Key Features:
- A 69-year-old cruise visitor by chance boarded a Royal Caribbean cruise ship with a gun.
- She was caught in Nassau, which was the primary port name, and subsequently arrested.
- The grandmother needed to shell out $8,000 to be able to be launched from Nassau’s notoriously unlivable Fox Hill Jail.
One cruising grandmother has discovered a vital lesson: All the time double verify what may be in your belongings earlier than setting sail.
A cruise visitor named Mary Robinson managed to embark on Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas with a firearm in her possession on December 1, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Allegedly, the 69-year-old Oklahoma resident forgot that she was carrying a black Kel-Tec .380 pistol and 4 rounds of ammunition, which one way or the other additionally sneaked by means of the usual safety screenings for boarding the cruise ship.
She was meant to be onboard for a 4-night crusing to Nassau and Excellent Day at CocoCay to have a good time her adopted son’s twelfth birthday.
Nevertheless, she didn’t get very far as a result of the gun was present in her purse in Nassau on December 2 – the second day of the crusing – whereas Robinson was making an attempt to reboard the Freedom-class cruise ship.
“On Tuesday December 2nd police arrested a 69-year-old feminine of US nationality after she was present in possession of a fireman and ammunition,” the Royal Bahamas Police Pressure mentioned in an announcement.
She was arrested and brought to Nassau’s infamous Fox Hill Jail, which, per the US authorities, suffers from extreme overcrowding, poor vitamin, insufficient sanitation, and insufficient medical care.
Robinson was touring with a good friend, who agreed to take care of the 12-year-old on her behalf.
Grandma Spends Practically a Week in Jail
Robinson appeared earlier than Bahamas Justice of the Peace Lennox Coleby Sr. on December 4, 2025, the place she pleaded responsible to her crimes.
She tearfully apologized and defined that she forgot the weapon and bullets had been in her purse.
“She merely forgot that she had the gun and I’m instructed that she has a contact of dementia,” Robinson’s lawyer, Lawyer Bjorn Ferguson, defined.
Learn Additionally: What Can You Not Convey on a Cruise?
Unlicensed possession of a firearm and ammunition carries an automated jail sentence of 24-months within the Bahamas, however the Justice of the Peace agreed to spare Robison from jail if she may pay an $8,000 advantageous.
Since she didn’t have the funds accessible that day, Robinson was despatched to the Fox Hill facility for what had been certainly 5 – 6 very lengthy and troublesome days.
Her granddaughter, Graci Exendine, created a GoFundMe on December 3 to collect sufficient funds to cowl the advantageous, which raised over $12,000 in simply over per week – greater than sufficient for Robinson to go house.
In keeping with a Fb submit from the granddaughter, Robinson had been launched as of December 8.
“I simply talked to Mary, she is OUT!!,” she up to date, earlier than thanking everybody who contributed to the GoFundMe or despatched effectively needs.
The grandmother was staying in a resort in Nassau whereas she labored out the small print behind getting again house.
Not the First Time This Has Occurred
Regardless of tight safety from the cruise traces and cruise ports, this isn’t the primary time a weapon has by chance made its method onto a cruise ship – or come near it.
Most just lately, a 77-year-old cruise visitor was detained and deported whereas making an attempt to board an unspecified cruise ship with a gun in Ravenna, Italy, in October.
The American man additionally claimed that he had forgotten that the 6.35mm Browning semi-automatic pistol was in his backpack.
Additionally, earlier this 12 months, a 73-year-old passenger from the US was arrested at Japan’s Kobe Cruise Terminal after a handgun was present in his baggage.
Final 12 months, two Carnival visitors had been banned for all times after managing to deliberately smuggle a handgun onboard and bragging concerning the feat on-line.
Despite the fact that Robinson made an trustworthy mistake, there’s additionally an excellent probability that she was banned for all times by Royal Caribbean, because the cruise line has a really strict coverage regarding offenses that would threaten the protection of all onboard.
In fact, weapons, together with faux weapons and toys like Nerf Blasters, are strictly prohibited onboard.
How a Forgotten Gun Landed a Cruise Grandma in Nassau’s Infamous Jail
