DCL Onboard Restricted Items Policy Updates: Decorations, Ducks and Ashes and More

[ThinkTink91]

As a crew member it was the worst doing the 12am-1am debark clean of the kids club and find ducks. (We can't even have used crayons on a debark night, they all have to be thrown out, so finding ducks was a pain) we'd either have to take them to the incinerator or take them to our own rooms. My assumption is a duck got missed during a debark clean and either a Captains inspection found one or worse a USPH inspector.

 

[meliscan]

So I joined a Disney duck group on social media- just out of curiosity and to watch any fall out if/when this is public. Someone just posted that they hid 120 ducks on their recent cruise! Someone else is bringing 48! Wow! I really envisioned this as maybe 20 families bringing a dozen ducks and still thought that was a lot. But if multiple people are hiding 50-100 ducks…. That’s a lot of ducks!

That seems way out of control. HIding 2-3 ducks okay but 120 that's just bonkers. I can see that mucking up the ship. I don't want to see rubber ducks all over the place.

 

[randumb0]

That seems way out of control. HIding 2-3 ducks okay but 120 that's just bonkers. I can see that mucking up the ship. I don't want to see rubber ducks all over the place.

I guess you didn't see the vlog where a couple hid 1000 ducks on a RCCL ship

 

[it398]

I have heard that as well (from multiple sources in social media groups). Seem to work okay on the other ships.

Unfortunately i don't agree that its a harmless bit of fun.

On our last cruise we saw 2 ducks sitting in the propeller of a life boat. I assume it would fall out if the boat was deployed but it did make us wonder about ducks being hidden against or in equipment which needs to move.

 

[Alicatt]

Oh well. I guess the ducks I already bought will have to go into fish extenders. I will miss watching kids find them. We hid 1 last time that a family with 3 small boys found. The boy who found it was so happy but his brothers were not. My dd saw that and slyly hid another and then a third right in their path. Parents caught on but not the kds. They thought it was actual magic. It is one of my favorite cruise memories.

 

[sadiecatie]

It’s a bummer for us but I get it (and we will follow the rules) - we enjoyed hiding ducks on our last cruise (6, not 100+ ), and my daughter was looking forward to 3D printing some custom ducks to hide with her dad. We may still do that and just do some pixie dusting.

 

[kaseyC]

It was probably fun and cute for awhile but like many things Disney related some folks just go overboard and ruin it. We saw that years ago when DCL used to allow you to drop off a few items with guest services to be autographed by the characters. It was fine when it was a canvas or a pillow case or 2 but once folks lost their minds and were sending multiple items and bags of sharpies so each character's autograph could be a different color, it got out of hand. So not surprised to see this happening with the ducks. I mean, come on. Who needs to hide a 100 ducks?? I value my precious vacation time way too much to spend any of it hiding a bunch of ducks.

 

[NekoHunter]

Just wanted to offer one more take on the beer mug situation - I recall a story that I read a while back about a guest that brought a commemorative DCL mug on a cruise. At the end of the night, they turned in the mug for a token. The next day, they were furious when they got a plain mug back.

So perhaps this rule is being established to prevent this sort of scenario. That said, it's just as likely that DCL is just trying to close the loophole and increase mug sales.

 

[bakerworld]

We have no issue with these changes. DH does use a beer chit. He ended up with two beer chits because I told him 2 mugs was enough and he doesn't use a mug at home anymore anyway so he gave a chit to his brother. DH actually doesn't use the beer chit much because he said it is a lot of beer.

 

[CMontheseas]

It has happened - a guest very loudly angrily confronted a crew member trying to clean up ducks around the atrium yesterday and they were made to apologize to the guest even though she was just following instructions. ( She’s a veteran and the sweetest person and does not deserve this but she feels humiliated and wants to quit.)

The crew are all trying to stick up for her because according to their stateroom host it turns out this guest actually sells different kinds of rubber ducks and it’s been a big business for them on FB groups being linked. It’s still ok to bring ducks and just give other people ducks as gifts but there is inconsistency between ships who is and isn’t telling guests to leave them in public places.

 

[Bad Pink Tink 2.0]

It has happened - a guest very loudly angrily confronted a crew member trying to clean up ducks around the atrium yesterday and they were made to apologize to the guest even though she was just following instructions. ( She’s a veteran and the sweetest person and does not deserve this but she feels humiliated and wants to quit.)

The crew are all trying to stick up for her because according to their stateroom host it turns out this guest actually sells different kinds of rubber ducks and it’s been a big business for them on FB groups being linked. It’s still ok to bring ducks and just give other people ducks as gifts but there is inconsistency between ships who is and isn’t telling guests to leave them in public places.

I'm not surprised. Theres a core group of people who make big money from ducks and FE gifts, so they will be not amused that Disney are stopping one of their big money makers.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

It has happened - a guest very loudly angrily confronted a crew member trying to clean up ducks around the atrium yesterday and they were made to apologize to the guest even though she was just following instructions. ( She’s a veteran and the sweetest person and does not deserve this but she feels humiliated and wants to quit.)

The crew are all trying to stick up for her because according to their stateroom host it turns out this guest actually sells different kinds of rubber ducks and it’s been a big business for them on FB groups being linked. It’s still ok to bring ducks and just give other people ducks as gifts but there is inconsistency between ships who is and isn’t telling guests to leave them in public places.

That is sooooo wrong. I would go out of my way to speak to the CM and tell her that she wasn't wrong. And I'd probably also leave a comment at Guest Services as to how the CM was treated poorly.

 

[sadiecatie]

It has happened - a guest very loudly angrily confronted a crew member trying to clean up ducks around the atrium yesterday and they were made to apologize to the guest even though she was just following instructions. ( She’s a veteran and the sweetest person and does not deserve this but she feels humiliated and wants to quit.)

The crew are all trying to stick up for her because according to their stateroom host it turns out this guest actually sells different kinds of rubber ducks and it’s been a big business for them on FB groups being linked. It’s still ok to bring ducks and just give other people ducks as gifts but there is inconsistency between ships who is and isn’t telling guests to leave them in public places.

This is infuriating- I cannot understand why some people have to be so selfish and awful. It’s really not hard to just be a decent human being. I hope others are sticking up for her.

 

[AZMermaid]

That’s awful!! And this is why things are so inconsistent. If the CM was reprimanded and told to apologize then I’m sure she won’t intervene again. Was the guest told by the higher up it is now banned? If not, this also encourages people to ignore and yell. Ugh. I’m sorry.

But DCL needs to post this somewhere official- give CMs a leg to stand on too.

 

[Husker Mike]

DIsney messed up and the policy should have read, "or leave them in public areas". Having spent 30 years in local government, rules and regs have to be "specific"

No, because "public areas" leads to all sorts of interpretation and potentially safety concerns when one gets placed in a public, yet inappropriate place. For example, in the crab legs or fruit buffet. On the stairs. So then you start listing specific places that they shouldn't go, and then it becomes a challenge to find a creative spot that Disney's lawyers didn't think of.

 

[happycamper47]

No, because "public areas" leads to all sorts of interpretation and potentially safety concerns when one gets placed in a public, yet inappropriate place. For example, in the crab legs or fruit buffet. On the stairs. So then you start listing specific places that they shouldn't go, and then it becomes a challenge to find a creative spot that Disney's lawyers didn't think of.

So you think it's OK to leave them in public areas, just don't hide them in public areas, which is what the current rule states.

 

[AquaDame]

That’s awful!! And this is why things are so inconsistent. If the CM was reprimanded and told to apologize then I’m sure she won’t intervene again. Was the guest told by the higher up it is now banned? If not, this also encourages people to ignore and yell. Ugh. I’m sorry.

But DCL needs to post this somewhere official- give CMs a leg to stand on too.

Unenforced rules are not rules... they are requests. We know how requests go....

I didn't honestly care about the ducks but if they get tossed into an incinerator then personally I'm against it.... burning plastic is horrid for the environment. Tossing ducks en masse into the garbage is wasteful as well... if there are so many people aren't even taking them home then what is the point.

 

[motherdaughtercruisers]

I think someone should start a petition to ban rubber ducks on all DCL ships.

 

[o&smom]

Unfortunately i don't agree that its a harmless bit of fun.

On our last cruise we saw 2 ducks sitting in the propeller of a life boat. I assume it would fall out if the boat was deployed but it did make us wonder about ducks being hidden against or in equipment which needs to move.

Yes, we saw one on a ledge that you could see in the forward elevators on the Magic. Was worried someone would try to climb up to get it and get injured.

 

[randumb0]

It has happened - a guest very loudly angrily confronted a crew member trying to clean up ducks around the atrium yesterday and they were made to apologize to the guest even though she was just following instructions. ( She’s a veteran and the sweetest person and does not deserve this but she feels humiliated and wants to quit.)

The crew are all trying to stick up for her because according to their stateroom host it turns out this guest actually sells different kinds of rubber ducks and it’s been a big business for them on FB groups being linked. It’s still ok to bring ducks and just give other people ducks as gifts but there is inconsistency between ships who is and isn’t telling guests to leave them in public places.

I just read a report from I guess that is currently on a ship and they mentioned that one of the cast members was helping them to hide ducks. There is so much inconsistency