You're about to discover the ten things you should never do on a cruise ship
balcony. I'm Gary Bembridge and this is another
of my tips for travellers. I'm about to talk about ten absolute no-nos for
cruise ship balconies. The first of these is really something very practical, and
sensible, never sit on stand on or climb on the railing on a balcony.
It is completely crazy and it's completely mad. Lots of people talk about
people falling off cruise ships, but it's pretty much impossible to fall off a
cruise ship. Most of the people who've gone overboard have done it either
because they want to do it, or they've fallen off by doing something crazy by
sitting on a balcony railing or what's also been known to happen is by standing
up and trying to climb from one balcony on to the next. People have fallen
off. So, importantly never sit on a railing or put your kids on the railing even
if you're holding them. There have been some really tragic accidents. Never
sit, stand or do anything on your balcony railing. The second no-no for a cruise
ship balcony is also a rule by the cruise line. Pretty much every single
cruise line bans you from smoking or vaping in your cabin and on your balcony.
Cruise lines are actually, under their rules, able to ask you to leave the ship
and disembark you at the next port. Smoking or vaping is definitely a
no-no on your balcony. The third one is also a really important rule, and that's
don't throw things overboard from your balcony. One of the most important of
that is lighted matches or cigarette butts. The biggest risk on a cruise ship is
fire. That's the thing that cruise lines and captains fear more than anything
else. One of the easiest ways for these to start is people throwing cigarette
butts over the side of the ship, it gets sucked back in somewhere else and
creates a fire without anyone knowing about it. Don't throw anything
overboard. Don't throw rubbish, don't throw bottles with messages in.
Don't throw anything overboard for environmental reasons and safety reasons,
because of the way the wind works when the ship is cruising it's very easy for
things to get blown and sucked back onto the ships. Don't throw things
overboard from your balcony. Think very carefully before you either
sunbath or stand nude and naked on your balcony, for a couple of reasons. First of
all, many cruise ships have cameras trained on all sorts of parts of the
ship and so it's very possible that one of the external security cameras can
actually catch you standing or sunbathing nude on the balcony. It's also
possible that people from the port or other ships are going to see you. I
have lots of stories of people who have seen people standing start bollock naked,
or somebody naked, on ships as they see them in port or leaving port. Also,
because of the way the ships are designed,
it's also often easy for people to see what's going on on other balconies
either despite leaning over or because of the shape of the ships which overlook
other balconies. So, naked sunbathing and nudity on your balcony is more
risky than you think it could be. If you're really into sunbathing nude, you
could consider going on a nudist cruise or on some of the German cruise lines
like a Hapag Lloyd and Aida which have naked sunbathing areas. Linked to that
is around having sex on your balcony. This is definitely something that you
should think twice about, partly because (as I've already mentioned) around the fact
that you may be recorded but also bear in mind that even if people can't overlook
your balcony, they are not that private. If you take a look at your balcony,
although there's dividers, it's easy for people if they hear noise to look
around, look under or look over the divider. So, definitely it's
quite risky. If you are going to get up to that, you might want to check
the balcony is not over looked and there's no cameras on you. Also, check
that there's no on out on the balconies above, below or on either side of you.
Another cabin no-no that the cruise lines really try and encourage people
not to do, is to leave your balcony door open. A lot of people like to keep
the balcony door open to get some fresh air in and hear the sound of the ocean as
you're cruising. However, it's not a great idea to do for a couple of reasons. First
of all, if you leave the cabin door open it actually plays havoc with the air
conditioning system on the cruise ship, because it's not really sure what's
going on. It tends to go into overdrive and starts using
up much more energy than it would normally
do, which of course is not great for the environment by using much more energy.
If someone opens your cabin door it creates this enormous wind tunnel and
does create some havoc within your cabin. So, although it may be very tempting, the
cruise lines strongly discourage people from leaving their balcony door open. The
next no-no is something that does drive me slightly crazy, and certainly it's
things that I've seen lots of people commenting on other videos, and that's
about people who play loud music on their balcony or play it in their cabin
and have the balcony door open. Bear in mind that sound does actually travel
quite far, and you'll find if you're on the balcony and playing music it
travels above, below and around you. Not everyone wants to listen to your style of music.
Playing loud music is a definite no-no. It does drive other cruisers crazy. Linked
to that is, of course, making a lot of noise on your balcony partying or just being
generally loud and noisy. It is going to disturb other people, so really out
of consideration for other people is try and use your balcony for what a lot of
people are trying to use their balcony for, which is a place to go and rest and
relax. For most people, the reason they choose a balcony is because they want to
go out there have some quiet time, sunbathe and to rest and relax. Loud
music and people talking really loudly and being boisterous interferes
with other people's idea of a great vacation. So for me, I think it's a real
key no-no. The next n- no for a balcony is something that a lot of people will
think a little bit crazy, and that's using your balcony to dry clothes. A
couple of reasons for that. First of all, it looks a little bit unsightly however
that's not the key reason. If your clothes are left out there with the
sea air and the salt, it's often not necessarily going to dry them as much as
you would think. And of course, because of the way that wind blows particularly if
you're out sailing, it's also possible that pieces of
your clothes are going to be blown off the balcony, and as we said earlier
throwing things or chucking things into the ocean (even not deliberately) is
something you want to avoid both for environment and also for safety reasons.
So, don't dry your clothes on the balcony. In pretty much every bathroom in
the shower or above the bath will normally be a clothesline, and
that's the place to hang your clothes. Many cruise ships also have a
guest laundry and if your clothes are pretty wet you can go and
tumble dry them. Putting them out on the balcony is not
necessarily going to dry them as much do think and there is a risk if
you're sailing that they blow off into the ocean. Another no-no that winds a lot
of people up is people who leave their balcony lights on. Often you'll find the
cabin steward, when they set the room in the evening, will switch off the balcony
light. The downside of leaving the balcony light on it is, first of all it's using
unnecessary energy and of course again that means the ship is having to
generate more energy and that's bad from an environmental
perspective, but also if people want to use their balcony at night to go out and
look at the stars and relax, people having their balcony lights on is
actually ruining that experience. There's no need to leave your balcony
light on unless you're doing something where you need
the light on. It means that if people around you want to use the
balcony in the evenings and enjoy the night air and the darkness they can.
When I go cruising, I love to have a balcony cabin and these are 10 things
that I try and not do on my balcony, and always hope the people around me aren't
doing as it makes my vacation even better. I have lots of other videos
packed full of cruising tips and advice, so why don't you watch one of them right
now?