- Passengers are suing Royal Caribbean after a cabin attendant was found guilty of hidden recordings.
- A class action lawsuit estimates that up to 960 passengers may have been secretly filmed.
- In a separate lawsuit, a former passenger said she suffered from depression after finding out.
Passengers are suing cruise line Royal Caribbean after a flight attendant was sentenced to 30 years in prison for secretly recording adults and children in the nude with hidden cameras.
Two lawsuits, one of which is a class action, were filed last week by passengers who said they were traumatized after discovering they were victims of the recordings.
In a lawsuit, a Hawaii-based passenger, identified as Jane Doe, is seeking $75,000 in damages from Royal Caribbean.
The passenger said in the suit that she was the victim of a “depraved video voyeurism scheme” during her vacation aboard the Symphony of the Seas in January.
According to the lawsuit, the passenger was notified in April by the Broward Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit that she had been recorded while nude in her bathroom and bedroom.
He said the “trauma and humiliation of seeing these videos”, along with the knowledge that others had seen them, caused her “lasting emotional and psychological damage”.
The lawsuit added that the passenger had suffered depression, panic attacks and irritable bowel syndrome since finding out, and that she had undergone therapy to cope with the trauma.
The lawsuit follows the conviction of Arvin Joseph Mirasol, who was her flight attendant. Mirasol was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison in August after pleading guilty to producing child sexual abuse material.
Bernardo Pimentel, an attorney with Leesfield & Partners representing the passenger, told Business Insider that, “We need to hold these companies accountable for the actions, the despicable actions, of their employees.”
Pimentel said the timing of the lawsuit follows an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate a settlement with Royal Caribbean, adding that it is entirely coincidental that another lawsuit was filed the same week.
In the separate class action lawsuit, led by a passenger from New Hampshire, also identified as Jane Doe, the plaintiff said she was on the Symphony of the Seas in late February when Marisol hid a camera in her bathroom and caught her while was naked and “engagement in private activities”.
The camera was discovered in late February, the lawsuit says.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, Homeland Security Investigations and Customs and Border Protection seized Mirasol’s electronic equipment in early March after a passenger reported finding a hidden camera.
Investigators found videos of children in various states of undress, as well as images of naked women.
The August press release said Mirasol had installed cameras in cabins since December 2023, as well as hidden under beds while guests showered so he could secretly record them leaving the bathroom.
The class action lawsuit estimates there could be as many as 960 victims, based on the number of cruises, cabins attended by Mirasol and passengers per cabin.
The passenger behind her said she feared the footage secretly taken of her could have been shared online, including on the dark web, leaving her to live in “constant fear” that others are seeing her.
The lawsuit alleges that Royal Caribbean bears vicarious liability for the emotional distress caused to Marisol, and also accused the cruise line of negligence.
He argues that Royal Caribbean should have anticipated the risk of sexual assault, given the prevalence of such incidents on ships.
According to a 2023 Business Insider analysis of data provided by the US Department of Transportation, of the roughly 500 sexual assault incidents documented on 13 major cruise lines from January 2010 to September 2022, about 70% have occurred on Royal Caribbean or Carnival ships.
Royal Caribean did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises closed at $203.35 on Tuesday, up 1.72 percent and near a 52-week high hit last Thursday.