I’ve never taken a cruise - never appealed to me - and this story gives me another reason. Crazy!
The kicker is the last comment - yeah, right.
“As a goodwill gesture, Carnival said, passengers who made it through the cruise have been offered a 25-percent-off coupon for their next one.”
I’ve taken 7 cruises, none on Carnival, and this leaves me stunned. I have never seen anyone crazy drunk either but I am usually in bed by 10:30.
The crew should have dealt with this when the family started to be a problem not on the next to final day. Carnival owes them all their money back.
I had to cajole my husband into going on our first cruise in 2011. He reluctantly agreed. He liked it so much that we’ve gone on five more since then! One bad incident on the other side of the world is not a good reason to avoid cruising. Almost all cruises go off without a hitch. We just got back from a wonderful trip to Aruba and four other islands. The smile on DH’s face after his windsurfing lesson on Bonaire was priceless.
Did you watch the video of security personnel kicking people and slapping at other who were filming?! It strikes me as more than an issue of unruly passengers - incompetent staff and leadership, too.
There are a lot of reasons it doesn’t appeal to me and a lot of different stories over the years about things going wrong on cruises. Besides, it’s not my personal preference to travel in groups of hundreds or thousands. I do know many enjoy them, though. We all have different tastes and preferences. 
Sounds awful. But don’t judge cruises by this highly unusual incident.
We mostly cruise on a ship of 148 people. No lines, no mayhem. They are also port intensive meaning no more than one day at sea, if that, and long days in port. Overnight the ship repositions. The smaller ships can get into ports and islands that the larger lines skip.
In October we are taking a family group on a Med cruise on what is still considered a small ship- 650 people. Again long days at port - leaving port at 9 pm rather than 5 pm. We decided to cruise for our relatives first trip to Europe because we don’t lose the time to catching trains and they get a nice taste of other countries.
For my mom a cruise works because she has celiac disease and must have gluten free food. The kitchens have been fantastic about no cross contamination and we aren’t wandering a town at night trying to find food that she can eat.
On that Carnival cruise, yes the security staff were overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do. They should not have prevented filming. However this type of event is so rare. I don’t know how you would drill on it.
“We mostly cruise on a ship of 148 people. No lines, no mayhem. They are also port intensive meaning no more than one day at sea, if that, and long days in port. Overnight the ship repositions. The smaller ships can get into ports and islands that the larger lines skip.”
That’s the only type I’d consider - maybe in Alaska or the Norwegian fjords. or one of those smaller masted ships. Just my preference. I slow travel and sticking in one place for awhile, anyway.
I’ve been on several cruises. The closest I ever had to an issue of any sorts was rough seas when a Nor’easter got a bit too close to our ship.
I’m not sure exactly what Carnival could have done. Of course, security guards should behave as adults, not thugs. But, seriously, what actions could they take? There are no police to call. There’s no jail of any sort. They’re out at sea, and can’t do anything until they get to port. Yes, they absolutely reacted inappropriately and should be disciplined. But this was all caused by the members of one family-- this wasn’t caused by the cruise line. They were totally in over their heads, and well aware of the limitations of their ability to control the situation.
My sympathies to all those on the ship.
@doschicos Check out Windstar and Star Clippers. The small ships were great in the Greek islands and Caribbean. My dream is to do the Tahitian islands on the masted ship. The Windstar ships have a fold down swim deck off the back where you can launch kayaks or swim.
Regarding the Carnival cruise in contention- part of the security people kicking and hitting at a man on the floor was because there was another man in a head lock underneath. He could have died.
Exactly. It was a combination of alcohol fueled, trouble making family members and a security staff lacking training and real resources to do much about it.
Maybe security need to have the option to carry pepper spray. I don’t know.
I have cruised multiple times, never on Carnival, but have never witnessed even the slightest bit of trouble. The only passenger behavior I’ve seen of note were the people who didn’t get back to the ship on time after a day of port, running towards the ship after it has already headed out.
I think it’s interesting what companies do for good-will gestures and what’s effective. IfI had been a passenger, the offer of 25 percent off the next cruise would have infuriated me. I would have been much happier with simply a sincere apology. The 25 percent off the next cruise feels like a marketing ploy, and heck you can get that much off during periodic sales, and kind of feels like a token let’s throw them a bone so they’ll shut up kind of offer.
I used to read the cruise boards often. If Carnival had merely given “a sincere apology,” many of the cruisers would have been furious.
People usually look to either have their entire cruise comped,or offered another one at no cost, even if what happened was relatively minor.
This doesn’t seem minor, though.
^^^Certainly not!
I’ve always steered clear of Carnival. From reading their forums on Cruise Critic, they have a reputation for being more of a party atmosphere, younger passengers, just more rowdy, more drinking. There were so many threads on the Carnival forum about how to smuggle the maximum amount of booze on board. Those folks are pretty resourceful! That may not be a fair characterization of the typical passenger, but I just never wanted to take the chance that it was correct.
We have found Carnival to be very responsive. We had an irritating whine in our cabin last year. It took them several tries to fix it. They gave us a complimentary meal in their expensive steak house restaurant.
Another thing I noted about Carnival that may irritate a few people: It seemed that the descriptions of rowdy, drunken behavior seemed to occur on the shorter cruises departing from the Gulf coast ports. Again, maybe not accurate, but I did used to follow those forums alot. The Carnival cruise line forum was much more interesting to read than the Seaborn one! Or Holland America, lol, which at the time had the reputation for being the old folks’ cruise line.
I read a couple articles on this yesterday, thinking they would name the family causing trouble. I didn’t find it, though.
I don’t know if they could actually be charged with anything if they were in international waters.
It’s Carnival - I don’t know why anyone is shocked by this.
That doesn’t mean anything. I’ve gone on two Carnival cruises and had a great time. (and I don’t drink)