Cruise Guest Called a Karen After Complaining About Neighbors

A recent guest onboard Wonder of the Seas described having difficulty with an adjacent stateroom and after feeling unsuccessful with assistance from the cruise ship’s security department and Guest Services, posted her concerns on TikTok as a way to get a resolution.

Was her tactic successful, and is it the proper way to address concerns from a situation onboard?

Woman Experiences Poor Conduct on Wonder of the Seas – But Was Hers Better?

A recent passenger onboard Royal Caribbean International’s Wonder of the Seas, Cayce Evans Newton, had hoped to enjoy a wonderful New Year’s cruise with 19 of her family members, but instead found herself at frequent odds with guests in the next door stateroom.

In a video posted to the social media video site TikTok where she goes by the username itsmecayce, Newton described the situation she and her family members encountered while trying to enjoy quiet nights in their staterooms during the ship’s December 30 sailing, an 8-night Eastern Caribbean and Perfect Day itinerary.

“We are on day four of our cruise and we’ve had an ongoing problem with the people in the room next to us, playing loud music all night long, really loud,” Newton said. “Now they’re smoking on their balcony, which is an interior balcony, smoking in their room, and just making so much noise, really rude music.”

Newton mentions that she and her family members had called security eight times to report the poor behavior by day four, and had spoken with Guest Services but without results.

“We’re not getting any relief from the problem of the people next door,” she said.

Newton tags Royal Caribbean in the video’s description to attempt to catch the cruise line’s attention, and several times asks the cruise line directly for assistance, claiming that very little was done onboard at that point. To date, Newton’s video has had more than 423,000 views.

Is This a Karen Situation?

While social media users are generally on the side of those who may indeed be under stress from poor behavior, what Newton brings up next has rubbed many commenters the wrong way.

Newton mentions that her group of travelers had paid more than $40,000 for their getaway, and that a small child was part of the group and being subject to the “disturbing language” and poor behavior of the travelers next door.

Those details seem to indicate what could be considered a sense of entitlement, causing many commenters to label Newton as a Karen – a derogatory, slang term for someone who may be a busybody or exhibit excessive entitlement, often with an “I want to talk to a manager” perspective.

It should be noted, however, that at no point does Newton offer any personal attacks or unkind comments about the travelers she claims are causing the disturbances. She does point out that the ship has smoking areas, lounges and nightclubs that play music, and plenty of opportunities for everyone to enjoy themselves, without disrupting the peace of other passengers.

“We want them to have fun just like we want to have fun,” she said.

She does offer a potential solution, but the idea also has commenters seeing a sense of entitlement.

“I don’t know if you can move them, kick them off the boat, I don’t know what you can do for them,” she said after mentioning the ship’s code of conduct, which all passengers agree to before boarding.

Royal Caribbean’s Guest Health, Safety, and Conduct Policy does state that “It is a condition of boarding and remaining onboard any of our ships or in our private destinations, that all guests comply with this Policy and all of our health and safety policies and procedures.”

While much of the policy is concerned with interactions between guests, it does state that “boom boxes, loud radios, or other noise nuisance(s) are not permitted” and that “Smoking is not permitted inside any stateroom or on any stateroom balcony.”

If guests violate these policies, they could have certain onboard privileges removed, be confined to their staterooms or a holding cell, or even removed from the ship and denied future cruises with all of Royal Caribbean Group’s cruise lines.

What Was Done

In a follow-up video on the last night of the cruise, Newton updated her viewers on the situation.

“Guest Services was great keeping in touch with us, but they never really resolved the problem,” she said.

Newton was offered a free bottle of wine and a complimentary lunch at Johnny Rockets onboard the ship, plus her daughter was offered a 10% discount on a future sailing due to the inconvenience and disturbance of being right next to the offending stateroom.

“It was definitely a rough week with those people. We were trying to just get over it, trying not to be bothered by it. We had a great vacation,” she concluded. “It is what it is.”

On a ship the size of Wonder of the Seas – at 235,600 gross tons with more than 5,700 guests aboard – it is inevitable that not all passengers will agree on what constitutes acceptable behavior, good music, or other conditions that might make one’s cruise experience more or less enjoyable.

While reaching out on social media is not always the nicest way to seek a resolution, Newton and her family members did work through appropriate channels – calling ship’s security and Guest Services – to try to improve the situation, without escalating any problems with their neighboring passengers.