A 27-year-old man from Vancouver, Wash., is finding Internet fame this week with a video of himself jumping from a Royal Caribbean cruise ship.
He’s also now banned for life from the line and could face legal consequences.
“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 sent to USA TODAY. “We are exploring legal action.”
The jumper, Nick Naydev, posted video Friday on Instagram that shows him leaping from the 11th deck of Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas – the world’s largest cruise ship. The incident took place last week when the vessel was docked in Nassau, Bahamas.
The video has since gone viral, racking up thousands of views.
The video shows Naydev climbing onto the railing of a cabin balcony as his friends laugh in the background and then leaping into the water more than 100 feet below.
Naydev told his Instagram followers he was drunk at the time.
“I was still drunk from the previous night,” he wrote in the comments section of the video post in response to a question from a reader. “When I woke up I just decided to jump.”
Naydev wrote he “never felt more alive.” But he also said he felt uncomfortable after hitting the water.
“I could barely walk for 3 days lol,” he wrote.
Naydev said he was plucked out of the water by a small boat that happened to be in the area and brought to shore. At that point, security officials from Symphony told him he was being kicked off the ship. Not just him but his companions, too.
Naydev noted local police were called but didn’t press charges.
“When the cops showed up they were super chil (sic) and actually laughed at the video,” he wrote on Instagram.
Naydev and his companions had to find their own way home from the Bahamas.
More than a dozen cruise passengers die each year jumping or falling from cruise ships. Just last week, a teenager fell to his death from a Royal Caribbean ship after trying to climb from one cabin balcony to another.
