Brawl Britannia! The Truth Behind The Headlines

Hello Fellow Cruise Lovers!

Well….. What a Carry On!  One half expected to see Babs, Charles, Sid & Kenneth make an appearance with a few custard pies thrown in! (Those of you of a certain age will know exactly to whom I refer!)

I’m talking about the hoo-haa which occurred on the Britannia Cruise ship returning from the Fjords last week.

Talk about ‘Clowns to the left of me – Jokers to the right’!  What exactly is the real story here?  Were people offended by a passenger dressed in a clown costume – a blatant breach of P&O’s new dress policy, banning clothes bearing slogans, messages, fancy dress?

Did they take offence at the actually costume?  as there is a specific Clown phobia called Coulrophobia. Or that the passenger had broken the rules?   Or was it as some people are now claiming, nothing to do with the mode of dress, and more to do with the excessive alcohol consumed by passengers, who had purchased the £40 drinks package?

From the various versions currently doing the rounds in the media, a brawl broke out when a passenger gatecrashed a Black Tie event dressed as a Clown.  Outraged by this show of defiance, chairs & plates were thrown and unfortunately people were injured in the ensuing chaos.   However a P&O Spokesperson denied the Clown was responsible but wouldnt elaborate on the cause.?

Now this raises an interesting point.  After all, if it was just the purchasing of a drinks package, which  has a 15 drink per day restriction.  (That’s not a minimum by the way..) then surely we would hear about more of these kinds of drunken shennanigans.   Passengers who were on board the ship travelling around the Norwegian Fjords have commented that it was like ‘Benidorm on Sea with a ‘me ‘me’ attitude.  With people on board purely there to drink as much as they could to ensure they were getting ‘their money’s worth’

Possibly this is where the problem lies.  After all the majority of cruise lines now offer a drinks package, and all have alcohol on board.         The majority of holiday makers regardless of the type of holiday they have chosen, behave courteously, well mannered and responsibly.  However you will always come across an element of  alcohol fuelled selfish, loutish behaviour  from thankfully, a small number of people.

I think what has been so shocking is that we just don’t expect ‘that kind of behaviour’ on a  cruise ship .  Its just not ‘the done thing’

Cruise Holidays  became increasingly popular in the 1960’s with the iconic Queen Mary transatlantic crossing from Southampton to New York.  Back then, cruising was built on a reputation of being refined, classy, to be enjoyed by the discerning traveller.  Nowadays it seems, as this type of holiday has grown in popularity, with mega ships being built to accommodate more and more people,  some people’s opinion is that this whole concept has been ‘dumbed down’ and when it becomes less inclusive, and open to the masses,  standards drop.

Here’s a link to our Cruise Bulletin article ‘Then & Now’ to show the differences in cruising – its a very interesting read.

Cruising Then and Now – The History Of Cruising Will Surprise You!

Perhaps there’s an element of truth here?  What do you think?

That’s all for now,

Regards Gina