Cruise Lines

Heaven forbid that cruising should ever become as elitist as it once was. You must know the old saying that cruising used to be for the "well bred and nearly dead".

But things are surely going too far the other way when passengers have to be kicked off a cruise ship for fighting, as happened recently Carnival Cruise Lines.

Reports say a brawl broke out in one of the dance clubs on Carnival Dream and led to 10 people being escorted off the ship in Costa Maya, Mexico, with an 11th person deciding to disembark.

It's not the first time something like this has happened. Two passengers on P&O Cruises' Ventura were "put ashore" during the ship's Christmas/New Year Caribbean cruise in 2008/09.

Then the fighting and bad behaviour was blamed on chavs who had bought a cheap cruise and didn't know how to behave on a ship. Well anywhere, surely, if the reports of what they did were true.

That sounds frighteningly like the "us and them" syndrome but I fear a bit of human nature is also to blame here. Mix alcohol, high holiday spirits and Caribbean heat and things can get out of control - usually for the most ridiculous of reasons I'm sure.

Not that I can see it happening on Seabourn Odyssey, which I was on last week and where there's plenty of alcohol sloshing around as it's all free.

Happily I know from my own experience such incidents don't happen too often - or maybe it's that I am tucked up in bed by the time they do! - and the cruise lines don't mess about when it comes to dealing with any problems.

What does anyone think? Is brawling on cruise ships a growing problem?