As civility and decency seem to be perpetually declining as time passes, a barrage of viral altercations on cruise ships has plagued the internet over the past several years. Alcohol-fueled, multi-person brawls seem to have become an expected feature of many budget-friendly cruises that attract a less-traveled and rowdy party crowd engaging in nautical nonsense.
The X account Carnival Cruise Victims has taken on the mission of documenting the disorderly conduct that continuously occurs on cruise ships. The account writes, “The rights and protections we as Americans have do not go with you when you get on a cruise ship.” Earlier this year, the account shared a video of an incident between several women in the hallway of a cruise.
The clip begins with four women in an all-out clash, where it appears two duos are taking each other on. As whigs and hair accessories fly about the hallway, one woman exclaims, “Take y’all ghetto a**es on somewhere,” amid the storm of punches. It’s unclear what exactly instigated the conflict, but one of the participants in the scuffle repeatedly shouts, “Get off my daughter.”
A lone man in the foreground of the footage stands at a safe distance while pleading with the angry women to calm down. “Come on ya’ll,” he says while approaching the group, seemingly unsure of how to subdue the chaos before him. One of the women screamed insults at her opponents, labeling them “drunk a**, ugly a** b*tches,” implying alcohol played a role in the fighting.
All the while, one patron donning her nighttime apparel peaks outside of her cabin to get a pulse of the situation. The man, growing progressively impatient with the women, shouts, “Why don’t y’all get y’all…close yo door! Close yo dor! Cut this sh*t out!” as he walks away from the scene, clearly fed up with the nonsense. The caption to the video read, “You too can be in the Carnival #VIFP club Very Intoxicated Fighting Passenger Here’s how: 1. Get the [drink emoji] package. 2. Drink the maximum amount. 3. Seek out a fellow cruiser to assault.”
Over the past couple of years, incidents like the one seen in this video have become more prevalent on cruises. Addressing the seemingly widespread brawls, one Reddit user initiated a debate in the “Cruise” subreddit, stating, “I keep seeing these fights being reported one after the other on Carnival ships,” before sharing a news article about a fight.
The user continued, “What is going on with Carnival? What makes Carnival seemingly more likely to have fighting and issues? Or is it just a weird coincidence? I want to try the line but this news of fighting and Carnivals own policy changes because of it, has me concerned about the kind of people on the ships.” Fellow Redditors offered numerous explanations. Watch the brawl below:
“The length of the cruise on the sunshine is 2-5 days… affectionately referred to as booze cruises. Lots of people drinking lots of alcohol,” one user wrote. “Carnival is considered a “budget” cruise line and a “party” cruise line. When you combine the two…” another person opined. “I’m a carnival loyalist. That being said, I only take their cruises out of LA and try to do 6+ day voyages to avoid the super party crowd. I’ve noticed cruises out of Florida on carnival can have a more…lively crowd,” another added.
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