Atlantis Events advertises its upcoming “Largest Gay Cruise in History” aboard the “incredible Harmony of the Seas” because the “most outrageously fun cruise Atlantis has ever created! . . . a star-studded festival of pure fun and excitement unlike anything you’ve ever imagined.” Scheduled for February 4th to twelfth, the cruise guarantees “8 fabulous nights packed full of awe-inspiring parties, superstar performers, great friends, and endless surprises.”
Atlantis Events additionally guarantees that “every moment on an Atlantis cruise is an opportunity to share, be it your name, your story, costume, or something a bit more scandalous.” But this 12 months, Atlantis has a brand new rule it threatens to implement. In an e-mail just lately despatched to the over 5,000 visitors who’re booked on the cruise, it claims that it’ll disembark (with out refund) any visitor who publishes any pictures or movies of “anything explicitly sexual on social media.”
Atlantis Events’ New Social Media Policy
Atlantis has apparently tried to switch its phrases and situation by way of an e-mail which states:
“Important – New Social Media Policy – While we want everyone to have fun, there are limits and so we ask that you be respectful of all guests and our cruise partners. Please do not post anything explicitly sexual on social media in a public forum or other online space. Any guest who posts or publishes an explicit and publicly visible photo or video will be asked to leave the ship with no refund. This also applies to any private media posts (whether or not behind a paywall) that identify or could identify either Atlantis, our vendor brands, their properties, or any other guests with or without permission. We take this seriously and have a team of volunteers monitoring most sites. Thank you for understanding and keeping Atlantis friendly!”
The one who despatched me this e-mail asks rhetorically “wouldn’t one think keeping Atlantis friendly would mean banning public drug use rather than trying to ban people from photographing and posting public sex?”
An Ugly History of Overdoses, Arrests and Death Due to Drugs
A very good questions I suppose contemplating that medical emergencies (usually drug overdoses) should not unusual on Royal Caribbean cruises chartered by Atlantis Events. For that matter, Atlantis Events cruises have been tormented by drug use, passengers going overboard and drug-related shipboard deaths through the years.
The final ten years have concerned quite a few overdoses, arrests and no less than 5 drug-related deaths on Royal Caribbean cruises chartered to Atlantis:
Last 12 months, a visitor attending the Atlantis Events cruise aboard the Oasis of the Sea died because the Royal Caribbean cruise ship was heading to Mexico on account of drug use difficult by insufficient medical care.
In February 2019, federal brokers arrested two males making an attempt to board the Allure of the Seas at PortMiami for possession of a big amount of medicine which they had been meaning to promote on the cruise ship which had been chartered by Atlantis Events. Local News 10 reported that after the lads arrived at PortMiami, a drug sniffing canine alerted its handler to their baggage which contained MDMA (ecstasy), ketamine, Viagra, Adderall and GHB.
In January 2018, Storm Chasers’ star Joel Taylor died of a suspected overdose on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Harmony of the Seas, which had been chartered by Atlantis Events. According to TMZ and different tabloid web sites, passengers on the Royal Caribbean ship acknowledged that “drugs on the party boat were plentiful.” Rosie Spinks, a gifted reporter who labored for Quartz at the moment, reported on Mr. Taylor’s drug demise in an article titled A Reality Star’s Death Exposed the Dangerous Party Culture on Gay Cruises.
In February 2012, an Atlantis Events attendee went overboard from the Allure of the Seas operated by Royal Caribbean. His physique was by no means recovered and he’s presumed to be lifeless. (There was no clear indication that the overboard was straight associated to drug use on the ship).
Shortly earlier than the Royal Caribbean/Atlantis twentieth Anniversary cruise in February 2011, I questioned Is Royal Caribbean Ready for Medical Emergencies During the World’s Largest Gay Cruise? I requested why Royal Caribbean tolerated the widespread use of medicine on its ships throughout Atlantis Events cruise events.
Every week later, cruise passenger, Barry Krumholz, was arrested for promoting massive portions of ecstasy tablets, methamphetamine, ketamine and different medication aboard the Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas chartered by Atlantis Events. There had been reportedly a half-dozen drug overdoses throughout the cruise.
In 2010, there was one other passenger demise on the Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas which had been chartered to Atlantis Events. There was widespread dialogue concerning the usage of medication throughout Atlantis Events sponsored occasions.
In 2009, a passenger died after he reportedly took medication throughout a cruise aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship which had been chartered for the usage of Atlantis Events. Spencer Yu, an lawyer for Warner Brothers and a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (“GLAAD”), died on the Mariner of the Seas. The medical care was described by social gathering goers as delayed and haphazard.
Can and Will the New Social Media Policy Be Enforced?
The irony is that Atlantis Events requires all visitors to conform to authorize the “full unencumbered proper in perpetuity and all through the universe to make use of your {photograph}, picture, title and likeness in video, and voice in any media of any of sort now recognized or hereinafter devised, together with the correct to assign and authorize your {photograph}, your picture, title and likeness in video, for Atlantis’ promotion, promoting or every other lawful functions, with out limitations, at Atlantis’s sole discretion . . . “
In different phrase, Atlantis Events can use pictures or video of visitors nonetheless it sees match however visitors can not put up pictures or movies of what really occurs on the cruise.
From a authorized perspective, it’s questionable {that a} concessionaire can legally impose new guidelines (along with the phrases and situations in a cruise ticket which is taken into account to be the legally binding contract with visitors). by way of an e-mail, despatched after the visitors had already booked their cruises.
It can also be questionable whether or not an leisure concessionaire, versus the captain and/or vessel proprietor/operator, has the authorized authority to pressure a passenger from the cruise ship in a overseas port (the cruise consists of Haiti, Aruba and Curacao).
As a sensible matter, it additionally appears troublesome for both Atlantis Events or Royal Caribbean to truly implement this new social media coverage regardless of Atlantis’ claims of a “team of volunteers monitoring most sites.”
The query is not only why Atlantis Events thought that it ought to attempt to forestall posting of sexually express pictures and video of this sexually charged public occasion in such an amateurish, last-minute method. The actual query is why has Atlantis Events has not made no less than an equal effort to forestall the usage of leisure social gathering medication which have claimed so many lives throughout these sort of cruises.
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Image credit score: Atlantis Events and Royal Caribbean Cruises.