When I joined a party in the purple snake(not sure of the name, dont know, dont care :P) gate, I was joined into an ice maul arena. I think i was kicked a few seconds after I got in because I started loading again after it got to about 10%. So there I was alone in an arena I consider hard. It's hard because If you get frozen by even a gun puppy bullet, you can get surrounded or get attacked and re-frozen with your shield broken, I can solo other arenas successfully but not this one. So yeah, I was a little ticked when I couldnt even invite my guildmates and friends. According to the social bar thing, the party was restricted. I'm imagining this is about the looping fix, or is it a bug?
I also had a bug during that arena where I couldnt see the top bar that holds the vials and the bottom bar that holds the health bar. And I couldnt use vials or pills because I tried pressing 1,2,3,4. Alone and couldnt heal in the hardest arena, so yeah, I guess that was the game's way of giving me the finger.
It probably locked your party either mimicing the setup before the kick, or did it because you were kicked. You should be able to unlock the party by clicking on your face in the party bar, but its kind of late to check that now.