A brawl onboard the Carnival Legend in February has prompted a wide-ranging review of security and new measures on board all the vessels operated by the world’s biggest cruise line.
Christine Duffy, Carnival Cruise Line president, told Travel Weekly she was taken aback by the footage of the fights and beatings involving both passengers and security staff.
In a statement, Carnival Corp. said its updated security protocols now include a trained and deputised back-up team to assist security, and a policy to closely monitor disorderly guests “with mitigation actions to include swift escalation and disembarkation.”
Ms Duffy said of the brawl in Australia earlier this year: “The one incident involved a family of 23 people who came on board, frankly, looking for a fight.
“And that fighting started from almost the time the ship had sailed and went on for a couple of days before we made the decision they needed to be taken off the ship.”
“We have not had issues like that, really, at that level before, so we are looking at the corporate level to see what we need to do so we can manage and handle [them] even before some of those incidents escalate the way that they did. There are investigations and a commitment to more training.”
It was believed up to 30 people were injured in the fight and Ms Duffy said it’s a lesson for the cruise line that ships sailing from Australia are further from port during voyages of the world and security measures need to be relooked at.
Ms Duffy said that the videos show Carnival’s security team kicking a passenger on the floor and the line “doesn’t reflect our values or how we train our security officers.” She also said that the video doesn’t show that the passenger was resisting security officers who were trying to handcuff him.
Bernadette is the Content Director for Cruise Passenger and Cruise & Travel magazine. She has travelled around the world, reviewing different types of cruise ships for the last 10 years. In her prior life, she was a news journalist where she had won a Mumbrella and Walkley Award. But these days, she spends her time on the high seas or the rivers of Europe.
