Cruise staff seemingly dressed up as white supremacist Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members during a Christmas-themed event, horrifying passengers as they marched by the swimming pool.
P&O Cruises Australia issued an apology after footage surfaced online of a group of eight staff walking through the pool deck of the ship wearing their white cleaning uniforms and pointy hats
“Is this appropriate for 2024?” a passenger captioned the clip after uploading it to Facebook.
The cruise company says the housekeeping crew had no idea what they looked like when they chose to dress up as “upside down snow cones” for the event during a Pacific Explorer voyage from Melbourne to Hobart in December.
“We regret if a recent incident on a Pacific Explorer cruise offended any guests,” a P&O Cruises Australia spokesperson told news.com.au.
“Several crew members dressed up as snow cones for a Christmas family event, not understanding how their costumes could be misconstrued.”
The spokesperson explained the crew were only in public view for a short time before management acted quickly and had them remove the costumes.
“The crew members were horrified and extremely apologetic when they learned of the distress their outfits could cause.”
Kl Klux Klan, commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, was a racist group who notoriously hunted down black people to hang them from trees, and left burning crosses in the front yards of the homes of black families.
Lynne Scrivens, communications director of P&O Cruises Australia, explained the housekeeping crew are from all over the world and “never heard of the organization” when management pulled them aside to immediately remove their outfits.
“No one can seriously think that was their intention,” she told 2GB host Ben Fordham on Wednesday.
“They are limited with what resources they have on ships,” she said, adding they make do with what they have when it comes to costumes.
They were so distressed … they really are so hardworking and try their hardest to deliver guests amazing holidays.”
Scrivens said no guests made a formal complaint about the costumes at the time, however she described the incident as “very unfortunate”.
“[We] accept and take full responsibility for it.”
Terri, from Melbourne, who was on an eight-day trip with her husband, filmed the incident and uploaded it to cruise forums on Facebook.
She described it as “offensive KKK costumes” – however she doesn’t believe it was intentional.
“They had been promoting it in the ship’s newsletter – it was going to be a tug-of-war battle between the crew – and we were there to watch what we thought was going to be an awesome event,” Terri, who wished not to reveal her surname, told news.com.au
“And then the crew came out. I looked at my husband and said ‘it’s housekeeping OMG’ and my husband was like ‘OMG get the camera, get the camera out, no one will believe us’ because it was just so out there.
“We were like, ‘are we seeing this correctly’, it was so bizarre – you can hear it on the video it just went quiet,” Terri said.
She said the lady sitting in front of her had a face like “what the hell” which was “basically the vibe of the whole ship”.
Terri requested a “please explain” from the cruise liner but claims she didn’t receive a response, adding it is “not tolerated in this current environment and education is desperately needed”.
“I spoke with one of the crew and they told me they were asked to take their hats off straight away which they did without hesitation. I just thought this has got to be an innocent mistake.
“I was shocked. But in saying that this is the third P&O cruise we have taken, We love it, but this has left a bit of a sour taste.”
