Thefts from stateroom safes are uncommon but more likely if you have problems setting your password or closing your safe properly.
In-room safes are typically a safe place to store personal belongings, but risks are involved. Safes are set up with magnetic keycard access, individual PINs, or safe keys. The first step is to keep a keycard, safe key, and PIN secure and on your person. Checking on valuables and ensuring the safe is closed and locked, never allowing anyone in the room alone, and alerting proper staff to a safe’s low battery are crucial for a secure safe.
As floating cities, cruise ships face problems with theft, just like anywhere else.
Stateroom Safes
It is a situation many cruisers find themselves in. You are about to leave your stateroom. You want your valuables to be in the safest place. Is the safe in your cabin adequate? Should you leave it in the ship’s master safe at the purser’s desk? How safe are cruise ship safes?
Stateroom safes are usually big enough to fit your valuables. For example, Carnival’s are ten inches wide, nine inches tall, and eight inches deep. Thefts from the purser’s master safe are exceedingly rare.
They usually have a touchpad pin code or are activated by your keycard or something else with a magnetic strip. The instructions for how to set or reset the combination are usually detailed nearby. If you forget your combination, inadvertently lock yourself out, or cannot close your safe, then the ship’s security or purser can help you.
One of the most common problems with cabin safes is the battery. If your safe needs a new battery, a designated crew member will come and replace it, and for this procedure, they will not even enter your room unless you are present. On top of this, additional rules often require the crew to come in pairs.
Ensure your safety problems are resolved before you disembark for an excursion or even before leaving your room.
In the unlikely event that a theft does happen from a stateroom safe, it is usually linked to improperly secured safety. It can be a crime of opportunity for a passenger to walk by your room when the door is open for cleaning, and the steward is distracted. Or it can be the ship’s crew who notice your safe is not adequately secured.
Because most staterooms today are controlled by keycards, if something turns up missing from your cabin safe, the ship’s security officer can pull the electronic records for your room to see every keycard used to enter. Everyone, both staff and passengers, are issued a unique and traceable keycard. And on top of that, security cameras are usually mounted to cover the passenger deck hallways and public areas.
Cruise lines take instances of theft seriously. If someone files a stolen item report, security will isolate a suspect, who will be searched. If the stolen item is found to be in the suspect’s possession, the result can be incarceration with criminal charges at the next port-of-call, a one-way ticket home, or both.
Is It Safe to Leave Valuables in a Cruise Ship Room?
Someone would rarely be able to get away with stealing from the ship’s safe deposit box, let alone attempt such folly.
In 2006, an Australian woman working as the chief purser for an Alaska-bound cruise was caught with $400,000 hidden in a cardboard box by her cabin bedside.
She had stolen it from the ship’s master’s safe and was arrested upon arrival in Ketchikan and sentenced to four months in jail.
In another case, a night auditor was arrested in 2014 after a cumulative $10,000 turned missing from three cruises departing from Fort Lauderdale in Florida. He confessed to stealing the money and wiring it to a foreign bank account.
While Rare, Stateroom Safe Thefts Can Happen
In 2013, a crew member was arrested in Florida, accused of stealing $7,900 from two of his fellow crew roommates. He allegedly found a safe key in one of their bunk drawers and used it to open two safes where they stored their valuables.
The ship’s security determined the thefts’ approximate time and then cross-referenced room key swipe information with surveillance camera footage to identify the third roommate as the prime suspect.
While this involved a crew-on-crew theft, passengers have also reported significant thefts from their rooms. But the bizarre circumstances of the following most recent example from 2017 illustrate just how rare thefts from passenger stateroom safes are, to the point of being unbelievable.
The story goes that two friends had incredible luck over two nights and won over a million dollars at the cruise ship casino. As told by one of the passengers, on the second night, two of the ship’s officers broke into his room and stole $430,000 from his cabin safe. His friend was staying in a nearby cabin, and when he heard the commotion, he escaped in time with $600,000.
The ship’s security officers tell a different story, saying they were acting on orders from the cruise company and claimed that the two friends won the money fraudulently. The case is still ongoing.
While stories like these are few and far between, Travel Insurance Review, a company cited by major national and international news outlets, cautions against the use of your stateroom safe. While it says the safe in your room is “better than nothing,” it recommends taking your own safe instead.
In making this recommendation, Travel Insurance Review seems to disregard that ship security has access to card swipes and video surveillance and that the crew capable of accessing your safe is strategically limited. It justifies its advice by citing unnamed “experts” and bases its gravitas on the fact that many cruise ship staff are “armed with the ability to open your safe.”
It’s Hard to Come Up with Exact Statistics For Safe Thefts on Cruise Ships
It is challenging to develop reliable statistics about thefts from cruise ship safes because cruise companies must only report alleged thefts over $10,000. Thefts of smartphones, credit cards, or hundreds of dollars in cash go unreported by cruise ship companies, who have the incentive to minimize these types of unpleasant statistics.
In 2014, WPTV in West Palm Beach reported Scripps’ investigation into the cruise industry that found a stark contrast between crimes reported by cruise companies and the police’s calls. Investigative reporters analyzed data from four major cruise companies, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Disney, and Norwegian, and found that they reported 78 crimes nationwide in 2013. Scripps then made public records requests to law enforcement in Florida and found they had been called to investigate over 300 crimes in the five biggest Florida ports alone.
It is hard to find useful information on minor thefts on cruise ships, let alone thefts from cruise ship safes. Because of a safe crack’s sensationalist nature, one might expect such instances to be featured in the news. But if there are such cases, they are not making a splash.
What can be said for sure is that between January 2010 and September 2018, the major cruise lines operating in the US reported 37 instances of serious theft on board. That is the theft of valuables worth over $10,000, according to the US Department of Transportation.
About a quarter of those involved passengers, while 41 percent involved crew members:
- Passengers – 9 instances
- Crew – 13 instances
- Other – 15 instances
And that is not to say those instances of theft were from ship safes.
Naturally, the cruise companies themselves have made their statements on this subject.
What the Cruise Companies Say About Safes
Even if stateroom safe thefts are rare, most major cruise companies do not want to take any chances. When you read your ticket’s fine print, you will likely find an indemnity clause about your cabin safe.
Holland America has wording that says, “a safe to store your valuables and important documents is available in your stateroom. Holland America Line assumes no responsibility for the items [passport, medication, tickets, cash, credit cards, jewelry, gold, and more] listed above.
Due to any cause whatsoever, suppose Holland America Line is liable for loss of, damage to, or delay of your property. In that case, the amount of Holland America Line’s liability will not exceed US$100.”
Disney Cruise Line’s policy is that it shall “in no event be liable for the loss of or damage to cash, negotiable securities, gold, silverware, jewelry, ornaments, works of art, photographic/video/audio equipment or supplies, laptop computers, cellular phones or other valuables” that are stored in your stateroom safe.
These are typical among all cruise lines. From a consumer standpoint, the indemnity clause is a necessary risk you must accept if you want to step aboard a cruise ship.
However, even with all its indemnity clauses, a cruise company still must fulfill its end of the contract to you, which is generally understood to be a safe ride. If it ever comes to interpreting exactly how and if the cruise company has breached its contract, you will be looking at hiring legal help.
Even if its legalese fully protects a cruise company, it does not mean they are not under market pressure. When a man returned to his cabin room to find his engagement ring box in the toilet, the unlucky groom-to-be said Carnival initially blamed him for leaving the ring in the open. However, after negative media attention, Carnival refunded the cost of the ring.
