For what it's worth I firmly believe that the duration of the cruise is so often the determining factor. We would never normally consider a cruise that was less than 10 days and as a result have never encountered ill-mannered and poorly behaved passengers. In contrast, friends of ours have taken a couple of short cruises (5-7 nights) recently and found that quite a few fellow passengers fell short of the mark in knowing how to conduct themselves. I do also question the integrity of the staff who it seems are happy to serve passengers who are clearly inebriated.
This makes me sound aloof and above myself which I don't believe I am.
