Fire, Rape and Assault: Another Crazy Week for the Cruise Industry

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Another interesting week has passed with the cruise line industry seeing a wide ranges of incidents across multiple cruise lines. Fire on a Royal Caribbean ship. Rape on a Celebrity Cruise. And a crew member on crew member sexual assault on another Celebrity vessel.

Fire on Cruise Ship

Freedom of the Seas up in smoke!

Freedom of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean vessel, caught fire as it docked at the port of Falmouth, Jamaica on July 22, 2015. See video here and here.

A frightening situations for hundreds of passengers and crew? Probably so.

Rape on Cruise Ship

While the incident happened a year ago, a 20-year-old Scottish student was today charged (July 23, 2015) with raping a woman he met while cruising on the Celebrity Cruise Ship, MV Reflection.

The man ‘allegedly’ raped the woman. He was also charged with holding her against her will and with committing violent indecent assault on the woman.

According the article posted in the TimesofMalta.com:

The man and the woman were enjoying a cruise with their respective families. According to foreign reports, the alleged rape took place after the woman had her drink spiked.

Assault on Cruise Ship

A 40-year-old cruise ship worker aboard the Celebrity Millennium was caught sexually assaulting a 26-year-old woman in a stairwell. She is/was also a crew member. The newspaper in Juneau Alaska reported the assault was stopped by a comedian performer on the vessel that happened into the stairwell.

Per the newspaper article:

“According to court documents, the woman described the attack as a harrowing experience. She said she had left the crew bar and was walking back to her room alone when a man she didn’t know grabbed her from behind. He covered her mouth, groped her breast and behind, and attempted to force himself on her, all the while “nuzzling” her neck and whispering in her ear, she told troopers. She credited Johnson for stopping the incident by approaching them in the hallway.”

That’s a very scary story to read.

These are just the reported and media highlighted issues!

It’s important to remember that for most cruise travelers, cruise lines do offer a safe experience. However, we things get out of had, they can get out of hand very quickly. A small fire turns large. A drink at the bar turns into something insidious. And a walk down a flight of stairs can end up leaving a lifetime of mental anguish.