12. Murder on the SeaExpatriate law grows a bit murky. It can go for the criminal, as in the circumstance in which one seeks insolvency from a crime by venturing to a tropical island. In Neil Gaiman’s Anasi Boys, the main character’s boss settles in St. Andrews after swindling his investors’ money into offshore accounts. But don’t worry, he gets his. Real life stories exist, murder mysteries of the high sea, inking it further in the Bermuda Triangle flood of mystery.

Natalie Woods, the American actress of West Side Story mysteriously drowned while on a yacht with her husband, actor Robert Wagner in the Pacific Ocean off Catalina Island. Though she was not on a cruise ship, her death still remains a mystery today. What goes to sea, stays at sea.

11. U.S. Labor Laws Need Not ApplyThis leads into the insinuation of the wavering labor laws on the open sea. An illegal might work on a cruise ship and be treated poorly or underpaid, many report. According to some, the crew, including those undervalued workers hail from impoverished countries and board cruise lines as cooks, engines cleaner, maids, and the like. Developing nations such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Honduras, are regions that might make up part of the population of cruise ship personnel. According to William Terry, a Clemson University professor who studies the industry, workers can earn as little as $1,000 a month working 10-to-14-hour days, while at sea for stretches of up to a year. Cruise ships may pay more than what some workers might earn at home, but the havoc it wreaks on their bodies and spirits can be somewhat tremendous if true.

An offset to these standards, advocates are pushing the Maritime Labor Convention’s new referendum to cruise line ethics, including: a set number of hours a seafarer can work per week not exceeding 91 and a standard to accommodations, which Douglas Stevenson, director of the Center for Seafarers’ Rights is in favor of.

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