In April 2026, Carnival Cruise Line was forced to hand out a whopping 24 lifetime bans, including one for a 9-year-old passenger, who went on a rampage in an arcade and started a fight with another child. The others were handed their ban after a huge brawl took place at a cruise terminal located in Galveston, Texas. Passengers had just disembarked from a 7-day Western Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Jubilee when the incident occurred.
The massive fight was captured on video and then posted on social media where it immediately went viral. One passenger said the fight actually started on the basketball court on the last day at sea and then carried over to the following Saturday morning. Carnival Cruise put out a statement addressing the events that transpired in the terminal.
“The incident occurred in the debarkation area under the authority of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. The matter was turned over to law enforcement. We will not tolerate such behavior, and 24 people have been placed on our Do Not Sail list,” the statement said. Footage of the fight shows a group of riled up passengers crowding around a baggage claim area.
Viewers can see dozens of suitcases in the background before several passengers seemingly start to chase another passenger to a different area, according to a report from People. The large crowd then breaks through barriers and knocks down several signs during the chase, before finally tackling a passenger to the ground. They then start punching and kicking the person on the ground.
The footage then shows security guards trying to break up the fight, but the brawl rages on even after they arrive. Following the footage being posted on social media, many users hopped on to state the ban didn’t go far enough and should be applied to other cruise lines as well. “The cruise lines should start sharing banned lists so these people don’t just transfer their bad behavior to other lines,” one user wrote.
“I hope the cruise lines share their banned list with each other, and they all take the same action,” another said. “This type of behavior happens all too often. I think the DO NOT CRUISE list should be shared with all cruise lines,” someone else pointed out. “Just an observation on the violence. There seems to be a common theme. 20 people fighting is very dangerous to everyone there,” another person commented.
“We want you to have a memorable vacation but please remember a cruise ship is a shared space. Our Carnival Values underscore that everyone should feel welcome and included, and that everyone on board demonstrate care and respect towards others,” Carnival said in the statement about the incident, discussing the importance of making sure children remain supervised at all times.
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“Our experience has taught us that everyone has a better time when children are supervised, noise in the hallways is kept to a minimum, guests follow queues, and that a spirit of community and neighborliness is shown by all. Consistent with our commitment to safety, disruptive behavior is not tolerated and any guest whose conduct affects the comfort, enjoyment, safety or well-being of other guests or crew will be disembarked at their own expense and banned from sailing on Carnival in the future,” it read.
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video