Cruise Ship Mischief: The Things Passengers Do That Irritate Me

    Cruise Etiquette has been a popular topic lately here on my blog. I would like to start by thanking all who have read my Cruise Etiquette series and let me know how much you enjoyed the articles.  I was asked by a few visitors to write about some of the scenarios that prompted me to write the cruise etiquette tips.  This is what this blog post is dedicated to. 
     In almost all cases cruise ships are filled with a diverse mix of passengers. Some passengers act just as good as they would on land, but there are always some passengers that are rude or do things onboard that are annoying or very selfish. Each story in this post is something that I have witnessed or have seen from observing.  I have seen some of these things on multiple cruises, while some other things I have included are isolated incidents that only happened on one cruise.

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In The Elevators:  Someone Pushed All The Buttons

     Many people who have been on a cruise can probably relate to someone pushing an elevator button and walking away. This could be because they decided to use the stairs or another elevator came.  This is something that usually occurs outside of the elevator, but has anyone ever walked into an elevator that someone pushed the button for every floor?  This has happened to me before.  I needed to get from a low numbered deck (I think Deck 2) to a high deck (maybe 12 or 14).  I waited at the elevator bay area and the first elevator that came was completely filled with people. Once that elevator departed I pushed the call button again and a minute later another elevator came. The elevator is empty and I walk in.  When I walked into the elevator every single floor button was pushed.  The elevator went up and stopped at every single floor.  Less than midway to my planned floor destination  I decided to ditch this elevator and walk the stairs. I should have never gotten in that elevator.
      It is hard to know who to blame this one on.  It could have been kids or adults.  If you ever find yourself in this situation you could get out of the elevator and take the stairs or wait for another elevator.  

Cutting in Line For Food  - (My Favorite Story)

       Just like on land there are people who feel entitled to cut in line for food.  Buffet lines can be long, especially at peak times, and there are people who always cut.  I have seen people cut in line in front of younger children  thinking that the kid will not say anything.  I have also seen people cut in front of grown adults.  Most people don't say anything because they don't want to start an argument (end result could be getting kicked off the ship).  My favorite story of seeing a passenger cut in line was the Carnival Elation's deli line.  One of the people that I was travelling with got cut in front of while waiting in line.  She did not say anything, but was highly annoyed at this man and making faces behind his back.  When the man who cut in front of her got to the ordering area the crew member told the man to step aside and go to the back of the line.  The man said a few angry words to the worker and went to the back of the line.  At this time the back of the line was now much larger than it was when the man first came!

Wasted Food and Even More Wasted Food

     For almost every cruise there is going to be a lot of food wasted.  Whether the food is from the buffet, the dining room, or room service, there is almost always food wasted. However, there is a big difference between wasting food because you are full and wasting food just to waste food.  I have seen many passengers go through the buffet line and then not eat a single item on the plate.  It didn't even look like the passenger took a bite of their food!  Another example of wasting food would be ordering room service and not eating hardly any of the food ordered.  The moral of this story is that you should only take what you intend on eating.  If you don't like the food or get full quickly you shouldn't feel bad about not eating the food.  If you take food or the sake of taking food and don't intend on eating the food  is wasteful and you should consider not doing this.

Plain Malicious:  Stealing A Wheelchair

      I did not get to very see the start of this one, but I did get to see the ending. A group of children, probably in the 11-15 year age range, were about to enter the ship's onboard youth program lounge.  One of the children was in a wheelchair getting pushed by another.  When the group got to the entrance of the lounge the youth director came to the door and really loud exclaimed, "What happened to you?".  The kids laughed and replied that they stole the wheelchair from an elevator bay.  The youth director told them to return the wheelchair immediately or she would call ship's security. It looked like the kid's did return the wheelchair, but had a good laugh on the way back.  The moral of this story is to not touch what is yours.  There are always a few clumps of bad children, but most of the time there are always more well behaved children onboard.

Hogging Deck Chairs

       Cruise ships often have a limited number of deck chairs that are in demand from passengers during peak times on sea days.  Hogging deck chairs has happened on many of my cruises, but this example was on a much higher on the scale of hogging chairs.  I walked through the main pool area on the ship I was on around 1 or 2 in the afternoon.  There was a row of about 10 deck chairs that each had a personal item in the chair.  There was a person that was circling this row of deck chairs not allowing anyone to take a chair.  At least I didn't want a  deck chair because there were no other available chairs in that area.  Many cruise lines have policies that discourage hogging deck chairs, but some cruise lines are more effective in their methods of discouraging this than others. 

If you enjoyed this article you might also enjoy our Cruise Etiquette section of the website.  Click Here To View
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