A 34-year-old passenger was taken into custody after his cruise ship returned to PortMiami Saturday, accused of raping an 18-year-old who he had met in one of the ship’s bars hours earlier. The passenger, Cody Gray, now faces criminal charges in Miami-Dade County of sexual battery and providing alcohol to a minor.
According to Local 10 News, the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office reported that Gray met the victim at a bar early Saturday morning on September 12 while the cruise ship was at sea returning to Florida. The victim reportedly already had one alcoholic beverage before Gray gave her three additional drinks. The two ended up in Gray’s cabin, where authorities say he raped her while she was drunk. The victim was unconscious afterward and told investigators she did not recall the details of what occurred inside the cabin.
The young woman told authorities she never consented to sexual activity with Gray and told Gray that she did not want to have sex with him. Authorities did not identify the cruise ship in the arrest report.
Although she was 18 years old and technically an adult, Florida law classifies anyone under the age of 21 as a “minor” specifically in the context of alcohol consumption and possession. Under Florida Statute § 562.11, providing, selling, or giving alcoholic beverages to anyone under 21 is a first-degree misdemeanor.
Gray was ordered held without bond pending an additional hearing. As of Monday, he was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. The cruise ship reportedly left Miami on September 6 and returned on September 12.
The only cruise ship that departed from PortMiami on September 6, 2026, and returned on September 12, 2026, was the Carnival Horizon.
The Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010 requires cruise lines with cruise ships that embark or disembark at U.S. ports to report certain serious crimes to the FBI, which is supposed to share that data with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) for quarterly public reporting.
DOT cruise crime figures for 2025 showed 131 reported sexual crimes, including 80 rapes and 51 sexual assaults, out of 182 total reported crimes across the cruise industry. In the second quarter of 2026 alone, the department recorded 50 total reported crimes across all cruise lines, with sexual offenses making up 88% of incidents, which includes 25 classified as rape and 19 as sexual assault, as we previously reported here on Cruise Law News.
Have a comment or question? Please leave one below or join the conversation on our Facebook page.