Last week, AOL’s industrious travel writer, Fran Golden, authored an in-depth story about drugs on cruise ships. Not the kind of drugs you buy at the pharmacy, of course, to hide the sniffles, the aches and the sore throats. It dealt with illicit drugs, how they appeared to be more prominent on ships, how culprits are getting caught, and how seriously cruise lines are taking the offenses.
My, how times have changed!
The story and the situation reminded us of our first cruise. It was down the Mexican Riviera, often the destination for first-timers, at least first-timers in the West. We took our three kids, then aged 18, 16 and 12. We had two inside cabins but couldn’t get two together. There was a cabin between us.
We’re not sure we ever saw the inhabitants, but we smelled them. Or more specifically, we smelled their pot. It seeped into the hallways. It seeped under or through the walls into both our cabins.
Naturally, we complained. Our complaint was met with relative indifference. We didn’t know what would happen — hey, it was our first time on a cruise ship — but we figured something would happen. Like, at least the air would clear.
What happened was this:
• Nothing.
• In the hallway, we encountered two other passengers. They were laughing at us, as if we had two heads or at least badly matched socks. We presumed they were our smelly neighbors.
We complained again, at “guest services” as we recall. Again, nothing. Seven smoke-filled (okay, smoke-stained) days later, we disembarked. Back home, we wrote a letter to register our complaint with the cruise line…essentially for not stopping what was then (and still is in most places) an illegal activity. We weren’t looking for a free cruise, a refund or an inducement to cruise with the company again. We weren’t looking for anything, and that’s precisely what we got.
Nothing.
Our letter was never acknowledged which, if nothing else, is bad manners.
What happened was this: It was a long, long time until our second cruise. Years. Lots of them. We thought that, if this was how cruise lines treated customers, there were other places for our vacation dollars. Our 16-year-old went on a cruise in his mid-2os, only because by then he was working at Disney World and employee discounts were one of the perks. The other two, to this day, have not been back on a cruise ship.
The point is, it’s about time the cruise lines took the steps they apparently have. Get caught with drugs, you’re off at the next port, and possibly arrested. Get caught, and your habit will no longer affect other passengers, whether they like the smell of pot or not.
One of the sources in Fran Golden’s story said that in the ’80s passengers could walk down the hall and practically sell the stuff. Now they have dogs walking the corridors.
We knew there was a reason we liked dogs.