12 nightmarish facts that will make you never want to set foot on a cruise ship

• Cruise ships can be wonderful, but there are also some disturbing things that happen on them.
• There are actual morgues on most cruise ships.
• Overflowing toilets aren't as uncommon as you'd hope.

Theoretically, cruise ships sound like a luxurious way to knock a few locations off your bucket list — at their best, they're paradisaical wonderlands, filled with interesting people from all walks of life, mountainous buffets, and a plethora of activities.

But a record number of cruise ships failed to meet health and safety inspections in 2017, and, after reading reports about overflowing sewage, secret morgues, and bed bug infestations, they begin to sound more like nightmare vessels than enticing expenditures.

Here are some disturbing tales about the cruise ship industry.

Lots of people die on cruises.

It sounds macabre, but it happens — and more often than you'd think. There's even a website that keeps track of deaths reported on cruise ships, and breaks the causes down by category.

While a significant portion of cruise ship deaths are the result of natural causes— old age is a common culprit — the website also lists suicides, incidents of passengers falling overboard, overdoses, and even murder.

One cruise ship worker on Reddit claimed to see at least three deaths a month, while Cruise Ship Critic puts the number of deaths on cruise ships at three per week, world wide.

Cruise ships all have morgues on board.

Cruise ships are legally required to carry body bags and maintain a morgue.

Morgue sizes depend on the size of the ships. Should there not be enough space, crew may have to get creative.

Ex-cruise ship employee and Reddit user Thatcsibloke broke down what happens when someone on a ship dies: "There were small refrigerators on the ships that, from memory, could take one or two corpses, but the contingency plan was to use a walk-in freezer. If it got really bad then the bodies can be flown back anyway."

Overflowing toilets aren't uncommon...

Reddit user Phantomsplit explains why it's not rare for a cruise ship toilet to overflow. On the bright side, it appears these mishaps can mostly be prevented with some common sense and discretion.

"You would be amazed at what people will flush down the toilet," Phantomsplit wrote.
Pool noodles, t-shirts, shoes... pretty much anything that people don't want to pack with them when they leave. Cruise ships primarily use vacuum flush systems. These are very efficient but very sensitive. A tampon or condom can take out the toilets for everyone above and below your room. Then somebody from the engine department has to start breaking open black water pipes or ripping open pumps to find [the culprit]."