There’s all kinds of lingo that flies around on a cruise ship that might be unfamiliar to the common ear – but there’s one enduring piece of slang that could indicate trouble if you hear it.
In a TikTok video, travel influencer and cruise ship worker @cass_stefanie shed light on the terminology used on board by the staff – and the one word you don’t want to encounter if you’re working on the ship.
‘We use the term “banana” on a cruise ship when someone’s getting into trouble,’ Cass explained.
‘For example if you’re doing something like walking down the I-95 [the main corridor that joins the back of the ship with the front] with your AirPods in, we’ll stop you and be like “listen, don’t let anyone see you because you’re going to get a banana.”’
To date, Cass has no idea how the term came about and why – but it’s famously stuck among crew members.
‘When I first heard it, I was like “what?” I had no idea it meant trouble,’ she added.
Cass isn’t the only cruise ship worker who has spoken out about this. In a viral Reddit post on the r/Royal Caribbean thread, crew member @SolAreiaLivros put together a whole list of jargon used on board.
By their definition, banana (not to be used with an article like ‘a’ or ‘the’ – just ‘banana,’ plain and simple) means ‘a scolding or an earful from your supervisor.’ The more you know.
‘If you see a crew sad or not smiling, you can jokingly ask them “Hi (crew)! Why are you sad today? Did you get BANANA from your amo?”,’ their post read.
‘That will definitely earn you a smile and a question of “how u know banana ma’am/sir???”’
Elsewhere, they translated ‘amo’ as a ‘flattering way of addressing someone’ like your boss, supervisor, or senior, while ‘taka taka’ means ‘nonsense talk, gossiping or rambling.’
‘If a crew forgets to hand you an item or an order and they come back to bring it to you and you wanna tease them you can say “I know why you forgot my extra towels. Because you do TOO MUCH TAKA TAKA with other attendants in the storeroom”,’ they added.
Speaking of hidden cruise ship lingo, there are also words that are technically banned.
And just as blurting out ‘MacBeth’ is a complete no-no in the theatre world, talk of the Titanic is highly frowned upon while on board.
Marc Sebastian, a passenger on the infamous nine-month cruise on the Royal Caribbean Serenade of the Seas liner found this out to his detriment when he mentioned the no-go name.
On TikTok, he revealed all about the awkward moment, stating: ‘Number one, you’re not supposed to talk about the Titanic.’
Marc was unaware of the unofficial rule when he started making smalltalk about the ill-fated vessel, which sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic ocean.
‘I brought up to an entire room of people having lunch that our ship is only 100 feet longer than Titanic,’ he said in the clip. ‘Utensils dropped. Waiters gasped. It’s dead silent.’
After the gaffe, Mark’s friend whispered across the table: ‘You’re not allowed to talk about the Titanic.’
‘Well, it wasn’t like that was in the f***ing handbook,’ he joked in reply. ‘Not that I read the handbook, clearly.’
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