Booze cruise backlash | Travel

I can understand the shock felt when news broke of last weekend’s mass brawl aboard the PO Britannia, where a 2am ruckus broke out in the cruise ship’s Horizon buffet. That cruising has been made more affordable is a marvellous thing, but PO’s misty-eyed TV ads are perhaps a little shy of the truth. They show a loved-up couple of modest means enjoying spa treatments and gazing into Caribbean sunsets. They never show Rob Brydon nutting someone for spilling his pint.

When the latest campaign went live last March, PO’s vice-president of sales and marketing, Alex Delamere-White, told the trade magazine Travel Weekly that “our ambition is to become Britain’s number-one choice. The advert is intended to a paint a picture of a more authentic…