What are the things that annoy cruise passengers about other cruise passengers
more than anything else? I'm Gary Bembridge and this is another of
my tips for travellers. I noticed there are things that seem to really wind up
cruisers about their fellow passengers more than anything else, so I thought I'd
share those, and what I discovered, with you right now. These are in no
particular order. First of all, not washing hands and not using the alcohol
gel. Norovirus is spread through touch,. so touching surfaces, touching your mouth
and the best way of stopping it spreading is through frequent washing
your hands with soap and water, and also using the alcohol gel. People go
absolutely crazy when they see people coming out of the public bathrooms not
having washed their hands, or going into things like the buffet without having
washed their hands or using the alcohol gel. Because it puts other people
at risk. It is one of those things that drives people, when they see it happen,
crazy. Linked to that, is also when they see people not using the tongs or touching
food and putting it back, because again that puts everyone at risk of the
norovirus. It's one thing that I see people get really upset about and drives
them crazy when they see people touching food and putting food back and not using the
tongs. Other people smoking, or vaping, on the balcony next to them, above them or
below them is the thing that drives cruisers crazy.
There are strict rules on cruise ships now about where you can can't smoke, and
on pretty much every single Cruise Line, smoking on your balcony is not permitted, nor is
vaping in your balcony permitted. A lot of people still try and
sneak a fag or a vape because it's quite a big trek often to go to the areas
where you can smoke. It drives people crazy, and I have seen people go absolute
wild and seen them go and report people. It's one thing you'll
see in all of the cruise forums: people going absolute crazy where people smoke
where they're not supposed to.
Saving loungers around the pool, on the decks or saving seats in the theater is
another thing that drives cruisers crazy. It is probably of all of these things,
the one where I've seen the most arguments, people really falling out
and going absolutely crazy. You know how it works. People will head down and
put books or towels on loungers in great locations around the ship, and then
basically disappear for hours. They might pop back at some point of the day and
use it for a short time and head off again for many hours. Cruise lines pretty much
universally have a rule which says if your lounge is left unattended for 30
minutes they'll take your stuff away, so to frees it up. You probably have experienced that not
many cruise lines actually enforce that unfortunately. So, people have
learnt that if you do it, you're probably going to get away with it. It's
the one where I've seen the most arguments and the most fights on board.
The other is in the theatre, with people booking rows of seats
or big chunks of seats for their friends or family. It's another thing which the
cruise lines strongly ask you not to do, and again I've seen big falling outs where
people have been holding spaces. The cruise lines make
announcements about not reserving seats, but people do it and again and I've seen big stand-up
arguments over it. It's something guaranteed to drive people crazy and
annoy them. Linked to that, another thing which does drive a lot of people crazy
is when people talk through the shows, or perhaps take pictures when
they're not supposed to because it does get in the way of enjoying the show.
Because people haven't paid for the show specifically as it's included in
their fare, a lot of cruisers do seem to behave very differently and they don't see
it the same as if they've paid. People will talk and chat, they might take
pictures when they're not supposed to. Lots of bright screens around you and it's
one thing that drives people crazy, and again something that I've seen other
cruisers get really really uptight about. Perhaps one of my bug bears, and things
that I have seen people get really irate about, is when people are late back for
meeting points on excursions. When you had an excursion, perhaps you've got some
free time and the guide says to be back at 11 o'clock or two o'clock or
whatever, and there's always people that you know at each of those stops will
come back late - knowing full well that the guide and the bus will not leave
without them. People get really angry, because they know that the pace of a tour
is always going to be driven by the people who are slowest. If you've got a
number of different places to visit and people are back every single time late,
it means that your time gets more and more squeezed. Definitely one thing that
does annoy cruisers, not surprisingly perhaps, is that kids can often be the source of
a lot of annoyance and things that drive people crazy on a cruise, particularly with
people who aren't traveling with kids.Kids running right around the swimming
pool without being controlled, charging up and down the
corridors making a noise, playing in the lifts or where there are set times
at the swimming pool for adults or kids only and parents don't pay
attention and let their kids go when it's adult time. Kids
are often a source of conflicts on cruise lines, particularly with cruisers and cruise
lines which are not really family orientated. There's a lot of
cruise lines like MSC Cruises, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian which are
very focused towards families. People going on those cruises
do, of course, expect to see lots of kids and families and go with that
mindset. On other cruise lines, which are perhaps less family or kids
orientated, I have seen a lot of kind of people going a little bit crazy saying
that kids behaved better in their day or whatever, but kids is definitely
something that can cause a lot of flash points and annoyance between cruisers.
Another thing that does drive people crazy, and I've seen it quite often on
ships, is when people have room service and instead of phoning room service
(which they ask you to do), they put the tray outside into the corridor.
On a lot of cruise ships the corridors are quite narrow, and
if people do have some mobility issues with a walker
or in a wheelchair, they have to shove those aside to get up
and down the corridors. Generally people think it's unnecessary because
they know that you should just phone up room service as you did to order,
and they'll come pretty quickly and take it away from your cabin. That
certainly is one thing I see discussed a lot, and does seem to annoy
cruisers quite a bit. The next two are really often
interlinked. One of those is when people get really drunk, rowdy and
out of hand in any of the venues. I've seen tensions rise around
that as other people feel it's encroaching in their enjoyment of that place.
The next point which is just about noisiness is with
people in cabins which have inter-connecting doors and so there's not great
soundproofing and the people next door are noisy, rowdy or party in their
cabin. It is quite intrusive and is one thing that you see a
lot of complaints about. The thing is if you think that's
going to impact you, make sure that you're choosing a cabin that first of
all doesn't have an inter-connecting door and secondly isn't above or below
any of those venues where there's going to be lots of partying, like the
nightclub, bars and big late night venues. Surprisingly one
of the most interesting things that seems to wind people up enormously is
comparing fares. You hear it happen all the time on cruises where people
start talking about the cruise and somehow start comparing how much
they paid. Whoever paid the most is annoyed! People that got great deals
are very proud of sharing that. When you do get an amazing deal, you will wind
up people by bring up how much you paid. One of the things that perhaps is a good
thing that does annoy cruisers increasingly,
is when they see
their fellow passengers being rude, disrespectful or unnecessarily demanding
of the crew on the ship. As you know, the crew work long
contracts away from their family and they don't earn huge amounts
of money. They work really hard with no days off, and so when other cruisers
see cruisers being rude, disrespectful, demanding or creating
extra work for the crew, other cruisers get annoyed and that's probably
(as I said) a good thing because treating your crew with respect
and treating them well is a good thing. I think personally if people are
getting annoyed it's great, because it's good pressure to out on people to be
more respectful. Next time you go on a cruise, take a look
some of these things and look at how other cruises are reacting
to the things that cruisers do. It's interesting to see that you'll probably
find that these are the things that wind up people a lot, so I encourage you next
time you're on a cruise to take a look for each of these to see if you can spot
them - I think they are things that are really winding up modern cruisers a lot.
Please watch many more of my Tips for Travellers videos. They're packed full
advice and tips to help you make the most of your precious travel time money
on land, on sea and on the rivers of the world.