A Kentucky woman on a Caribbean cruise was sexually assaulted by a female massage therapist during a rubdown in the ship’s spa, according to a federal lawsuit reviewed by The Independent.
“Jane Doe,” as the anonymous victim is identified in court filings, was a passenger aboard the Carnival Vista when she booked a massage for herself on July 5, 2025, says an amended complaint filed last week in Miami.
Once situated on the massage table, the complaint alleges the masseuse “repeatedly and intentionally” touched and groped the woman’s genitalia while “making sexual comments and improper innuendoes about [her] body.”
Shocked, the woman “attempted to leave the room where the massage and sexual assault were taking place,” the complaint goes on. However, it says the spa attendant left first, then “blocked the door from the outside and refused to open it despite pleas from the [woman].”
“At some point in this ordeal, [the woman] was permitted to exit the massage room,” the complaint states. “[She] did not consent to being locked in the massage room.”
The Carnival Vista sails from Port Canaveral, Florida on 6- and 8-day Caribbean itineraries, according to Carnival’s website. The cruise line’s spas are managed and operated by a third-party vendor, OneSpaWorld, LLC, according to the complaint.
“Imagine working for the leading spa operator on board luxury cruise ships,” OneSpaWorld, which also maintains a presence on Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and other major cruise lines, tells prospective employees. “Apply today and make your dream a reality. OneSpaWorld operates spas on more than 160 luxury cruise ships sailing the seven seas from California to Hong Kong, Alaska to South America. Work your way around the world with us… Embark on a life-changing journey today!”
Doe’s complaint says that other, similar incidents have occurred on Carnival cruises, in facilities run by OneSpaWorld, which is named as a co-defendant in the suit, and that both companies were “therefore on notice that crewmembers/spa employees were utilizing shipboard spas as a rape/sexual assault lair.”
“Despite such notice, Defendants failed to take adequate steps to prevent the same or similar type of incident from reoccurring,” the complaint contends, claiming they “knew or should have known that a sexual assault and/or rape was reasonably foreseeable, considering the prevalence of sexual assaults aboard Carnival’s vessels.”
Carnival and One Spa World did not provide sufficient security or supervision to prevent “rapes and/or sexual assaults” on its ships, nor did it properly warn passengers about the “growing epidemic of rapes and sexual assaults at sea,” according to the complaint.
“Defendant’s motive for failing to warn its passengers was financial in nature; that is, Defendants willfully chose not to warn its passengers about rapes and/or sexual assaults aboard its cruise ships so as not to scare any prospective passengers away,” the complaint states.
Doe’s complaint cites Department of Transportation’s statistics, which show a total of 135 sexual assaults reported on Carnival vessels between 2016 and 2025, more than a quarter of which were allegedly committed by crew members, and highlights six individual cases that took place in OneSpaWorld locations.
Earlier this year, an Arizona woman sued Carnival after a masseuse at the Cloud 9 shipboard spa, a One Spa World brand, was accused of “repeatedly” fondling her breasts and touching her pelvic area without consent.
The Arizona woman alleged in her complaint that the masseuse pulled her undergarments down and moved the sheets to facilitate the assault, and that she became “frozen and traumatized during the incident, experiencing a resurfacing of prior abuse and feeling unable to move or speak.”
Under U.S. maritime law, an aggrieved passenger is required to file suit within one year of the incident.
According to Doe’s complaint, she has suffered, among other things, “mental anguish,” “loss of enjoyment of life,” and “inconvenience in the normal pursuits and pleasures of life.” She says she has lost income because her “working ability and earning capacity” were impaired, and that she “lost the benefit of [her] vacation, cruise, and transportation costs.”
Doe is now seeking damages in an amount to be determined by a jury.
Attorney Paul Hoffman, who is representing Doe, told The Independent that his policy on pending cases is to decline comment.
Carnival and OneSpaWorld did not respond to requests for comment.
