You don’t want to do that while cruising!

I enjoy cruising. During the last two decades I’ve been to every continent, save Australia, by cruise ship. While cruising isn’t the optimal way to travel everywhere, it can be lots of fun, and a marvelous way to travel to many locales.

Often, cruisers treat their stateroom as their personal sanctuary while away from home. It’s a place cruisers can have some quiet time and a rest from the noise and hubub encountered on many ships plying the world’s seas.

There are some common sense rules of thumb you’ll want to follow while cruising. Here are my top five stateroom don’ts.

Don’t keep your balcony curtains open if you’re naked:
When you have a beautiful veranda overlooking the ocean, do you really need to worry about being naked when you’re coming out of the shower or, oh my, while you’re lying on your bed? Short answer…yes.

When you’re docked, you never know when a dockworker on a crane, a lift, or a building across the way might be staring into your cabin. Even at sea there could be a crewmember moving from balcony to balcony cleaning the verandas, staring in while washing your glass doors, or on a suspended platform or bosun’s chair looking in while cleaning or painting.

Don’t move around your cabin naked with your curtains opened, or at least wear a towel or robe.

If you have one of those inside facing veranda staterooms overlooking an outdoor central area of one of those huge mega-ships, don’t forget — there’s another stateroom or two on the other side of the ship facing yours.

Don’t leave your balcony doors open when you leave your cabin or while asleep at night:
It’s great to have a cabin with a balcony when cruising. They’re wonderful for breakfast, reading a book or relaxing after a long off-ship excursion. You can capture some wonderful photographs of ports and passing scenery from your balcony, too.

When you’re out of the cabin you might think it’s a great idea to leave your balcony doors open to let fresh air in your cabin. At night you might be enticed by the sound of the waves outside to leave your balcony doors open while you sleep.

Don’t leave your veranda doors open. Resist the temptation when cruising.

If your balcony doors are open when someone enters your cabin from the hallway, you’re not going to believe the wind tunnel your stateroom can become. While you sleep, insects and bad weather  might ruin that wonderful sleep you’re hoping to get. Keep your balcony door closed and help the ship prevent wasting the energy it takes to air condition your stateroom when the balcony doors are open.

Don’t leave your valuables in your cabin anywhere but in the cabin’s safe:
When cruising, ships have populations equal to small towns to small cities. Moreover, the population of cruise passengers is generally as diverse as any locale on land, with both honest and dishonest people. Crews likewise have diversified backgrounds.

Don’t tempt fate by leaving your valuables, wallet, passport, cash, or credit cards out in your cabin, or even in your closet or night table drawers. Put them in your room safe and lock it. While on-board your ship, you’ll really only need your ship’s ID/key card, not your wallet, cash or credit cards.

Even for honest crew members, a wad of cash lying about can be too powerful a temptation.

Don’t pack your stateroom’s towels and bathrobes in your bags at the end of your cruise:
Cruise ship staterooms are floating hotel rooms. A ship’s monogrammed towels, bathrobes, and logoed cabin accessories belong to the ship and are expected to be left in your stateroom at the end of your cruise.

Don’t steal the towels, bathrobes, umbrellas and other items as souvenirs. You’ll be charged an exhorbitant fee for their theft and it’s very likely the cruise line will keep a permanent record of your theft in your account.

If you want a souvenir, most ships will sell you the identical robe to the one in your cabin for a reasonable price. Other souvenirs, such as logoed hats, jackets, shirts, and other items, are also normally for sale.

Don’t leave your cabin as messy as a typical teenager’s at home:
When you’re on vacation and cruising, you want to let your hair down and be as carefree as possible. Even on luxury cruise ships, the staterooms, though not tiny, aren’t exactly palatial either. Often the space between beds and the opposite wall is narrow. Obstacles on the floor can cause problems.

Don’t toss your clothes and belongings around willy-nilly. A neat stateroom is easier to navigate, and much easier for housekeeping to keep clean during your cruise.

Keeping things neat might also facilitate finding your stateroom ID/key when it’s misplaced, when you’re running late for meeting new friends for dinner, or trying to get to your next off-ship excursion at an exciting port of call.

I think you’ll find these “don’ts” will help you enjoy your cruise, and keep you from encountering real trouble on it.

Image: (Regent Seven Seas Voyager suite, Copyright © 2016 NSL Photography. All Rights Reserved.)

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