I just got back from my fourth memorable (memorable because all the other times I was a baby) family cruise. I ate a ton, laughed a ton and also began to notice the pattern of people who show up on cruises. Due to my (not so) extensive knowledge and in-depth (those four cruises) research, here is an (un)official list of people you will encounter on a cruise vacation:
The Cruise Entertainment Staff: These people are quirky, bubbly and all relatively the same on each cruise. You usually have the extremely flamboyant guy who loves to sing and dance, the beautiful women, the one who brings a lot of sarcasm to their trivia and the more laid back one whose smile is enough to keep me coming back to those corny game shows.
The Rock Star: This is the person who shows up to karaoke every night and gives an outrageous performance of your typical karaoke jams, whether or not that performance is outrageous due to the ear-shattering-ness, their overly exaggerated dance moves, or their pure talent. You will also typically find this person at the bar drinking some liquid confidence before the karaoke begins.
The Loner: You see this person everywhere, but never with any family/friends. Whether or not they attend activities alone or they actually took a vacation alone (props to them for that confidence), they still participate in everything and have a blast while doing it.
The Boozers: Everyone likes to drink on cruises, but these people take it to a new level. They’re getting every penny’s worth of their drink plan and are never seen without some frozen tropical alcoholic beverage. They also like to participate in the pool contests like “Sexiest Man Alive” or “Best Belly Flop.”
The Spring Breakers: I think this one is self-explanatory.
The One Everyone Hates: The whole ship, vacationers and staff, know this person’s name because of how awful they are. This person attends everything, is extremely obnoxious and can somehow even make Disney Music Trivia slightly inappropriate and uncomfortable. Even running into them off the ship makes you mad because “This isn’t karaoke -- why are you here?!” He hugs the Entertainment Staff like they’re all old pals from high school, but the cringe in the staffs’ eyes indicates how untrue that is. By the end of the cruise, everyone can’t help but smile and laugh at this person because they know they will finally never see him again.
I’m sure from your cruise experiences you can add a ton more to this list, but I think these six are the most common stereotypes you will find during your vacation. Have fun!
