very unnerving cruise by coldfootcruiser
Sail date: / Traveled as: Family (older children)Ship: Celebrity Equinox / Destination: Caribbean - Eastern
There was an incident onboard that made us feel very threatened. It began with our 21 year old daughter being harassed by security while purchasing a drink at a bar onboard. Two security guards came up behind her, asking her age. They seemed angry and were intimidating. She said she was 21 and they demanded ID. She told them it was with the bartender. They waited there, then went to check with the bartender and then just as abruptly left without another word to her. It was Totally fine to politely check her ID, she does look young, but being that intimidating and abruptly leaving without another work (such as, you are fine, have a nice night), was not Ok with us. She and her older sister sat there for a while not knowing what to do. They are really sweet, polite girls and not partiers. It was our impression that the cruise line appreciated their over 21 year old guests politely enjoying their nice bars and spending money. The following morning, we complained at guest services about how it was handled and the representative typed up the complaint. Upon returning to our stateroom some 45 minutes later we found a threatening message on our door on a dry erase board that was not ours. It read, "I this is Gordon you guys can go kill yourselves." Gordon was our room attendant. After taking a picture, we handed the dry erase board with the message to another state room attendant that happened to be walking by and he said he would take it to his supervisor. (As a side note we never heard from the manager.) We wondered if this could be retaliation for filing a report about security's treatment of our daughter, given the timing and inside knowledge required to know the name of our state room attendant. It felt extra threatening given that it claimed to come from someone with access to our room. We went back down to guest services to report this and this time spoke to a member of the security team. He apologized for the way the security guards handled questioning our daughter at the bar the night before. We missed half of a scheduled, paid event reporting this incident and were not reimbursed. After looking into it we were called back down and told that it was 2 young adults that took the dry erase board from a door elsewhere on the ship and left the message on our door. He said they had been spoken to and told, that kind of thing could end their vacation very quickly. The security guard assured us it would not happen again. We were not told who they were. We asked their age and were told they were not under 18. I brought up the concerning question of how on earth they knew the name of our state room attendant? Were they in a very close by room? The security officer and the other woman from guest services present merely looked at each other and did not give an answer. They assured us we were safe and it would not happen again. We do not believe this is in any way the accurate accounting of who did this. We had not made enemies with anyone onboard. If it was another guest, a threat like this (from things I have read on many cruise forums I follow), would result in the offending parties being asked to leave the ship at the next port. This leaves the belief that it was either another crew member out to frame our cabin steward or some form of retaliation for complaining about the way security treated our daughter. We have Loved Celebrity in the past, which was why my husband and I paid to bring 6 members of our family on this cruise. This run in left us feeling very unsettled and even unsafe from the very people we should have been able to trust most. I reported this to Celebrity and thus far have heard nothing back.