New Carnival "Rowdy Behavior Policy" apparently a joke

[Beave8920]

Recently, like many of you, I received a notification from Carnival that "Rowdy Behavior" (fighting) will not be tolerated on Carnival ships, and should you be contacted for such an event, you will be fined $500, confined to your cabin and kicked off the ship at the next port stop, at your expense.  Pretty strong language!  Not that I've ever been in a fight on a ship, I thought, good....it's about time!

 

Well......last week I departed on The Miracle out of Los Angeles for a 5 day Cabo cruise.  And on the first evening in the casino, a fight broke out!  I witnessed the fight from start to finish....saw who started it and how it ended.  It was at a black jack table where 4 friends were playing together when an intoxicated guy came up behind them and started to criticize their playing strategy. The drunk guy became so obnoxious that the pit boss called for security....but no one ever showed up.  The 4 guys put up with it for about 10 minutes, but the drunk guy wouldn't leave.  Then the drunk guy made an inappropriate comment, and the fight was on!

 

All four guys jumped out of their chairs and proceeded to beat the crap out of this guy.....not that the guy didn't have it coming, but they started the fight.  Furthermore, it was 4 on one, with two of the guys sucker punching the drunk guy, then retreating, then re entering the fight sucker punching the guy again and so on.  The fight spilled over onto the casino floor with chairs being knocked over and it terrorized several older casino guests.  It was totally a full on donnie brook!  After about a minute, the drunk guy finally was able to get away from these guys and ran out of the casino.  His face was bleeding pretty good.  The funny thing was that not one Carnival employee tried to stop the fight.

 

About 5 minutes later a couple of Security guys showed up.  I overheard 2 of the 4 guys telling the Security folks that they were victims of racial slurs.  And that may have been, but what they did to this guy was unjustified.  I figured under the new policy that all 5 would be fined, confined to their room and off in Cabo.  I'm sure the surveillance cameras in the casino would show them exactly what happened.

 

In any event, the next night, I saw one of the young guys (who was doing the sucker punching) sitting at the black jack table.  I made a comment to the pit boss about the fight and she told me that the Security Team and decided not to press charges against the 4 guys because they were being harassed by the drunk guy.

So even though they were the aggressors and started the fight, they were not going to be held accountable.  But they had to promise they would be on good behavior the rest of the cruise.  I have no idea what happened to the drunk guy.

 

So I guess the "No Tolerance" policy is a little more tolerant than advertised.  A shame really, because this was a clear cut case of aggravated assault.  If Security would have been there in the first place, this would have never happened.

[Sailin_Pirate]

A lot of text to say Carnival doesn't enforce their rules/policy.

[mz-s]

It seems that Carnival is so concerned that the fighters or the marijuana smokers or the booze smugglers or whoever are going to get their feelings hurt, they allow them to degrade the experience for everyone else.

[BlerkOne]

I think a good no call. I would have put the drunk off at the next port.

[sfaaa]

How about a new Carnival policy of Minding Your Own Business unless you are directly involved.

[EngIceDave]

I am confident there was likely some type of debrief with the pitboss and dealers, with them likely saying Drunky McDrunk deserved every bit of what they got.

 

MAYBE they all got a note and warning, considering the circumstances? One got pummeled bloody while drunk and the others got a warning.

 

[sanmarcosman]

8 minutes ago, sfaaa said:

How about a new Carnival policy of Minding Your Own Business unless you are directly involved.

Pfft, good idea but fat chance of that. 

[Ferry_Watcher]

It's nearly impossible to be sympathetic to a drunk harassing folks while using racial slurs.  Sounds like the four blackjack players put up with a lot from this drunk guy (10 minutes worth), until he crossed a line with the racial slurs.  While the response from the four guys  may have appeared strong, the chastised drunk guy "ran out of the casino" on his own - so apparently not grievously injured.  Hopefully he learned a lesson.

 

That said, it's always better not to put hands on others, if it can be avoided.  And it is unfortunate that ship security didn't arrive before the drunk guy mouthed off using the racial slurs.

[notscb]

1 hour ago, sfaaa said:

How about a new Carnival policy of Minding Your Own Business unless you are directly involved.

 

Wouldn't you say someone who was a direct witness to this fight as being involved? Isn't a fight a safety issue to all passengers onboard? Where do you draw the line?

[oyme]

1 hour ago, sfaaa said:

How about a new Carnival policy of Minding Your Own Business unless you are directly involved.

Yessss.

[oyme]

5 minutes ago, notscb said:

 

Wouldn't you say someone who was a direct witness to this fight as being involved? Isn't a fight a safety issue to all passengers onboard? Where do you draw the line?

I would say if you see something like that, get the heck out of the area. Only continue being a witness if you have literally no other choice because an exit is blocked or something. OP didn't state anywhere that the exit was blocked and that they were stuck there. I just have noticed a lot of people like to be witnesses when stuff is going down. So whose fault is that if they end up hurt? Unless they were truly blocked from leaving.

[notscb]

13 minutes ago, oyme said:

I would say if you see something like that, get the heck out of the area. Only continue being a witness if you have literally no other choice because an exit is blocked or something.

Sure, I would agree with you. My intention in responding to that specific commenter was to figure out what exactly they were trying to say.

 

If OP witnessed a fight break out and the next day saw the very folks involved still on the ship, they are right to share their experience with Carnival's "Rowdy Behavior Policy" in these forums. There's no reason for folks to belittle OP when the entire basis of this space is cruise specific discussions.

[Beave8920]

22 minutes ago, notscb said:

If OP witnessed a fight break out and the next day saw the very folks involved still on the ship, they are right to share their experience with Carnival's "Rowdy Behavior Policy" in these forums. There's no reason for folks to belittle OP when the entire basis of this space is cruise specific discussions.

Thanks notscb for your supporting comment.  That was the exact reason I posted my observations!

I have no idea how some of these responses get thought up?  

[notscb]

2 minutes ago, Beave8920 said:

I have no idea how some of these responses get thought up?  

 

IME, these boards have been a bit hostile lately and folks don't assume best intentions or support new conversation as they have in the past. Sorry that you became the subject of some of it.

[icft]

1 minute ago, Beave8920 said:

Thanks notscb for your supporting comment.  That was the exact reason I posted my observations!

I have no idea how some of these responses get thought up?  

Some people would witness a child being murdered and just mind their own business.

 

I appreciate you letting us know what types of things are happening on Carnival ships and how Carnival responds.

[cruisinpips]

Fighting hasn’t ended for sure… just off Horizon this morning. Took elevator to Lido yesterday afternoon and about 12-15 security guards were gathered around a group, one of whom was in a wheel chair. He was an amputee, so not sure how much fighting he could have been doing, but he was somehow involved ( overheard the lady screaming at security about it) saw at least two security guards with spray bottles and towels, apparently cleaning up blood. I got the heck out of there, saw some comments on our FB page, but no real info. The comedian even used it in his material last night….

There are so many idiots anymore, I’m never surprised by anything.

[Beave8920]

4 minutes ago, notscb said:

 

IME, these boards have been a bit hostile lately and folks don't assume best intentions or support new conversation as they have in the past. Sorry that you became the subject of some of it.

Here's the funny thing....I think everyone in the casino who was aware of this was, let's say, happy to see this outcome!  He definitely had it coming!  But my point was that Carnival sent out letters stating they would not tolerate it....kinda like towels on chairs or tank tops in the dining room!  

[notscb]

3 minutes ago, Beave8920 said:

He definitely had it coming!

For sure.

 

I'm wondering if you'll see him around the next few days or not. I'm hoping they actually kicked this guy off.

[Beave8920]

Just now, notscb said:

I'm wondering if you'll see him around the next few days or not. I'm hoping they actually kicked this guy off.

Nope, never saw him again.  Don't know if he got kicked off or not.

[icft]

8 minutes ago, Beave8920 said:

Nope, never saw him again.  Don't know if he got kicked off or not.

Let's hope he did, but unfortunately Carnival doesn't tell such things. That conveniently hides when their actions don't match their words.

 

What I find most concerning is that security didn't show up to the table when called. That left the guys being taunted with no shelter from the abuse. While I think what they did was wrong, I think Carnival's failure in its duty to protect them from abuse is a valid mitigating factor in their favor.

 

 

[Beave8920]

4 minutes ago, icft said:

What I find most concerning is that security didn't show up to the table when called. That left the guys being taunted with no shelter from the abuse. While I think what they did was wrong, I think Carnival's failure in its duty to protect them from abuse is a valid mitigating factor in their favor.

 

 

Exactly!  When you have open, practically unlimited alcoholic consumption all day long, I can't imagine why you don't have roving security available throughout the ship with a minimal response time if needed.

[Illbcruzn4life]

most of CCL's rules are not enforced.

[starstruck05]

You don't really know what happened to the drunk guy and to be honest he is the one at fault. No they shouldn't have put their hands on him but being cussed at, harassed,  called slurs, is not acceptable and people have their breaking point. Security not already having at least one person posted in the casino is a concern to me as I ALWAYS see one in there. They took way too long to come and the fighting could have been prevented. Anyone deserved a fine or to get put off it was the drunk guy and I sure he was reprimanded. 

[audcc77]

I guess I’m in the minority.  
 

IMO, there is no excuse to physically assault another person if that person is just using WORDS.  The dealer should have told the drunk to move along and then call security when the drunk started harassing people at the table.
 

Violence is never the answer. 
 

[ontheweb]

I think there are 2 points here to consider.

 

The first is the one that the OP brought up, why are they not following their own strongly worded policy. 

 

And the second is where was security.

 

Given the past history of enforcing policies, I don't know if many of us are surprised that this is not being enforced. But the lack of the presence of security is disconcerting. I'm sure the dealer or pit boss could have called for security well before this situation escalated. Did the call, or did security not show up when called?