Cruise ship warning if hearing this unusual word that signals ‘trouble’

A cruise ship worker has revealed the secret behind a code word used by people working aboard cruise ships.

Setting off on the journey of a lifetime onboard a cruise ship, the only words you will be wanting to hear are “bliss” and “paradise”.

However there is one unusual word that many crew onboard may say and it’s to warn of trouble.

Cruise ship worker @cass_stefanie warned that if workers ever hear the word “banana” they must be on alert.

The South African born travel influencer shared this unusual advice which she learned during her career on cruise ships.

Taking her years of experience working on major cruise liners, visiting six continents and more than 46 countries, Cass shared the unusual fruity connotation warning on TikTok.

In the video she said: “We use the term ‘banana’ on a cruise ship when someone’s getting into trouble.

“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.”’

The unusual warning is unclear how it first came about but it has most certainly stuck among crew members.

She added: “When I first heard it, I was like ‘what?’ I had no idea it meant trouble.”

And it turns out there are more than just one word used by staff to signal something else.

Cass’s admission of the banana word was also echoed in a viral Reddit post on the r/Royal Caribbean thread with crew member @SolAreiaLivros discussing the various jargon used words on board.

The thread read: “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?’”

And it turns out banana isn’t the only phrase used by staff members among their secret code words.

Elsewhere, “amo” translated as a “flattering way of addressing someone” like your boss, supervisor, or senior, while “taka taka” means “nonsense talk, gossiping or rambling”.

They added: “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’.”