A passenger on a P&O cruise ship won a pay-out of four figures after a staff member repeatedly propositioned him.
Lewis Meehan, 27, was asked if he was "sure" he wasn't gay when the P&O crewman attended his room twice, once to deliver a pizza and a second time to "ask for payment".
Mr Meehan felt bemused when the staff member complimented his body on the first visit, so decided to begin recording on his phone when the crewman returned. Unsettled by the encounter he then made a complaint, Nottinghamshire Live reports.
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The incident occurred after Nottingham Forest fan Mr Meehan returned to his room after celebrating his team winning, where he ordered a pepperoni pizza. Mr Meehan answered the door in his underwear to the crewman, who "complimented his body".
Several minutes later, the staff member rang the room claiming payment needed to be made which Mr Meehan found odd. He decided to record their second encounter, capturing footage in which the steward can be heard repeatedly questioning his sexuality.
In the video, the steward can also be heard asking they only do it "once", followed by Meehan telling him, "No, honestly, I'm straight". Asking "please" once again, Mr Meehan said "No, no, no". Finally, the cruise ship worker said "Please don't complain about this". However, Mr Meehan put in a formal complaint.
Once the ship arrived at the next stop on their Caribbean trip, the staff member was removed from the cruise. Carnival UK, which owns P&O Cruises has since paid Meehan thousands of pounds in compensation.
The Nottingham man said: "It was just so unexpected - it totally ruined our holiday. My sister was really scared by it. I was bigger than him and felt OK handling the situation, but I worried about it happening to someone more vulnerable. He could escalate and something much worse could happen."
He added: "You get contact in my job and I’m used to that, but this affected me. From the end of Covid restrictions last June to now, I’ve worked 70 to 80 hour weeks - I just needed a break. They are expensive holidays and you just don’t expect that."
Meehan claims a company spokesperson reached out after the incident and ensured him the steward was confined to his room for the remainder of the trip. The staff member was then removed from the cruise once they docked the following day.
A spokesperson for Carnival UK issued a statement on the incident explaining how serious they take situations like this. The spokesperson: "We take any allegation of improper behaviour extremely seriously and we are conducting a thorough investigation."
