Overall this cruise was well done—everything went smoothly, staff was friendly and helpful, food was well made, embarkation and disembarkation was a clear, simple and speedy process, a wide variety of activities were offered for varying interests.

Unfortunately, there were two instances that quite negatively impacted my experience. The first being, I attended a minute-to-win it event that was very entertaining and I, as well as the audience, enjoyed it. However, one of the volunteers did not perform very well in one of the activities, and the host openly criticized and embarrassed him. It was funny for the audience to watch, but I know that if I were that volunteer in front of the audience, I would have felt unhappy and uncomfortable, and that feeling likely would have stuck with me for hours if not days. I understand that the host needed to make the event comedic and enjoyable, but there are other ways to do so besides publicly ridiculing the volunteer.

The other situation that occurred was I volunteered to be a judge for the Sexiest Man Alive competition (I chose to do this because my fiancé was in the competition…I knew it’d be biased but I figured it’d be okay haha). Having never seen this competition before, I had no idea what it entailed. The host did not tell any of the volunteer judges what she was going to have the competitors do, so I was completely unprepared. If I had known ahead of time, I would have absolutely not participated. During the competition, the competitors danced very physically on me, as well as the other judges. I understand that this competition is inherently sexual, however there are ways to portray that without touching the judges. They grinded, humped, motorboated, attempted to kiss me, and much more. During that entire time, my insides were turning, I felt beyond uncomfortable, disgusting, and violated. At one point, one of the competitors literally picked up one of the volunteer judges and air humped her, threw her around, and in general was extremely unsafe and unbelievable. The host did put a stop to that, but the only reason they did was for safety reasons, not for sexual assault reasons. The host did nothing to stop the physical touching, and I continued to feel more and more uncomfortable. That feeling stayed with me for days after. After the competition, I called the activities coordinator who turned out to be the host, and while she was very agreeable and apologetic, it does not undo the damage it did. The host said they would be more clear with the rules next time, but how do I know if they will follow through with that? Overall, the coordinator did not care to change the policies. I hope some change does happen, so some poor girl does not experience what I experienced. Read more