Enforcement

[jsn55]

On 3/7/2024 at 11:44 PM, Mick B said:

Hi,

Yes, I have observed all sorts of people on board breaking all sorts of rules. I am not a people watcher, but sometimes what people do on board is just not unmissable.

 

Anyway, about the handwashing stations. These became very popular after the restart to help stop the spread of Covid. But, before then, staff would stand at the entrance to the main restaurants with hand sanitizer. Their purpose was for your hygene and to help stop things like nora virus.

I always wash my hands at either the sinks or via the hand sanitizer when entering an eating area on the ship in an attempt to avoid catching any virus or getting a bad stomach as you really don't want to be bad on board a ship and you really don't want a bill for the hospital visit.

 

I would strongly advise anyone who enters an eating area to use any facilities on hand to limit your chance of getting a bug whether it is mandatory or not. Its just good personal hygene. Remember, even if you wash your hands when leaving your stateroom, you still may have to take lifts or stairs which means touching things like hand rails that although may have been recently cleaned, will still have been touched by possibly hundreds of other passengers who could have got up to god knows what.

 

It may be worth using the sanitizer again when leaving places like the WJ since some people touch all sorts of things, even the food they pick and then put back - maybe there should be someone enforcing a "do not touch the food with your bare hands" policy too?

 

BTW, I have a theory that 1% of any population are idiots, so on a cruise ship with 4000 guests I expect find at least 40 of them breaking the rules of some sort - I just laugh at them as I don't want to get upset during my holiday as they are not worth it.

 

Mick.

Well, Mick, I have a theory that 30% of any population are idiots.  That allows me to just laugh at their antics too.  All the time.  I pay good money for a cruise and no idiot is going to upset me on my holiday.  I board a cruise expecting little and being delighted with anything positive.  Much better for my mental health.

[Mum2Mercury]

On 3/6/2024 at 10:21 PM, Aquahound said:

My last 4 cruises were on RCI and they were very good at enforcing the Solarium age rules.  I saw pool attendants pouncing on parents almost immediately after entering the Solarium with kids and if they made it past that layer of defense, the lifeguards were excellent at politely redirected them toward the exits.

The Solarium is one of my favorite places on a ship, and I've seen the same.  However, I don't think that's a tough one for the crew to enforce -- either you are or you're not a child.  Other rules are less cut-and-dry.  

On 3/7/2024 at 11:18 AM, mjkacmom said:

Of course not! Heck she could be just a little fluffy. She could be pregnant with twins.

And it can go the other direction.  I remember going to out to get my hair cut at 37 weeks pregnant.  I ran into a college friend whom I hadn't seen in years, and she didn't notice I was pregnant.  I was wearing a sweatshirt and looked like I'd just gained a few pounds.  

On 3/8/2024 at 2:06 PM, MacMadame said:

1% are idiots and 9% are scofflaws 

Scofflaws -- had to look it up.  Thanks for teaching me a new word!  

6 hours ago, jsn55 said:

I have a theory that 30% of any population are idiots.

I think you're just about right with that number.  Often my husband and I ask one another, "How do these people stay alive?"  

[sparks1093]

And then there is a percentage of people who are simply following the crowd- they see a rule not being enforced and just follow suit, so non-enforcement ends up re-enforcing rule breaking behavior.

[ontheweb]

55 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

And then there is a percentage of people who are simply following the crowd- they see a rule not being enforced and just follow suit, so non-enforcement ends up re-enforcing rule breaking behavior.

Yes, I remember a college professor in a seminar I took saying the 2 worst laws ever are speeding and alternate side of the street parking. And the reason they are the worst laws is everyone breaks them with no consequences. And once you break a law, the next one is easier to break.

[George C]

On 3/8/2024 at 12:24 PM, Markanddonna said:

I was on an MSC ship that enforced the chair hog rule. Most appreciated it but it produced many angry passengers who created an unpleasant experience for everyone. They went around mad all the time. If course, the ship was severely overbooked and people had to resort to laying on their towels on the pool decks. First fight I ever saw on a ship 

Last fight I can remember was on saving seats on Princess for show in theater . There should be reasonable rules that are enforced but we know that will not happen. 

[Markanddonna]

On 3/8/2024 at 2:06 PM, MacMadame said:

1% are idiots and 9% are scofflaws IME. So that's 400 breaking the rules! Another reason to stick to smaller ships. 🤣

 

So you don't cruise on Carnival. 😉

I have been on only one Carnival cruise. It was an 8 day eastern Caribbean. Actually, everyone was well behaved but it past after Thanksgiving which produces a calm crowd.

[Honolulu Blue]

19 hours ago, George C said:

Last fight I can remember was on saving seats on Princess for show in theater . There should be reasonable rules that are enforced but we know that will not happen. 

The one and only fight I've witnessed on a cruise ship (and it was actually more of a verbal skirmish) was also on Princess.  It was over mask protocols in the theater back when those were a thing (December 2021).

[DarrenM]

On 3/7/2024 at 3:33 AM, K32682 said:

There are some people who are sticklers for the RULES and are easily outraged when anyone breaks even the most insignificant of them. Others take a live and let live approach unless the rule breaking directly affects them in a substantial way. A kid in the solarium, a pair of shorts in the MDR, an underage teenager in a casino, someone else not washing their hands before going into the buffet is not worth other passengers or the cruise line making a federal case over.

 

 

This.

 

Some must go on cruises not to enjoy a holiday, but to police their fellow cruisers (not passengers as we are not on a ferry).

 

Imagine that being your reason for being.

[chengkp75]

13 minutes ago, DarrenM said:

(not passengers as we are not on a ferry).

 

Actually, legally, SOLAS defines "passenger" as "every person other than the master and the members of the crew or other persons employed or engaged in any capacity on board a ship on the business of the ship [and] a child under one year of age”.  So, unless the cruise line is paying you to be on the ship, you are a passenger.

[DarrenM]

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

Actually, legally, SOLAS defines "passenger" as "every person other than the master and the members of the crew or other persons employed or engaged in any capacity on board a ship on the business of the ship [and] a child under one year of age”.  So, unless the cruise line is paying you to be on the ship, you are a passenger.

Nobody calls me a passenger. I am a V.I.P.

 

PS.

 

I only posted the above from another thread. Wasnt being serious.

[DarrenM]

On 3/10/2024 at 9:54 PM, sparks1093 said:

And then there is a percentage of people who are simply following the crowd- they see a rule not being enforced and just follow suit, so non-enforcement ends up re-enforcing rule breaking behavior.

Alternatively there are many people who dont know every rule, and see some insignificant behaviour as normal. and so are not following suit, like a lemming, just behaving in a way they always have.

 

Like at work, I see processes and procedures as a guide, not a rule book. (Not talking health and safety here for the pedants)

 

Processess and procedures if followed to the letter, make any chance of lateral thinking impossible.

 

Are these the sort of rules you are talking about?

[sparks1093]

16 minutes ago, DarrenM said:

Alternatively there are many people who dont know every rule, and see some insignificant behaviour as normal. and so are not following suit, like a lemming, just behaving in a way they always have.

 

Like at work, I see processes and procedures as a guide, not a rule book. (Not talking health and safety here for the pedants)

 

Processess and procedures if followed to the letter, make any chance of lateral thinking impossible.

 

Are these the sort of rules you are talking about?

It is the gamut of what could be considered laws, rules, regulations, and procedures. Monkey see, monkey do. And yes, there are some people who do things out of ignorance, but I was always taught ignorance of the law is no excuse.

[DarrenM]

But are we talking laws, or rules? Some rules are too stupid to follow. As are some laws funnily enough.

[navybankerteacher]

On 3/10/2024 at 10:49 AM, jsn55 said:

Well, Mick, I have a theory that 30% of any population are idiots.  ….

You happy optimist - I think it’s a tad over 50% —- have you driven lately, or watched much TV?

[sparks1093]

1 hour ago, DarrenM said:

But are we talking laws, or rules? Some rules are too stupid to follow. As are some laws funnily enough.

My post that you quoted was talking about rules, but the same thing applies just as equally to a law- people see it not being enforced which leads them to violate the law as well. The non-enforcement encourages the behavior. Most people find these things to be stupid but to me that is irrelevant. 

[DarrenM]

22 hours ago, CHPURSER said:

I have witnessed many ship's crew attacked, punched, threatened, verbally abused, and fired for trying to enforce the rules with entitled cruise passengers.

If you faced those options, what would you do?

Thats appalling and I would hope other passnegrs would come to the crews defence. I know I would.

 

Actually did this on celebrity beyond last year when a couple moaned about the waiter in the cosmopolitan restaurant, and tried to get us to back them up.

 

They were shocked when they got our response. Lets just say, our waiter smiled.

[MacMadame]

 

On 3/12/2024 at 4:56 AM, DarrenM said:

Imagine that being your reason for being.

You can get annoyed when people break rules that impact you and not have it be your entire reason for being though. 🤷‍♂️

[DarrenM]

10 hours ago, MacMadame said:

 

You can get annoyed when people break rules that impact you and not have it be your entire reason for being though. 🤷‍♂️

Yes of course. But somebody in the dining room not dressed to someone else's overblown expectations, surely isnt a reason to be annoyed.

 

 

[sparks1093]

2 hours ago, DarrenM said:

Yes of course. But somebody in the dining room not dressed to someone else's overblown expectations, surely isnt a reason to be annoyed.

 

 

Well, if you have read the cruise line's guidelines and packed with them in mind, only to find out when onboard that you could have packed less because the cruise line doesn't enforce it's dress code it can certainly be a source of annoyance. (And not necessarily toward one's fellow passengers, but toward the cruise line.) A great number of things annoy me throughout each day but I don't let said annoyance's interfere with my enjoyment of life.

[CDNPolar]

53 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

Well, if you have read the cruise line's guidelines and packed with them in mind, only to find out when onboard that you could have packed less because the cruise line doesn't enforce it's dress code it can certainly be a source of annoyance. (And not necessarily toward one's fellow passengers, but toward the cruise line.) A great number of things annoy me throughout each day but I don't let said annoyance's interfere with my enjoyment of life.

 

We experience this on our favourite cruise line - Viking - all the time.  Dress code says one thing and the guests dress outside of the expectations.

 

We pack for the dress code, dress the dress code in the evenings because it makes US feel good.  We don't do this for anyone other than ourselves.

 

Yes, we could have packed less and worn our jeans and t-shirt to dinner, but we don't stress, and we dress to make ourselves feel good.  I actually don't care anymore how anyone else dresses - it is not worth my brain time.

[cruisemom42]

On 3/11/2024 at 11:40 AM, George C said:

Last fight I can remember was on saving seats on Princess for show in theater . There should be reasonable rules that are enforced but we know that will not happen. 

 

Oh my -- were we on the same cruise?? LOL. 

 

We were on a Princess cruise out of NY to Caribbean sometime around 2005 or 06. There was a very popular comedian, "Sarge", performing onboard. He did 3 shows and each was progressively more packed. By the third show people were saving large swaths of seats. In the row right in front of us two men started brawling -- one was saving seats that the other wanted. 

 

I would say it was funny but it scared my then 13 y.o. son. 

[George C]

1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Oh my -- were we on the same cruise?? LOL. 

 

We were on a Princess cruise out of NY to Caribbean sometime around 2005 or 06. There was a very popular comedian, "Sarge", performing onboard. He did 3 shows and each was progressively more packed. By the third show people were saving large swaths of seats. In the row right in front of us two men started brawling -- one was saving seats that the other wanted. 

 

I would say it was funny but it scared my then 13 y.o. son. 

That’s funny I am sure this was the same cruise , love leaving from Brooklyn even though I haven’t lived there in almost 45 years. 

[K32682]

3 hours ago, sparks1093 said:

Well, if you have read the cruise line's guidelines and packed with them in mind, only to find out when onboard that you could have packed less because the cruise line doesn't enforce it's dress code it can certainly be a source of annoyance. (And not necessarily toward one's fellow passengers, but toward the cruise line.) A great number of things annoy me throughout each day but I don't let said annoyance's interfere with my enjoyment of life.

 

Some people however sweat the small stuff. For people with a rigid and authoritarian outlook not following the dress code annoys them greatly and they are annoyed equally at the line and the passengers who do not share their unbending adherence to guidelines. 

 

A rule that is not enforced nor carries consequences falls somewhere between a request and a recommendation and if the people who wrote the rules don't think they are important enough to enforce then they are not important enough for me to follow.

 

 

Edited March 14 by K32682

[sparks1093]

3 minutes ago, K32682 said:

 

Some people however sweat the small stuff. For people with a rigid and authoritarian outlook not following the dress code annoys them greatly and they are annoyed equally at the line and the passengers who do not share their unbending adherence to guidelines. 

 

A rule that is not enforced nor carries consequences falls somewhere between a request and a recommendation and if the people who wrote the rules don't think they are important enough to enforce then they are not important enough for me to follow.

 

 

Yes, there are some people like that for sure, but that's their issue. Sometimes what people read is a request, but they interpret as a rule. Again, their issue, not mine. (And most of the dress codes that I've read for cruise lines are a combination of the two- we suggest A, B, and C as dinner wear. X, Y, and Z are prohibited in the dining rooms at dinner.)

[Leigh1107]

What if I am disabled and all I can wear is flip flops?