Disney Cruise Line Ends Relationship with Park West Gallery

According to several Park West sources, the Park West Gallery auctioneers aboard the Disney cruise ships were told, on March 16th or 17th 2009, to pack their bags and leave the ships.

"We have discontinued our relationship with Park West," confirmed a spokesperson at Disney Cruise Line today, March 19th. She would not discuss the reasons for the ending of a relationship which has been in place since at least 2005, but said, "We continually make changes to the guest experience aboard Disney Cruise Line, but as a matter of practice we don't discuss the arrangements that we have with our vendors."

Disney Cruise Line has two ships, the Disney Magic which first sailed in 1998, and the Disney Wonder which was put into service in 1999, with two more on the way. The cruise line offers cruises to the Bahamas, the Caribbean and Europe and has an excellent reputation for family oriented cruise vacations in true Disney style.

Disney Cruise Line's severing of the relationship with Park West Gallery comes on the heels of the announcement that Holland America Line and Park West Gallery were parting company [Park West Gallery Halts Some Cruise Art Auctions].

It is noted that recent lawsuits against Park West Gallery by dissatisfied customers have also named as co-defendants the cruise lines which hosted the Park West art auctions at which the plaintiffs in the cases purchased the art in question. Holland America Line and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. are part of a class action suit against Park West Gallery in Seattle, Washington [Park West Gallery Class Action], and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. is a co-defendant, along with Park West Galleries, Inc., Albert Scaglione and Morris Shapiro in a case brought against Park West by ten dissatisfied customers in Michigan [Frustrated Cruise Line Art Auction Buyers Sue Park West Gallery and Royal Caribbean Cruises for Fraud, Conspiracy and Other Charges ].

Negative publicity surrounding Park West Gallery art auctions on cruise lines has naturally brought in its wake adverse publicity for the cruise lines which host them, as even a cursory search of related subjects online will reveal.

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