The reality show Below Deck follows a luxury superyacht crew as they make clients' dreams come true on three or four-day charters. The guests are always over the top, sometimes disorderly, and occasionally outrageous, but the real drama happens between the crew members. There is an interior crew known as the Stewards and an exterior crew called Deckhands. These two groups of crew members rarely see each other while on the job, but they have plenty of interesting interactions behind the scenes.
Often, the crew hangs out on the boat between charters and enjoys the amenities usually reserved for the Below Deck guests. There have been flings in the hot tub, and singing on the deck, and lots and lots of drinking. The crew plays just as hard as they work, and they work very hard. When they go out, they enjoy lavish meals and beautiful seaside restaurants (and drinks galore), but who pays for it?
That was the question du jour on Reddit recently, and a couple of cast members even showed up to help dole out some answers. Caroline Bedol from Below Deck season 6 came to the rescue with all of the tea. Caroline is known for being a cast member who quit between charters because she felt mistreated by Kate Chastain (Chief Stew) and Josiah Carter (2nd Stew). Caroline gave her two days' notice and then refused to work, so Kate Chastain took it upon herself to harass Caroline off the boat. She even set up a loudspeaker with annoying music to try to smoke Caroline out. Caroline eventually left the ship, but not before recounting her harrowing tale to Captain Lee. Despite not making it through the season, Caroline learned the secrets of production and came to Reddit to share. Check out just a little bit of the tension Caroline went through on season 6 below:
Caroline visited the thread titled Who Pays Them To Go Out To Dinner? to share the truth. Under the verified username "socrazysocaroline," Caroline clarified, "Yeah, there was one night when we pretended (for cameras) that Captain Lee covered our tab. I promise production covers a meal and a drink per person." This confirms that production pays for their meal and one drink only and that certain elements are played up for TV. Caroline went on to say, "Production covers dinner and one drink. After that, the crew's on their own." Caroline then went on to make it clear that the production insisted that they go out because a Redditor asked if they were allowed to stay on the boat. Caroline said, "It's not allowed. I whined to Captain Lee about going out once, and he said, "it's part of the deal."
That is why the crew is always open to eating dinner together after a charter or between charters. Even if crew members are in the middle of fights or don't particularly like each other, they have to go out. Plus, who would say no to a free meal? Bravo is making a TV show at the end of the day, and Below Deck needs content to fill its time. Without these dinners, there would be less drama, and with less drama comes less viewership, allegedly. That is just one reason why Below Deck continues to be one of the most drama-filled and entertaining shows on Bravo.
Below Deck airs Mondays at 9 pm ET on Bravo.
Sources: Reddit, YouTube/Bravo