A recent trend on cruises is to hide rubber ducks for other intrepid cruisers to find. I say “recent”, but apparently, it began back in 2018; I’ve personally known about it for the last few years.

We kept an eye out for rubber ducks on our Carnival Cruise to the South Pacific in 2023, but although we noted others on the cruise found them, it was to no avail for us.

Most recently on our Inside Passage cruise in June 2025 on the Serenade of the Seas, we were fortunate to come across a lovely duck a few days into the cruise. Yes! Here’s a duck on Deck 5 just up from the restaurants.

So, it is possible to find ducks without being up and about at the crack of dawn, against hordes of (probably mainly younger, perhaps?) folk on a duck-hunt. This duck was located at the much more leisurely hour of 7:30pm.

Despite casually looking in our “usual haunts”, particularly focusing on areas of “if I were hiding ducks, where would I put them?”, we found no more on the Serenade of the Seas. However, a couple of days later, at port in Alaska, we were fortunate to locate another.

We found one at, of all places, the entrance to the down trip on the Icy Strait Point Gondola. You might call it a desolate location. Although at times it was quite busy, when we went to descend, there was no queue. There was one family kind of hovering around. In retrospect, we suspect it was the family who planted the duck, to see who found it. This time, it was a teeny tiny duck, tucked in on a fence post. When we went from the gondola to another cable car back to the ship, we noticed another just the same, but a different colour. We took both back on board with us.

Part of the amusement with the rubber ducks is the “Keep or hide, you decide” aspect. As we had two virtually the same, just different colours, we decided to re-hide the 2^nd tiny duck back on board the Serenade of the Seas. We sneakily hid it in a prime spot that both of us always checked out as we went past daily (a stair-landing artwork area).

We had only been back on board a couple of hours before we noticed on the cruise Facebook page “We found a duck!!!”. It was the one we had re-hidden. So, yes, it does bring joy to hide the ducks for others. A past-time of niceness, anyway.

So, now the dilemma begins. We finally have had a good feeling where we found a duck or two. We know it is nice if someone finds one of yours. But what of future trips?

There is some talk of certain cruise lines banning the practice, with ducks apparently being confiscated at security/check in. “It’s too dangerous!” What if people hide them in out-of-reach places? To be honest, we saw what looked to be a duck on the top of an elevator. How did it get there? Was it dropped? Thrown? Accidentally or on purpose? How does anyone safely get it?

What if they aren’t located – do they just interfere with the cruise staff and their cleaning duties? If they are lost overboard, is it just another tiny piece of plastic waste in the ocean?

Some entrepreneurial folks have started making non-rubber “rubber ducks”. Some people are 3D printing a range of characters – not just ducks. I’ve noticed crochet ducks, duck shaped bookmarks, magnets and keyrings. I think the non-rubber ducks are probably a better way to go.

Hence the dilemma. We are looking forward to our next cruise in December. This time we will be travelling on the Celebrity Edge. So far, they haven’t banned ducks. Should we be environmentally responsible? Or should we have some hide-and-seek fun??