Atlantis Events advertises its upcoming “Largest Homosexual Cruise in Historical past” aboard the “unimaginable Concord of the Seas” because the “most outrageously enjoyable cruise Atlantis has ever created! . . . a star-studded competition of pure enjoyable and pleasure not like something you’ve ever imagined.” Scheduled for February 4th to twelfth, the cruise guarantees “8 fabulous nights packed stuffed with awe-inspiring events, celebrity performers, nice associates, and countless surprises.”
Atlantis Occasions additionally guarantees that “each second on an Atlantis cruise is a chance to share, be it your title, your story, costume, or one thing a bit extra scandalous.”
Final yr, the New York Times revealed an article by Ceylan Yeginsu quoting an Atlantis Occasions’ partygoer saying “that is going to be the wildest celebration for our neighborhood in two years. I’m speaking soiled dancing, intercourse, medication, raves, orgies . . . ” However this yr, 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 photographs or movies of “something explicitly sexual on social media.”
Atlantis Occasions’ New Social Media Coverage
Atlantis has apparently tried to change its phrases and situation through an e mail which states:
“Essential – New Social Media Coverage – Whereas we wish everybody to have enjoyable, there are limits and so we ask that you simply be respectful of all visitors and our cruise companions. Please don’t put up something explicitly sexual on social media in a public discussion board or different on-line house. Any visitor who posts or publishes an express and publicly seen photograph or video will probably be requested to go away the ship with no refund. This additionally applies to any non-public media posts (whether or not or not behind a paywall) that determine or may determine both Atlantis, our vendor manufacturers, their properties, or every other visitors with or with out permission. We take this significantly and have a crew of volunteers monitoring most websites. Thanks for understanding and conserving Atlantis pleasant!”
The one who despatched me this e mail asks rhetorically “wouldn’t one assume conserving Atlantis pleasant would imply banning public drug use relatively than attempting to ban folks from photographing and posting public intercourse?”
An Ugly Historical past of Overdoses, Arrests and Demise Because of Medicine
A superb questions I suppose contemplating that medical emergencies (typically drug overdoses) usually are not unusual on Royal Caribbean cruises chartered by Atlantis Occasions. For that matter, Atlantis Occasions cruises have been stricken 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 a minimum of 5 drug-related deaths on Royal Caribbean cruises chartered to Atlantis:
Final yr, a visitor attending the Atlantis Occasions cruise aboard the Oasis of the Sea died because the Royal Caribbean cruise ship was heading to Mexico because of drug use sophisticated by insufficient medical care.
In February 2019, federal agents arrested two men attempting to board the Attract of the Seas at PortMiami for possession of a big amount of medication which they have been aspiring to promote on the cruise ship which had been chartered by Atlantis Occasions. Native Information 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, Concord of the Seas, which had been chartered by Atlantis Occasions. In keeping with TMZ and different tabloid websites, passengers on the Royal Caribbean ship said that “medication on the celebration boat have been plentiful.” Rosie Spinks, a gifted reporter who labored for Quartz at the moment, reported on Mr. Taylor’s drug dying 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 Attract 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 medication on its ships throughout Atlantis Occasions cruise events.
Every week later, cruise passenger, Barry Krumholz, was arrested for selling large quantities of ecstasy pills, methamphetamine, ketamine and other drugs aboard the Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas chartered by Atlantis Events. There have been reportedly a half-dozen drug overdoses through the cruise.
In 2010, there was one other passenger dying on the Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas which had been chartered to Atlantis Events. There was widespread dialogue relating to using medication throughout Atlantis Occasions sponsored occasions.
In 2009, a passenger died after he reportedly took drugs throughout a cruise aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship which had been chartered for using Atlantis Occasions. Spencer Yu, an legal professional for Warner Brothers and a board member of the Homosexual and Lesbian Alliance Towards Defamation (“GLAAD”), died on the Mariner of the Seas. The medical care was described by celebration goers as delayed and haphazard.
Can and Will the New Social Media Coverage Be Enforced?
The irony is that Atlantis Occasions requires all visitors to agree 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 form now identified or hereinafter devised, together with the precise 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 Occasions can use photographs or video of visitors nevertheless it sees match however visitors can’t put up photographs or movies of what truly 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), through an e mail, despatched after the visitors had already booked their cruises.
It is usually 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 international port (the cruise contains Haiti, Aruba and Curacao).
As a sensible matter, it additionally appears troublesome for both Atlantis Occasions or Royal Caribbean to truly implement this new social media coverage regardless of Atlantis’ claims of a “crew of volunteers monitoring most websites.”
The query isn’t just why Atlantis Occasions thought that it ought to attempt to forestall posting of sexually express photographs and video of this sexually charged public occasion in such an amateurish, last-minute means. The true query is why has Atlantis Occasions has not made a minimum of an equal effort to stop using leisure celebration medication which have claimed so many lives throughout these kind of cruises.
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Picture credit score: Atlantis Occasions and Royal Caribbean Cruises.
February 1, 2023 Replace:
With the Atlantis Occasions – Royal Caribbean “largest homosexual celebration on this planet” (on Concord of the Seas quick approaching (on Feb 4th), it’s time to re-read Should Atlantis Events come with a warning label? by the Los Angeles Blade.
“Circuit celebration cruises, medication & obfuscation (combined collectively on a cruise ship registered within the Bahamas and operated by a line included in Liberia) – you fearful?”
Keep tuned . . .
