Talk of Mutiny As Cruise Passengers Protest NCL Itinerary Changes

As cruise passengers set sail on a two week itinerary aboard the Norwegian Spirit last week, few could have predicted what would happen. Many of the travelers had booked the cruise expecting to visit Iceland and other European destinations. But that stop was cancelled, causing tension to rise. MSN Lifestyle News reports that days later as passengers prepared to dock at Scotland, officials aboard the Spirit announced that that stop, too, would be cancelled. Fed up, passengers began to riot.

From the reports of it, the outbreak of emotion was spontaneous. MSN quotes 31-year-old Cody McNutt as saying “That’s when the riots broke out on the ship,”he said. “There was an instant uproar. The tension leading up to the announcement was palpable and then it just exploded, and people just went over the edge.” his girlfriend Katasha Jones added. 

Though the revolt was not violent, and was not really a mutiny, the disturbance did go on for several hours and saw passengers get into verbal altercations with crew members. While some passengers demanded a refund, others stated that they were also owed an apology by the company’s CEO. They expressed frustration at being directed to call NCL’s Miami based headquarters to complain, only to be directed by headquarters to log their complaints with the ship’s guest services agents. 

In a statement, NCL said that the Spirit was forced to cancel the ports of call due to “severe weather conditions” which “are an act of God and cannot be controlled, influenced or remediated by the cruise line.

A letter that NCL reportedly gave to the affected passengers offered them a 25% discount on a future cruise, an offer that many of the passengers considered nothing more than adding insult to injury.