CON QUACK ULATIONS
Finding little duckies has added a new dimension to my love of cruises
Something small and colourful in the pot plant caught my eye. I leant over for a closer look and pushed the leaves to one side.
“Oh my goodness, I found one!” I cried excitedly and held it up.
It was a small plastic unicorn in rainbow colours.
It was 2022, and I was on a Holland America cruise in Europe.
One of the entertainment crew was hosting a trivia night and came over to where I was.
“What have you found that’s got you so excited?” he asked.
“is!” I said, showing him. I’ve been going on cruises since 1977 when I was 21.
On the cruise before this one, I’d chatted to a fellow passenger who had told me about cruising ducks.
ey were small rubber ducks, or ducks people had knitted or crocheted themselves, that passengers hid on board for other passengers to nd.
e game started in 2018 when an 11-year-old girl named Abby attached notes to 50 ducks which she hid during her cruise.
I loved this idea. It added a whole new dimension to my cruise obsession.
ere were Facebook pages dedicated to Cruising Ducks and people uploaded photos of themselves and the ducks they’d found.
I ordered a pack of rubber ducks online, and on my next cruise to New Guinea, I hid some around the boat, in pot plants and between pokie machines, and watched with glee as fellow passengers found them.
I even found one that was hidden by someone else sitting on top of a telephone.
is one had a label on it instructing me to upload a photo of it onto Facebook.
On one of my cruises, I discussed the ducks with a fellow passenger, Mary.
“Let’s see who can nd the most,” she said. “You’re on!” I grinned. To my annoyance, Mary found the rst one but at the end of the cruise we levelled the scores when I found one myself.
We became friends and on our next cruise together I had t-shirts made for us with the words O cial Duck Hunter on them!
“ese are fantastic,”
Mary laughed, immediately putting hers on.
Over time, I’ve found about 20 ducks which I’ve kept, and I’ve hidden around 100.
My sister Carol, 62, and I are due to go on a cruise soon and she’s got the bug, too. She’s made us t-shirts and has 100 ducks to hide!
People might think we are quackers but it’s just a bit of harmless fun.
I hid some around the boat