A cruise ship is a terrible place to go if you have a drinking problem.

The gossipy TMZ and the New York Daily News say that country music star Trace Adkins allegedly got drunk on a country music cruise, fought with an impersonator singing karaoke, and then left the ship in mid cruise when the ship arrived in Jamaica. He subsequently checked into a rehabilitation center.

The tabloid media says that Mr. Atkins struggles with alcoholism but has been sober for 12 years, until the cruise this week. The AP has confirmed that he has entered a rehab program. The newspapers indicate that he has discussed the issue of alcoholism publicly.

Country Cruise NCL Pearl Trace AdkinsMr. Adkins was the top bill on a "Country Cruising" week-long cruise on a Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) ship (the Pearl) which left  Miami on Sunday, January 12th with stops in Ocho Rios (yesterday), Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. The ship will return on Sunday.

You can click on the cruise website and listen to him invite you personally "to the best country cruise ever . . . I sailed on this cruise last year and I can tell you it was a hoot . . .  it was a blowout!"

So right now a boatload of country music fans are sailing without the headlining act. Let’s wish Mr. Adkins well and hope the fiasco doesn’t end up in litigation.  

I suspect that his fans will take the incident in stride.

Mr. Adkins is active on Twitter. On the first day of the cruise, he left his tweet: "Up here in my suite, overlooking the pools. Behave yourselves."   

We have heard of other stars falling victim to the tendency to over-drink on cruises.

A couple of years ago one of the Backstreet Boys got so hammered during a fan cruise that some fans asked Carnival for a refund. 

ABC has a video of the story which you can see here.