12 Royal Caribbean guests sue cruise line, former crew member over hidden camera in cabins
A dozen Royal Caribbean International passengers are suing the company and a former crew member who filmed guests in their cabins while they were naked, including children.
The plaintiffs, who were identified as John, Jane or Junior Doe, stayed in cabins serviced by Arvin Joseph Mirasol when he was a stateroom attendant on the cruise line’s Symphony of the Seas ship. Mirasol was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison in August after pleading guilty to producing child pornography.
The plaintiffs’ sail dates were in December 2023 and January 2024, according to the lawsuit filed last week in the Southern District of Florida. “Upon information and belief, Mirasol transmitted and/or uploaded images of the Plaintiffs while undressed and engaging in private activities, to third parties and/or to the world wide web, including, but not limited to, the dark web, without Plaintiffs’ prior knowledge or consent,” the complaint reads.
The passengers have experienced “severe emotional distress” that has caused physical sickness, insomnia, dizziness and other symptoms, according to the suit.
“The fact that many of the victims we represent still do not know if and how their images have been used or circulated is incredibly disturbing,” Spencer Aronfeld, an attorney with Aronfeld Trial Lawyers representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement. “Some of the plaintiffs are children – and once an image is on the internet it is there forever.”
The suit alleges that Royal Caribbean “knew or should have known sexual assaults were reasonably foreseeable considering the prevalence of sexual assaults aboard” its vessels. The complaint cited an example in which a passenger was arrested in 2023 for allegedly filming people – including minors – with a hidden camera in a public bathroom on Harmony of the Seas.
In 2023, there were 131 sex crimes reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation on cruise ships embarking and disembarking guests in the U.S. That number rose from 87 alleged sexual assaults the year before and 101 in 2019, before the industry’s shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Royal Caribbean allegedly “failed to take adequate steps and/or provide adequate security and/or training and/or supervision to prevent such sexual assaults, including video voyeurism, to occur aboard its cruise ships,” according to the suit. Plaintiffs also allege the company did not warn passengers about onboard sexual assaults.
Royal Caribbean Group, the cruise line’s parent company, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit. The company previously told Paste BN that it had “immediately” reported the crime to law enforcement and terminated Mirasol’s employment.
“We have zero tolerance for this unacceptable behavior,” the company said in a statement following his arrest.
The passengers are seeking damages, including punitive damages and a jury trial. The news follows a separate class action lawsuit filed against Mirasol and the company in October.
Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for Paste BN based in Nashville. You can reach him at ndiller@usatoday.com.