You're about to discover the 10 cruise rules that passengers break most often.
I'm Gary Bembridge, and this is another of my tips for travellers. I've done 66
cruises to date and try to pack all the things that I've learned in every single
video.There are quite a few rules that cruise lines have for passengers, and
I'll take a look at the 10 that I've observed being broken more than any of
the others. The first rule that gets broken is
people lying on the health declaration form when they check in. When you check
into a cruise, there is a form that you normally have to fill in to
confirm that you haven't been suffering from stomach upsets, diarrhoea or vomiting
in the last 24 or 48 hours. People who are suffering often say
they haven't, because they're worried about the consequences. Will they be
allowed on the cruise? Will they be confined to their cabin? There is a risk
for other passengers, because if you're suffering from those, you could be
bringing on board the virus which will cause norovirus. This can spread
quickly through a ship and take a lot of people down with it. So, that is
one rule that you often see people lying about, because they worried about the
consequences to their particular cruise and are not always thinking about the
consequences for the whole ship and other passengers on board. The next rule
is sneaking alcohol on board. Most cruise lines have restrictions and regulations
around how much alcohol you can bring on board. That is both for when you
board, but also during the course of the cruise. They'll take excess
alcohol away from you and hold it until the end of the cruise - even if you
buy duty-free alcohol on board. A lot of passengers break that rule
and find ways of bringing it on board, either by trying to smuggle it on, with
innovative and clever ways, or just ignoring the rule and chancing
their arm. Buying drinks on board can be quite expensive, and so that's a rule you'll
often hear people talking about breaking and you'll find on many of the cruise
forums there are lots of tips and advice about how to sneak alcohol onto ships.
It's a very popular rule to break. The third rule, which is actually
now quite difficult to break, is not attending the muster drill or the safety
briefing. In recent years, the rules around attending that has increased
significantly, and that's particularly after some
incidents and accidents. Most cruise lines will either take a register or
scan your cruise card to make sure that you've gone. If you
don't attend a muster station, you're likely to find that you are refused
to go on the cruise or you have to go to a separate briefing event.
It used to be quite popular for people to try and skip it and still
you'll find when you're on a cruise they're often
calling people's names because they haven't gone to the muster drill. The
next one is around dress codes. Some cruise lines have very strict rules
around dress code, for example, if you go on a Cunard cruise they have very
strict formal nights or gala nights where gentleman have to wear a
black suit and tie or a tuxedo and ladies wear equivalent like
glamorous gowns or cocktail gowns. Even on their less formal
nights, the gentlemen are required to wear a jacket with no tie. They have a
strict rule. You'll find, no matter which cruise you go on, there will be people
breaking the dress code rule. I'm finding that as people start to ignore the dress
code, the cruise lines though are not actually being that strict about
enforcing it. There are certain cruise lines that are very picky like
on a Cunard Cruise or perhaps on a P&O cruise, where they have much
stricter dress codes. Some cruise lines turn a blind eye to it, so
you're finding increasingly ignoring the dress code
rule is one thing that's becoming pretty widespread, because cruise
lines are not actually enforcing it that much. The fifth rule is one that probably
causes the most upsets and the most conflict, and that's around reserving
seats. The two big problems here are around the pool or pool deck, where
people will basically dump stuff to reserve a Sun bed and then
disappear for many hours. Most cruise lines have rules that say if your seat
is unoccupied for thirty minutes they will remove the stuff and let that sun
bed that you've been reserving be taken by somebody else. However, again the
enforcement of those rules by cruise lines is very very patchy. People have
learnt if they reserved a sun bed they're probably going to have it
all day. The second area where I see a lot of it happening is in the theatres
where people will book a whole bunch of seats for their friends or family and
wait for them to come. Again
that's an area with a lot of conflict, and you will find the cruise lines are
always making announcements about not reserving seats. Reserving seats is
one of the most argued about and controversial (surprisingly) of all of
the rules that passengers get upset about. The next rule is also one
that probably causes some upset and this is smoking or vaping on
balconies. Most cruise lines don't allow you to smoke or vape on your
balcony. A lot of people still go out on the balcony and smoke because
their view is that if you're at sea the smoke is going
to dissipate. However, it is a strict rule and the cruise lines are more
likely to enforce it if people do report you smoking on your balcony. It's
unusual for people to break the rule about smoking in their cabins because
they will get hit with a cleaning fee if they do so. A lot of people
often ignore the smoking rules on balconies. The cruise lines I've been on
recently have the same rules for smoking as they do have for vaping.
Another bunch of rules that I see being broken a lot, and I see a lot of
discussion around that, are the rules around use of the pools and the hot tubs.
Most cruise lines have a lot of rules and regulations because very few of the
cruise lines (as the time of recording) have lifeguards around the
pool. A few of the more family orientated cruise lines are introducing lifeguards,
like MSC Cruises. Lines have a lot of rules around safety,
running and diving around the pool as e the pools are quite small.
A lot of them also have less formal rules or restrictions around which pools
are allocated for adults only and which are for kids, or at certain times in the day when
kids allowed to use the pool, restricted times hot
tubs can be used, the age of people in the hot tub and so on. I found, generally speaking,
often those rules get broken and are ignored by passengers. Again,
the cruise lines are not that good at enforcing that,
maybe because the crew are worried they're going to get a lot of push
back. The next one we've all seen people do it, and I've been as guilty of
doing it as everybody else, is around taking food off the ship. In some
countries local regulations do not allow you to take food
from the ship onto land. Often the cruise lines stress that you must
not take any form of food on land, though often this is more applicable to things like
fruit, nuts and those kind of more agricultural type items. We've all done
it when we're out for a long day on an excursion and at breakfast we
pack a couple of pastries or some rolls and cheese. However, it
could have some big penalties because there are some parts of the world
that I've been to where they do checks with
sniffer dogs to check that you're not taking product and
produce onto land. But, it's one that you will see being broken quite a
lot. The next one is one that probably does frustrate me a bit when it
comes to rule breaking, and this is around the meet up time for excursions.
When out on an excursion the time to get back to the bus or the
meet-up point is ignored by some people, because they know generally
speaking they are not likely to be left behind.
It is frustrating on
an excursion when this happens as it's always going to be held up by the people who decide to come
last - and often it's the same people because they know the guides are not going
to leave without them. Everyone has to wait until they are back even if
10 minutes, 15 minutes or even longer than that. Also
when you're checking for excursions in the morning, you'll find
you're waiting because they're waiting for a few people to arrive to get the
full number of people for tickets that have been sold before you depart. The pace of
excursions and the timing of excursions is always going to be defined by
whoever's the slowest. Breaking that rule might get you a
little bit of extra time, but it's not really great for the other people who on
that excursion. The next rule is really a set of rules and these are ones that
can have really really serious consequences. Whilst the other rules
are perhaps a little bit frustrating and a little bit annoying, they don't
necessarily have dramatic and terrible consequences for passengers. For
example, the rule about not sitting on the railing
of the the balcony or around the ship. The way that people have fallen off a ship
is when they're messing around sitting our standing on the railings of
balconies or perhaps climbing up on the balcony to go from one cabin to
the next. People have either fallen on to the quay or dockside or they've
fallen off the ship. Another really important rule is about
fraternising with the crew. If you go into the crew areas, the crew member
could find themselves fired and you could find yourself disembarked.
There's strict rules around passengers not going into crew areas and,
of course, there's some around treating people with respect. If you
damage property or have a punch-up fight with someone, you're also very like
to find yourself disembarked at the next port at your own cost. There's a bunch
of rules there that are probably much more fundamental people and you know that if you
do things that are illegal there are big consequences. If you
found this interesting and helpful, please watch many more of my Tips For
Travellers videos as they're packed full of tips and advice to help you make the most of
your precious travel time and money