Royal Caribbean quietly bans popular item from key location
The cruise line does not allow these even though they do not appear on any official banned item list, and Carnival appears to have the same policy.
Cruise lines have multiple sets of rules.
There are the official written rules (which are not always fully enforced) and the unwritten ones that sometimes can be. That can be very confusing for passengers who don't know what the actual rules are.
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Some of these rules are relatively minor, and the various cruise lines ignore their own policies because enforcing them is more trouble than it's worth. When it comes to something like wearing shorts or a hat in the main dining room, most cruise lines choose to not have the confrontation rather than being strict about their rules.
The reality is that someone being a little casual does not really impact other passengers, so the cruise line usually lets it go. Still, some managers are more strict than others, so enforcement can be uneven, creating confusion for passengers.
In other cases, there are rules that seem to get enforced that are not actually in the rule books. One of these involves a common choice passengers make at Royal Caribbean's pools where the cruise line has an item that's banned even though it's not mentioned on the cruise line's banned items page.
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Don't wear these in a Royal Caribbean pool
Generally, when going to the pool on a cruise ship, I either wear slides or water shoes. When I'm wearing slides, I generally take them off right at the entrance to the pool or hot tub.
That's because while I would prefer to leave my slides with my phone, towel, and other stuff, the pool decks on cruise ships are usually unbelievably hot. If you make the mistake of walking from the covered adult pool on ships that have an indoor Solarium to an outdoor pool deck without shoes, you quickly and painfully learn your mistake.
I've burnt my feet while getting a drink at the pool bar when the Solarium bar was closed, and I try to make sure my feet are always covered on an open deck.
If I'm wearing water shoes, I have traditionally just kept them on in the pool or hot tub. On many, but not all, of my recent Royal Caribbean cruises, however, I have been told that the cruise line does not allow that.
Multiple lifeguards have asked me to remove my shoes with some telling me that the policy has been adopted because water shoes can damage the pool lining, It's not a policy that the cruise line has on its website, and it's not even posted by its pools, but pool shoes do appear to be on the cruise line's banned list.
Royal Caribbean and Carnival both ban water shoes
The pool shoe ban does appear to be an official Royal Caribbean policy, but it's a tough one to enforce. Lifeguards are more worried about someone drowning than noticing what I have on my feet. And, once you enter a pool or hot tub, nobody can see what your feet look like.
Still, Royal Caribbean passengers have reported that the no pool shoes rule is being enforced.
"I’m on Symphony now, and they are making people take off any shoes in the pools, water shoes or otherwise. They also aren’t allowing them on the slides," shared one Reddit user under the handle IcedVentiWhiteMocha.
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Carnival also bans water shoes and has actually made a statement as to why they are banned.
“We don’t allow water shoes in the pool. The reason is that they may have picked up some kind of germ or even a piece of glass or dirt that may go into the swimming pool,” Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald said on his Facebook page last year. said. “That’s why we don’t allow them.”
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