Margaritaville at Sea cruise passenger files lawsuit after allegedly being sexually harassed by Bahamas hotel employee

A former Margaritaville at Sea cruise passenger has filed a lawsuit against the cruise line’s parent company, Classica Cruise Operator, alleging that she was sexually harassed last year by a Wyndham hotel employee at accommodations the company booked for her.

According to USA Today, the unidentified plaintiff, known as Jane Doe, is a Missouri resident. In her complaint, she stated that she took a two-day cruise from West Palm Beach, Florida, to the Bahamas in August 2023. The complaint states that the Wyndham employee forced her into the hotel’s theater control room and raped her. The assault allegedly occurred when she left her room to get water to drink.

In her lawsuit, she claims that the hotel where Classica Cruise Operator booked her had a history of sexual harassment allegations. The parent company allegedly booked her stay at Wyndham’s Viva Fortuna Beach in Freeport – the largest city on the island of Grand Bahama – because there were no cruise ship cabins available for her.

Jane Doe is suing for damages for her physical injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder, medical expenses and more. Since the incident, she claims she has suffered “mental anguish” and “a loss of enjoyment of life.”

What else is there to know about the lawsuit?

The woman filed her lawsuit in late June in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. In her complaint, she alleged that a resort had a “practice” of encouraging guests to consume alcohol “with the goal of sexually assaulting and/or raping them when they felt vulnerable.”

The lawsuit argues that “Classica and Wyndham knew or should have known prior to the incident in question that the resort was not reasonably safe and/or that the resort’s employees were prone to sexual misconduct.”

According to Cruise Radio, Jane Doe’s lawsuit cited a 2016 TripAdvisor review in which a woman claimed Wyndham employees raped her the day after her wedding. A June 2024 Palm Beach Post report said Margaritaville settled two lawsuits against two female cruise ship passengers who claimed they were sexually harassed by a bartender who invaded their room. One of the women became pregnant after the assault and “was forced to terminate the pregnancy, which then caused her to suffer severe complications,” a December 2023 lawsuit said.

“We want to make people aware,” Alex Perez, the unidentified woman’s lawyer, told USA Today. “This kind of thing happens in foreign ports. I know you’re on vacation, but you have to be careful.”