Finding Ducks

[HappyTexan44]

That is adorable!   And a reminder of the cruise.    If you just found it, it must have been very well hid.  
We had thought daughter's love for ducks might have faded, but no, it is stronger.   Now we are thinking of a display case as a birthday present, and a friend of hers gave her a rubber duck advent calendar.  
We have THE CUTEST ducks purchased to hide.  She is one that would have littered the place with ducks, so we got a 12-pack, and she is going to try to keep some of those.  


 

[FamilyCruiserUK]

My daughter loves looking for ducks and gets excited when she finds one. Of course she wants to keep all of them but we always put most of them back or re hide them. I have heard people moaning about them being plastic and harming the environment whilst sipping water from a plastic bottle or a few years ago drinking from plastic straws etc.

Its fun and should stay but maybe they could be made out of a biodegradable material......👍

[PhillyFan33579]

Hopefully RCI will follow Disney’s lead and strongly discourage hiding ducks. Hiding ducks on ships has to be the dumbest thing I have seen over my 72 cruises. 

[HappyTexan44]

Why is it a problem?    Are they a tripping hazard?  Do They make you find 5 before you get off at port?  I think lots of stuff other people do are dumb, but that just means I don't do those things.  

[smokeybandit]

1 hour ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Hopefully RCI will follow Disney’s lead and strongly discourage hiding ducks. Hiding ducks on ships has to be the dumbest thing I have seen over my 72 cruises. 

Being bothered by tiny pieces of plastic and rubber seems pretty dumb, too.

[HappyTexan44]

 

 

How could these guys be offensive?   They are as cute as a kitten.  

 

 

[A&L_Ont]

14 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Hopefully RCI will follow Disney’s lead and strongly discourage hiding ducks. Hiding ducks on ships has to be the dumbest thing I have seen over my 72 cruises. 

If people want to hide something, IMO it should be dollar bills. If the crew have to do extra work and pick it up, it should be worth their while.

[A&L_Ont]

23 minutes ago, HappyTexan44 said:

 

 

How could these guys be offensive?   They are as cute as a kitten.  

 

 

When multiple people on my roll calls are bringing a hundred each they are not as cute. 

Edited January 21 by A&L_Ont

[HappyTexan44]

On 1/21/2024 at 8:28 AM, A&L_Ont said:

When multiple people on my roll calls are bringing a hundred each they are not as cute. 

 

My daughter will be doing her level best to take care of that.  Although, I'll probably try to mandate a "No Duplicates" rule.  But then you add in that are a great many kids on the ship.  I guess I'll see whether the ducks litter the ship.  

I've been giving the duck display a lot of thought.  Most displays are to keep dust and hands off the display, so those won't work.  At the moment I'm thinking of getting wood ceiling molding all cut to the same length.   Then drilling two holes on each end, and putting knotted twine through the holes.  I've seen something similar with bigger wood to hang plants in front of a window.  

 

[trivia addict]

On 3/30/2023 at 1:13 AM, crazyank said:

Correct,  and we have seen several staff with trash bags full of ducks that were being disposed of.

Do you hang out in the trash room often?

[ReneeFLL]

On 1/20/2024 at 6:52 PM, PhillyFan33579 said:

Hopefully RCI will follow Disney’s lead and strongly discourage hiding ducks. Hiding ducks on ships has to be the dumbest thing I have seen over my 72 cruises. 

Do you think ALL companies should ban everything that you think is dumb? Isn’t that being a little selfish? 🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥

 

Edited January 22 by ReneeFLL

[ReneeFLL]

On 1/21/2024 at 9:27 AM, A&L_Ont said:

If people want to hide something, IMO it should be dollar bills. If the crew have to do extra work and pick it up, it should be worth their while.

The crew don’t have to pick them up. If they leave them alone the passengers will find them.

[ReneeFLL]

On 3/30/2023 at 4:13 AM, crazyank said:

Correct,  and we have seen several staff with trash bags full of ducks that were being disposed of.

Sorry, but I don’t believe that. Did you ask what’s in the trash bags since I know they aren’t see thru? Just for the heck of it I think I’ll ask some crew if they were instructed to throw them away. I already know what the answer will be. I don’t understand what the problem is. Since people are HIDING them they aren’t that easy to see unless you go looking for them. Let people have fun.

 

Edited January 22 by ReneeFLL

[ReneeFLL]

On 3/30/2023 at 11:47 AM, Joseph2017China said:

There are staff members that actually go around, and clean.  When they see litter hiding behind a chair or in a planter, they pick it out.  At some point, it went from a few ducks random to people littering with bags of ducks around some ships.  I'm not against some little kids games but it is litter for the staff, that needs to clean.  As an adult, I can't imagine seeing a duck in my umbrella, or in my towel, or bag, and thinking its really cool that someone tossed a duck in it.  Even if they have kids, they give it to them, and say oh wow, a duck.  Just look at this thread on how defensive people are getting, and everyone posting are adults and not kids.  If anyone posts a negative comment, like I am, I bet I will get at least 3 to 5 replies back not so nice to me.  Like if a staff is carrying a bag of trash (ducks in it) where do you think it's going?  

 

How many kids are you aware of that read Cruise Critic? Have you thought that that’s why it’s only adults posting?

[PhillyFan33579]

29 minutes ago, ReneeFLL said:

Do you think ALL companies should ban everything that you think is dumb? Isn’t that being a little selfish? 🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥

 

When something causes extra work for crew members, which is why Disney is trying to eliminate duck hiding on their ships, I think the issue should be addressed. 
 

Although I think duck hiding is dumb (it was cute when it started with kids hiding them), I personally didn’t care about it because it has no impact on me (and still doesn’t). But when I talk to crew members I know who say the duck hiding is getting out of hand, I think RCI should do something about it. 
 

For what it’s worth, I think it’s silly for you to respond to every recent post that is anti duck hiding. Not everyone is going to feel the same way you do about everything. While you are obviously in favor of duck hiding, that doesn’t imply anything negative about you just like the anti duck hiding people doesn’t imply anything negative about them. 

[goinmobile68]

Multiple guests hauling them in 100 at a time-really? To each his own, but luggage is an enemy of the airlines & I'd rather save space for my clothes or souveniers. I'm certainly not paying for extra pieces of luggage-there are too many fun things to spend that money on! Just frugal I guess....

[Grankm21]

My kids love searching for ducks and I am appreciative of the generous folks that leave them. Last week my kids found three. They enjoyed playing with them in the stateroom shower and at the beach and we just unpacked and tossed them in our bath tub. I’m pretty sure if Royal had an issue with the ducks they would get rid of the multiple claw machines in the arcade that are filled with rubber ducks as prizes . There were three rubber duck filled claw machines on Symphony last week. And for what it’s worth, I’ve never seen a crew member throw them away, the kids find them too quickly. 

[Mum2Mercury]

On 3/30/2023 at 11:47 AM, Joseph2017China said:

Like if a staff is carrying a bag of trash (ducks in it) where do you think it's going?  

If I were a crew member, I'd save any ducks I found and leave them in rooms with children.  1) It'd make the children happy.  2) Happier cruisers leave more tips.  

3 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

When something causes extra work for crew members

Ducks don't really cause extra work for crew members, as guests will pick them up.  

2 hours ago, goinmobile68 said:

Multiple guests hauling them in 100 at a time-really? 

This is a gross exaggeration of "the problem".  Since I've never found even one duck, I have trouble believing that people are bringing them in such quantities.  

[joysea]

On 1/20/2024 at 6:52 PM, PhillyFan33579 said:

Hopefully RCI will follow Disney’s lead and strongly discourage hiding ducks. Hiding ducks on ships has to be the dumbest thing I have seen over my 72 cruises. 

Gee why does it bother you so much?  You do not have to do it, you do not have to look for them...It is a "fun" thing for kids (and some adults) and harms no one! 

[NoShoes2]

We hid ducks on for the first time on our last crews after a niece of ours found one on a previous cruise. We hid 20-25 ducks early in the day. Actually, sat an witnessed some kids finding ducks that we hid. It was a sea day (so the kids needed something to do LOL) My wife casually let the mom know that had hid the ducks and she thanked us. It was fun seeing kids get joy from something as simple as a duck. (Hide and Seek) Not with faces buried in the screen of an electronic device. The kids weren't wild or out of control. That evening before dinner we retraced or steps and every duck was gone.

We also had a large family celebrating the birthday of an elderly member of the family. At breakfast one of the family happened to see our bag of ducks ready to hide and asked if they could have one to give her as a memory of the trip. She was very thankful. Such a little thing, but an opportunity for a magical, memorable moment. 

[doghog]

Tough crowd with a lot of wise quacks. 

[ckruetze]

On 1/22/2024 at 11:51 PM, PhillyFan33579 said:

When something causes extra work for crew members, which is why Disney is trying to eliminate duck hiding on their ships, I think the issue should be addressed. 

That is true, eliminating extra work is something that I can support. Like the people ordering two main courses for dinner - poor waiters and kitchen staff have extra work. Why can't they be happy with one?
Or the people who request an extra towel, one more to wash but if 500 people do it it suddenly becomes a lot of extra work.
And why do they need so many bars that serve alcohol? I don't drink so all that work that could be saved by having less bars...

I guess my point is there are a lot of things that could be considered extra work but some customers like them so they should be there. Would you change cruise lines if you only get one meal per dinner instead of maybe two - probably not. Would anybody change because duck hunting is prohibited - probably not. But if they take two many things away customers might change cruise lines and I think even the users in this thread would all have different things that would push them over the line and make them change.

 

[PhillyFan33579]

2 hours ago, ckruetze said:

That is true, eliminating extra work is something that I can support. Like the people ordering two main courses for dinner - poor waiters and kitchen staff have extra work. Why can't they be happy with one?
Or the people who request an extra towel, one more to wash but if 500 people do it it suddenly becomes a lot of extra work.
And why do they need so many bars that serve alcohol? I don't drink so all that work that could be saved by having less bars...

I guess my point is there are a lot of things that could be considered extra work but some customers like them so they should be there. Would you change cruise lines if you only get one meal per dinner instead of maybe two - probably not. Would anybody change because duck hunting is prohibited - probably not. But if they take two many things away customers might change cruise lines and I think even the users in this thread would all have different things that would push them over the line and make them change.

 

All the examples you mentioned are normal activities that crew members have been doing since the dawn of cruising. Hiding ducks is a recent phenomenon created by passengers, not by the cruise lines. If one cruise line is stating it is causing more work for their staff, it is likely not just an issue with only that cruise line. Accordingly, cruise lines should take steps to eliminate the practice of duck hunting, if it is impacting their staff. 

[doghog]

11 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

If one cruise line is stating it is causing more work for their staff, it is likely not just an issue with only that cruise line.

 

Accordingly, cruise lines should take steps to eliminate the practice of duck hunting, if it is impacting their staff. 

That would be your WAG.

 

I don't duck hunt. If I saw one (not looking) I'd leave it. I don't concern myself with the workload of RC ship employees. 

[crazyank]

44 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Accordingly, cruise lines should take steps to eliminate the practice of duck hunting,

We can only hope