A woman on a Royal Caribbean cruise says she ended up stuck alone in a room for the rest of her trip after she defended herself.
In a video with over 1.6 million views, TikTok user Claudette (@claudettee.c) shows her new residence for the rest of the trip.
The video shows that the room has no curtains, no showerhead, no cables, and no chair—all apparently done so that the person in the room does not hurt themselves.
Other features include an always-on light and the ability to only receive food and drink via room service.
“Someone smacked me on Royal [Caribbean] but since I punched her I’m stuck here until we depart,” Claudette writes in the text overlaying the video. After showing her room, she summarizes, “All of this because someone smacked me and I defended myself.”
So, what happened here?
How Did This Woman End Up In Cruise Ship ‘Jail’?
In a follow-up video, Claudette explains her side of the story.
According to the TikToker, she was on the Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas when she and a group of her friends participated in one of the ship’s shows. Their team won, leading to celebration. She says that the group was not drinking, as they had been participating in the show.
After their win, the group went to use the bathroom and get their things together. Upon returning after the intermission, they found that people had taken their seats. This did not initially bother Claudette, she says.
“Move your feet, lose your seat,” she says.
Consequently, she says the group began to stand in the aisle and hunt around for new seats. Seeing a potentially open seat, Claudette says she approached a woman on her phone and asked to squeeze by her. Claudette couldn’t understand the woman’s response, and so she asked the question again—which caused the woman to snap.
“She’s like, ‘How many times are you gonna f—— pass me?’” Claudette recalls. “Guys, I was standing over there. I never passed her, so I was like, ‘This is my first time passing you, so calm down.’”
Claudette says she proceeded to hold her hand up in a “stop” motion and continue by the woman. As she did so, she says the woman smacked her hand. In response, Claudette admits to punching her.
“Didn’t hit her hard—just hard enough to be like, ‘B—-, don’t touch me,’” Claudette recalls.
The Aftermath
After that, a brief commotion ensued, though the two quickly parted ways. Eventually, they settled into different parts of the seating area. A short time later, however, the woman’s husband came over and began yelling at the group, according to Claudette.
“[He was] being held back by our guys,” Claudette says.
A sizable argument ensued, per Claudette. This is visible in a subsequent video. After this, Claudette says the woman called security. Claudette says she cooperated. But, despite saying that the other woman instigated both the initial incident and this latter dispute, they ended up siding with the other woman.
“When they spoke to both of us, they asked us what happened, and the only thing they cared about was the fact that I punched her in the face, because punching is assault,” she says. “Smacking is not.”
She was then moved to the room seen in the original video. In this room, she says the door was not allowed to be locked, though she was allowed food and the ability to charge her phone. Family could also visit, provided they were patted down first.
“Before going to cruise jail, I was promised I will receive all my CCTV footage, because there it was in color, in live, exactly what I just told you guys. I was not the initiator. I did not start it,” she says. Later, she says, “Now they don’t want to give me my CCTV footage. They said that the authorities have to request it.”
No charges are being pressed at time of writing. The woman, Claudette says, was not punished.
“I did not get banned,” Claudette says. “Will I be going back? No. It wasn’t even all that. The ship looked like it was built in 2001 and hasn’t been updated since.”
What Happens If You Misbehave On A Cruise Ship?
While there’s some ambiguity about what happened in Claudette’s case, it did not rise to a point where either party experienced any serious bodily injury.
If it had, the party in charge of investigating the matter would, surprisingly, be the FBI. According to the FBI’s website, serious crimes—such as assault with serious bodily injury, kidnapping, murder, theft of over $10,000, and more—are all under their purview if committed on a cruise ship.
Normally, however, the FBI does not need to get involved. Instead, each cruise line has its own code of conduct for passengers. In the case of Royal Caribbean, their code of conduct says that if a guest’s presence “creates a concern or risk for the health, safety, or security of our vessel, other guests,” the ship has the right to, among other things, remove “certain onboard privileges” from the guest. This can include “being detained, quarantined or confined in a stateroom or holding cell.”
Their code of conduct further states that they have the sole discretion to make this judgment, and that if any lodging or travel expenses are incurred as a result of this judgment, the responsibility to pay them will fall on the alleged violator.
While Claudette says in a comment that she’s “consulting with a lawyer to determine the best plan of action,” it seems that all of the cruise line’s actions are covered by the code of conduct passengers must agree to before boarding the ship.
Commenters Support Her
In the comments section, many users voiced their support for the TikToker, saying the cruise ship went too far.
“How is this even legal,” wrote a user.
“Girl you need to lawyer up because royal Caribbean is so wrong for that. Slapping someone absolutely IS assault,” stated another. “If you press charges they will have to turn over the footage.”
However, others countered that the cruise ship had the right to do what they did.
“So just putting this out there as a former cruise ship employee: there is a zero tolerance for violence on cruise ships,” said a commenter. “If You were an employee, in the same scenario, both of you would be terminated. And I’ve seen it happen.”
BroBible reached out to Royal Caribbean via email and Claudette via TikTok direct message and comment.
