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Yeah, lots of us don't like that style of travel. It's to organized, to regulated, to limited.
Independent travel for some leads to a more rewarding travel experience, and I can care less about food or casinos or sunbathing on the deck.
I like independent travelling where I feel I can discover places at my leisure in a non organised sort of way. I don't even like hotels though I will use them if I have to.
My idea of luxury isn't a swimming pool, a hair-dryer and a hair-dresser on site but a cozy little B&B with maybe another couple or 2 at most.
I take holidays to get away from people not be stuck with them on a mammoth ship. I don't like organised activities, all you can eat buffets and have no desire to see Vegas shows and cabarets.
It's my idea of hell actually.
I like local culture, immersing myself in the country I am visiting in, driving around, getting out of the car, finding little out of the way places and most of all meeting the locals in local places not the tourist haunts usually frequented by cruise places. I love trying to learn the language a bit before I leave and just seeing what happens once in a country.
I worked on a luxury cruise ship one summer and I could never understand why anyone would chose such an isolationist kind of vacation when the vast majority of the people you will meet will be from the same country, speak the same language and have the same ideas and aspirations.
To me it defeats the purpose of travel.
I don't like being a tourist. I like feeling like a traveller, a visitor. I don't need to be entertained and pampered. I love novelty and adventures, discoveries and even yes sometimes mishaps.
Things which go wrong can be fun and enjoyable too. I don't won't someone to take care of me 24hrs a day and have no need of pre-planned -pre-paid activities.
Being on a cruise would bore me to tears. I have travelled the world independently for over 23 years now and cannot imagine being stuck at sea with nothing of interest to me, to do.
My partner and i have been doing home exchanges for over 19 years now ( we are doing our 40 th this year) and we love it.
You live in a local house, shop at local shops, eat with the locals and meet the locals. It's to me the only way to travel.
We go to local shows, operas, concerts, etc.. cinema... and just generally get to know the country and its mores pretty well.
The idea of seeing Cancun for one day and Acapulco the next for a few hours on land then returning to a bland ( albeit luxurious cabin ) is completely alien to me. I don't get it.
The only cruise I would ever consider are those ones on tiny ships ( sailing boats preferably) with experts on board such as archaeologists, ornithologists, naturalists etc.. for a very specific and specialised kind of cruise.
I find cruise ships, hideous monstrosities , total environmental nightmares and I don't see the appeal. But if it makes people happy then whatever rocks your boat. I just object to being called boring for finding them boring.
Last edited by Mooseketeer; 01-05-2008 at 07:15 AM..
I am doing the Adriatic Sea run...Dubrovnik, Montenegro, Venice, etc. for 21 days this fall. My husband and I can't wait. It is costing about $20,000 but you only live once. Do it!
We did all that on the ferry--but we could stay as long or as short as we liked.
Montenegro was especially beautiful.
So was Hvar, off Croatia.
It cost a lot less than $20k, though.
In Dubrovnik, I saw the cruisers being herded around with their tour guide, who carried a little sign up in the air so they would not lose her.
No thanks.
I don't think I am a better person than someone who likes to cruise.
I am just as much a tourist as anyone else--I simply prefer more autonomy.
I agree with King of Kweens that some people just want a vacation, and a cruise fits their needs.
We have been on a cruise with Disney and we loved it. My daughter and I enjoy the sun, the pool and the places we went to.
I do have to say with all the things going on, on other cruise ships I would be affraid to go on some cruises. I definetly wouldn't want to take my daughter on a cruise where the contest is to see how drunk you can get. The Disney cruise was nice because it was so geared for children. I don't care for half naked dancing girls or people so drunk they are leaning over the rail of the ship.
I liked the ability to go and see other places but have a reliable (same) place to sleep and good food. I enjoyed St. Maarten but I was glad to get back to the ship, it was a pretty dirty island.
I can tell you why I'll never go on another again.. I caught a virus on my honeymoon cruise that rendered me disabled for 3 years, lost my job, my apartment everything. It destroyed my equilibrium so I'll now have chronic vertigo for the rest of my life, along with pages of other symptoms that'll never go away.. And it was all traced right back to the cruise.. I stay far away from those things, you dont' kow what kinda of virus's people are carrying on board from the countries they visit. All it takes is to swallow the water in the pool, or rub your eyes , or put your hands in your mouth and you got it..
And then if that wasn't enough, we got caught in Hurricane Jeane, tried to race it back to the port of Miami, actually made it to the port, docked , was denied to unboard the ship, had to turn around go back down to mexico for 3 days.. By the second day they had already started running out of food for breakfast lunch and dinner, the seas were so high they were crashing over our bedroom window.. I had 50 people on that cruise with me who attended my wedding, every single one of them missed their flights back home , it was a disaster
Boring cruise ? Never been on one of those. I admit, my first cruise, I was brought on kicking and screaming, thought I would encounter people my parants hang with playing bingo and standing in buffet lines for eternity,but it was wonderful. The Disney cruise with our then 6 yr old son was nothing short of magical. Could not have improved any of it. Last year we took a Hawaian cruise and sailed at nite, stayed a day or two at most Islands. That way, we knew which to return to when we want to return without island hopping. Seeing an active volcano from the water and the Naapali coast would make an athiest fall to his knees. We also watched whales at play, I cried, what a dufus I know, but I could swear they put on a show for us. I will remember such things the rest of my life, and the look on my sons face was worth a kings ransom. I know there are bad stories about cruieses, but we did our homework, online cruise critic etc and would do it tomorrow in a heartbeat.
I can tell you why I'll never go on another again.. I caught a virus on my honeymoon cruise that rendered me disabled for 3 years, lost my job, my apartment everything. It destroyed my equilibrium so I'll now have chronic vertigo for the rest of my life, along with pages of other symptoms that'll never go away.. And it was all traced right back to the cruise.. I stay far away from those things, you dont' kow what kinda of virus's people are carrying on board from the countries they visit. All it takes is to swallow the water in the pool, or rub your eyes , or put your hands in your mouth and you got it..
And then if that wasn't enough, we got caught in Hurricane Jeane, tried to race it back to the port of Miami, actually made it to the port, docked , was denied to unboard the ship, had to turn around go back down to mexico for 3 days.. By the second day they had already started running out of food for breakfast lunch and dinner, the seas were so high they were crashing over our bedroom window.. I had 50 people on that cruise with me who attended my wedding, every single one of them missed their flights back home , it was a disaster
I thought you said in your other post that you got the virus somewhere in Mexico and got sick from drinking their water, not on the ship.
The only way you can get sick on a cruise ship is one of two things...1..seasickness or 2..someone brings on a sickness and spreads it around. The cruise ships are clean as a tack so it isn't fair to blame the ship.
I thought you said in your other post that you got the virus somewhere in Mexico and got sick from drinking their water, not on the ship.
The only way you can get sick on a cruise ship is one of two things...1..seasickness or 2..someone brings on a sickness and spreads it around. The cruise ships are clean as a tack so it isn't fair to blame the ship.
No I got sick from a virus someone caught in Mexico and brought it onto the ship. I never got off the ship that day to stop at Cozumel and I certainly never drank the water anywhere but the ship, my husband had a sunburn from laying out the day before so we decided to putz around the ship casue it was empty. Later that night as we set sail again I started to feel horrible, I was then sick for the next 3 days of my cruise throwing up , sores on my head, and mouth.. My family debated flying me back when we stopped at Jamacia but my symptoms lessened and I was able to get around.. 3 weeks after getting back I began having the same exact symptoms, sores and everything(never had these in my life). I then proceeded to lose 30lbs in a month ,was hospitalized etc.
No only is crime bad, but health hazards, I went to Mexico in Sept of 04.. I caught a virus on the cruise ship that someone brought on from mexico. It rendered me disabled for 3 years.. I lost my job and was bed and hospital bound for 3 months. I still to this day have residual symptoms and severe chronic vertigo from it destroying one of the equilibriums in my ears.. Along with continuing sores on my tongue and head... Thats the just the tip of things, dont' get me started on the damage it did to my heart. STAY AWAY... All it takes is for you to put your hands in your mouth or rub your eyes not even thinking about it and you could end up like I did... Its a horrible country to go to.. its dirty, crime ridden and nasty
Why have I never been on a cruise? (1) Fear and (2) motion sickness. Not in that order.
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