Recently, a well-known foreign cruise company has been plagued by negative news. In December 2024, Michael Virgil, a 35-year-old man from California, took his wife and children on a long-distance trip with the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line. During the trip, Virgil died on the ship after drinking at least 33 drinks in a row.
In early December 2025, Virgil's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the cruise company on the grounds that there was something fishy about the man's death.
It was also alleged that the cruise ship's staff improperly placed the body. They stuffed Virgil's body into the cruise ship's freezer (a refrigerator that stores food) instead of the morgue. They ignored his wife's request to return to the port of Long Beach, California, and continued sailing with the body.
This has raised questions about the cruise ship's ability to handle emergencies and concerns about how the body will be disposed of after a person dies unexpectedly on the cruise ship.
Virgil's death
According to media reports, Virgil's death was related to excessive alcohol intake.
The autopsy report showed that Vigil's main cause of death was "cardiopulmonary arrest." The alcohol content in his blood was 0.182%-0.186%, more than twice the legal driving limit, but lower than the common lethal blood alcohol concentration of 0.40%.
The main point of contention between the two parties is whether he suffered cardiopulmonary arrest due to excessive alcohol intake, or whether it was caused by "violent treatment" by the staff.
Judging from the surveillance data, after drinking more than 30 glasses of wine, Virgil started to lose his temper because he could not find his room, and kept shouting that he wanted to "kill the staff and passengers."
The staff on the ship were afraid that things would get serious, so they took forced restraint measures to calm Virgil down quickly.
In order to subdue him, the five staff members tried their best and even used their body weight to suppress Virgil. They also used three cans of spray and sedatives, and the confrontation lasted for three minutes before taking him to the infirmary.
The autopsy report also showed that Virgil died more than two hours after entering the infirmary, and there were some external injuries on his body, which made it difficult to determine the real cause of Virgil's death.
Is it caused by ingesting alcohol, or is it caused by the violent behavior of being forcibly restrained while drunk? Or both? How to divide the primary and secondary responsibilities between the two?
Nothing has been decided yet and we can only wait for the final verdict.
If someone dies unexpectedly on a cruise ship, what will happen to the body?
This issue is of greatest concern to many netizens. Many cruise companies package their cruises as a refuge at sea. I have previously written about several foreign couples who sold their houses on land and chose to live on cruise ships all year round. They think that this way can save living costs and travel around the world, which is very interesting.
The incident forced people with similar ideas to face the cruel reality of "accidental death".
First of all, let’s be clear,There will be a dedicated "morgue" on the cruise ship.
It is generally set up in a dedicated refrigerated room on the lower deck. Large cruise ships have 10 vacancies and small ones have 4. It is separate from the refrigerated space for storing food, drinks and various ship supplies, but it is not far away.
For example, in the photo below, the food storage cabinet and the morgue are next to each other.
There are racks in the morgue. If a passenger dies unexpectedly, they will be wrapped in a body bag and placed on the rack in the morgue.
In 2024, a crew member abroad broke the news,Whenever free ice cream is suddenly distributed on a cruise ship, be careful. It is very likely that the morgue is full. In order to place the body in the cold room where food is stored, the ice cream must be consumed quickly to make room for it.
There is some truth to this statement, because more people die on cruise ships than we think, and it is said that hundreds of people die on board ships every year. A company has calculated the frequency of deaths based on the number of tourists in 2019, and found that an average of 3 to 4 people died per week.
After a passenger dies, the cruise line conducts a brief inspection.
If there is a "criminal" suspicion, it will be reported immediately, and the cruise ship will immediately dock or return as required. Different situations require different handling methods.
If it is a natural death, then things will be more complicated.
The remains will be temporarily stored in the morgue on the ship until the cruise ship arrives at a major port to disembark, and then the remains will be flown back to the country. If the deceased's family is not on board, the cruise line will notify them.
However, getting the remains home is not a simple matter.
Because many ports are not suitable for receiving remains, and different countries may be involved, the repatriation of remains requires many procedures and is very expensive.
Many family members of the deceased choose to store their family members' remains on the cruise ship for a long time, and then dispose of the body when they return to the departure point or a nearby port. It is for these reasons.
The long storage time of remains, coupled with the uneven expertise of cruise ship staff in storing corpses, always leads to many conflicts.
There was one reported abroad before.The body was stored in a food refrigerator, but due to insufficient temperature, it was severely decomposed when it came ashore.
at last
In fact, most accidental deaths on cruise ships are related to alcohol.
In this case, Virgil's family believes there were problems with the cruise ship's management, particularly in terms of "unlimited alcoholic beverages."
They hope the lawsuit will force the cruise industry to overhaul training and improve safety protocols.