The Carnival Fun Ships were designed to spoil and entertain people who are willing to pay the all-inclusive cruises. Passengers who chose Carnival cruise for their vacation can enjoy a lot of amenities and daily entertaining programs such as the spa, the night lounges, as well as the contest for the hairiest man on board. Although most of the fun activities were chosen due to their harmless fun, thus gives the passengers to have fun without getting hurt, but it also means that Carnival is protected from any future law suits, or is it?
Kurt Gies is suing CCL for pain, suffering, and mental anguish after attending the hairiest man contest aboard one of their cruise ships. It appears that Kurt decided to enjoy the day by entering the contest for the hairiest man which took place up on the Lido deck. For those who are not familiar with the Carnival ships, the Lido deck is the open deck for passengers where they can lounge, sun bade, eat, and even swim in the pool. Most often during the time when the sun is the highest this deck is very warm and even the floor of the same becomes pretty hot, almost like hot sand next to the beach.
According to Mr. Gies’ lawyer, Gregory Glasser, his client walked barefoot on the catwalk for the context, thus “burned his feet and got severe infection, and the treatment wasn’t appropriate either.” On the other side, Carnival’s public relations department had their doubts about Gies’ claims of the injuries. They present that “based on video of the contest…several guests, including the plaintiff, were barefoot and do not exhibit any signs of distress during the video.” The public relations representative Vance Gulliksen continues to defend the company by saying that “there is no record of any guest reporting to the ship’s medical center with burns to his or her feet.”
This incident occurred on September 26, 2011 while cruising on the Legend, which sailed out of Tampa, FL. Mr. Gies says that as soon as his feet made contact with the boat’s deck, he felt agony. He states in his law suit that the Carnival employees initially laid towels on the deck, but for no apparent reason, they removed them before the contest.
Mr. Gies is seeking damages and coverage of his medical expenses to be covered by CCL. He also claims that he “lost the value of his cruise vacation.”
