Cruise operator gets tough on fancy dress and unruly behaviour
P&O Cruises is enforcing stricter rules on its short-break sailings, including introducing a ban on fancy dress, novelty and offensive clothing.
Two-to-five night cruises will no longer be advertised as ‘party’ or ‘celebration’ cruises and the company is also restricting the amount of alcohol permitted to be brought on board.
P&O said the move will standardise the P&O experience for all passengers – whether they’re on a short or taster cruise or a longer itinerary.
Announcing the changes on its website, the company said: "We don’t want to dampen anyone’s fun but coming into effect on 1 January 2018, fancy dress and/or novelty clothing will not be permitted on board.
"We reserve the right to deny embarkation to guests who are inappropriately dressed.
"This is a change from the policy wording printed in the back our January 2018-October 2019 brochure.
"The only exception to this is on official theme nights, when guests are invited to dress to reflect the theme. This policy, however, does not apply to children 16 and under."
P&O added: "In addition to the fancy dress policy, clothing personalised with images/slogans, and/or clothing that features offensive language, images or slogans, will not be allowed on board at any time."
Inflatables, bar crawls, practical jokes and drunken behaviour won’t be tolerated either.
In addition, adults over the age of 18 will be restricted to bringing one bottle of alcohol on board.
Additional alcohol brought on board will be stored and returned to passengers on the last evening of the cruise.
A spokeswoman said: "We are rebranding our two to five night cruises to ‘short break’ cruises as ‘celebration’ cruises are not representative of the P&O Cruises experience.
"We are aiming to ensure that these cruises are an accurate representation of the P&O Cruises experience on board and we set guests expectations accurately in advance so that the holidays are special for everyone."
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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