Cruise line compensation – good or not good enough

A recent sad case has highlighted so me of the problems with the compensation offered to passengers when so mething goes wrong on a cruise.

On a May sailing of Royal Caribbean International's Oasis of the Seas: Nassau, St. Thomas and St. Martin was forced to return to Nassau to seek a crew member who had gone missing. It transpired, after the cruise liner returned to port to look for him, that he may have committed suicide by jumping overboard, and after a 12 hour search in open water, the Oasis of the Seas was too delayed to make a port call in St. Thomas. The passengers were offered compensation in the form of credit toward a future cruise: $200 each adult and $100 for children.

Some passengers felt that after the tragic experience they wouldn’t want to take another cruise and asked instead for a smaller shipboard credit of $100 each for adults and $50 for children. This request was rejected - Royal Caribbean has said that it had no choice about the time spent on the search as the US Coast Guard is empowered to take control of the ship in order to attempt to save life and that it would always cooperate completely with such efforts. A statement from the company says that the credit toward a future cruise was a gesture of goodwill and that while the line recognised that so me passengers might not agree with the offer that was provided, it must remain equal for all guests.