Cruise Ship Lawyers Blog
When a family and lifestyle influencer with millions of followers filmed her family’s first moments entering their cruise ship suite, she also inadvertently captured their startled realization that they’d walked into the wrong room — a mistake made possible by a potentially flawed security practice: room keys taped to doors.
Rachel Sullivan, known as @rachsullivan__ on TikTok, posted the video this week to her over 2 million followers, showing her and her husband’s humorous reactions when they walked into the wrong cabin.
“We’re in the wrong one,” her husband exclaimed as he tried to usher out their toddler and made a grab for the family’s bags. ” … Because the room keys are on the door!”
The mix-up could have happened to anyone. For the Sullivan family, it was as simple as misreading their room number. By the time they realized their error — thanks to dinner reservation slips showing someone else’s last name — they had already set down their bags, parked their infant’s stroller by the window and let their toddler roam the room. Thankfully, they saved themselves the embarassment of facing the room’s intended occupants by quickly leaving everything untouched and shared a laugh when they posted the video online. In the video’s caption, Sullivan joked: “Glad we didn’t break in the toilet.”
The video has since garnered over 200,000 likes, hundreds of comments and thousands of shares. While the self-effacing video was well-received online, some viewers expressed their dismay at the potential security risks posed.
One commenter asked if the keys left on the door for anyone to claim “creeped” out any other viewers.
“Literally anyone can come mess with your room or put hidden cameras in there before you get inside,” the commenter wrote. “Maybe I’m paranoid. I just watched the Amy Bradley doc.”
Others could not believe that this common cruise line practice and asked for clarity.
“They left the room keys ON the door?!?”
While there was no harm done in this case, Leesfield & Partners attorneys who have spent decades litigating negligent security cases aboard cruise ships knows just how real this concern truly is.
Leesfield & Partners
With nearly five decades of experience handling cruise ship cases on behalf of injured clients and/or grieving families, Leesfield & Partners attorneys share the dismay of these shocked viewers. While it is common practice throughout many of the world’s most popular cruise lines, our attorneys have seen several instances in which allowing anyone unfettered access to a passenger’s room has proved disastrous.
Bernardo Pimentel II, a Leesfield & Partners Trial Attorney, is representing a woman in an ongoing case who suffers extreme trauma and emotional turmoil after a cruise employee was found planting hidden cameras in the rooms of guests. Our client was one among numerous passengers, including children, whose privacy was violated in their private cabin bathrooms. That crew member was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for producing child sex abuse material.
In an article that was published last year addressing the rise in cruise ship crime, Ira Leesfield, the firm’s Founder and Managing Partner, attributed the trend to the surge in passenger numbers. However, despite this, he emphasized that cruise lines remain responsible for ensuring passenger safety.
“That’s just kind of a one in a long series of why there’s more sexual abuse and sexual activity on the ships, and I think your question is why? And I think the answer that I see is very lax policing, and very lax training, because a lot of the people … are crew members. This guy was a crew member,” he said.
Under the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010, cruise lines that embark or disembark passengers in U.S. ports are required to report serious incidents to both the FBI and the U.S. Coast Guard.
Cruise ships are common carriers, meaning they have a heightened duty of care to ensure the safety and well-being of their passengers. As such, cruise lines must report criminal activity aboard their cruise ships. This criminal activity can include anything from theft to more violent crimes such as physical or sexual assaults.
In data reported to the FBI and made public by the Department of Transportation, there were a total of 43 alleged crimes that occurred on cruise ships from April to June of 2025. Of those crimes, 13 were sexual assaults, 20 were rapes, four were assaults with serious bodily injury and three were missing persons cases.
Previous Crime-Related Cruise Cases
Leesfield & Partners previously represented a Canadian woman who was traveling on a cruise ship when she was horrifically raped. The woman was in her cabin alone when a member of the ship’s crew abused his employee status and used a keycard to access the woman’s room where he attacked her.
The firm secured a multi-million-dollar amount for the woman in that case.
Our experienced trial attorneys have spent decades litigating cruise ship medical malpractice cases. Over nearly five decades, Leesfield & Partners has secured numerous record verdicts and settlements for injured clients and their grieving families across Florida. We approach every case with compassion, tenacity, and deep legal expertise to achieve the best possible outcome for each client.
Previous Cruise Ship Medical Malpractice Cases
A Leesfield & Partners client and crew member experienced the consequences of negligent medical care aboard ships when he went to his ship’s infirmary for symptoms of nausea. What should have been a simple enough ailment to treat resulted in this man losing an arm due to the negligence of the medical staff aboard the ship. To combat his symptoms, he was given via IV a medication with a black box warning label clearly stating that the medication should be injected deep into the muscle slowly over a few minutes. Instead, a member of the medical staff injected it rapidly into our client’s IV. He was in immediate agony.
This was the beginning of an excruciating, hours-long ordeal in which his arm became necrotic and his skin blackened. While the tissue on his arm continued to slowly die, cruise ship doctors searched online for ways to help. Eventually, he was able to seek medical attention on shore where doctors attempted to save his arm. Tragically, they could not.
In the end, our client lost his right arm due to the errors of the doctors aboard the cruise ship. Our client was awarded over $3.3 million in arbitration thanks to the work of attorneys at Leesfield & Partners.
In another tragic amputation case, a 9-month-old baby’s meningococcal meningitis was misdiagnosed by a stomach bug. As a result of this error, the infant underwent multiple amputations. Leesfield & Partners secured an over $5.5 million award for the family in that case.
A retired nurse who suffered a horrific accident aboard a ship required a life-saving blood transfusion. As the result of cruise medical staff negligently failing to test the blood they administered to the woman, she was diagnosed with HIV. The firm settled the case for $4.25 million.
In addition to errors made while treating patients, Leesfield & Partners has seen doctors delay or deny evacuations for patients who were in the middle of medical emergencies. These delays can occur for a myriad of reasons, however, for our clients, these decisions were made to protect the ship’s schedule and bottom line. As a result, medical situations were exacerbated, leading to further injury and death.
One family who was represented by Leesfield & Partners went on a cruise to mark a milestone anniversary. Instead of a fun-filled family vacation, our clients suffered a tremendous loss that began with their patriarch suffering a heart attack while the ship was still in port. He was denied evacuation and the ship left for its destination, and he later died.
The firm secured a multi-million-dollar recovery in that case.
A teenager who suffered a stroke on a ship was written off for her age, despite the obvious symptoms. The case was later settled for $3 million.
In another case, the firm secured $1.5 million for a person having a stroke while on a cruise ship.
Previous Onboard Injury Cases
The firm recovered $2.5 million for a 9-year-old who collided with an unpadded steel grommet while diving for an out-of-bounds ball as he played on a ship’s basketball court. The child in that case suffered a catastrophic brain injury as a result on the traumatic incident.
Similarly, the firm represented a man, 62, who was injured while playing pickleball aboard his cruise ship. The firm settled the case for $500,000.
The firm obtained a confidential settlement for a family devastated by the traffic loss of their young daughter. In that case, the child was separated from her family aboard a ship when she leaned over a poorly designed cruise ship railing and fell five stories to her death.
Previous Cruise Ship Excursion Cases
Previously, Leesfield & Partners represented a family after a mother and daughter bought a parasailing excursion while aboard a cruise ship. What should have been a thrilling adventure shared between the two turned into a nightmare while the two were up in the air. A malfunction with the excursion equipment caused them to fall rapidly toward the water. Tragically, the mother did not survive, and her daughter was left with a traumatic brain injury. The case was resolved with a combined settlement of $7.25 million for the families.
In another cruise ship excursion case, Leesfield & Partners recovered nearly $3 million for the tragic death of our client’s adult son. In that case, the young man was traveling with his family and ventured out on a cruise-sanctioned bus excursion. When the bus was involved in a crash, our client’s son was ejected and suffered fatal injuries, a devastating loss for the family.
A rollover ATV crash on a shore excursion caused serious injuries to multiple passengers. Leesfield & Partners settled the case for over $1.2 million.
Our 68-year-old client sustained severe injuries, including a fractured femur, when thrown off a “banana boat” during a cruise’s water sport excursion. The firm secured a $600,000 settlement in that case.
Ongoing Cruise Ship Cases
Partner Justin B. Shapiro is representing a woman who was injured during a guided jet ski tour marketed to novice jet skiers. The incident occurred while the ship was docked at CocoCay. The woman in this case was a participant in the jet ski tour when she was hit suddenly from behind by the excursion’s tour guide as he attempted to pass her.
“Royal Caribbean advertises these tours as no experience necessary,” Mr. Shapiro said. “And they do that in an effort to sell as many of these tours as they can … What ends up happening, they have these large groups of inexperienced, unqualified people riding around on jet skis together. It’s a recipe for disaster.”
Trial Attorney Carlos A. Fabano is handling a cruise ship medical malpractice case on behalf of several minor children whose mother died as the result of cruise ship doctor’s negligence.
