It happened again. For the third time in the last two years, an adult passenger exposed himself to teenagers in the ship sauna on a Royal Caribbean-owned cruise ship.
Last Saturday’s Crime
The most recent incident involves a passenger described as a “Florida man” who was arrested last Saturday following an eight-day cruise for “touching himself and exposing himself in the presence of teens in a sauna while aboard a Celebrity cruise,” according to NBC-6.
The passenger who was identified as Michael Henry Mullis, age 39, of Lutz, Florida, faces two counts of indecent exposure (technically “exposure of sexual organs”) on the Celebrity Eclipse (owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd.) Two passengers, ages 17 and 16, told Broward Sheriff’s officers that Mullis “exposed himself and started masturbating on the top bench of the sauna,” NBC6 reported.
NBC-6 further reported that “later that day, a 19-year-old employee said he saw Mullis in the sauna, where he removed all of his clothing and then covered himself with a towel.” According to the arrest affidavit, Mullis then asked the 19-year-old, “Do you mind if I stroke my d***?”
At least one publication reporting on the incident suggests that Mullis allegedly exposed and touched himself in front of teen girls while in the sauna. It is unclear whether Mullis exposed himself to boys or girls.
There is a bit of confusion exactly where the incident took place. The accounts refer generally to a single sauna on the cruise ship. However, there are at least two saunas on the ship – a “Thermal Spa” in the “Persian Garden and Solarium” where passengers are charged a fee of $300 a week, and a hot spa open to all guests at no expense. It appears that the free spa was the location where Millis committed the crime.
The Cruise Blog reports that Mullis is apparently involved in school education, citing a personal blog in which he identified himself in 2013 as a teacher in Tampa, Florida, teaching Honors American Government and AP Human Geography at a local high school. In the Broward County Mugshot’s Facebook page, several viewers commented that Mullis is currently employed as an assistant-principle at an unidentified school in Florida.
Royal Caribbean Sauna Crime on the Independence of the Seas – Lewd and Lascivious On and Molestation of a Child.
Almost exactly a year ago, in March of 2025, two adult cruise passengers were arrested at PortMiami on charges of sexually victimizing a 14 year-old boy on the Royal Caribbean Independence of the Seas.
According to arrest reports from the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, cruise passengers Ricardo Daniel Mondragon Leal, age 37, and Jose Juan Prudencio Diaz, age 36, molested the boy in the public sauna of the Royal Caribbean cruise ship.
The news sources state that Diaz exposed himself to the boy and masturbated in front of the child, while forcing the boy to touch him.
Leal also reportedly masturbated in front of the boy and forced him to perform oral sex. Leal also performed oral sex on the victim.
The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office arrested both men after the cruise ship returned to PortMiami on Friday.
Both men were charged with lewd and lascivious exhibition on a child and lewd and lascivious molestation of a child. Diaz was also charged with having sex with a victim without informing the victim of his HIV status.
Royal Caribbean Sauna Crime on the Explorer of the Seas – Lewd and Lascivious Conduct
Two years ago, in March 2024, the Miami-Dade Police Department arrested a twenty-one (21) year old man from Georgia for sexually propositioning a fourteen (14) year-old boy in the sauna of the Explorer of the Seas. The adult passenger started to masturbate while “making eye contact with the victim.” The arrest report states that the adult then asked the boy if he’d ever had oral sex before. Police said after the boy replied “no,” the assailant then “solicited oral sex” from the teen, which he declined.
These type of crimes also occur on many other cruise lines, including in saunas and steam rooms on cruise ships.
Princess Sauna Crime – Abusive Sexual Contact of Minors
A 58 year-old passenger was arrested and charged with a felony count of “abusive sexual contact” with two 12-year-old boys in a cruise ship sauna on the Diamond Princess, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Carnival Sauna Crime – Abusive Sexual Contact With a Minor
In another case involving a Carnival cruise ship, local Miami news station, WFTV, citing a Broward County Sheriff’s Office report, involving a Carnival Cruise Line employee sexually assaulted a young (15 year-old) boy, stated:
“Yovany Sauzo-Batiz, age 46, of Honduras, was working on the Carnival Valor as a stateroom steward when he tried to start a conversation with a teenage passenger in a sauna. The victim then moved to a shower area to avoid the suspect when the alleged sexual conduct occurred. Immediately following the incident, the victim identified the crew member to his father, who detained him with the assistance of other passengers until ship security arrived.”
Don’t Let Your Children Go to the Sauna on a Cruise Ship Alone
To our knowledge, cruise lines do not provide security, supervision or monitoring of the public saunas on their ships. Even though some cruise lines like Carnival have rules that state that guests must be at least 18 years old to utilize spa facilities, including the sauna and steam rooms, (Carnival’s policy is here), most cruise lines do not enforce the policy. Children must be at least 16 years old to use the sauna, steam rooms, and fitness center facilities on Royal Caribbean cruise ships.
Of course, if a minor under the required age is molested in a shipboard sauna, the fact that the child is technically in violation of the cruise line’s age policy by being underage does not in any way permit a crew member or adult passenger to escape liability for indecent exposure.
No cruise line to our knowledge warns parents that there is a danger of sexual exposure or abuse by adult passengers or crew members when minors use saunas and steam rooms during cruises.
Unfortunately, Cruise Lines Have No Legal Duty to Report Acts of Lewd and Lascivious Exhibition to the FBI
Some cruise publications, like Cruise Hive, imply that cruise lines are required to report crimes like this pursuant to the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act (CVSSA) of 2010. But, in fact, the CVSSA does not obligate cruise lines to report incidents where minors are subject to indecent exposure by adult crew members or passengers. That’s why you see arrests of such perverts only by local law enforcement in the state of Florida (when the cruise ship returns to a port in Florida), as opposed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Florida is the only state in the United States which statutorily provides jurisdiction for local law authorities (like Miami-Dade Police or Broward Sherriff’s Office) to board cruise ships and local prosecutors to prosecute crimes which violate local Florida law.
There is no legal obligation under the CVSSA to report when passengers are victimized by acts of video voyeurism when crew members or passengers install spy cameras in passenger bathrooms or public facilities on cruise ships. There is also no legal requirement to report incidents where crew members possess or transport child pornography, which we have reported on extensively. Nearly 200 crew members have been accused of possessing Child Sexual Abuse Material (“CSAM”) in the past 24 months. Around 20 ship employees were arrested and prosecuted, mostly over 6 months ago, with around 170 deported.
Our advise? Watch your kids at all times when your family takes a cruise.
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Image Credit: Celebrity Eclipse – Dicklyon, CC BY-SA 4.0 commons / wikimedia; Michael Henry Mullis – Broward County Facebook Page.