Heidi BucoloEating soft serve ice cream every day, taking guilt-free afternoon naps, singing karaoke with strangers, day drinking by the pool, and staying out dancing until 2 AM — all activities most cruisers never do at home yet often find themselves doing on a cruise. We asked our readers to share the habits and little indulgences that only seem to come out at sea, and the responses were both funny and relatable. Here’s what they had to say.
1. Getting Soft Serve Ice Cream Every Day
Almost every reader mentioned this one first: soft serve ice cream. There it is on embarkation day, sitting out on the pool deck. And the moment you spot it, every healthy eating habit quickly goes out the window.
At home, most of us don’t eat ice cream every day. But on a cruise? It’s included in your fare, and you’re on vacation. So, why not? You stop by after lunch, grab a cone on the way back from the pool, or loop around the deck after dinner. It becomes a small daily ritual that you spend the rest of the year wishing you had access to at home.
And even if you don’t love soft serve, maybe it’s a different dessert. Perhaps, the warm chocolate melting cake at dinner on Carnival or something from the elaborate dessert stations in the buffet. On a cruise, dessert somehow goes from being an occasional treat to a regular part of the day.
2. Day Drinking By the Pool
At home, cracking open a drink before noon on a weekday would probably raise some eyebrows. Yet on a cruise ship, it’s practically expected. There’s something about warm sunshine, an ocean view, and a pool bar within easy reach that makes that first cocktail at 10:30 in the morning feel completely reasonable.
Whether it’s a frozen piña colada or a mimosa with breakfast, the usual rules around drinking hours tend to disappear once you’re at sea.
You’re not driving anywhere, you don’t have meetings to get to, and your biggest decision of the afternoon might be whether to sit by the pool or play some trivia. For a lot of cruisers, this is the one time all year they allow themselves to fully relax.
3. Late Night Pizza Runs
There’s something about pizza after midnight on a cruise ship that makes it taste better than it should. Maybe it’s the sea air, maybe it’s the fact that you’ve been dancing for two hours, or maybe it’s just the vacation mindset. Whatever the reason, the late night pizza counter is just another example of things people only do on a cruise.
Most major lines including Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Norwegian offer complimentary late night pizza, and cruisers report taking full advantage of it. Ordering pizza at 1 AM at home usually comes with regret, but it’s just what you do on a cruise.
In fact, for many cruisers, the late night pizza run has become a ritual. It’s the last place they visit before retiring to their cabin for the night.
4. The Afternoon Nap
Ask a seasoned cruiser to name their favorite onboard activity and there’s a real chance the answer isn’t the waterslide, the racetrack, or the shore excursion. It’s the afternoon nap!
Think about it. You come back from a morning in port or a few hours at the pool, step into a cool, dark cabin, close the curtains, and feel the gentle rocking of the ship. An hour or two later you wake up completely refreshed, with the whole evening still ahead of you.
At home, napping feels unproductive. There’s always something else you should be doing, and even when you do lie down, your brain usually won’t cooperate. Many experienced cruisers consider an afternoon nap one of the best parts of a sea day — and one of the things they miss most when they get home.
5. Going to the Club and Dancing
A lot of cruisers may relate with this one: you’ve gone to the onboard nightclub at least one night of your cruise, yet you haven’t set foot in a club at home since college. Something about being at sea lowers the usual barriers, and suddenly staying out dancing until 2 AM sounds like a perfectly good idea.
The cruise ship club has a different energy than a regular night out. There’s no pressure and no pretense, because everyone on the dance floor is in the same relaxed vacation mindset. For a lot of cruisers, it’s the only time they dance all year, and they genuinely enjoy every minute of it.
6. Singing Karaoke
Right alongside the nightclub is the karaoke bar — another place that gets far more participation on a cruise than it does in regular life. At home, karaoke requires the right group of friends, a certain amount of courage, and usually a few drinks. On a cruise, those barriers seem to disappear pretty quickly.
Being around people you’ve just met somehow makes it feel lower stakes. Part of it is simply the cruise atmosphere, which tends to encourage people to try things they’d normally skip. Whatever the reason, people who would never pick up a microphone at home find themselves belting out Bon Jovi in front of a roomful of strangers and having a great time doing it. The crowd is always warm, and the performances are always entertaining.
7. Hitting the Casino and Playing Bingo
At home, going to the casino is a planned outing. On a cruise ship, it’s just there — open every night, easy to wander into after dinner. For a lot of cruisers, that accessibility brings out a side of them they don’t usually see at home. People who have never touched a slot machine find themselves putting in a few dollars. Others who half-remember the rules of blackjack feel the urge to find an open seat.
And then there’s bingo. A good host, a competitive crowd, and prizes worth winning make it genuinely fun. Cruisers who would never spend a Tuesday afternoon playing bingo anywhere else will buy a package and show up early for a good seat.
8. Treating Yourself at the Spa
For most people, spa days are reserved for special occasions like a birthday, an anniversary, or a gift card that’s been sitting in a drawer for months. On a cruise, the spa tends to become something much more routine, and cruisers who book thermal suite access often spend a couple of hours there every day without giving it a second thought.
The same goes for massage treatments. Many cruisers book one on almost every sailing, even though they might go the whole rest of the year without getting one at home. Being on vacation and away from the usual to-do list seems to make it a lot easier to justify.
9. Breakfast in Bed
Room service at home isn’t really an option. You could order delivery and eat it in bed, but it’s not the same experience. And it definitely doesn’t come with someone arranging everything neatly on a tray and knocking at your door with it.
But breakfast in bed is easy on a cruise. The night before, you fill out your order card and hang it on the door. You go to sleep knowing the morning is already sorted. At whatever time you requested, breakfast arrives while you’re still in your pajamas. It’s the perfect way to start the day!
10. Throwing Towels on the Floor
It sounds like a small thing, but it means more than it seems. At home, you hang your towels up because if you don’t, nobody else will. On a cruise, you leave them on the floor and they come back clean and folded — sometimes even shaped into an animal on the bed — without any effort on your part.
In fact, you don’t have any chores while on a cruise. Your bed gets made while you’re at breakfast, your bathroom is cleaned while you’re out, and you don’t even have to think about it. Most people simply don’t have that in their everyday lives. Coming home to chores again is one of the less glamorous parts of disembarking a cruise ship.
11. A Daily Specialty Coffee
At home, most people’s coffee routine consists of brewing a cup while getting ready or while rushing off to work. It’s often consumed quickly while on the go. In contrast, coffee becomes an intentional part of the morning routine on a cruise. Whether it’s a specialty latte or cappuccino, cruisers take time to enjoy it. It’s even better when it’s included in the drink package.
The setting helps too — there’s something about drinking a good coffee while watching the ocean that makes the whole thing feel a little more special than your average drive-through stop.
12. Watching the Sunrise or Sunset
Most of us see sunrises and sunsets but don’t really stop to watch them. There’s usually somewhere else to be or something pulling our attention away.
On a cruise, that tends to change. The early risers find a quiet spot on deck before the ship wakes up or slip out onto their balcony to watch the sun rise over open water. It’s a peaceful way to start the day — no land in sight, just ocean in every direction. The sunset crowd is usually larger and more social, gathering on the pool deck to watch the sky change color before or after dinner.
Either way, it’s a highlight for most cruisers.
Sound Familiar?
The thread running through all of these things people only do on a cruise but never at home comes down to one thing: time. Time to indulge a little, slow down, try something new, and let go of the usual routine for a week.
It’s one of the things that keeps people coming back. Trust us; once you take a cruise, you’ll be hooked.
Comments
How many of the activities on this list apply to you? What are some other things you do on a cruise but never at home? Drop us an anchor below to share your guilty cruise pleasures.
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