Hidden bathroom camera on Royal Caribbean cruise ‘may have filmed over 1,000 people’

More than 1,000 people may have been secretly filmed on hidden bathroom cameras onboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, according to a new class action lawsuit.

The suit, filed on October 15, seeks damages for passengers onboard the Symphony of the Seas who were unknowingly photographed and filmed by their stateroom attendant ‘while undressed and engaged in private activities’ during a February cruise, USA Today reports.

It comes just months after the former employee, Arvin Joseph Mirasol, 34, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to producing child pornography. He still faces video voyeurism charges in Florida.

But the suit claims Mirasol also transmitted and uploaded images of the passengers to the Internet – including to the so-called dark web – without guest’s knowledge or consent.

The unidentified passenger who filed the lawsuit said she suffered severe emotional distress – including insomnia, physical pain and dizziness – when she discovered she was photographed. 

A new class-action lawsuit seeks damages for passengers onboard the Symphony of the Seas who were unknowingly photographed by Mirasol ‘while undressed and engaged in private activities’ during a February cruise

Mirasol worked for Royal Caribbean from December 1, 2023 until his arrest on February 26, 2024, regularly cleaning passenger rooms, restocking  towels and changing sheets.

He was arrested after a girl found a small camera pointed to the shower when she reached under the sink for toilet paper on a cruise with her older sister and her mother to Aruba and Curacao, according to the Miami Herald.

The family then called guest services, which alerted ship security. Mirasol was then detained until the ship docked back in Florida a week later.

Law enforcement then seized his electronics, including a USB stick, and found several videos of females undressing in their bathrooms.

One video ‘clearly depicts the defendant installing the camera’ in the bathroom, prosecutors said.

‘The camera is aimed towards the shower.’

Another video appeared to show a 10-year-old girl as she entered the shower, the New York Times reports. 

‘The focus of the video was on the children’s genital areas,’ charging documents stated.

There were numerous other videos of children between the ages of two to 17, according to prosecutors. 

Mirasol allegedly admitted to going into passenger’s rooms and hiding under the bed to record people naked

Mirasol later pleaded guilty to producing child pornography, and admitted to going into passenger’s rooms and hiding under the bed to record people naked.

‘If I like who is in that room, I place it,’ he allegedly told investigators of his hidden cameras.

He then said that after he would retrieve the cameras and watch the videos, he would ‘pleasure himself,’ federal prosecutors stated.

Mirasol also acknowledged that he knew videotaping underage girls was illegal, and he tried to choose females 16 years old and older.

But in a forensic analysis of his devices, Homeland Security Investigations found at least 11 children in his videos, according to the Miami Herald.

‘I want to control it, but I can’t,’ Mirasol allegedly claimed.

He was finally sentenced on August 28 to 30 years behind bars – the maximum possible sentence he could receive after pleading guilty. 

He had worked for Royal Caribbean from December 1, 2023 through February 26, 2024, when he was arrested

In the aftermath, at least 23 people were notified by law enforcement that they were caught in Mirasol’s photographs and videos.

One of those victims has now filed the class-action suit, which claims that Mirasol also admitted ‘that he has been placing cameras in the bathrooms since he started working on Symphony of the Seas in December 2023.’

It argues that Royal Caribbean ‘knew or should have known sexual assaults were reasonably foreseeable considering the prevalence of sexual assaults aboard RCCL’s cruise ships,’ pointing to a hidden camera incident on another ship in the fleet, the Harmony of the Seas, last year.

The suit also claims the company failed to provide sufficient security, training or supervision to prevent sexual assaults, and did not notify passengers who stayed in the cabins Mirasol attended to – noting his victims may include up to 960 passengers.

They are seeking an unspecified amount of damages and a jury trial. 

A spokesperson for Royal Caribbean told USA Today, ‘The safety and privacy of our guests is our highest priority and we have zero tolerance for this behavior.

‘We immediately reported this case to law enforcement and terminated the crew member,’ the spokesperson added.

‘As this is pending litigation, we are unable to comment further at this time.’

Yet other lawsuits against the company may be forthcoming.

A spokesperson for Royal Caribbean said staff ‘immediately reported this case to law enforcement and terminated the crew member’ after discovering his hidden camera

Nick Gerson, a lawyer with Miami-based Gerson & Schwartz, told the Miami Herald he is representing seven of Mirasol’s victims, including three children ranging in age from 12 to 17.

He said he plans to sue the cruise ship giant for emotional and physical stress, saying the effects are ‘going to be sneaking up on these children for years.’

‘All the families are in counseling,’ Gerson claimed.

Another victim also told WSVN she found out that she was secretly photographed when law enforcement agents reached out to her. 

‘I really lost it, because [it happened] during your most intimate moments there on a cruise ship,’ she said.

‘I was with my husband, we had just gotten married about a year and a couple months prior, and to know that my personal privacy had been invaded, our marriage had been invaded, was very difficult.’

‘It was devastating to me to find out that someone had invaded my privacy like that,’ she explained. 

The victim said she is now struggling with accepting what happened.

‘Emotionally, you feel unsafe,’ the victim said. ‘Knowing that anybody could have one of those cameras somewhere, it’s very hard just to know the reality of this crime that is out there, this crime of voyeurism.’

She and her lawyer now say they want Royal Caribbean to take responsibility and prevent like this from ever happening again to any other passenger.

‘If we hold these carriers, these cruise lines, Royal Caribbean, accountable for these kind of situations, they can now proactively seek out this misconduct and these people, these individuals that can commit these kinds of actions against their passengers before it even occurs,’ attorney Bernardo Pimentel said.