The holiday industry is worth a jaw-dropping 45 billion pounds a year. And for those choosing to spend big and go 5 star, only the best will do.
From swanky hotels to luxurious cruises, when these holidays go right they’re perfect paradises and much needed R&R in the lap of luxury. But when it goes horribly wrong, it can be catastrophic.
Actress Glynis Barber narrates this one-hour special. There are first-hand interviews with real-life people whose holidays ended in disaster. Highlights include chartered accountant Bill and his wife Tanya who shelled out a whopping £11,000 on a once-in-a-lifetime cruise to the Bahamas only to end up trapped in the eye of a cyclone. The couple were left horrified as the ship listed at sea, with water leaking into their cabin and chaos all around. There’s the story of a British couple Phil & Linda Coupe, whose dream Jamaica getaway turned into a nightmare after their luxury resort became a building site and maintenance work on the resort meant they were subjected to hours of excruciating drilling day and night. Amy Stone relives the horror of her trip to a 5 Star dive resort in Indonesia. The trip of a lifetime almost killed her after she suffered severe decompression sickness which left her with life-changing spinal damage, no feeling below the waist and barely able to walk.
A bride’s trip to The Caribbean ended in hell as newlywed Victoria suffered a near-fatal spider bite on her honeymoon. Not for the faint-hearted, Victoria was filming her journey on her mobile phone as doctors tried to save her leg from amputation. Plus there’s the story of Reiss & Billie whose all-inclusive trip to The Dominican Republic ended with their young children needing emergency medical care. A bout of salmonella caused by the hotel’s teppanyaki night meant that they were landed with a bill of thousands for their healthcare abroad.
Plus, we hear from Iain & Judie Cook whose luxury dream trip to Vegas turned into a deadly nightmare. They’d gone to the city of lights to get hitched and celebrate their honeymoon only to get caught up in the now infamous shootings that saw 58 people killed and 851 others injured. They share their own personal journey and footage from that fateful trip on the programme.
Expert interviews include travel presenters Danni Menzies, Scarlette Douglas, Jean Johansson and journalist and broadcaster Simon Calder.
Consolidated 744,300 and a 6.44% share.
https://www.dstv.com/en-za/news/46671/so-wrong-it-s-right
Psst! Hey!
Do you secretly “collect” cruise ship chaos stories: Stranded at sea, plumbing gone wonky and everyone throwing up from the gorge-all-you want seafood buffet? And oh, no, a hurricane is headed their way?
Do you have a strange fascination with “unsuccessful” plastic surgery?
Do you browse 1-star restaurant and resort reviews, even though you haven’t been on holiday for years?
There’s nothing more shamefully, decadently delightful than twisted tales of when things – particularly luxurious, expensive things – go horribly wrong. Provided it didn’t happen to you.
With the holidays coming up at the end of June, it’s the perfect time to book a trip aboard the SS Schadenfreude… embarking from the CBS Reality dock (DStv Channel 132) on Saturday, 4 June at 20:40.
We had a little chat with the Horribly Wrong “cruise director”, narrator Glynis Barber – a fellow South African and horror holiday enthusiast. Bon voyage!
Glynis is on board as narrator for all 4 of the “Horribly Wrong” documentaries we’re seeing this June. “It’s turned out to be very popular. And I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was horrendous and yet compelling at the same time. You know, the spider bite. I nearly fell off my chair!” she says, referring to the first in the series, When Luxury Holidays Go Horribly Wrong. That spider bite incident in question? It caused a holidaymaker’s leg to blister, erupt with boils and go necrotic, and we get to see it at its worst.
Puzzling out the appeal, Glynis muses, “It’s like heightened reality TV. You see real people and what’s happening, it’s dramatic. I’ve just done four more (in the Horribly Wrong documentary series), and it’s exciting to watch, but terrifying at the same time. You keep thinking, “Well, I’m glad it wasn’t me. But there’s something compelling about them.”
- Saturday, 4 June 2022 at 20:40: When Luxury Holidays Go Horribly Wrong
- Sunday, 5 June 2022 at 20:40: When All-Inclusive Holidays Go Horribly Wrong
- Sunday, 19 June 2022 at 20:40: When Cosmetic Surgery Goes Horribly Wrong
- Saturday, 25 June 2022 at 20:40: When Diets Go Horribly Wrong.
on CBS Reality (DStv Channel 132), and on Catch Up