A heartbroken family is suing Royal Caribbean after their mother plunged to her death after “drunkenly” falling overboard on one of the company’s Taylor Swift-themed cruises.
Dulcie White, 66, fell overboard and vanished on October 22, 2024, while the other guests partied through the night.
White’s body remains lost at sea after she fell from the deck of the Allure of the Seas over a year ago.
Megan Klewin, White’s daughter, told CBS News that her mom had purchased an unlimited alcoholic beverages package on the Allure of the Seas cruise ship, with tickets for the Taylor Swift event starting at $1,573. An additional drinks package can cost $80-90 extra per day.
However, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday in Miami-Dade County, crew members plied White with alcoholic beverages during her stay on the cruise ship.
White was allegedly served “seven alcoholic beverages continually within a span of approximately six hours and eight minutes.” It also claims that White was visibly intoxicated and was still given drinks despite having slurred speech and difficulty standing up.
Klewin told CBS News that she thought her mother was “going to check her suitcase,” shortly before White fell into the waves over 17 miles off the coast of Nassau in the Bahamas.
“I wasn’t looking and the next chance that I did look up, I saw her back,” Klewin said. “She was seated on the edge of the balcony like she had climbed up.
“She was seated and then fell over before I could get to her.”
In Klewin’s lawsuit, she claims that the boat never stopped or deployed rescue services to search for White. However, reporting from TMZ showed the U.S. Coast Guard and the Royal Bahamas Defense Force in rescue boats in a desperate bid to find the missing 66-year-old.
At the time, a Royal Caribbean spokesperson also told TMZ that its “crew immediately launched a search and rescue effort and is working with local authorities.”
Klewin says that the “overconsumption” and the “over service of alcohol” were the cause of her mother’s death.
“Because of that she did overdo it, trying to maybe get her money’s worth,” Klewin added. “She was completely intoxicated in a way I haven’t seen before.
“It saddens me that that is my last memory of her.”
Klewin’s attorney said that he hopes that the case will radically change how cruise lines offer drinks packages.
“I think a victory in this case would be if Royal Caribbean and other cruise lines, Carnival, Celebrity, Norwegian, decide to discontinue these all-you-can-drink (alcohol) drink packages,” Attorney Spencer Aronfeld said. He added that the High Seas Act limits the prospect of large monetary winnings at court.
Speaking to TMZ, Ashley Sindaco and Marie Sindaco, guests on the cruise ship, said that they heard other passengers claiming that “somebody had jumped.”
Ashley said that the search went on for three hours, while the Utopia of the Seas, a sister ship, joined a search for White’s body. Marie added that the tragic incident made the trip feel “gloomy.”
The Independent has approached Royal Caribbean for comment.
