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Passengers banned after elevator fails, Carnival says two sides to story

Five passengers cruising aboard Carnival Inspiration have been banned for life by Carnival Cruise Line after they got trapped in an elevator aboard the cruise ship, with Carnival contradicting almost every aspect of their story.

In a Facebook post, one of the passengers, Jacob Burrola, claims that crew members mocked the trapped guests, took videos of them, and that one of the trapped passengers fainted.

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“Crew tells passengers another 45minutes won’t kill anyone after being stuck for over an hour with sick passengers on board,” he wrote in the Facebook post. In the actual video, however, the crew member in question appears to say “five minutes”.

Burrola also claims the crew trying to help free them suggested the guests were at fault for the malfunction, and told them “not to touch anything”.

“They didn’t ask us what happened and they just started trying to pry the doors open with a ‘box wrench’ which caused it to slip,” one passenger in the comments on the video.

Another of the group, Travis Lee, claimed that the emergency button in the elevator didn’t work after the cable snapped, causing the elevator to become stuck between decks.

The five passengers were stuck for around an hour before they freed, but were then banned for life by Carnival Cruise Line.

The Captain of the Carnival Inspiration, Crescenzo Palomba, delivered a letter signed by two witnesses—the ship’s staff captain and the chief security officer, in which he told the group they would be disallowed from booking a cruise with the line in future.

“This letter will confirm your discussion with Carnival Cruise Line (“Carnival Inspiration”) personnel where you were informed that you will be disembarked from the vessel and not permitted to sail onboard any Carnival Cruise Line vessel in the future,” the letter read.

The passengers were travelling aboard Carnival Inspiration at the time of the incident

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“This decision was based on your actions on the current cruise, which were a violation of the ship rules, interfered with the safety and/or enjoyment of other guests on the ship or caused harm to Carnival,” it added, and warned that any future efforts to book trips with the cruise line “will result in cancellation and a possible loss of deposit monies”.

“You will be responsible for all travel expenses incurred and an invoice will be sent to your home address for payment. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter,” the captain warned.

In posting the video on Facebook, Burrola and his companions have indicated in the comments that they were willing to let the whole thing go, but that the decision to ban them made them want to fight back.

“They wanna make their faulty elevator our problem,” one of the passengers said.

However, in response to the passengers’ claims, Carnival Cruise Line has insisted that there are two side to every story.

There are “always two sides to every story. We had a group of guests stuck in one of our elevators last week for approximately 30-40 minutes,” a spokesperson told Newsweek. “Our onboard team was summoned to provide assistance. Unfortunately, because of the extensive damage to the elevator doors and cabling caused by the guests, the work took longer than expected.”

“Given the extensive damage they caused to the elevator and their behaviour towards both other guests and crew we decided it was best for this group to find another cruise line to sail,” the statement added, without elaborating further, suggesting that the cruise line may be anticipating legal action.

Cruise Arabia & Africa has reached out to Carnival Cruise Line for more information.

1 reply »

  1. At first I was on the groups side….until I saw the damge that they causes to the door. Now I totally believe that their antics cause the malfunction.

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