A cruise ship. (representative image) . (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images) 
A cruise ship. (representative image) . (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)  
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Cruise Out Of Control: 1300 Kamla Pasand Staff ‘Hijack’ Ship, Engage In Wild Partying As Other Guests Claim Harassment

BySwarajya Staff

Quite a situation was faced by passengers on board the Royal Caribbean Australia cruise as more than 1,300 employees of Kamla Pasand, a pan masala company, created mayhem on board the ship, making other passengers uncomfortable.

The pan masala crowd comprised one-third of the capacity of Voyager of the Seas’ (3,144). The employees came in from a conference in Sydney and brought in women masquerading as Playboy bunnies. As the contingent behaved rather uncouth with the others, the passengers were forced to take shelter in the ship’s restaurant since the decks and the buffet was taken over by the unruly Indian crowd.

One of the passengers told A Current Affair that “It was almost like a huge bucks [stag] party – a bucks night for 1,200 people. 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,” she added.

A popular source of entertainment on the cruise, Bingo, was cancelled due to ‘lack of interest’. Royal Caribbean has issued a full refund to the guests. Telegraph quoted a Royal Caribbean spokesperson as saying, “Royal Caribbean operates with the safety of our guests and crew as our highest priority. While we have had a long history of successful group bookings in which all guests have enjoyed their cruise, we are looking into this incident, including all guest feedback, to ensure our group booking policies are suitable and that our guest conduct policy is applied appropriately.”

Dealing with such situations at sea can be complicated. Location of the ship when the crime takes place, nationality of the victim and the accused can determine what or which laws can be applied.