Cruise on Royal Caribbean's "Rhapsody of the Seas" / Photo: Yoav Itiel
A pleasure cruise at sea is not something that always goes so smoothly, certainly not for the crew on board.
According to Lucy Southerton, who has worked on a cruise ship for nearly a decade, there are some annoying things passengers do that annoy the crew on board.
I went on a cruise with 2,000 nudists.
This is how it looks from the inside
In a video she uploaded to YouTube, 28-year-old Lucy from Birmingham, England, listed a list of things that annoy ship workers.
The most popular complaint, she told her more than 65,000 YouTube followers, was about guests' comments about the staff's English.
There is often a "melting pot" of people on board cruise ships who come from around the world, meaning that the workers often speak another language in addition to English.
"It's scary working on a cruise ship where you have to speak English, which is not your first language," she said in the video.
"So it really sucks when a passenger says something bad about your English," she added.
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A post shared by Lucy (@cruisingascrew).
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A post shared by Lucy (@cruisingascrew).
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A post shared by Lucy (@cruisingascrew).
The staff hates being stereotyped by the guests
Similarly, Lucy said the team hates being stereotyped by guests, and she recalled an incident where one of the guests asked her Colombian friend - who had "never, never, never touched drugs" - if she had ever "done cocaine" just because of her country of origin .
"It's just a bit insensitive," she said, adding that on the other hand, being stereotypical could hurt the guests themselves.
For example, in Americans who get angry when they are labeled as "stupid".
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A post shared by Lucy (@cruisingascrew).
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A post shared by Lucy (@cruisingascrew).
Bragging about the wealth of the guests is also something that is hated
Lucy also says that the staff also hates when guests leave their rooms and leave a mess in them, or when they try to enter restaurants, bars or shops just before they close and ignore the greetings of the staff, which she calls "disrespect".
Bragging about the wealth of the guests is also something the staff hates.
Afterwards, she said it's annoying when "guests flirt with you and think they have a chance with you just because you're a female member of the cast."
She explained that while part of the staff's job is to "be friendly," this is often misinterpreted by guests as "you're a sexy staff member," and urges prospective guests to think that the staff might not want that attention.
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A post shared by Lucy (@cruisingascrew).
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Good manners can help you along the cruise
The treatment of the staff as if they were "not people" is another thing that disturbs.
"As far as manners go, I think what annoys me and my teammates is that it doesn't take too much other than saying 'please' or 'thank you' or 'hi, how are you?'" she said.
In general, good manners can help you along the cruise, and being rude to the crew is "the biggest mistake people can make," she told the Daily Star.
"You don't know what might happen to you or what trouble you'll get into, and which crew member will be able to solve your problems, and this happened in the past when a passenger was incredibly rude to one of the crew members, who the guests needed later on during the cruise," Lucy concluded.
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