A 27-year-old Washington man has earned himself a lifetime ban from Royal Caribbean after he decided to jump from an eleventh-floor balcony into the ocean while the cruise ship was docked in the Bahamas.
Looking to get a few laughs from his buddies and perhaps some internet shame fame, Nick Naydev decided to make the leap from the Symphony of the Seas ship while his friends recorded the plunge, sharing the video on social media.
The video, posted to Naydev’s Instagram late last week, shows the bro standing on a balcony railing wearing swim trunks and a button-down shirt, while three dudes laugh and record Naydev’s antics. Naydev is then seen flailing his arms and legs as he plummets to the water. He eventually surfaces, and slowly swims away. It’s unclear what happens after that.
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“I am truly astonished at how this video has spread throughout the internet. I did not think this through before I jumped,” Naydev admitted in a statement to several news stations. “My idea was this would be a good laugh for my friends and I would just swim back to shore and continue my vacation and never thought this would be this serious.”
Wrong, buddy.
The stunt earned him and his friends a lifetime ban from the cruise liner.
“This was stupid and reckless behavior and he and his companions have been banned from ever sailing with us again,” Royal Caribbean said in a statement.
Naydev said he and his friends were immediately kicked off the boat in Nassau by security shortly after making the jump from the ship, a leap he estimated to be about 100 feet from the water.
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“When the security caught up with me they told me and my friends that we needed to pack our bags and leave the ship immediately and were not welcome on any of their cruise ships again,” Naydev said in a statement. “Local police in Nassau, Bahamas were called in to pick us up from the ship, but fortunately the police thought the whole situation was amusing and did not proceed to file any legal actions.”
The man admitted that he hopes not to “inspire anyone to try” the stunt “because I don’t want to feel responsible for any injuries.”
However, the video still remains on his Instagram account and has been viewed nearly 85,000 times.