Cruisers React to “Cruise Karen” Who Threw Fit After Testing Positive Onboard

If you were tuned into the cruise industry last week, you no doubt saw the 20-minute video shot by Bronx resident Lauren Angelo as she was being removed from a Royal Caribbean ship after testing positive for COVID-19.

The backstory behind the expletive-laden live video streamed on Facebook, which has millions of views since last week, was that Angelo tested negative for COVID-19 prior to embarkation on July 5th on board Freedom of the Seas, but she and her travel companion were unvaccinated. According to Angelo, Royal Caribbean mistakenly gave her a band used to signify a passenger who was fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Angelo claims she asked the staff at embarkation several times that the purple wristbands signified unvaccinated passengers and that the staff repeatedly said yes. 

The next day, security on board the ship asked the pair if they were vaccinated. After responding ‘no’, they were instructed to go to the medical facility on board for a COVID-19 test. After a 2-hour wait, they were allowed to return to their room to await the results. After Angelo’s test came back positive, she was escorted off the ship in Nassau. 

Reaction from Cruisers 

Once the video started going viral online, cruisers from all over weighed in on the situation, with the vast majority applauding Royal Caribbean for their decisive action. Others also chimed in with some creative nicknames for Angelo, like “Cruise Karen” and “Karen of the Seas”. 

Below are just a sampling from the thousands of comments from viewers on the TikTok video posted from Angelo’s account: @Amethyst216.

The Aftermath

Since returning to New York, Angelo has claimed she received multiple negative COVID-19 tests and is accusing Royal Caribbean of falsifying the positive test taken on board the ship. In the video posted to her TikTok account, which we won’t be posting here because of the vulgar language, Angelo writes that Royal Caribbean “illegally falsified my Covid test & made it positive”. Her rational is that she’s already had COVID-19 (shocker, we know) and her high antibody count makes getting the virus again unlikely. 

The claim is completely absurd and unfounded as why on Earth would a cruise line fake a positive COVID-19 test for a paying customer? If the cruise line had a problem with Angelo, they’re well within their rights to remove her from the ship for any reason regardless of COVID. Could a false positive have happened? Sure, but to claim the cruise line had a hand in making it so is pudding-brained nonsense. 

Let us know what you thought of the whole situation in the comments below!