What are the nine things you can no longer do on a cruise?
I'm Gary Bembridge, and this is another of my tips for travellers. I've been on over 66
cruises and I try and pack all the learning that I've got from all of those
cruises into every single video I make about cruising. What are the things you
used to be able to do in a cruise that you can no longer? First of all, you can
no longer smoke or vape in your cabin, around the ship, in the dining room and
even on your balcony. Way back in the "good old days" you were able to smoke
everywhere on the ship, and then slowly that has become less and less,
until pretty much every single cruise ship that I'm aware of,
you're not even allowed to smoke or vape on your balcony any longer. They have
very specific areas on the ship, and increasingly fewer parts of
the ship, where you can go to smoke. On almost all cruise ships, the rules for
vaping is the same as the rules for actual cigarette smoking. Some ships will
have specific smoking rooms or bars, for example on Princess they
have Churchills. On some cruise lines they still have smoking either on
some or all nights in the casino, although this is slowly being phased
out. As a smoker it's a real challenge and a good friend of
ours, who's a smoker, is questioning going cruising because they
are finding a really restrictive on where they can smoke. Secondly, with the
clamp down and increase in security you are no longer able to, on pretty much every
single Cruise Line, bring guests on board. In the grand old days of the liners,
people would come on board with their friends and family and have a look at the
cabin, have a wander around the ship and there would be and announcement made for visitors
to leave the ship before it sailed. Nowadays it's almost impossible to visit friends on a
ship. Even if you go on a ship tour, so for example I go on various tours on
ships and it's quite a big deal you have to send your passport details in advance and
it's really strictly controlled. So, having friends, families and guests
on board is pretty much now impossible on any single Cruise Line. In the good
old days, you could bring friends on board in a port and perhaps have them
on board for lunch, but this is no longer possible. The third
thing that you can no longer do on a cruise, and one that a real pity, is have
the big streamer sail away. Even as recently as the 70s and into the 80s
when you sailed away, you were given streamers and you could throw them overboard.
If you go back and look at some of the old classic liner photographs, you'll see
as they sail away passengers throwing streamers over the side of the ship. It was a
big part of the cruising tradition. Of course as there's much more awareness
around the environment, things like throwing streamers over the side of the
ship was seen it has a really bad thing and so
all that has stopped. The big streamer sail away has gone. The fourth
one is linked to that, and you are no longer able to throw anything
overboard. It's one of things that you will hear in the safety and
the welcome briefing that you cannot throw anything overboard. Not being able to
throw things overboard has meant that some traditions, like the message in a
bottle, have also disappeared. It used to be a relatively popular activity where
people would get bottles, put their name and address on a little message in it and
throw them overboard, and hope that the currents will take them somewhere
and they would hear from people who found them. Throwing things into the ocean is really frowned
upon, which leads on to the next thing which is they used to actually be some
sports and activities that you would do in a cruise ship which did involve you
hitting things overboard! They used to practice golf, for example, putting into
the sea sand some ships used to have clay pigeon shooting. There were a whole set
of games that you would play which involved hitting things off the ship into
the ocean. An interesting recent development on things you can no longer
do on certain cruise lines is shake hands. Some cruise lines or
the individual captains are asking that you do not shake hands and
the crew themselves will refuse to shake hands. Some of them might do a fist
bump or some of them basically a nod, and the reason for that is one of the
easiest ways to spread the norovirus is through touch. If you touched hands and then you end up
touching your mouth and you ingest it. A lot of the cruise lines are moving
towards not shaking hands and encouraging you as passengers not to
shake hands. So, shaking hands
may increasingly become something that you just don't do on a cruise anymore.
Visiting the bridge and an open bridge used to be a really common part of
cruising and it was very easy to get access to the bridge. Some cruise lines
do not have any access to the bridge, so there are no bridge tours. Some cruise
lines will allow access to the bridge in a very controlled manner and normally
through a paid-for activities like a behind the scene tour which will
include a short visit to the bridge. So, few people actually get onto the
bridge at all and then some will only have very selected guests which they
might invite like people who perhaps been cruising for a very long time or
a VIP. On some of the smaller cruise lines or perhaps on a
river cruise, they do still have an open bridge policy where you're able to
go in pretty easily and frequently. Getting access to the bridge and being able
to visit the bridge and tour the bridge is increasingly becoming something that
you used to be able to do very easy on a cruise and is becoming less and less easy
to do. I think one of the most interesting things that you can't do on
a cruise that you used to be able to do is completely switch off. Not
that long ago Wi-Fi connectivity was pretty difficult and very
expensive and if you went on a cruise, particularly with lots of sea days, you were
able to really disconnect and switch off. However, driven by a demand
particularly of younger cruisers and people liking to be more connected, the cruise
lines are constantly improving and increasing the speed, access and
price of being connected on Wi-Fi. It is now easy on many cruise lines
to be connected on completely unlimited Wi-Fi for relatively reasonable amounts
of money. Moree cruise lines on the premium end are also
including Wi-Fi within the fare, so you can be connected all the time within
your fare. Not that long ago you had to switch off you switch your phone
and not get emails as it was hard to be connected, and you
really could switch off on a cruise. Disconnecting is something you used to
be able to do on a cruise, but much less so now. You also used to be able to
socialize with the crew much more, more mingling, parties and
interaction between the crew and the passengers. This is almost forbidden
nowadays. There will be certain opportunities to socialise with the crew
like senior crew might invite you to a large cocktail party or host tables on some cruises.
The cruise lines are becoming more strict on those interactions with
the crew and if you go back and look at the old liner days, you'll find there's
lots of cocktail parties and more mixing and socializing between the crew and passengers.
The cruise lines have much stricter rules. Evenif you strike up a
friendship with perhaps the gym instructor or other crew, even meeting
on land is frowned on. For example, we became very friendly on a big
stretch of a world cruise with some of the people in the spa and we said why
don't we meet to perhaps go out and do some stuff on land, and they were like we
cannot do that because the rules say that we can't fraternize and
mix with passengers. I guess that sort of makes sense but certainly you
used to be able to mix with the crew much more now and they are kept much more at
arm's length. If you can think of anything else that you used to be able
to do on a cruise but can no longer do, I'd love to hear what those
are -anything that I've missed. Why don't watch many more of my Tips For Travellers
videos, they're packed full of advice and tips to help you make the most of your
precious travel time and money on land, on sea and on the rivers of the world.