fyre festival cruise ship

How A Cruise Ship Could Have Saved The Fyre Festival

Richard Simms

January 23, 2019

It’s been nearly two years since the Fyre Festival went down in flames, but a fleeting moment in a new Netflix documentary hints that the notoriously disastrous music festival might have been salvaged if a cruise ship-related plan had been put into effect.

What Went Wrong

From the start, Fyre Festival was promoted as an event unfolding at the crossroads of exclusivity and accessibility. For the right price, anyone could party with rock stars and fashionistas on a Bahamian island formerly owned by Pablo Escobar. Instead, as chronicled in two fantastic documentaries on Hulu ( Fyre Fraud) and Netflix ( Fyre, a trailer for which can be seen below), the entire thing came to define the term #EpicFail. The destination had hardly any infrastructure, and the organizers were spending money faster than they could raise it — even by unethical-at-best terms. In the aftermath, accusations were made, lawsuits were filed and maybe, just maybe, lessons were learned.

Fyre Music Festival Video

But during one fleeting moment in Fyre (likely ignored by most viewers who are instead focused on the jaw-dropping deceits and testosterone-fueled hubris on display), an idea is floated which could have solved many of the problems which, at that point, were multiplying like flies on a cow patty. In the scene, self-trained pilot and project “advisor” Keith van der Linde talks about a possible solution. “I didn’t think it was possible to fit [that many] people on the island,” he says, “so I had made a plan to get a cruise ship.”

Now, it’s not made clear in either documentary what van der Linde means by “made a plan” or how far this proposal actually got, but the next thing we see is him being told, “We’re not doing the cruise ships anymore.”

How Cruise Ships Could Have Saved The Festival

In watching the ensuing disaster, it’s hard not to reflect on that one snippet and think how the pilot’s idea might have, if not saved the day, at least mitigated the damage which would follow. For one thing, a chartered cruise ship — especially a modern mega-ship such as the Carnival Horizon or Norwegian Bliss — could easily provide housing for thousands of guests (Instead, those who’d paid thousands for a high-end experience wound up sleeping in unfinished FEMA tents on mattresses which were soaking wet thanks to a badly-timed storm). Guests who’d been expecting to stay in luxury villas might easily have been placed in a ship’s most tricked-out suites.

READ MORE: Virgin’s Scarlet Lady To Feature RockStar Suites

Using a cruise ship to house guests would have also helped the Fyre Festival organizers deal with keeping attendees fed — another massive problem they encountered. Overnight, photos of the cheese sandwiches festival attendees were given in lieu of gourmet meals went viral thanks to Twitter and Instagram, aka the very social media platforms which had been used to generate buzz for the event from the start.

Something tells us that even people who mock cruise food (usually without having actually experienced the wide variety of cuisines modern ships offer) would prefer a full-blown buffet to the slim pickings provided at the Fyre Festival (Although kudos to hard-working Bahamas natives like MaryAnn Rolle, whose Exuma Point Beach Bar & Grill who labored tirelessly to keep attendees and crew fed despite never being paid for her services. Thanks in part to the two documentaries raising awareness of the situation, she has since recouped her losses via a successful GoFundMe page).

Certainly, cruise ships have been chartered under similar circumstances in the past. Sixthman Productions has hosted numerous themed music festivals on Norwegian Cruise Line ships, while the federal government chartered several ships (including the Carnival Fascination ) to house relief workers and displaced residents following the devastating hurricanes which rocked the Caribbean in the fall of 2017.

Ultimately, there’s no way of knowing if chartering cruise ships could have helped prevent the Fyre Festival from becoming one of the most buzzed about (for all the wrong reasons) events since Woodstock. Perhaps, given all the chicanery going on behind the scenes, nothing could have accomplished that lofty goal. One thing, however, seems certain: It couldn’t have made things worse.

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Life at Sea Cruises convinced hundreds of people to pay tens of thousands of dollars for a three-year, round-the-world cruise of a lifetime. According to an absolutely wild story from CNN, the company never actually had a ship and has cancelled the voyage that was originally supposed to depart on November 1. Life at Sea’s (now former) CEO Kendra Holmes plans to do the whole thing again at another company, much like how Fyre Festival organizer and convicted felon Billy McFarland refuses to go away .

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Dear Deidre

Much-hyped cruise branded new ‘Fyre festival’ disaster for cancelling days before launch… as they couldn’t find a ship

Kara Godfrey
Published : 13:56, 27 Nov 2023
Updated : 15:21, 27 Nov 2023

THE WORLD'S longest cruise has scrapped its three-year maiden voyage - just days before it was due to set sail.

Life at Sea was announced last year, with passengers able to buy entire apartments onboard.

The three-year Life at Sea cruise has been scrapped - because they didn't find a ship

The three-year journey would travel 130,000 miles, travelling to 135 countries along the way including across South America, Antarctica, the Caribbean and North Asia.

Along with apartments, there would also be a wellness centre, swimming pool and restaurants onboard.

If you didn't fancy an entire apartment, you could opt for a suite which started from around £2,000 a month.

The journey was set to depart on November 1 from Istanbul in Turkey , although this was postponed to November 11.

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The departure destination was then moved to Amsterdam in the Netherlands on November 30.

However, passengers have since been told the cruise is not taking place at all - as they couldn't get a ship in time.

Life at Sea Cruises was planning to buy the AIDAaura ship, a former Carnival cruise liner which retired this summer .

The sale had hoped to take place in September, where it would then be renovated in time for the cruise.

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Yet the cruise ship was then bought out by Celestyal Cruises on November 16, with investors also withdrawing from Life at Sea.

Ex-CEO Kendra Holmes resigned earlier this month and has since moved to HLC Cruises.

A message from owner Vedat Ugurlu said they were "extremely sorry for the inconvenience".

Chief Operating Officer Ethem Bayramoglu said in a message: "Although we are all disappointed and frustrated that we didn’t sail this time, it is important to us that you feel positive overall about your experience with us.

"Vedat in particular is still hopeful that Miray will someday soon have an option for you to consider.”

But passengers have been left fuming, with some claiming they had sold their homes and belonging in preparation for the three-year journey.

One person wrote on Facebook: "Sounds like the FYRE Festival to me."

And a passenger told CNN : "I’m very sad, angry and lost.

"I had the next three years of my life planned to live an extraordinary life, and now [I have] nothing. I’m having a hard time moving forward."

Others said they felt "sad and betrayed."

Former flight attendant Meredith Shay sold everything she owned to go on the new Life at Sea cruise back in April.

Passengers have been told they will be refunded in monthly instalments, with anyone who has already arrived having their accommodation covered.

There is still another long cruise ship planning to launch.

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FYRE FESTIVAL

I SURVIVED FYRE FESTIVAL – AND IT PROVES WE NEED TO WISE UP ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

The truth behind the disastrous fyre festival was laid bare last week in a documentary that went viral. we meet the british influencer cc clarke who helped promote the festival – but was duped like the guests, arriving in the bahamas to find no accommodation or water….

Two years ago, when the British influencer CC Clarke received an email from an agent asking if she would like to attend a luxury festival in the Bahamas, she jumped at the chance.

A quick Google search threw up a sleek advert for what promised to be ‘the most insane festival the world has ever seen’. It starred Bella Hadid, Hailey Baldwin, Emily Ratajkowski and Kendall Jenner partying on a boat off a private island in the Bahamas that once belonged to notorious criminal Pablo Escobar. Rapper Ja Rule was a co-founder and the event, Fyre Festival, promised luxury accommodation – for around Dhs918,000 you could stay on a private yacht with your own chef, world-class food and headline acts like Major Lazer. In short, it made Coachella look C-list.

“‘Luxury villas’ were replaced by emergency tents left over from Hurricane Matthew. The free accommodation promised to 250 influencers didn’t exist. Toilets had only been thought of at the last minute”

If you’ve watched Netflix’s brilliant new documentary, Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened – and you probably have by now – you’ll know how this story ends. After posting about the festival in exchange for the trip, CC (@ccclarkebeauty, 1.6m followers) was one of thousands of people (they’d paid up to Dhs275,000, based on the promise they’d seen online) who landed in the Bahamas in 2017 to find a disaster zone. ‘Luxury villas’ were replaced by emergency tents left over from Hurricane Matthew. The free accommodation promised to 250 influencers didn’t exist. Toilets had only been thought of at the last minute . Shortly after the 10,000 festivalgoers arrived, the event was cancelled, leaving everyone stranded.

CC had never suspected things might go wrong. The first warning signs came when she was on the plane – a commercial flight, rather than the private jet promised to guests. “I heard murmurs that people hadn’t been paid,” she says. “Then people started handing around pictures of the festival on their phones, saying, ‘Is this true?’ But, by then, we were all in too deep.”

Things only got worse. In lieu of luxury accommodation, CC was taken to a cruise ship with about 30 others. She quickly learned that none of the staff on the ship had been paid, and claims she was “trapped onboard”. When she eventually made it to the island, she found festival-goers sleeping rough on the beach, “being eaten alive by mosquitos” and unable to find a flight home. She says organisers did nothing to help, and suspects they’d fled the island. She received just one message from festival organisers, with the name of a bar where people could find food, water and safety. “Everyone was abandoned… trapped,” she recalls. “I was panicked and angry. You never think that something that huge, where big, worldwide artists are performing, is going to fall through like that.”

Billy McFarland, the man behind Fyre, has since been sentenced to six years in jail after he “fraudulently induced over 100 investors to invest more than Dhs100m.”

“There’s a deeper message: at its core, the film is a damning indictment of social media and influencer culture”

Fyre is compulsive viewing, the kind of real-life, true-crime story that has become a pop culture mainstay in recent years. But there’s a deeper message: at its core, the film is a damning indictment of social media and influencer culture . As Marc Weinstein, a music festival consultant, says in the film, “I look back at my posts on social media and it was all beautiful beaches and sunsets, but I was going through the hardest experience of my life. Fyre shows what happens when you take that to an extreme.”

“As the documentary gained traction, many wondered if it spelled the end of influencer culture”

Jillionaire, of band Major Lazer, puts it even more starkly: “Fyre was basically like Instagram come to life.” Last week, as the documentary gained traction, many wondered if it spelled the end of influencer culture . (Kendall Jenner was paid Dhs918,000 for one Instagram post about the festival, in stark contrast to Maryann Rolle, a Bahamian restaurant owner who said she lost Dhs184,000 of her life savings catering for Fyre.)

Bella Hadid has publicly apologised for ever putting her name to it but, as one Fyre employee who was also in the dark says in the documentary, “If we didn’t know what was going on, how could we expect a model to? “When I saw the other names who were promoting it, I thought, ‘Well, this is legit!’” says CC, the only British influencer to have been invited. “I was only a year into my influencer career and it was exciting to think I could be there with big names.” She says the agent who’d emailed her was someone she had worked with before and trusted. She’d also promoted and attended Coachella, and says this didn’t feel any different.

The experience has changed how CC operates today; she is now far more diligent about what she puts her name to, and she has taken on management and a lawyer. And that vigilance is now being demanded across the board. Last week, as the film aired, 16 celebrities in the UK separately pledged to be more transparent about what they’re paid to promote on social media, among them Rita Ora and Alexa Chung.

“The greater lesson of Fyre Festival, CC says, is to question what lies beneath a filtered Instagram feed”

The greater lesson of Fyre Festival, CC says, is to question what lies beneath a filtered Instagram feed . Dreamlike images of models playing in paradise lured thousands to Fyre. they should serve as a reminder to us all to question the hurricane-tent reality behind anyone’s top nine. “This has opened everyone’s eyes about Instagram versus reality,” says CC. “It’s important people are wise to who they follow, and question whether things are real. We’ve all loved being sold the Insta dream, but just believing pictures isn’t enough any more.”

Unfortunately, for the thousands of people who arrived on the Bahamas for Fyre Festival, that was a lesson learned too late.

Photos: Getty Images, Splash News, Netflix, Instagram: @bellahadid @haileybieber @ccclarkbeauty Twitter: @trev4president and Facebook: I Survived Fyre Festival

topics: FYRE FESTIVAL , BELLA HADID , INFLUENCERS , TRAVEL , Kendall Jenner , MUSIC FESTIVAL , Netflix , DOCUMENTARY , SOCIAL MEDIA

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They Sold Everything to Go on a 3-Year Cruise. How It All Unraveled.

The Life at Sea cruise was supposed to be the ultimate bucket-list experience: 382 port calls worldwide over 1,095 days. The only thing missing was a trip-worthy ship.

A middle-aged man wearing a blue fleece and a woman wearing a white sweater stand pensively on a walkway by the water.

By Ceylan Yeginsu

Kara and Joe Youssef sold their two apartments, withdrew their life savings, gave up most of their belongings and, in late October, set out for Istanbul for the trip of a lifetime: a three-year cruise around the world, scheduled to depart Nov. 1.

But in late November, after months of behind-the-scenes chaos, the Youssefs were stuck in Istanbul, with the cruise company canceling the trip. It did not have a ship that could handle the journey.

The Turkish company, Miray Cruises, had announced the cruise, called Life at Sea , in March. It claimed it would be the longest cruise ever — 382 port calls over 1,095 days — and a community at sea, with opportunities to explore the globe. Starlink internet and a business center would allow passengers to work remotely.

The cruise seemed ideal for a post-pandemic era, targeting people longing for an escape. With fares starting at $90,000 for an inside cabin and going up to $975,000 for a suite, the trip even seemed like a bargain to some prospective passengers, cheaper than living three years in many cities.

Within the first month of sales, more than half of the ship’s 400 cabins had been reserved. But putting together a cruise of this magnitude is a monumental task, requiring a ship large enough to carry hundreds of people, docking rights around the world and secure funding.

Like a high-seas version of the Fyre Festival, which promised a luxury music concert in the Bahamas and delivered cold sandwiches and makeshift tents, the cruise imploded. It has left people, like the Youssefs, frustrated and confused. Despite promised refunds, only a small portion of the money has been returned so far.

In an interview in December, Vedat Ugurlu, the owner of Miray, blamed a lack of financing and interest for the cruise’s cancellation.

“We tried everything to find a solution, but at the end of the day we couldn’t get the investors and we couldn’t sell enough cabins,” he said.

That has left Ms. Youssef, 36, a former humanitarian worker from Ohio, and her husband sitting in Istanbul with three suitcases and a carry-on, waiting for a refund of $80,000.

“They kept leading us on, making us hold out hope until the very last minute, just days before we were supposed to depart,” she said. “We sold everything we have to make this dream happen. We feel completely defeated.”

A big dream, but no ship to sail on

In June 2022, as the cruise industry was recovering from its pandemic shutdown, Mikael Petterson, an entrepreneur based in Miami, had an idea for a three-year cruise. Long-term cruises are not unheard-of, but they usually last a year at most, because of the logistics involved.

Mr. Petterson had plans to hit destinations all over the world. What he did not have was a ship. Through a broker, he was introduced to Miray International, which had been offering voyages and cruise-operation services since 1996.

Mr. Ugurlu, the owner of Miray, suggested the MV Gemini. He had acquired the 400-cabin, 1,074-passenger vessel in 2019, and had mainly used it for excursions between Turkey and the Greek islands.

Mr. Petterson couldn’t afford to buy the ship, so instead the two groups joined forces. He would do the marketing while Miray took care of operations.

In November 2022, Mr. Petterson signed a three-month contract to develop their new brand: Life at Sea Cruises. He had not seen the Gemini, but said that he trusted Miray’s nearly 30 years of experience.

Kendra Holmes, then vice president for business development strategy at Miray, said the company had not only the vessel but a budget of about $10 million to refurbish it for such a long cruise. It also had the experience and staff required, she said.

Mr. Petterson visited Turkey in December 2022 and saw the Gemini, but said his focus was on design and creating renderings for marketing. He planned to carry out a technical inspection later, he said.

“The cabin configuration was perfect for the pricings and affordability we were marketing,” he said.

On March 1, 2023, Life at Sea began selling space on the cruise, drawing millions of clicks to a newly created website. “It just blew up, and we could barely keep up,” Mr. Petterson recalled.

Many of the prospective passengers had never been on a cruise. Keri Witman, 56, a marketing executive from Cincinnati, was looking for a change, a new community and adventure.

She liked the ability to travel while continuing to work. “This seemed like the perfect opportunity,” she said.

Ms. Witman was one of the first to book in April. She asked a lawyer to look into the company and, after finding no red flags, placed a $5,000 deposit for her $185,120 cabin and put her house up for sale.

Refueling concerns: Is this the right ship?

When Mr. Petterson returned to the Gemini in April, questions were raised about the ship and its itinerary. Could it even hold enough fuel to sail between some of the more distant ports? In an audio note sent to his team, Robert Dixon, the itinerary planner, said he was denied access to the engine room and was told by an engineer that the vessel could not hold enough fuel to cross the Atlantic Ocean on schedule. He also raised concerns about a planned crossing in the South Pacific.

“Even if you spend another $10 million on that ship, I don’t think it is enough to do what we want to do,” Mr. Dixon said in the recording. He declined to be interviewed.

Beyond that, there were questions about Gemini’s size. If the cruise sold out its 1,074 capacity, would there be enough space for people to lounge or work, as many of them planned to do, for three years?

A pizza shop in Orlando

Amid questions about the Gemini, tensions started to build. Mr. Petterson’s team complained that it could not process credit card transactions and lacked an escrow account to secure deposits, as is common in the United States.

Miray had expected the sales team to collect the full fare upfront, but asking for hundreds of thousands of dollars at once was prohibitive. Mr. Petterson introduced an installment plan, which helped boost sales, but caught Miray unprepared. And there was no account in the United States for the sales team to use as it secured reservations.

The head of Miray, Mr. Ugurlu, owned a pizza parlor in Orlando, Fla., and Mr. Petterson said the company asked him to deposit the initial payments into the shop’s account. According to Ms. Holmes, that was suggested as a temporary solution.

Miray pursued other ways to accept payments, including the use of Square, the online payment platform, but after Miray had a dispute with Square, Mr. Petterson, concerned at the lack of secure ways to hold deposits, asked the company to refund all the clients’ deposits. Worried that the cruise was in jeopardy, passengers canceled reservations for at least 25 cabins.

‘We felt very nervous’

In May, amid the turmoil, the Youssefs attended a webinar for prospective passengers, but heard nothing about payment issues. The couple was assured, even on another ship, that the cruise would depart on Nov. 1. On May 6, they put down a $5,000 deposit and were told that a 25 percent payment was due on June 7.

By then, Mr. Petterson had left the company. The internal corporate squabbling became public on the app and Facebook page created for the cruise. Mr. Petterson told passengers that Life at Sea was dismantled, and that Miray was refusing to answer critical questions. He urged passengers to complain to U.S. maritime authorities.

Ms. Holmes, of Miray, portrays Mr. Petterson as the loser in a power struggle. “It got to the point where somebody can’t be the captain, so they try to sink the whole ship,” she said. She became chief executive of Life at Sea and began working to reassure passengers.

Confusion and panic set in among the passengers, many of whom had already started uprooting their lives. “We felt very nervous, first sitting through one webinar with the team that left, then with Kendra Holmes,” Ms. Youssef recalled.

But in the weeks that followed, Ms. Youssef said she felt more comfortable as Ms. Holmes and her team hosted daily webinars focusing on getting a new ship.

“Kendra was very convincing and dedicated,” Ms. Youssef said, noting that “she was very realistic, whereas Mikael had promised us the sun and the moon.”

In a webinar on May 31, Ms. Holmes said that the company had decided not to set up an escrow account. She said that it would use another method of protecting passenger deposits, a bond filed with the Federal Maritime Commission, a U.S. agency that helps to regulate ocean transportation. But the bond was never filed.

A new ship and the scramble for investors

In early July, Life at Sea announced that “due to unprecedented demand,” it had acquired a larger 627-cabin ship — to be named the MV Lara. In actuality, the company had put down a deposit and was negotiating to buy the Lara with the help of investors, at a cost Mr. Ugurlu later put at between $40 million and $50 million.

At that time, Mary Rader, 68, a retired social worker from Westchester County, N.Y., asked a travel agency to look into Miray Cruises and was told it was reputable. When a couple offered to transfer their cabin to her at a discounted rate, she took the opportunity, withdrawing $80,000 from her retirement savings.

Ms. Rader made two payments, $50,000 and $35,000, but said she never received a receipt and the couple never received a refund. She eventually got a boarding pass, but on the cruise app, she and the couple were listed in the same cabin.

“This is when I started to see all the red flags, but I was trapped because I had already made the payments,” she said.

In September, the Youssefs sold their apartment to keep up with their cruise payments; others started applying for visas, shipping belongings to Istanbul and making arrangements for their pets.

At that point, although only 111 of the ship’s 627 cabins had been sold, passengers who had signed up were assured that the ship would sail, even with as few as two passengers.

On Sept. 26, the day the payment was due to secure the Lara, Ms. Holmes received a call from Miray’s owner, Mr. Ugurlu, saying the lead investor had dropped out, but that he was working on other candidates. After receiving some cancellation requests, Ms. Holmes posted in the cruise app that, according to the contract’s terms, passengers who canceled now would only receive a 10 percent refund.

By Oct. 27, only days before the cruise’s scheduled departure — and with 30 passengers in Istanbul, ready to board — the company announced the trip had been delayed to Nov. 11 and would depart from Amsterdam. Days later, the departure was postponed again, to Nov. 30.

On Nov. 16, Ms. Youssef learned from a newspaper that the Lara had been acquired by another company. “We were frustrated and felt stuck in limbo, with no information to go on but what we discovered on our own,” she said. Ms. Holmes resigned from Miray the same day.

On Nov. 19, Mr. Ugurlu issued a statement saying that investors had pulled out because of the unrest in the Middle East; the next day Miray confirmed that the cruise was canceled.

Waiting for refunds

A day later, passengers were asked to sign an agreement with Miray, which would spread refund repayments over three months, from December to February. The first deadline passed on Dec. 22, with only some passengers getting any money. Miray said that the delay was caused by banks’ requesting extra documentation.

The Youssefs said on Dec. 28 that they had still not received their refund. For the past month they have been living in a hotel in Istanbul paid for by the cruise company.

“We could soon be homeless,” Ms. Youssef said.

Miray, Ms. Holmes and Mr. Petterson are now separately working on other three-year cruises, to launch next year.

Ms. Rader, the retired social worker, is not hopeful. “I have received nothing yet, but I did not expect to,” she said. “My guess is that the company will be shut down or restructured, and anything I put in cash will never get paid out.”

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2023 .

Ceylan Yeginsu is a travel reporter. She was previously a correspondent for the International desk in Britain and Turkey, covering politics; social justice; the migrant crisis; the Kurdish conflict, and the rise of Islamic State extremism in Syria and the region. More about Ceylan Yeginsu

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Feb 27, 2019

Watch It Burn: Part I - Lessons Learned from the Fyre Festival

Updated: Mar 20, 2019

It was going to be epic. A music festival on a remote island in the Bahamas, hosted by an impressive line-up of performances and appearances by A-list stars, the Fyre festival was expected to be an unparalleled musical experience (Olhleiser, 2017). Instead, when party-goers began arriving on the tropical island on Thursday April 27, 2017, they found scenes of chaos and disorder, nothing like what they had been promised in the months leading up to the event and certainly nothing like what they thought their tickets, ranging in price between $400 and $250,000, had paid for (Olhleiser, 2017). This unmitigated disaster was recently described in two separate documentaries on Netflix and Hulu. Between these two documentaries and the large number of articles written about the subject, there has not been such a thoroughly analyzed failure of logistics in the last 15 years. Thankfully though, no one was seriously hurt and we are left with an impressive array of lessons learned that are surprisingly applicable to military logisticians.

It is important to clarify that this analysis of the logistics failures at the Fyre festival in no way implies that all military operations go flawlessly and that one needs to look to civilian events to learn from failure. Every plan has changes and military plans have been plagued by problems with logistics support since the days of Alexander the Great (Arrian, 2019). Even today there are concerted efforts to capture lessons learned from logistics issues during military operations (Solis, 2003). In fact, readers who are interested in learning from outstanding examples of civilian expeditionary logistics operations are invited to stay tuned for the next two installments of this series.

Operations/Logistics Synchronization

From the start of the Netflix documentary, Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened , it is clear that there was a complete disconnect between those responsible for designing the festival (similar to military operations planners) and those responsible for making it happen (similar to military logisticians). This disconnect most clearly manifests itself in the lack of timelines for required milestones and a lack of follow-through to establish essential basic life support contracts to support as many as 5,000 festival attendees (Smith, 2019). Repeated efforts were made by the civilian logistics organizers to clarify the requirements with the planners and to source solutions prior to the start of the event. However, the time afforded did not allow proper coordination or execution of these contracts. Specifically, the festival planners did not begin looking for a company to assist with the festival management or to provide services until approximately four months before the event was to start and when the estimated costs exceeded their expectations by several orders of magnitude, they simply did not select one (Burrough, 2017).

Any logistician who has been involved in the planning for a military exercise or multi-day operation recognizes the inherent issue with this lack of clear communication between planners and logisticians. Logistics planners must be involved in the planning process from the start. This ensures that very clear milestones are established throughout discussions with the operational planners, which enables logisticians to meet strict contracting timelines. Also, the two entities are able to coordinate the multitude of requirements to support the operational plans. Additionally, when it appears that the estimated cost of a military exercise will exceed its planned budget, operations planners must be involved and briefed so they can make decisions about the appropriate reductions. These are basic fundamentals of any military planning, but they were ignored during the Fyre festival, dooming it to failure from the start.

Expectation Management

Fyre festival attendees were sold tickets based on their desired accommodations ranging from small rooms to multi-bed villas. These accommodations were advertised to be plush and comfortable, and likely would have been if any of them actually existed, but they did not (Burrough, 2017). The month prior to the festival, an event producer named Yaron Levi was hired and immediately recognized what was being advertised was not possible, instead advocating for a delay in the festival from April to November which would have enabled his team to plan and coordinate appropriate contracts (Burrough, 2017). Other life support services such as food catering and medical support were contracted last minute, but continued to have issues such as the caterer withdrawing from the contract in early April, just weeks before the festival (Burrough, 2017). At no point was any effort made to explain to these changes to ticket holders (Burrough, 2017).

Expectation management is equally important in the private and military sectors. While military personnel have generally lower expectations than that of a concert attendee who paid $45,000 for a ticket, both benefit greatly when they know what to expect in their billeting, food service, and other life support services. This knowledge enables them to adjust their mindset and prepare themselves for what is ahead. Any exercise planner who has neglected to brief that personnel will not be staying in hotels, but instead will be in tents in an effort to reduce costs has committed the same egregious error as the Fyre festival planners. The most commonly incorrect expectations that the author personally observed during multiple month-long exercises dealt with billeting allocations, shower and laundry schedules, the availability of midnight rations (mid-rats) or Post-Exchange services, and the availability of internet access. In most cases, the misunderstanding resulted in a minor inconvenience. In others, such as when the night crew’s unplanned, but expected mid-rats suddenly became a command priority and the feed plan had to be re-worked in stride, it could have been much worse.

By simply communicating the approved final plan to everyone from the lowest private to the highest ranking officer, all participants will understand what their billeting will be, when meal, laundry, and shower hours are, and what items they will need to bring in order to sustain themselves in order to accomplish their mission. Too often these details are left out of confirmation briefs or not communicated to junior personnel needlessly which leaves them in the dark and reduces morale and operational effectiveness.

Requirement for Creativity

The challenge of supporting the Fyre festival would have been familiar to many military planners, but that would not have made it any less difficult. The requirement could have been re-framed as the following: Provide logistics support for approximately 5,000 people over two 3-day periods on a remote island in order to facilitate a music event. That overall support requirement is no different than what is needed multiple times across the Pacific each year as Indo-Pacific Command conducts bilateral exercises ranging from a few days to a few weeks at a time (US Indo-Pacific Command, 2019). Many of these exercises are conducted at locations very similar in nature to the location chosen by the Fyre festival. Had logistics planners been given an appropriate amount of time to plan and coordinate, the event would have likely unfolded in a very different manner. In fact, many of the creative solutions proposed in Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened , would have likely worked. One such proposal was to contract a cruise ship and then billet all the attendees there in order to eliminate other separate contracts (Smith, 2019). Similar creative solutions have been used by military planners to support humanitarian assistance / disaster relief operations in the past, where amphibious ships have deployed in support of forces ashore. Following the devastation of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, US Navy ships were sent to the Philippines in order to provide assault support and to act as a platform from which to launch humanitarian support (Rowland, 2013). Additional ships, including an entire class of Expeditionary Fast Transports (EFT), have been and will continue to be used to fill this critical support role (US Navy, 2017).

Creative solutions are also frequently required to support military operations. While the conventional use of organic logistics capabilities augmented by contracted support is typically preferred, there will be times when alternative solutions are needed. This includes a large number of “outside the box” methods to facilitate and support military operations that frequently are only learned through a critical examination of previous military operations. In the same sense that the Fyre festival operational planners could have looked to other successful festivals in order to identify friction points and gain lessons learned, military planners must do the same so they can build upon the hard learned experiences of previous logisticians. Too many people are unaware that military lessons learned are collected and compiled online at sites such as the Marine Corps Center for Lessons Learned (MCCLL) and the Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL). These online repositories are a tremendous resource for curious logisticians who are interested in not repeating the mistakes of the past.

Military planners should not limit themselves to the study of only military operations. While military logisticians can learn from the Fyre festival, they can also learn from a number of other events. Tasking a junior officer or staff non-commissioned officer to develop a case study on logistics lessons learned from another event like Woodstock 1994, could provide an alternative opportunity to learn from civilian logistics problem solving. A guided discussion about Woodstock 1994, for example, could give more experienced logisticians a framework by which to share their thoughts site selection, how to mitigate poor weather, and a number of other life support and camp set-up issues that are experienced by expeditionary military forces (Scott, 1994). As a result of these discussions, subordinates will be able to enhance their much needed sense of creative problem solving without having to suffer through the friction of an actual failure.

It should not be surprising for an experienced military logistician to hear that stress and friction are as inherently part of any large civilian festival or event as they are for military operations (Kaufman, 2019). Detailed planning and clear communication are the proven solutions to reduce that friction and would have helped mitigate the chaos at events like those seen during the Fyre festival. The Fyre festival and numerous other civilian events provide an untapped, but tremendous opportunity for military logisticians to learn from logistics support to large groups. It will always be important for senior logisticians to take time to mentor and share their experiences with subordinates. Discussing the mistakes of these civilian events could provide a framework for such a meaningful discussion. Doing so may help prevent their next military event from being documented and compared to the logistical nightmare now known as the Fyre festival.

Arrian of Nicomedia. (2019). Alexander in the Gedrosian Desert. Retrieved February 20, 2019 from https://www.livius.org/sources/content/arrian/anabasis/alexander-in-the-gedrosian-desert/ .

Baggs, Michael. (January 18, 2019). Fyre Festival: Inside the World’s Biggest Festival Flop. Retrieved February 20, 2019 from https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-46904445 .

Bannock, Olivia (April 17, 2017). Retrieved February 24, 2019 from https://twitter.com/OliviaIvey/status/853985326766972930 .

Burrough, Bryan. (August 2017). FYRE FESTIVAL: ANATOMY OF A MILLENNIAL MARKETING FIASCO WAITING TO HAPPEN. Retrieved February 20, 2019 from https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/06/fyre-festival-billy-mcfarland-millennial-marketing-fiasco .

Kaufman, Amy. (February 20, 2019). Andy King went viral thanks to Netflix’s Fyre Festival doc. Now he’s getting back to his day job . Retrieved February 22, 2019 from https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-oscars-andy-king-fyre-documentary-party-20190220-story.html

Ohlheiser, Abby. (April 28, 2017). The complete disaster of Fyre Festival played out on social media for all to see; ‘NOT MY FAULT’ says organizer Ja Rule. Retrieved February 20, 2019 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2017/04/28/the-complete-and-utter-disaster-that-was-fyre-festival-played-out-on-social-media-for-all-to-see/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ef940d39531e .

Rowland, Ashley. (November 18, 2013). Amphibious Ships to Replace Carrier Helping with Philippines Disaster. Retrieved February 26, 2019 from https://www.stripes.com/news/amphibious-ships-to-replace-carrier-helping-with-philippines-disaster-1.253487 .

Scott, Janny. (August 15, 1994). WOODSTOCK '94: THE OVERVIEW; Woodstock: Music Fades and Muddy Trek Begins . Retrieved February 22, 2019 from https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/15/nyregion/woodstock-94-the-overview-woodstock-music-fades-and-muddy-trek-begins.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar .

Smith, Chris (Director). (January 18, 2019). Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened [Documentary]. Los Gatos, CA: Netflix.

Solis, William. (December 18, 2003). Defense Logistics: Preliminary Observations on the Effectiveness of Logistics Activities during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Retrieved February 20, 2019 from https://www.gao.gov/assets/100/92396.pdf .

US Indo-Pacific Command (press releases). (2019). PACOM News. Retrieved February 26, 2019 from https://www.pacom.mil/Media/News/ .

US Navy (press release). (January 19, 2017). Navy Marks Milestone for Two Expeditionary Fast Transports. Retrieved February 26, 2019 from https://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=98450 .

Training & Education
Tactical Logistics

TikTok Star Marc Sebastian Reflects on His Time on the Nine-Month Ultimate World Cruise

Marc Sebastian on the cruise wearing a cowboy hat

M arc Sebastian is noticeably frazzled. The TikTok star—who recently disembarked Royal Caribbean’s Ultimate World Cruise after an 18-day stint on its nine-month global tour—is about to answer a question about the experience when our interview is stopped by Whoopi Goldberg.

Goldberg, Sebastian says, was chosen a while back to be the godmother of the Serenade of the Seas, the name of the ship that takes passengers on the Ultimate World Cruise (continuing a longtime tradition of cruise lines selecting someone, usually a woman, to be the godmother of a ship and bless it with good luck before it sets sail). Now, she is about to play his TikTok—where he talked about learning that Goldberg was the godmother of the Serenade of the Seas—on The View . He then asks what many under the age of 40 might wonder: “Quick question: where does one watch The View ?”

@marcsebastianf nah i’m taking a nap i cant do this right now #ultimateworldcruise #worldcruise #serenadeoftheseas #cruisetok #cruise #9monthcruise #theview #whoopigoldberg ♬ original sound - Marc Sebastian

Sebastian, 33, is a TikTok creator and former model who gained popularity in 2022 with videos on fashion and pop culture recommendations, and featuring him opening gashapons (miniature toys). When the nine-month cruise set sail in December and went viral in early January, Sebastian made a video emphatically suggesting he join it to catalog the inevitable drama—or maybe be the cause. “Put cameras on that godd-mn cruise,” he says in the video. “Alternatively, put me in. I’ll go… I’ll go cause chaos, I’ll wreak havoc, and I’ll record everything.”

The viral nature of the nine-month world cruise has gained comparisons to the popularity of Bama Rush , the annual event where young women rushing sororities at the University of Alabama show off their daily outfits online, or the infamous Fyre Festival . The Ultimate World Cruise is a nine-month-long cruise that embarked on on Dec. 10 and is visiting all seven continents across 274 nights. To be on board for all nine months, rates start at about $60,000 per person and goes up to $117,600 per person on the higher end. Not everyone who is on the ship is there for the whole time; there are options to go for certain legs of the cruise.

As soon as this was announced, TikTok creators knew that being on a cruise ship for this long would inevitably spark drama and discourse, making it the perfect opportunity for creators to make content on the ship and about their time on it. Some, like Sebastian, also suggested reality television show producers were missing out on an opportunity for good television. Creators started making videos about their fascination with the people who chose to spend nine months of their lives on a ship, suggesting people to follow. Some of the most notable people to follow include Little Rat Brain , who chooses to keep her identity a secret and provides updates on what it is like to live on a cruise; Joe and Audrey Martucci , a retired couple with the username @spendingourkidsmoney ; Amike Oosthuizen , a South African influencer; and many more. Every day, a new person posts videos from the ship or makes videos about what they saw someone else post.

Sebastian saw an opportunity for some fun, low-stakes chaos. His intentions were clear: get the gossip and report on the dynamics on the ship.

@marcsebastianf there will be enough footage for at LEAST 3 season. 1 hr episodes. @Royal Caribbean PUT ME IN COACH #ultimateworldcruise #worldcruise #royalcaribbean #realitytv #cruise #serenadeoftheseas #uwc #royalcarribeancruise ♬ original sound - Marc Sebastian

He got on the ship by convincing Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, to fund his trip on the Antarctica leg of the Ultimate World Cruise on the promise that he would start a book club on his TikTok Live, where he’d read and discuss The Last One by Will Dean—a book chosen by his followers after he asked them to vote in the first video he made on the boat. In an emailed statement, Atria says it jumped at the opportunity to work with Sebastian and that the partnership helped to increase “Atria’s TikTok presence exponentially and saw a nice pop in sales across all formats of The Last One .” While he admittedly did not wreak total havoc after boarding in Buenos Aires, Sebastian provided honest and transparent updates about everything he was experiencing—making him the enemy of the boomers on Facebook and on and off the ship.

@marcsebastianf and remember, if someone talks smack about you on FB—it doesn’t count. cause who in chers name still uses FB #ultimateworldcruise #worldcruise #serenadeoftheseas #royalcaribbean #cruisetok #cruise #9monthcruise #antarctica ♬ original sound - Marc Sebastian

@marcsebastianf #stitch with @Marc Sebastian next time on survivor #ultimateworldcruise #worldcruise #royalcaribbean #realitytv #cruise #serenadeoftheseas #Uwc #royalcarribeancruise #drakepassage #antarctica ♬ original sound - Marc Sebastian

Sebastian’s videos from the ship included promotion for his book club and Atria Books, as well as brutally honest reviews of day-to-day life. One of his most popular videos is him opening a gashapon as the ship goes through the Drake Passage, accumulating over 13.5 million views.

@marcsebastianf drake’s best work since hot line bling #ultimateworldcruise #worldcruise #serenadeoftheseas #royalcaribbean #cruisetok #cruise #9monthcruise #antarctica #drakepassage #northsea #mini #miniature #gashapon ♬ original sound - Marc Sebastian

One of his other most viewed videos is one in which he discusses the middling color options at the ship’s nail salon and details getting kicked out of the ship’s exclusive Pinnacle Lounge after another guest told on him for not being a pinnacle member, which was watched over two million times.

@marcsebastianf you coulda bought a double shot grande mocha with oat milk but instead…. #ultimateworldcruise #worldcruise #serenadeoftheseas #cruisetok #cruise #9monthcruise ♬ original sound - Marc Sebastian

Royal Caribbean, he says, was undoubtedly keeping up with his and other creators’ videos. After the Pinnacle Lounge debacle, he says he was called into the “guest service’s version of the principal’s office” and was “scolded.” But “if they had kicked me off or reprimanded me, it wouldn't have looked good on them,” he says. Other moments also showed him that the company was watching his TikTok closely: After he complained in one video about only having wire hangers in his room, he received plastic hangers the next day. Royal Caribbean did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sebastian’s presence on the cruise.

For Sebastian, the 18 days on the Royal Caribbean cruise have opened his eyes to the blurry lines of promotion and entertainment. As one of several creators posting about the ship, whether the videos are positive or negative, he’s giving Royal Caribbean free promotion. Sebastian says he was more than happy to speak up on the issues he faced, including the “bad vibes” at the ship’s cafe , dealing with older cruisers , and mishaps at the ports .

@marcsebastianf sorry i havent posted one of these in a bit, i’ve been having some of the best days of my life…off the ship. #ultimateworldcruise #worldcruise #serenadeoftheseas #cruisetok #cruise #9monthcruise ♬ original sound - Marc Sebastian

On the ship, he says he witnessed other creators being treated unfairly, which he says they would not speak up about because they would “have to admit that maybe it wasn't worth that much money to pay.” When he unfollowed the company on TikTok while on the ship, he says he was called out for saying they weren’t treating influencers correctly. He says, “I was not referring to me. I was referring to the other influencers that are on board that are giving them millions and millions and millions of free views, and they’re being treated like garbage.”

For example, he says, the company invited a group of influencers to the Chef’s Table , which was supposed to be seen as a thank you, but Sebastian says they all had to agree to post a video about the meal, which defeats the purpose of a free meal. “You’re not giving them a ‘Thank You,’ you’re giving them work to do,” he says. Royal Caribbean did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its work with and treatment of influencers.

@angielinderman Day 18: Sea Day ( 12/27/23) Chef’s Table Experience A few of us were invited to the Chef’s Table onboard, and we had a great night hanging out, eating, and drinking! The food was amazing, but not as good as the team who prepared and served the food! Course One Scallop Carpaccio: Yuzu vinaigrette, crispy quinoa paired with a Pinot Grigio, Attems from Italy Course Two: Smoked Tomato Soup: Garlic focaccia croutons, parmesan paired with Conundrum’s Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon Napa Valley, California Course Three: Maine Lobster Salad: Hearts of palm, pineapple, cilantro, vanilla dressing paired with Yealands Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand Course Four: Roasted Branzino: Grilled zucchini, peppers, lemon confit, pesto paired with Mer Soleil Unoaked Chardonnay, California Course Five: Grilled Filet Mignon: Truffle potato puree, asparagus, and bordelaise sauce paired with Silverado Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley California Dessert: The World: Peanut butter ganache Valrhona chocolate mousse salted caramel gelato, paired with a salted caramel espresso martini. #RoyalCaribbean #crusing #explore #solotravler #worldCruise #UltimateWorldCruise #UWC #SerenadeOfTheSeas #cruise #travel #9monthworldcruise #9monthcruise @Brooklyn Schwetje, @Madison Schwetje, @Andrew & Ale Kenney, @drjennytravels, @Amike Oosthuizen, @Brandee Lake, @Shannon Marie, @Little Rat Brain, and @Royal Caribbean ♬ original sound - Angie

Sebastian was not concerned about ruffling feathers on the ship; he went on the boat with a plan to execute a marketing plan to see how well something like this would work. While it was a success, he says he will not be getting back on a cruise anytime soon. “I cared about showing people that I could execute this marketing plan within an inch of its life and do it in a calculated way and exit that ship like a marketing genius,” he says. “I feel like I'm proud of the work that I did there.”

Sebastian says he didn’t make any money from the videos he posted on the ship. While he got a budget to book his travel to and from the ship and for his time on the ship, he didn’t monetize any of the 40 videos he posted on the boat, which accumulated over 55 million views. He's not a part of TikTok's Creativity Program Beta and says he didn’t want to monetize the videos because he feels that TikTok doesn’t push monetized videos in the same way they push non-monetized videos. TikTok declined to comment on its monetization strategy. The platform recommends videos to users based on several factors, including looking at their interests and interactions with others.

“I wanted it to be pushed out as far as possible, with the hopes that I would see a return on my investment, and I did,” he says. "Cast a wide net, catch more fish. Cast a short one… I don’t know, get less views? I just made that saying up."

He says if he monetized his content, he could’ve made around $15,000 to $20,000 based on the views his videos have now received. “That’s a lot of money, but that was a short-term goal, and I had a long-term vision,” he says. The only thing he made was incredible content and some friends along the way, he adds, half in jest.

@marcsebastianf in my slop era 🐖 also @Vanity Fair get in touch babe #ultimateworldcruise #worldcruise #serenadeoftheseas #cruisetok #cruise #9monthcruise #foodreview #foodie #cruisefood #windjammer ♬ original sound - Marc Sebastian

Playing the long game might prove to be the right move: Sebastian has seen a boost in his visibility, with his cruise ship journey getting coverage in major news outlets like the Washington Post and the New York Times . Recently, he’s put out retrospective content looking back at his time on the Serenade of the Seas and it seems like he’s ready for another trip, this time on land. Some of his followers suggested he go to Coachella , taking place in the California desert in April—he's open to the idea.

@marcsebastianf Replying to @A not the skinwalker trying to get me girl #coachella #ultimateworldcruise ♬ original sound - Marc Sebastian

He’s glad to know that his trip wasn’t in vain. “I went out there and said, ‘I'm not here to make friends,’” he tells TIME. “I went out of there making friends and won, so now what?”

More Must-Reads from TIME

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Lai Ching-te Is Standing His Ground
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Forget Having It All . Let’s Try Having Enough
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Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time

Write to Moises Mendez II at [email protected]

Splash Travels

What really happened at Fyre Festival?

Posted: March 20, 2024 | Last updated: June 19, 2024

<p>Before there was ever a festival, Fyre was an app that people could use to book high-end talent for their events. In fact, the festival was initially proposed as a way to promote the app. Billy McFarland, CEO of Fyre Media Inc., met Ja Rule through his work in the industry, and enlisted the rapper as a celebrity partner.</p>

1. Discovering Fyre

Before there was ever a festival, Fyre was an app that people could use to book high-end talent for their events. In fact, the festival was initially proposed as a way to promote the app. Billy McFarland, CEO of Fyre Media Inc., met Ja Rule through his work in the industry, and enlisted the rapper as a celebrity partner.

<p>Fyre’s marketing campaign centered around two frighteningly effective steps: Various celebrities, “influencers,” and models posting a plain orange tile on Instagram at the same time, followed by the sharing of a glitzy promotional video they shot in the Bahamas, which featured more models frolicking on a beach.</p>

2. All Aboard the Hype Train

Fyre’s marketing campaign centered around two frighteningly effective steps: Various celebrities, “influencers,” and models posting a plain orange tile on Instagram at the same time, followed by the sharing of a glitzy promotional video they shot in the Bahamas, which featured more models frolicking on a beach.

<p>Kendall Jenner was hired by McFarland to promote Fyre and announce some of the lineup on Instagram . Once she did, almost every social media influencer out there wanted to be involved. She was supposedly paid a clean $250,000 for her post.</p>

3. The Jenner Effect

Kendall Jenner was hired by McFarland to promote Fyre and announce some of the lineup on Instagram . Once she did, almost every social media influencer out there wanted to be involved. She was supposedly paid a clean $250,000 for her post.

<p>The reason Fyre has become such a cultural talking point again is largely because of two separate, competing documentaries, released on two separate streaming services, and dropping within four days of each other: Netflix’s <em>Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened</em> and Hulu’s <em>Fyre Fraud</em>. The Netflix documentary has been criticized for its dubious ethics and conflict of interest, since it was produced in part by Jerry Media and Matte Projects—two of the companies behind the promotion of the actual festival.</p>

4. Conflict of Interest

The reason Fyre has become such a cultural talking point again is largely because of two separate, competing documentaries, released on two separate streaming services, and dropping within four days of each other: Netflix’s Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened and Hulu’s Fyre Fraud . The Netflix documentary has been criticized for its dubious ethics and conflict of interest, since it was produced in part by Jerry Media and Matte Projects—two of the companies behind the promotion of the actual festival.

<p>Hulu’s <em>Fyre Fraud</em> wasn’t immune to criticism of its ethics either, mind you. Chris Smith, director of the Netflix film, lambasted <em>Fyre Fraud</em>'s makers for paying McFarland for an exclusive interview, when the last thing the guy needs is more people giving him money. The Hulu team didn’t deny this, but claimed that the reported $250,000 fee was completely false.</p>

5. Don’t Feed the Fraudster

Hulu’s Fyre Fraud wasn’t immune to criticism of its ethics either, mind you. Chris Smith, director of the Netflix film, lambasted Fyre Fraud 's makers for paying McFarland for an exclusive interview, when the last thing the guy needs is more people giving him money. The Hulu team didn’t deny this, but claimed that the reported $250,000 fee was completely false.

<p>McFarland’s scamming days started at a very young age, apparently. As he claims in an interview in Hulu’s <em>Fyre Fraud</em>, he started a shifty operation in second grade, whereby he told his classmates that he’d repair their broken crayons for a dollar each.</p>

6. An Early Start

McFarland’s scamming days started at a very young age, apparently. As he claims in an interview in Hulu’s Fyre Fraud , he started a shifty operation in second grade, whereby he told his classmates that he’d repair their broken crayons for a dollar each.

<p>McFarland’s venture before all this was Magnises, a fancy credit card that supposedly gave its millennial users exclusive access to swanky events, parties, and networking opportunities. McFarland made a lot of false claims about the card, many of its promises were not delivered (surprise surprise), and the company fell on hard times.</p>

7. Magnises Pieces

McFarland’s venture before all this was Magnises, a fancy credit card that supposedly gave its millennial users exclusive access to swanky events, parties, and networking opportunities. McFarland made a lot of false claims about the card, many of its promises were not delivered (surprise surprise), and the company fell on hard times.

<p>Norman's Cay was the picturesque private island where the viral Fyre promotional video was shot. However, the real Fyre Festival took place on the less-impressive Roker Point, on Great Exuma.</p>

8. Doomed From the Start

Norman's Cay was the picturesque private island where the viral Fyre promotional video was shot. However, the real Fyre Festival took place on the less-impressive Roker Point, on Great Exuma.

$<p>Even so, it’s likely that the event still would have been an unmitigated disaster had it actually taken place at Norman's Cay. Keith van der Linde, an original planner for the festival, claimed that the island couldn’t feasibly host a fraction of the attendees.</p>$

9. An Unlikely Voice of Reason

Even so, it’s likely that the event still would have been an unmitigated disaster had it actually taken place at Norman's Cay. Keith van der Linde, an original planner for the festival, claimed that the island couldn’t feasibly host a fraction of the attendees.

<p>After recognizing the many logistical issues, van der Linde suggested a cruise ship to accommodate people. This would have solved a lot of infrastructural problems like toilets, lodgings, and transport. Unfortunately (because think about who van der Linde was dealing with), his cruise ship suggestion was shot down, and he was eventually dismissed from the team.</p>

10. Cruise Refusal

After recognizing the many logistical issues, van der Linde suggested a cruise ship to accommodate people. This would have solved a lot of infrastructural problems like toilets, lodgings, and transport. Unfortunately (because think about who van der Linde was dealing with), his cruise ship suggestion was shot down, and he was eventually dismissed from the team.

<p>Norman’s Cay, was said to have once been owned by Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. Because the locals wanted to distance themselves from the Escobar association, one of the conditions for using the island was that they could not use his name to market the festival. So of course, Escobar’s name appears in the initial promo video within seconds. As a result, the Fyre crew was kicked off the island and left scrambling to find a new location mere months before the festival was due to kick off.</p>

11. Keep Escobar out of It

Norman’s Cay, was said to have once been owned by Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. Because the locals wanted to distance themselves from the Escobar association, one of the conditions for using the island was that they could not use his name to market the festival. So of course, Escobar’s name appears in the initial promo video within seconds. As a result, the Fyre crew was kicked off the island and left scrambling to find a new location mere months before the festival was due to kick off.

<p>The final Roker's Point destination was actually right next to a Sandals Resort in Great Exuma. Great Exuma wasn’t a private island, but the team deceptively photoshopped and cropped the site map they released in order to make Roker's Point look like its own solo oasis.</p> <p><em>Sandals Resort </em></p>

12. Location, Location, Location

The final Roker's Point destination was actually right next to a Sandals Resort in Great Exuma. Great Exuma wasn’t a private island, but the team deceptively photoshopped and cropped the site map they released in order to make Roker's Point look like its own solo oasis.

Sandals Resort

<p>The oldest continuously awarded trophy and the longest winning streak in sports history both belong to the sport of sailing. The trophy is known as the America’s Cup although the international sailing yacht competition was actually started in England in 1851 by the Royal Yacht Squadron. The inaugural race around the Isle of Wight was won by the crew of the 300-metre (100 foot) schooner America, and the elegant silver trophy was thereafter known as the America’s Cup. In history’s longest winning streak, the cup was successfully defended by American crews for over a century until 1983 when the Australians took the championship.</p>

13. Terrible Timing

In his infinite wisdom, the dates McFarland selected for the festival happened to coincide with Great Exuma’s annual national Family Islands regatta, a huge event that happens to be one of the busiest weekends of the year on the island. This meant that transport options would be limited and accommodation would be remarkably scarce.

<p>McFarland wanted everything filmed in the lead-up to the festival, which meant some of his most incriminating and least flattering moments were captured and immortalized on camera at his behest. At one point during a conversation, he says that his aim with the festival is to “sell a pipe dream to your average loser.” Real classy.</p>

14. Candid Camera

McFarland wanted everything filmed in the lead-up to the festival, which meant some of his most incriminating and least flattering moments were captured and immortalized on camera at his behest. At one point during a conversation, he says that his aim with the festival is to “sell a pipe dream to your average loser.” Real classy.

<p>While discussing Fyre Festival on stage together at a conference, when the impending disaster was but a small blip on the radar, Ja Rule refers to Billy McFarland as his “partner in crime.” Accurate? Oh, most definitely. But an exceptionally poor choice of words in retrospect.</p>

15. Not a Good Look, Ja

While discussing Fyre Festival on stage together at a conference, when the impending disaster was but a small blip on the radar, Ja Rule refers to Billy McFarland as his “partner in crime.” Accurate? Oh, most definitely. But an exceptionally poor choice of words in retrospect.

<p>In my small rural hometown, there was a rumor that a bunch of city officials, law enforcement, teachers, business owners, etc (basically anyone a kid would see as an authority figure) had massive naughty parties. Obviously, as you grew up you came to your senses. Until one year when a teacher's husband stomped the heck out of a local business owner in broad daylight. Turns out the legend wasn't just a legend. His wife was apparently a member of what was called "The Hot Tub Club" and he wasn't invited. A good chunk of local leaders got outed as hosting raunchy parties somewhat regularly. I'm more surprised it was kept secret as long as it was.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/8nk1ec/which_creepy_urban_legend_turned_out_to_be_true/dzwp0fl" rel="noopener">newAKowner</a></p>

16. Exorbitantly-Priced Chaos

When you look at the prices some of these people were willing to shell out for Fyre tickets, their judgment seems, well, suspect. Day tickets were sold from $500 to $1,500, and VIP packages—which included airfare and luxury tent accommodations—were sold for up to $12,000.

<p>Upon arriving at the campsite, one attendee took to Twitter to describe what he saw as a “disaster tent city.” Instead of the well-appointed luxury lodgings promised to ticket holders, the accommodation was literally just a mass of white disaster relief tents.</p>

17. Disaster Strikes

Upon arriving at the campsite, one attendee took to Twitter to describe what he saw as a “disaster tent city.” Instead of the well-appointed luxury lodgings promised to ticket holders, the accommodation was literally just a mass of white disaster relief tents.

<p>It will surprise no one to learn that many of Fyre’s attendees weren’t exactly model citizens. After they were told to go and pick out their tents, one social media “influencer” who was there described how he and his buddies ransacked the tents around theirs so that they wouldn’t have any neighbors—poking holes in the walls, flipping mattresses, and urinating on them. Really stand-up guy, that one.</p>

18. A Big, Bad Crowd

It will surprise no one to learn that many of Fyre’s attendees weren’t exactly model citizens. After they were told to go and pick out their tents, one social media “influencer” who was there described how he and his buddies ransacked the tents around theirs so that they wouldn’t have any neighbors—poking holes in the walls, flipping mattresses, and urinating on them. Really stand-up guy, that one.

<p>None of the acts slated to perform actually showed up once word of the disastrous reality got out, but Blink-182 were one of the only ones to officially announce that they had canceled their appearance. They claimed they didn’t think the festival could provide what they needed to give the fans a proper show, which was probably the understatement of the century.</p>

19. All the Not-So-Small Things

None of the acts slated to perform actually showed up once word of the disastrous reality got out, but Blink-182 were one of the only ones to officially announce that they had canceled their appearance. They claimed they didn’t think the festival could provide what they needed to give the fans a proper show, which was probably the understatement of the century.

<p>The most talked-about section in Netflix’s <em>Fyre</em> documentary is easily one of the most jaw-dropping. Just before the festival was due to begin, Bahamian customs seized trucks full of water in lieu of a $175,000 import fee. McFarland apparently called up event producer Andy King and asked him to head down to customs and offer to perform intimate acts in exchange for the water. King then made his way over there, fully intending to do the deed and save the day, but said the officer “couldn’t have been nicer,” let him have the water sans "favor," and simply told him that they just wanted to be paid first whenever the money came in.</p>

20. Taking One for the Team

The most talked-about section in Netflix’s Fyre documentary is easily one of the most jaw-dropping. Just before the festival was due to begin, Bahamian customs seized trucks full of water in lieu of a $175,000 import fee. McFarland apparently called up event producer Andy King and asked him to head down to customs and offer to perform intimate acts in exchange for the water. King then made his way over there, fully intending to do the deed and save the day, but said the officer “couldn’t have been nicer,” let him have the water sans "favor," and simply told him that they just wanted to be paid first whenever the money came in.

<p>Far from laying low after the fallout, Jerry Media went and ticked off another bunch of people with their shady marketing practices. In early 2019, it was discovered that one of the company's Instagram accounts was posting comedians’ jokes with captions advertising the company’s own products. They were doing this without the comedians’ permission, and without paying them. Comedians weren't happy, naturally, and a widespread anti-Jerry Media effort picked up steam online.</p>

21. Shameless

Far from laying low after the fallout, Jerry Media went and ticked off another bunch of people with their shady marketing practices. In early 2019, it was discovered that one of the company's Instagram accounts was posting comedians’ jokes with captions advertising the company’s own products. They were doing this without the comedians’ permission, and without paying them. Comedians weren't happy, naturally, and a widespread anti-Jerry Media effort picked up steam online.

<p>As confusion and skepticism started to mount and people began expressing major concerns on Fyre’s social media channels, Fyre staff did what they do best: closed their eyes, jammed their fingers into their ears, and ran away from their very, very real problems. Figuratively speaking, that is. They actually started deleting complaints, queries, and disparaging comments <em>en masse</em>, removing negative words and phrases. They even started blocking the word “festival.”</p>

22. La La La, I Can’t Hear You

As confusion and skepticism started to mount and people began expressing major concerns on Fyre’s social media channels, Fyre staff did what they do best: closed their eyes, jammed their fingers into their ears, and ran away from their very, very real problems. Figuratively speaking, that is. They actually started deleting complaints, queries, and disparaging comments en masse , removing negative words and phrases. They even started blocking the word “festival.”

<p>It wasn’t until the guests started to arrive that the disastrous reality of the situation seemed to fully dawn on McFarland. Constantly smiling and unwaveringly positive in the lead-up to the festival, once it actually began, he just couldn’t pretend anymore. He was hard to find most of the time, and rumors floated among the staff that he was in lockup, or he was on a yacht somewhere, that they’d never see him again, and so on. Some claimed to have seen him pacing back and forth on the phone with tears in his eyes.</p>

23. Reality Bites

It wasn’t until the guests started to arrive that the disastrous reality of the situation seemed to fully dawn on McFarland. Constantly smiling and unwaveringly positive in the lead-up to the festival, once it actually began, he just couldn’t pretend anymore. He was hard to find most of the time, and rumors floated among the staff that he was in lockup, or he was on a yacht somewhere, that they’d never see him again, and so on. Some claimed to have seen him pacing back and forth on the phone with tears in his eyes.

<p>Most of the luxury villas that VIP guests had been promised didn’t actually exist on Exuma. According to McFarland, at least 250 of them <em>did</em> exist, but he and his team actually lost the keys. Seriously.</p>

24. The Key to Failure

Most of the luxury villas that VIP guests had been promised didn’t actually exist on Exuma. According to McFarland, at least 250 of them did exist, but he and his team actually lost the keys. Seriously.

<p>Instead of musical performances, there was, as one attendee described, “a gravel parking lot and what sounded like somebody’s iPod Shuffle plugged into the main stage.”</p>

25. The Terrible Sound of Music

Instead of musical performances, there was, as one attendee described, “a gravel parking lot and what sounded like somebody’s iPod Shuffle plugged into the main stage.”

<p>Is setting yourself on fire a challenge? In the age of social media, sure. One big danger is burns, but shock is another. A lot of people end up running away before dousing the flames, which only makes them more aggressive. Please <em>don’t </em>try this one.</p>

26. Official Condemnation

The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism was left tidying up one heck of a mess, with masses of angry festival-goers left stranded on Exuma and festival organizers fleeing all over the place. The Ministry was quick to issue a statement condemning the “total disorganization and chaos” wrought by the festival's organizers, and made it clear that they were not an official sponsor of the event.

<p>Even after failing spectacularly and facing lawsuits left, right, and center, the Fyre folks actually threatened legal action against the attendees. Why? For tweeting negative things about the festival.</p>

27. Seriously?

Even after failing spectacularly and facing lawsuits left, right, and center, the Fyre folks actually threatened legal action against the attendees. Why? For tweeting negative things about the festival.

<p>McFarland was investigated by the FBI for fraudulently convincing investors to put millions into the festival. According to one of Fyre's employees, McFarland told one investor that he had booked Drake—a complete lie.</p>

28. No Hotline Bling

McFarland was investigated by the FBI for fraudulently convincing investors to put millions into the festival. According to one of Fyre's employees, McFarland told one investor that he had booked Drake—a complete lie.

<p>The famous photo of a cheese sandwich from the festival that was posted on Twitter may not have been entirely genuine, sadly. While it was definitely food served on the island during the festival, it was actually the food that the Fyre staff were eating, while the attendees got slightly better food. But, does this really change things?</p>

29. Fake News?

The famous photo of a cheese sandwich from the festival that was posted on Twitter may not have been entirely genuine, sadly. While it was definitely food served on the island during the festival, it was actually the food that the Fyre staff were eating, while the attendees got slightly better food. But, does this really change things?

30. The Real Victims

Unsurprisingly, local laborers claim they were not paid for their work on the site.

<p>Supposedly fearing for their safety, the organizers claim they fled the island to avoid violent (if rightful) retribution from these unpaid locals. Andy King described having to hide behind a urinal and then duck into a car to make his escape.</p>

31. Feeling the Heat

Supposedly fearing for their safety, the organizers claim they fled the island to avoid violent (if rightful) retribution from these unpaid locals. Andy King described having to hide behind a urinal and then duck into a car to make his escape.

<p>In the immediate aftermath of the festival’s epic failure, McFarland informed his staff that they were not going to be paid in the short term and were welcome to quit. This would leave them unable to apply for unemployment benefits, and when this was pointed out to McFarland, he simply stated, "I'm not aware of how this impacts the employment benefits."</p>

32. World’s Worst Boss

In the immediate aftermath of the festival’s epic failure, McFarland informed his staff that they were not going to be paid in the short term and were welcome to quit. This would leave them unable to apply for unemployment benefits, and when this was pointed out to McFarland, he simply stated, "I'm not aware of how this impacts the employment benefits."

<p>With payroll frozen, many Fyre employees were left in serious debt. Creative director MDavid Low was left with $250,000 in Fyre-related credit card bills.</p>

33. Bills, Bills, and More Bills

With payroll frozen, many Fyre employees were left in serious debt. Creative director MDavid Low was left with $250,000 in Fyre-related credit card bills.

<p>McFarland was named in a $100 million class action suit after the festival, and while out on bail he claimed to have been staying humble and living in his parents' house for the time being. But because he insisted on keeping the cameras rolling to record his post-festival activities, Netflix’s <em>Fyre</em> documentary reveals that he was actually staying in a lush New York City penthouse while awaiting trial.</p> <p>Not only that, but he wasted no time getting back in the scamming saddle, selling off tickets to exclusive, invite-only events to which no buyer could possibly get access. According to the FBI, 15 people gave him over $100,000 for these non-existent tickets.</p>

34. The Mind Boggles

McFarland was named in a $100 million class action suit after the festival, and while out on bail he claimed to have been staying humble and living in his parents' house for the time being. But because he insisted on keeping the cameras rolling to record his post-festival activities, Netflix’s Fyre documentary reveals that he was actually staying in a lush New York City penthouse while awaiting trial.

Not only that, but he wasted no time getting back in the scamming saddle, selling off tickets to exclusive, invite-only events to which no buyer could possibly get access. According to the FBI, 15 people gave him over $100,000 for these non-existent tickets.

<p>Following the unsurprising failure of this newest ticketing scam, McFarland was once again charged with fraud. He pled guilty to defrauding investors and ticket sellers of over $26 million. On June 12, 2018, he was sentenced to six years imprisonment.</p>

35. You Reap What You Sow

Following the unsurprising failure of this newest ticketing scam, McFarland was once again charged with fraud. He pled guilty to defrauding investors and ticket sellers of over $26 million. On June 12, 2018, he was sentenced to six years imprisonment.

<p>Kendall Jenner and company are facing possible subpoenas for financial information and demands to return the money they were paid for promoting this big fat mess. More than $5.2 million was paid out to multiple recipients.</p>

36. False Advertisers

Kendall Jenner and company are facing possible subpoenas for financial information and demands to return the money they were paid for promoting this big fat mess. More than $5.2 million was paid out to multiple recipients.

<p>McFarland definitely bore the brunt of the blame in the fallout from the festival, and while Ja Rule didn’t exactly emerge unscathed—he faced multiple lawsuits in the aftermath—it does seem as though he got off a little easy. He apologized to everyone on Instagram shortly after the festival ended, though he also made sure to point out that what happened was not his fault. He later tweeted that he, too, had been scammed by McFarland.</p>

37. Don’t Blame Me

McFarland definitely bore the brunt of the blame in the fallout from the festival, and while Ja Rule didn’t exactly emerge unscathed—he faced multiple lawsuits in the aftermath—it does seem as though he got off a little easy. He apologized to everyone on Instagram shortly after the festival ended, though he also made sure to point out that what happened was not his fault. He later tweeted that he, too, had been scammed by McFarland.

<p>The most heartbreaking portion of Netflix’s <em>Fyre</em> documentary shines a light on the real victims in this mess: the exploited locals. MaryAnn Rolle, the owner of a restaurant on the island, ended up paying her staff $50,000 out of her own pocket, and the organizers shamefully never reimbursed her.</p>

38. Out of Pocket

The most heartbreaking portion of Netflix’s Fyre documentary shines a light on the real victims in this mess: the exploited locals. MaryAnn Rolle, the owner of a restaurant on the island, ended up paying her staff $50,000 out of her own pocket, and the organizers shamefully never reimbursed her.

39. Silver Lining

MaryAnn Rolle’s story gets better, however, as the kindness of internet strangers came through to save the day. She took to GoFundMe after the documentary dropped in an attempt to raise the funds she had lost, and has managed to raise over $200,000. At least, finally, someone who deserved it got their happy ending.

<p>Andy King became the unlikely breakout star of the Netflix documentary, and along with countless jokes and memes came a flood of job offers. He claims he has been offered at least three TV shows, and three different water companies have been in touch with him in an attempt to strike a deal.</p>

40. Unlikely Star

Andy King became the unlikely breakout star of the Netflix documentary, and along with countless jokes and memes came a flood of job offers. He claims he has been offered at least three TV shows, and three different water companies have been in touch with him in an attempt to strike a deal.

<p>Plumbing was an obvious cause for concern from the beginning, and like so many others it was a problem that never really got solved. In one bizarre internal email addressing concerns that the festival infrastructure wouldn’t be able to handle the necessary plumbing requirements, an employee claimed "no one is eating, so therefore no one's pooping." Flawless logic, there.</p>

41. Down the Toilet

Plumbing was an obvious cause for concern from the beginning, and like so many others it was a problem that never really got solved. In one bizarre internal email addressing concerns that the festival infrastructure wouldn’t be able to handle the necessary plumbing requirements, an employee claimed "no one is eating, so therefore no one's pooping." Flawless logic, there.

<p>When the festival-goers flocked to the airport in an attempt to fly home and put an end to their nightmare, they were contained in a holding area (read: literally locked in from the outside with a chain and padlock) while the airport staff tried to sort everything out.</p> <p><strong>Sources: </strong>1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23</p>

42. Stop Those Millennials

When the festival-goers flocked to the airport in an attempt to fly home and put an end to their nightmare, they were contained in a holding area (read: literally locked in from the outside with a chain and padlock) while the airport staff tried to sort everything out.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23

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Fyre festival – how i would have done it.

I’ve been watching the Netflix documentary Fyre this week like everyone else, and find it totally fascinating. I remember reading the news at the time the music festival crashed and burned back in April 2017, but I didn’t appreciate just what a disaster it really was. How could the pilot who learned how to fly a plane by playing video games be the smartest guy in the room?

As most have seen from watching, Fyre Festival was a train wreck of overpromising and underdelivering at an epic scale. When they lost access to Norman’s Cay , the private island experience that most people were buying into was already toast.

So I, like many, imagined how I would have done it. First, in the “oh crap how do we salvage this and still pull it off” kind of way the real planners were in. Then second, starting from scratch, how to approach it to better deliver on the original vision.

Fyre Festival Baseline

Attendees: I’m going to say 3,000 per weekend at the most. This is highly debatable, here’s why. The pitch deck shows 40,000 total attendees spread across two weekends. Most insiders reported that any number given to investors by this team was inflated. The space planners in the film were bemoaning that the first 300 attendees filled up all the tents and were “only a third” of those arriving that first weekend, which would indicate about 1,000. As a second point of reference, Seth Crossno actually found one of the staff’s notebooks on the ground while at the festival. Written in the upper right of the page ordering Blow Pops (seriously?) and other snacks is the guest count – “2000 – 2500 (per wknd), 3,700 total”. So based on data, we have somewhere between 2000 and 3700 guests total, plus the influencers (reportedly 200-250 attending) and their guests, plus the talent and their entourages. 6,000 total seems generous with these numbers.

Goals: Private island/luxe experience (original promise from the video), rubbing shoulders with celebrities and influencers all weekend, partying, giving back to the local community through tourism

Constraints: Budget, all the logistics (transport, space, performance venues), Bahamas as a location, break even or better for costs

Worth noting: Most major festivals don’t make money their first year (a strong showing sets up buzz for following years).

As Keith the pilot so helpfully pointed out, they needed to be thinking about toilets, not models. No small, remote island would be able to support thousands of concert goers and their demands for food, water, beds and toilets. His offshore cruise ship idea as a floating hotel was solid. In fact, some of the influencers were put up on a small boat, you can see it in the background of the Netflix film footage from the beach and the interior is shown in CC Clarke’s video .

Her comments are telling: “we’re loving life on this ship”, “I’m so pleased we’re on a ship”, and this is from a run-down stateroom with twin beds. Any port looks good in a storm, but if this was an upscale ship, my guess is most people would have been pretty happy.

Royal Caribbean Full-ship Charter, Freedom Class

Capacity: 3,634 passengers, 28 ft. draft, 5 nights. Cost: $2.5M

It can be difficult to find the prices for chartering cruise chips, Royal Caribbean has good transparency at the source link above. They have smaller Radiance (2500 pax) and Voyager (3100) ships, as well as the larger Oasis, but the Freedom class has the best capacity for the price. Charter ships come fully staffed and inclusive of all food, gyms, pools, shows, and use of all A/V equipment for private concerts, plus the paid bars and casinos. Independence of the Seas has 1824 rooms. 120 of those are suites, including a Royal Suite (1600 square feet plus a balcony) that has a piano and private balcony hot-tub, a Presidential Suite (1215 square feet with a 800 square foot balcony) and six two-bedroom Grand Suites.

Upsides: Everything is self-contained and already taken care of with full staff; unlimited food, balcony staterooms, medical facilities onboard, bartenders and alcohol everywhere. DJs can rock the pool area and the indoor clubs all night long, high-end suites and private lounges for the performers so they can get away when needed.

Downsides: Tacky, shore transports necessary, ship is too big to feel private

Side Note: Usually charters are booked 1-2 years in advance; however, money fixes all problems. It’s possible to buy out a ship even if it’s mostly sold, you simply have to pay the cruise line to compensate all the passengers that have already booked (including nonrefundable flights, etc.) and give them future incentives. It could have been done for Fyre Festival even in the short timeline, they had $27M from investors!

The marketing video clearly promised a full private island experience; however, there are several challenges with that. One, physically transporting and fitting hundreds of people on a small island, with water, toilets and so on. Two, the safety aspects (keeping track of everyone in case they’re lost or injured). And three, a major one, many private islands limit capacity to around 30 guests. Overrunning an expensive island with hundreds of drunk party guests is probably not going to endear you to the owners, and you’re likely to get sued for damages.

So how could some of that private island experience still be captured?

Reportedly (and backed up by Fyre announcements for parties that never happened), Over Yonder Cay was rented for use during the Fyre Festival. It’s a 72-acre island with 4 villas and a whole host of toys, rent is $64,000/day for the maximum of 28 guests. No doubt it’s gorgeous for a small group, but there’s not as much beach as other islands, and there’s no airfield so it’s boat access only. (I’m guessing only Billy and Ja Rule ever saw the inside of that place.)

Musha Cay (owned by David Copperfield) is double the size at 150 acres with more beach area, bigger houses (the largest is 10,000 square feet), and a private 2200 ft. runway, so small planes can land here directly. It rents for $57,000/day for 24 guests max, all-inclusive.

And check out what’s out front:

These sand bars can be found all over in the Exumas at low tide, Musha Cay’s is particularly beautiful. Three miles long, it’s a great place for tanning, sports, and snorkeling, guests can relax and roam where they want, and, since it’ll disappear when the tides rise, you can be sure of getting all of the guests back aboard. Penelope Cruz even got married here . As in, on that exact sandbar.

So there’s Musha Cay for the performers, special occasions, VIP receptions, etc., with daytime parties on the sandbars and other local attractions reached by the cruise ship tenders after repositioning (e.g. Pig Beach, about 23 miles north).

Another big advantage of a cruise: transportation for thousands. All of the Fyre Festival attendees flew to Miami and then had to hop on another plane (737) to Great Exuma Island . Here, passengers board in Miami, party all night, and wake up in the Bahamas.

For those special few going to the island, only small planes will be able to land on a runway that short. These STOL (short takeoff and landing) charter planes abound in the Bahamas and don’t cost much at all. Small six-seaters like the BN-2 are popular and would cost just a few thousand dollars for back-and-forth trips. Again, the celebs get to fly from Miami direct to a private island, this is a big convenience and selling point. Let’s call this $10k.

There’s a great page still live here that shows the supposed final lineup of the Fyre Festival and a few other details, the big artists were mentioned in the documentary (G.O.O.D. Music with no artist detail, Major Lazer, Blink 182, DJ set by Disclosure, etc.). In retrospect the pre-emptive thank you they wrote for the excellent customer service is hilarious.

Talent/performer lineup is the biggest unknown cost, prices are not public and subject to a lot of negotiation based on the venue, availability, their tour riders, crew, sound requirements (which might need further negotiation if they’re using a pre-existing setup on a cruise ship that can’t be extensively altered), and so on. Variety did publish an old list back in 2014, and there are a few others more recent that give some rough reference points. For an EDM-heavy party, let’s try a list like this:

These costs are very rough since they’re outdated, it’s a multi-day party with several performances, and other factors. According to industry articles, the bottom-line performers are very inexpensive or even free just to get exposure. Filling in the roster with some other performers and budgeting for extras, we’ll round up to $2M. I don’t know what the ‘gotchas’ would be here as I’ve never booked talent.

In the film, Samuel Krost was responsible for booking the acts and stated that they were “grossly overpaid”, estimating 3.5-4 million was spent. Calvin Wells (the VC opposing Fyre) also mentioned in the film that he spoke to several artists’ agents and Fyre was offering double the market rates; i.e., half of 4M puts us squarely at two. Top-down or bottom-up, both approaches point to around $2M as a reasonable figure.

Marketing: Models and Social Media Influencers

Like music performers, costs here are all over the map. According to the SEC filing, Billy McFarland didn’t keep any accounting records, so finding details of what was paid out to whom is difficult. It’s clear from the pitch deck and recorded comments that they were strongly relying on influencer buzz to build anticipation and sales, so this was a big expenditure. What little we do know is starting to come out in the wake of the SEC investigations.

At one point in the film 400 influencers are mentioned, but again these numbers were likely inflated and some of them – actors, comedians, and so on – were probably induced to promote the festival as favors with minimal to no payment. Samuel Krost, “just” the guy booking artists, is close friends with Gigi and Bella Hadid, and even dated Selena Gomez . I’m sure the entire team was asking for help across their personal networks.

IMG Models, the agency representing Bella Hadid, Hailey Bieber and Elsa Hosk among others, was reportedly paid $1.2M, while DNA Model Management for Emily Ratajkowski received $299k. That’s already $1.5M. I’m including it here for completeness, but these were sunk costs by the time the festival organizers were called in.

Social Media Influencers

Kendall Jenner was paid $250,000 for a single Instagram post, but she’s definitely the outlier. Most of the other personalities building buzz by actually attending and documenting the festival were middle influencers with far smaller audiences, like CC Clarke (1.6M followers) and Alyssa Lynch (500k followers), both seen in the film. There are plenty of guidelines out there for pay scales by follower, as well as “ influencer earnings calculators “, that would indicate a range of $2,000-5,000 per post at these levels. Amanda Riley , a model with 85k followers, apologized for her role and stated she was simply given free travel with VIP access in exchange for social media promotion.

In a case like a multi-day festival with ongoing posts, a nominal payment plus attendance, transportation, room and board like Amanda’s would probably get negotiated, with nicer rooms for higher influencers. Averaging $5,000 for 200 people to cover fees/transport (plus comped accommodations), budget here is $1M.

So, to recap what this Fyre experience would look like:

Guests board private cruise ship in Miami and anchor near Musha Cay. Day trips in tenders to sand bars, short repositioning cruise for other local spots (pig beach, iguanas, deserted islands like Lee Stocking, etc.)
Top performers (e.g. Calvin Harris, David Guetta) are flown in on private planes and get luxury villas on the island. Reserve one villa as an ultra-expensive guest option (divided in half-day segments), which includes island exploration and meet-and-greets at VIP parties.
One headliner is on the ship in the Royal Suite (Tiesto) and the other performers have Grand or Junior Suites. All Influencers would be provided Balcony rooms plus roundtrip airfare to Miami.
Most parties occur onboard and most performers and influencers are there circulating. Headliners would have scheduled performances onboard and have transfers to/from the island.
Brief stop in Nassau on the way back to Miami for shopping and sightseeing (required for the cruise operators, and allows some tourism to contribute to the local economy)

Obviously there are more expenses we haven’t covered here; production costs for the marketing video, private yacht rental for the video, a social media team, the management team salaries, payments to Bahamas coast guard/tourism officials, and other day-to-day business operating expenses. This is primarily focused on festival execution.

Fyre Festival Costs

$11.4M is less than half of what they raised from investors, and far cheaper than what they were trying to achieve. Fyre’s initial catering estimate alone was almost $6M – more than the ship rental itself (which includes food, even the Indian and Sushi options Grant Margolin wanted). The toilet estimate in the Vice article was $1M, which didn’t include shipping or the barge costs for waste disposal. Stage costs to deliver and set up on a remote beach were at least hundreds of thousands of dollars, as stated by the stage consultant in the film. The list goes on, their (ultimately failed) approach was burning through money. If they’d listed to their consultants, they might have had a shot at pulling this off.

Ticket Sales

In addition to the investor fundraising, Fyre also took in a substantial sum in ticket and ancillary sales. Reported ticket prices varied widely from $500 at the low end, $12,500 for a villa, and then upgrades like the Fyre festival bracelets or the $50,000 cabana Shiyoun Deng mentioned in the film.

Reserving the Royal suite (1), Owners Suites (8), and 2BR Grand Suites (6) for performers and a few key influencers, plus 200 Balcony rooms for other influencers, still leaves the following:

At these prices, which are high for a five day cruise, you can recoup the cost of the ship per weekend plus about $1M ($6.03M total take). The organizers would have to get inventive on upsell, merchandising, and so on to even approach break even on $11.5M, but we did plan for some of that.

These are just a few experiences that bring in close to $700,000 at these prices. The organizers were actually adept at dreaming up this kind of stuff and getting people to pay for it, they just couldn’t deliver. It’s still going to be quite a challenge to break even.

Fyre Festival Round 2: Reimagined

So with more time and proper planning, what could have been done to better deliver on the vision?

Fyre Festival was selling exclusivity, right? Luxury. Celebrity access. $1M treasure hunts on deserted islands. That’s one reason why there was so little sympathy in the aftermath, these were a bunch of rich models and YouTube personalities baited and switched into sleeping on wet mattresses in the dark and vlogging the entire thing. MDavid Low originally pitched the idea for industry insiders only, as a way to raise awareness for the Fyre booking app that was supposed to be the “real” product. The monster it turned into was never thought through, or at least, the decision makers weren’t listening to the feedback.

A festival of 10,000 people is never going to feel exclusive. A private island with 5,000 villas is unheard of (Internet, please, correct me if I’m wrong). Even Lanai, the sixth-largest Hawaiian island, only has 3,000 permanent inhabitants plus about 1200 tourists a week. The new Baha Mar megaresort in Nassau has 1000 rooms spread across three hotels, renting this entire resort wouldn’t contain that many people and would feel very commercialized. I mean, who wants to vlog this selfie as “exclusive”?

Altered approach

Much smaller. 500 to 600 people.
Eliminate all the models and public hype, target industry middle influencers that will actually reach people who might use your app
Single weekend, five days
Much more expensive. This is a Coco Chanel bag, not Coach.

Lodging: Luxury Cruise, Silversea Silver Muse

I get it. Cruise ships can be tacky and gross. Many younger people hear cruise and automatically picture Grandma’s wedding anniversary or a pastel-colored Disney cruise with thousands of screaming kids.

However, there are some very luxurious brands out there that are challenging that perception. Silversea is one of these. The Silver Muse , their newest ship, holds 596 passengers. The finishings are tasteful and luxurious, parts of the ship resemble a high-end spa covered in Italian marble. Every single stateroom comes with a dedicated butler, private balcony, free WiFi (for live Insta streams onboard), and unlimited alcohol. The high end suites are huge and insanely nice. They accept full-ship charters but the costs are not public; since the booking rates for rooms are approximately 5-7x a mainstream cruise, I have to imagine a full-ship charter will run at least about the same as the much larger Royal Caribbean craft, around 2.5M for 5 days. This is an assumption, but based on available data, I think it’s close.

Island: Blue Island, Bahamas or Laucala, Fiji

Obviously nobody on an “exclusive” trip wants to feel left behind, and you have to get ashore sometime. The new owners of the biggest private island in the Bahamas, Hog Cay (now called Blue Island ) are investing in improvements and trying to build up the reputation of the island. Because of this and the size of the island (almost 700 acres), there’s a much better chance of negotiating entrance to hundreds of people that will give the island publicity, unlike the exclusive private islands of celebrities who don’t want their personal playgrounds ruined. No public price listed.

As an alternate choice here, there are some amazing islands in the South Pacific that have incredible reefs and diving. Laucala, Fiji is a huge (12 square kilometers!) island that can be booked privately . Island rates aren’t publicly listed, based on the room rates it’s likely on the order of $100k/day.

Exploration is the key here – rainforest tours, windsurfing, horseback riding, and diving. It has 25 beautiful homes, but with the cruise ship nearby and the cost of this island, a two-day stopover here seems like a reasonable compromise. Get in, explore, and leisurely head back to Nadi, Fiji. $200k-$250k, assuming the owners will rent for a short duration.

I won’t get in to all of the specifics, but let’s take a quick look at what ticket sales might look like for this approach.

Some of these rooms would need to be comped/covered by investors, but the numbers are much more favorable here than they are on the big ship. It’s expensive, but people can really see what they’re getting for their money, whether they’re asking their butler for another round or riding horses up a mountain on a private Fiji island.

Final Thoughts

I firmly believe that the team could have pulled off the first scenario in the time allotted if management had allowed them to. It wouldn’t have delivered on every promise from the marketing video, but they’re 90% of the way there and can address the 10% gap next year, with far less egg on their face and damage to their reputations. Not to mention avoiding federal prison!

Hope you enjoyed this analysis, thanks for reading. Love to hear feedback. Comment below!

Life at Sea passengers say canceled 3-year cruise owes them millions

A letter from 78 customers claims a Turkish cruise company has done more damage than the Fyre Festival

More than a month after a Turkish cruise company reneged on the promise of a lifetime — a three-year trip around the world in more than 140 countries — customers who spent millions in deposits are asking a U.S. attorney for help getting their money back.

In a saga seemingly destined to join the canon of Netflix scandal documentaries, Miray Cruises’ failure to launch the Life at Sea sailing has left dozens of passengers without homes, jobs, cars, retirement funds and life savings.

A letter sent to Markenzy Lapointe, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, identifies 78 of the passengers for the Life at Sea sailing as “Victims of Miray.” The letter, which was reviewed by The Washington Post, says passengers lost an estimated $16 million from Miray actions that amount to misrepresentation and fraud. The group includes citizens from the United States, Australia, England, Singapore and India, among other countries. The majority of the customers were people over 65.

“The failure of Miray to refund passenger money as promised has caused a significant number of residents to literally become homeless,” the letter says. “Many are living out of suitcases in motels or in spare rooms because of the generosity of friends.”

Miray said in a statement to passengers earlier this month that refunds are slow-rolling because of banking and credit card problems, according to the letter. Spokespeople for the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. It’s unclear whether Lapointe’s office will take up an investigation. The passengers’ letter, which is intended to serve as a formal criminal complaint, says they suffered damages worse than victims of the botched Fyre Festival in the Bahamas; organizer Billy McFarland went to federal prison for wire fraud .

“They’ve not only dashed our hopes and dreams and upset the course of our lives, but they keep wasting our time,” passenger Shirene Thomas, a 58-year-old retired social services worker, told The Post. She said she moved out of the house she was renting, sold her car and condensed her life into five boxes for the trip. She’s now living with a friend in North Carolina.

Between June and August of 2023, Thomas said she made 27 individual transactions across eight credit cards to Miray, amounting to nearly $157,000 for the three-year trip. (Miray was offering slight discounts to customers who paid upfront for the three years.) “It took so much time and now, as you can imagine, it’s taking even more time to file disputes with 27 different transactions and provide them all the documentation.”

So far, only four passengers have seen any of their money returned to them, the letter says.

“One of the harder parts of it all was the lack of communication and being gaslit,” Thomas says. “It would have been much easier if they had just come out and said this was falling through, but that was not what they did.”

In March 2023, Miray, a company that typically runs cruises around the Aegean Sea, announced the 1,095-day cruise for as low as $30,000 a year , including lodging, food and other accommodations. Although the concept wasn’t particularly new, what Miray was offering and the price it advertised were somewhat rare. (Thomas says the price tag didn’t end up being entirely accurate, as it reflected the price of only some double occupancy cabins.) Prospective passengers were informed that they would be sailing on the Gemini, a vessel owned by Miray. The boat was scheduled to set sail in November.

As the months elapsed, passengers paid their deposits, acquired new visas, packed up their lives and prepared for sea. Some re-homed pets. Some sold houses. Others dipped into their retirement funds. Meanwhile, the original management team behind Life at Sea quit, apparently over disputes regarding the Gemini’s seaworthiness. During this time, most communication with passengers happened via webinars with new Miray executives, including former CEO Kendra Holmes and COO Ethem Bayramoglu. In July, they announced they’d found a bigger boat to embark on the journey.

In October, passengers shipped off their belongings to Istanbul or Miami (where the vessel was stopping after Turkey). Miray’s owner, Vedat Ugurlu, then announced that the voyage would be delayed until Nov. 11. Many passengers had already bought plane tickets or were in temporary lodging in Istanbul waiting for departure. According to the letter submitted to the U.S. attorney’s office, Ugurlu claimed that funds were being finalized for the purchase of the boat — but that the trip was still a go.

On Nov. 19, the letter says, Ugurlu announced the complete cancellation of the voyage; plans to secure a larger vessel had fallen through. Miray promised passengers a full repayment of the trip and any additional funds that would be paid out in three installments, the first coming Dec. 22, with payments following in January and February.

In a statement to passengers on Jan. 14, Miray said disputes over credit card chargebacks had delayed the refunds and prevented the company from processing any transfers. Even still, the passengers claim, the company has engaged in “significant and repeated illegal activity , ” for marketing a three-year cruise without having a ship first.

Kara Youssef and her husband, Joe, are one of the few who have seen a fraction of the money they sunk into Life at Sea come back to them. The couple had been living in Turkey for two years at the time the cruise was announced. They used up most of their retirement fund, dug out a significant chunk of their savings and sold both properties they owned in Turkey to fund the trip. Since Oct. 28, they’ve been living out of three suitcases in a hotel paid for by Miray.

“Our biggest concern at this point is we’re not going to have anywhere to go very soon,” Youssef told The Post. “It’s not that we’d be homeless, but we may not be allowed to go back to our lives since we sold the property we did our [Turkish] residency under.”

On Saturday, more than a month after the first repayment was supposed to turn up in all passengers’ accounts, Youssef was able to arrange an in-person meeting with Bayramoglu, the COO, who paid her $10,000 in cash — 12 percent of what she and her husband had paid for the cruise. She said the remainder is supposed to come in February at the latest.

“I think that Miray has made some horrible management decisions and has been atrocious in their communication, but if they make their payment, if they refund their passengers, as far as I’m concerned, I’m good,” Youssef says. “I’m not trying to ruin them to make them pay or anything like that .”

Not all passengers signed onto the complaint. George Fox, a 67-year-old Maine resident, told The Post that he takes responsibility for the money he lost on the cruise. He had always been skeptical that it would happen — the change of management and boat gave him pause, as did his bank’s refusal to wire Miray $30,000 for a deposit — but he says he doesn’t believe it was the result of intentional fraud.

“Everybody that signed up for this, they knew that it was a risk,” says Fox, who after growing dubious of the launch, changed his plans and decided he’d embark in Florida, once the ship had successfully set sea. “It was just a lot of things that kind of came together and didn’t come together. It’s just one of those things. … I mean, what can you say? It’s a crazy world.”

Colleen Grablick is a writer based in D.C. Follow her on X: @colleengrablick .

More cruise news

Living at sea: Travelers on a 9-month world cruise are going viral on social media. For some travelers, not even nine months was enough time on a ship; they sold cars, moved out of their homes and prepared to set sail for three years . That plan fell apart, but a 3.5-year version is waiting in the wings.

Passengers beware: It’s not all buffets and dance contests. Crime data reported by cruise lines show that the number of sex crimes has increased compared to previous years. And though man-overboard cases are rare, they are usually deadly .

The more you know: If you’re cruise-curious, here are six tips from a newcomer. Remember that in most cases, extra fees and add-ons will increase the seemingly cheap price of a sailing. And if you happen to get sick , know what to expect on board.

Finding what to do in Cozumel for a day is now easy, a wide set of options to help you plan for your Shore Excursion in Cozumel

How A Cruise Ship Could Have Saved The Fyre Festival

Photo via Bahamas Ministry of Tourism

What Went Wrong

Fyre Music Festival Video

How Cruise Ships Could Have Saved The Festival

READ MORE: Virgin’s Scarlet Lady To Feature RockStar Suites

Fyre Festival attendees paid big bucks for the experience… only to wind up eating cheese sandwiches and sleeping on soggy mattresses. Photo via Twitter/@trev4president

Carnival Fascination was one of the ships chartered by FEMA in 2017.

By ABC News | June 24, 2024

Parkway drive, hollywood undead, nothing more playing 2025 shiprocked festival.

Parkway Drive , Hollywood Undead and Nothing More lead the lineup for the 2025 ShipRocked festival cruise, taking place Jan. 19-25.

The bill also includes The Struts , 10 Years , Atreyu , Buckcherry , Plush , Des Rocs and Flat Black .

“ShipRocked we are BACK!!!” says Parkway Drive, which previously headlined in 2023. “We had so much fun the first time around, this was a no brainer for us. The lineup is stacked, the vibes are high and we are set to bring the energy to another level. Can’t wait to see everyone there.”

ShipRocked 2025 will set sail from Miami, and will make stops in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas.

For the full lineup and all ticket info, visit ShipRocked.com .

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Russian Kitchen

Cruising the Moskva River: A short guide to boat trips in Russia’s capital

There’s hardly a better way to absorb Moscow’s atmosphere than on a ship sailing up and down the Moskva River. While complicated ticketing, loud music and chilling winds might dampen the anticipated fun, this checklist will help you to enjoy the scenic views and not fall into common tourist traps.

How to find the right boat?

There are plenty of boats and selecting the right one might be challenging. The size of the boat should be your main criteria.

Plenty of small boats cruise the Moskva River, and the most vivid one is this yellow Lay’s-branded boat. Everyone who has ever visited Moscow probably has seen it.

This option might leave a passenger disembarking partially deaf as the merciless Russian pop music blasts onboard. A free spirit, however, will find partying on such a vessel to be an unforgettable and authentic experience that’s almost a metaphor for life in modern Russia: too loud, and sometimes too welcoming. Tickets start at $13 (800 rubles) per person.

Bigger boats offer smoother sailing and tend to attract foreign visitors because of their distinct Soviet aura. Indeed, many of the older vessels must have seen better days. They are still afloat, however, and getting aboard is a unique ‘cultural’ experience. Sometimes the crew might offer lunch or dinner to passengers, but this option must be purchased with the ticket. Here is one such option offering dinner for $24 (1,490 rubles).

If you want to travel in style, consider Flotilla Radisson. These large, modern vessels are quite posh, with a cozy restaurant and an attentive crew at your service. Even though the selection of wines and food is modest, these vessels are still much better than other boats.

Surprisingly, the luxurious boats are priced rather modestly, and a single ticket goes for $17-$32 (1,100-2,000 rubles); also expect a reasonable restaurant bill on top.

How to buy tickets?

Women holding photos of ships promise huge discounts to “the young and beautiful,” and give personal invitations for river tours. They sound and look nice, but there’s a small catch: their ticket prices are usually more than those purchased online.

“We bought tickets from street hawkers for 900 rubles each, only to later discover that the other passengers bought their tickets twice as cheap!” wrote (in Russian) a disappointed Rostislav on a travel company website.

Nevertheless, buying from street hawkers has one considerable advantage: they personally escort you to the vessel so that you don’t waste time looking for the boat on your own.

Prices start at $13 (800 rubles) for one ride, and for an additional $6.5 (400 rubles) you can purchase an unlimited number of tours on the same boat on any given day.

Flotilla Radisson has official ticket offices at Gorky Park and Hotel Ukraine, but they’re often sold out.

Buying online is an option that might save some cash. Websites such as this offer considerable discounts for tickets sold online. On a busy Friday night an online purchase might be the only chance to get a ticket on a Flotilla Radisson boat.

This website (in Russian) offers multiple options for short river cruises in and around the city center, including offbeat options such as ‘disco cruises’ and ‘children cruises.’ This other website sells tickets online, but doesn’t have an English version. The interface is intuitive, however.

Buying tickets online has its bad points, however. The most common is confusing which pier you should go to and missing your river tour.

“I once bought tickets online to save with the discount that the website offered,” said Igor Shvarkin from Moscow. “The pier was initially marked as ‘Park Kultury,’ but when I arrived it wasn’t easy to find my boat because there were too many there. My guests had to walk a considerable distance before I finally found the vessel that accepted my tickets purchased online,” said the man.

There are two main boarding piers in the city center: Hotel Ukraine and Park Kultury . Always take note of your particular berth when buying tickets online.

Where to sit onboard?

Even on a warm day, the headwind might be chilly for passengers on deck. Make sure you have warm clothes, or that the crew has blankets ready upon request.

The glass-encased hold makes the tour much more comfortable, but not at the expense of having an enjoyable experience.

Getting off the boat requires preparation as well. Ideally, you should be able to disembark on any pier along the way. In reality, passengers never know where the boat’s captain will make the next stop. Street hawkers often tell passengers in advance where they’ll be able to disembark. If you buy tickets online then you’ll have to research it yourself.

There’s a chance that the captain won’t make any stops at all and will take you back to where the tour began, which is the case with Flotilla Radisson. The safest option is to automatically expect that you’ll return to the pier where you started.

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I feel most insignificant gazing up at the stars or pondering what happens inside a supermassive black hole. Or, you know, reading how Harvard researchers recently said aliens could be on Earth passing as humans, which, correct me if I’m wrong, is the plot of “Men in Black.”

Other times, a Jimmy Buffett cruise does the philosophical trick.

Haven’t you heard? A new Margaritaville at Sea cruise just launched from Port Tampa Bay with trips to Mexico and Key West. The vessel is an ode to the musician who died in 2023 at 76. In his life, Buffett became a marketing behemoth on behalf of Total Relaxation, a spokesperson for the delusion of leaving one’s problems in the snowy driveway, embodying the son of a son of a sailor and getting schnockered on sugary margs.

Per our reporter, the ship’s soaring premises house a large teal flip-flop, margarita chandeliers, floating fish, flying parrots and a replica of Buffett’s personal seaplane. A message on the side of the vessel declares the time always five o’clock. There’s a Port of Indecision buffet, a Fins Up fitness center, a Cheeseburger in Paradise burger bar and endless opportunities to tune out life in pursuit of pickleball and vacation meats.

Buffett’s empire, which grew to include restaurants, stores, vacation clubs, marijuana and more, represents a fantasy; anyone from Florida knows that falling asleep face-down on the sand is a dermatology invoice waiting to happen. And while it’s tempting to punch down at Parrotheads for partaking, the reality is that this cruise sounds … fun. Whatever Buffett was like in private, he built a massive, colorful persona that will long outlive him.

Here’s the sunscreen rub: The deaths of our icons make us take stock of our own smaller lives. What I mean is, we’re all going to die someday — this is going great, pour a rum runner! — and we better have our proverbial cruise ships in order. When the living think back on us, a set of imagery will spring to mind. The iconography of our life. The dressings of our memory. The salt on our rim.

In the spirit of the man who esoterically wrote “My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink, and I Don’t Love Jesus,” let’s play a game. If someone were to fashion a cruise ship experience around your personal universe, how would that materialize? Email me, I beg you, and I’ll publish the best answers in my next newsletter .

I’ll go first. My cruise ship would be littered with Diet Coke cans that have two warm gulps left in the bottom. There would be a laundry facility, but the laundry would never get done. For entertainment, we’re talking gallons of cold sauvignon blanc and a portable karaoke machine with one busted microphone and the complete catalog of Destiny’s Child. Four half-read novels would litter every table, not a single coaster in use.

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As a Gemini, my cruise would party hard for three to five days, which does not sound all that different from the Margaritaville cruise. However, after getting a mysterious aura behind the eye, the ship would need to dock back at the home port and go dark. When potential new customers try to book a trip, my customer service bot would reply a week later with, “Sorry, just seeing this.”

My cruise would be an acquired taste, as would yours, as is Margaritaville at Sea. But, hey, in these times rife with internet judgment, high interest rates and societal pressure to never be cringe, it might be exciting for us all to become a little more acquired. Who wants their legacy to be “large format beige tile that will aid in resale”? What cruise ship can be decorated with sensible slacks and sound financial decisions?

Go off, Margaritaville at Sea! Blast “Why Don’t We Get Drunk,” a song that made my parents feverishly attempt to fast-forward the tape deck every time. Serve ersatz Huli Huli chicken and yoga mimosas. Deploy the character actor in the plushy parrot suit. Cascade forth from Tampa Bay as a gaudy, confident reminder to steer our freakish ships, however uneven they may sail.

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Stephanie Hayes is a columnist offering her thoughts on current events, life and culture. She can be reached at [email protected].

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Regent Seven Seas Cruises

Best of Moscow by high speed train

By shuguley , February 15, 2014 in Regent Seven Seas Cruises

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If you are considering this on the 2015 June Baltic cruise on Voyager; my suggestion is don't. There is so much to do in St. Petersburg and although a train is one of my favorite ways to travel the time would be far better spent in St. P.

Thanks for the advice. Yes, this would be on the Voyager during the 2015 season but not yet sure exactly which cruise.

We did the Moscow excursion "on a different luxury line", but from your brief description it sounds very much like the same trip, so I will operate on that assumption. It is a VERY long day! We left the ship at 5:30 AM and returned at 12:30 AM. The highspeed train trip is comfortable, and while they call it "Business Class" it does not compare well to the equivalent class on say Rail Europe. When we did it in 2011, we did have highspeed both ways, and the trip back seemed much longer as the adrenaline and excitement had worn off!:D

Moscow itself is not that terribly different from any other big city in the world, but this Cold War kid never thought he would ever stand in Red Square, never mind walk the grounds of The Kremlin, or tour The Kremlin Palace, or see (but not visit) Lenin's Tomb, or visit The Armoury. But he did, and he loved every minute of it! Yes, it is a long day, and you barely scratch a scratch on the surface, but it is worth it. There is a tremendous amount to see in St. Petersburg, but every Baltic cruise goes to St. Petersburg, so you can go back if you choose to. Not every cruiseline offers you the chance to see Moscow.

I have not personally done this tour, but our last time in St Petersburg, the private guide that we hired for a day was leading the regent tour to Moscow on the high speed train the next day. He said it was way better than the previous alternative, which was flying to Moscow and back. He said that you actually got to Moscow faster because you didn't have to deal with airline checkin etc. it did seem like a very long day to me, and there is so much to see and do in st. Petersburg that I didn't consider doing it.

countflorida

We toured to Moscow from St. Petersburg via the hi-speed SAPSAN train last September, from a Baltic cruise on the Oceania Marina. You need to have a two-night, three day port call in St. Petersburg to take this tour because the tour typically leaves the ship around 5:00 - 5:30 AM and doesn't return until after midnight the next day. We didn't take the ship's tour; we made private arrangements with TravelAllRussia for three days of touring, the first and third days in St. Petersburg and the second day the tour to Moscow by train. Our cost for the private tour for three days was about the same as what the ship charged for the excursion to Moscow alone. There are a number of private tour agencies that operate in St. Petersburg and offer the Moscow train tours; we would strongly recommend them over the ship's tours.

All three days had private guides with car and driver. The second day, the driver picked us up at the ship and took us to the train, but we were alone on the train, and met in Moscow by the guide on the station platform. After our tour and dinner, we were brought back to the train and after the return train trip met by the driver and taken back to the ship. Because you are alone on the train you must have your own Russian visas.

If this is your first visit to St. Petersburg, I would agree there is much more to see there. We found Moscow somewhat a disappointment, particularly Red Square. The Kremlin and the cathedral in Red Square were also worth seeing. But the best thing we saw was the Moscow subway! I worked for the Washington Metro system back in the 1980s as it grew from 40 to 80 miles and although I was in the computer area, I learned a lot about the challenges of running a subway system. We used the Moscow system to get across the city from where we had dinner to the train station, and I was amazed at the cleanliness', speed of operation, the short headways maintained, and the courtesy of everyone involved. A very impressive experience!

We had been to St. Petersburg before, and so had the time to take a day and go to Moscow. Also, I really like trains, and the SAPSAN is a German train set running on Russian rails. Seats are like first class domestic air, spacious but not too plush or comfortable, but with enough room. Not too much recline, and almost 8 hours on the train in two shots is a lot for an old man. They come through and sell drinks, candy, etc. but the sellers don't speak English and no one around us helped, so we had just poor coffee once coming, and brought stuff with us for the trip back. Not too much to see from the train either, particularly on the return when it is night the whole way.

If you decide to go, take a private tour and avoid the overly expensive ship's tour. I'm glad we did it, but wouldn't bother to repeat the tour; we've seen Moscow.

Thanks so much to all of you for the thorough and thought insight. Yhe information you have provided is most helpful.

countflorida: Your detailed post is very helpful. We are not quite ready for a Baltic cruise but should do so within a year. Time enough to do our pre travel research, bookings and visa gathering.:) Thank you!

Emperor Norton

Sure would appreciate someone who has taken "Best of Moscow by high speed train" from St. Petersburg could please share their impressions of this shore excursion. From the description this sounds like a very long day. Wondering how the 4 hour train trip was in terms of accommodations, etc. Also what time did you leave the ship and what time at night did you return? Were both legs of the trip on the high speed rail (I read that slower trains also travel the same tracks)? My wife and I are considering this excursion. We thought that if we are making all the effort to go to Russia then how could we pass up going to Moscow, walking in Red Square, seeing St. Basil, etc.

I did this on Seabourn. IMO DONT. Take Aeroflop (er Aeroflot). The train has non folding seats where you are literally knee to knee with your fellow passenger (facing each other). Further they don't believe in air conditioning. It's also the worlds slowed bullet train. I think I would have found more enjoyment wandering around the St. Petersburg and Moscow airports.

Countflorida,

This is a little off topic,, however we had planned a river cruise in Russia but decided we would rather stay on land and have booked about two weeks with Travel-All-Russia using the private guide and driver. I'm curious as to how you found them as a tour company.

The guides they provided were fine. We had a different guide each of the days in St. Petersburg, but both were flexible, pleasant, knowledgeable and spoke English very well, as did the guide in Moscow, incidentally. She was a bit aloof, distant, not too friendly, but otherwise fine. In fact, she was the one who suggested taking the Metro, which unexpectedly became one of the highlights of the Moscow excursion. If I have a complaint with AllTravelRussia, it is with their plan and its execution (more later).

I had requested emphasis on World War II (in Russia, the Great Patriotic War) sites and info. In scheduling us, they weren't careful about dates and a couple of the sites we wanted to see were scheduled on the third day, after we'd been to Moscow. But both sites were closed that day of the week, and that info was readily available, right on web sites describing them. Also, the included meals (lunches in St. Pete, dinner in Moscow) were not what we asked for: light meals with some choices, so we could avoid things we didn't like and choose things we did like. My request was ignored; we were given full Russian meals with a fixed menu, no choice. On the first day, a fish dish was the entre, but I am allergic to fish. Fortunately, I had the e-mail I'd sent with me and showed it to the guide, and she was able to change my entre to chicken, which was very good actually. But we didn't want a 3-4 course lunches or dinner (in Moscow). We had the guide drop the lunch the third day, although we never got any credit or refund. But, particularly in contrast to the ship's tours, the prices were so reasonable we didn't worry too much about it.

The people who were on the ship's tour to Moscow saw us boarding the same train for which they were forced to queue up and wait on the way back, and asked us what we had done. I was candid and open so they were not happy when I explained what we had arranged and particularly what it had cost. Also, when we returned to the ship, we found they had laid on a late supper for those who had gone to Moscow, so up we went and had something. Well, it turns out the late supper was supposed to be just for those on the ship's tour, but we and others on 'independent' tours, there were a dozen or more of us, crashed the party, actually got there first, and they didn't realize it until the larger group arrived and there weren't enough tables/places set. By that time, the 'independents' had all gotten served and were eating; what could they do?

A couple from the larger group sat down with us and asked us about our tour, and they were the ones I told about our arrangement and its cost. They turned to others who’d been with them and announced the details, loudly enough so the whole room heard, which started a lot of bitching and complaining. I gathered they weren't very happy with the ship's tour to begin with, and this was the straw that broke the camel's back. We finished up and beat it out of there, but overheard later that one of the excursion staff came to check on something and ran into a real mess. I caught a cold on the trip, which forced me to bed the second day following in Tallinn, so by the time we reappeared we heard about the contretemps' but apparently no one recalled who started it, thankfully.

Because of what happened to us, I would probably not use AllTravelRussia if I were to go again, or if I did, I would be sure to get confirmation of every detail of the tour. They do have good reviews generally, and we were certainly helped by their visa department and liked the guides and drivers. Their weakness, I say now with full 20:20 hindsight, is that once the sales person who plans the tour, sells it to you and collects your money, he (or she) transfers the plan to their Russia office for implementation; there is no follow-up to make sure it gets done right. And that is where our problems arose; we paid for a custom tour but got a standard package with a few destinations switched, and no one checked them out, even to see when they were open the day we were scheduled to go. If you check every detail that’s important to you, it should be OK, but that’s a hell of a way to have to do business, in my opinion.

Thank you for the 20/20 hindsight observation on your Russian tour operator, and better priced than the ship's excursion cost.

Thanks very much for the feedback.

We had the same experience as you so far as price. We originally booked a Viking Cruise but, hearing some things about the river cruises that made us unhappy, looked into other options. T-A-R cost the same or less than a cruise and had us in hotels for 11 days. We opted for the private tour. They have three tour levels, based on hotels. We originally opted for the four star as it did not cost much more than the three star hotels. Finally we decided to throw it all in and upgraded to five star. In Moscow we will be at the newly opened Kempinsky which is two blocks from Red Square. In St. Petersburg it is the Grand Hotel Europe, one of the most vaunted luxury hotels in Russia. Location is important for us as the tours use up only part of the day so being in the center of everything for our independent touring is important. As with many other cities, the less you pay, the farther out of the center of town you are.

We have been working with our salesman in D.C. and he seems to get back to us with the changes we want. He recently returned from Russia so is up on everything. When I asked they said they paid the full TA commission if I wanted so I got my usual TA on board so he is watching our back and giving us that extra level of comfort. He also set up our air, which I know pays him little or nothing, and got us business class for much less than T-A-R wanted for economy, though it took working for a while with a consolidator. He's happy to get his 10 percent on this trip without having booked it. He also took care of the trip insurance. We've been doing a lot of research on the CC sister site Trip Advisor and will write a report there. We will, I guess, become a source of info for CC members after having spent 5 days in Moscow and 6 in SP.

4 months later...

scubacruiserx2

Anybody considering a day trip to Moscow from St. Petersburg on the Sapsan may want to look at our travelogue filled with pictures.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1927687

Very informative. Thanks dor sharing. Jeff

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Sitka and Juneau residents propose hard caps on cruise ships as tourism grows

Passengers from the Royal Caribbean Serenade of the Seas cruise ship wait to board buses into Sitka's downtown at the Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal on Tuesday, June 7, 2022. (Michelle Theriault Boots / ADN)

On June 18 a group of Sitka residents submitted a proposed cruise ship-limiting ballot measure to city officials for legal review.

Two days later, in Juneau, a different group of Alaskans submitted the last batch of signatures needed to put a different limit on the local ballot this fall.

With as many as 1.6 million cruise ship tourists expected to visit Southeast Alaska this year, a growing number of the region’s residents are seeking to put hard limits on the industry.

That comes even as Juneau prepares for a softer, voluntary limit that would be the first of its kind in Alaska.

In Sitka, it’s the third time that local residents have tried to put a limit on the ballot. Two prior attempts were rejected by the city’s attorney.

After those failures, organizers created a nonprofit, raised money, hired an attorney of their own, and are trying again with a new draft.

Klaudia Leccese is president of Small Town SOUL, the new nonprofit. She believes Sitka residents are fed up with overcrowding.

“I’m generally not much of a rabble-rouser. I’m a retired social worker,” she said.

This year, as many as 9,300 cruise ship passengers will visit Sitka on its busiest days, more than the town’s population of about 8,400. On 75 days, the number of tourists will be greater than half the population.

Sitka has only 14 miles of paved roads, and Leccese said the traffic caused by tour boats and tour buses has gotten out of hand. Lincoln Street, at the heart of downtown, is sometimes closed because the crowds are too large.

Tour buses run from one end of the town’s road network to the other, shuttling between the cruise ship dock and Fortress of the Bear, where animals live in captivity.

She said she and her husband frequently take their small boat down the coast for a getaway, but even there, they’re awoken by the wakes of passing tour boats.

“You go, wow, I think these wildlife and fishing charters are just a few too many,” she said.

The newly drafted Sitka proposal would limit the number of cruise ship passengers to 300,000 per year, with no more than 4,500 per day. Sitka is expected to see about 600,000 cruise tourists this year.

Small ships — those with fewer than 250 passengers — wouldn’t be included in the limit. That would protect locally run companies, including Alaskan Dream Cruises , which is based in Sitka.

Large ships wouldn’t be allowed before May 1 or after Sept. 30, and the city Assembly could shrink that window.

“Some businesses are uncomfortable with cruise ships starting in April,” Leccese said, because high school and college students — who make up much of the seasonal workforce — aren’t yet available.

Sitka officials are reviewing the proposed measure for legality and will respond by July 2, the city clerk’s office said. If the measure passes legal muster, backers would need to gather 334 signatures to place it on the local October ballot. To call a special election, 556 signatures would be needed.

In Juneau, a proposed ballot measure would install “ship-free Saturdays,” forbidding large ships from landing on that day.

Karla Hart, one of the measure’s backers, said supporters had needed 290 more signatures on their petitions after a preliminary review, and on Thursday, she drove to city hall to drop off 427 more.

If the signatures are certified, the initiative will be on Juneau’s Oct. 1 municipal ballot .

“We should be good to go,” Hart said.

Originally published by the Alaska Beacon , an independent, nonpartisan news organization that covers Alaska state government.

IMAGES

How A Cruise Ship Could Have Saved The Fyre Festival
How A Cruise Ship Could Have Saved The Fyre Festival
Fyre Festival Promo Island Can Be Yours For $17 Million
Fyre Festival & The Privilege Of Buying Into A Fantasy
Fyre Festival: The Biggest Hoax of the Decade
FYRE : le meilleur festival qui n'a jamais eu lieu

COMMENTS

How A Cruise Ship Could Have Saved The Fyre Festival
Carnival Fascination was one of the ships chartered by FEMA in 2017. Ultimately, there's no way of knowing if chartering cruise ships could have helped prevent the Fyre Festival from becoming ...
Fyre Cruise.
Life at Sea Cruises convinced hundreds of people to pay tens of thousands of dollars for a three-year, round-the-world cruise of a lifetime. According to an absolutely wild story from CNN, the ...
Exploring the 3-Year Cruise That Never Set Sail
The ad boasted of a three-year cruise called Life at Sea — said to be the longest cruise ever, with 382 port calls around the world — set to depart from Istanbul on Nov. 1. As a reporter who ...
90% of their problems could have been solved if they'd ...
Transportation, lodging, food, showers, medicine, storage, etc. - a cruise ship is specifically designed to handle all of this for thousands of people at a time. They should have just chartered a half dozen cruise ships to leave/return from a nearby city with a decent airport, parked them offshore and ferried guests to and from the island each day.
The 'Fyre Fest of Cruises' Raised Red Flags Well Before It Was ...
The 'Fyre Fest of Cruises' Raised Red Flags Well Before It Was Canceled. Opheli Garcia Lawler. ... a deal to purchase a ship for the cruise fell through about a month before the scheduled November ...
Much-hyped cruise branded new 'Fyre festival' disaster for cancelling
The ship was set to have cabins, private apartments as well as restaurants and wellness areas Credit: Miray Cruises. The three-year journey would travel 130,000 miles, travelling to 135 countries ...
I Survived Fyre Festival
FYRE FESTIVAL - THE GREATEST PARTY THAT NEVER HAPPENED. Two years ago, when the British influencer CC Clarke received an email from an agent asking if she would like to attend a luxury festival in the Bahamas, she jumped at the chance. ... In lieu of luxury accommodation, CC was taken to a cruise ship with about 30 others. She quickly learned ...
How Life at Sea's 3-Year Cruise Unraveled
Like a high-seas version of the Fyre Festival, which promised a luxury music concert in the Bahamas and delivered cold sandwiches and makeshift tents, the cruise imploded. It has left people, like ...
Fyre Fest collapses into chaos, leaves hundreds stranded in the Bahamas
Fyre Festival was supposed to be a luxury music festival in the Bahamas — with chartered planes, ... who is staying with his wife on a cruise ship docked nearby for the festival, said the ...
Watch It Burn: Part I
It was going to be epic. A music festival on a remote island in the Bahamas, hosted by an impressive line-up of performances and appearances by A-list stars, the Fyre festival was expected to be an unparalleled musical experience (Olhleiser, 2017). Instead, when party-goers began arriving on the tropical island on Thursday April 27, 2017, they found scenes of chaos and disorder, nothing like ...
Marc Sebastian Talks About the Ultimate World Cruise
February 5, 2024 2:09 PM EST. M arc Sebastian is noticeably frazzled. The TikTok star—who recently disembarked Royal Caribbean's Ultimate World Cruise after an 18-day stint on its nine-month ...
How the Failed Fyre Festival Impacted Great Exuma Locals ...
The country's arrival projections are up 10.3% for the first quarter of 2019. "International arrivals to The Bahamas, including The Exumas, have grown consistently since October of 2017 ...
What really happened at Fyre Festival?
6. An Early Start. McFarland's scamming days started at a very young age, apparently. As he claims in an interview in Hulu's Fyre Fraud, he started a shifty operation in second grade, whereby ...
Cruise ship : r/fyrefestival
Posted by u/mrkrabdribble - 29 votes and 12 comments
Fyre Festival
All of the Fyre Festival attendees flew to Miami and then had to hop on another plane (737) to Great Exuma Island. Here, passengers board in Miami, party all night, and wake up in the Bahamas. ... It has 25 beautiful homes, but with the cruise ship nearby and the cost of this island, a two-day stopover here seems like a reasonable compromise ...
Life at Sea passengers say canceled 3-year cruise owes them millions
A letter to the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida claims that 78 would-be Life of Sea passengers lost an estimated $16 million. (Kevin Izorce/Alamy) 7 min. More than a month after ...
Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened discussion (Netflix doc)
His cruise ship idea was making the best of a bad situation but the best option was to have enough tents and villas on the island so they wouldn't be responsible for herding thousands of drunk people over water late at night ... Yeah but most viewers only want to hear about Fyre festival. The information about the other scam he did with those ...
How A Cruise Ship Could Have Saved The Fyre Festival
Using a cruise ship to house guests would have also helped the Fyre Festival organizers deal with keeping attendees fed — another massive problem they encountered. Overnight, photos of the cheese sandwiches festival attendees were given in lieu of gourmet meals went viral thanks to Twitter and Instagram, aka the very social media platforms ...
Carnival Cruise Line Offers Further Explanation of Hot Cruise Ships
In reaching out to Carnival Cruise Line's Brand Ambassador, John Heald, guests have been advised about some ways the ships may feel warmer. Now, Heald has offered further explanations about why ...
Parkway Drive, Hollywood Undead, Nothing More playing 2025 ShipRocked
ASK4 Entertainment. Parkway Drive, Hollywood Undead and Nothing More lead the lineup for the 2025 ShipRocked festival cruise, taking place Jan. 19-25. The bill also includes The Struts, 10 Years, Atreyu, Buckcherry, Plush, Des Rocs and Flat Black. "ShipRocked we are BACK!!!" says Parkway Drive, which previously headlined in 2023.
Carnival Provides Update As Tropical Storm Alberto ...
The 5,228-guest Carnival Jubilee is sailing a 7-day Western Caribbean that left the Texas port on June 15, 2024 and will return on June 22, 2024. The ship, which launched in 2023 as the line's ...
Virgin Voyages Announces its First-Ever Comedy Festival
Virgin Voyages has announced its first-ever comedy festival will be added to its lineup in 2024. Launching aboard the Resilient Lady, the unique event will take place from September 14 to 19, 2024 ...
Cruising the Moskva River: A short guide to boat trips in Russia's
Even though the selection of wines and food is modest, these vessels are still much better than other boats. Sergey Kovalev/Global Look Press. Surprisingly, the luxurious boats are priced rather ...
Jimmy Buffett's new Tampa cruise and the question of legacy
A new Margaritaville at Sea cruise just launched from Port Tampa Bay with trips to Mexico and Key West. The vessel is an ode to the musician who died in 2023 at 76. In his life, Buffett became a ...
3-year cruise canceled because company unable to purchase a ship as
Fyre festival cruise edition Reply reply ... over 5 and 6 figure deposits A DIME for this outfit that didn't exist 11 months ago and has zero history on operating a cruise ship under their name. Their affiliation / ownership by the same guy (Vedat Ugurlu) who owns Miray cruises doesn't move the needle much IMHO either - Miray has only been ...
Best of Moscow by high speed train
We toured to Moscow from St. Petersburg via the hi-speed SAPSAN train last September, from a Baltic cruise on the Oceania Marina. You need to have a two-night, three day port call in St. Petersburg to take this tour because the tour typically leaves the ship around 5:00 - 5:30 AM and doesn't return until after midnight the next day.
'Moscow
'Moscow - St.Petersburg' river cruise is one of our bestsellers. Our voyages are best for well-traveled adults who prefer the intimate setting and slower pac...
St. Petersburg
Valaam: Today, we will head to the main island of a unique archipelago in the northern part of Lake Ladoga, where ships with foreign guests rarely visit.Your time on Valaam will be a truly unforgettable experience. You will make the trip on a small boat that heads along the coast of the island and visit the impressive island monastery, which is a most important center of Russian Orthodoxy.
Sitka Residents Propose New Cruise Ship Limits for 2025
Edwards had previously petitioned the city in 2023 to enact a 240,000-passenger cap, also requesting a weekly limit of no more than 13,350 guests. The initial proposal also requested placing hefty ...
Sitka and Juneau residents propose hard caps on cruise ships as tourism
This year, as many as 9,300 cruise ship passengers will visit Sitka on its busiest days, more than the town's population of about 8,400. On 75 days, the number of tourists will be greater than ...

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