If you have ever been on a cruise before, you will likely have met many fascinating people from across the globe and even if you are not the most sociable, you will have got to know some of your fellow cruisers- at least a little.

It is just the nature of cruising, where you are in relative close quarters with the same people throughout your holiday and despite ships been as big as they are now adays, and there often been 1000’s of passengers cruising with you, you do tend to find that you end up in the same places with the same people over and over again.

It’s something that I have notice on both larger and smaller cruise ships, you plans just tend to sync up with some people so you will find you are often sitting next to the same people in the theatre, eating next to the same people in the buffet or you have a favourite spot for a drink where the same people end up.

Then of course, you have more traditional ways of meeting the same people over and over including set dining times and table in the Main Dining Room.

So, with all of that in mind, the last thing you want is to annoy the people you meet on your cruise as the chances are that you will bump into them again.

With people from across the globe, from different cultures and with different ways of doing things, there can be some small issues that pop up from time to time but in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn’t matter but there are some things that annoy just about everybody- and you may not even know that you are doing them.

In this list I take you through the top 10 things you should avoid doing as they simply annoy your fellow passengers.

This is based on my own experience of cruising, of talking to fellow cruising onboard ships, getting feedback from friends and family who have cruised and also from comments and feedback from users of the CruiseHols website and the CruiseHols YouTube channel.

Our Top 10 Tips To Make Sure Your Are Not THAT Annoying Cruise Ship Passenger

Use Headphones

This is a growing issue on a cruise ship and something that was really noticeable on my cruise to Antarctica, but it is something that is so easy to deal with.

Sailing in a continent with the population of a small village, taking in the piece and quite of it or listening to penguins and whale calls really added to the occasion but it was often broken up by people listening to music or watching tv on their phones.

Even if you are not sailing somewhere as remote as the southern continent you will still annoy your fellow passengers by having loud music or catching up on your favourite show, especially if you watch it somewhere where people are relaxing such as an indoor pool, lounge or observation area.

If you want to keep up with the latest Netflix release, simply use your headphones, or find a area of the ship with nobody around you, there’s always somewhere.

Wash Your Hands

Another one mostly for the buffet but something that should be follow often and everywhere onboard the ship.

As you enter the buffet or reboard the ship after been on shore, you will more than likely be asked to wash your hands, or to use hand sanitizer.

I am sure that for 99% of you reading this, you will be thinking yes, of course, and that’s when you clean your hands but from my experience of cruising, there will be 1% of you getting angry and disgusted at the thought of cleaning your hands.

It’s something that I just cannot understand and looking at the face of most other cruisers and the remarks that they make, if the though of cleaning your hands offends you, everyone else onboard will have a similar thought of you.

Don’t Cut The Buffet Queue

If you have eaten in the buffet, you will likely have experienced this happen to you or you will have seen it happen and it is just so annoying.

There are often queues in the buffet, most often at breakfast and especially at stations with popular items that are freshly made, such as eggs or toast.

These tend to be around other items, but you need to queue with everyone else to get to the other items and whilst that can be frustrating, it isn’t really too much of a big deal and will only need your patience for a few moments.

What you should do is force your way between those queueing, pretend that you are just looking or trying to see what is on offer, but then you grab a plate and add the items others are queueing up for to it.

Everyone in the queue knows what you are doing so just don’t.

Get Back Onboard On Time

Cruise lines always say that they won’t wait for you if you are late back to the ship but in reality, the chances are that they will wait.

Depending on where you are cruising and what the schedule of the ship is that maybe only for 30 minutes or it maybe for a couple of hours but the alter back you are, the more annoyed passengers who made sure they were back on time will be at you.

If you then do it at another port of call, expect to be persona non grata onboard.

Get Back To Excursion Buses On Time

This one may not happen onboard your cruise and may only affect a small number of passengers, but if you delay people when on shore excursion, you will not only annoy the rest of the people on your coach, but you could ruin there plans for the day.

Many people book 2 shore excursions, so if you delay them on their morning excursion, they may miss there afternoon one, whilst many more plan to explore for part of the day on an excursion and then walk around the port destination once they are back- again delays will ruin their plans.

Then you have the annoyance of passengers getting back to the bus on time and then having to wait when they too could have been enjoying the stop for longer or the driver has to make up time by cutting short the next stop on the excursion meaning some will miss out on the highlight of the day for them.

Make sure everybody has the best possible time onshore by simply getting back to the bus on time.

Get To The Theatre As A Group

There can be nothing more frustrating than arriving at the theatre as it starts to fill up, only to find the perfect number of seats that you need for your party only to be told by somebody that they are saving them.

Despite the constant reminders that most line play other the tannoy system in the theatre to not save seats, far too many people do, and it is so frustrating for the rest of the passengers onboard.

If you are heading to the theatre, make sure you have your whole party with you, or at least the bulk of it if you are going as group and don’t send a couple ahead of you to save seats whilst you relax in a bar- everyone else would love to do that but seats are limited.

Ssshhh People Are Trying To Sleep

If you are walking past staterooms on an evening and especially at night, try to keep noise to a minimum as whilst you may still be up and having fun, other passengers maybe trying to sleep and there is not much sound proofing between the cabins and the corridors.

Even if you are heading out for the night, plenty other may still be relaxing or trying to sleep in their cabins, so keep your chatting to a minimum until you get to a lift bank or staircase.

Try to remember that there are lots of passengers with either completely different sleep patterns to you or cruising with young children and there’s nothing worse than finally getting them to sleep only for a loud party to walk past your room and wake the kids up.

Don’t Hog Sun Loungers

This one maybe not specific to cruising at it’s the same on a land holiday but if you are relaxing around the pool on a sun lounger and then head off somewhere, such as the buffet for lunch, don’t leave your flip flops at the lounger to keep it.

If your using the lounger, its yours for as long as you want it but as soon as you stop using it, release it for somebody else, it should be difficult but something so many people seem to struggle with and it has to be right up their as one of the biggest irritants for holidaymakers.

Don’t Crowd Drink Stations

The majority of buffets will have self-serve drink machines whilst many cafes and quick bite restaurants will also have them and when you just want a quick drink, they are ideal.

What isn’t ideal is when you have just poured yourself a coffee or made yourself a juice drink, turn around and there is somebody stood right behind you.

At best you get a bit of a fright and at worst you drop your drink, maybe even pour it over yourself so make sure you just give people some space.

Follow the Flow in the Buffet

This tends to be a bigger issue on smaller and older ships as more modern now design around this problem but if you are cruising on a ship that still has a buffet designed around long cafeteria style rows instead of round ‘stations’, make sure you head in the same direction to everyone else.

Whilst there is often never an official rule that you have to go the same way; you can be sure that you will only annoy all of the people waiting patiently in the line.