Booze Cruises
Partygoers Invade Cruises Ships
By Daniel Muniz

Cruise lines heavily promote that a vacation aboard one of their ships represent a time of rest and relaxation while visiting exotic tropical locations. However, a new trend among cruises is developing that could threaten that image. Masses of unruly drunken passengers, mostly teenagers and college students, are now recklessly partying (and vomiting) aboard these cruise ships.

And as with any event loaded with drunken kids, vacationers on a cruise now face an increasing threat of being the victim of sex crimes and from physical assault.

Robert Fortini, an English and history public school teacher from Chicago, complained to Carnival Cruise Lines about his vacation from Los Angeles on the cruise ship Tropicale:

Complaints like this are becoming far more common among more cruise ships. College students and teenagers as young as 13 or 14 years old are getting plastered with the ship’s bartenders still pouring more drinks. In essence, some of these cruises are becoming a floating version of Spring Break on water.

Now if passengers were actually told ahead of time that plenty of kids would be drunk and vomiting all over the place, then consumers could make up their own mind about taking such a vacation. However, these cruise lines want to have it both ways by promoting their cruises as being a clean, safe, and upscale vacation that the whole family can enjoy while at the same time encouraging and facilitating drunkenness and debauchery of kids on their decks and hallways.

Notice that no mention was made of what happens inside the ship’s cabins. That is because what happens in there is nobody’s business but the problem becomes everybody’s business when it happens in the hallways and in every other public place on a cruise ship. As a result, these cruise liners cannot have it both ways because like any business, they have to be honest on what they are really selling and explicit of what their customers are going to get.

For instance, New Orleans doesn’t promote their Mardi Gras celebrations as a family and fully clothed event. Neither does Fort Lauderdale, South Padre Island, and any other Spring Break destination. And Las Vegas isn’t called Sin City for nothing. Instead, these cities openly market their festivities for revelry and decadence and people make up their own minds if they want to go there because they already know what to expect.

Unfortunately, the same is not happening with cruises.

In fact, cruise lines are going out of their way to cover up the crimes that are happening on their ships as well as the loud and unruly behavior. They resolutely deny that very young teenagers are roaming around drunk or that their bartenders are still serving drinks to people who are totally inebriated. And they insist that there are not piles of vomit littering the hallways and bathrooms. In contrast, television news crews with hidden cameras have caught numerous incidents like that on tape. Below is an example:

So how did some of the cruise ships get out of control?

The first factor is the growing affluence of the middle class. Over a generation ago, it was rare for the typical college student or a high school kid to actually be able to afford his or her own personal vacation. Today, the parents of these kids are capable of paying for plane tickets, nice hotel rooms, and trips on cruise ships. The next factor is the intense competition that slashed prices among cruise lines for the newly affluent middle class consumers. Consequently, instead of cruises solely being the domain of the upper class, the prices are now low enough for the middle class to enjoy them.

As a result, it didn’t take long for cruises to become a natural choice for college students and high school kids. After all, they can get drunk and the bartenders will keep serving them drinks mostly because nobody is going to drive away in a car. As for teenagers, cruise employees are not going to ask any questions about how a 14 year old got drunk. In this scenario, everybody wins except for the passengers who were expecting a pleasant quiet vacation instead of being surrounded by obnoxious drunks.

In summary, cruise lines need to be honest in what they are selling. Cities like New Orleans, Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale, South Padre Island, and others are perfectly honest in what they are marketing and people who frequent such venues already know what goes on. Consequently, it is time for the cruise lines to step up to the plate and do the same.

But most importantly, if these cruise ships do not care about the drunkenness and debauchery, then they should tell people about it, especially if they are going to be serving drinks to severely intoxicated individuals and to high school kids. Vacationers need to know up front that they are going to be in a confined area populated by young drunks, particularly if this is going to become commonplace.

Personally, I am a social drinker and I enjoy having a good time but I would rather not be in the company of drunken teenagers, lewd frat boys, and sorority girls going wild. I prefer to be enjoying my drinks around other responsible adults instead of being next to people living out their adolescence. And I imagine that most vacationers are anticipating the same thing when they take their next cruise.

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