Carnival Cruise Line is facing a lawsuit from Jorge Luis Alverio Nunez, who says he suffered second-degree burns after walking barefoot across the Lido Deck aboard Carnival Magic. The complaint, filed May 13 in the Southern District of Florida, says the injury happened in late May 2025 as Nunez crossed roughly 20 steps between the pool and a row of deck chairs.
The filing seeks more than $5 million in damages and accuses the cruise line of negligence and punitive conduct. It says the deck surface was hot enough to cause severe burns within seconds and that Nunez had no warning signs, no verbal alerts and no reason to expect the surface could injure him so quickly.
What makes the case more serious is the complaint’s claim that Carnival was not being warned for the first time. It says at least 25 guests had been similarly burned on the company’s ships over the previous six years and that at least 42 passengers complained about hot decks during that span. The lawsuit also says the deck material’s manufacturer told Carnival as early as 2014 that the surface could become dangerously hot.
That background matters because the suit argues the risk was known, not accidental. Cruise Mummy says Nunez is a Florida resident and that he says he was walking from the pool area to a nearby lounge chair where his shoes had been left when he burned his feet. The filing says the injuries left him in severe pain, required hospital treatment, caused physical disfigurement and led to ongoing mobility problems.
There is also a clear gap between the company’s alleged knowledge and what passengers were told. The complaint says crew members failed to take steps that could have kept the deck from reaching unsafe temperatures, and it says no signs were posted and no verbal announcements warned guests that going barefoot could be hazardous. It also says the defendant’s conduct was more than negligence, describing it as willful and wanton and showing reckless disregard for Nunez’s safety and rights.
Carnival has not addressed the allegations publicly. Carnival Corp. told that it does not comment on pending litigation. For now, the lawsuit turns a common cruise-deck inconvenience into a much bigger legal fight: whether a passenger burned on a sunny deck was an unfortunate one-off, or a danger the company had been told about for years and did too little to stop.
