[the Deejay]

There's been about 5 people
missing off cruise ships
in the past yr. or so.

I think we have a trend
going...

None have been found,
to my knowledge.

[Quilla]

Folks may have gotten an idea from Carl Hiaasen's lastest book, Skinny Dip. From amazon.com:

Charles "Chaz" Perrone fancies himself a take-charge kind of guy. So when this "biologist by default" suspects that his curvaceous wife, Joey, has stumbled onto a profitable pollution scam he's running on behalf of Florida agribusiness mogul Red Hammernut, he sets out right away to solve the problem--by heaving Joey off the deck of a luxury cruise liner and into the Atlantic Ocean, far from Key West.

[af_vet_1981]

"No body = no crime" should be changed to "No body = no food for your island."

[sodpoodle]

Last year, two women disappeared off our cruise ship in Freeport. They went on a private shopping trip, rather than an organized, sponsored excursion.

Cruise rules - "passengers must be on board the ship 30 minutes before scheduled departure"

The women were last seen throwing themselves on the concrete wharf - sobbing uncontrollably. They just "missed the boat". Luckily their situation was observed by 2,000 passengers, otherwise they would have been reported as "unaccounted for."

If you miss your boat, the cruise lines will arrange to help fly you home, but you have to pay premium rates.
sp

[Trust but Verify]

Before we start a general bashing of cruise lines or add these people to the list of possible sex-slaves, let's just have little reality check.

First of all, some of the people 'missing' from cruise ships have been men. One of the women was lost on a Mexican Riveiera cruise, not in the Caribbean.

Second, in every case that I am aware of, the person who was later found to be missing was on the ship when it left port, so they apparently went over the side for hateer reason. Murder or suicide or by accident.