If you've cruised in the last few years, you know about the ducks. Little rubber ducks, hidden in stairwells and behind hand-sanitizer stations and under bar stools by one set of passengers, found with delight by another, in a wholesome scavenger hunt nobody officially sanctioned. Marella Cruises would now like you to keep yours at home.

Marella is asking guests to stop hiding ducks onboard, and while they're at it, the line is banning door decorations across the fleet. So the magnetic cabin-door art, the seasonal wreaths, the "Happy 50th, Karen" signs — all of it, gone.

Why the crackdown?

Lines that have gone duck-free before tend to cite the same short list: ducks end up in drains and engine spaces, adhesive and magnets from door decor can chew up paint and doors, and crew spend real hours cleaning up after a hobby that was supposed to be free and cute. Romantic? No. Reasonable? Annoyingly, yes.

• Ducks: discouraged. Bring them ashore, gift them in port, or leave them in the bathtub where they belong.
• Door decorations: banned fleetwide. Your cabin steward will find your door the old-fashioned way — by reading the number.

We've said on the show that these little traditions are half the charm of cruise culture, and every time a line clamps down the group chat lights up. Expect the Facebook community to have Opinions. Tim from Australia will almost certainly have Opinions, and at least one of them will be correct.

For first-timers: none of this ruins your trip. You'll still find plenty of unofficial fun onboard — just maybe channel it into something that doesn't clog a bilge pump. And if duck-hiding is a genuine dealbreaker, plenty of other lines are still looking the other way. For now.