In many ways, living on a cruise ship is like being in an apartment building or a college dorm.
Your actions can affect the cabins around you, and in many ways it's worse because cruise ships have relatively thin walls and all systems are shared.
If the people in the room next to you have a crying baby, have loud arguments or choose to be noisy during amorous activities, you're going to hear it. Noise permeates cruise-ship cabins from the rooms above them and the ones on each side.
Related: Carnival Cruise Line warns passengers about a dangerous mistake
If you end up with an inconsiderate neighbor, that can create some uncomfortable situations, although in most cases those are short-lived and affect only a few nearby cabins.
Cruise lines have a lot of rules designed for both safety and courtesy. You can't smoke on your cabin's balcony because it's both a fire hazard and inconsiderate to your neighbors.
The same logic applies to the rule that you have to be wearing clothes on your balcony. That's not exactly a safety issue but one of basic common courtesy as balconies are not fully private. In most cases your neighbors can see you, and in others you may be viewable from other areas of the ship.
It's also important to practice good bathroom etiquette on cruise ships.
Image source: Getty Images
Cruise lines share plumbing warnings
Cruise lines try in a variety of ways to warn passengers that their toilets are more sensitive than the ones on land. They have the normal signs about not flushing paper towels, feminine hygiene products, and diapers, but the warnings go well beyond those.
On its house channel Royal Caribbean plays a video that shows all the things you should not flush down the toilet. The banned list includes things that generally most people would not consider flushing, including keys, produce, and a variety of other items.
The existence of the video suggests that just about everything has been flushed down a Royal Caribbean toilet. That problem is bigger than you might think because one clogged toilet can cause the plumbing for an entire section of the ship not to work.
Carnival Cruise Line (CCL) Brand Ambassador John Heald recently shared a toilet-related warning on his Facebook page. It's an important one because it involves an item you can flush in most land-based bathrooms.
Sign up for the Come Cruise With Me newsletter to save money on your next (or your first) cruise.
Carnival shares a toilet warning
Heald was on a plane on May 28 and the woman next to him was using Wet wipes to clean her seat, the tray, and even her seat belt. That prompted the brand ambassador to share a warning with a story.
"Anyway, this lady has reminded me to talk to you once again about Wet Wipes. Luigi our senior fleet plumber would say 'Weta Wipers, I hata the bastardi.' Yep, Luigi and all our plumbers hate Wet Wipes because despite the signs that plead with you not to flush them down the suction toilet system, they still do," he said.
That creates problems that go beyond one cabin and unpleasant work for the ship's plumbers.
"This results in Luigi having to put on the long glove and shoving his arm up a pipe full of the devil's dumplings so that the toilets in that cabin section will start flushing again," he added.
If the problem isn't spotted quickly, it can lead to numerous toilets not flushing and overflowing. That situation can go from minor to social-media-video-bad very quickly.
"Please then, on behalf of Luigi the Plumber can I ask you not to put these into the toilet and flush? If you use them for any reason, drop them in the sanitary bags and let your stateroom attendant know and they will dispose of them," he said.
Related: Carnival Cruise Line shares details on life or death situation
