When affluent guests charter any of the Below Deck yachts, they expect to receive exceptional service. The interior and exterior departments will therefore work themselves into stupors, ensuring that each guest’s needs and requests are met. While this causes most of the charter guests to show gratitude, others have continued to press on, frustrating the hardworking crews at their service.
These well-off charter guests are used to getting their way. Therefore, it’s not often that the word “no” is spoken. That’s not to say that the word “no” cannot arrive in a different form…
To explain, the crews onboard have been known to use pranks, white-lies, and even passive-aggressive actions. These acts have been taken in an effort to shut down certain guest requests and or behaviors.
Or, just to laugh, because Karma can be quietly rewarding.
These moments are rare (because tips are king). However, they have occurred throughout the series. Here are the handful of instances where Below Deck crew got back at guests.
Kate Chastain’s “Rocket”
Kate Chastain may no longer lead a Below Deck interior department, but her actions and one-liners will forever live in infamy among long-time viewers. During Season 2, Kate met her match in a guest named Dean Slover. Dean’s extensive preference sheet, which listed exact times that he’d like to be served, set the crew on edge. While onboard, Dean behaved as if he was the king, and all must bow down.
Enter in Kate, who only bows to fonts and designer labels.
To be clear, Kate actually enjoyed Dean’s company. His humor matched that of the former Chief Stew’s, which is likely why Kate did what she did. When Dean called out Kate for having a “b***hy resting face,” she entered into his cabin and folded the blanket on his bed.
No big deal. That’s her job, right? Except, the shape of her fold resembled that of a male’s genitalia. Kate, in her typical passive aggressive manner, remarked that it was a “rocket ship,” not a d**k for a d**k. “It was a moment of genius. Rage-filled genius,” Kate quipped.
Luckily, Dean laughed and left a large tip. He missed a huge opportunity though (in this writer’s middle school-minded heart) in failing to insert the words “huge tip” into his parting.
Dean returned in Season 3, and during the tour of his room, Kate pointed to where a blanket was folded into a lovely palm tree that wasn’t. It was instead another phallic nod, using coconuts and palm fronds to create the ultimate penis towel. Kate’s passive aggressive way of getting back at Dean clearly became a well received running joke, and she now calls this former guest her “charter soul mate.”
Adam Glick’s Passive Aggressive Onions
This one we hated to watch, as messing with people’s food preferences is a gross move. Chef Adam Glick, however, thinks it’s funny. On Below Deck Mediterranean Season 2, several of the charter guests very specifically wrote “no onions” on their preference sheets.
For some unknown reason, Adam took this personally. “You can’t have a good tasting soup without a little bit of onion,” he exclaimed. Adam then expressed his opinion, which was that the guests did not actually hate onions, but rather they were “new money people” who relished the power of sending dishes back.
Adam then went on to purposely put onions in the guests’ meals, despite the dishes coming back to the galley with complaints. When Hannah Ferrier called him out on this, Adam told her that he thought his actions were funny.
When one of these rightfully annoyed guests went to Captain Sandy Yawn, Adam lied. Though he eventually came clean, this onion-gate revenge was in poor taste, and we cannot believe that Adam tried to get back at the guests in this greatly undeserved manner.
Ashling Lorger’s Drained Hot Tub
Ashling Lorger appeared on Below Deck Season 8. This season saw the Queen of Versailles, (Jackie Siegel) onboard with her husband and their two youngest songs. At the time, their boys were aged 19 and 20. As the legal age to drink liquor in Antigua is only 18, these sons immediately began to drink their weight in booze.
Following an incredibly touching dinner service, where the Sigels comforted a grieving Captain Lee Rosbach through the loss of his son, everyone went to bed. Just kidding, the party-ready sons stayed up, alongside Ashling, who served them liquor nonstop.
Fully drunk and beyond late, the boys then decide it’s time for the hot tub. Over it and second guessing her life choices (likely), Ashling decided to tell a lie, stating that the hot tub was being drained. When one of the boys went to check, he found the hot tub full, declaring “The crew is whack, bro!”
He went to bed though, so Ashling’s attempt at getting back at the guests worked.
Captain Lee Rosbach Pranks Angel
During Below Deck Season 10, a rowdy charter guest named Angel kept the entire crew busy. When Angel decided to take a nap on a water trampoline, the boat became blissfully quiet, causing one of Angel’s friends to ask if they could just “let it go.”
On this, Captain Lee jumped in to ask his bosun “How much line do we have on that tramp? Because Angel seems to have lost consciousness over there. We think it might be fun to just let him go.”
Untying Angel from the yacht, the water trampoline began to float off into the distance. Captain Lee can then be heard sending a deckhand out on a jet ski to splash Angel, saying “He might need a shower.” When splashed, Angel quickly woke up and laughed at the situation, showing that sometimes, getting back at guests can be done in fun ways for all involved.
TELL US – DO YOU REMEMBER ANY OTHER TIMES WHEN THE BELOW DECK CREW GOT BACK AT GUESTS?
