What was that I was saying about the cruise lines' obsession with safety and security?
Carnival Cruise Lines has told embarking passengers they are no longer allowed to lock the luggage they hand over to porters for delivery to their cabin "to maintain a safe and secure environment".
I think it is safe to say the idea has gone down like a lead balloon with most passengers.
Aside from the fact that many dislike the thought that porters, security guards and whoever happens to be wandering by at the time is free to nose through their luggage, there is a very slightest suspicion that this is nothing to do with safety and security at all but rather is an attempt to stop all those fun-loving passengers smuggling booze into their cabins.
Here's what John Frenaye, writing in Travel Research Online, said:
"As we all know, alcohol sales are one of the top moneymakers on a cruise. And as anyone familiar with Cruise Critic knows, most of the Carnival loyalists routinely share stories on how to best smuggle booze on board."
And they say we Brits are tight because we object to the cruise line's forced tipping policies!
Frenaye also makes the point, as do Cruise Critic readers, that there is a small issue of liability here. Just who would be liable if something were to disappear from your suitcase between you handing it to the porter and it arriving in the cabin?
Not Carnival, because the porters are not their employees."Try to sue the Longshoreman's Union. Fat chance," writes pnjkeith on the Cruise Critic.
Everyone writing in response to Frenaye's comment is also unhappy, including several agents. "I've been selling Carnival for over 23 years and guess what - that will be stopping soon," writes Kenagain.
Can't help feeling this will be a decision Carnival lives to regret.
Jane Archer
