Cruise Ship Apologizes, Issues Refunds to Passengers for Raucous Party by Indians

The Royal Caribbean International had to apologize and issue mass refunds to its passengers after 1,300 employees of an Indian tobacco company went on a wild party, turning the cruise holiday for dozens of Australian and other tourists into a nightmare.

Guests aboard the lavish “Voyager of the Seas” cruise ship were shocked to see the Indians take over the vessel’s decks and bars, and block many parts of the ship, including the poolside and large-screen TVs.

The employees of the Kanpur-based gutkha company Kamla Pasand were on a visit to Australia for a conference in early September, and boarded the ship in Sydney. Shortly after the ship left the port, the group started dancing and partying with scantily-dressed women in Playboy bunny attire and loud music all day long for three days at every available space in the ship. According to the Australian website 9news, fellow passengers had to take refuge in the ship’s restaurants as the Indian contingent took over the decks and buffet area.

The Indian men also harassed young female passengers by recording them on their mobile phones, Australian news program A Current Affair reported.

“It was almost like a huge bucks party – a bucks night for 1,200 people,” it quoted Cassandra Riini as saying. “Their doors would be open and you would walk past and be like what am I going to be looking at when I walk past this door? It is hard to forget after seeing all the flashbacks of these men around all the time, 24 hours a day, like we could not escape.”

The ship features several huge screens, generally for playing Hollywood movies, which the men took over for playing Kamla Pasand videos throughout the day.

“It was crazy little Playboy bunny outfits, you know this is a family boat,” another passenger, Christine Weyling, told 9news.com.“I think that they should have notified us that there was a big group that had been booked and had booked the pool deck out … everyone on that ship should have been notified.”

The company stated that it would take care that such incidents do not occur again, while its India representative denied the charges.

“During (Voyager of the Seas’) three-night sailing on September 6th, a group onboard caused complaints to some of our guests. We were quickly made aware and provided them with a satisfactory solution,” Susan Bonner, managing director of Royal Caribbean Australia and New Zealand, told 9news.com. “We operate with the safety of our guests and crew as our highest priority and are currently looking into all guest feedback regarding this incident to ensure it does not happen again.”

Ratna Chadha, CEO of Tirun Travel Marketing, which is the India representative of Royal Caribbean International, and through which the group booked its tickets, said that they did not create any nuisance, the Times of India reported.

“Some Australians complained of wild partying by the Indian group. The Indian group was appropriately dressed and didn’t create any nuisance. The pool area was shut down after the mandated time. Even if the Indian group created a nuisance, why didn’t the Australians complain to the authorities on the ship itself ? They complained about it after the trip got over. The ship is always at liberty to take control of situations if these are not in sync with the guest conduct policy. But there was no action required as the group was within the ship’s mandate. Of the 3,900 passengers on the ship, it seems that only six Australians had an issue,” Chadha told the Indian publication.

The ship has a capacity of over 3,000 passengers. It travels from Australia to the South Pacific, with stops in New Zealand, Fiji and New Caledonia.