Cruise ship horror as passenger 'left to rot inside drinks cooler' after dying

The 79-year-old from Florida was zipped up in a body bag by crew members and left on a wooden palette on the floor of the walk-in fridge, which wasn’t cold enough to stop decomposition, according to lawsuit papers filed in Florida.

His family said that they had to abandon their "long-standing custom" of open-casket funerals because his body had rotted so much.

Jones was removed from the ship six days later when a local funeral home worker went to collect his body which had allegedly already turned green.

The employee also reported that the 79-year-old still had an intubation tube - used to resuscitate heart attack patients - sticking out of his throat.

The papers added that the funeral worker found "drinks placed outside of the cooler", possibly to make room for the body.

His family are now suing the company for $1million, as they accuse bosses of "recklessly and wilfully" mistreating his remains, failing to ensure the morgue was working and concealing the fact that it was out of order.

They say they have been left scarred by "mental images" of the grandfather "stripped of his dignity in the sacred time just after his passing".

Jones was traveling with his wife Marilyn who was reportedly "discouraged" by the ship crew from taking her husband’s body off board until it returned home to Fort Lauderdale.

According to the lawsuit, when he died the Equinox’s crew told his widow she could either have his body taken off the ship in Puerto Rico’s capital of San Juan or they could store him until they arrived in Fort Lauderdale in six days’ time.

It claims: "Celebrity employees told Plaintiff Marilyn Jones that if she had her husband’s body taken ashore in San Juan, she would be required to stay in San Juan with his body and would have to make arrangements for transport for herself and her husband’s body back to the mainland United States."

Following Jones' death, his family were told officials in San Juan might hold his body to perform an autopsy and that the ship had a working morgue, according to the papers.

They argue that if Marylin had been informed the morgue was not working, she may have chosen to get off in Puerto Rico with the body and potentially still had an open-coffin service.

A spokesperson for Caribbean Cruises said the company is "unable to comment on the matter out of respect for the family, and due to the fact that there is ongoing litigation".