Crash hurts dozens of cruise passengers; bomb threat at PortMiami
Four people are in critical condition after a tour bus crashed into another bus in a popular cruise port.
Cruise lines do everything they can to keep passengers safe. That extends to when people get off the ship and head into port.
Every cruise line wants its passengers to book its own company-sponsored excursions. That's motivated partly by profit but there's a safety factor as well.
If you're on a cruise-line-backed excursion, the company can set safety parameters.
That increases safety but does not guarantee that nothing will go wrong. Accidents can happen no matter how careful you are.
A bus crash in Barcelona, on what appears to be a cruise-line-sponsored excursion, left dozens injured and a few people critically hurt.
Doug Parker has the full story in the March 6 edition of Cruise News Today.
Barcelona bus crash injures 53 cruise passengers
Transcript:
This is Cruise News Today with Doug Parker.
A serious bus accident in Barcelona has left at least 53 people injured, including four in critical condition, after a tour bus carrying cruise passengers was struck by another bus transporting Italian students.
Authorities say the crash happened when the bus carrying the students swerved to avoid a pedestrian and collided with the parked shore excursion bus.
Emergency crews responded with 19 ambulances and multiple fire units.
It's being reported that some passengers missed the ship due to medical treatment at the hospital. The incident may add to Barcelona's push for tighter cruise regulations.
Though not confirmed by the cruise line, initial reports on social media say that the guests were on a Costa Cruises shore excursion.
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Miami bomb threat causes major delays; Carnival shares casino rule
A fake bomb threat at PortMiami caused major delays on Monday, but was later deemed a hoax by authorities.
The Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office temporarily shut down traffic to the port, including the port tunnel, leading to long backups for cargo trucks and cruise passengers both coming and going.
Port officials confirmed that operations resumed at normal security levels after police called off the threat. Police have not released details about the threat or any potential suspects.
And Carnival Cruise Line is warning passengers about privately organized slot pool tournaments, telling their passengers to use caution when prepaying any entry fees for slot pools.
Now, while these events are allowed if approved by the ship's casino, some slot pools have been denied, leaving some passengers struggling to get their prepaid refunds back from the organizer.
Carnival's brand ambassador, John Heald, spoke of a recent case where 40 guests lost money after a Facebook-organized event was canceled. The cruise line advises passengers to only join approved tournaments and avoid prepaying through unofficial groups, as they cannot help recoup your money.
If you have a lead on a story, let us know. Tips@cruiseradio.net.
Here aboard the Celestial Journey off the coast of Oman, actually, did a really cool shore excursion where we saw some amazing dolphins in the fjords today, as you see right here with this footage.
I'm Doug Parker with Cruise News Today.
Have yourself a great Thursday.
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