A series of cruise trips featuring the casts of various MTV reality shows has sunk— and now many of the reality TV stars who were set to appear on the boats are doing their best to disassociate themselves from the company behind the TV-themed trips.
As The Ashley reported in August, cast members from Teen Mom announced that they would be taking part in a ‘Teen Mom’-themed cruise, set to sail off to the Caribbean for five days of tropical trashy fun in April 2026. The cruise— put on by a company called Showroom Travel Agency— was just one of several reality TV show-themed cruises the company was hosting both this year and next year. Other cruises announced by the company included a Floribama Shore-themed trip, two featuring The Challenge cast, and a Below Deck-themed cruise.
The Ashley has reached out to Showroom Travel Agency, which confirmed on Monday that the ‘Teen Mom’ cruise— as well as the other reality TV cruises— have all been cancelled.
“Everyone on all future cruises will receive 100% refund, and for this week’s cruise [with ‘The Challenge’ cast] we are refunding everything through disputes,” the company’s spokesperson told The Ashley.
As of press time, none of the ‘Teen Mom’ cast members who were signed on to frolic with sea-faring fans have made any sort of statement regarding the cruise. (Leah Messer, Jenelle Evans, Ashley Jones, Briana DeJesus, Gary Shirley, Jade Cline and Sean Austin were some of the cast members who were said to be participating.) Most of the cast (as well as the casts of the other shows) had been actively promoting their cruises up until recently.
On Monday, things began to unravel for the travel company, when ‘Challenge’ stars Johnny Bananas and Mark Long issued a joint statement on social media, announcing that they would no longer be appearing on the ‘Challenge’ cruise that is setting sail in three days. In addition, Johnny and Wes accused Showroom Travel of selling the cruise “under false pretenses” and committing acts that are “potentially criminal” and “fraudulent” in nature.
‘The Challenge’ stars went on to claim that the organizers of the cruise “failed to uphold their obligations” and that they were never paid or compensated in any way for the event.
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“We do not take lightly when our names or likenesses are used for fraudulent activity, and, as such, we will be pursing all available legal action to hold those responsible for this misrepresentation accountable,” the pair’s statement reads.
The rest of the ‘Challenge’ stars who were scheduled to appear on the cruise went on to post their own statement.
“We’ve worked tirelessly to the bitter end trying to resolve this situation, and we’re absolutely heartbroken by how it’s unfolded,” Kaycee Clark wrote on social media. “We were so looking forward to meeting everyone who bought tickets — this event has been planned for so long, and we know how much time, money, and excitement so many of you invested. Unfortunately, things are now out of our control. We highly recommend that you seek your own counsel and handle this in the way that’s best for you, as every situation may be different. This is such an unfortunate and painful outcome for everyone involved, and we’re so deeply sorry.”
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Not long after ‘The Challenge’ stars issued their statement, the cast of ‘Floribama Shore’ also posted a statement that announced that they, too, were jumping ship (pun intended) on their cruise. Nilsa Prowant encouraged fans who had booked their place on the ‘Floribama’ cruise in May 2026 to explore their options legally.
“We are absolutely heartbroken and deeply embarrassed to share this but if you booked a cruise through Showroom Travel Agency, please contact your bank or credit card company immediately to report this transaction as fraud,” Nilsa wrote. “And reach out to the Cook County Sheriff’s Department to file a report.”
Nilsa and the rest of the ‘Floribama’ cast also stressed that they had no part in planning or processing payment for the cruise.
“After learning what happened to ‘The Challenge’ cast, we were just as shocked, devastated, and blindsided as all of you,” she added.
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Later on Monday, Showroom Travel Agency posted a statement in which the company’s owner Mike Gibson seemingly admitted to some shady business practices. He also stated that the company did not meet its sales goals for the reality TV cruises.
“Sadly I bit off more than I can chew,” he wrote in the statement. “I have used revenue from one cruise and lapsed it into paying deposits for other Postgame Cruises (an action a lot of businesses do). With mass cancellations and failure to hit sales goals on future cruises, the funds have not been made to pay for all talents to participate in this cruise. This is sole responsibility of me, the sole owner of Showroom Travel, Mike Gibson.”
He then encouraged those who have paid to go on one of the cruises to dispute any and all transactions made through Showroom Travel LLC.
“Your disputes will be approved immediately as they are received, and Stripe will reissue payment back to your original payment method within 5-7 business days,” Mike wrote. “This was not my intentions for any of these cruises. Your [travel] agents are very limited on information and knew no different. They are amazing people simply trying to help people.
“I understand this carries no weight to any of you but I truly do apologize for this,” he continued. “… Again please dispute all charges from Showroom Travel LLC and they will all be approved immediately. Our credit card processors already know of the situation and I set up preapproval of disputes already today.”
‘The Challenge’ cruise was due to set sail in just three days, taking off from Florida on November 6. According to Showroom Travel’s statement, those who were booked on the cruise will still be able to get on the boat. (However, as stated above, none of the ‘Challenge’ stars will be present.)
“The cruises are paid for and reservation numbers are active. You will have no issue boarding even if you dispute the charges because Showroom Travel is separate from Royal Caribbean,” he stated.
As of press time, the company’s website is still active and has all of the reality TV cruises listed on it.
The Ashley will continue to update this story…
RELATED STORY: A ‘Teen Mom’-Themed Cruise is Coming! Leah Messer, Jenelle Evans, Catelynn Lowell & More to Set Sail with Fans (Exclusive Details)
(Photos: Instagram; Showroom Travel; X; MTV)
16 Responses
His wife Taylor Gibson is the owner and sole proprietor of the company legally. Wonder why he’s trying to keep her name out of it.
I thought this travel agency was a little shady. Everytime they had a new flyer there were different contestants on it and once they had the wrong name under a picture. We got lucky on our cruise last July and had a great time with which Survivor players did come on the cruise. Mike was a nice guy and ran a lot of fun events on the cruise. I totally understand how he feels he bit off more than he could chew. Not sure what kind of payment the players were asking for but we did pay a lot extra for them to be on the cruise with us. I felt it was worth it to have them pop off our televisions and hang out together for 5 days.
Even though the ticket purchasers are clearly wack, they should ALL get an automatic refund. Those who don’t make an attempt, or can’t, will have left $$ on the table for this asshole Gibson.
While I never understood why anyone would want to pay thousands of dollars to go on a “celebrity” cruise with any of these people, I’ve watched enough episodes of American Greed to realize that the operators of Showroom Travel created a Ponzi Scheme. You can’t use funds from one purpose to pay back funds from another. In other words, robbing Peter to pay Paul in the business world may be normal practice, but it’s still an illegal Ponzi Scheme. I’ll be interested to see how this plays out for Showroom Travel.
My mind immediately went to the American Greed TV show too. Who says tv isn’t educational anymore. 😂😂😂
Imagine your life being so pathetic that going on one of these cruises seems like a good idea😂😂😂
oh ik the unemployed teen mom cast are PISSED they lost another bag
also GREAT now we gotta deal with ambie screaming and yelling on live again bragging how she got the cruise too and how she’s gonna make sure “none of these bitches” get a bag from teen mom again 🙄🙄
Fine to all the laughs, but the response of Mike Gibson is deplorable. End of day, these are people who paid for something and clearly will not receive it and his response is to get the money back by replying to credit agencies and disputing it. Disgusting.
If you paid, and cruise is being canceled or modified in a way that in no way reflects what you paid for, you can get the money back immediately. You do not need to ask for it, LET ALONE DISPUTE IT.
This is so fucked.
Follow up to add – take a screen shot of this article when requesting your money back.
Editing again to add: WHY do you need to dispute it for it to be credited back? Bankruptcy in the air. So fucked.
End of day, he is wanting to sound like he is on your side but he only cares about himself. Get your money back. But know this.
I’m so invested in this now because it’s clearly fraud. Sounds to me like the operators of the travel company were misappropriating money. Ever watch American Greed? This happens a lot. People open companies, start getting money rolling in and rather than using that money for the intended purpose, they spend it on themselves. This is going to get interesting.
LMAO! Bon Voyage Jenelle! 😂
I couldn’t imagine being trapped on a cruise with them much less paying for it.
The cruise sounds like an episode of Fear Factor. I think I’d rather lay in a glass coffin with snakes then attempt to board this cruise. Why just why?????