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Posted: 2018-02-17 16:37:00

Passengers have rubbished a cruise line's offer for compensation after a South Pacific getaway turned into a nightmare with three days of violence.

The Carnival Legend arrived in its home port in Melbourne on Saturday, a day after a 23-member family was offloaded in an unscheduled stop-off on the NSW South Coast.

The "big Italian family" spent days attacking "Aussies", with people "getting strangled and punched up", passenger Lisa Bolitho told reporters.

"Very violent, they were full-on attacks," she said on Saturday.

Ms Bolitho also questioned the ship management's handling of the incident.

"The captain said 'What do you want me to do about it - throw them overboard?'"

Days of on board fighting during the 10-day cruise preceded the major brawl at the ship's nightclub early on Friday.

Ms Bolitho's son Jarrah was targeted by the family, with the pair fleeing and locking themselves in their cabin.

"I was watching the fight and one guy came up to me and said 'Do you want to go too bro?'" Jarrah said, adding the offenders were in their late teens and early 20s.

"My mum had to drag me away from it all. They were trying to pick on any Aussie they could find."

Carnival Cruise Line said it was offering guests a 25 per cent future cruise credit as a "goodwill gesture".

But some passengers slammed the offer as "unacceptable".

"I won't be travelling Carnival ever again so a 25 per cent off a future cruise in my eyes is unacceptable," Mark Morrison said.

"To add insult to injury ... they charged us a $19.54 credit card convenience fee to settle accounts before disembarkation this morning."

Both Carnival and NSW Police are investigating the incident.

In a statement, the cruise line said: "We sincerely apologise to our guests who were impacted by the disruptive behaviour of the group removed from the ship by the NSW Police in Eden."

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