Popular Travel Item Now BANNED on Royal Caribbean Cruise Line

One of the world’s biggest cruise lines just made a shocking announcement.

©Royal Caribbean via The Orlando Sentinel

Royal Caribbean is one of the largest cruise lines in the world and currently operates 28 cruise ships, with four additional ships in various stages of construction and two more planned. All those ships mean a lot of passengers — roughly 20% of the worldwide cruise market by passengers — sail on Royal Caribbean ships each year. Being such a large cruise line, they may make changes to the list of what you can and cannot have on board their ships, which is exactly what has recently happened.

In September of 2024, Royal Caribbean quietly updated the list of banned items on their website to include the following: “Extension Cords and Multi-Plug Outlets/ Power Strips.”

While extension cords and power stripes had long been on the list, multi-plug outlets were a new addition. The devices, which are similar to a power strip, plug into a single outlet, allowing the user to multiply the number of available outlets in their stateroom considerably. As the number of electronic devices like smartphones, tablets, and etc. has increased, so has passengers’ dependence on these types of multiple-plug outlets.

Unfortunately, this ban may cause some issues for travelers as there has been a lot of discussion on social media from cruise passengers who feel they need the extra outlets. Outlets can be extremely limited in cruise ship rooms, which may be a problem for some travelers.

However, there is good reasoning for this new ban. According to the Coast Guard, there are some legitimate dangers to using these types of outlets on cruise ships. “Most commercially available (surge protection devices) are designed for use ashore and will interrupt only the hot conductor when a surge occurs, it means while these devices may provide protection in our homes and offices these same devices may be a fire risk onboard vessels.”

Royal Caribbean isn’t the first cruise line to ban multi-plugs. For example, multi-plugs have long-been banned on the Disney Cruise Line. For a full list of banned items on Royal Caribbean or Disney Cruise Line, check out the respective cruise line’s website.

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