It is a firm representing the victims but it's not like the cruise liners themselves will be upront with the statistics.

>They'll lose their job

That's an issue I came across in this article. Cruise liners can very easily say "he's not a sex pest, he just violated company policy".

You're right that you probably won't get repeat offenders due to CCTV, but the environment of 24 hour good vibes and festivities reminds me too much of college campuses which don't have an amazing track record for sexual offenses. I can only imagine how much of this stuff goes unreported on ships for fear of retaliation.

The issue is cameras don't magically fix the issue.

I think an environment that's constantly splashing drinks leads to cases of dubious consent. You see two people share a drink at a bar and then head to a cabin and the thread of evidence ends there, none of the conversation involving revoked consent is captured.

Few convictions lead to persecutions. Again, if it's bad on land, I think it's worse on a boat with fewer third parties to assist.

So I did some more reading and yeah you're right, I do find it strange that these laws were made in the 1830s though.

While it is a necessity to fly under a flag of convenience, it is interesting to note one of the things they would have to do if they were registered in the US

>The cruise ship must be staffed by U.S. crewmembers and paid based on U.S. minimum wage laws.

Again, it may not be the intended purpose, but getting to hire cleaning staff and not have to pay them American mimimum wage seems awfully convenient...

As for planes, it's an efficient mode of transport for me, not a luxury. At worst I'm there for 12 hrs? At no point am I being sold the fantasy of an air resort or expected to mix and mingle with the hundreds of people on the flight.

The idea of being stuck on a boat is my fear rather than tremoring at the idea of exploitative migrant labor.

I've never been a bit fan of this mindset though: "You were emotionally affected by learning about industry malpractices? Better stay purposely ignorant of other industries shading doings"

Yes, reading about how big businesses operate is like staring into oblivion but it's important to stay informed.

I think for me, as much as there are issues with all forms of travel, I think those problems are amplied by the compactness of the ship.

People are hooking up in hotels yeah, but on land you have a much wider pool of people so rates of transmission are probably lower. Better access to appropriate healthcare after the fact is also available on land.

On the same topic, there's also the unique challenge of sexual assaults on board. >!Most cases were reported to be crewmates assaulting passengers as the relaxed atmosphere causes people to drop their guard. In the instances where there are rapes, it's hard to persecute because the quality of evidence rapily decays before than can reach land. Then when they hit land, they can again use flags of convenience so that their staff can't be persecuted under X country's legal board.!<

As for price, I can't speak to this personally, but I've read of people racking up massive bills due to misunderstandings of what can be considered "an all inclusive vacation". Some of that is consumer responsibility, but I'm sure cruises don't go out of their way to communicate costs to consumers.

With the labor situation, again the issue is the unique environment compounds on existing issues. 6 people sleeping in a cabin made for 1 with no ability to inform labor authorities of malpractice for weeks on end. It's not like it's ok when resorts do it either.

The accessibility angle is one I hadn't considered before. I am glad to hear that more people can enjoy more experiences due to cruise liners.