There are a lot of people out there who have never been on a cruise. There are also a lot of people out there who had never before experienced a cruise, and they went on one and had the time of their life. These people will all tell you one thing; you rarely see the captain of the ship.

He may come out at the beginning of your voyage for a bit to wave and say hello, and then he sinks into the shadows and you likely won’t see him for the rest of your trip. It’s a mystery where he goes and what he is doing.

We trust that he is driving the ship and getting passengers where they need to go safely, but that’s all we really know. But there are actually 20 things that all cruise captains do that they do not want you to know.

20 They Use Code Words

Captains on a cruise ship have a secret language, and this is to alert staff to a problem without alarming any passengers. They really don’t want you to know what they are saying, but we have uncovered a few of them.

Code Bravo means a fire, Code Alpha means a medical emergency, Code Charlie is a security threat and Code Oscar is a passenger overboard.

19 They Are OK With You Getting Sick

Captains know that their passengers may get sick, and they are really OK with it. That is because there is nothing they can really do.

The ships are kept clean to try and eliminate the risk of getting sick, but it rarely helps. Everyone is so close together all the time that illnesses spread quickly.

18 They’re Taping You

If you thought you would get some privacy on your cruise, then you are mistaken. Unless you are in your private room, you are on camera. All the corners of the cruise ship have a camera on them, and the captain is likely watching.

17 They Check On The Ship Jail …

Many people do not know that cruise ships do have jail cells on them. Unless you are a bad apple, you will never see them, but the captain does.

When the cameras catch someone doing something that is illegal or dangerous, they may be placed in a holding cell. It is a small padded room, and they are put there until they are docked and could be taken care of.

16 … And The Ship Morgue

Another, more gruesome, fact about cruise ships is that they also have morgues. It isn’t uncommon for someone to pass away on a cruise ship.

Statistically, older people tend to enjoy cruises a lot and they can sometimes have their last moments on the ship. When the ship is in the middle of the ocean, the captain needs somewhere to store the bodies.

15 They Can Unlock Your Door

Captains have unlimited access to everywhere on their ship and they can go whenever they like. Don’t worry, unless there is a severe safety risk they are not going to try to get into your room.

It is always a good idea to place the ‘do not disturb’ sign on your door if you don’t want any unwelcome visitors.

14 They Whale Watch

The captains do not want anyone to know that they really have the best seat in the house, because then passengers would be dying to get into their seat.

While they are steering the ship, they are also enjoying a spectacular show. They are watching exotic birds, dolphins, and whales while they sail the ship.

13 They Fall Asleep

Captains are incredibly tired, and they may be taking a little nap behind the wheel. Don’t worry, they have a full crew there to support them.

Captains are likely very tired people; they work long days. They will usually have a late shift immediately following a morning shift, which means they are getting about 5 hours of sleep maximum a night.

12 They Bring Home The Bacon

Captains do not want you to know that they are the only ones who really make any money on the cruise ship. A captain typically earns more than $150, 000 a year.

This seems like a lot to sail around the world, but you need to factor in the risk, safety, and the long workdays that captains are forced to work with.

11 The Passengers Pay Their Crew

You would assume that the captain is the boss of all the other employees on board, but that doesn’t mean that he is paying them.

The money that the rest of the crew earns comes mostly from the passengers on the ship. Tips and bonuses make up the majority of their pay. Passengers' reviews are also what is considered heavily when supervisors are figuring out how much to pay someone.

10 They Have A Stash Of Hard Drives

If you see the captain (or crew) with hard drives in their hands, they do not contain some secret, cruise-important information. It is purely for entertainment.

Wi-Fi is very expensive on the ship, and employees don’t get a discount. They have to pay just as much as the guests. That means these hard drives contain movies, music and other entertainment to keep them occupied during their time off.

9 They Dock The Ship Far Away … On Purpose

When you go on a cruise, you are looking forward to all the exciting stops on the trip. However, captains will dock far away from popular tourist destinations.

The reason they do this is that it can be quite expensive for the cruise company. They are already trying to save money on fuel, so they will want to try and save more.

8 They Have Their Own Bar

Remember how we said that you will hardly see the captain when you take a cruise? That is also because they have no reason to mingle with the passengers.

They have their own bar, and that is among their many secret passages and tunnels that only the captain and crew know about throughout the ship.

7 They Hope For A Delay

When you are on vacation, you want everything to run smoothly. You rarely are hoping for a delay in travel, but your captain may be.

It is for the captain’s benefit that the ship is running late. That is for a few reasons. They save money on fuel, and if they save money on fuel there would be more money for a bonus to the captain at the end of the trip.

6 Refer To Passengers With Funny Nicknames

This may be one that no one has ever really thought of, and that is how the captain and crew see passengers and what they say behind their back.

Captains (and their crew) will often have nicknames for the passengers on the ship. One of the more popular ones is “cones” and that is because passengers are normally wandering around because they don’t know where they are going, like traffic cones.

5 They May Spot A Pirate

Pirates are something you only think exist in fairy tale books, and the captain would rather it stay that way. While it is true that run-ins with pirates don’t happen often, they do still happen.

There have been instances where a cruise ship has been attacked by pirates, so the captain is specifically trained to react in situations like this.

4 They Partake In Tax Evasion

This one may appear to be more serious than it actually is. When you are in the middle of the ocean, where there are no technical laws, captains will sometimes bend the tax laws.

Sometimes, captains will even ignore labor laws. This would make sense seeing how long the workdays are for the crew and how little they are paid.

3 They Will Leave You

Here is one that happens over and over again. The captain will leave with you not on the ship. It is important to pay attention to the times the ship is leaving the destination.

The ship needs to stay on time, and if you are not back on that ship well before its departure time, the captain will leave you in a foreign country.

2 They Pollute The World

If you are big into the global climate of the world, a cruise may not be the best trip for you. The captains know that they are polluting the world, but they won’t ever let you think that they are.

A cruise ship actually emits high levels of pollutants. They are actually about 100 times more than what a simple car does.

1 They Purposefully Do NOT Shake Your Hand

If you ever get the chance to meet your captain up close and personal, don’t be offended when they do not shake your hand.

A captain does not shake hands with anyone on board, and that goes back to them knowing how common it is to get sick on a cruise ship. They can not risk themselves getting sick when they have an important job ahead of them.