What happens if I trip and during the cruise or while I am getting on or off of the ship?
The standard of care is that the cruise lines must exercise "reasonable care under the circumstances." The operative words are "under the circumstances". This is where the reasonable care standard may differ from land-based standards. A federal court has ruled that the "extent to which the circumstances surrounding maritime travel are different than those encountered in daily life and involve more danger to the passenger will determine how high a degree of care is reasonable in each case." However, the cruise lines have no duty to warn of open and obvious dangers, such as no duty to warn a passenger of a ledge in the shower in their stateroom or cabin.
The carrier does have an obligation to provide a reasonably safe gangway. This includes providing crew members to assist passengers if necessitated by the existing conditions. Cruise ships sometimes call at ports where they cannot tie up to a dock. In this event passengers are transported to and from shore by small boats called "tenders". The cruise line under these circumstances has an obligation to provide a reasonably safe means for the passenger to get on and off the vessel.
If the cruise line does not perform the tendering service with its own tenders, it owes passengers the duty to use due care in selecting an independent contractor to perform this service.
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