A ‘family-friendly’ cruise became a holiday from hell after a family were forced to hide in their cabin to escape hordes of drunk passengers.
Ian and Sally Wright, from Sunderland, had forked out £8,000 to get on board the MSC Cruise Virtuosa on July 12th for a two-week trip across Spain.
The believed the cruise was aimed at families so would be perfect for kids Jack, 11, and Molly, 8,as well as Sally’s mum.
However the holiday descended into chaos, with the other passengers said to have drunk ‘insane’ amounts of booze more suited for a nightclub.
The 41-year-old dad said: ‘We wanted to book this cruise because we thought it was a family ship. We thought it looked great for kids.
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‘It was worse than a Wetherspoons. It would take you half an hour to get a drink. It was just horrendous.
‘It felt like an 18 to 30s club at times. If you were by the pool, you’d just hear constant swearing and people getting louder through the day.
‘We just thought “what have we spent our money on?” It became like Fawlty Towers.’
The author described how one family scrabble game was ruined when a drunken cruiser vomited next to their table.
He claimed it took staff an hour to mop up the ‘smelly’ mess.
MSC Cruises said they ‘regretted’ that the family’s experience did not meet their expectations and said they will be reaching out to ensure their ‘concerns are properly reviewed and addressed’.
Beyond the drunken behaviour, things got worse when Iain’s kids Jack and Molly returned from the top deck ‘covered in black soot’, which Ian claimed came from the ship’s funnels.
Ian claimed: ‘We were leaving the port and the kids went up to the top deck to see if the water slides were open.’
‘While they were on that deck, it just rained down black stuff all over them. They came down to tell us and Jack’s skin was covered in black stuff, Molly’s swimming costume was stained all over her and it was on her arms.’
The substance even triggered an allergic reaction on the 8-year-old’s skin, with the family visiting the doctor to treat her hives.
The dad continued: ‘They said it was from the fumes because it was in the area where the fumes had touched her skin.
‘She suffered with itching for 24 hours but it was a result of her being covered in this soot. It’s not acceptable.’
The horrified family then complained to staff but were allegedly told by staff ‘it happens sometimes’.
The shell-shocked family said they tried to leave the cruise halfway through in Majorca after they were sheltering in their rooms to avoid the ‘horrible’ atmosphere.
Dad Ian said there was ‘constant swearing’ and drunkenness which meant they had only 12 hours of fun over two weeks.
He demanded an apology and a partial refund.
Ian went on: ‘We spent most of the holidays just going out to eat and staying in our cabins because the atmosphere was just awful. There were no quiet areas. Everywhere was packed.
‘We got back feeling quite disheartened. It was a lot of money. The kids were disappointed.’
An MSC Cruises spokesman said: ‘We take all guest feedback seriously and regret that the Wright family’s experience did not meet their expectations.
‘Their concerns were addressed directly by the team on board and they were encouraged to follow up with our Customer Service team after their trip for further assistance.
‘As we have not received any additional communication from them since then, our Customer Service team will now reach out to the Wright family directly to ensure their concerns are properly reviewed and addressed.’
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Liverpool are expected to return with an improved offer after seeing an opening bid for Alexandar Isak rejected.
The Premier League champions, who have already spend well over £200million this summer, tabled a £110mi bid dismissed out of hand by Newcastle on Friday.
Wantaway Sweden international Isak is desperate to join the Reds and has communicated his desire to his current employers.
Isak has played no part in Newcastle’s pre-season campaign thus far with Eddie Howe admitting he cannot guarantee the striker will remain at St James’ Park.
Newcastle have not denied that the Swede has gone AWOL, after he reported a thigh injury that ruled him out of their Far East tour.
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The Magpies, however, insist their prize asset will not be sold for anything less than £150m but are making contingency plans.
Newcastle have already seen Liverpool hijack their own move for Hugo Ekitike, while Benjamin Sesko is understood to have his heart set on a move to Manchester United.
Ruben Amorim is said to have had Ollie Watkins as his No.1 target to cure United’s lack of goals but he appears to have been overruled.
Newcastle, however, are, according to the Daily Mail, likely to move for the England striker should Isak’s wish be granted.
Howe has endured a frustrating summer to this point with moves for the likes of Yoane Wissa and Jorgen Strand Larsen of Wolves failing to materialise.
Watkins was almost deemed surplus to requirements in January following the arrivals of Marcus Rashford and Marcos Asensio at Villa Park.
With neither player making that switch to Villa Park a permanent one and Jhon Duran having already departed, Watkins once again represents a key man for Unai Emery.
Watkins will have been looking to block out the outside noise over his future as Villa continued their pre-season tour of the United States with a 2-1 victory over St Louis City SC on Thursday.
Having found the the net just four days earlier in a 2-2 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt, Watkins headed home what proved to be the decisive goal after Morgan Rogers’ earlier effort at Energizer Park.
Asked if he was pleased to see Watkins amongst the goals ahead of the new season, Emery told reporters: ‘Yes, it’s important for us.
‘Playing even one time, second time… not different shapes, but different players and mixing players.
‘Morgan [Rogers] scored in the first half and Watkins scored in the second half. For them, it is important.
‘But as well, I want to have more players scoring goals. Hopefully we can do that in the next match against Nashville.
The idea now is more than the result, more than our shape. With the players we have to try to get our best performance.’