Non-Royal excursion related lawsuit

[neverbeenhere]

Have you seen this news today about Royal’s supposed responsibilities related to a non-Royal excursion in Roatan. And Royal’s alleged responsibility to inform passengers about medical workers strike at a port stop. 
 

 

[Coralc]

No? 

[Eddie Wilson]

I believe a person dove into a shallow area on a beach excursion, not booked thru ship. (Allure). 
 

Saw on a YouTube vid, said it Took 50 minutes for emergency personnel to arrive.  
 

Apparently they feel RCL should have warned them of a medical personnel work slowdown or strike of some kind.. I think they said it was Rostan, not sure

 

Eddie

[JessyCruises]

Yes, I heard about it today while watching a La Lido Loca video.  I feel bad for the family obviously, but it seems ridiculous to sue RCL for an accident on an excursion that was not booked through them.

 

[neverbeenhere]

https://www.newsweek.com/royal-caribbean-sued-passenger-died-cruise-ship-1875545

[Coralc]

That is very sad. I don't really know what to think about it. 

[RobInMN]

Feel bad for the family, but to sue RCI is a ridiculous deep pocket money grab. They were on a third party excursion and not a ship one. You can not convince me in the slightest that even if there was wide-spread communication about strikes and work stoppages in the medical services areas that the family would have done anything differently. They want us to believe that they would have what, not left the ship? Not jumped off the platform? 

Makes me loose all respect for them. They've been poorly advised by their ambulance chaser. 

[BirdTravels]

While the event was tragic, the law suite is frivolous. 

[smokeybandit]

""He struck his head below the water and suffered a severe blow to his head. Once his body hit the water, [he] was rendered unconscious.""
 

So an experienced Navy diver was unconscious when he hit the water, then hit his head under the water?

 

Despite the frivolous lawsuit, I have so many other questions.

 

[Jasukkie]

Very sad but doubtful the outcome would have been different even if the Roatan rescue squad had arrived quickly. Travel has inherent risks, and both quality and timeliness of care can vary greatly wherever you go. 

[BND]

9 hours ago, Eddie Wilson said:

I believe a person dove into a shallow area on a beach excursion, not booked thru ship. (Allure). 
 

Saw on a YouTube vid, said it Took 50 minutes for emergency personnel to arrive.  
 

Apparently they feel RCL should have warned them of a medical personnel work slowdown or strike of some kind.. I think they said it was Rostan, not sure

 

Eddie

Emergency response in a lot of these islands isn't very quick even when there is no strike.  This is another frivolous lawsuit.  They obviously didn't research the port at all.  Strikes of all kinds are very common there. 

Edited March 5 by BND

[gerif]

Typical ambulance chaser strategy - throw everything against the wall and hope some of it sticks. Gotta blame someone (certainly not the person who booked the excursion and jumped into the shallow water) so go for the one with the deepest pockets and you might get lucky. 

[leaveitallbehind]

While I feel horrible for the individual and the family involved, IMO this is an unfortunate consequence of a litigious society driven by questionable attorneys whereby people attempt to deflect responsibility for their own actions on anyone other than themselves.

[LisaLisa87]

This is very sad, and I really feel for the family. What a terrible thing for them to have experienced. That said, we spent a week on Roatan last month and a couple of things struck me as I read the Newsweek article.

 

We spent most of a day doing an island cultural tour with a gentleman that was born and raised on the island. He took us everywhere and talked with us at length about the living conditions on the island. He pointed out the emergency and medical facilities, which were few and far between. Add to that the poor quality of some of the roads, and many people living on the island are faced with lengthy waits for emergency services. This is a third world country, and people need to set their expectations accordingly.

 

Additionally, it's surprising to me that people on this excursion were encouraged to dive off a dock at West Bay Beach. The water is quite shallow close to shore, and the reef runs pretty close to shore in many places -- both of which make the area extremely popular for snorkeling. We spent quite a bit of time on the stretch of West Bay Beach in question, and I don't recall seeing anyone jumping or diving off any dock.

 

And finally, I'm not sure why an issue is being made over the fact that Shore Excursioneer failed to tell them who was actually providing the tour. From a number of posts I've seen here and on social media, many people don't seem to realize that companies like SE, Viator, TripAdvisor, etc. are tour consolidators -- they don't actually operate the tours. I try to book directly with local tour operators, but if I were to book through a consolidator and it wasn't clear who was operating the tour, I would ask.

 

My heart goes out to the family, but I don't see how they could possibly have grounds to sue Royal Caribbean.

[smokeybandit]

12 minutes ago, LisaLisa87 said:

Additionally, it's surprising to me that people on this excursion were encouraged to dive off a dock at West Bay Beach.

Based on everything else so far, I bet they weren't encouraged to dive where this guy dove.

[SG65CB]

It doesn't matter if the excursion was third-party or sold by Royal Caribbean. The contention in the lawsuit is that the ship should not have called on Roatan. It has nothing to do with who sold the excursion. 

 

Obviously an "experienced diver" (or any rational adult with common sense) should not have dove into water where he cannot see the bottom. It is clear where the negligence rests in this case. 

[smokeybandit]

Must be something in the water. A guy recently sued Carnival because a donkey kicked him in the knee.

[smokeybandit]

5 hours ago, SG65CB said:

 It has nothing to do with who sold the excursion. 

 

It does though, since they are on the defendant list, too.

[Nadey]

Ambulance chasers. Nobody has responsibility for their self anymore. 

[SG65CB]

55 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

It does though, since they are on the defendant list, too.

 

No, my point is that people in the comments are saying that Royal Caribbean should not have been sued because it was not their excursion, and I am saying this doesn't matter because they are being sued for docking in Roatan despite knowing about the strike, completely unrelated to who sold the excursion. The excursion provider is listed on the suit as a formality, it is a guy who runs tours in Roatan.

 

 

[toxicfairy]

People always looking to blame someone else. I did it but it was their fault!

[Ocean Boy]

3 hours ago, SG65CB said:

 

No, my point is that people in the comments are saying that Royal Caribbean should not have been sued because it was not their excursion, and I am saying this doesn't matter because they are being sued for docking in Roatan despite knowing about the strike, completely unrelated to who sold the excursion. The excursion provider is listed on the suit as a formality, it is a guy who runs tours in Roatan.

 

 

Right, because a U.S. lawyer is going to be sure a money source is named in any suit that is filed. I highly suspect that a tour operator located in Roatan doesn't make the cut.

[leaveitallbehind]

On 3/5/2024 at 10:21 AM, SG65CB said:

The contention in the lawsuit is that the ship should not have called on Roatan.

....which is even more ridiculous.

Edited March 7 by leaveitallbehind

[xtremegk]

I guess Royal shouldn't dock at CocoCay since getting to a hospital from there requires a wait for a medivac.

 

I feel bad for this family, I genuinely do. But they are only going to be hurting more when this lawsuit (at least against Royal) is dismissed. Probably hoping Royal settles to make it go away, but I can't imagine a company as large as Royal just settling every lawsuit.

[Ocean Boy]

7 minutes ago, xtremegk said:

I guess Royal shouldn't dock at CocoCay since getting to a hospital from there requires a wait for a medivac.

 

I feel bad for this family, I genuinely do. But they are only going to be hurting more when this lawsuit (at least against Royal) is dismissed. Probably hoping Royal settles to make it go away, but I can't imagine a company as large as Royal just settling every lawsuit.

Why should RCI settle?