What you never knew about onboard cruise jails
Cruise Security Officer, Vincent McNally, has revealed what happens behind the scenes when a passenger steps out of line.
McNally, who previously worked at the FBI for 30 years, was a security officer for Holland America.
"The security officer does everything,” McNally told Yahoo Travel.
“I usually had a staff of seven or eight people, depending on how big the ship is. It could be more for bigger ships.”
McNally said his job involved checking passengers on board, training and assisting in port security at ports of call.
McNally revealed that his first response to a problem passenger was always to negotiate a situation.
"One of the things that I pride myself on is that I never had to fight an individual all those five years,” McNally said. “If they were inebriated or if they were out of control, I was able to negotiate anything.”
McNally shared one experience where he calmed down a drunk passenger.
"He was yelling and screaming and walking around,” McNally said.
“I intervened and then I just basically calmed the person down. You follow the level of voice up and down; you bring them down to a lower level then you escort them back to the room. It’s a difficult thing to do, but it can be done. I think that the format I developed worked pretty well since I had no fights, no physical altercations.”
Whenever an unruly passenger would not negotiate with McNally, he would call the ship’s bridge and ask them to send down additional crew members as backup. The passenger would then see how outnumbered they were and quickly backdown.
McNally also said that some cruise ships have jails for the most extreme circumstances.
“Some [ships] have them and some don’t,” he said. “Basically it’s a padded cell.”
“That would be in a severe case where the person has assaulted or gone another level above just yelling and screaming,” he said.
However, the captain is the only person in charge of locking up passengers.
“The captain would be the ultimate decision maker and he’d then consult with the duty person and security back at headquarters.”
In his years working, McNally said he had never put anyone in a cruise jail cell.
“I don’t think I ever put anyone in it,” he said. “I just get them to go back to their rooms."