Unhappy with your cruise? Stage a mutiny!

Cruises can be the trip of a lifetime for many. But it doesn't take much to make things go wrong. From lost luggage, to choppy seas, to bad weather, to illness... taking a cruise is always somewhat of a risk.

And bad weather is exactly what Princess Cruise Lines says was the cause of angst for passengers on a 16-night cruise through Asian ports of call. Due to typhoons, stops in certain ports were canceled.

The passengers were outraged. So much that one passenger demanded to speak to the captain so he could instruct him on how to navigate around the storms. Other passengers were in the Internet café, crying to friends and family via email.

The New York Times reports: At one point, with passengers assembled in the ship's theater, she said, "the attorney jumped up and grabbed the microphone away from the assistant cruise director and said: 'We're taking over the stage! We have a petition!'"

Carolyn Spencer Brown, the editor of CruiseCritic.com was on board too. She says that passengers were upset because they felt they weren't getting the truth from ship personnel. And the ship didn't have enough activities to keep passengers entertained while they bypassed ports.

This whole situation really boils down to safety. The cruise line has the right to re-route the ship with good reason, and I think bad weather is a perfectly good reason. Passengers weren't left empty-handed. Princess gave them each a $250 on-board credit to spend and they will receive 50% off a future cruise. Not a bad deal considering that the cruise line had no control over the weather and isn't really responsible for missing ports of call.

Forensic accountant Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations through her company, Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners honored Tracy as the 2007 winner of the prestigious Hubbard Award and her first book, Essentials of Corporate Fraud, will be on bookshelves in March 2008.