Cruise ships are gigantic – like mini floating cities. This gives some cruisers an idea – hide at the final stop and go again. But what happens when they try this?
Reddit member ‘heavyflute4’ was very interested to know the answer, and asked the forum: ‘Redditors who have tried to hide on a cruise when it ended so that you could stay on the ship for the next round… how did that go?’
Surprisingly, according to cruise worker ‘Late_Sleeper123’, it’s a rather regular problem, ‘happening about once a month/every other month’.
And there were quite a few people ready to share tales of stowaway attempts – including one Brit’s shocking drunken escapades while on a cruise from Newcastle to Amsterdam.
There were also plenty of former crew members ready to pour cold water over any suggestions that staying hidden would be easy.
TRACKING TRICKS
Among them were ‘TooMuchCoffe1’ and ‘BadVinegar’.
In response to ‘heavyflute4’’s query, the former simply replies: ‘We will find you. We know you’re in the ship. And we all want you to get off so I can take a short nap before I have to do it all over again in a few hours.
‘You physically can’t get away with it. We know who is onboard and who is not.’
They explain that all passengers are tracked using ‘ship ID’ throughout their time on the cruise, making it very hard for anyone to hide.
‘BadVinegar’ says: ‘We give you a card upon check-in and that card is scanned the minute you step on board. Additionally, it is scanned when you leave the ship for either complete debarkation or excursions.
‘At the end of your cruise, debarkation starts around 7:00am. Come 10:00am, we receive a list of people who have not yet had their card scanned. (It’s impossible to get off the boat without getting your card scanned, unless you jump into the water.)
‘Then a manhunt begins to get you guys off the ship so we can put a new 2,200-2,600 people on it.
‘We do not start boarding new passengers until every card from the previous voyage has been scanned.’
According to ‘TooMuchCoffe1’, cruise staff even have a list of go-to hiding spots they usually find pesky passengers.
Crew check for stowaways in the staterooms first, before heading to the lido deck and the public bathrooms.
‘And when you eventually find them… they cop an attitude about it when we ask them to please leave,’ they add.
FIRST-TIME CRUISE MISTAKES
Some first-time cruisers, like ‘Guccinisti’, don’t realise there’s a strict disembarking time. They say they stayed on their first cruise longer than permitted, as they ‘didn’t really know how it worked’.
Luckily, they add, the crew were ‘peaceful and understanding’, due to it being a genuine mistake.
Staff of another ship also managed to see the funny side when ‘pettster12’ got stuck in a supply closet following a ‘slightly embarrassing’ boozy final night of their cruise trip.
They recall: ‘The ship had docked and there was a two-hour search for me. Still drunk I couldn’t find a way to get outta the room where the supply closet was, and the door was locked.
‘The crew thought I was trying to sneak another ride but after reviewing the cameras they clearly could tell I was nowhere near sober. So they let me go on my way with a good laugh.
‘They were planning on reporting me, but the captain let it slide. Just very thankful they caught it on camera!’
CATCH OF THE DAY
Those who are caught deliberately trying to stow away are dealt with unceremoniously, as you might expect.
While on a ‘mini cruise’ from Newcastle to Amsterdam, ‘Sco91tty’ recalls how their friend got drunk and ripped a table from the wall, before taking his and his friend’s tops off and throwing them overboard, ‘shouting “wheeeyyyy”’.
They add: ‘He was quickly sent to the Brig [onboard jail cell] and had his passport confiscated, meaning he couldn’t get back on the boat after our day in Amsterdam. So he tried to hide under the bed.
‘According to his story, he couldn’t fit so his feet were sticking out. He said he got caught straight away and they threw him off. We never saw him that day.’
Luckily for ‘Sco91tty’’s pal, he managed to explain his situation to the British Embassy, which arranged for him to fly home without a passport.
Meanwhile, ‘Late_Sleeper123’ recalls a passenger onboard the cruise they were working on, who got ‘very high on acid and locked themselves in the bathroom because they were with their family and didn’t want them to find out’.
They recall: ‘The cruise docked and when it was time to go, the family was panicking trying to find him.
‘Security eventually found him and he admitted that he was planning on leaving his family here while he did the cruise a second time.
‘Honestly there was no way he could have gotten away with this because they make sure everyone is off the boat before we let more people on and if we didn’t find him then, the cleaning crew would have.’
Another cruiser, ‘delliott456’, witnessed a couple trying to blag an extra week of ship-time during a two-week cruise that docked midway.
They reveal: ‘Dozens of announcements calling for them or anyone who’d seen them were made throughout the day.
‘Their rooms were searched and everything they owned in that room was seized (apparently).
‘The ship left port late by about 90 minutes, but they were eventually found and escorted off the ship when the crew decided to check the identity of every passenger onboard.’
