Where to hide a cruising duck (and where never to)

Good spots

The best hiding places are visible at a glance but not in the way: the lip of a planter on the Lido deck, beside the ice machine, on a shelf in the library, next to the elevator call button, on the rim of a bar window, tucked by the shuffleboard scoreboard, beside a lounger on a sea day. Anywhere a passenger will pause anyway.

Places to avoid

Anything facing open water. Anything that moves — a door hinge, a lift gate, a deck-chair mechanism. Anywhere near a muster station, lifeboat or emergency equipment. Dining tables during service, where crew have to clear them.

The one that ruins it

Cabins. Leaving ducks in other passengers’ staterooms, or asking stewards to place them, turns a game into a service request and is the single fastest way to get a line to clamp down on the whole tradition. Public spaces only.

A note on numbers

Hide a few per day rather than all at once on embarkation. Ducks found over a whole sailing get talked about; a pile found on day one gets tidied away.