Cruise Ship Lawyers Blog
The FBI is investigating a death that occurred aboard the Carnival Dream, but little details have been released.
The incident happened on Wednesday, July 23, aboard the Carnival Dream near Belize City during a six-day western Caribbean voyage. Passengers told KHOU, a local news outlet in Houston, that they woke up to sounds of sirens around 3 or 4 a.m. Another passenger told reporters that she had heard an announcement requesting medical aid on the Serenity Deck.
The online rumors ranged from stories of a man who had been attacked to an incident at the onboard casino, thus prompting Carnival officials to release a statement to KHOU.
“There is no investigation about a suspicious death on Carnival Dream and it’s disappointing to learn that any guests might be spreading rumors about something they know nothing about,” officials said in the statement.
The ship returned to Galveston, Texas, on Saturday, July 26.
Authorities have not released additional details, including the identity of the person who died or any preliminary cause of death.
Leesfield & Partners
Leesfield & Partners is a personal injury law firm with offices in Key West, Orlando, and Miami — just a short drive from PortMiami, often referred to as the “Cruising Capital of the World.” Given this proximity, our experienced trial attorneys have successfully handled a wide range of injury cases involving cruise ships departing from and arriving in Florida. Our attorneys have consistently worked to secure the best possible outcome for every client, no matter the injury.
In nearly five decades of personal injury law, our attorneys have handled cases involving criminal activity aboard ships, painful falls, negligent medical care and injuries stemming from cruise ship excursion accidents. In that time, Leesfield & Partners has secured numerous record verdicts and settlements for injured clients and their grieving families.
When a death occurs aboard a cruise ship in U.S. jurisdiction, it is standard protocol for the FBI to open an investigation. Under the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010, cruise lines are required to report serious incidents to both the FBI and the U.S. Coast Guard.
Cruise ships are common carriers, meaning they have a heightened duty of care to ensure the safety and well-being of their passengers. As such, cruise lines must report criminal activity aboard their cruise ships. This criminal activity can include anything from theft to more violent crimes such as physical or sexual assaults.
In data reported to the FBI and made public by the Department of Transportation, there were a total of 43 alleged crimes that occurred on cruise ships from April to June 2025. Of those crimes, 13 were sexual assaults, 20 were rapes, four were assaults with serious bodily injury and three were missing persons cases.
Onboard Injury Cases
In a previous case handled by the firm, our attorneys represented a Canadian woman who was raped by a member of the crew while in her cabin. Similarly, this employee used his keycard to enter our client’s room where he cornered her and launched his violent attack.
Leesfield & Partners secured a confidential settlement for the woman in that case.
The firm recovered $2.5 million for a 9-year-old who collided with an unpadded steel grommet while diving for an out-of-bounds ball as he played on a ship’s basketball court. The child in that case suffered a catastrophic brain injury as a result on the traumatic incident.
Similarly, the firm represented a man, 62, who was injured while playing pickleball aboard his cruise ship. The firm settled the case for $500,000.
The firm obtained a confidential settlement for a family devastated by the traffic loss of their young daughter. In that case, the child was separated from her family aboard a ship when she leaned over a poorly designed cruise ship railing and fell five stories to her death.
In an ongoing case, Leesfield & Partners Trial Attorney Bernardo Pimentel II is representing a woman who was left traumatized following the actions of a deviant cruise ship employee. In this case, the crewmember was using his employee status to enter passengers’ rooms and plant hidden cameras in their private bathrooms. In addition to our client, who was filmed without her consent, several children were also filmed.
This crewmember was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for producing child sex abuse material.
Since the ordeal, our client has been left severely emotionally scarred.
“If we hold these carriers, these cruise lines … accountable for these kind of situations, they can now proactively seek out this misconduct and these people, these individuals that can commit these kind of actions against their passengers before it even occurs,” Mr. Pimentel told reporters when discussing the case.
Ongoing Cruise Ship Cases
The firm continues to represent cruise passengers injured in shocking excursion accidents caused by the negligence and carelessness of cruise ship personnel.
In one ongoing case being handled by Partner Justin B. Shapiro, our client was on a jet ski guided tour while vacationing on a cruise ship. The activity, which is marketed to novices, proved to be much more difficult than passengers were led to believe. As the tour was underway, our client was hit by the jet ski of her tour guide when he suddenly and violently slammed into her from behind.
She suffered spinal fractures and severe bruising as a result of this incident.
Mr. Pimentel is representing a woman in another ongoing case involving an injury she suffered while coming back to her cruise ship following a shore excursion. The woman tripped and fell on an uneven bridge on shore, seriously injured her left ankle, knee, arm and elbow, leaving her in a great deal of pain. She was able to walk back to the tender boat where she informed the crew she would need to see the ship’s physician.
No action was taken to ensure that medical personnel would be there to meet her when she arrived. She disembarked without assistance and, while walking up the gangway, paused to gather herself while in extreme pain. She told the crew she needed immediate medical attention. The crew, again, failed to provide a wheelchair or another means of transport to the infirmary. While still on the gangway, crew members approached our client and grabbed her arm. She fell to the floor in agony and was finally given a wheelchair and taken to the infirmary.
While there, she was diagnosed with multiple fractures to her hip and shoulder. Hours later, she was transferred to a remote hospital in Brazil and was left to wait a full week with insufficient medical care before she could be transported to a larger city and then to the U.S. for a full hip replacement.
She spent weeks recovering at a hospital in Florida before she was able to return to her home in another state.
Trial Attorney Carlos A. Fabano is handling an ongoing cruise ship case in which a mother died due to the negligence of a ship’s medical staff, leaving behind several grieving children.
