Cruise Musician Reveals Prohibited Item That Only Applies to Crew

It goes without saying that crew members have to follow different rules than guests. After all, the crew are there to work, while the guests are paying passengers who are onboard to have fun.

However, one specific item that has made the prohibited items list for crew members but not passengers has left the cruise community scratching their heads – and the item in question is a tea kettle.

In a recent interview, a former cruise musician, who has been kept anonymous, commented on the disparity.

“Passengers are allowed kettles in their room if they want to make tea or anything like that. And that’s one thing crew were not allowed,” he told Express, which is a UK news outlet.

“We weren’t allowed kettles and we couldn’t make a cup of tea in our rooms – well not legally, like sometimes people had to sneak it on like an electric kettle,” he continued.

Of course, sneaking on prohibited items is not recommended, as the crew member could face a range of consequences from warnings to fines and termination if they are caught.

Especially in the US, it’s not uncommon for electric devices like hot plates, irons, and even tea kettles to be banned because of the potential fire risk – which would be a huge emergency at sea if one were to ignite.

But in the UK, where tea and daily tea service is such a huge part of the culture, many cruise lines will actually provide tea kettles in cabins to cater to the marketplace.

Princess Cruises provides kettles for select UK sailings only – which I can confirm from my British Isles sailing onboard Regal Princess that embarked from Southampton in 2023 – as does Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, and MSC Cruises.

Cunard Line, Marella Cruises, and P&O Cruises – which are known as British cruise lines – offer in-room tea kettles as part of most (if not all) sailings.

But while crew members don’t get this luxury – perhaps because it is seen as a bigger safety risk since they are onboard for much longer than guests – they can still get their tea fix from the crew cafeteria and other dining venues or coffee shops onboard.

“I don’t know why you, as staff, cannot have a kettle but a passenger can. I’m not sure. Maybe it’s a safety thing, because when we get on board at some point in time, they do a drill where we have to take over all our electronics to engineering,” the man theorized.

In addition to banning tea kettles, the ex-cruise musician also talked about how their cell phones, chargers, and other electronics have to be checked to make sure they aren’t a fire risk – as the lithium-ion batteries that are often used in our devices can be flammable.

But once again, this is a process that cruise guests don’t have to go through – at least not beyond the standard security checks to board the ship.

Crew Cabin (Photo Copyright: Cruise Hive)

“We have to take all of our charging cables and chargers and stuff like that, and they have to run and check on them, and that I understand in case there’s a fire,” the former employee explained.

“I think there was a case where somebody left their phone charging on a piece of paper for a long time, and it caught fire, so I get why it needs to be checked,” he continued.

As another unique rule, a friend of mine who works on cruise ships as a performer is not allowed to store dairy products or milk in her cabin, even though she has a cruise-line provided mini fridge.

The reason behind this rule is for sanitation reasons and to prevent the potential spread of foodborne illnesses. This isn’t something she can sneak into her room either, as she said crew cabins are routinely inspected to check for contraband.

And to close us out with a somewhat contradictory rule, crew members are allowed to drink alcohol – but only to a certain extent. A crew member can be fired on the spot if they are caught with a blood alcohol level that is above 0.04%.

This rule is in place because crew members need to be sober enough to fill their assigned roles if an emergency were to occur.