When you sail on a cruise ship, you might find rubber ducks hidden in unexpected places!
It has become a bit of a tradition with some to bring small rubber ducks onboard and hide them around the ship for other guests to find.
Ducks often have little tags saying where they came from, the ship and sailing – and whether the finder should keep them or re-hide them.
The modern cruise-duck craze began in 2018 and has since become a massive cruise ritual for some – particularly families with children.
I’ve seen and found many cruise ducks in the most unlikely places on my recent cruises.
Marella Has Just Asked Passengers To Stop Hiding Ducks
In August 2026, Marella started asking passengers not to leave or hide “toys, novelty items and personal objects” around its ships or in destinations.
The notice was spotted onboard the Marella Voyager, inside the daily schedule left in the cabins nightly for passengers. Guests have reported finding similar messages on other ships in the fleet.
Marella jokingly says the ducks are starting to drive them “quackers”.
I think that is quite funny, as Marella’s mascot on Marella Explorer is a gigantic yellow duck!
Guests can still bring their own ducks. The issue is hiding them around the ship or leaving them onboard.
Marella is also asking passengers not to decorate cabin doors with magnets, posters, banners, stickers, etc., so this seems to be part of a broader push to reduce objects being left around the ship.
Each one of the Marella ships has their own mascot onboard – ducks, penguins, alpacas and more. Find out more about that in the article below:
The Secret Life of Marella Cruises’ Animal Mascots (Yes, Penguins, Ducks, and Alpacas Are Involved)
Why Is Marella Banning Cruise Ducks?
There are lots of reasons Marella wants to ban the widescale hiding of ducks around their ships:
- Safety: Marella says objects left around the ship can become hazards.
- Waste: Crew often have to collect and dispose of ducks that aren’t found.
- Plastic/environmental concerns: Deliberately leaving plastic items around doesn’t fit particularly well with efforts to reduce waste.
- Crew workload: What looks like a fun treasure hunt to passengers can ultimately mean crew members having to find, remove and dispose of hundreds of objects.
- Appearance/clutter: Marella also says it wants public areas and cabin doors kept as they are.
The idea of hiding the odd duck onboard for guests to find is very different now that people are bringing huge bags of them onboard!
Marella Isn’t The First Cruise Line To Say No To Ducks
Disney Cruise Line
Disney’s policies state that guests cannot hide things, such as rubber ducks, in staterooms or public areas on the ship.
You can bring rubber ducks onboard, but you aren’t supposed to hide them around the ship or take them in the pools.
This received a lot of attention from cruisers in 2024, well before Marella made their changes.
According to our policy, guests are allowed to bring rubber ducks onboard.
Disney Cruise Line
However, it’s important to note that pool toys, including rubber ducks, are not permitted to be used in the pools.
Additionally, we kindly request that guests are not allowed to hide items such as rubber ducks in public areas or staterooms.
Royal Caribbean
Ducks are still widely allowed on Royal Caribbean ships.
They have, however, made their Central Park neighbourhoods “duck-free” to protect the real plants from people who search through or trample them while hiding and finding ducks. I think this is perfectly understandable.
The problem doesn’t seem to be the duck itself, but the careless guests who don’t consider their surroundings in their mission to search for that important cruise duck!
Earlier this year, signs began to appear in planters asking guests not to hide ducks in or around any of the plants.
“Please help us protect our plants,” the sign reads, “This is a duck-free zone. Please don’t hide ducks in Central Park.”
Not Every Cruise Line Is Banning Them
Carnival Cruise Line aren’t banning ducks.
An April Fools’ hoax in April 2026 claimed Carnival was banning cruise ducks because of environmental concerns.
Carnival very publicly confirmed that this was false and said passengers could continue hiding ducks.
There isn’t an industry-wide ban on cruise ducks, and policies vary widely between cruise lines.
How Did the Cruise Ducks Phenomenon Start?
Cruising ducks apparently became a thing in 2018 when Abby Davis hid 50 rubber ducks on a 7-day spring break cruise out of Galveston.
The idea took off and became more and more popular over time.
The Facebook Cruising Ducks group has around 330K members; participants use #cruisingducks online.
A whole industry seems to have grown up around this! You can buy ducks of various descriptions, or the tags to go on the ducks cheaply online.
Are Cruise Ducks Actually Bad?
There are plenty of “Fors and Againsts” to the argument about hiding cruise ships on ducks. Some people love them, some people hate them.
For:
- Children love finding them
- It is fun
- It creates interaction between passengers
- It is a cheap cruise activity, everyone can get involved without much outlay.
- Guests enjoy tracking where ducks travel to.
Against:
- They encourage the use of lots of single-use plastic
- Unwanted ducks become rubbish very quickly.
- The crew have to clear them away if they aren’t found.
- People can hide them in inappropriate/dangerous places.
- Guests searching for them can damage areas – such as Royal Caribbean’s Central Park.
I think the scale is probably the important point here. One little duck being found and re-hidden is very different from hundreds being deliberately scattered around by guests on every sailing!
Can You Still Hide Cruise Ducks?
There is no universal rule to ban you from hiding ducks on a cruise ship. Check your cruiseline’s policies before you consider bringing any onboard.
Don’t assume something you’ve done on one cruise line will be okay on another.
Before You Go
You will often hear me talking about sailing on “an older cruise ship” – but what age is considered old? Find out what I think in the article below:
What Age Is A Cruise Ship Considered Old? (It’s Younger Than You Might Think)
I recently travelled on the new mega ship, Legend of the Seas. Find out what happened to the original ship carrying that name here:
What Happened To The Original Legend Of The Seas? Will The Same Happen to The New One?
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