Cocaine carnage cruise
C4 film reality show on infamous party ship Voyage turns into a ‘drug-fuelled orgy’ Trippers were offered £260 cocaine ‘meal deal’
A CRUISE filmed for a Channel 4 reality show descended into a ‘drugs and vodka-fuelled orgy’, it was claimed yesterday.
Passengers aboard Royal Caribbean’s luxury liner Vision of the Seas alleged it was easier to buy cocaine than alcohol.
One guest claimed drug dealers were offering a £260 ‘meal deal’ during the weeklong voyage around the Mediterranean.
A holidaymaker was so drunk he appeared unable to walk and was photographed slumped in a wheelchair. Another vomited into the liner’s swimming pool.
One British man was arrested as soon as the ship pulled into port for the first time, at Cannes, and was taken away by French police, it was reported.
A film crew making an upcoming reality series called Shipmates for Channel 4 was on board to capture the madness.
Last night neither Channel 4 nor production company Full Fact TV, which is making the programme, was prepared to state that the film crew witnessed no drugs.
Vision of the Seas has swimming pools, spas, a casino and a ballroom. Royal Caribbean regularly sails it on voyages around the Med and the Caribbean.
For this trip the liner, which has 765 crew, was given a ‘millennial makeover’ and chartered by a firm called Anchored Cruise for 2,500 young holidaymakers to ‘let their hair down with an itinerary of pool parties and big name DJs’.
Anchored’s website promised 24-hour bars and cocktail stations as well as fitness centres and a climbing wall, with prices from £499 per person for a room shared by three guests, up to £10,000 for a spot in the Royal Suite.
Channel 4 commissioned the series Shipmates to follow two teams of friends on board the party boat. The broadcaster said in a promotional press release that the two groups would ‘join thousands of tanned and toned twenty-somethings for a once-in-a-lifetime party aboard one of Europe’s most lavish cruise liners’.
Becky Cadman, Channel 4’s commissioning editor for factual entertainment, said the series was ‘guaranteed to be full of sun, sea and sass’.
But soon after the ship set off on its round-trip starting and finishing in Barcelona – via Cannes, Ibiza and Palma – scenes on board quickly descended into carnage.
One partygoer claimed to MailOnline: ‘It was easier to get a bag of coke on board than it was to get a drink.’
A holidaymaker said: ‘Sometimes you didn’t know if you were on a cruise or in the middle of some drug-fuelled orgy.’
Another said the trip was ‘carnage on a new level of wrongness’ and said there was ‘group sex’ all over the ‘lawless’ ship. They added that drink and drugs were so rife, ‘I’m surprised no one died’.
Drinks packages offered on board included £5,000 for two magnums of vodka, ten bottles of Cristal champagne and two bottles of spirits.
The hedonistic scenes during ‘Anchored 2018’ are laid bare in photographs showing one guest slumped in a wheelchair being pushed by crew to his cabin and other people passed out in corridors.
One passenger showed a photo which was claimed to show five bags of cocaine sold as part of a ‘meal deal’ available on board. Other photos claimed to have been taken aboard the liner showed ecstasy tablets and ketamine.
In a slick video for the cruise, Anchored calls itself Europe’s first floating festival and shows glamorous models frolicking in bikinis and drinking champagne.
But it seems that for some guests the reality was far less glamorous. One woman said: ‘It was horrendous. I’ve never seen chaos like it. People vomiting into the swimming pool, you would have to step across crashed-out partygoers on the way to breakfast, and people snorting cocaine from the backs of their hands up on deck.’
After the first night of partying, a British man was arrested as the ship docked in Cannes. Further details were unavailable.
One partygoer who paid £1,400 for his five-day trip described the experience as ‘really, really disgusting’.
After an extraordinary ‘spray party’ where everyone was doused in champagne on the deck, the holidaymaker said he was charged £1,200 for the drink without taking part. One guest claimed: ‘When we challenged it, we were called liars by Royal Caribbean staff.’ Another man said the trip was so horrifying that he and his friends got off when they docked in Ibiza and refused to go back, calling it ‘an insane and an utter joke of a cruise’.
He added: ‘I will never ever again go on such a trashy trip. Utter rip-off. I know of drug dealers making an absolute killing and running out as the demand was so high. We left after three days.’
TV celebrities including Calum Best and actor Sid Owen, along with rap star Chipmunk, are said to have visited the ship. There is no suggestion they were involved in any of the debauchery.
There is also no suggestion anyone involved in the production of Shipmates was involved in any wrongdoing. Last night Colette Foster, creative director of
‘I’ve never seen chaos like it’
Full Fat TV, refused to comment on whether the film crew had seen any drugs during the voyage. She referred the question to Channel 4.
Channel 4 did not respond directly to the question, but issued a statement saying: ‘Any suggestion that an arrest or drug investigation involved anyone in the programme is untrue. We cannot comment on the behaviour of other passengers.’
The law regarding drugs taken on a ship which is in international waters is a grey area. Experts said it would generally reflect the law of the country in which the ship is registered.
The Vision of the Seas is registered in the Bahamas, where drug use is illegal, however it is unlikely police there would act in this case. And yesterday neither the French nor Spanish police indicated they would investigate.
Broadcasting regulator Ofcom’s rules state that illegal drugs ‘must generally be avoided and in any case must not be condoned, encouraged or glamorised’ in any programme likely to be seen by children.
Royal Caribbean Cruises confirmed an arrest was made in Cannes. A spokesman said: ‘We have a zero-tolerance policy for the use or possession of illegal drugs on our ships. Ship charters are held to the same strict standards.
‘We operate with the health and safety of our guests and crew as our highest priority, and we co- operate fully with law enforcement when we are aware of violations. The reported activities are entirely at odds with our values, and contrary to the terms of the charter agreement.
‘We have a strict conduct policy and the Anchored charter was expected to uphold the same strict standards.’
A spokesman for Anchored said: ‘Anchored has a zero tolerance drugs policy. Upon boarding the vessel customs officials used sniffer dogs and other measures to ensure drugs were not taken on board and it is our understanding no drugs were detected.
‘The company maintains the highest standards and takes any such allegations very seriously. A full investigation has been launched to ensure the safety and security of all passengers at future events.’