40+ Cruise Ship Workers Share ‘Oh No’ Moments on the Boat That, Luckily, Passengers Didn’t Find Out About at All

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40+ Cruise Ship Workers Share ‘Oh No’ Moments on the Boat That, Luckily, Passengers Didn’t Find Out About at All

By Asher John - July 12, 2021

Working on a cruise ship is a job that has plenty of ups and downs. While it gives you a chance to travel more than a traditional office job, it also comes with its own share of “oh no” moments. These cruise ship workers shared the times they managed to help keep “oh no” moments secret and passengers safe and happy.

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That Poor Colleague!

There are some things that you just shouldn’t do. For instance, messing around with a dangerous object and even shooting projectiles at a cruise ship.

40+ Cruise Ship Workers Share ‘Oh No’ Moments on the Boat That, Luckily, Passengers Didn’t Find Out About at All — That Poor Colleague!

Even worse, this incident did a little more than just spook the crew. A colleague of the person telling the story even got hit, although thankfully wasn’t seriously hurt. As for the passengers, they just thought that the cruise ship was taking on freshwater. In the end, the story never leaked.

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It Can Get Busy

When you get on a cruise ship and everything goes smoothly, you might think you’re really lucky. As it turns out, you might just have a competent crew.

This person shared a series of experiences during their time on a cruise. In just the first three days, they had to deal with a fire, dangerous allergy scares among crew members, and a minor crash that left a cabinet on its side. As a housekeeper, this must have been pretty stressful.

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A Big Secret to Keep

As you’ll learn in these stories, fires aren’t completely uncommon when you’re on board. On the other hand, as a passenger, you might not know.

This chef had a pretty shocking story of a fire in the kitchen that the staff handled. Not only did it last four hours but more than one person suffered serious burns. In the end, the passengers were none the wiser and frozen food saved breakfast for the guests the next morning.

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Everyone Makes Mistakes

When you’re at work, you might make a mistake here or there. Unfortunately, some mistakes do come with rather serious consequences. That’s why people try to be as careful as possible.

When doing the laundry, the crew made a fatal flaw. A good rule of thumb is to check the lent trap before you run a dryer. They seemed to have missed that memo, ultimately causing one of the dryers to catch on fire. Surely, that’d be the last time anyone forgets.

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Extra Training

Keeping with the theme of fires on board, this crew member’s “oh no” moment was also a fire on board. Luckily, the passengers would never know about the danger.

The interesting thing about this is that these ships don’t typically have firefighters on board. Instead, the crew members are trained to handle issues like engine room fires. Ideally, they explained that cruise lines typically look for people who are strong enough to handle a firehose for these firefighting positions.

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A Job Not Done

There are some “oh no” moments that seem to spell out certain danger. In other cases, it’s just a case of something potentially going wrong in less emergency-inducing ways.

While this person was closing the photo gallery on board one night, they forgot to lock the displays. This meant that, had anyone noticed, they could have stolen the merchandise if they wanted. The good news is that it was only a lesson learned with no stolen merchandise.

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Maybe a Different Suggestion?

Working with your significant other can be rewarding but it also poses a risk. If you split up, it’s up to the two of you to remain professional working together after that.

Still, these two improv actors almost met their match at sea. An unknowing audience called out for two recently broken up cast members to do a scene about divorce. Even the host was taken aback. Still, they delivered what was asked for and the show went on.

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Just in Case

This one isn’t an “oh no” moment as much as a fact about cruises that you might not know. Yet, if you’ve done something embarrassing on a cruise, you might cringe a bit.

Unsurprisingly, surveillance is necessary at times to keep everything under control at sea. This means that when you step outside of your cabin, anything you do is probably recorded in case security footage is necessary later on. You aren’t recorded in the privacy of your cabin, though.

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A Tragic Scenario

This person was caught off-guard by their “oh no” moment because it was a surprise to them but not the crew. The passengers only knew the truth if they’d been on the ship before.

This musician came onto the ship as a last-minute hire for a trombone player. As it turned out, they were hired to replace a trombone player that had recently passed away. While they said the overall trip wasn’t too bad, it was definitely a sad start given that the band was close with him.

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Unlucky Lower Decks

The cabins that the crew stays in during a voyage aren’t the same ones the passengers stay in. For this crew, the lower decks belonged to them.

Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem. In fact, it’s probably handy to not have guests and staff staying in close proximity given their different schedules. On the other hand, it didn’t work out too well when this crew had to deal with backed-up sewage on the lower decks.

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Where’d They Go?

There are certain things you probably rely on when you’re out at sea. For example, you would expect your ship to be piloted only by the captain.

In one particular “oh no” moment, the captain got caught unaware. To be more specific, the captain accidentally locked themselves in the bathroom. Still, the ship needed a captain so the responsibility fell to this crew member until they eventually found the captain.

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In Case of Emergency

There are certain things that even if you’re prepared for, you don’t expect. For instance, you probably never want to hear that it’s time to prepare the lifeboats on a ship.

When this crew was awoken in the early hours, they were told to prepare the lifeboats due to a fire in the engine room. Luckily, the situation was resolved before it came down to actually evacuating passengers. Still, it’d be pretty hard to fall back asleep after that!

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Secret Shipwreck

You would think if you were on a ship that hit a rock, you’d notice something was off. At the very least, wouldn’t you feel it?

That isn’t the case in this cruise ship worker’s experience. For a while, only the crew knew about the danger before the captain finally made an announcement to the passengers. From there, they simply cruised until they could get a repair after turning any new passengers away in Alaska.

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A Cruise Ship’s Hidden Feature

Once in a while, cruise ship workers will share a secret or two with passengers. Sometimes, like this person, they might just answer a question you have.

All this person wanted to know was how the cruise cared for older passengers. What they learned was a pretty morbid fact. That is that death actually isn’t that uncommon on a cruise. As a result, they’re equipped with a morgue just in case it’s necessary.

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Surprise Stops

Cruises often come with a general itinerary. At the very least, you usually have some warning when it comes to when you’ll be at the port.

This meant that an impromptu stop at port naturally surprised the crew, especially so late at night. It wasn’t until later that they found out that the ship was under maintenance after significant damage caused it to take on a concerning amount of water. They used the stop at the port to run maintenance without the passengers finding out.

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Toilet Paper Terror

When you’re out at sea, you can’t just run to the store for extra supplies. After all, you’re in the middle of the ocean, so you’re difficult to reach.

That’s why cruises have to take careful inventory before they disembark. Even then, though, it’s possible for mistakes to happen. After a water pipe burst, this ship was left without a lot of their stored toilet paper. It’s impressive that they made it work without the guests finding out!

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A Close Call

As mentioned earlier, there are a lot of codes and alarms to communicate on cruise ships. Yet, just like any other job, there are false alarms from time to time.

When this crew heard an “abandon ship” order, they scrambled to prepare. It was only a bit later that they learned it was a false alarm. In fact, the alarm only went off in the crew cabin. So, while the crew woke up in a second, the passengers remained sound asleep.

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Strong Reactions

There are certain things that you just can’t do on a cruise ship. One hard line never to cross is putting someone else on the ship in danger.

Naturally, crew members were horrified to stumble on this situation. No matter how intense the argument was, it was a move that could have easily put this child in even more immediate danger. As a result, the sister went to the brig and the family was sent home the next day.

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A Gift from WWII

If a ship stops, it’s not always a case when you have to assume the worst. Of course, there are times that the danger of moving is very real.

There’s no better example of this than what this crew went through. When the ship stopped, no one knew why, not even the crew. It wasn’t until later that the crew learned that only a kilometer away from the ship, there was a leftover mine from WWII. In the end, they managed to get moving before passengers figured it out.

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A Different Perspective

Truth be told, so many people are bound to be sick at some stage while aboard a cruise ship. It’s just a harsh fact of life. All of that commotion in the ocean is bound to unsettle your stomach.

Just ask this woman, who admitted that things weren’t so good during her experience on a ship. Thankfully though, she was really pleased with how the staff took care of her and made sure that no one really noticed.

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Stay Here!

Working as a crew member on a cruise means you don’t get all the same freedoms as vacationers aboard. This can come with some pretty extreme measures to ensure crew members keep with policy.

When this person worked on a ship, they had an airtight way to keep a certain number of crew members on board. When the ship docked, designated crew members had their IDs and passports confiscated. As a result, there was no way to leave the ship and break the rules.

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How Did They Keep This Quiet?

Not everyone on a cruise is excited to be there. This can prove especially true when it comes to situations like family vacations, like any other destination.

Still, there are certain ways not to handle it. For one, jumping off the boat isn’t as easy as a high dive and swimming back to shore. It’s incredibly dangerous and there’s a lot of room for fatal error. Luckily, he was okay and brought back on board safely before the whole family was asked to leave.

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It Takes a Lot

As these stories are indicative of, it takes a lot for a cruise line to inconvenience their passengers greatly. After all, it doesn’t do them any favors to make paying customers upset.

That’s why the crew knew something must be wrong to have the cruise line cancel multiple stops. While the passengers never found out exactly what was wrong, whispers made their way through the crew later on. Out of four, three of the propellers had been damaged, endangering the ship’s mobility.

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Don’t Fall Asleep

There are certain things that are true on and off of land. As an example, falling asleep with a hot item on can prove an incredibly dangerous error.

One thing that you absolutely can’t leave on is a kettle with no automatic shutoff. At some point, all the water will evaporate, leaving a hot, dry kettle. The result, as this person learned the hard way, is a serious fire hazard. We’re glad to hear he got out relatively unscathed!

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Just Like Any Other Computer

Most people probably assume that commercial vessels have advanced computers. Yet, they still depend on their operating systems to function properly. Without those, whatever technology they have won’t work.

This Reddit user worked on a ship that, at the time, ran on the Windows 7 operating system. While this seems reliable, it’s just as imperfect as on a personal laptop. So, if there’s an automatic update, the ship sails blind for a while.

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Engine Explosion

If there’s one room you want safe and sound on a cruise, it’s the engine room. It makes sense – this is the area of the ship that keeps things running. If it’s gone, it isn’t good news.

It’s no understatement that a fire in the engine room would serve as an “oh no” moment. However, it wasn’t until later that they learned that an explosion occurred in the engine room at all. Hearing an “abandon ship” order around the corner would be terrifying without an explanation!

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Familiar Sights

There are certain secrets that don’t come from a single experience. Instead, it might be a regular occurrence that stands out over and over again. That’s what this person had to share.

Not only did this not happen only once but the guests never seemed to catch on. To them, it just seemed like a few people were diving around. This person admitted to the internet, though, that these divers were actually checking the boat for explosives before they left port.

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Learning Later

It can take a while to find your footing while you’re at sea. Once you find it, it’s easier to tell when something changes or when something might have gone wrong. The crew has plenty of time to find their feet.

That’s why the crew was so concerned when they noticed the boat roughly shaking. For a time, it was thought they must have hit a coral reef to cause such an impact. As it turned out, they’d actually experienced an earthquake. Actually, neither the crew nor passengers immediately knew the damage on land.

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Is That a Fire?

As mentioned time and time again, fires aren’t as uncommon as you might think on cruise ships. Most are handled without passengers finding out either.

What you might not consider is the effort this takes from the crew. We’ve already noted that it’s crew members that often fight these fires onboard. This means that unbeknownst to guests, their waiter’s brief disappearance might just save the day! That’s a fairly impressive extra skill to have.

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Thankfully Close to Port

There are certain situations in which the results of disaster are unavoidable and unsalvageable. Disasters in the kitchen often come down to this since food calls for an extra level of sanitization.

That’s why when a waste pipe burst in the kitchen, the crew had no choice but to replace everything. The good news was that they were close to port but if they’d been further out at sea, this could have spelled certain disaster. Thanks to few free vouchers, the incident was kept under wraps and the guests stayed happy.

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Fatal Flu

Cruise ships have a distinct feature: it’s a group of people who are isolated together away from the trappings of land. This can offer a sense of peace but also adds a risk for disease.

It makes sense too. When people are in close quarters, it’s easier to accidentally pass something like the flu from person to person. This ship was close to a public disaster when four passengers died of the flu. Fortunately, these consequences didn’t spread any further.

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Make Room

As we’ve already discussed, death isn’t as uncommon on cruise ships as some might like to think. To keep up with this, there are morgues onboard, away from the passengers and their vacations.

On the other hand, these morgues only have so much room. This means that if there are enough deaths on board, there’s no choice but to make space. In other words, once they run out of space, it’s time to make room in the freezer until the ship returns.

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Not Everyone is on Vacation

There’s more to cruise ship secrets than just the surprises crews face. At times, their routine tasks would shock some passengers or at least make them reconsider their assumptions about the industry.

As an example, this person shared on Reddit that they regularly help people put their loved ones to rest. They explain that this only refers to spreading ashes specifically. It’s a thoughtful addition to require that the container is eco-friendly and biodegradable.

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No AC

It can seem scary on a cruise ship from the perspective of stories like these. However, the crew is often just as caught off-guard as an untrained passenger might be.

This is especially true when it comes to a situation where the crew is in the dark as well. With something like rising temperatures, it’s particularly noticeable when they’re something going on. As this crew member later learned, the AC stopped working because a rough storm caused some flooding. We have to agree, knowing at the last minute would make things more stressful.

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Just Missed Them

A storm at sea can cause big problems. In the end, it’s hard for a ship to stay unscathed when the waves are swelling higher and the ship is jerked around.

In this case, even a docked ship wasn’t safe. The storm was so rough, it pulled the ship right back out to sea rather than a traditional disembarkment. The good news was that the passengers weren’t coming on or getting off of the boat which would have surely resulted in some injuries.

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Mid-Show Tragedy

Bands on cruise ships have to be adaptable, just like any other employee on board. This meant that when one musician didn’t show up, the band had to continue without him.

That is until the show was interrupted by an emergency code over the intercom. As the band later learned, it was for the missing member they’d wondered about before. Tragically, the absence was due to a heart attack that the crew just couldn’t catch in time.

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Facing Consequences

It’s not much of a surprise that cruise employees are held to high standards. What’s slightly more surprising is what can happen if a crew member commits a severe enough offense.

According to this person, they’ll leave you on land as soon as possible. This doesn’t mean once you get back at the end of the trip either. Sometimes, crew members who are fired are just left at the next port with their things and their passport. From there, it’s up to them to get home.

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Man Overboard!

This particular example wasn’t completely kept from the passengers on board. In fact, the captain made a vague announcement about a crew member overboard but added few details.

What happened was a crew member jumped overboard after a part. Thankfully, he was found and rescued before worse came to worse. Before the announcement, the crew was trying to keep the situation quiet. Still, without the full story coming out, the rest of the trip included a lot of wild speculation from the guests onboard.

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Steering Away

You probably don’t think about traffic on the water. Yet, it isn’t uncommon for boats to happen across one another. Just like traffic on roads, though, they usually stay safely apart.

That’s why it was such an “oh no” moment when this boat wouldn’t listen to the cruise ship’s warnings. It even continued to change course to match the cruise ship. At the end of the whole ordeal, they barely missed the ship – a crash that would have led to more than a few fatalities.

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A Little Off Balance

Cruise ships have a lot of maintenance that goes with them. This includes not only the ship itself but for the individual amenities on the ship as well.

For example, the jacuzzis that a guest relaxes in require upkeep. This is usually a pretty smooth process but a miscalculation could prove a dangerous error. When the newest employee tried to treat the pool, they ended up with a pH that indicated a dangerously high acidity. We’re glad they caught it before someone jumped in!

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It’s Pretty Common

While there are cruises that have the crew handle fires, there are some professionals trained for firefighting readily available at times to help out. This response comes from a fire chief directly.

Posted by someone else with a Reddit account, they shared the fact they’d learned working in and around cruise ships. Not only are fires common on a cruise ship but they happen almost every day in their experience! That’s a lot of fires that the passengers remain blissfully unaware of as they go about their vacation.

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Adapt, Don’t Repair

To put this story simply, the problems all started when part of the ship that propelled malfunctioned. More specifically, that part was the center azipod thanks to bad oil.

In layman’s terms, the situation was very close to catastrophe. Instead of alerting the guests and heading to get it repaired, they amped up the other propellers to make up for it. The only difference the passengers might have noticed was a little less time at port than they expected.

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Learning the Codes

At this point, we’ve already learned that there are a lot of codes to avoid having guests catch onto whatever problem the crew is dealing with at that moment.

This Reddit user broke down the codes they learned in their time working on a cruise ship. For instance, when they heard about a blue party, they knew it wasn’t actually any fun but rather a warning of flooding on the ship. Naturally, these might be different on different cruise ships.

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Show’s Over!

This person was playing a show on a cruise ship, just like any other night at work for them. That was until the show promptly ended without any warning.

Knowing that this wasn’t a common occurrence, the musician left the stage as quickly as possible. As for the guests, they were left in the dark about the cancellation. It wasn’t until later that they learned the gross truth was that a sewage pipe backstage had burst, leading to a rather messy problem for the crew to deal with.

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Sometimes, They Should Know

Cruise ships often use codes to communicate among the crew without alerting the passengers. This plan can backfire if the crew isn’t careful, though.

For example, on a Disney cruise, an alarm went off without explanation. Of course, the passengers on board panicked. Not knowing what the code meant, they worried the ship was sinking. It was only because this passenger jumped online that they learned it was a fire and only the crew needed to respond. Maybe some codes are better clarified!

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