Cruise Line Strands Disabled Senior on Island

By JERRY WOLFFE
Of The Oakland Press

Published: Saturday, April 09, 2011

We suggest seniors and people with disabilities should think twice before they sign up for a vacation with Royal Caribbean International cruise line.

What happened to Jim Keskeny, 66, a wheelchair user who has multiple sclerosis, is both shocking and scary.

Keskeny, who lived in Bloomfield Township for eight years, signed up for a 10-day cruise with the Miami-based Celebrity Cruises Inc., owned and operated by Royal Caribbean International, of the eastern Caribbean.

He paid $4,000 for his ticket so he’d have a larger stateroom for his wheelchair and also paid extra to have a butler assigned to him to help him since he was traveling alone.

Keskeny, now of Pinckney, who traveled extensively during his career on behalf of the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation, made sure he’d receive extra assistance on the cruise before he bought the ticket and flew to Miami on Feb. 13 to board the ship.

“When I went through check-in, everyone was aware I used a wheelchair because it was obvious,” he said. “Cruise line officials knew I paid for extra assistance, if needed.

“The trip was a treat to myself because I had retired,” Keskeny said, a former Ford Motor Co. worker before he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

The ship left the Miami port Monday, Feb. 14.

But the next morning, when he asked the butler to help him get his wheelchair over a non-compliant ADA lip going into the bathroom, the butler refused.

“They wouldn’t touch me,” he said. “I felt like a leper.”

After he had lunch with friends, he said the manager of the tour company and two cruise line officials came to his cabin.

“I asked them to sit down so we could talk at eye level but they wouldn’t and I had to look up at them,” Keskeny said.

They said they would not touch his body or help him despite the arrangements he made before paying for the $4,000 trip, he said.

“If they had to touch me or lift me, I would be made to disembark,” he said cruise officials told him.

“I was in shock and couldn’t believe it,” he said. “Before I got onboard nobody raised any issue about my disability.”

On the third day of the trip, Keskeny said he had a problem in the bathroom and slipped off the toilet.

“Not one of the workers would help me get back in my chair,” he said, noting fellow passengers helped him out.

He then was taken to the ship’s infirmary, given a test and charged $200.

Ship officials wanted to drop him off at St. Barts but the sea was too rough “so they let me stay one more night,” he said.

The next morning, Feb. 18, Keskeny was taken off the ship and left in the port of Quadalupe.

Royal Caribbean arranged for him to get to the airport, but then “I had to buy my own ticket home for $700.” It cost him a total of about $1,500 to get home, he said.

Keskeny got a ticket from Air France and flew from Quadalupe to Miami with a stopover in Haiti.

“Imagine I had to sit in Haiti and I had none of the vaccinations to protect me from malaria, meningitis or cholera. When I got home then I thought about the diseases I could have caught since Haiti was under a cholera warning as a result of the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake.

“Here I was trying to reward myself for working with a great trip and ended up getting treated in a way I never would have imagined.”

Keskeny said he took an around-the-world trip in 2002 by himself and had no problems.

“I received a lot of help from strangers and I expected superb service from Royal Caribbean because cruise lines are known for catering to their customers. I never dreamt they would treat me in such a discriminatory fashion.”

To get home, he flew from Miami to Detroit Metro Airport on Saturday, Feb. 19, after having to spend the night at a Miami hotel at his expense.

When asked to comment on the way Keskeny says he was treated, a spokesman at corporate Guest Relations Department of Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises Inc. in Miami said: “I can’t comment because the facts are unknown.”

Keskeny said he was “sorry I signed up for the cruise and would love to know that no one else is ever treated the way I was. Here I was out to sea and at their mercy.”

Attorney Richard Bernstein of Farmington Hills, who is handling the case pro bono, said the actions of Royal Caribbean “placed my client in horrible danger.”

“Once that ship left port, Royal Caribbean is solely responsible for Keskeny’s safe return back to Miami,” Bernstein said.

However, the ticket contract that Keskeny signed requires all litigation to occur in Miami as well as requires the customer to submit to binding arbitration.

“These ticket contracts place the traveling public at the mercy of cruise lines,” Bernstein said.

Keskeny’s only remedy is to have his lawyer, Bernstein, who is blind, travel to Miami and arbitrate with the cruise line. In addition, Bernstein is unable under the ticket contract to recover his cost and time of traveling and related case costs to represent Kreskeny in Miami.

“This company’s conduct is putting disabled seniors at such risk that there’s a much bigger issue at play than getting reimbursement for my client,” Bernstein said, noting that Royal Caribbean behaves like this because the current laws give them an advantage so there is no legal deterrent to keep passengers safe.

Keskeny can’t get any punitive damages for the way he was treated and “will be fortunate to get back the cost of his ticket and maybe the cost he had to pay to get back home after he was thrown off the ship,” Bernstein said.

“There is absolutely no excuse for the behavior and conduct of Royal Caribbean,” Bernstein said.

“How could they have left him on an island? They had full knowledge he didn’t have vaccinations which are required to travel to Haiti,” Bernstein said, noting that multiple sclerosis weakens a person’s immune system.

Keskeny said he hopes that Royal Caribbean changes its policy regarding seniors and people with disabilities.

“I want people to be aware of the limitations of the assistance they can expect from Royal Caribbean if they have a disability or are a senior.

“I was lucky that I got home safely to the arms of my wife, Nancy.”

Staff writer Jerry Wolffe can be reached at 248-745-4612 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or follow him on Twitter as JerryWolffe1 or Facebook as Jerry Wolffe.