Cruise vacations are typically about relaxation, tropical drinks, and smooth sailing. Unless, of course, your ship happens to sail straight into a Category 4 cyclone.
That’s exactly what happened to nearly 1,500 passengers aboard P&O Cruises Australia’s Pacific Aria in May 2017, and after a long legal battle, they’re finally seeing some compensation.
A class-action lawsuit against Carnival Corporation, P&O Cruises Australia’s parent company, just resulted in a $2.4-million settlement for affected guests.
The lawsuit, initially filed by former passenger Debrah Jackson in 2023, claimed the company knowingly sent guests into the storm’s path without offering them a way to cancel or reschedule their trip.
“At the time the ship departed from Brisbane [Carnival] knew, or a reasonable and prudent cruise operator in the position of [Carnival] would have known, of the existence of Cyclone Donna,” the claim stated.
Carnival Corporation, however, denied any wrongdoing, pointing to their booking terms, which clearly state that itineraries can change due to weather or other unseen circumstances.
The company insisted that, at the time of departure, it believed the cruise could proceed as planned. Despite this, the company chose to settle rather than risk a drawn-out legal fight.
On February 27, 2024, Brisbane Federal Court Justice Roger Derrington sided with the guests and approved the settlement, which will compensate passengers who joined the suit nearly double what they originally paid for the trip.
With the median ticket price for the cruise $944, each class-action member will receive that amount plus an additional $900 in compensation. Jackson, will receive an additional $2,000 as lead plaintiff.
The total settlement includes $1.2 million for passenger payouts, while legal fees were capped at $1 million.
“The enjoyment of the cruise was not as desired and, generally, the cruise was a rather unpleasant experience,” Judge Derrington stated in his ruling.
What Happened on That Cruise?
The Pacific Aria, a 55,819-gross-ton ship, which was sold to Celestyal Cruises in 2023 and renamed the Celestyal Journey, set sail from Brisbane on May 5, 2017, on a 7-night cruise to New Caledonia in the South Pacific.
The itinerary included stops in Noumea, Lifou Island, and Port Vila, along with three days at sea.
The problem? Cyclone Donna was already brewing in the South Pacific before the ship even left port.
The storm first formed as a tropical disturbance northwest of Vanuatu on April 29, 2017, and had already been upgraded to a Category 1 cyclone by May 3, two days before the Pacific Aria departed.
By May 7, it had intensified into a Category 4 beast, packing 145 mile per hour winds and waves as high as 20 to 23 feet near Vanuatu and New Caledonia.
Instead of island hopping, passengers found themselves stuck at sea in brutal conditions. When the ship reached Noumea, the island was already in lockdown because of the storm.
Read Also: The 10 Roughest Seas in the World for Cruise Ships
After that, the remaining port stops were cancelled, and the ship spent the rest of the cruise at sea navigating the massive swells.
Things got so bad onboard that passengers reported furniture sliding across rooms, tables overturning, and the ship listing for an hour. Some even claimed seawater flooded into cabins and corridors.
“This was a truly a cruise from hell, with many passengers so scared they confined themselves to their cabin,” Peter Carter, director of Carter Capner Law, who took on the lawsuit, told media.
It’s not the first time passengers have taken a cruise line to court after a voyage turned into a nightmare at sea.
Nearly 200 guests also sued Norwegian Cruise Line after its Norwegian Breakaway sailed into a bomb cyclone in January 2018 while returning to New York from the Bahamas.
The lawsuit accuses the cruise line of negligence with passengers saying they feared for their lives as the ship faced massive swells and flooding. That lawsuit is ongoing.
