13. Mutiny!

At around 6pm last evening the captain spoke on the PA requesting that the group of passengers currently at the guest services desk disperse immediately or they would face serious consequences.

A few minutes later, he spoke on the PA again explaining the position in no uncertain terms. It seems that a number of passengers had formed some sort of mob rule pressure group and had crossed a line by being abusive to the guest services staff, complaining that the ports of call were being missed on purpose, that Princess was withholding information, that no alternative port was being considered, that the compensation was inadequate, and were demanding a free cruise and free drinks for the remainder of the current voyage. 

The captain stated, quite rightly that this sort of behaviour is not tolerated on an aircraft or in a hotel and is not tolerated on the ship either. He called the group "idiots" and likened them to a "pack of hyenas". He was very curt and very angry indeed.

He went on to state that the officers now knew the names and cabin numbers of the troublemakers and that they will be disembarked from the ship in Hongkong. Period.

Of course the ship is now rife with rumours as to who was involved and how many are going to be thrown off the ship. Certainly it should be interesting to see what happens and which authorities turn up at the quayside when the ship berths later this evening. Our waitress, Sandra's husband is on the security team onboard the ship and she has promised she will try to find out some more information for us by dinner tonight but as of now we seem to think that it is a group of a dozen or so Americans and British.

Obviously, forcibly disembarking passengers at the next port of call is not something that happens often and it must have been a very serious incident for the captain to invoke such an action.

Needless to say the remaining 99.5% of the passengers have every sympathy with the guest services team, the captain and his actions.