A Saturday night “Friendsgiving Booze Cruise On The Bay” turned very unfriendly after the reportedly oversold event left dozens of passengers unable to board the ship, and eyewitnesses say angry, turned-away patrons threw bottles and called police.
There is still an Eventrvrite invitation online for an SF event this past Saturday night called Friendsgiving Booze Cruise On The Bay. The host Skyline Yacht Cruises invited patrons to “have Tons of Fun With Us @ Skyline Yacht Cruises As We Sail The Insta Worthy San Fran Bay” on the San Francisco Spirit Yacht, and encouraged buyers to to “bring your crew and create the ultimate experience that no club, bar, or land entity could possibly offer."
Oh, it was an experience alright. As multiple videos below show, and as SFGate reports, the event appears to have been oversold, and dozens of jilted patrons turned into an angry mob when they were denied entry even though they had tickets.
Cruise overbooks by more than 60 people, days "no refunds," crowd is outraged
byu/AndrewClemmens inPublicFreakout
First we have this video posted to Reddit (appropriately, in the “PublicFreakout” subreddit). We see upwards of fifty people in a ticket-holder line not being able to board, and then the video pans to bouncers and security physically blocking these people from getting on.
“Skyline City Cruises overbooked their ‘Friendsgiving booze cruise’ by more than 60 people, stopped everyone in line from boarding once they hit capacity, and then told us it was our fault for being ‘late,’ and we weren't getting refunds,” the original poster says. “On the Eventbrite listing they said last boarding was at 9:30pm, but they only started boarding at 9pm.”
“I was in a group of 30 people for a birthday party and none of us got on, I had been there since 9:07 waiting for people to arrive as a huge line of people queued up,” the post continues. “Anyway, everything escalated as people who didn't get [on] started throwing the bottles at the ship. And the police were called.”
SFGate has more video from the scene, though fair warning, the profanities are flying in this video.
At this point, the crowd is far more unruly. “You’re not even fucking giving us our fucking money back!,” one patron shouts angrily, and another shouts to security, “You're the bitch, bro!” An event coordinator eventually comes to calm the restlessness, though is largely shouted over, and responds “Let me fucking talk! Shut the fuck up!.” That event coordinator gave contact information refunds, but the mob was in no listening mood.
SFGate also spoke to the person who shot that video, and did not get their booze cruise Saturday. “People were like, ‘what the fuck,’” the video poster Geobio Boo told that outlet. Boo noted he and his group were there by 9pm, well before the posted 9:30 pm gate closing, but he says they were told they were too late. “So many people were pissed off,” added.
SFGate confirmed police were called in, which is not seen on either of these videos. “Officers arrived on scene and determined that a pay dispute occurred,” SFPD spokesperson Paulina Henderson told the site. “Officers were advised that no further police assistance was required at this time.”
Skyline Yacht responded tersely, and quite vaguely to the social media posts. “None of this is the case and are all untrue statements,” a representative said to SFGATE. “Furthermore our event was not overbooked.” That spokesperson did not elaborate with any more detail.
Image: Skyline Yacht Cruises via Eventbrite
