Mutiny aboard luxury liner after captain cancels stops

A FRENCH passenger was evicted from a luxury cruise liner in the Indian Ocean for staging a “mutiny” after the captain cancelled two stops and gave customers €150 (£133) as recompense.

The trip was supposed to be a dream cruise around the “Vanilla islands” of Madagascar, Maurice, Reunion and the Seychelles on the Costa neoriviera liner. But Alain Jan, a French chef who boarded at Reunion on Oct 26, said it turned into a “floating prison”.

Two days into the trip, the captain announced that three stop-offs around Madagascar were cancelled “due to a plague epidemic” – the island is currently experiencing an outbreak of bubonic and pneumonic plague. The next day, passengers learned that the boat would not be going to Mauritius, Nosy Be or Diego Suarez either.

Tempers then flared when passengers were told they would receive just €150. “A part of the trip is cancelled and drinks on board costs €5,” Mr Jan said.

When Mr Jan failed to receive an adequate response from the crew, he began a protest and when the captain refused to change course, mutinous passengers staged a second protest as the boat was nearing the Seychelles. Exasperated, the captain rang the local police chief, who eventually escorted Mr Jan from the boat.

Mr Jan and others alleged that Costa Cruises had known of plague cases for months but deliberately hid the change of programme from passengers.

Costa Cruises denies the claim. In a statement, it said while it understood the “disappointment of passengers eagerly awaiting all the stops on the Costa neoriviera’s itinerary,” it said that “security, health and well-being of passengers and crew are an absolute priority”.