Cruise ship worker issues major warning about sleeping with people on board

We've all heard the rumours about swingers and their antics on cruises, with mysterious signs on doors and upside down pineapples.

If the chatter is to be believed, then many cruises are a hotbed of depravity... and we're not just talking about the now infamous poop cruise.

However, one cruise ship worker has given a strong warning to anyone who might be thinking about hooking up with someone on a cruise and trying to keep it a "seacret" (get it?)

Sure, it might seem romantic with the open waves, the gorgeous scenery and the free-flowing alcohol, but there are some major downsides.

That's according to Lucy Southerton, from Birmingham, who was just 19 years old when she started working on a cruise ship as a massage therapist.

Now she shares her experiences over on YouTube, posting as Cruising As Crew.

Lucy shares the realities of life onboard a cruise ship (Instagram/@cruisingascrew)

With the success of the likes of Below Deck, it seems we're all desperate to know what really goes on at sea.

Workplace crushes might seem like a fun way to pass the time, but they're definitely more risky when working on a cruise ship, says Lucy.

"Sleeping with a colleague on a cruise ship is very different to sleeping with a colleague in a job on land," she said. "Now, the reason is if you're working a job on land, of course, everyone in the office likes the office gossip and is involved in everyone's business.

"But you get to leave the office and go home to your friends and your family who are completely separate from those people that you work with."

We all like office drama, as long as you're not the one at the centre of it.

"On a ship, you have obviously left your friends and family at home to work on a ship, which means that the people you work with are going to become your friends, your family and everything in between.

"So you're going to be getting all of your needs met from this one group of people," shared Lucy.

"They're also going to be your professional team who you want to impress on a professional level if it's a career and you want to progress. And what this means is there is no escape.

"There is no escape from the people you work with because you work every single day on a cruise ship contract, so you will see these people every single day and they will want to talk about the new relationship that's sparking up between you and so and so."

Lucy says it's all well and good while romance is high if it's all going to plan: "And this is obviously amazing when everything is going well because it's fun to tell your work colleagues, 'Oh my God, we did this, we did this. It was so good. We had such a good time'.

"And it's really fun to see your crush at work. It adds a little bit of excitement to the day like, 'Oh my God, he's over there'. When the conversations you're having with your team members are, 'Yeah, I'm really upset, I'm really disappointed, or 'I've really upset him or her.

"And you can't escape him or her. You have to see them every day for the next four months.

"That is when it gets a little bit sticky. And you know what? If we could control who we got feelings for, wouldn't life be literally 20 times easier?"

It's really not as glamorous as it sounds!