Cruise passengers often do things that many among them consider rude.
Someone who’s a jerk on land doesn’t become inherently more considerate of others when he’s at sea. Some people use being on vacation as an excuse for their terrible behavior.
Many of the usual inconsiderate things some passengers do have simply become embedded in the cruise experience. Some people will always get up early to claim pool-deck chairs and then leave them unused for hours.
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The cruise lines will never be able to create a fully equitable elevator system where pushy people don’t cut the line. (Royal Caribbean’s new elevator tech does do a good job at curtailing that behavior.) In addition, you’ll always find some people who smoke on their balconies and folks who take huge plates of food at the buffet only to abandon them.
Some of these things, like smoking where you shouldn’t, may earn the ire of your chosen cruise line. Most of the other actions and behaviors go largely unpunished because their overall impact on others is minimal.
Yes, it stinks to have someone push their way ahead of you in line, and not being able to find a pool chair easily is annoying. But neither situation ruins your vacation.
There is one thing, however, you should never do on a cruise ship that many people, even those not trying to be inconsiderate, still do, and the effect can be catastrophic.
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A cruise ship bathroom on Celebrity Reflection
Image source: Dan Kline/Come Cruise With Me
Beware your cruise ship toilet
Cruise ships have a shared plumbing system. That means that if you flush down a prohibited item in your toilet, it can cause problems not just for your space but for dozens, maybe hundreds, of other cabins.
It’s really important that you don’t flush anything down the toilet aside from the toilet paper the cruise line provides.
Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald addressed the matter in a recent Facebook post.
“Yep, Luigi and all our plumbers hate people who bring their own toilet paper and those sodding Wet Wipes,” he wrote. “That is because despite the signs that plead with you not to flush them down the suction toilet system, they still do.”
He pleaded with passengers to be more careful, as one clogged toilet can inconvenience hundreds of passengers. Heald made clear that people should not bring their own toilet paper from home.
“And this results in Luigi having to put on the long glove and shoving his arm up a pipe full of the devil’s dumplings so that the toilets in that cabin section will start flushing again,” he added.
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Royal Caribbean shares a similar warning
Royal Caribbean has signs in its bathrooms and has a video that plays on its in-house channel showing all the things passengers should not flush.
Those items include some things you can plausibly see being flushed, like diapers and sanitary products, as well as ones you can’t imagine people flushing, like fruits and car keys.
The cruise line also makes clear that you’re not allowed to bring your own toilet paper from home. It offers cheap toilet paper, or at least thin and uncomfortable-to-use toilet paper, for a very specific reason.
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“Cruise ships have to use a thin toilet paper that is suitable for RV, portable toilet, or marine use. It’s specifically designed to flush easily and quickly break down in the holding tanks, preventing any nasty clogs,” according to Royal Caribbean Blog. “Marine sewer systems are intricate, and so unable to process the thicker, plusher toilet paper you’re used to at home,”
Royal Caribbean will confiscate any toilet paper brought on board. In addition, you are not supposed to flush wipes, even ones that are flushable on land, down your cruise ship toilet.
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