If you've spent any time in this community, you already know cruise ducking isn't really about the duck. It's about the moment someone finds one and feels a little burst of joy from a stranger they'll never meet. So it matters to get the story of where this all came from right — and the truth is, no single person started it. The tradition of passengers hiding small surprises for each other on cruise ships goes back at least eight years before the story most people have heard, with a detailed account from a 2010 sailing — and family memories that stretch back even further.
Before Cruise Ducking Had a Name
Long before Facebook groups, hashtags, QR codes and printed duck tags, cruisers were already looking out for each other in small ways — leaving magnets, pins, little souvenirs for whoever came along next. My own parents remember finding little trinkets other passengers had left behind during their Princess cruises back in the 1980s and 1990s — decades before the modern duck community existed. At some point, rubber ducks became part of that same spirit. Simple, cheap, unmistakable, and impossible not to smile at.
Exactly when the first duck was hidden on a ship is hard to pin down, and honestly, that feels about right. Traditions built on kindness rarely start with someone announcing "this is the beginning" — they start quietly, one small gesture at a time, long before anyone thinks to write it down.
A 2010 Reunion Cruise, Eight Years Before the Story You've Heard
The most detailed account I've been able to track down comes from a 2020 comment on the cruise blog Life Well Cruised, left by a reader named Rhonda Bennett. She described a group of women from the Massapequa High School class of 1974 hiding more than 250 rubber ducks aboard Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas in 2010, as part of a reunion scavenger hunt — clues, hidden locations, and one lucky duck carrying a note for a free cruise for two. Bennett says her mother was part of that group, kept the three ducks she found, and that the tradition continued on their reunion cruises every year through 2016.
Sit with that for a second: a whole group of women turning a reunion cruise into an organized act of surprise and connection, eight years before the story most articles point to as the start.
It's worth being honest about what this source is. It's a detailed, specific secondhand account rather than contemporaneous documentation from 2010, so I'm presenting it for exactly what it is: an important firsthand family account that deserves further research.
A second comment on that same thread, from a reader who goes by "Michael," adds a little more weight — he remembers searching for ducks on a Royal Caribbean cruise in 2016, then hiding them himself on a Carnival cruise in 2017.
Older, Looser Memories
A few cruise blogs mention duck-hiding going back to "as far back as 2015," without a name or ship attached to back that up. And in talking with people in this community, I've personally heard from someone who remembers finding a duck on a cruise ship all the way back in 1999. I can't verify that one the way I can the 2010 account — it's a memory, not a documented source — but it tells the same story: this kindness was already happening long before anyone put a hashtag on it.
When Social Media Changed the Reach, Not the Roots
By the 2010s, social media started changing how cruisers found each other. A tag with a ship name and sailing date meant a finder could share a photo and maybe even follow a duck's whole journey. That connection — stranger to stranger, ship to ship — is what this tradition has always been about.
One story from 2018 got a lot of attention: a 10-year-old girl named Abby Davis hid 50 ducks aboard the Carnival Breeze with her dad, and it led to the "Cruising Ducks" Facebook group that's since grown to hundreds of thousands of members. That's a real, sweet story, and it clearly helped turn something small into something the whole cruising world knows about. But the accounts above make one thing clear: this wasn't the beginning. It was the moment the rest of the world caught up to something cruisers had already been doing for years.
How the Community Grew From There
As more people found their way in, the ducks got more creative — character ducks, crochet ducks, 3D-printed ducks, ducks made for specific ships and ports and occasions. People started making their own tags, keeping track of the ducks they'd hidden, bringing a few extra along "just in case." Someone found a duck on one cruise and brought their own on the next. That's how this grew — not from one starting point, but from thousands of people deciding to pass the kindness along.
Why Finding a Duck Feels Special
You're walking to dinner, or back to your cabin, or just exploring on a sea day, and there it is — a little duck tucked somewhere it has no business being. For a second, you've found treasure someone left just for you.
Some people keep it. Some re-hide it for the next person. Some start collecting, or start bringing their own next time. The duck itself might have cost anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars, depending on whether it's a basic rubber duck or something more special. The moment is worth a lot more than that either way. Somewhere, someone packed that duck, carried it aboard, and hid it hoping it would make a total stranger smile.
That's the whole thing, really.
So, Who Started Cruise Ducking?
Honestly, I don't know — and the evidence I do have points well past the story most people have heard. A detailed account puts an organized duck hunt on a Royal Caribbean ship in 2010, and family memories go back further still. This didn't begin with one person or one ship or one date. It grew the way this whole community grows — one duck, one kind stranger, one small surprise at a time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who started cruise ducking?
No one person has been confirmed as the one who started it. The most detailed account I've found traces an organized duck hunt to a 2010 Royal Caribbean cruise, and the broader habit of cruisers leaving small surprises for each other goes back even further than that.
When did cruise ducking start?
There's no confirmed date. A 2010 account describes an organized rubber-duck scavenger hunt aboard Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas, and some cruisers remember similar trinkets and surprises going back to the 1980s and '90s. The 2018 story most people have heard is when this went from a quiet habit to something the whole cruising world noticed — not when it began.
Were rubber ducks hidden on cruise ships before 2018?
Yes. Beyond the 2010 Massapequa reunion group, cruisers remember hiding and finding ducks on Royal Caribbean and Carnival ships as early as 2016 and 2017, and some memories go back even further than that.
Did Abby Davis start cruise ducking?
Abby Davis is tied to a widely shared 2018 story that helped this community grow in a big way and led to the "Cruising Ducks Original Group" Facebook group. But ducks were already being hidden on cruise ships for close to a decade before that — so she's best understood as someone who helped this go viral, not as the person who started it.
Why do people hide ducks on cruise ships?
Because it's a small, easy way to make a stranger's day a little better. Finders can keep the duck, re-hide it for the next person, or share their find with the community — however they want to pass it along.
A Tradition That Grew with the Community
There's no neat origin story here, and maybe that's the point. This grew from something cruisers were already doing for each other, long before it had a name: leave a little something behind for the next person to find. What's remarkable isn't that one person thought of it — it's that so many different people, on different ships, in different years, independently had the same instinct: a little kindness in their hearts, and a want to share it with a total stranger. Ducks turned out to be the perfect way to do it, social media helped the word spread, and thousands of "my people" have carried it from ship to ship ever since.
This community keeps it going every single time someone hides a duck for a stranger to find.
Help Me Preserve the History of Cruise Ducking
Do you remember finding or hiding a cruise duck years ago? I’d love to hear your story, especially if it happened before 2018.
Tell me the year, the ship, what you remember, and whether you still have a photo, tag, journal entry or even the duck itself. Those little pieces of history can help me build a more complete picture of how cruise ducking really grew.
Share your story in the Cruising Quackers Facebook group and tag me, Kelly May, so I can find it. You can also send it directly to Cruising Quackers.
The farther back your story goes, the more I want to hear it. Help me preserve this history.
Share the Joy.
Sources & Further Reading
For readers who want to dig deeper into the history of cruise ducking, these sources offer additional background and firsthand accounts:
Life Well Cruised: “Cruise Ducks: Tips, Rules & Everything You Need to Know”
The reader comments include Rhonda Bennett’s detailed account of more than 250 rubber ducks being hidden aboard Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas during a 2010 reunion cruise, along with another cruiser’s memories of duck hunting in 2016 and hiding ducks in 2017. Read the Life Well Cruised article and comments
Cruising Ducks Original: Background of Cruising Ducks
The Davis family’s own account of their 2018 Carnival Breeze cruise and the creation of the Cruising Ducks online community. Read the Cruising Ducks Original history
Mental Floss: “Why Do People Hide Rubber Ducks on Cruise Ships?”
An overview of the cruise-duck tradition that notes the uncertainty surrounding its origins and discusses the widely shared 2018 story. Read the Mental Floss article
Forbes: “Keeping Your Brand Fun: Carnival Cruise Line Won’t Ban Duck Hiding”
A look at cruise ducking and Carnival’s response to the tradition. The article describes the earliest origins of duck hiding as uncertain rather than assigning the tradition to a single inventor. Read the Forbes article
A Note About Our Research
Much of the early history of cruise ducking was never formally documented. Before social media, passengers rarely photographed, tagged or posted the little surprises they left aboard ships. Some of the history therefore survives through personal memories, family stories and comments shared by longtime cruisers.
As additional dated photographs, cruise journals, tags or other records surface, we’ll continue updating this history.