Ever wondered about the wild, hilarious, and downright outrageous experiences that can unfold on cruise ships? Get ready to set sail into a world of entitled passengers behaving in ways that will leave you both amused and shaking your head. From demanding the impossible to turning buffets into battlefields, we’ve got the inside scoop on the not-so-smooth sailing moments that make for some unforgettable cruise tales. Ahoy, drama! All content has been edited for clarity purposes.
The Chair Shaker
“Not long ago, my family and I went on a cruise. My entire family, including the children, were brought along. Despite having a good time, there was one woman who made an evening on the cruise turn for the worse.
The dining buffet on the ship was our go-to spot for half of the cruise. It was already loud as opposed to the fancier restaurants, so I didn’t need to worry about my children disturbing other passengers. My family took up a corner spot near the windows to watch the whales outside while we ate dinner. My youngest child sat at a table right up against the window, and my spouse, older children, and I sat at a round table right next to him.
We would ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ the occasional spout of a blowhole or a young whale calf playfully splashing in the water, but we weren’t being extremely loud. However, somewhere in the middle of chewing my food, I noticed an older woman scowling at my youngest son as he was happily eating his food. She lunged forward, grabbed a hold of my son’s chair, and started tipping it back.
I reached over and slapped my hand on top of hers, pushing the chair down to the ground. I still had a chipmunk’s cheek’s worth of food in my mouth, so all I could do was grunt while shaking my head, ‘No.’
The old woman looked at me in surprise, lips thin, then started shaking the chair VIOLENTLY. I still wasn’t sure what was going on, because the woman hadn’t even said one word. My whole table went silent in shock.
I finally managed to swallow my food and ask, ‘What the HELL do you think you’re doing?’
The woman scoffed and slapped my hand like I was a bad dog, and started huffing and puffing. I blinked and slapped her hand back, albeit lightly. I wasn’t out to hurt the biddy, I just wanted to know what was going on! The woman gasped and squealed as if she were alarmed anyone touched her, then sniffed, turned, and walked away.
Eventually, conversation resumed at my table, although none of us had any idea what the woman’s problem was. I watched as the woman marched across the room and sat down with another family, then went back to eating.
I had no idea what the woman wanted. Did she want my son’s chair? To stop being ‘loud?’ Was he blocking the view? I wasn’t sure, but it was certainly one of the most bizarre things to happen to me on a cruise.”
“She Was The Most Entitled Person I’d Ever Met”
“I recently went on a cruise. After a late night, I got up mid-morning to snag a bed by the pool. Unfortunately, all of the beds were already occupied, so I grabbed a lounge chair instead. I spotted a bed with a hat and sunglasses on it, but I thought somebody had just left them behind. So, I watched and waited for someone to arrive.
30 minutes later, my friend came down to the pool. At this point, nobody had claimed the bed or the belongings left behind. My friend and I decided to grab the bed and move the belongings to the side. We confirmed with the neighboring bed that it wasn’t theirs, and nobody had been there in a while.
About 20 minutes later, I saw a woman staring at me in my peripheral vision.
The woman said, ‘I left my stuff here. Where’d it go?’
‘Oh, no worries. I put it on the other side,’ I smiled and replied.
The woman grabbed her stuff, stood RIGHT next to me, and started huffing.
‘Uh, what’s up?’ I asked.
‘Why’d you touch my stuff?’ the woman asked, ‘Don’t touch my stuff. It’s not cool.’
‘I saw an unclaimed bed, and we wanted to enjoy the pool, too.’
‘Well my towel was here too, and even an idiot could see it had been used,’ the woman snidely responded.
The woman SERIOUSLY thought we took her used towel. Really?
The woman continued, ‘I just went to get a massage. I didn’t expect my bed and belongings to be stolen when I came back.’
I knew a massage took over an hour. She expected to keep her pool bed even though there were tons of other people on the ship, too.
At this point, I thought the woman sulked away. However, when I turned around, I realized she was still right behind us on a lounge chair. She wasn’t talking to us anymore, so I tried to ignore her.
My friend and I had brunch plans, so hung out for a while and then started prepping to leave. As we started gathering our belongings, another passenger asked if she could use the bed.
‘Sure!’ I replied, ‘It’ll be free after we leave.’
After the woman heard this, she stormed over and yelled, ‘They stole this bed from ME! You can’t take it!’
I rolled my eyes and said, ‘No, we didn’t steal the bed. You left your stuff here, even though there are other people on the ship wanting to use the beds!’
At this point, the woman was livid. She pointed at my leg hair (of all things) and said, ‘Why are you going to brunch? You know, there’s a salon here with employees who can take care of your situation.’
If I cared about shaving my legs, my leg hair would have been gone pre-cruise. However, I didn’t care and was comfortable in my own body. This woman was just on a war path to hurt my feelings.
‘It’s my body and my choice to do what I want,’ I told the woman, ‘Why do you care SO much? And why are you even looking so close? How weird!’
The woman yelled, ‘It’s MY body too!’
WHAT? Make it make sense!
My friend and I were fed up. As we walked away, I told the woman, ‘Have the day you think you deserve.’
A few minutes later, I realized I left my sandals by the pool, so I went back to get them. I looked at our previous spot, and the entitled woman WASN’T EVEN USING THE BED. Seriously?
After brunch, my friend and I walked by the woman on the ship. She didn’t even look at us, but my friend was practically breathing down her neck for the remainder of the cruise.
The whole situation was pretty stupid. The woman was hands down the most entitled person I think I’d ever met.”
The Ring Thief
“Each year, my family went on a 10-day cruise to catch up and relax. As with most ships, there were plenty of shops on board. In one of the shops, I found a gorgeous ring I had to have, and since I got a promotion at work, I decided to buy it.
So, after I bought the ring, I had a few drinks at a music lounge on board. Then, all of a sudden, ‘Karen,’ came at me. She sat down next to me, and I shot her a glance to make sure she wasn’t someone I knew. I didn’t pay her much mind until she tapped me on the shoulder. I could tell right away she had a few drinks already.
Karen said, ‘Hi. I couldn’t help but notice your beautiful ring. Did you buy it on board?’
I smiled and replied, ‘Yes, I got it inside the jewelry store on the fourth deck.’
‘Perfect, I thought I recognized it!’ Karen snidely replied, ‘I was looking at the ring a few days ago, but I couldn’t decide if I wanted it. When I decided to buy the ring, it was already gone.’
I couldn’t tell where the conversation was heading, so I kindly replied, ‘Oh, I’m sorry. I saw it and fell in love, so I bought it.’
Sensing an opportunity, Karen smugly said, ‘Understandable. It’s beautiful. It should have been mine.’
‘I’m sorry, what?’
‘I saw the ring first, and I knew I wanted it. You bought it despite how I felt! You STOLE my ring!’ Karen said.
I was too dumbfounded to reply.
At this point, Karen got up and started being super aggressive with me. She was slurring her words and continued to accuse me of theft, demanding I give her the ring. The bartender finally noticed something was wrong and walked over.
The bartender asked, ‘Is there something wrong?’
Karen screamed, ‘Yes! This little witch stole my ring and refuses to give it back!’
The bartender looked at me with skeptical eyes and replied, ‘Her? She stole your ring?’
‘Are you DEAF?’ Karen condescendingly asked, ‘Yes, her! Get security up here NOW!’
‘Yes of course,’ the bartender said, ‘But while you wait for security, I’m going to have to ask you to sit over there.’
I started freaking out as Karen sat at the other side of the bar glaring daggers at me. I realized afterward how I could have easily proved the ring was mine, but I wasn’t thinking clearly at the time. I was sure security would have taken Karen’s word over mine since she was older. The entire altercation took less than 5 minutes but left me so nervous, that I kicked back the rest of my drink while my friends tried to calm me down.
A few minutes later, security showed up and asked me some questions, talked to Karen, and then took her out of the lounge. It wasn’t until later in the evening when the bartender told me the entire story that I figured out what happened.
Apparently, after security arrived, they asked the bartender what happened. He told them Karen accused me of theft, which he and many of the other bar-goers knew wasn’t true. Then, security spoke to Karen, who in a drunken stupor tried to hit the security guard. They eventually decided Karen was too drunk and took her back to her room.
I still laugh about the whole thing to this day.”
The Bottle Bill
“Once upon a time, my mom worked on a cruise ship. At the time, she was an immigration officer.
So, there was an entitled passenger on the ship, we’ll call her, ‘Cathy.’ Cathy had a TON of water bottles. She had one at the bar, one in her room, and she brought another one somewhere else on the ship. On the day Cathy was leaving, she had her bill slipped under her room door. Meanwhile, my mom was asked to cover the front desk.
So, Cathy walked up to the front desk and told my mom, ‘There is a mistake on my bill. I want it fixed.’
My mom asked, ‘What seems to be the problem?’
‘I bought three water bottles, and there’s two here. I want to know why,’ Cathy replied.
‘Alright, what’s the story then?’ my mom asked.
‘I got a water bottle on the first day of the cruise when I went to the bar. The next day, I bought two more bottles,’ the woman said as she rolled her eyes.
‘So let me get this straight,’ my mother said, ‘You are missing charges for the water bottles you purchased?’
‘Yes, they’re not on my bill!’ Cathy screamed.
‘So, do you want me to charge you for them?’ my mom asked, confused.
‘What? No!’ Cathy screamed.
‘So, let me clarify,’ my mom replied, as she repeated Cathy’s dilemma.
‘Yes, that’s exactly what happened!’ she replied.
‘Do you want me to charge you for the water, or do you want me to wish you a nice trip home?’ my mom sarcastically replied.
Cathy’s face turned bright red and people in line behind her were giggling. She ripped the bill off the front desk and left.
Later in the evening, my mom went back to her office in immigration. She saw Cathy in the distance, making her way toward my mom’s office.
My mom turned to her coworkers and said, ‘Watch this. I’m going to tell this woman to have a nice trip home, and she’s gonna get pissed.’
When Cathy passed by my mom’s office door, my mom smiled and yelled, ‘Have a nice trip home!’
Cathy just stared at her with an ‘I wish I could kill you,’ look.
My mom and her coworkers just laughed. People on cruise ships could be insane. Why the woman even brought up the missing charges for the water bottles, my mom never understood.”
