Woman Wins $300K in Carnival Lawsuit Over Too Many Drinks
Key Aspects:
A California woman has won $300,000 in a lawsuit against Carnival Cruise Line alleging overservice of drinks.
The woman claims she was served 14 tequila shots in just over 8 hours, and suffered injuries while drunk.
Carnival Cruise Line is likely to appeal the verdict but the case may take months to be fully resolved.
Cruise guests might want to take full advantage of their drink packages, but how much is too much? One California woman claims she was overserved and as a result, sustained injuries on her Carnival Radiance cruise in January 2024.
The woman, 45-year-old Diana Sanders, said she was served at least 14 tequila shots in roughly an 8-hour period, or approximately one shot every half hour.
Sanders filed suit against Carnival Cruise Line in November 2024, requesting a jury trial and seeking damages over $75,000.
According to the original complaint, Sanders was served her first drink at roughly 3 p.m. and continued indulging until just after 11:30 p.m. At that time, she was walking around the cruise ship and suffered a severe fall on a stairway.
Her injuries were listed in the lawsuit as “including, but not limited to, a concussion, headaches, a possible traumatic brain injury, back injuries, tailbone injuries, bruising, and other injuries.”
Following a 17-month legal battle, the 6-person jury returned a verdict finding Carnival liable and ordered the company to pay $300,000 in damages.
The case was a challenging one as Sanders was viewed as having some personal responsibility for her own inebriation. Prosecuting attorney Spencer Aronfeld addressed those issues and Carnival’s responsibility with a statement to Cruise Hive.
“I believe a primary culprit is prepaid drink packages that encourage people to ‘get their money’s worth.’ Furthermore, servers on these cruise lines are often minimally paid workers from economically disadvantaged countries who are financially incentivized to continue serving alcohol because they are compensated by tips,” Aronfeld commented.
For context, Carnival Cruise Line’s Cheers! drink package limits guests to a maximum of 15 alcoholic drinks per 24-hour period, measured from 6 a.m.
Sanders boarded Carnival Radiance on January 5, 2024 in Long Beach, California for a 3-night cruise to Mexico. According to the timeline in the complaint, she would have begun ordering tequila shots shortly after embarking and may have been attempting to reach her drink limit for the first day of the sailing.
The jury agreed that Carnival did not bear the full responsibility for Sanders’ injuries. When asked, 60% of the blame was attributed to the cruise line, while 40% was attributed to Sanders.
Carnival Cruise Line Likely to Appeal
Despite the verdict, Carnival Cruise Line disagrees with the outcome and is likely to appeal the court’s ruling.
“Carnival Corporation respectfully disagrees with the verdict and believes there are grounds for a new trial and appeal, which it will pursue,” a statement to local media notes.
There are several grounds for possible appeal, including the fact that Sanders was unable to identify any specific bar or bartender who overserved her, nor is there any evidence that she was strongly showing inebriated behavior that crew members would have noticed.
Because the 101,500-gross-ton Carnival Radiance has eight different bars and lounges onboard, it is possible Sanders may have visited multiple bars and individual bartenders were unaware of how quickly she was drinking shots.
Orders would be recorded as part of each guest’s individual Sail & Sign folio, but it is possible that information was either unavailable to individual bartenders or they did not review her order history with each new shot. With long lines of thirsty guests onboard, service speed is often a concern.