a cruise to Fiji with his partner but it was claimed he was ‘kept prisoner’ in a small room with no natural light, fresh air or toilet.
The man was reportedly told he would not be released and had to either fly back to Sydney today or stay locked up until December 29 when the ship returned to Australia.
His partner told the Herald Sun at the time she was allowed only minimal contact with her partner.
“I’m really worried about him,” she said. “He is becoming confused, I had to continually reorient him and he kept asking me the same questions over and over.
“He has been there four nights now. In that time he has been allowed only one shower, one brief glance out a small window, has not been given any clean bed sheets, is having to urinate in a plastic bottle, and meals are all being delivered to him cold.”
The woman said the nightmare ordeal had ruined the Christmas cruise.
“He has no facilities in his cell, no natural light, no fresh air and nothing to do. He is not allowed out for daily exercise. Security even refused to allow me to take a book for him to read.
“They are refusing to release him despite the fact he has not committed any offence and is not presenting as a risk to himself or anybody else.”
The woman, a mental health professional, said on the second night of the cruise her partner had consumed three alcoholic drinks that reacted badly with some new medication.
“In anger he made a verbal threat to jump overboard. He had no intention to do so, however, I asked security for help because I was scared he could be impulsive,” she said.
“It was reasonable to keep him in the brig overnight until his mental state was stable. Since that night there have been no further issues but they are refusing to release him.
“I’m extremely concerned about the conditions they are keeping him in with no justification.
“I’ve been a mental health professional for many years and believe this is inhumane and a serious breach of human rights.”
A Carnival Cruise Line spokesman said for reasons of passenger privacy and confidentiality the company could not comment on individual passengers.
“In general terms not related specifically to this matter, the safety and security of our guests and crew is our number one priority,” he said.
“We have a responsibility to act where there is a concern for the welfare of a guest such as a risk of self harm. As a general principle, confinement on-board in a safe environment is a rare step but only ever taken to safeguard a passenger in extreme circumstances prior to disembarkation under appropriate supervision at the next available port.”
March 2016: Gastro, flu outbreaks and death on board
Gastro broke out and an elderly man died of natural causes on a “nightmare” cruise bound for Melbourne in 2016.
Princess Cruises did not confirm how people on board the liner had become sick.
An elderly man also died of natural causes on the cruise from hell.
It came a month after 158 Sydney-bound passengers were hit by gastro on sister ship, the Diamond Princess.
Barwon Heads’ Ray McNamara told the Herald Sun at the time his wife, Kerry, her cousin and friend were caught up in the high-seas horror.
“There had been a large case of sea sickness first off and then a really bad case of gastro,” he said.
On top of that there was then a case of influenza.
“She said most people have copped the lot. It has spread right through the ship, especially the gastro and the flu.”
The ship, which visited Vanuatu’s islands and New Caledonia, left Melbourne for the cruise on March 8.
Princess Cruises spokesman David Jones said at the time “strenuous” sanitation measures had been rolled out in a bid to curb the spread of the bug.
Sick passengers were isolated in their cabins until they were “non-contagious”.
“The number of cases (of gastro) has been a bit higher than we would like,” Mr Jones said.
“We have a competent medical team on-board and they’ve dealt with it effectively and expertly. Because it is on a ship, we are very vigilant about illness and it only takes a small increase to what would be expected for more intense sanitation levels to be employed.”
2012: Costa Concordia shipwreck tragedy
On January 13, 2012, the seven-year-old Costa Cruises vessel Costa Concordia was on the first leg of a cruise around the Mediterranean Sea when she deviated from her planned route at Isola del Giglio, Tuscany, sailed closer to the island, and struck a rock formation on the sea floor.
The cruise liner crashed against the reef and partly capsized and sunk.
Although a six-hour rescue effort brought most of the passengers ashore, 33 people died: 27 passengers, five crew, and, later, a member of the salvage team.
An investigation focused on shortcomings in the procedures followed by Costa Concordia’s crew and the actions of her captain, Francesco Schettino, who left the ship prematurely.
He left about 300 passengers on board the sinking vessel, most of whom were rescued by helicopter or motorboats in the area.
Schettino was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
December, 2010: Coroner rules on Dianne’s death
It took eight years, 72 inquest days, more than 80 witnesses, a Supreme Court trial and millions of taxpayer dollars for the truth about Dianne Elizabeth Brimble’s sordid death on the floor of a cruise ship cabin to finally be set in stone by the coroner who began it all.
Coroner Jacqueline Milledge on December 1, 2010, finished what she started on March 9, 2006, handing down her finding that the 42-year-old mother of three died from the effects of the illicit drug fantasy, administered by “a known person”.
“She was unknowingly drugged by unscrupulous individuals who were intent on denigrating her for their own gratification,” Ms Milledge said at the Sydney inquest.
The formal finding echoed the sentiments that opened the inquiry, when counsel assisting the inquest Ron Hoenig said the evidence would show Ms Brimble had been “preyed upon” by a group of eight men she met just hours after boarding the P & O cruise ship Pacific Sky.
Ms Milledge’s finding contrasted evidence presented to the Supreme Court when one of eight original “persons of interest” faced a trial for manslaughter.
Mark Robin Wilhelm, who admitted having sex with Ms Brimble shortly before she died, pleaded guilty to supplying the drug fantasy after the Crown dropped the manslaughter charge.
His sentencing judge Rod Howie said the evidence showed Ms Brimble had taken the drug voluntarily and “did so under the influence of alcohol and, therefore, in no way was [Wilhelm] responsible for the effects of the drug on Ms Brimble”.
However, Ms Milledge said Ms Brimble was on a family holiday and simply would not have taken the drug willingly only metres from where her young daughter slept.
“She was a person who lived a decent and innocent lifestyle,” Ms Milledge said. “She had embarked on her holiday with her 12-year-old daughter and other family members, hardly indicative of a woman who intends to cruise, party and engage in a sexual free-for-all.
“Why then would a woman who could not be described as worldly, promiscuous or daring be found naked and dead in a cabin … dying from the effects of the ‘date rape drug’ (GHB or fantasy)?”
While Ms Milledge’s comments were slammed as “headline grabbing”, “inflammatory” and “incredible” by Mr Wilhelm’s lawyer Chris Murphy, they were welcomed by Ms Brimble’s family.
Her former husband Mark Brimble and her partner David Mitchell were relieved the coroner had given official standing to what they believed.
“Somebody has finally got it right. The way in which her life finished has finally been told,” Mr Brimble said.
While Ms Milledge was critical of many involved in the investigation, her most damning comments were reserved for Mr Wilhelm.
“[He] failed to deal decently with Ms Brimble in that crisis,” she said.
2013: Stranded for days without power, running water
More than 4000 passengers – mostly Americans — were aboard the crippled Triumph cruise ship, which was stranded for days without power or running water in 2013.
The 14-storey stricken ship, carrying some 4200 people, finally docked in Mobile to raucous cheers from passengers who had contended with overflowing toilets, food shortages and foul odours on the ship.
The ship’s horn loudly blasted several times as four tugboats pulled the crippled ship to shore. Some gave a thumbs-up sign and flashes from cameras and mobile phones lit the night.
“It was horrible, just horrible” said Texan Maria Hernandez — who was on a girls trip with friends — as she talked about waking up to smoke in her lower-level room from the engine-room fire and the days of heat and stench that followed.
2008: Pirates attack
Pirates attacked the M/V Nautica that had 650 passengers and 400 crew on board in 2013 but did not seize the boat.
The Nautica is one of three ships operated by Florida-based Oceania Cruises.
“We didn’t think they would be cheeky enough to attack a cruise ship,” passenger Wendy Armitage of Wellington, New Zealand, said after disembarking the ship for a daylong port stop in the Omani capital of Muscat.
“It was very minor really,” she said of the attack. “But it was a surprise that they attacked us, and they did fire shots.”
A second cruise ship, the M/V Athena — with about 400 Australian tourists on-board — was also reportedly surrounded by more than 29 pirate boats off the coast of Somalia.
Almost 200 Australian women and 189 men were understood to be on board the ship, which was cruising through the Gulf of Aden – notorious for piracy.
A couple on board the ship told of their fear as pirates made at least three attempts to board and take control of the vessel. The couple had joined other passengers for a morning quiz when they spotted boats approaching.
“We looked outside and saw 29 small boats with up to six pirates in each boat,” one of the passengers said. “This is becoming serious. We have now seen an air force Orion circling the convoy. This seemed to scare off the pirates.”
The couple said the captain had earlier confirmed crew members had used water cannons during the night to stop pirates from boarding as the ship passed through the high-risk area of the exit of the Gulf of Aden.
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