A passenger attacked and severely injured his girlfriend ten days ago onboard the Norwegian Breakaway, according to court filings in a criminal case filed in San Juan, Puerto Rico. An affidavit of an FBI agent who investigated the incident filed together with the criminal complaint* in the case of U.S. v. Smiley (case number 3:19-mj-02201-SCC) alleges that: On November 4, 2019 at around 3:45 A.M., cruise passenger and Texas resident Jeff Smiley III was cruising…

The recent news of a crew member sexually assaulting a woman on an unidentified cruise ship sailing to St. Thomas reported by several newspapers in the U.S. Virgin Islands involved what the prosecutor is characterizing in court documents as a “brazen rape of his colleague.” The criminal complaint, supporting affidavit of the investigating FBI agent, and the indictment and criminal information in the federal court file in St. Thomas reveal that the “aggravated sexual abuse by…

The Virgin Island Consortium reported today that a crew member was arraigned in Federal District Court for the Virgin Islands in St. Thomas on charges of aggravated sexual abuse of a passenger on a cruise ship. The newspaper announced the charges against a Filipino crew member by the name of Louie Isom Mangampat. According to the indictment, Mangampat sexually assaulted a woman while on board a cruise ship bound for the U.S. Virgin Islands. In federal…

The El Universo newspaper reports that the Celebrity Xpedition cruise ship ran aground and became stranded on a sandbar yesterday evening. The newspaper states that the cruise ship ran aground Tuesday at Punta Vicente Roca, located north of Isabela Island in the Galapagos. The Celebrity ship sent an alert yesterday evening. The Armed Forces of Equador and the Galapagos National Park responded to the grounding. Three boats reportedly went to the ship and transferred the passengers…

The Norwegian Star experienced a problem with one of its azipods over the weekend, apparently resulting in a fire of some type, resulting in a cancelled port on its last cruise. NCL then continued the next cruise without any mention to the new guests that there had been a fire or whether the ship had been inspected by appropriate authorities. NCL also altered the current cruise involving this ship, according to passengers who contacted us…

This past week, the Carnival Freedom cruise ship was photographed belching thick black smoke while arriving in George Town, Grand Cayman. The photograph was taken by an individual who wishes to remain anonymous. It was taken on Tuesday, October 29th. The twelve-year old Carnival ship left Galveston, Texas on the evening of October 27th and arrived in George Town on Tuesday morning. The photographer explained that the Carnival Freedom had just arrived in George Town and was…