Lane Merrifield and friends hailed 'best guests ever' on Below Deck Sailing Yacht

Lane Merrifield, charter guest on Below Deck Sailing Yacht season 3
Lane Merrifield was a charter guest on Below Deck Sailing Yacht season 3. (Image credit: Bravo)

This week's Below Deck Sailing Yacht primary Lane Merrifield has quickly become a favorite with fans: not only did the tech tycoon leave the biggest tip of the season—off the strength of chef Marcos Spaziani's cooking—but he and the rest of his Canadian party proved to be the polite but party-ready guests that the Parsifal III crew could only dream of. 

The charter wasn't without its hardships: the windy weather proved too severe for sailing and caused the anchor to drag, chef Marcos was grieving the loss of his best friend's mother all while trying to navigate a multi-course molecular gastronomy feast for the guests, and Ashley Marti was, well, Ashley. 

But Merrifield—a tech entrepreneur behind Club Penguin, the largest children's online social network—and his pals never bemoaned any of the setbacks and instead had an overall positive outlook and sense of humor throughout the whole charter, including the crew mates in activities like a "sailors versus pirates" relay race and a "hurricane" drinking game.

The former involved the guests and the crew dividing into teams of two to race around a buoy, paddleboard to the ship and rush into the hot tub, with Captain Glenn as the referee. The Below Deck cast managed to eke out a win and took home The Seaman's Cup. 

Later, Merrifield and the guests invited the stewardesses to help with "hurricane" shots, which involved each male charter guest getting splashed with a cup of water and slapped in the face by a female crewmate after downing a shot of alcohol.

The Canadian vacationers had such a good time onboard that they let a whopping $23,000 tip or $2,555 per crew mate. 

"I'm not biased whatsoever, but these guests were probably the classiest, funniest, kindest group of people we had," fellow Canuck Captain Glenn said to the crew about Merrifield and company. "Canadians have a reputation..." he joked. 

What fans are saying about Lane Merrifield & Co:

It looks like Below Deck Sailing Yacht fans agreed with Captain Glenn's assessment of this week's charter guests, with one Twitter user calling them "the best guests ever to be on any below deck franchise, any season, hands down."

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Below Deck Sailing Yacht airs on Mondays at 8 pm ET/PT on Bravo TV in the US. 

Episodes are available the next day in the UK on Hayu, which can be included as part of a Prime Video subscription. Additionally, Peacock via Sky TV or NOW TV also offers next-day streaming for Bravo content. 

Christina Izzo

Christina Izzo is the Deputy Editor of My Imperfect Life. More generally, she is a writer-editor covering food and drink, travel, lifestyle and culture in New York City. She was previously the Features Editor at Rachael Ray In Season and Reveal, as well as the Food & Drink Editor and chief restaurant critic at Time Out New York. 


When she’s not doing all that, she can probably be found eating cheese somewhere.