Ever see anything totally shocking and unexpected on a cruise?

[lorimay]

On the Fantasy last month having dinner at Palo on pirate night and was surprised to see "pirates" being seated in full costume.
We have had dinner there several times on pirate night this was the first time we saw that.

I was surprised it was allowed.

At the Remy Dessert experience someone in a t-shirt and flip flops was asked to go and change, he should have tried his pirate costume I guess.

 

[tobikaye]

On the Fantasy last month having dinner at Palo on pirate night and was surprised to see "pirates" being seated in full costume.
We have had dinner there several times on pirate night this was the first time we saw that.

I was surprised it was allowed.

After seeing some of the pirate costumes that some people had, I could see that some costumes technically met the requirements for dining at Palo.

 

[sabrecmc]

The woman with the bears reminded me that on the Magic one time, I remember seeing a couple that had a doll, almost like a Cabbage Patch Kid, but not and bigger, that they brought everywhere with them and had little outfits for. It had a stroller and everything. I try not to judge, because honestly, what harm is there in that? And it is none of my business. But, it definitely was different.

I think I already posted here somewhere my DD had a huge Queen Elinor bear from Brave that she brought to dinner a couple of times on one of our cruises. The servers were so great. They made a place for "Her Highness" and brought her a little plate of honey. DD was delighted. So, I'm not anti-stuffed toys at dinner, lol.

 

[AC7179]

We were on the Wonder on a trip to the Mexican Riviera and stopped for a day in Cabo. We were trying to get to Paradise Beach and someone said just take a water taxi. My husband, myself, and my six year old daughter are in the water taxi, but I hadn't done my research and didn't realize there WAS NO DOCK at the beach. The boats got as close to they could to the beach, then you were supposed to jump off (my leather shoes! My camera!) and walk the rest of the way.

I'm totally not understanding what is going on, when the boat pushes up close (ish) to the beach and our driver picks up my daughter and hands him to a Mexican man standing in waist deep water. Then, the boat floats out with the tide. I'm freaking out and calling for my daughter, who is in the arms of someone she's never met before and doesn't speak English. Our driver looks at me, stone faced, and says, "Calm down, senorita. We go back to the baby."

When we got there my daughter had made friends with a man on the beach sporting a dinosaur like lizard.

As far as contributing to what OTHERS may be posting on here---on that same trip I had not thought much about getting my chunky self back INTO the boat from waist deep water. That's wasn't pretty. Think beached whale.

 

[LongingfortheKingdom]

Last year we spent our final night on the Dream hanging out at the pool. While the kids were swimming I noticed three other children running between the pools and the hot tubs in life vests. One of them would get out often and stand by the pool and shiver. I thought it was odd and I started to look around to see if there was a parent or someone there with him as he was obviously cold and ready to be out of the water. After about 30 minutes I was concerned and walked around (DH was with my kiddos) to look for someone who I thought could be possibly be with the kids. Seeing no one I approached the life guard and explained what I had observed and told him that I thought they may be at the pool alone. The life guard said he would check it out. A few minutes later the life guard found me and told me I was correct. The kids were 4,5 and 9. Their mom brought them to the pool and left them and she went to the evening show. He said rest of the family was resting back in the room. I thought I was going to be sick! You can imagine the what ifs that ran through my mind! The life guard said it was unfortunate but there was nothing he could do about it.

 

[Dug720]

Love this thread, I've been laughing my way through it!
For us, we were on a 7 night cruise on the Fantasy and a guy has his LITTLE terrier type dog with him throughout the entire cruise and would bring him into the dining room nightly. My parents inquired and they said he was a service dog. Tiniest service dog I'd ever seen (owner didn't appear to have any physical limitations, perhaps mental or cognitive issues??). Was surprised he was permitted to bring the little dog into the dining room nightly. It would sit on his lap as he ate every night. He definitely got a lot of looks during the entire cruise.
Lesley

Could be social anxiety, could be seizure-detecting, could be diabetic-related, could be hearing impaired... There are a variety of things people have service animals for. They have to have significant documentation to verify that the animal is indeed a service animal, so it's not like people just make up something on the fly to take their pet along.

And as for being surprised that the dog was allowed to come into the dining room, service animals are permitted wherever their person is when their person is there. That's why signs saying "no animals" have the "service dogs permitted" (or similar) disclaimer. Because of the ADA, the service animal cannot be denied entrance when accompanying their person.

 

[lovemy3]

We were on a carnival cruise and me and my husband had our chairs turned around just looking at the beautiful view when we saw something come up out of the water as we got closer we started seeing people a submarine had come up and navy men were walking and waving at us!

 

[100AcreWood]

Last year we spent our final night on the Dream hanging out at the pool. While the kids were swimming I noticed three other children running between the pools and the hot tubs in life vests. One of them would get out often and stand by the pool and shiver. I thought it was odd and I started to look around to see if there was a parent or someone there with him as he was obviously cold and ready to be out of the water. After about 30 minutes I was concerned and walked around (DH was with my kiddos) to look for someone who I thought could be possibly be with the kids. Seeing no one I approached the life guard and explained what I had observed and told him that I thought they may be at the pool alone. The life guard said he would check it out. A few minutes later the life guard found me and told me I was correct. The kids were 4,5 and 9. Their mom brought them to the pool and left them and she went to the evening show. He said rest of the family was resting back in the room. I thought I was going to be sick! You can imagine the what ifs that ran through my mind! The life guard said it was unfortunate but there was nothing he could do about it.

I hope she enjoyed the show. That is sad.

 

[WDWChloe]

Last year we spent our final night on the Dream hanging out at the pool. While the kids were swimming I noticed three other children running between the pools and the hot tubs in life vests. One of them would get out often and stand by the pool and shiver. I thought it was odd and I started to look around to see if there was a parent or someone there with him as he was obviously cold and ready to be out of the water. After about 30 minutes I was concerned and walked around (DH was with my kiddos) to look for someone who I thought could be possibly be with the kids. Seeing no one I approached the life guard and explained what I had observed and told him that I thought they may be at the pool alone. The life guard said he would check it out. A few minutes later the life guard found me and told me I was correct. The kids were 4,5 and 9. Their mom brought them to the pool and left them and she went to the evening show. He said rest of the family was resting back in the room. I thought I was going to be sick! You can imagine the what ifs that ran through my mind! The life guard said it was unfortunate but there was nothing he could do about it.

I'm so glad you were there to notice! I have no words for their mother. So disappointing.

 

[Little Doe]

My husband and I were on a Princess Cruise to Alaska last summer. We ate at one of their specialty restaurants. I ordered and extra appetizer and then an extra vegetable with our meal (for my husband and I to taste.) The waiter then said to me-- Oh eating for two are we? ( I am in my 60s) We will never cruise with Princess again.

 

[MAJPLO]

My husband and I were on a Princess Cruise to Alaska last summer. We ate at one of their specialty restaurants. I ordered and extra appetizer and then an extra vegetable with our meal (for my husband and I to taste.) The waiter then said to me-- Oh eating for two are we? ( I am in my 60s) We will never cruise with Princess again.

omg wow.

Speaking of Princess, the service we had was shocking to me. Our server rolled her eyes when I ordered from the regular menu for DD who was 5 at the time. She also huffed and puffed when I ordered two soups or something CRAZY like that.

 

[MelissaIsalene]

I really enjoyed reading these stories! Hope this thread continues to keep going.

I don't have a story as shocking as some of the others on here, but years ago when I was 8, we were waiting in line to eat at Parrot Cay for early breakfast before exiting the ship. I had spent the entire last night at the Lab and was exhausted. I sleepily laid my head on my dad's side, only to hear a strange voice say "Good Morning". Turned out to be some other 6-foot-something gentleman so it may have been slightly shocking to him!

 

[lmhall2000]

We were on the Fantasy and attending the quiz game where you guess song titles/artists from the 80s/90s...(we won by the way ) when we caught the MC guy stop dead in his tracks and look in one direction, his facial expression was priceless..we all turned around and saw a well inebriated lady standing up and taking her dress off...she had panties/bra on and her husband or partner was trying unsuccessfully to try and get the dress back on, she was way gone...it was more funny watching the MC try to figure out how to carry on with the show after her display

 

[Bella29]

We were on the Dream for Thanksgiving. We walked out of the dining room one night and noticed that someone had used the crayons that they give the kids to write on the tablecloth!

Our server did this, he drew a tic tac toe grid and played a game with my son. It would never have occurred to me but as a previous poster mentioned, they must be washable crayons.

 

[Bella29]

Last year we spent our final night on the Dream hanging out at the pool. While the kids were swimming I noticed three other children running between the pools and the hot tubs in life vests. One of them would get out often and stand by the pool and shiver. I thought it was odd and I started to look around to see if there was a parent or someone there with him as he was obviously cold and ready to be out of the water. After about 30 minutes I was concerned and walked around (DH was with my kiddos) to look for someone who I thought could be possibly be with the kids. Seeing no one I approached the life guard and explained what I had observed and told him that I thought they may be at the pool alone. The life guard said he would check it out. A few minutes later the life guard found me and told me I was correct. The kids were 4,5 and 9. Their mom brought them to the pool and left them and she went to the evening show. He said rest of the family was resting back in the room. I thought I was going to be sick! You can imagine the what ifs that ran through my mind! The life guard said it was unfortunate but there was nothing he could do about it.

This makes me truly ill. I don't know if parents intentionally did not supervise their children in the pool before the lifeguards were there, but I do worry that the presence of a lifeguard is an encouragement to parents to drop kids off and leave.

Regardless, I refuse to believe that just because there are lifeguards there can't also be a posted requirement that parents supervise children under 12. For kids under 5 I think a parent should be required to be IN the water with the kid!

 

[ImprovGal]

We were on the Fantasy and attending the quiz game where you guess song titles/artists from the 80s/90s...(we won by the way ) when we caught the MC guy stop dead in his tracks and look in one direction, his facial expression was priceless..we all turned around and saw a well inebriated lady standing up and taking her dress off...she had panties/bra on and her husband or partner was trying unsuccessfully to try and get the dress back on, she was way gone...it was more funny watching the MC try to figure out how to carry on with the show after her display

LOL! I remember that evening! The lady suddenly had a moment of realization that she was wearing her knit dress inside-out so she decided she had to correct it right there and then.
Poor Trevor!

 

[cashe]

not sure what travel brochures you have been reading but "docile" is not a word ever used when describing Key West

Love this thread!

Just wanted to say my parents used to dock their 60' yacht in KW. So my mom would go down and spend the summers on it. I remember as a teen, my friend and I went down to visit. We had the best vacation! We rented bikes and my mom would just let us takeoff exploring the city.

Fast forward to my freshman year in college, circa 98 and my mom and I go back to KW for spring break. um.... People thought she and I were a couple NOT mother and daughter. Yeah. I haven't been back to KW and don't plan on it. It's sad really because I remember when KW was a place I would have felt safe taking my child to visit but not anymore

 

[phinz]

\
Fast forward to my freshman year in college, circa 98 and my mom and I go back to KW for spring break. um.... People thought she and I were a couple NOT mother and daughter. Yeah. I haven't been back to KW and don't plan on it. It's sad really because I remember when KW was a place I would have felt safe taking my child to visit but not anymore

It's still perfectly safe. What's so unsafe about assuming two women might be a couple? I know plenty of people who live and raise their children in Key West and the Conch life is a wonderful, rich upbringing for kids. Nothing like having a fully accepting, diverse society to teach kids that diversity isn't something to shun, be afraid of or ridicule.

 

[EuropeOrBust]

On our first ever cruise we went on Carnival. We were broke college students and had the late night dinning. We shared the table with a lady who had "Gene's B!!ch" tattooed on her chest for the whole world to see. Every meal she wore an extremely low neckline so that was my view went I sat across from her. Argh!!!!!!!!!!! it took us awhile to go cruising again after that and we avoid Carnival at all costs now.

 

[NYIceQueen]

It's still perfectly safe. What's so unsafe about assuming two women might be a couple? I know plenty of people who live and raise their children in Key West and the Conch life is a wonderful, rich upbringing for kids. Nothing like having a fully accepting, diverse society to teach kids that diversity isn't something to shun, be afraid of or ridicule.

I would think she's referring more to the behavior that's been described in other posts (i.e., walking around naked or wearing a tube sock and nothing else, folks having sex on the street, etc) versus talking about issues with the diversity of the community

Been to Key West...Been to New Orleans...yeah, poor behavior isn't necessarily a diversity thing and more of a "let's see what a ton of alcohol will do to someone's inhibitions" type of thing