A vacation promoter being sued by the Miami Dolphins over a complaint-ridden “fan cruise” says he wants an opportunity to organize a second cruise and “make everything right.”
“This should have been a long-term partnership,” said Jeffrey Nahom, president of Boca Raton-based First Class Cruises, the Dolphins’ partner in what was to be a three-year contract to run fan cruises in 2023, 2024 and 2025. “I still think we can somehow salvage this because a lawsuit doesn’t do anyone any good.”
Instead of planning for next year’s fan cruise, Nahom and his company are defendants in a federal lawsuit filed on April 21 by the Miami Dolphins.
The suit was filed 11 days after the return of a seven-day cruise aboard MSC Seascape that was promoted as a once-in-a-lifetime chance for Fins fans to meet and mingle with 35 legendary players including Dan Marino, Larry Csonka, Mark Clayton and O.J. McDuffie. The suit seeks to recover nearly $1 million in promised fees, unpaid cruise expenses, and legal costs.
The Dolphins organization accused Nahom and his company of a long list of contract breaches, including failure to pay a $280,000 sponsorship fee and a $300,000 appearance fee prior to the cruise. The team also said that it had to pay MSC Cruises $251,372 for 61 staterooms that fans had already paid for, plus another 35 staterooms that were promised to participating former Dolphins and their families.
In a conversation with the South Florida Sun Sentinel Nahom didn’t dispute the lawsuit’s accusations that he failed to make payments as stipulated in the contract.
He said his firm sold only 270 to 280 cabins, far short of the 500 cabins needed for the event to break even.
“It wasn’t easy to sell,” he told the Sun Sentinel. “We had to do a tremendous amount of marketing, call center activity, outbound calls, Facebook ads.”
Nahom said that three weeks before the cruise, he asked the Dolphins to cover the shortfall to prevent the voyage from being cancelled. He said the Dolphins orally agreed to defer the bills until after the cruise, when he would come up with fixes that would lead to stronger sales for next year’s cruise and allow him to repay everything he owed.
Dolphins officials and their attorney did not respond to questions about Nahom’s version of the parties’ financial discussions, but the lawsuit recounts Nahom’s promise before the cruise to “pay back every penny” if the organization fronted the money needed to keep the cruise on schedule.
The lawsuit also accused Nahom and his company of operating the cruise in a way that “failed to reflect the Dolphins’ parties organizational values and customer-service focus.” The cruise got off to a “rocky start,” and generated “many complaints,” the filing states.
Fans became angry during the first few days of the week-long cruise when they learned that Marino disembarked in the Bahamas after spending two nights aboard the ship and never returned.
Fans had been told that Marino would host a quarterback competition, attend a beach party in the Bahamas, attend a Don Shula tribute party onboard the ship, and mingle with fans in an event called “Drink and Party with Dan Marino,” according to a letter that Nahom’s attorney sent to the Dolphins.
But Marino did not attend the beach party, the quarterback competition, the Shula party or the “Drink and Party” event, the letter contends. During events that he did attend in the first two days of the cruise, Marino was kept away from fans, Nahom said, adding that the handful of fans who got to meet him personally only did so because of chance meetings on the ship.
Responding to inquiries from the South Florida Sun Sentinel about Marino’s early departure, Marino’s longtime agent Ralph Stringer of Neostar Sports & Entertainment sent a statement on Marino’s behalf:
“The allegation that Dan did not fulfill his obligation to the Dolphins Fan Cruise is absolutely false,” the statement said. “First Class Cruises changed the original dates of the cruise, and there was clear communication to FCC that Dan would be departing the ship in Nassau on the third day of the trip as a result. Dan thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Dolphins fans on board, and certainly fulfilled all of his appearance obligations. Dan greatly values his relationship with Dolphins fans, and he would never take advantage of the best fans in football.”
Asked about the statement, Nahom acknowledged that he knew two months before the cruise that Marino would not be on the cruise for the full seven days but did not disclose this while marketing the cruise.
“I should have specified that,” he said. “I take responsibility for that.” In the future, he said, he would be completely transparent about such matters.
Events promoted before the cruise as opportunities to meet, mingle and get autographs from players were scaled back by the Dolphins days before the cruise sailed or after it began, Nahom said.
For example, Nahom shared with the Sun Sentinel an email from a Dolphins partnership official dated a week before the cruise sailed revising plans for a first-night “Welcome Aboard” party that was to include opportunities for fans to mingle with players.
“We will not do any mingling,” the official wrote. “We will have the alumni standing on the slower [sic] stage and will gather guests around for a group photo only, then our staff will usher them back up to their seats. Our photographer will process all of the photos that night so we can email them out to everyone in the morning as their first “memento” of the cruise.”
Nahom took umbrage at an assertion in the Dolphins suit that he and his family sailed in the ship’s most luxurious suites after failing to fulfill his obligations to pay for fans’ and players’ staterooms. “That’s not fair,” he said. “The cruise line put me in those staterooms. I got those rooms for free.”
One of the Dolphins’ fan cruise passengers, Greg Myer, said he plans to ask his credit card company to refund a majority of the money that he spent on the cruise. Myer said he paid First Class Cruises $8,600 for a balcony suite for himself, his wife and six-year-old son — $5,000 more than the same cabin would have cost if he had booked directly with MSC Cruises, he said.
The premium fare was supposed to buy an “Ambassadors Club” membership guaranteeing access to players in a private VIP area, a $400 gift card, and free vodka. He never got the gift card or vodka, and he gave up trying to access players in private VIP areas because he couldn’t keep up with the schedule changes, he said.
“None of the events came off like they said they would,” he said.
Myer said he holds no grudge against the cruise line and booked another trip with the same itinerary for $3,600 this fall. If another fan cruise somehow manages to come together next year, he said he’d book a cabin at MSC’s standard rate and count on running into players aboard the ship “like I did this time.”
Not everyone considered the cruise a bust. On a “Miami Dolphins Fan Cruise” Facebook page, numerous fans said they had great times despite the glitches. Some praised the Dolphins for stepping in and making sure the cruise was not canceled, and they praised players for going out of their ways individually to interact with fans.
On a Dolphins-focused podcast called The Fish Tank, McDuffie and Clayton said they had a great time partying together, singing karaoke, and mingling with fans.
“I was one of the guys who really didn’t want to go on the cruise, I was the last guy to commit to this cruise,” Clayton said. “I’m so glad I went on this cruise because I had a blast. It really didn’t seem like seven days. The time went by so fast, we were having so much fun with each other and the fans.”
Nahom said he doesn’t know how or whether he will respond to the Dolphins’ lawsuit and is pinning all of his hopes on somehow convincing them to give him a second chance. He said he doesn’t even care about making money, as long as the team gets made whole and fans who felt let down could be satisfied.
On a Zoom call that Nahom convened with about 100 passengers on Thursday night, the promoter told them he couldn’t afford to give anyone refunds.
But he outlined a plan that could potentially make disappointed fans happy later.
They could all sign a petition asking the Dolphins to support another cruise next year and form a committee that would help market the cruise to new passengers next year, he suggested. The new passengers would pay the premium rate while the volunteer committee members would sail at steep discounts or for free, he said.
Myer said he was on the Zoom call and it lasted nearly three hours. “He started out by calling us a great fan base,” Myer said. By the end of the meeting, Myer said, Nahom was tearing up, “saying he won’t be at peace until we all feel better.”
Myer said he wants no part of Nahom’s plan. But he said some of the people on the call seemed receptive to the idea of helping to organize another fan cruise.
Nahom produced emails from several fans who reached out in support after the Zoom call.
“It took courage to sit there and listen to some of the irate fans,” one said. “I share the opinion of most inaugural cruisers — we had a wonderful experience with the players but the organization of events could have been better.”
A passenger from Pennsylvania offered help “to get this project on a good track and turn this into an annual event that fans look forward to yearly.”
Before the Dolphins filed its suit, Nahom wrote to the team with suggested improvements.
All events would be clear and agreed-upon. The Dolphins could control the funds and “get paid first.” If the Dolphins don’t want to structure a partnership deal, then Nahom would attempt to find an investor to come up with $500,000 to $1 million and pay the Dolphins upfront.
The Dolphins haven’t responded to the suggestions, Nahom said. But he said he won’t stop trying because he has little other choice.
“I’m trying to make everything right,” he said. “I still think we can mend it because the only resolution is to do it again.”
Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.
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