I'm a cruise ship expert - passengers should follow six rules when they set off

In his latest video on the Tips for Travellers YouTube channel, cruise ship guru, Gary Bembridge, issued six warnings to all passengers after speaking with crew members.

Rule breaking

When it comes to rule breaking, Gary highlighted three areas that particularly irk the crew. The most crucial of which is avoiding becoming a 'pool deck chair hog'.

He explained: "Pool deck chair hogs put crew in an impossible situation. Most cruises I've been on there are always people reserving loungers by leaving items on them in the prime pool locations before disappearing, sometimes for many hours."

READ MORE: World's first cruise ship exclusively for solo travellers set to sail in 2027

READ MORE: 7 ridiculously cool cruise ship activities from terrifying rides to 'flying' bar

While most cruise lines have rules stating that crew will remove items left unoccupied on loungers after a certain period, this often drives the crew mad as they face backlash from passengers whose items have been removed, reports the Express.

Additionally, he pointed out that passengers who disregard the dress code on board, as well as parents who fail to properly supervise their children's behaviour, can land themselves in hot water with the crew.

Hand washing

He also emphasised the importance of maintaining good hygiene on board, to prevent the spread of any viral infections that could not only impact fellow passengers, but also burden the crew members with additional tasks on board.

He said: "If it spreads through the ship, and it causes an outbreak, it creates an enormous amount of extra work on top the crews existing duties. Because they are then allocated extra cleaning tasks, they might have to start serving food in the buffet, they have to provide more room service for people isolating and there's extra duties for cleaning for people who are isolating."

Removing gratuities

Another crucial aspect to grasp when travelling aboard a cruise vessel is comprehending gratuities. He maintains that paying gratuities to staff is frequently misunderstood.

He added: "Another thing that drives crew crazy is when passengers remove gratuities as it's a real misunderstanding about what role they play. Most cruise lines that don't include gratuities in the fare ought to add gratuities to your passenger on board accounts.

"But, if you pay attention you'll see they're now not called gratuities these days, but things like crew service charge, crew appreciation fee, things like that."

Timing

Another source of frustration for crew members, he explains, is guests' punctuality, or the absence of it in certain situations. He stated that failing to arrive promptly or taking excessive time during particular cruise activities can 'simply mess up their job'.

Complaints

While discussing passenger complaints, he expressed: "Crew find it frustrating when passengers have issues and don't raise them with them first to solve, but instead raise it with their supervisor or more senior crew, because they think more will get done and quicker."

This irks the crew as: "First of all, if you raise it with them, they have a chance to solve it, but secondly if it gets escalated they're more likely to get into trouble."

Language

He also highlighted that language and the crew's ability to understand various different accents is something that cruisers should be mindful of when communicating with staff. He stated: "Most crew we interact with, we have to remember come from countries where English is not their first language.

"Not only do they have to learn and work in English, but also, importantly they have deal with understanding what cruisers are asking or saying when we all have a wide range of accents, which can actually be really, really challenging."

Help us improve our content by completing the survey below. We'd love to hear from you!