Elderly Couple Thrown Off Ship For Dinner-Time Fight (VIDEO)

This is one of the stranger things we've heard in a while. A well-to-do Manhattan couple named Gloria Sher and Frederick Evans were recently kicked off Cunard's ultra-fancy Queen Mary 2 for getting into a fight with fellow passengers, according to AOL and CBS News.

One night at dinner, 82-year-old, 95-pound Gloria told a man at her table to "shut up" after he said that there were "too many f***ing Jews" on the ship. Gloria, who is, in fact, Jewish, got upset.

The next day Gloria and her 91-year-old husband were called to the Commodore's office, where he told them that they were being kicked off the ship. They were, in fact, allowed to stay on the ship under "house arrest" for a few more days as it made its way back to New York from Quebec.

They were then let off the ship in New York, unable to continue on the ship's 30-day voyage to England and the Mediterranean, which costs $20,000. So far Cunard has not refunded the couple.

WATCH:

Comments

[NigelO]

12:24 AM on 10/26/2010

There are two sides to this story. They were refunded around $800 of their fair, and 3 future bookings were cancelled. The contract for any of these voyages has a stipulation that discourages abusive treatment of fellow passengers. Apparently several of the other passengers noted abuse of crew and fellow passengers from the couple. She could have made the "anti-Semitic" comment up. Some people think they are never wrong, especially when they are overprivileged. Does the name "Minnie Castevet" ring a bell?

[Rickyrab]

09:48 PM on 10/10/2010

That was stupid./ Both on the part of the anti-Semitic rant and on the part of the Broadway doyenne who overreacted.

[NRR]

02:17 PM on 10/06/2010

Clearly there has to be more to this story.

[Z2a]

02:01 AM on 10/06/2010

My goodness some of these comments below must have been written by mindless drones. You hear one side of the story and automatically you side with them. Ever consider that maybe it didnt happen that way.

There are mulitple sides to any and every story. I seriously doubt the company would kick off a paying customer that wasn't the trouble maker or at fault.

[Akimbo]

05:27 PM on 10/05/2010

What an appalling PR disaster! Is there no room left in our world for dissenting opinions and a little foul mouthing in the heat of the moment?

Whoever made the decision to throw this elderly couple off the ship -- even if they had behaved badly -- has no sense of the bigger picture PR repercussions. Did they think Ms. Sher would go quietly into the night?

Based on this pitiful example of customer care, it is doubtful that I would ever consider taking a Cunard cruise.

[buddy boy]

04:41 PM on 10/05/2010

Good for Gloria! I would probably have done the same thing. Sounds like Cunard kicked the wrong people off the boat.

[harriettubman]

02:17 PM on 10/05/2010

My goodness, that was a racist comment yet she gets kicked off? The ship would be discussing refund with my attorney.

[morristhewise]

12:42 PM on 10/05/2010

Gloria is a Cosmopolitan sophisticate without any traces of ethnicity. It is puzzling how the bigot could have known that she was a Jew without her wearing any religious symbols. Gloria should have asked that question to the bigot.

[SouthernYankeeBelle]

08:29 AM on 10/05/2010

This hold thing doesn't make any sense. If things were so bad at their table why didn't the Captain move them to another table by themselves? I have been on many ships. There is more to this story then we are getting.

[CaveatLector]

08:00 AM on 10/05/2010

Hope they kicked off the jerk who made the anti-semitic comment too.

We are not hearing the whole story; I've told plenty of people on cruises to shut up.

[forestnfama]

06:23 AM on 10/05/2010

following the story, it don't make sense......the little old lady had a right to tell the idiot to shut up.
A public relations disaster.....what gives.....

[drbslurp]

06:52 AM on 10/05/2010

You don't really believe that's all she said do ya?

[rotorhead1871]

10:08 PM on 10/04/2010

cool!!! you shoot your mouth off-you get to pay the price. idiots going on these ships, need to get a real life.

[sadwitness]

05:34 AM on 10/05/2010

yeah, like you have

[napasonoma]

10:08 PM on 10/04/2010

For $20,000 why would anyone go on a cheesy cruise ship with 9,000 other tackies. For that price you could hire your own yacht and crew and sail wherever, whenever in style and luxury without dealing with all that riff-raff.

[drbslurp]

06:54 AM on 10/05/2010

Doubtful you could get the QMII experience on a yacht - and there's the matter of things like pirates against private yachts - not all of them are off Somalia.

[chardonnay48]

09:40 PM on 10/04/2010

I hope I am as cool as her when and if I reach 82.

[mamacat]

08:44 PM on 10/04/2010

Cunard is our least favorite cruise line. While many of the employees were extremely nice, quite a few had an attitude. On top of that the food at dinner was inedible - it actually made us sick. We finally decided to take our meals in the fancy-schmancy "Todd English" restaurant - we had to pay extra, but at least the food didn't make us sick.
On the one hand we had wonderful British hospitality during our trip on the Queen Mary 2, but on the other hand........let's just say the Brits are famous for their class distinctions.

I admit to knowing nothing about the details of this incident, but regardless, I never want to go on the QM2 again. It was torture for me. The only thing worse would have been being forced to row across the Atlantic.

If one is assigned a table with someone who one finds disagreeable, one can get reassigned to another table, or go to a completely different restaurant. It happens all the time. Thank goodness most of the people one meets on these vacations are there just to have a good time, and are in a very good mood.

I accidentally suffered from foot-in-mouth disease one night (more than once, if truth be told), and we never saw our dinner companions again, although I apologized immediately.

[janedoe31]

10:53 AM on 10/05/2010

I am sure they wouldn't want you on their cruise line either......................you sound like a real pain in the *ss..............I am very sure nothing would make you happy..you just like to complain