What was meant to be a girls’ trip for a mom and daughter turned into a horrible tragedy that will “haunt” the family forever. On October 22, 2024, Dulcie White, 66, fell overboard during a Taylor Swift-themed cruise with Royal Caribbean. Now, White’s family alleges that although she was showing obvious signs of severe intoxication prior to her death, crew members on the cruise continued to serve her alcoholic beverages.
Additionally, in their wrongful death lawsuit against Royal Caribbean Group, the family claims that the cruise ship did not turn around or use rescue boats after she fell from the balcony.
White purchased the cruise line’s unlimited drinks package.
Speaking to CBS Miami, White’s daughter, Megan Klewin, said her mom purchased the “unlimited alcoholic beverages” package. Perhaps her mom wanted to “get her money’s worth,” because she “did overdo it” and consume a lot of alcohol, Klewin said.
Still, crew members served White “seven alcoholic beverages continually within a span of approximately six hours and eight minutes,” White’s family claims in the lawsuit. Although White was reportedly slurring her words and having trouble standing up, among other symptoms of severe intoxication, crew members did not intervene. Instead, someone else on the cruise noticed White seemed severely intoxicated. The other passenger helped White return to her cabin, where she went to the balcony.
Klewin thought her mom was going to look for something in her suitcase because they had left their luggage on the balcony. Instead, when Klewin looked up, she saw her mom “seated on the edge of the balcony like she had climbed up.” Tragically, she fell before Klewin could do anything.
Klewin blames her mom’s death on ‘the over service of alcohol.’
Sadly, Klewin’s last memory of her mother is distressing. “She was completely intoxicated in a way I haven’t seen before,” Klewin recalled when speaking to CBS Miami. “It saddens me that that is my last memory of her.”
When speaking to the news outlet, Klewin suggested that cruise lines’ all-you-can-drink packages are dangerous, especially because “crew members are incentivized to continue to serve them because that’s how they make their tips.”
The existence of this package contributed to White’s overconsumption, the family believes. They also think crew members ignored signs that White had consumed too much alcohol and continued to give her drinks anyway when they should’ve stopped serving her. “It will haunt us for the rest of our lives,” Klewin told CBS Miami. “I feel the overconsumption of alcohol and the over service of alcohol was the cause of this.”
A representative for the cruise line would say only that it’s policy to not comment on pending litigation, the outlet reported.
The family’s attorney, Spencer Aronfeld, said it would be inaccurate to simply characterize White’s death as an “accident.” What happened instead, Aronfeld said, is the result of “an industry pattern” in which cruise lines make money off serving too much alcohol, putting passengers at risk.
