While countries around the world–such as the United States, Cuba, Qatar, and the Cayman Islands–are battling to dominate (or retain their dominance) as cruise-ship destinations because of the significant economic benefits associated with the multi-billion dollar cruise-ship industry, many fail to consider or simply forget the enormous ecological toll that cruise ships take on the fragile marine wildlife they plow through every day.
Peace Boat recently announced that is has contracted with a ship builder in an attempt to make an ecological difference and has announced its intention to design and build the greenest cruise ship in history.
Photo copyright: Peace Boat
The proposed 55,000-ton green cruise ship will reveal a unique design, with a hydrodynamic hull, along with 10 retractable solar-paneled towers that look like sails and are connected to wind generators to power to the ship’s hybrid engines. They hope the ship’s energy efficiency will inspire other cruise lines–like Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Celebrity, and others–to design ships with similar eco-friendly devices.
Costa Cruises, a wholly owned subsidiary of Carnival, the world’s largest cruise line, has also announced its plan to make its next generation of ships environmentally friendly. The two new ships on order will become the largest ships in the world, beating the current RCCL record-breakers, the Allure of the Seas and Oasis of the Seas, with an astonishing capacity of 6,600 passengers. Costa claims it will use LNG (a cleaner-burning fuel) instead of the traditional gas turbines and diesel fuels most ships use. The new Costa ships are expected to set sail by 2019.
As cruise lines (and the ship builders they hire) race to build bigger and in some cases greener ships, it is important to remember to make the ships safer for passengers. As a lawyer who sues cruise lines–like Carnival, RCCL, Norwegian, Celebrity, Princess, Costa, MSC, Holland America, Seabourn, and Disney–I urge ship builders to focus their efforts in eliminating unnecessary thresholds, steep staircases, and unreasonably slippery deck surfaces. Those dangerous conditions create slip, trip, and fall hazards that can often seriously and permanently injure people on cruise ships.
No Fee if No Recovery
Our Cruise Law Attorneys have over 50 years of combined legal experience and have fought hard on behalf of people hurt on cruise ships since 1991. We take every case on a contingency basis, which means there is no fee if there is no recovery. If you have suffered an injury aboard a cruise ship anywhere in the world, most cruise lines require that you serve them with written notice and sue them within a very specific time frame, otherwise forfeiting all your legal rights to receive compensation for your injury or reimbursement for lost time from work, medical expenses, travel expenses, and loss of the enjoyment of your cruise. Carnival, RCCL, Celebrity, NCL, and many others require that claims against them be filed in Federal Court in Miami, Florida, in the United States, where they maintain their corporate headquarters.
If you have a potential claim, call us today toll-free at 1-866-597-4529 or email us at [email protected] to speak with an experienced cruise ship injury lawyer who knows how to hold the cruise line accountable for your injury. We are ready to help.
