First film in the "Carry on..." series to be filmed in color.
The role of the ship's cook Wilfred Haines was originally intended for Charles Hawtrey, but was re-written for Lance Percival, after Hawtrey quit in a dispute with the producer over billing and pay. He also demanded a gold star on his dressing room door. This is the only "Carry on..." movie during Hawtrey's fourteen year regular association with the series from Carry on Sergeant (1958) up until Carry on Abroad (1972) that Hawtrey does not appear.
The film's premiere was held on a cruise ship in Southampton, England.
The "SS Happy Wanderer", including its interiors and decks scenes, is mostly a set constructed at Pinewood Studios. It is affixed atop a hydraulic rig, and is a life size mock-up, complete with all the features of a real cruise ship.
There were problems with the exploding cake scene, which caused several re-takes to be done. Lance Percival once said of this: "They were trying to get the cake to blow up in my face. It was done with a pressure pump underneath with the cake mixture sitting on top of an air pipe. When they pressed a button, the mixture was to shoot all over my face. However, every time I leaned over to 'smell the aroma' just before it exploded, I blinked as it actually shot up i.e. I knew it was coming! Therefore, it took nine takes to get a scene that lasts ten seconds - unheard of in a Carry On".