S02.E16: The Magic Seaman

[TexasGal]

Quote

The guests get upset with Aesha when their bucket list Great Barrier Reef diving excursion gets denied; a familiar character returns to coach the deck team through a strip show for the guests.

Airdate: 09.11.2023

[Tanukisan]

Like a smothered budgie gasping for air, these comments are in the order of the episode scenes broadcast…

One of the drunken guests escapes and perches herself on the bridge.  Jason blames J-wow because he was left with the guest?  Isn’t Jason the one that constantly reminds us that he and the crew are there for the guests?  Yeah, she was drunk and happy, but she wasn’t belligerent or oppressive.  But Jason wasn’t pleasant or hospitable at all – he pretty much was the opposite.  Way to lead the team, Cap.

So Aesha, who’s a veteran at her job, is saying the guests can drink before they go for a dive?  When the person in charge there is adamant that Australian law forbids drinking and diving.  She should have known better.  The guests had every right to be cheesed off.

Aesha:  “What is wrong with me?”  You’re a hippy/trippy person that doesn’t own her errors.

Spare me “Keith Stone” – or EO Culver in any incarnation.  But with these guests and their level of intoxication, maybe it’s warranted – if not appropriate.  They did have a good time.

J-wow:  “Credit where it’s due.  Culver is shit at his job, and he’s a great entertainer.”  Fair call.

J-wow got the helmet, but clearly it was Aesha who deserved it.  Jason didn’t want to face the guest at the bridge, but he’s the one who always says they’re all there for the guests.  Hypocrite.  In fact, this whole charter, Jason kind of behaved like he didn’t want to be there.

What will happen next week?  Will Jaimee forgive Harry?  Will the J-wow/Tzarina relationship survive?  Will Culver stop eating?  Stay tuned, if you can stay focused…

 

[SemiCharmedLife]

I'm glad these guests got it together so they could actually enjoy their charter rather than fight and fuss.  It's a shame about the diving.  I wonder if Aesha was distracted and didn't hear the entire question...answered you can have whatever drink you want (not hearing the diving part).  

Hopefully Jaimee gets over the service stew issue.  Margot has been doing the grunt work for the entire season, with one exception, so it seems fair enough for her to be given one more chance.  Maybe the issue is that she wasn't included in the conversation.

 

[Baltimore Betty]

Enough of the beefcake, budgies and drunken women, that trope got old fast. I have been on a lot of girls trips and not once did we want to ask any man in any level of service to strip down to his undies and and serve us, why does Below Deck want to paint us all as horned up, sex starved women?

Harry is not the one I would want to romp around in his skivvies, he is a human string bean!

The women are told they cannot dive if they have had alcohol before hand, how does Aesha not know about this rule?

Also, why is the state of the cabins look like the aftermath of some robbery ransacking? It sends my OCD in to overdrive to see the mess, I could not live like that, how do they find anything without a level of frustration along with a messy bathroom expecting to be cleaned up by a stew, shame on those women, do they live like that at home?

With a little more confidence I think Margot will be a great second stew.

Giant Beer Pong, I love that! Who knew that exsisted?

Keith Stone ugh, please no more. Maybe his wigs accidentally fall overboard?

Capt. Jason needs more than one mirror ball helmet, it must be hard to pick just one crew member each charter that should wear it.

 

 

[aqusdealer]

1 hour ago, Baltimore Betty said:

Enough of the beefcake, budgies and drunken women, that trope got old fast

Zara crooking her finger under one of the guys nipples while chanting “wee…wee…wee…” took me to a new level of creep.

[rur]

3 hours ago, Baltimore Betty said:

 

With a little more confidence I think Margot will be a great second stew.

I don't know . . .  she complained for the first few charters about doing laundry and not serving guests. Then when she got to serve the guests, she complained about doing it, then when she went back to laundry, she complained about not serving guests  . . .  

[iMonrey]

I guess I don't see the distinction of being "on service." We've seen Margot serving the guests breakfast, and we've seen both stews serve at dinner. So what exactly is the difference? It sounds like one girl is "late girl" and another is "early girl" just meaning shifts. But I've seen both stews do both things at the same time. So I don't get it.

13 hours ago, Tanukisan said:

Aesha:  “What is wrong with me?”  You’re a hippy/trippy person that doesn’t own her errors.

To be fair, she did in fact own that. She had to be reminded by the producers/interviewer she had even said it, but she owned it. I think there was just a lot going on in the moment and she wasn't paying enough attention to what they were asking her.

5 hours ago, Baltimore Betty said:

Harry is not the one I would want to romp around in his skivvies, he is a human string bean!

Yeah, next to the other guys he's got a little boy's body.

[aghst]

They always tout 5-star service but Jason's interpretation of that is that they will do what supposedly the guests ask for.

In this case, a cheesy male stripper show without the actual stripping.  But we've seen videos of bachelorettes parties gone wild so it's believable that these guests were game.

Some of these guests may have husbands and boyfriends but Bravo got them to go on a girl's weekend.  But they flew all the way from California to Cairns for just 2 days of mostly a stripper show?

Seems highly unlikely.  They are spending more time in Australia than the 2 nights of the charter and they're probably not spending this trip with each other.

In any event, Aesha flubs the advice about drinking before diving and most of them do not get to dive.

Yet they leave a $20k tip while noting the botched diving trip?

Adds more to the notion that the tips are pure fiction, fixed by producers to make sure the cast gets a certain amount of money.

Maybe with a larger tip they hope the crew act out more when they go drinking.

[kassa]

On rewatch, the guest asked the question in two parts: Can we have a drink? and then more softly "orshouldwenotbecausewe'rediving?"

I think Aesha just heard the first part and responded on autopilot, tuning out the second part. 

I do like that production now openly contradicts people's wrong recollections on the spot. 

Seems like when diving is planned the night before everybody should be shut off at a certain time - after all, drinking at 2 am and diving at 8 is probably illegal, too. 

[rur]

18 minutes ago, kassa said:

Seems like when diving is planned the night before everybody should be shut off at a certain time - after all, drinking at 2 am and diving at 8 is probably illegal, too. 

I would also think that, with any reputable charter company (looking at you, Bravo), information that would provided  about the option of a diving excursion would contain the information about drinking and diving being a taboo. 

[iMonrey]

6 hours ago, aghst said:

Adds more to the notion that the tips are pure fiction, fixed by producers to make sure the cast gets a certain amount of money.

l've looked into this somewhat extensively (one might say obsessively). I've watched interviews with former cast members, Captain Glenn, and read various articles about it. All claim the tips are real - the guests all have to chip in and pay them. The only part that seems to be production driven is them handing the tip over in cash. In a real charter the money would be wired to them.

The charter itself, they do pay for, but they get 50% off the regular price for doing the show AND the show pays for their airfare to get there and back.

[Shrek]

51 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

The charter itself, they do pay for, but they get 50% off the regular price for doing the show AND the show pays for their airfare to get there and back.

Is that just for the down under show or all of them as I've read that the guests have already booked the boat & are then asked by the production company if they mind being on the show & if they are okay with that then the prod company pay the cost of the charter with the gusts picking up everything else including flights etc. 

I can't see anyone flying over 20 hours just to be on a 2 day yacht charter so they must have other things before/after the charter. 

[dleighg]

On 9/11/2023 at 10:57 PM, Tanukisan said:

One of the drunken guests escapes and perches herself on the bridge.  Jason blames J-wow because he was left with the guest?  Isn’t Jason the one that constantly reminds us that he and the crew are there for the guests?  Yeah, she was drunk and happy, but she wasn’t belligerent or oppressive.  But Jason wasn’t pleasant or hospitable at all – he pretty much was the opposite. 

I wonder if he was just obsessing about all the things she could have messed up with no one there to supervise her. Actually *she* should have been worried about that. 

[aghst]

Does that make any sense?  Bravo pays for airfare but the guests still have to pay for the charter and tip and the charter is discounted?

But I don't even think 1 or 2 night charters as depicted on the show are for real anyways.  Luxury yachts are chartered for more than a couple of nights.

In any event that's still a raw deal for the guests.  First of all, large parts of the preference sheets are made up, so they have things like beach picnics that you can tell these guests aren't interested in doing.

Also, in some charters, the guests are strangers to each other but pretend to know each other for the show.  Why would anyone pay a dime for that?

Not to mention, Bravo is making millions off these BD shows and you're going to help them make these shows and pay for the privilege of creating content that Bravo monetizes?

The guests are often portrayed as successful people.  Why would they agree to that kind of deal, where Bravo is making a lot of money and they'd be helping them do so AND paying for the privilege?

 

[dleighg]

On 9/11/2023 at 10:57 PM, Tanukisan said:

So Aesha, who’s a veteran at her job, is saying the guests can drink before they go for a dive?  When the person in charge there is adamant that Australian law forbids drinking and diving.  She should have known better.  The guests had every right to be cheesed off

I agree. And who cares if they asked her whether they could drink? (And they DID ask). Certainly Aesha knows what the day's schedule is, knows they are going diving right? So NO DRINKS ON THE OFFER.

[Baltimore Betty]

I am surprised the women answered honestly about drinking prior to the dive trip.

[MartyQui]

 

Really, they must have been certified divers (they don't let you do that as a lark), so why would they EVER think drinking a few hours before was a good idea?  I think it's as much on them as Aesha.

[iMonrey]

22 hours ago, Shrek said:

Is that just for the down under show or all of them as I've read that the guests have already booked the boat & are then asked by the production company if they mind being on the show & if they are okay with that then the prod company pay the cost of the charter with the gusts picking up everything else including flights etc. 

It's true for the OG BD plus Med and Sailing Yacht. Australia might be a different matter. And Adventure.

22 hours ago, aghst said:

Does that make any sense?  Bravo pays for airfare but the guests still have to pay for the charter and tip and the charter is discounted?

But I don't even think 1 or 2 night charters as depicted on the show are for real anyways.  Luxury yachts are chartered for more than a couple of nights.

In any event that's still a raw deal for the guests.  First of all, large parts of the preference sheets are made up, so they have things like beach picnics that you can tell these guests aren't interested in doing.

Also, in some charters, the guests are strangers to each other but pretend to know each other for the show.  Why would anyone pay a dime for that?

I suspect Australia BD, in particular, has had to recruit guests during Covid, so I agree there have been some shenanigans on this show. But I trust Glenn and Colin and Aesha and Kate, etc., plus all the interviews I've seen with producers and other crew. They're just not good enough actors to bluff their way through this. They are all very aware people think the show is scripted and they swear up and down it isn't. Granted they want to keep getting a paycheck but with so many seasons and so many versions and so many years now there's no way they could keep this a secret without someone spilling their guts.

I think the reason the tips sometimes seem like they don't make sense is because of the individuals who are chipping in. If it's $20,000 and there are eight guests that's $2500 apiece. But some of the guests might think that's too much of not have that much, etc., so the contributions might not be equal.

The crew are paid a regular salary according to their rank. So they are only guaranteed that amount of money. Tips are just bonuses and they are not guaranteed any specific amount on top of their salaries.

[aghst]

The recurring cast members are going to toe the company line, which is that these are real charters with real guests.

Why would they even hint otherwise?

On the shows they act as if it’s all real so off the show, but still potentially employed for future seasons, why would they say otherwise?

I’d like to know what some of these BD cast members get paid, compared to Lisa Vanderpump, some of the Real Housewives, etc.  

Do the captains make hundreds of thousands a season as some other Bravo celebrities are suppose to make?

[TV Glotzer]

20 hours ago, MartyQui said:

Really, they must have been certified divers (they don't let you do that as a lark), so why would they EVER think drinking a few hours before was a good idea?  I think it's as much on them as Aesha.

There's a thing called "resort diving" in which you get an hour of basic training and then go on a shallow(ish) dive without having to be certified.  I did this myself in Hawaii, and it spurred my interest in getting fully certified.  This diving area only looked to be about 10-15 feet deep.

But once you achieve full certification--in which you are trained how to act in a variety of disaster scenarios--you understand what an incredibly bad idea resort diving is.  A million things can go wrong even in shallow water.  I frankly can't believe it is even legal.

[dleighg]

4 minutes ago, TV Glotzer said:

There's a thing called "resort diving" in which you get an hour of basic training

That makes sense. I think the crew member said to the guests something like "the instructor" or "class"

[Jsage]

I adore Aesha but I do put the blame fully on her for serving alcoholic drinks before scuba diving. She should know the no-drinking rule very well considering she is certified to scuba dive also. She mentioned her certification to Captain Jason in the very first episode of Season One and she went diving with guests later that season. This season, she was one of the crew who dove when they got the day off to help save the coral reefs. 

[aghst]

You would think when they let the guests know that a diving excursion is available to them, or maybe they just told them that they would be filmed diving for the show, they would get instructions and maybe a liability waiver to sign.

So this information would be relayed to them when they sign up or are told they would be doing it.

But conveniently for the producers, they don’t get this info and all but two of them can’t go, so it becomes a talking point for the episode.

Did Aesha get the disco ball helmet?

They got one of the biggest tips of the season so it either wasn’t an issue to these guests or once again, the tips are fiction.

[iMonrey]

On 9/14/2023 at 12:03 PM, aghst said:

The recurring cast members are going to toe the company line, which is that these are real charters with real guests.

Sure, but there are PLENTY of former crew members who only did one season and have every reason to call out the show as fake. Not one ever has. In fact a lot of them have said they showed up expecting it to be fake and were shocked they actually had to do the work which is why we get so many of them that don't seem to want to do their damn jobs.

On 9/14/2023 at 12:03 PM, aghst said:

I'd like to know what some of these BD cast members get paid, compared to Lisa Vanderpump, some of the Real Housewives, etc.  

Do the captains make hundreds of thousands a season as some other Bravo celebrities are suppose to make?

No, they don't get paid as much as a lot of the other Bravo-lebrities. They get paid the same salary they would if they were working any other charter, according to their rank. I'm not clear on who pays that salary though,  Bravo or the charter company. I believe it's the latter.

It's still damn good money though for six weeks of work.

[RoseAllDay]

As he walks away nearly naked, one of the deckies — Harry? —asks,  “How is this our job?” 

IT’S NOT. Damn these women are disgusting. I don’t excuse their drunkenness, but if they’re that far gone, act like a bartender and cut them off. 

So glad most of the loudmouths drank themselves out of the diving trip, Aesha’s omission aside. Nobody needs to get hammered the night before, then get up and slam Mimosas and Bloody Marys at breakfast.

[aghst]

I think the little speedo shows with the men is a producer thing.

Happened on two different charters.

[dleighg]

1 hour ago, aghst said:

I think the little speedo shows with the men is a producer thing

and there is no way (IMHO) they would try to get away with that sort of crap with female crew. And that's just wrong.

[RoseAllDay]

1 hour ago, aghst said:

I think the little speedo shows with the men is a producer thing.

Happened on two different charters.

It happened several seasons back on BD too, when Josiah was made to dress skimpily and then have guests pick sushi off him. I guess part of the job description reads, “Must be willing to sacrifice your dignity for a tip.”

The show, IMO, is becoming way too dependent on stunts like this. It’s lazy, and the entertainment factor wore off a long time ago. It’s like a sleazy stripper bar rather than an “upscale” yacht vacation.

 

21 minutes ago, dleighg said:

and there is no way (IMHO) they would try to get away with that sort of crap with female crew. And that's just wrong.

No. They would not have women serve male guests in thong bikinis. Double standard is strong and wrong.

[RoseAllDay]

On 9/15/2023 at 1:23 PM, iMonrey said:

Sure, but there are PLENTY of former crew members who only did one season and have every reason to call out the show as fake. Not one ever has. In fact a lot of them have said they showed up expecting it to be fake and were shocked they actually had to do the work which is why we get so many of them that don't seem to want to do their damn jobs.

No, they don't get paid as much as a lot of the other Bravo-lebrities. They get paid the same salary they would if they were working any other charter, according to their rank. I'm not clear on who pays that salary though,  Bravo or the charter company. I believe it's the latter.

It's still damn good money though for six weeks of work.

I think Camille on BD said she saw this as a vacation. 

Production or the charter company also provides the tip, I guess? I always find it interesting that the guests always pull out that fat envelope of cash at the end. I, obviously, have no clue as to how tipping is done on cruises.

[iMonrey]

18 hours ago, aghst said:

I think the little speedo shows with the men is a producer thing.

Happened on two different charters.

Except we saw Harry enthusiastically showing off his collection of Speedos way back on Episode 1. And Luka showed his various Speedo picks as soon as he came aboard. Also, from what I can gather, the whole Speedo thing is very much an Australian thing. For some reason. 

So yeah, someone might have suggested to the guests the boys were more than willing to parade around in Speedos. I'm just not sure if it was production or one of the boys themselves.

17 hours ago, dleighg said:

and there is no way (IMHO) they would try to get away with that sort of crap with female crew. And that's just wrong.

I think this kind of comparison is a false equivalency. Men do not have a history of being degraded and devalued by women and treated as sex objects. 

Plus, we've seen plenty of shows where women are willing to parade around in skimpy bikinis. It all comes down to consent.

4 hours ago, RoseAllDay said:

Production or the charter company also provides the tip, I guess?

The guests legit have to cough up the tip themselves, according to everything I've read or seen. But they might not all contribute equal shares. We've seen at least one instance where the guests were dividing up the tip and one of them wasn't willing to contribute anything. 

[Shrek]

3 hours ago, iMonrey said:

We've seen at least one instance where the guests were dividing up the tip and one of them wasn't willing to contribute anything. 

They were probably related to that well known tight ass Culver.