Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 11, 2026

Cruise Chaos (cruisechaos.com) is a cruise news and advice website. This policy explains what information we collect when you visit the site, why we collect it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. We have written it in plain English rather than legal boilerplate.

The short version: we do not sell your personal information. We only email you if you ask us to, and you can unsubscribe from any email with one click. We use cookies for analytics and advertising, and you can opt out of those using the links below.

Information You Give Us

• Newsletter sign-ups. Your email address, and your first name if you choose to share it.
• Comments. The name, email address and website you enter, along with your comment, your IP address and your browser’s user agent string. WordPress uses these to display and moderate comments and to help catch spam.
• Contact messages. Whatever you send us through our contact form or by email, including your name, email address and the content of your message.

Information Collected Automatically

Like almost every website, we and our service providers automatically collect technical information when you visit: your IP address, browser and device type, operating system, referring website, the pages you view and the time and date of your visit. This is collected through server logs, cookies and similar technologies, and is used to keep the site running, secure and useful.

Our Email Newsletter

If you subscribe to the Cruise Chaos newsletter, we collect your email address (and your name, if you choose to share it). We use it only to send you our newsletter, the free Cruise Survival Kit you signed up for, and related updates about the site. Subscriber details are stored on our own website using the MailPoet plugin, and our emails are delivered through the MailPoet Sending Service. We use double opt-in, so you will receive a confirmation email before you are added to the list. Every email includes an unsubscribe link, and you can unsubscribe at any time. We never sell or rent your email address.

Comments and Gravatar

Comments are held for moderation and screened for spam by the Antispam Bee plugin. If you comment, an anonymised (hashed) version of your email address may be sent to the Gravatar service so your profile picture can be displayed. Gravatar’s privacy policy is available at automattic.com/privacy. Your comment and its details remain visible on the site until you or we remove them.

How We Use Your Information

• To publish the site and deliver the content you asked for.
• To send our newsletter and the free resources you requested.
• To publish and moderate comments, and to filter spam.
• To answer questions and messages you send us.
• To understand which articles are popular so we can write more of what readers want.
• To display advertising that helps pay for the site.
• To keep the site secure and to comply with the law.

Cruise Chaos does not sell products or process orders, so we never collect payment card details or shipping information.

Cookies

Cookies are small text files that a website stores in your browser. We use them to remember your preferences, to measure how the site is used, and to support advertising. Specifically:

• Essential cookies keep the site working, remember your comment details and prevent our newsletter box from reappearing after you have seen or closed it.
• Analytics cookies (Google Analytics, via the Site Kit by Google plugin) tell us how many people visit, which pages they read and roughly where in the world they are. We use this in aggregate; we do not use it to identify individuals.
• Advertising cookies (Google AdSense and its partners) are used to show ads and to measure their performance. Depending on your settings, these ads may be personalised based on your browsing.

When you first arrive, a consent banner asks whether you accept analytics and advertising cookies. Until you choose, only essential cookies are set, and the analytics and advertising scripts stay switched off. You can change your mind at any time on our Cookie Policy page, which also lists every cookie the site uses. You can block or delete cookies in your browser’s settings too, though parts of the site may then not work as expected.

Advertising and Analytics Choices

Google is a third-party vendor that uses cookies to serve ads on this site. You can control the ads you see and turn off ad personalisation in Google My Ad Center, and read how Google uses data from sites that use its services at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. You can opt out of Google Analytics entirely with the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. For industry-wide controls, see YourAdChoices and the Network Advertising Initiative.

Who We Share Information With

We do not sell or rent your personal information. We share it only with the service providers that make the site work, and only as far as they need it:

• Our web host and our content delivery and security provider, which process server logs and IP addresses.
• MailPoet, which stores our subscriber list and delivers our emails.
• Google, for analytics and advertising as described above.

We may also disclose information where we are legally required to, or where it is necessary to protect our rights, our readers or the safety of others.

Links to Other Websites

Our articles link to cruise lines, news outlets and other sources so you can check the facts yourself. Those websites have their own privacy policies, and we are not responsible for their content or practices. Our cruise deal posts link to cruise lines’ own booking pages, and Cruise Chaos does not earn commissions on them.

How Long We Keep Information

Newsletter subscriber details are kept until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete them. Comments are kept indefinitely so that conversations stay readable, unless you ask us to remove yours. Messages sent to us are kept as long as needed to deal with your enquiry. Analytics data is retained according to Google’s retention settings.

Your Rights and Choices

Wherever you live, you can ask us to show you the personal information we hold about you, correct it, delete it, or stop emailing you. Just contact us using the details below and we will respond as quickly as we can.

If you are in the UK or the European Economic Area, the UK GDPR and EU GDPR give you rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability and objection, and the right to complain to your data protection authority. We rely on your consent to send you our newsletter (which you may withdraw at any time), and on our legitimate interests in running, securing and improving the site for the rest.

If you are in California, the CCPA and CPRA give you the right to know what personal information we collect and how we use it, to request deletion, to correct inaccurate information, and not to be discriminated against for exercising those rights. We do not sell personal information for money. Advertising cookies may count as “sharing” for cross-context behavioural advertising under California law, and you can opt out using the advertising controls described above.

Do Not Track

We respect both the “Do Not Track” (DNT) signal and the Global Privacy Control (GPC). If your browser sends either one, we treat it as a refusal of consent: analytics and advertising cookies are not set, and you will not be asked again by our consent banner.

Children’s Privacy

This site is written for adults planning cruises and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has given us personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

Security and Data Breaches

The site is served over an encrypted HTTPS connection and is monitored for malware and known vulnerabilities. No website can promise perfect security, but we take reasonable steps to protect the information we hold. If a data breach affects your personal information, we will notify you by email without undue delay and within the time limits set by applicable law.

Our Email Practices

We follow the CAN-SPAM Act. We do not use false or misleading sender details or subject lines, we include our postal address in our emails, we honour unsubscribe requests promptly, and every email has a one-click unsubscribe link at the bottom. You can also email us to be removed from all correspondence.

Changes to This Policy

If we change this policy, we will post the new version on this page and update the date at the top. Significant changes affecting newsletter subscribers will also be announced by email.

Contact Us

Questions about this policy, or about the information we hold on you? Email [email protected] or use our contact form, and put “Privacy” in the subject line so we can get to it quickly.