A British cruise ship worker has revealed three annoying things passengers do that the crew on board hate.
Lucy Southerton, 28, from Birmingham, has been working on cruise ships for nine years.
She documents her experiences and shares behind-the-scenes information and advice with her 65,000 subscribers on YouTube, where she posts under the name ‘Cruising as a crew’.
In one clip, she delved into all the annoyances that really get on the nerves of cruise ship workers, to try to encourage future passengers not to do them.
She told viewers she went around different departments and asked some of her colleagues what they “really don’t like” people doing – read about three of the annoying habits below.
Lucy Sotherton, 28, from Birmingham, has been working on cruise ships for nine years
Comment on their poor English
The first thing passengers do that confuses the staff on board is comment on their English.
Lucy explained: ‘On cruise ships there are a lot of people from the Philippines, from India, from South Africa, Spain, Serbia and Ukraine.
‘So everyone has a different first language and everyone has an accent – and it’s scary working on a cruise ship where you have to speak English, which isn’t your first language.
‘Learning a new language is all about boosting your confidence, so it’s really rubbish if a passenger says something bad about your English.’
The cruise ship employee advised, “You can of course say, ‘Can you please repeat that?’ or ‘I didn’t quite understand you, what was that?’ but what crew members rightly hate is when passengers say, ‘You need to learn English, your English is terrible’.
“Something to that effect, because you know, they’re a ******. That can set that person back for weeks because then he says, oh my God, I don’t want to say anything because his self-confidence has been damaged.
‘I always think: people who make comments like that are generally people who only speak one language and unfortunately that’s usually English.’
In one clip, Lucy delved into all the annoyances that really get on the nerves of cruise ship staff, to try and encourage future passengers not to do them.
The first thing passengers do that confuses the staff on board is comment on their English
Being ignored
Moving on to her next point, Lucy added that one of her “pet peeves” is being “completely ignored” by passengers after greeting them.
She reasoned, “I get it, I understand why they’re ignoring me. They clearly want to shop in peace, they don’t want to be spoken to, they don’t want me to help them shop at all. That’s absolutely fine, I get the hint.
‘But it would be nice if there was even a ‘hello’ or a nod – I can handle a nod but just being completely blank is always a bit disrespectful and it’s just not nice, it makes you think: oh God, why do I even bother greeting these people?’
Although she reassured viewers that she usually says hello to people, they say hello back and it’s a “nice interaction.”
She ended this portion of the video by suggesting, “So if you’re on a cruise ship and a crew member says hello, you don’t have to have an extended conversation with him or her, but it’s nice to just talk for a moment. give them a little bit of recognition, just a hello or even a nod.”
Cultural stereotypes
Third on the British list was cultural stereotyping, which she said was “talked about for quite a long time” when she asked her fellow crew members.
She gave viewers an example of a conversation she recently witnessed.
Lucy has been working on cruise ships for nine years, since she started her career at the age of 19
Lucy recalls: ‘I was standing outside the shop with my friend from Colombia and a sailor came up to her and we started talking.
“She asked my Colombian girlfriend, ‘Have you done cocaine?’ do you like cocaine?’
‘My girlfriend had never touched drugs before, but not her thing. But I was like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe you asked that, because she said she was from Colombia.’
Adding, “It’s just a little insensitive, so be careful when you ask your questions. Of course, it’s fine to ask people about the country they’re from, but try not to stereotype a person.
“It works the same both ways because there are a lot of American sailors on this ship and I know Americans get very upset when there is this stereotype that all Americans are stupid.”
The revelations come just after Lucy exposed some of the most frustrating issues that brought a small number of guests on board: having bad manners and being rude.
She told The Daily star: ‘I think the biggest mistake people can make when they’re on a cruise is not being polite to every crew member.
“You don’t know what you need and which crew member can solve your problems and there have been times when a passenger has been incredibly rude to a crew member, which they needed later on during their cruise.”