Cruise ships are amazingly clean. With crew members scrubbing, dusting, and vacuuming areas day and night, most areas you see around the ship will be spotless.
But that doesn’t mean you won’t see some gross things on a cruise if you are looking for them. The majority of these disgusting things aren’t going to be from the cruise ship itself or the staff. Instead, it’s the passengers that are most often to blame.
And while the cruise line may be able to train staff, passengers are another story. To be sure, the vast majority of people mind their manners and don’t do anything offensive. But on a ship with thousands, there is always going to be at least a few people that will end up doing something that could be considered gross.
Not Washing Hands Before Eating
On the surface, not washing your hands before you eat doesn’t rank highly on the “ick” factor. It’s likely that many of us do it regularly at home. On a cruise, however, it’s a different story.
On a cruise ship, you’re sharing a relatively small space with thousands of others. That’s thousands of people wiping their noses, or using the restroom, or being intimate with their significant other. And while you hope that everyone would wash their hands after these sorts of activities, the sheer numbers mean that at least some of them are not.
Then, those same passengers are grabbing handrails or the serving utensils at the buffet, or touching elevator buttons.
Cruise lines do a good job of trying to stem the issue. Any time you go into the buffet, you’ll see a spot to wash hands and normally there is a staff member reminding people to do so.
Still, just watch for a minute or two and you’ll no doubt see people that skip hand washing and walk right in. It’s enough to make you want to carry your own bottle of hand sanitizer.
Seriously?! People Touching Food
Touching food (and then putting it back) is something that thankfully we rarely see on a cruise, but yes, we have personally witnessed it.
If there is an ironclad rule of cruising, it should be that you should never touch any public food. Yet we vividly remember seeing a man pick up a croissant from a bowl on the buffet (under the guard, mind you) deciding that wasn’t the one he wanted, and putting it back to grab another. The serving tongs sat right in front of him the whole time.
It should go without saying, but you should never touch anything on the buffet with your bare hands. And especially if you’re going to just put it back for someone else to eat.
Keep it in the Room: Public Displays of Affection
We get that cruises can be romantic. You’re in warm locales, far away from the stresses of daily life, while wearing swimsuits, and drinks are flowing freely. It would be weird if people weren’t “enjoying” the company of each other on the ship.
But there is a time and place for everything, and that includes displays of affection. Nobody is interested in seeing you get busy while on vacation. That means keep it in the room.
Do people really do things in public places? We’ve personally seen in a couple of times across our cruises.
One time involved stepping out on the balcony to see a couple going at it with each other just a few doors down. Our balcony angled out, so our view was down the side of the ship, including our neighbors making love.
Another time we were seated a few stools down from a couple at a bar that overlooked the pool. Through the corner of our eye, we saw the woman had worked her hand up the leg of the man’s shorts while casually looking out over the pool below.
Seriously, no one wants to see it. Keep it in the room.
Hot Tubs Filled to the Brim
Sometime people can be a little picky when it comes to things that gross them out. We may be in that group when it comes to public hot tubs, but doubt we are alone.
On a cruise with thousands of people there are maybe 6-8 public hot tubs spread around the ship. Go early in the morning and you might be the only person there. But in the middle of a busy pool day the hot tubs can be absolutely packed shoulder to shoulder.
We’re fine rubbing elbows with strangers around the ship, but while wearing a swimsuit and in a tub full of hot water? No thanks. To us, it’s a bit gross and we’re not alone. We’ve even heard the phrase “human soup” used to describe the hot tubs. It’s hard to argue when you see it filled up with bathers.
Vomiting on the Ship
A gross thing that we hope you’ll never see on a cruise? How about someone getting sick to their stomach? Unfortunately, across our dozens of cruises we’ve seen it a couple of times and it’s unsettling.
Honestly, we’re surprised it’s not seen more often. On a cruise you have a lot of situations that can lead to an upset stomach.
First, you have tons of food and much of it being unlimited in what you can eat. Overeating is definitely a thing. Second, you have bars all over the ship, so in addition to lots of food you have lots of people drinking more than they might back home. Finally, you put all of that on a ship that can rock back and forth with people that may not have their sea legs under them.
We can tell you that we’ve seen staff have to address the mess a passenger makes after they’ve thrown up, and there’s only one word for it: gross.
Half-Eaten Plates Lining the Halls
One thing that’s nice about a cruise is that you can grab food and take it back to your room. Or you can even get room service to deliver food to you. That way if you want to sit and eat on your balcony, you can do it. Or you can just enjoy your meal without having lots of other people around.
But then comes the question of what to do with the dishes. On some lines, they prefer that you set them outside the door and the crew will come by and eventually pick them up. Unfortunately, that means you will often walk by plates of half-eaten food when headed to or from your room.
Frankly, it’s a bit gross to walk by a plate full of half-eaten chicken wings.
If you do have to put a plate out in the hall for pickup, then it’s polite to take the napkin that you use and place it over the plate.
