Are Cruise Ships Banning Straws?
Let’s face it. If you’re a straw on a cruise ship, life sucks (sorry… had to)!
We’ve been asked many times, “are cruise ships banning straws?” The simple answer is, “YES.” Although, the extent and timing of their straw banning policies are very different across cruise lines.
First, lets imagine how many straws are used every day on cruise ships around the world. By our estimates, roughly 60,000 people depart on a cruise ship every day. Let’s say that the average cruise length is 7 days long. That would mean that on any given day, there are 420,000 people out there cruising the deep blue seas.
Now consider your average cruise day. Let’s take a straw poll (ugh). How many straws do you use? Do you pop into the coffee shop for an iced latte? Grab a soda at the specialty dining restaurant? Bar hop from deck to deck trying the different frozen concoctions? Let’s throw a conservative number out there and say that the average cruise passenger uses five straws per day. That’s over two million straws used on cruise ships every day and over 750 million every year!
The cruise industry is especially concerned with straw pollution. The discarded plastic ends up in the the water where it kills marine life, litters ocean surfaces, and pollutes the beautiful beaches at our cruise ports.
Times are changing, though. You might say (no, please don’t) that this is the last straw. There’s a significant movement to reduce our plastic usage and its impact on the environment. Starbucks is one major leader in this movement. The global chain vowed to eliminate straws by 2020. That prompted the cities of Seattle and San Francisco followed suit.
And soon after the cruise lines jumped on board to support this environmentally conscious movement. Cruise companies have always struggled in their attempts to be viewed as “eco-conscious,” but haven’t missed the boat with straw-bans.
Below you’ll find each major cruise line’s recent policy regarding straw bans.
Straw Banning Policy by Cruise Line
Azamara
Owned by Royal Caribbean, Azamara Cruise Line will adhere to the same policy as its parent. All plastic straws will be eliminated by the end of 2018. Customers will be provided a paper straw on request.
Carnival Cruise Line
Carnival Cruise Lines will stop automatically adding a straw to your soda or cocktail when ordered. The exception is frozen drinks. Your bartender will still serve your Miami Vices (etc) with a straw so as to avoid any potential frozen-lip liability (assumed). If you’d like a straw in your soda or cocktail, your server will give you one upon asking. Carnival did not say whether you’ll also get served an eye-roll with that request.
Celebrity Cruise Line
Owned by Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruise Line will adhere to the same policy as its parent. All plastic straws will be eliminated by the end of 2018. Customers will be provided a paper straw on request.
Cunard
Owned by Carnival, Cunard Cruise Line will adhere to the same policy as its parent. Your server will not automatically provide a straw with sodas nor cocktails. He or she will, however, still provide a plastic straw with frozen drinks. Plastic straws are still offered at the passenger’s request for all non-frozen drinks.
Disney Cruise Line
Disney Cruise Line will eliminate all single-use plastic straws from their fleet of ships by mid-year-2019. They’ve taken an extra step to get rid of plastic stirrers, refillable plastic cabin items, shopping bags, and more.
Holland America
Owned by Carnival, Holland America Cruise Line will adhere to the same policy as its parent. Your server will not automatically provide a straw with sodas nor cocktails. He or she will, however, still provide a plastic straw with frozen drinks. Plastic straws are still offered at the passenger’s request for all non-frozen drinks.
What if I still want to use a straw?
Great question. When we asked our community how they were solving this issue, we heard of a few different solutions. Many people are actually bringing their own straws!
To see what types of options were out there, we obviously went to Amazon and found the following options.
Click on any above to see on Amazon.
Hurtigruten
As of early July, 2018, Hurtigruten Cruise Lines has eliminated single-use plastic straws from their ships. Passengers will be provided with metal straws in place of plastic. They’ve gone one step further to eliminate drink stirrers, plastic glasses, coffee lids and plastic bags.
MSC
MSC hasn’t made a public statement on its straw policy as far as we know.
Norwegian Cruise Line
Norwegian Cruise Line will eliminate all plastic straws from its fleet. Timing is still unknown. It’s been reported by many that plastic straws are already gone from NCL’s fleet. We’ve heard from some that NCL staff is offering paper and even wooden straws on request.
Oceania
Owned by Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania will adhere to policies set by its parent company. Oceania will ban all plastic straws from its ships and timing is still unknown. Currently, passengers are offered paper and wooden straws.
Princess Cruise Line
Owned by Carnival, Princess Cruise Line will adhere to the same policy as its parent. Your server will not automatically provide a straw with sodas nor cocktails. He or she will, however, still provide a plastic straw with frozen drinks. Plastic straws are still offered at the passenger’s request for all non-frozen drinks.
Regent Seven Seas
Owned by Norwegian Cruise Line, Regent will adhere to policies set by its parent company. Oceania will ban all plastic straws from its ships and timing is still unknown. Currently, passengers are offered paper and wooden straws.
Royal Caribbean
Royal Caribbean Cruise Line has vowed to eliminate plastic straws by 2019 on all of its ships. Starting the first of the year, the cruise line will provide a paper straw at the passenger’s request.
Seabourn
Owned by Carnival, Seabourn Cruise Line will adhere to the same policy as its parent. Your server will not automatically provide a straw with sodas nor cocktails. He or she will, however, still provide a plastic straw with frozen drinks. Plastic straws are still offered at the passenger’s request for all non-frozen drinks.
What do you think about the straw ban on cruise lines? Are you sailing one of these lines soon and do you plan on using a straw?Leave your thoughts in the comments section below and let us know, does this suck?
Also please use the share buttons to help spread this straw drama to your fellow cruise passengers!
I think it is a great idea. There is far too much plastic waste that ends up in the oceans and harms aquatic animals. Good on you, cruise lines!
Never been a big fan of plastic straws. Why not go back to paper? Hemp paper is becoming the big thing, it’s environmentally sound, greatly superior to wood paper, renewable and it supports or farmers. Course, it makes sense, so no doubt someone will object.
My husband has a disability that makes it very difficult to hold a glass, so straws are important to him. We simply always travel with our own paper straws (in a plastic toothbrush holder!) so we don’t have to ask for straws. We choose not to cruise with reusable straws because there is no ability to sterilize them throughout the week.
This is BS, straws are symbolic. Banning them improves nothing. PC junk science over rules logic and facts again……
The real problem isn’t the straws, it is people not knowing how to use a trash can