On one of the most exclusive, invite-only cruise ships in the world, one passenger claims to be dredging up the vessel’s deepest secrets.
Retired attorney Peter Antonucci, 64, was a long-time resident on the luxurious residential boat, named The World, likening the 12-deck, 644-foot ship to a fraternity house — despite condos on board starting at an eye-watering $2 million.
But the swanky living quarters were riddled with drama, drugs and debauchery, he claimed, comparing the upscale passenger’s eyebrow-raising antics to a “real-life White Lotus.”
“The ship was powered more by rumors than diesel fuel,” Antonucci alleged to the Daily Mail.
With just 165 residences ranging from studio flats to sprawling multi-bedroom apartments aboard the ship, The World visits more than 100 jaw-dropping destinations each year, but nothing compares to the floating soap opera, the loose-lipped former litigator claimed.
Antonucci gained special insight into the backdoor goings-on after being elected to sit on the ship’s Board of Directors, which — like an exceptionally engaged Park Avenue co-op board — was privy to all the seaborne shenanigans, he said.
‘All the extreme conduct violations are bought to the board’s attention so that’s what it comes down to,’ Antonucci said.
‘I knew where all the skeletons could be found — I knew who slept with who, who assaulted who, who stole… And beyond that obviously I have two eyes and two ears. You see things and you intuit things,” he said.
Antonucci bought into the ship back in 2014 after taking a sample cruise with wife Tami and immediately falling for the experience — their first condo cost them $1.6 million, and they spent up to eight months of the year onboard.
Over time, the couple settled in, moving between multiple units, giving them ringside seats to the long-term goings on.
“The dramas and stories and subplots didn’t all happen overnight — some took months or even years. As residents, we salaciously sat and watched them brewing. A lot of people on the ship were entranced by the gossip,” Antonucci recalled.
“‘Here you have a small group of very successful, entitled people floating around in a steel basin in the middle of the ocean,” he said, calling the residential demographic “very international,” but slanting toward retirement age — “more than 80%.”
But maturity doesn’t necessarily come with age — not with this crowd.
“When you are at sea for six or seven days people just go from bar to bar…what could possibly go wrong? Did you have people getting smashed? Of course. Did you have people diving into the pool fully dressed? Yes. Did they stay fully dressed? Not always. Did you have people doing drugs? Of course you did. Any time you have a group of people, you’re going to have that stuff,” he revealed.
Antonucci said he was reminded greatly of HBO’s critically acclaimed comedy The White Lotus, headed into its third season.
The darkly funny drama follows a pack of privileged vacationers to sun-drenched, sexy locations around the world, playing their various dreadful behaviors for laughs.
“To be clear, people on the ship were not murdering each other… it wasn’t that bad,” Antonucci clarified.
“But you had entitled owners screaming at staff when they couldn’t get their way and you had guests come on who were inappropriate, barely dressed and grinding against each other on the pool deck,” he said.
“One of the things about the ship that is impressive, most of the residents are self-made. They’re not trust fund babies but that’s a good thing and a bad thing.”
“It’s a good thing because they understand what it is like to build a corporation and develop something. But it can be a bad thing because they’ve never been told no and when they have an idea they just go with it,” he pointed out.
Antonucci, who has written three novels about a fictional cruise ship filled with wealthy people — emphasis on the fictional — remembered numerous arguments, fights and torrid affairs that would go on for ‘months and years,’ even between the residents and the crew.
And because the ship is populated by owners, they can’t just be tossed off at the next stop, like on a Carnival cruise where people start breaking the rules.
“You can’t really throw people off right away when they are paying $5 million to buy on and they are paying $500,000 a year in maintenance fees,” he said.
“But there were protocols for dealing with them.”
A spokesperson for the ship told the Daily Mail: “We had earlier been in touch with Mr. Antonucci, who has assured us in writing that his works are unrelated to The World or its residents, and that his publications are fictional works of art about a fictional ship.”
“We wish him well in his creative works of fiction, which we understand have no relation to The World or any of its residents.”
After nearly 6 years of life at sea, Antonucci and his wife moved back onto dry land.
“I left because of two things,” he said. “One, I had been on for enough years that I had seen the world a few times. Two, I personally was sick of the gossip and the rumors and the cattiness.”