A young woman, who will remain anonymous, reached out to us and shared her story of how she was stalked and sexually harassed aboard the Carnival Conquest. The harassment occurred over the course of two weeks, from August 21 through September 4, while the ship was on a SEA cruise (“Sailings Exclusively for Adults”).
A security officer took an unwelcome interest in the woman during the cruise, and used CCTV footage and the help of other security officers to stalk and harass her.
The woman made several complaints to Carnival Conquest employees as well as to Carnival’s “Guest Care” department. After she expressed being fearful of running into the security officer again, the head of security told her that Prasad was removed from guest areas and put to work in crew areas during Carnival’s investigation of the situation.
Carnival Cruise Line has not disclosed whether any of the employees involved have been disciplined or terminated.
Link to Harassment Begins Harassment Begins
The woman, a self-described “huge Carnival Cruise fan,” having sailed on 14 cruises with Carnival, totaling 117 days at sea, went on the Carnival Conquest with friends but stayed in her cabin alone.
On the second evening of the cruise, a Carnival youth security officer, first name “Prasad,” set his sights on the woman. She said that he engaged in a string of unprofessional and inappropriate comments about her appearance.
The woman pushed back against his inappropriate comments and told Prasad “I thought Carnival has a ‘zero tolerance’ against fratenizing with guests?” Prasad responded that, “as an officer, there’s a way around that,” and “no way anyone would know” if he went to her cabin.
Prasad told her that he knew her full name and cabin number, which he repeated to her. He said that he knew that “you’re staying alone in a single cabin…”
Prasad’s sexual harassment, inappropriate comments, and innuendos continued for the next three evenings. He would appear in a nightclub, seek her out, flirt and comment on her appearance. On Thursday and Friday, she did not go to the club to avoid Prasad.
Link to Security Officer Uses Cameras to Stalk Passenger Security Officer Uses Cameras to Stalk Passenger
On Saturday, August 29, the woman went to the ship’s casino with her friends, when another Carnival security employee, with a name or badge tag “SEPESA,” approached her near the casino bar. He handed his phone to her and said “this is for you.” Prasad was on the line.
Prasad proceeded to say “I missed you” and “I’ve been looking for you.” He told her that he had been watching her on the closed circuit cameras in the casino, describing in detail exactly what she was wearing, telling her “you’re hot!” Prasad told her that he knew her full name and cabin number, which he repeated to her. He said that he knew “you’re staying alone in a single cabin,” as well as other personal and private information. He said that he got off work at 3 A.M. and he could come to her cabin.
Link to Passenger Reports the Stalking to Ship Security Passenger Reports the Stalking to Ship Security
The following day, complaints were made about Prasad’s sexual harassment and stalking to the hotel manager who said he would “get to the bottom of this.” He promised that someone at Carnival would contact her the following day.
After she did not hear anything, on August 31 she appeared at the ship’s Guest Services desk to make a formal complaint. She was escorted to a small security office where she met a senior head of security along with four other security officers/guards, all men.
She subsequently had two other meetings with security personnel during the next two days. Each time, there were six security officers/guards, all men, crowded around her in the small security office.
She described their attitude as dismissive, defensive, rude, intimidating and arrogant. They repeatedly interrupted her or talked over her and tried to shame her and make her feel guilty, saying “this is serious, it’s a man’s life and affects everyone including even the captain!” She responded “This affects ME! I’m the victim!”
She told them that it takes courage to report sexual abuse to a group of men, and there should be a woman present – a female security officer who understands how women are objectified and harassed. The security personnel, again all men, treated her with condescension, insensitivity, disdain, and anger.
The security officers tried to explain Prasad’s inexcusable conduct by claiming that “Prasad is fairly new” and he “usually works with teens.”
She found herself in tears as she expressed her feelings during the meeting. She insisted that any employee, not to mention a security officer, who sexually harasses and stalks a guest should be fired, especially an officer who secretly reviews a guest’s private, confidential personal information and knows that she is staying in a cabin by herself.
After her initial complaint, she was followed several times on the ship by the same security officer, Sepesa, who Prasad had involved to deliver her a phone while he was stalking her on CCTV.
Link to Carnival Cruise Line Stonewalls the Victim Carnival Cruise Line Stonewalls the Victim
After the meetings, she was assigned a claim number and told to contact Carnival’s corporate department after the cruise. When she did so, a “security liaison” in the “guest care” department from Carnival shoreside headquarters contacted her. The liaison confirmed that a “youth security officer” was involved and offered what the shoreside employee characterized as a “sincere apology.”
The Carnival liaison offered nothing but an apology at first. Later, after she explained what she endured, the liaison then offered her a refund of her cruise fare of around $500 and three therapy sessions at the rate of $200 each session, as a gesture of goodwill.
She was told that she should contact the FBI or the “appropriate law enforcement authorities” if she felt that a crime occurred, leaving her bewildered why Carnival would not immediately fire their security personnel who had reviewed her personal information and used it to sexually harass and stalk a guest on their cruise ship.
The Carnival liaison vaguely mentioned that “corrective or disciplinary” action would be addressed “internally” if warranted. The liaison claimed that Carnival took unspecified “appropriate steps” on the ship although she would not provide any details regarding any “internal personnel actions.”
In a subsequent email, the Carnival security liaison implied that Prasad remains employed by Carnival, but stated that if the victim took another cruise with Carnival in the future, she should contact Carnival to learn whether Prasad was assigned to a ship on which she would be cruising:
…should you book a future cruise and have concerns regarding whether this particular employee will be assigned to that voyage, you may contact us with your sailing information, and we can advise whether the employee is scheduled to be on board that specific voyage.
All the emails from Guest Care Security Liaison can be read here.
She never complained about anything on any other cruise, so she is obviously not a “Karen.” And she never once asked for any compensation, because that was never her goal – “I expected him to be fired.” The victim asked for a copy of the report several times to see if Carnival documented her complaints accurately but the cruise line refused to give her a copy. She even asked for Prasad’s last name to inquire when she goes on future sailings (as Carnival suggested). Carnival refused.
Several other passengers provided written statements to security. Prasad went up to several of the victim’s friends and acquaintances asking them where she was and to give her a message and explained that being security, he could come to “any room at any time without anyone knowing.” They reported this to security.
She says that “if this was a bartender, cabin steward, or food service employee they would’ve been fired immediately. But because he is security there is a sense that they are above the rules and have power. It felt like reporting a police officer to the police.”
Link to Carnival’s Sexual Assault Record Carnival’s Sexual Assault Record
This episode of sexual harassment and stalking occurred on a cruise line with the highest per capita rate of sexual assault of any cruise line. Carnival’s rate was higher than 27 of the 50 states in the U.S. Although its public relations department would have the public believe that it has “zero tolerance” of sexual harassment, in reality it has no tolerance of victims who complain of harassment on the Carnival fleet of cruise ships.
Link to More Cover-Ups and Lies by Carnival to the Public? More Cover-Ups and Lies by Carnival to the Public?
The public needs only to review Carnival’s attitude and reputation over the years to realize that this is business as usual for this renegade cruise operator.
When Carnival’s Princess Cruise Lines pled guilty to the second revocation of its criminal proceeding in January of 2022 following its widespread, ongoing dumping of oil at sea, the Department of Justice stated that the cruise line has “a culture that seeks to minimize or avoid information that is negative, uncomfortable, or threatening to the company, including to top leadership.”
This is an integral part of the problem with the sexual and violent crimes on cruise ships it operates. A recidivist corporate cruise felon like Carnival, with its culture of cover-up, lies and misinformation, will inevitably try to cover-up the crimes, blame the victims and lie to the public. Its culture of lies has obviously infected its shipboard security departments as this situation shows.