Don’t believe all that you read in the Press!

No doubt you will all have read about or heard on the news about the supposed mass brawl on P&O Britannia last weekend. The headlines were, in the main, sensational, making all sorts of outlandish claims. One described it as a “blood-soaked mass brawl”, another report claims that it was started by a clown. Another claimed that “dozens of terrified passengers fled the scene” and there were claims of mass injuries”. All pretty scary stuff, but how true is it and how accurate were these reports in the daily rags?

According to one of them the atmosphere on board was like Benidorm at sea, with booze-fuelled passengers who had been taking advantage of free drinks throughout! Let me be clear, P&O do not offer free drinks, never have. If passengers wish they can purchase a drinks package that entitles them to 15 drinks per day. I don’t know about you but if I drank 15 alcoholic drinks a day I would be flat on my back!

Looking at these reports it all sounds horrific, however, if you look at similar reports in the broadsheets it’s a totally different story. Strange that isn’t it.

They report on a statement by Hampshire Police who are investigating the incident. This statement says that many of the claims are untrue and have no basis.

The incident involved 6 people, and a man and a woman from Essex have been arrested. It seems they took exception with a man dressed in a clown’s outfit. For about 18 months P&O have banned any type of fancy dress on board in an attempt to discourage Hen and Stag do’s.

As the incident is alleged to have taken place in the early hours it is doubtful that there would have been a large number of people around as most passengers would have been in bed already.

It’s amazing the garbage that the daily rags will print in an attempt to sell copies, so please don’t let this put you off cruising. These types of incidents are few and far between and usually aren’t half as bad as reports would have it.

For now, happy cruising and I will catch you very soon.