CELEBRITY EQUINOX

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Lawsuit filed against cruise ship company after body of dead passenger decomposed on board

After Robert Jones, 79, died aboard the 'Celebrity Equinox' on Aug. 15, 2022, his body decomposed so badly, hthat is family was unable to give him an open-casket funeral, according to a lawsuit seeking at least $1 million. His widow Marily Jones alleged in a federal lawsuit filed on April 19, 2023, that her husband died aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean staff failed to properly preserve the body, robbing his loved ones of an open-casket funeral. Marilyn Jones, 78, set sail on Aug. 13, 2022, aboard the 'Celebrity Equinox' in Fort Lauderdale with her husband, Robert Jones, 79, according to the suit filed in the U.S. District Court of Southern Florida. The vessek was scheduled for an eight-day excursion to ports in the East Caribbean, including San Juan, Puerto Rico, the suit said. Marilyn Jones was listed as a plaintiff, as were her two daughters, an adult granddaughter and two minor grandchildren. The defendant in the lawsuit is Celebrity Cruises Inc., which owns and operates the 'Celebrity Equinox'. After two days on the cruise, Robert Jones died from a heart attack. Following her husband’s death, the lawsuit said, Marilyn Jones was told she had the option of preserving her husband’s body in the cruise ship’s morgue for the next six days until the ship docked in Fort Lauderdale. The suit also alleged that Jones was dissuaded from taking her husband’s body off the cruise ship in San Juan when she was cautioned the coroner’s office there could take possession of the body and perform an autopsy before releasing it to a funeral home. The ship’s staff also cautioned her that if she stayed in Puerto Rico, she would be responsible for securing travel back home for her and her late husband. The staff’s warnings about leaving the ship with her husband’s body in Puerto Rico didn’t leave her much choice, the suit alleged. She was told there would be a “50/50 chance that a medical examiner in San Juan would ‘take possession’ of her husband’s body and perform an autopsy. This was especially distressing to Ms. Jones, who is elderly and was traveling alone with her husband. When the vesssel docked in Florida after nearly a week since her husband’s passing, a worker with a funeral home and a deputy with a local sheriff’s office arrived to handle the body, which was not in the ship’s morgue, but had been moved to a cooler on a different deck. The cooler, the suit said, was not cold enough to preserve the body which was in a state of severe decomposition, laying in a bag on a palette on the floor. His family was unable to have open casket funeral and wake services, denying his wife of 55 years, children, grandchildren, friends, and community the closure their family and community deserved, a practice which was a part of his family’s culture,” the suit said. The ship should have been equipped to handle a death, the suit said, citing heart attacks and cardiac incidents as the “leading cause of death among passengers on its ships, having had at least 37 deaths on board its’ own cruise ships since 2001." The ship should have kept a working morgue, inspected it to make sure it was working or checked Jones’ body with reasonable frequency to make sure it was properly preserved. The Jones' family seeks a jury trial and damages of at least $1 million.

Passenger tested positive for Covid-19

One passenger on board the 'Celebrity Equinox' was tested positive for Covid-19. He reported to the ship’s medical center on July 30, 2021, with Covid-like symptoms and tested positive, six days into the ship’s first cruise from the U.S. in 15 months, a week-long, round-trip cruise from Port Everglades.. He was fully vaccinated.

Celebrity Equinox offers new onboard features after refit

Celebrity Equinox has rejoined the Celebrity Cruises fleet following a 29-day, bow-to-stern renovation that involved more than 500 engineers, architects, artisans, designers, contractors, shipyard employees and many in the cruise line’s in-house teams. New dining enhancements include the renovated Passport Bar; the new Craft Social (formerly Gastrobar), which serves ‘comfort food’ and over 40 craft beers, wine and cocktails on tap; and Qsine, which was formerly Asian restaurant Silk Harvest.