Is there anything better than the first shower on the first day of vacation? The room steams up, and then you get to slide into a thick bathrobe. The whole thing feels restorative and low-key luxurious. That is until you find yourself defeated by dodgy hardware.
This is exactly the position one man found himself in on the first day of his Virgin Voyages cruise. It was a steamy situation that quickly turned muggy.
A video of the situation was posted to TikTok by traveler (and new Florida resident) Maddie (@madisonsocials).
The Saxophones Get Louder
Few things are more vulnerable-feeling than being in your post-shower finery and waiting on strangers to rescue you. If you’re on a cruise ship, like Maddie and her friend, it can feel incredibly claustrophobic, too. In the video, which has garnered over 22,000 views, an unidentified man’s hand twists a door lock back and forth.
The video’s text explains what’s going on: “POV its the first morning of your cruise. You just took a hot steaming shower. But then the door won’t unlock. You’re stuck in a muggy, TINY bathroom for 45 mins until maintenance has to bust the door down [skull emoji].”
Meanwhile, the soundtrack is the viral clip of saxophones getting louder and louder.
In an email to BroBible, Maddie confirmed that it was a long 45 minutes before crew came to the rescue. But after that, it was all smooth sailing. “It was a crazy start to our cruise trip, [but] overall, the cruise was pretty fun!”
Solo Travel Means Solo Problem-Solving
Luckily, Maddie was there to help out by raising the alarm. But this situation does raise the question of what a solo traveler would do trapped in this kind of situation. The simple solution seemingly would be to leave the bathroom door open. But, according to a thread on the cruising solo forum, there are cruisers who need to close the doors.
Several travelers said that they have been able to escape locked bathrooms on cruise ships with a combination of luck and shouting. Traveler Lucy R. booked a room in a quieter part of her cruise ship. She got stuck in the bathroom and unsuccessfully tried to bust her way out, even using a garbage can as a battering ram. “What I have learned is to never lock my bathroom door on any cruise ship. I also learned to NEVER book a cabin that is too isolated where people can’t hear me scream for help,” she wrote.
Another traveler ended up pulling an emergency bell when they ended up in a restroom on a deck where few people went. But it’s the traveler who goes by the handle PerfectlyPerth who might have the easiest solution: “Why not just pack a cheap rubber doorstop?” That way instead of taking a change with finicky locks, you just jam the doorstop under the door to keep it safely closed.
Should You Take Your Phone Everywhere You Go?
A subsequent video confirms that Maddie’s companion eventually got out of the shower. But that doesn’t seem to reassure the internet.
“This is why I always take my phone with me everywhere,” Rachel (@rachellunney) said.
“Imagine you left your phone charging on the bed lol,” Riley Null (@rileynull) said.
Then, Manda Nori (@duhmanduh31) thought about how she’d handle it, writing, “I would literally need to take another shower after that. I’d be sweating my ass being stuck in a small sauna.”
And Mellennial (@meleason09) dropped a punny: “New fear unlocked.”
@madisonsocials saxophones getting louder #virginvoyages #stuck #trapped #storytime #cruise
BroBible reached out to Virgin Voyages via their media email. We will update this when they get back to us.