Cruise lines do these 5 things to stop you getting lost on their cruise ships!
Did you know? There are lots of things that cruise lines do to stop passengers getting lost on their ships?! When I boarded my first cruise, I had no idea where anything was, and at times I didn’t even know if I was walking towards the front or the back of the ship! However, as I took more cruises, I realised that there are a whole range of things that cruise lines do to help you, their passenger, find their way around without getting lost! Today, I’m going to share 5 of these things with you, and I’ll warn you now - you might be surprised by some of these!
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1. Each deck will often have a name, in addition to a number, assigned to it!
On some cruise ships, you’ll find that each deck is given a number, just like a building on land. However, some cruise lines take their naming conventions a little further by assigning a name to each deck, which might help passengers find if they’re on the correct floor or not. I took the photos above while cruising onboard MSC World Europa, where each deck was named after a different European city. Throughout that deck, you would then find artwork relating to the place as you walked around - really clever, if you ask me!
I’ve been on other MSC ships in the past where the decks are named after wonders of the world, and others where they’re named after musical composers - look out for this when you take your next cruise, especially if you’re cruising with MSC Cruises!
2. Look at the colours - they will often help you find your way!
For this one, we’re going to a cruise line (and a ship) primarily targeting the British cruise market: P&O Cruises’ Iona. I was on this ship recently, and was surprised to find out about how the colour coding system works onboard. It’s actually really simply when you think about it… The ship has 3 main stairwell and elevator areas: one at the front of the ship, one in the middle of the ship, and one towards the back of the ship. Depending on which of these locations you’re in, the art will be a different colour! For example, in the picture above, I was at the front of the ship. If we had been in the middle of the ship, the art would have been grey, or it would have been red in the section towards the back of the ship.
Another thing that surprised me was how many guests knew about this - I heard a number of people onboard chatting about the colour system, so it must work! Other techniques adopted by cruise lines include changing the carpet colour, or using special symbols to show if you’re at the front, middle or back of a ship - easy, right?!
3. Lots of the signage you’ll see around the ship will feature arrows pointing you in the right direction!
For this one, we’re thinking about Virgin Voyages. Onboard these ships, you’ll find little signs all over the ship showing you where to go if you want to find, in the example above, a specific cabin number. You’ll also see on all of these signs an arrow pointing towards the front of the ship. This will change as you then walk towards the back of the ship - clever, isn’t it?
This means that it’s going to be super easy if someone asks you to meet them at a venue that you know is at the front of deck 6 - you just take the stairs or elevator to that floor number, and then follow these little signs to the front of the ship! Just follow the arrows - you really can’t go too wrong!
4. Miniature ship models are sometimes used as maps!
Ok, this is one of my favourite techniques used by cruise lines to help passengers find their way around a cruise ship. These little acrylic models are often used to show every single venue onboard the ship at a glance. What’s really cool here is that these models will actually face the direction that the ship is facing, to help you figure out in which direction you need to walk. This approach is used by lots of cruise lines, but the example above was from when I cruised onboard Rhapsody of the Seas, one of the ships from Royal Caribbean.
Once you were on the deck that you needed to be on, you could then use the acrylic diagram at the bottom (which showed the ‘looking down’ deck plan - again, facing the correct direction) to find your way. Well done, Royal Caribbean!
5. Fish on the floor…!
Yes, I’m being serious - one cruise line uses FISH ON THE FLOOR to help you find your way around! Norwegian Cruise Line have introduced carpets on some of their ships that feature shoals of swimming fish. Simply put, the fish always swim towards the FRONT of the ship.
So, how does this help you? Well, if you’re elsewhere on the ship and you know your cabin is at the back, you just need to look to your feet and walk against the flow of the fish. If your stateroom is at the front of the ship, consider yourself a fish, and swim along with the shoal…!
It wasn’t until my second NCL cruise that I actually realised this was a thing, and I was really impressed once I knew! Here’s a closer look at the carpets so that you can see what I’m talking about…
With these techniques in play, hopefully it’s going to be pretty difficult for you to get lost when you’re onboard your cruise. It’s important to note that not every cruise line will use all of these approaches, but keep your eyes peeled and see if you can spot any cool tricks when you next cruise!
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