What happens if someone dies?

What happens if someone dies on a cruise ship? Not that I;m planning on dying, but what do they do with the body for the remainder of the cruise?

[Shelly B.]

You ought to try posting this in the "crew member" section - bet they'd know!

[Darcy]

I saw this question posted somewhere else either on this site or another and the response was that cruise ships have a morgue. Can't tell you whether this is true or not, but it does make sense.

[PapaBill]

Several years back we had the misfortune of having several people , (unrelated and for unrelated reasons) pass away on a single cruise.
An elderly family member had a heart attack and died only a few hours from sailing.
Since our first port was two days a way and fairly remote the ship was turned around.
Two hours later the family and the "body" were disembarked back in Ft. Lauderdale. This death was blamed on extreme heat and stress of travel.

Apparently the next night a fairly young passenger died from a severe allergic reaction to peanuts. In this case the family and the body were put off at the next port 36 hours later. A funeral vehicle awaited on the pier.

Six days later we landed in our final port , St Thomas. A heart attack victom that was being "actively " treated was put ashore and taken to the hospital immediately upon landing . Apparently the patient died .

Later that day, an elderly passenger who had spent the day in town also had a heart attack. She apparently also died. Again heat and travel stress were blamed for her death.

Because of all the activity on the ship described above the subject of what happens came up and was discussed fairly openly by the crew. With 7 million or more passengers travelling annually on popular cruise lines, there are going to be deaths just based on the statistics. Ships apparently will carry either a coffin or body bags
and will make some reasonable arrangement to keep a body until travelling companions and the body can be disembarked and "arrangements" can be made.
We were told that there are something like 200 deaths per year on the ships of all the major cruiselines combined.

[hazelson]

PapaBill - sounds like a delightful cruise lol - the luck of the draw I guess. TTFN jennifer

[DavidB]

To answer the real question. If you die on board, you are body bagged, placed in one of the six containers (coffins) the ships carry as standard. Placed in a fridge beside the vegetables etc and shipped off at the first available port with an airport.

People will be on hand to help the people you left behind and ship you and them back home by plane. But that will all be covered by your personal insurance or cost and not the lines, so be aware

[hazelson]

So what you're saying is - if death is imminent get insurance - works for me. What if they have a bad day - and more people die than they have coffins for - do they prop them up in deck chairs by the pool as chair savers - just a thought. :o) TTFN Jennifer

[DavidB]

No you just get one of the dozens of body bags carried as standard in case of accident and still be stacked in the freezers. Given the wrong conditions we could meet yet Jen !!!

[hazelson]

Hey - would that make me "frigid" :o) TTFN Jennifer

There are morgues on most cruise ships.

Should the morgue fill up, only then will they use one of the fridges/cool rooms.

They do not put bodies in the freezers. And they do not put bodies alongside produce.

The room used has to be completely fumigated after it has been used to 'store' a body.

QE2 has a morgue for six bodies. They ran out of spaces once and had to use a store room.

Had this happen on a flight from Honolulu to Atlanta a few years back. Stews did not know CPR and tried to give oxygen to someone not breathing. Probably had 10 people on the plane certified, but they never asked. Landed at 2AM in LA and they wouldn't move the body til a coroner showed up so we were stuck in an empty terminal for five hours. At least on a cruise they can handle it.

By the way, her husband continued on the flight to Atlanta.

[karenhogie]

A passenger passed away a few hours out of Port on the Carnival Pride in June. A helicopter came out and retrieved the body from the stern of the boat in a basket. A family mamer was also hoisted up. Since our stateroom was at the stern of the boat, we had front row seats to a tnoisy and terrifying manuever.

[justgr8fl]

Very common for people to die on a cruise. Three people died on the first cruise I took. I hope when I go that I'm on a cruise. I just hope it's not any cruise I'll be taking in the near future.

[maine matt]

I want it to be like weekend at Bernies if I die, just put me in a chair with my sunglasses on (not that the sun will bother my eyes but it might freak people out.) and a beer in my hand. I will be outside so I wont stink. lol

I work for a funeral establishment as a Pre-Need counselor -- in other words, I sell funeral plans before they are needed as many people like to plan so their children don't have to do it.

We recently had a funeral for a man who died on a cruise ship. The ship docked in Naples and he and his wife were taken off. She had to make the arrangements to fly home and separate arrangements for the deceased as they had to get an Italian death certificate.

Please take travel insurance that covers the cost of transporting the body. I know it adds to the cost of a trip, but I had to use it myself once - not for a death but because my significant other had to have surgery.

The only piece of good news for this type of sad occasion is that flying a body home, even on an international flight is less than buying a ticket for a living passenger.

There is also a separate type of insurance which my establishment does not have, that is relatively inexpensive -- about $175 -- and will fly your body home if you die more than 75 miles from your place of residence.

[JimmyD]

I know this is a little late for the original poster, but I saw this recently.
http://www.news-journalonline.com/Ne...TRAV080105.htm

[CReesy]

Just along these same lines...


Would there be an option of the family member to have the body cremeated... to be tossed out into sea....?

[Joe323]

Originally Posted by CReesy

Just along these same lines...


Would there be an option of the family member to have the body cremeated... to be tossed out into sea....?

I want to know the same thing as I want to be buried at sea when my time comes

[billbelt]

Look at pages 34-35 of the July/August edition of Crusie Travel. Complete in depth story covering all your questions. This is about an actual death and what occurred.

[colorcrazie]

Living very close to the Gulf of Mexico, a lot of people, myself included, would like to end up as ashes in the sea. Environmental laws prohibit that unless through special companies that are allowed to have permits. The on here is called the Neptune Society, if I remember correctly. But, cruise ships don't have crematoriums on board and are not allowed to dump anything into the ocean. Seems like we have um, gone overboard on this, as they used to grind up leftover food and feed it to the fishies. Maybe I just don't know enough, but hard for me to see the harm in that.
Marty

[bellajolie]

Originally Posted by DavidB

To answer the real question. If you die on board, you are body bagged, placed in one of the six containers (coffins) the ships carry as standard. Placed in a fridge beside the vegetables etc

Please tell me you are joking about bodies being placed beside the veggies

[Fern]

Bella, I'm not DavidB, but yes, he was joking! There are actual morgues aboard ships.

I've also read that some ships do allow ashes to be dropped overboard in an "environmently friendly" urn. If you want to do this it needs to approved before you sail.

[johnthed0g]

I was on holiday in Barbados once & someone died at our hotel, it was a real big deal getting things sorted out, the hotel was no help, & contrary to what has been said my experience was that it was very expensive to take the body home, in fact the original carrier wouldn't do it (Mean considering she had a ticket so to speak!) & an alternative flight had to be arranged. All this was done by fellow guests at the hotel.

[Fern]

Another reason to buy travel insurance... .

[DayvidB]

Yes I agree buy travel insurance it worked for me when I last died on the ship. Okay you don't go in beside the vegggies but there are "chillers" (a real morgue) to hold those unfortunate enough to die when onboard.

Hey ho, thats life and death and the rest or majority of the ship would never know.

Oh and they cant scatter your ashes at sea unless you came onboard in an urn in the first place. They are good on ship but so far to my knowledge they can only chill you, not cremate you and then chuck you off the pool deck so that two minutes later the family gets back to bingo, paper folding, pool bombing, the art auction or anything else that may have interupted their cruise given you have been so selfish to die in the middle of their vacation

[jemima.harris]

I have never traveled through cruise but sometimes I have raise different types of questions like this question for cruise in my mind. But after reading this post I have got answer of my question.

[lisacan]

Originally Posted by PeteB

There are morgues on most cruise ships.

Should the morgue fill up, only then will they use one of the fridges/cool rooms.

They do not put bodies in the freezers. And they do not put bodies alongside produce.

The room used has to be completely fumigated after it has been used to 'store' a body.

QE2 has a morgue for six bodies. They ran out of spaces once and had to use a store room.

I think there are at least 10 morque storage capacity currently in most of the big cruise lines.

[Kamloops Cruiser]

Saw an answer to this question one time.
They said it depends on the length and location of the cruise.
IE: If you are booked on a 100 day world cruise and you die part way thru . They keep the body refrigerated until the cruise is over. This eliminates a lot of paperwork for the cruise line and family member traveling with them.

[Dequindre]

I've wondered that myself. It would be such a horrible experience to have a loved one die on a cruise ship.

[marioblaire]

There is a legal procedure for that and honestly I'm not knowledgeable on that issue, however, it is obvious that it is very serious that is why a proper action should take place for that.