Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/05/21/cruise-passenger-on-stretcher-rushing-to-er-was-stopped-by-royal-caribbean-staff-pay-up-buddy.html
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With the stories of people retiring on cruise ships, maybe the crew has gotten used to having to shake down folks being carried off on stretchers?
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The cruise staff is giving hima preview of what he’ll face if he ends up in an American hospital.
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You can leave the ship anytime you want, but if you want to leave in a boat it’s gonna cost you.
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Compare that to getting sick at Disney.
I was staying in the Animal Kingdom Lodge and fell ill and felt I was having slight difficulty breathing. At 2am. I called down and they asked if I wanted hospital or clinic, to which I went with clinic. A Disney-paid uber was waiting for me 5 minutes later and took me to a Disney-paid local clinic. I was treated for a bad allergic reaction with an injection, screened until I felt better, then was driven back to my room. All I paid for was $10 for some antibiotics for a potential strep infection.
I mean, I know our rooms were stupid expensive (it was a ‘last vacation before the kids move away’ vacation that I saved a year for) but I’ve heard Disney always is really top tier with medical treatment to keep a good image. RC’s facilities are a bit more limited - I had a crown fall off and asked if their dentist could reaffix it and was told their dentist could only do extractions (!!). At least they didn’t charge me for asking though!
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They can’t afford the shipboard health care? They’re probably in for a life threatening case of sticker shock at any Florida hospital.
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I would have thought the crew was eager to avoid having a passenger die aboard. These folks should consider suing RC.
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That’s actually addressed in the article.
I wonder if they’ve contacted an attorney, because not being allowed to leave because of a debt owed, rather than because of theft, sounds an awful lot like false imprisonment. I am almost certain, no matter what the contract says, they can’t refuse to let you leave the ship over money owed. Not in the US anyway. And especially not in a medical emergency.
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Is there some sort of cyberpunk dystopia logic for why this isn’t trivially a matter of false imprisonment?
I don’t doubt that Carnival can send this case on the sleaziest possible circuit of the collections industry if they want; but when you’ve got your agents detaining someone for money it seems like what you are doing very much ought to be a crime if it isn’t already; even if the person isn’t bleeding at the time.
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My Mom had a fall at Disney World and broke her elbow (no ones fault, just bad luck).
She told me that staff was there in seconds and she was in a clinic seeing a Dr within half an hour. They were very helpful and coordinated her travel to a specialist for further investigations. Disney billed nothing for their part. (Travel insurance covered the rest).
All in all apparently as pleasent as a broken elbow requiring surgery could be 
On this topic I am always shocked how many people don’t get travel insurance.
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I had the same question. Apparently the contract with the cruise line says you have to pay the balance of your bill before disembarking. Now, in the case of a shoplifter, a store can use reasonable measures to keep a suspected shoplifter from leaving, detaining them until the police show up. And I suppose you could argue that if you leave a cruise ship without paying your balance, you’ve committed theft, but I don’t think US law sees it that way. For one thing, theft requires intent. And if you intend to pay your bill, just not right at that moment, you can’t be convicted of theft. So that clause in the contract with the cruise ship, at least in the US, shouldn’t allow the cruise ship to prevent you from leaving the ship, even if there isn’t a medical emergency. That’s why I wondered whether they’ve contacted an attorney. There may be some law at play I’m not aware of, but they should at least consult an attorney. They’re not going to charge them for a consultation, even if it turns out there’s no case.
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i will not argue to your knowledge of US law. i do wonder if a cruise ship, not flagged to United States and in Bahamian jurisdiction, is bound by the same legal safeties we expect in the states.
health emergencies should be priority before compensation, yet that is not how things seem to play out in this capitalist timeline.
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Between them, these two could only cover $1,500 of a $2,500 bill. If we’re in that financial position, I’d likely not be going on a cruise anywhere.
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I don’t think it was in the Bahamas at the time, was it? It was close enough to US shore that they offloaded him to a smaller boat to take him ashore in Miami. Maybe it was in international waters? How far out do those patrol boats that brought him to Miami go? I have no idea.
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It doesn’t excuse RC’s attitude, but yeah, that was my thought as well. I’m pretty broke, I’m not going on any cruises, even if I wanted to.
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The NPR article says “when they bought their first home in Saginaw, Michigan, in 2018, their real estate agent gifted them tickets for a Royal Caribbean cruise.”
I suspect that it’s an absolutely dire sign that their real estate agent was in a position to feel that ‘generous’ after they made their purchase; that sounds an awful lot like the notoriously transparent pricing and definitely-not-a-cartel margins of real estate agent commissions biting the inexperienced; but it presumably left them with tickets that could be used for the price of getting to the relevant port and probably couldn’t be cashed out.
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Miami to Bahamas is +/- 90miles, depending what island. it’s a day trip in a 30ft Contender with only two 350s. Coast Guard patrol boat would be much faster.
as i read the story, it was in Bahamas when the gentleman first was to be evac’d, i could be mistaken.
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Well…regardless of the law, what they did is still wrong. I may be on the verge of being a lawyer, but I still firmly believe that what is legal is not always what is right.
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I can see them wanting to settle debts, but what does holding him for ransom accomplish? Did they expect him to become a galley slave until he worked off his debt?
After a year, Purser Javert explains that as the ship has been charging him premium rates for food, water and a hot bunk, he now owes double.
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