Pam and Ken Jackson’s dream Caribbean cruise turned into a stinking ordeal when kitchen waste burst through their cabin ceiling. The couple from Bidston were left gagging after being drenched in what Ken, 77, described as: “I just heard this whooshing noise, then this horrible slush came through the ceiling and covered me head to toe, and Pam was covered in it as well. The bed and all our belongings.”
The horrified pair were covered in a vomit-smelling slop, which Ken elaborated on: “We were covered head to toe and it smelled like vomit. It was macerated kitchen waste going down to the bilges to be offloaded on the next port, so it was really foul-smelling, and it was pouring out. We stank something awful, and goodness knows what was in it apart from food waste.”
Pam recounted the traumatic event, saying: “It flowed all over the bed, covering our personal possessions and medication and out through the door. We were covered from head to toe.” Their supposed idyllic escape aboard the Marella Explorer 2, only three days into the voyage, was booked through TUI. In response to the incident, Marella Cruises by TUI expressed their regret stating they “would like to apologise” for the distress caused.
Video evidence obtained by the ECHO captures the disgusting moment brown fluid cascaded from above, saturating the couple’s bedding and discoloring the walls, reports the Liverpool Echo. In a shocking video, 76 year old Pam is overheard saying: “The lights are going on and off and everything. Oh it stinks, it’s everywhere. It’s on my slippers. It’s running down the walls.”
Ken and Pam raised the issue with the staff and were relocated to another cabin, but their woes didn’t end there according to Ken. He disclosed: “They took our clothes away and washed what they could, but in the process shrunk a lot of our clothes, particularly my trousers and a couple of dresses of Pam’s.
“There was a lot of argy-bargy about where they were going to put us because we couldn’t go back to the cabin. It was just a write-off. Eventually they got us settled in a small balcony cabin which was OK, but we couldn’t sleep very well and the bed was so uncomfortable. After a couple of nights we had a look at the mattress and found it had completely collapsed, and they had piled about 10 or 12 mattress toppers on top of it.” Additional footage revealed that when Pam removed the numerous mattress toppers, it uncovered “a very collapsed mattress… stained as well”.
Despite having the mattress replaced at their request, they claimed the new mattress was ill-fitting for the curved bed frame. Later, they experienced further discomfort as they alleged that the air conditioning stopped working in their new cabin, resulting in temperatures escalating to an unbearable 28C.
The couple were left disgruntled after being offered only a partial refund for their cruise nightmare, with TUI willing to reimburse them for the first week but not the subsequent damages. Pam recounted: “The customer services manager informed us that TUI would only refund the first week as the rest of the cruise wasn’t affected. TUI would only pay for the clothes they had shrunk ‘as that was their fault’. We were told we had to claim for other personal possessions damaged by the burst pipe through our own personal travel insurance.
“We were informed that the offer TUI had made was ‘take it or leave it’ and only on offer for the duration of the cruise. It was a full and final offer. We felt under pressure to accept.” Ken expressed his frustration, saying: “They would pay for the one-week Caribbean cruise, they would pay £470 for clothes ruined, but not for personal possessions including our fitness watches or travel wallets.”
He continued: “We feel disappointed they didn’t hold their hands up. Not once did they apologise or actually say they accept responsibility and that would have gone a long, long way. We’re not particularly interested in the money. We’re at an age where we’re not going to got through lengthy court proceedings just to recuperate a few thousand. But we felt we weren’t listened to. It left a really bad taste in our mouths. We have travelled with most cruise companies, but we certainly will not be going with Marella again.”
A spokesperson for TUI UK and Ireland expressed regret over the incident, stating: “We would like to apologise to Mr and Mrs Jackson for experiencing a broken pipe in their cabin during their Marella Cruises holiday. We always do our best to ensure customers have the best possible holiday experience. We ensured that we promptly moved the customers to a new cabin, and also offered compensation, which has been accepted.”