Cruise lines don’t usually police what’s on your face—but MSC just did. In a quiet policy update that’s now getting a lot of attention, the cruise line has banned smart glasses in public areas of its ships, a move that’s…
Adults-only spaces on cruise ships are meant to be exactly what the name promises: quiet. They exist so passengers can step away from the noise, crowds, and nonstop activity elsewhere on the ship. When people pay extra for access to…
Be honest—who hasn’t watched a cruise director work a crowd and thought, “Now that’s a dream job.” It probably happens on every sailing. You see them glide through the atrium, pure energy, while passengers whisper, “Imagine getting paid to have…
Star of the Seas is Royal Caribbean’s second Icon-class cruise ship—and it’s not just a repeat of Icon of the Seas. While the two ships share the same jaw-dropping scale, neighborhoods, and headline attractions, Star quietly fixes many of the…
I still remember that sinking feeling when I slid my luggage into the hallway. The cruise was basically done, but there were still a ton of things I had wanted to do that I somehow didn’t find the time for.…
Mega cruise ships spark fierce opinions. Some cruisers call them loud, crowded, and way too much—usually the same people who happily sail on Silversea or Seabourn without a second thought. But for another tribe of cruisers, seeing a waterslide over…
Nearly 100 passengers and crew aboard AIDA Cruises’ AIDAdiva fell ill with norovirus during a long international voyage, marking the 21st cruise ship outbreak reported to the CDC this year. The ship left Hamburg, Germany on November 10 for a…
People claim holiday cruising is “too untraditional.” But let’s be brutally honest—traditional holidays aren’t exactly working. They’ve become a pressure cooker of stress, family meltdowns, burnt food, and forced smiles. That’s why Cruise Critic is full of people saying the…
Most people treat a cruise like a once-a-year escape. You pack your bags, unplug for a week, soak up the sun, then return to real life. But for Ryan Gutridge, real life is the cruise ship. For the past few…
If cruise Facebook groups saw how I actually treat my cabin, they’d probably roast me. And yet—every single sailing—my cabin attendant ends up loving me for it. The “rules” I break aren’t real etiquette violations. They’re the fake ones passengers…
Imagine stepping onto a cruise ship where the usual question of “what to pack?” suddenly becomes almost irrelevant — not because you’ve mastered packing light, but because for most of this voyage, you simply won’t need many clothes at all.…
One funny thing I’ve discovered about cruise chaos: it’s rarely the storms, the seas, or the ship that cause it. It’s people. Regular passengers making the same wild decisions that get them stranded in port, lose money, or get hauled…