A cruise duck is a rubber duck toy that people hide on cruise ships. Wait, what was that? Rubber ducks?
Yes, indeed. It started back in 2018 with an 11-year-old girl sailing out of Texas. She wanted to hide some ducks for people to find on her cruise, and her family had so much fun doing it, that her mom created a Facebook group to share the joy with others. The trend has exploded and the Facebook group has nearly 150, 000 people in it as of the 2023 new year.
What I love about the group the most is how happy everyone is about sharing their joy at both hiding and finding the ducks. People hide decorated ducks and even homemade ones. Ducks dressed up like snowmen in winter, ducks dressed like pirates for Caribbean cruises, Disney-themed ducks on Disney cruises, Franken-ducks on Halloween, and every other theme under the sun. People are so imaginative!
A note on the duck-hiding activities: they are not endorsed or run by the cruise ships themselves. It is entirely up to duck enthusiasts to buy their own ducks and hide them where they like.
Here’s my video that goes into the details of Cruising Ducks and how to participate:
I got my ducks at Five Below. They are only in stock at Five Below sometimes, but many stores sell them (Walmart, Dollar Tree, Big Lots, etc). You can also search Amazon for different types of rubber ducks.
How do you know if you’ve found a Cruise Duck and not just some toy left behind on accident? That’s easy – the ducks come with tags. The Facebook group has a whole file of printable tags, and because the activity is so popular, you can also get customizable duck tags on websites like Etsy and Amazon.
Since I was going to take my ducks on a Disney cruise, I wanted some tags with Donald. I made these printable tags (seen above) that can be personalized:
Feel free to use my tags, and don’t forget to check out the files in the Facebook group for more free options.
You can attach the tags with rubber bands, hair ties, string, yarn, or even by gluing them onto the bottom. I give an example in my video. You can laminate them, or not, depending on your preference. I like these laminating sheets.
The rules are simple: don’t hide the ducks in a shop and don’t put them into pools or hot tubs. Otherwise, just have fun! Label them with tags so that people know where they can post photos of their ducks online, and you can even let people know where the ducks originated from to see how far they’ve already traveled.
Although not an official rule… please try to avoid hiding them in bathrooms. ‘Cause, ew.
Hiding places can be obvious like setting them on top of a bar or lounge chair, or they can be a little trickier like inside a potted plant. Or a Christmas tree on winter cruises. They can be hid on inside railings (be careful not to put them on deck somewhere they can blow into the ocean), on thick picture frames, in the corner of an elevator, on a theater chair armrest… the possibilities are pretty much endless.
You can even hand them out to crew members (who also like to collect them) or your table mates at dinner.
Recently, Disney has asked people not to hide ducks, but you will still see them around. For us, one of the things my daughter really enjoyed was “fairy dusting” our neighbors by leaving them in Fish Extenders or on the door knobs of nearby cabins. The Disney-themed ducks certainly make adorable Fish Extender gifts!
Have you found a cruising duck? Have you hid them? Tell me all about it! I’d love to hear all about your experience.
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Happy Travels!
Travel With Ro 
My husband found one on our last cruise (it was our third cruise but our first time to find a duck) and my teenage son was as excited as a little kid. 🙂 He wants to be sure we take ducks of our own to hide on our next cruise.
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