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I’m a cruise ship worker – 3 things we hate passengers doing onboard – you can stop ignoring us for starters
Lucy Southerton says she can't stand when passengers think it's OK to comment on other people's English
A cruise ship worker has revealed three of the most frustrating things that passengers do when they come aboard.
Lucy Southerton, 28, from Birmingham, has been working on one cruise ships for nine years and often shares sneak peaks of behind-the-scenes on her YouTube channel, '.'
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In one clip, she explains how she asked her colleagues about the things that passengers do that really annoy them - and they didn't hold back.
First up, she says that cruise workers think it's really "c**p" when people think it's OK to comment on their English.
Lucy goes on to point out that there's people from all over the world on cruise ships - including the likes of South Africa, Serbia, Ukraine, Spain and India - and so a lot of people have a different first language and accent.
"When you're learning a new language it's all about growing your confidence so it's really really c**p when you have a passenger say something bad about your English," she says.
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"You can obviously say 'Could you repeat that please?' or 'I didn't quite understand you, what was that?' but what crew members hate, quite rightly, is when passengers are like: 'You need to learn English, your English is terrible.'"
The cruise ship worker points out that the majority of people who make such rude comments tend to be those who speak just one language - adding that unfortunately, it's usually English.
The second trait that her fellow crew members strongly dislike is when they're trying to greet passengers, but instead get "completely ignored."
Lucy explains that while she understands they likely just want to shop uninterrupted, she'd still appreciate some form of acknowledgement - be it a 'hello' or a nod.
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"I can deal with a nod, but just to get completely blanked is always a bit disrespectful and it's just not nice, it makes you be like oh God, why do I even bother greeting these people?" she says.
And last but not least, Lucy explains that cultural stereotyping was also a topic that was "talked about quite a lot" when discussing pet peeves with her co-workers.
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Sharing an example of a conversation she overheard, she recalled: "I was stood outside the shop with my friend from Colombia and a sailor came up to her and we got into a conversation.
"She asked my Colombian friend, 'Have you done cocaine? do you like cocaine?'
"My friend had never ever touched drugs, just not her thing. But I was just like oh my God, I cannot believe you asked that because she said she was from Colombia."
She went on to warn people that it's "insensitive" and to think first before asking questions.
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