We have never decoragted our door and find that only a tiny number of cruisers do - I think it is reserved for those who expect to find themselves too drunk to return to the correct cabin. But this is from someone who has to remember each spring to take down the Christmas wreath at home.

Ah, ParrotMom...you must have been the person who took my festive magnets from my cabin door!!! I put them on the door so our friends can find our cabin.

Seriously, I usually decorate my cabin door on RCI with magnets. The doors are metal and the magnets will hold up a sign or decoration. I leave for a Mexico cruise this week end and had to buy new magnets as all of my others were taken when we cruised the Caribbean in January.

I am with ParrotMom on this one. Door signs are tacky ... unless it is to signify a special occasasion or something. Do you decorate your hotel room door when you stay at a hotel?

Unless you have a suite, friends comes by and visit will have hardly any places to sit anyway. Also, consdering the potential noise level and what how it might affect your next door neighbor when it is late at night.

Much better way to visit is to go to a public area. There are plenty of public area that you can chat and laugh out loud all night without affecting other people. We don't visit inside a cabin, we make plans to meet on deck.

For me, there is nothing worst than being kept awake all night from loud laughter and chatters from the cabin next door or being forced to hear other people's personal challenges that is really too personal and in the "too much information" category.

BarbAnn....not me.. I normally don't cruise the Caribbean.. I don't have objections if the cabin is being decorated by the line for birthdays or anniversaries. As for entertaining...Eschew is right, either in a lounge or the deck... I certainly wouldn't appreciate a party next door..and fortunately it's never happened. We have been invited to suites for cocktail hour.. complete with butler though

I think you are missing the point of the OP's question. Whether to decorate your cabin door is a personal matter. I like to have have fun and create a festive atmosphere on our cruises so I tend to decorate the door.

As for me being a party animal, DH & I are usually in bed reading by 10PM, so I'm with you on not liking loud parties in the next cabin.

You are right, I don't decorate a hotel room door. I don't compare a cruise with a hotel stay. I go on a cruise to meet new people (many have become wonderful friends), visit great ports and have fun.

I have never decorated my cabin door, nor has it ever occurred to me to. I have seen a few cabin doors (not a lot) with stickers placed on them, but I really didn't pay too much attention to it. In my experience decorated doors are not that common.

As "tacky" as a door sign might appear, I do think it is tackier to remove a sign that someone has placed on their door. Is it that hard to walk by and ignore it?

We saw a family that did it at a Disney resort. Not something I would do nor something I would consider as I do think it's tacky. But, you paid your money so do what you wish.

I believe this family had young kids and they hung pictures the kids made and cut-out shapes of Disney characters.

BTW, as silly as I think doing that is, I think it's equally silly for someone like ParrotMom to yank your sign down. It's not her money or her ship. Why care?

BarbAnn...Oftej cruise or a land resort I have decorated our room INSIDE with stick on gels cut out figures, flowers, words, to celebrate birthdays, Valentines day, anniversaries and other holiday and usually do it on the mirrors. Walking by and taking off a sign .guess the "devil made me do it" Alot of the signs I see are printed from a cruise board. Ryan... I understand it being done at Disney, but I feel the lines we cruise are NOT party lines and on just consider it tacky outside unless its a paid decoration by the cruise line

Oh yes and as snobby as this sounds, the line we cruise on now and the two week demograpic is for all sakes a well traveled and how shall I put this..more sophisticated and do not need to decorate Now you can all come after me.lol

Oh yes,.. we had a cruise last y ear and outside our door our names were printed, I took that down several times and told the room Steward I didn't want my name "out there" it was a Princess ship.

Interesting, discussing how well traveled the cruise you take is yet you resort to something petty like yanking down the sign of a complete stranger when that sign has zero impact on you.

I guess when one needs the reflected glory of a cruise ship brand to validate themselves they take things like what others do on their door quite seriously.

Reminds me of the writing of Joe Queenan when he talked about the absurdity of the dirty looks he got for wearing shorts to the Red Lobster.

A Fodorite sent me a Fodor's magnet - I kept it on the door on our last cruise - gave me a smile each time I came back to the cabin

Luckily, the Parrots were not on that cruise to steal my magnet!

You can bring a magnet to feel "at home", or type or print something on a piece of paper that a magnet will hold.

Sorry, this didn't answer your question about a cling. I'm sure if you Google "removable cling decorations" you will find an answer.

This is funny! Really a matter of taste. You know how some people have bumper stickers and others don't. How some fly flags from their homes for every holiday, season or occasion known to man. There are those who wear holiday earrings, with matching nail decor. The possibilities are endless.

I am trying to decide if I want to go on a cruise... can you tell me what percentage of the ship has decorated doors?

If you live in an area on the East Coast check out Xmas Tree shops..they have great sheets of stick on gel decorations. If we are away for Parrot Pops birthday or our anniversary I hide a packet (there is usually a pattern you can make already set up) of it along and decorate when he isnt around. As for the Parrots.. well Dayenu if it's not a favorite food or a piece of wood to chomp..they aren't interested. In all seriousness these gel decorations are very, very inexpensive...each set is probably under $2.00... one of the reasons I buy a set often is to put on a sliding glass door so we or visitors to our home don't try to walk through. It maybe tacky, but it's at least tacky in my home. What I did years ago...and haven't for a while is bring a sticky and if I'm looking for a new "friend" put the sticky on the cabin door telling them what I'm wearing and where I am. Then again..also I carry a large parrot bag, often wear parrot jewelry..

To save your fingers....www.thefind.com/office/info-gel-clings
Xmas Tree is much less $$.. we have used the Thanksgiving, Halloween, Spring.etc..

GGfinds - very few! Unless it's a group, once we saw maybe 20 doors in a row with the same letter-size poster on each.

Parrot, this is funny, my father did the same - walked through a glass balcony door - and told my aunt she keeps it too clean to notice

As for notes to somebody, isn't it safer to write on a regular paper and push under the door?

Dayenu...the entrance to our home is sliding glass doors and occasionally when I'm expecting company I certainly don't want anybody walking through. But more interesting right now with the screen door in...I've found a little magnetic black silhoutte butterfly that I've put at eye level...

Cabin doors are tight and there is no way to slip anything under the door.. Most cruise ships now have gadgets where they can leave envelope outside the door now.

Even my dogs have learned to sit outside the door and not to push out the screen... unfortunately, one day I did.lol

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E IMHO.

But I certainly wouldn't pull your decor off your door.

Well, that makes it easy... my doors are not open to the street and can't offend anybody

Thank you everybody. Reading your replies has been very interesting and enlightening.

Cruise critics have their color flier posted on the website for everybody to print and display.

Magnets always work on every cruise we have been on. Ignore the Parrots, decorating your door is fun

Magnets work, as does dental floss.

As to the so-called "tackiness' of it...I've been on several cruises which had MANY door decorations and it wasn't at all about finding your way back...it was part of the fun.

Tacky: watching some fat, overweight man and woman emerging through some dreary, UNdecorated cabin door who are rushing up to stuff their face again on the way to the internet cafe so they can surf here.

<<Cabin doors are tight and there is no way to slip anything under the door.>>

Not true. Carnival has always slipped my statement for my online acct under the door at the end of the cruise.

A few of my favorite things!
~ Freedom of Choice ~ No Judgement ~ Compassion ~ Kindness ~

When we cruise Disney, we decorate our door. We put pictures up of our past trips with magnets. It's not to let us know where our room is, but to celebrate our trips with Disney. Personal choice. I have also seen people decorate their doors to mark birthdays, anniversaries, family reunions or graduations. If you feel like it, do it! It's your vacation.

I can understand Disney, NCL and Carnival, but does anybody who cruises on Costa, Princess, Celebrity, Oceania, Azamaru or Seabourn do it?

My husband has Alzheimer's and I think it will help him easily locate our room on our two week June cruise... For the first time, I think I will take some kind of decoration....50th anniversary..

Vacations are supposed to be fun. Decorate your door if you want. Don't let people detract you by saying it is tacky. Vacations are usually tacky anyway... I even have "cruise" clothes that I would only wear on a cruise... HAVE FUN. Decorate if you want!

Desertdids..After 50 years of marriage and now your husband has Alzheimers I can't think of a couple who (especially you) need a cruise more.. and whatever will help your husband and you to navigate around the ship... G-d Bless you.. Now, I wonder if there are serious suggestions from other cruisers to make it easier for you.. I'd think a lanyard with a bright neon card with his name and cabin # in case he get disoriented... We will be married 55 y ears in October and I'm finding it difficult

You can easily get a photo magnet at a Walmart or Walgreens and hang it on the outside of the door saying something like... "50 years together" with your picture of you both on it and it will look like a decoration and help with recognizing your cabin.

Better yet Desertduds-check out VistaPrint..they make large magnets that will fit on the side of a car and you can design one...with the picture of the two of you.. ParrotPop designs t-shirts for every cruise with them..

If you want to decorate your door, go for it! It's your vacation, a time to relax and have fun. If the cruise line didn't like it, they wouldn't allow it.
I've never decorated our door, but I have seen it done on a few doors in the last few years. Some are very creative and cute.

As for the people who rip the decorations down and take them, aka stealing, don't forget there are cameras in all the hallways.

In recent years there has been a rash of thefts of Christmas Decorations in the area where I live. I had assumed it was teenagers being mischevious. Perhaps I need to rethink that. Perhaps it's just people who have so little self-esteem as to be concerned about things that don't impact them one way or the other.

I've personally never viewed a vacation spot as validating my sense of self-worth. But, interesting to note that people like silviaeaston exist and the marekting people at the cruise lines have done their job. Now if they could just figure out how to get that stick of the a** of people so incapable of just enjoying their vacation without resorting to petty theft.

I had a small hanging vase that I kept outside on the apartment door with a fresh flower I'd change often. Once, after several years, found it stolen one day.

Who would want to deflower me, and old woman?

Some individuals steal all kind of things, and taking a magnet or a piece of paper off a door doesn't make you better then car thieves or money thieves, Silvia!

The topic and myself took an interesting turn...and your not paying attention.. Desertduds commented her husband has a case of dementia and was "talking" about how her husband could identy their cabin...suggestions for her would be helpful, dont you think..or are you all to y oung enough not to identify with somebody who has that problem.

Everyone's paying attention, ParrotMom. What people are commenting on is silviaeaston's comment about planning to steal door decorations on her December 2010 cruise. The comments also apply to your admission that you yourself have taken down door decorations on a past cruise.

Otherwise, generally people are saying though it may not be something they would do, they do not have a problem with door decorations and to go ahead and do it if you wish.

Interesting that you're attempting to chastise us when in your first post you said "Tacky, tacky, tacky... if you can't remember your cabin number...or have it written down...you don't deserve to cruise.."

Chepar: I agree. I guess they are saying it is okay to steal decorations unless the decorator (who paid for the cabin) had a REASON to decorate the door. So these thieves must be able to tell the difference between random door decorations and decorations with a legitimate purpose ... I wonder how they can tell the difference (thereby only stealing the useless decorations)?

So what, if I want to put a magnet on my door, I have to put a sign next to it "for Alzheimer's sufferer" so it won't get stolen?

Wow ... I was away for bit and this is still going on ... So far, I ahve not seen too much door decoratons except the odd ballons for special occassions.

I don't care about the door decorations unless it is so out of hand. I wonder how many people decorate their hotel doors.

I am not as concern on the decoration as the visiting and the noise level associated with it.

Okay,, so I did it once...it may have been because it was a mimeographed sheet from another cruise board...I would NEVER, EVER take down a magnet or balloons or a vase or flowers.. Jezz everybody lighten up..On our one and only Princess cruise our name was posted outside our door...that i took down several times before the room steward "got it". We have never cruised at Xmas,but understand many people bring tiny lights for their balcony and I seriously wonder how that may interfer with navigation. We did many years ago have a knock on our door, we were on the old Seaward and our bathroom light was on and the crew said it interfered with "navigation.lol Just ask yourselves.. would you put up door decorations in a hotel in NYC or Washington...or any big city...I hope not.

We do it when traveling with friends (as many as 15 once) and I went to one of those engraving places in the mall and had fancy silver oval disks engraved with "SMITH SUITE." I gave one to everybody on sailing day along with some of that "museum putty" to stick in on with. The putty will hold very well, removes easy, and doesn't leave a mark.

I don't think I would put something on my door if traveling alone or unless it was some sort of celebration. We have done a Christmas decoration once and a birthday just on the day itself.

If you ever take the helm of a a leisure craft (sailboat, motor boat etc) at night, you will understood the night navigation basics. At night, the only way you can tell who is who and what's where and what direction ervyone else is going etc is by looking at the lights. Green on Starboard and Red onport side. So, when you see green light, you know it's their starbaord side. If you see red, that's port side. If you see both color on the same side, you are screwed.

With Christmas lights, I can see it being confusing on a very small ship, but on an ocean liner? I don't think it would make a differnce as you can see it from far away, especially with all the lights from the various cabins and public areas.

I feel sorry for ParrotMom, how small is your world? Does the decorations on some one's door really affect you? If so how?
Does it pay or not pay for your cruise? Does it pay or not pay your credit card after the cruise? Are you aware that is actually considered vandalism or could be considered theft if you take them away? They are not your items and by tearing them down you are committing a crime? Seems small to you I know, but the truth is they are not yours and you have admitted to a crime.
You are teaching your children it is OK to do the same and when they get home they will do it at school and more. We wonder why our kids don't behave anymore. We should look at what the parents are teaching. Total disregard and disrespect for other people and their property.

I have to admit when I saw this and started reading I couldn't help but say something.
I agree with YKnot, how does it affect you? I think it's great when someone decorates their door. LY I did the birthday package from the cruise. At Christmas, I think it's great to see how inovative people are. I usually bring window clings for the window and leave them. This year I have snowflakes and also flamingos. We have adjoining cabins. I do like the idea of magnets and will have to look into it for the doors.
As for pulling down peoples creative work is unfair and as above is really a crime.

Still love ya', ParrotMom!

Love you too, Parrot Mom, m'whah!

Finally... seems they changed "something" and I haven't been able to get into this site Dayenu and Triathlete sorry I've been away.. Sad to report that Parrot Pop died of that insidious disease where there is no cure...pancreatic cancer in October. He put up a good battle, but finally lost. If there is one thing I/we had is great memories of our cruises.. and for me all the people on this board who have helped me over the years and it's been many. I have no regrets about tearing down some of the tacky signs...no, I had never seen magnets.. It's as if I'm at a five star hotel and big $$$ and see the room doors decorated, it offends me.. Okay, call me a snob. Yes, I do agree with the people who are dealing with spouses with memory problems and I too would put up something on the outside door, but just because your a small or large party cruising is no reason to make your door an eye sore or the rest of us..I might expect this on a "party ship", but not on an upscale line like Celebrity.

Condolences on the passing of your husband. From your posts about the cruises you took together I could definitely visualize the wonderful times you had together and I am sure they are cherished memories.

However, I still disagree about your tearing down signs. If the cruise line has no problem with passengers putting them on their cabin door, it is not for you or any other passenger to decide what is tacky. I am sure if you were caught tearing down door signs the cruise line would not look favorably upon you.

My condolences also ParrotMom.

I read many of your comments on cruises.

I am sure you and Parrot Pop made many warm memories for you to cherish now.

{{ hugs }} Parrot Mom!

PERCY. You self over more than 15 years I believe have been so helpful with all sorts of suggestions and I've tried to "play it forward on this board and others".. Parrot Pop/Len used to say I was the Navigator and he was the Purser. DAYENU ..thanks...through cruising we've met so many wonderful people...some I know from the internet and others we have met on cruises and still keep in touch to this day. Give me another year or so... and I'll find a way to cruise again..lol
BTW this is without a doubt the most friendliest and helpfull cruise boards out there, bar none and we all know who the worst on is...lol

ParrotMom, my condolences also. Treasure the memory always.

I have alwasy say "Live everyday to the fullest as if your last." I have just heard that Steve Jobs has made a simialr statement: "Live everyday as if it is your last. One of these day, you maybe right." I am less cynical, but the idea is still the same.

I hope you will continue to cruise after ParrotPop's passing and continue to make contribution here.

Thank you Eschew it seems ln by coincidence both Steve and Parrot Pop died within hours of each other of the same disease and Parrot Pop was a great believe in Apple -we have two Oh the memories in my mind, the pictures on OFOT I will cruise again

ParrotMom, hope to run into you one of these days ... preferrably on a ship to an interesting destination!

Here's my 2 cents-tacky and tasteless. But if it floats your boat,do it and make yourself happy.

I just found this site when looking for an idea to decorate my cabin door. I don't come back to my cabin drunk and I don't have friends coming by. All I like to door is have something on my door to match the season or event. At Christmas my friend put a Christmas stocking on my door and everyday put a gift in it. At Easter, Easter eggs,4th of July fireworks, etc.