The economic downturn is shaking up the weird class system that has long existed on cruise ships. Forced to lower ticket prices, the major cruise lines have seen an influx of bargain-hunting first-time cruisers, leaving some veteran cruisers steamed that they have to share the Lido Deck with uncouth yokels who just don't know how to act at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Rather than put up with their shenanigans, the lower-upper-middle-class cruisers are trading up to pricier ships to avoid the neophytes. But, as USA Today Cruise Yoda Gene Sloan sagely points out in his Cruise Log blog, everyone's a yokel to somebody else. It seems the monocled classes on the fancy ships now have to contend with their own interlopers. ]]>
