The trend of hiding rubber ducks on cruise ships, known as “cruising ducks”, began in 2018 when 10-year-old Abby Davis and her father, Ashley, brought 50 ducks on a Carnival cruise to hide for other passengers to find. Abby wanted to make people smile, and the family had fun hiding the ducks and watching people discover them.
The idea took off, and now people from all ages participate in the game, either by hiding or finding the ducks. To keep track of the ducks, Abby and her mom started a Facebook group called “Cruising Ducks”, which has over 264,000 members. People often attach homemade tags to the ducks with instructions for posting details to the group, such as the ship the duck started on, the country it came from, or the names of the people who hid it. The tags may also include contact information so people can get in touch with the previous finder.
Participants also leave notes or tags to encourage people to enjoy the duck, hide it for someone else to find, or share their discovery on social media. The ducks can be yellow and squeaky, light up, have keychains, or include messages and QR codes. However, some say that the tradition has come under scrutiny because some people have gone overboard, hiding ducks in unsafe places or throwing them somewhere that’s hard for the crew to retrieve.
