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Not like ”hanging out at a hotel”. Every day you wake up in a new place. No packing your bags or hassling with an airport or other transportation. I look at cruises as a ”vacation sampler”. If you see a place that really interests you, you can plan an exclusive trip there later. Also, we have a cruise package booked for next year (fingers crossed, but I'm not hopeful) that includes several days of overland travel.
It has little to do with the ship which is mainly for sleeping and eating for us. It’s more about the ports that it visits and we try to choose port intensive cruises. We don’t hang out at clubs and pools, if the ship is docked, we’re in port exploring.
As for cost, plan a trip to Gustavus to spend time at Glacier Bay, Alaska. In the past, you could find 7 night Alaska cruises for less than that cost that also include Glacier Bay, as well as several other ports.
Okay so cruise ships go to a bunch of ports and it's really just like transportation to these places?
Okay so cruise ships go to a bunch of ports and it's really just like transportation to these places?
I thought you just go out and be on a boat.
Yes and no. Yes the boat is technically the transportation. But it is also the experience for a lot of people. You set of in the morning. That day you have a nice lunch poolside with a wonderful person bringing you drinks (or you get your own), read a book and relax. Go in the hottub. In the afternoon you stop by the rooftop minigolf course and play a little. Then you have a wonderful dinner and go to a jazz bar afterward for a nice drink and to mingle with some people.
In the morning you order room service and have a wonderful lavish breakfast on your deck out over the ocean and enjoy seeing the dolphins swimming with the ships and the birds fishing. Then you take a cooking class which includes your lunch. After lunch, perhaps you take a nap or you go to the library and read a book or catch up on some emails. Dinner is at a different restaurant. After dinner you go to a movie at the theater or a comedy show.
The next morning you wake up and get off the ship on a private island in the Bahamas where you lounge in a cabana and enjoy the clear water and do some snorkeling. There will be a bbq on the beach for lunch with drinks. You do a little shopping maybe. Then you have dinner back on the boat at yet another restaurant or in the main dining room.
And you havent paid for a single thing because it was all included with the cost of your transportation and hotel all in one.
Yes and no. Yes the boat is technically the transportation. But it is also the experience for a lot of people. You set of in the morning. That day you have a nice lunch poolside with a wonderful person bringing you drinks (or you get your own), read a book and relax. Go in the hottub. In the afternoon you stop by the rooftop minigolf course and play a little. Then you have a wonderful dinner and go to a jazz bar afterward for a nice drink and to mingle with some people.
In the morning you order room service and have a wonderful lavish breakfast on your deck out over the ocean and enjoy seeing the dolphins swimming with the ships and the birds fishing. Then you take a cooking class which includes your lunch. After lunch, perhaps you take a nap or you go to the library and read a book or catch up on some emails. Dinner is at a different restaurant. After dinner you go to a movie at the theater or a comedy show.
The next morning you wake up and get off the ship on a private island in the Bahamas where you lounge in a cabana and enjoy the clear water and do some snorkeling. There will be a bbq on the beach for lunch with drinks. You do a little shopping maybe. Then you have dinner back on the boat at yet another restaurant or in the main dining room.
And you havent paid for a single thing because it was all included with the cost of your transportation and hotel all in one.
it's just all the time between being in the ports and enjoying the sights of the sea is just blank I don't know what happens in those times what do you do? Hang out?
You sleep. Most cruises spend the day in port and sail at night.
Not like ”hanging out at a hotel”. Every day you wake up in a new place. No packing your bags or hassling with an airport or other transportation.
This part is a big deal to me, especially as I get older and my travel is to more remote areas. I know that once I get on board, any problems with scheduling are theirs to resolve, not mine. I take small ship cruises (under 100 passengers), very focused on nature. We don't go near any ports where you can buy tanzanite! The company I take also gets to more remote areas because the ships are small. In Manuel Antonio National park in Costa Rica, you ordinarily have to wait in long lines to get in because they restrict the number of people in the park at one time. Our group was permitted to enter via "water landing"- just get out of the skiffs and start enjoying.
No interest at all in the floating shopping mall cruises.
We've been on three 10-day European cruises. For us, it's the luxury of waking up in a new destination to explore each day without having to pack and unpack. The ports are intensive days of sightseeing so for us, the evenings are for a nice meal and relaxing with a few drinks at any number of the venues around the ship, ie a jazz ensemble over the nightclub venue. In the evenings I usually donate $20 to a slot machine while hubby has a drink at the sports bar in the casino and chats with the other guests. There are shows nightly but we aren't so into them, usually go to 1 or 2 for the whole cruise.
For our length of cruise, there are usually 2-3 sea days and we just relax, basically alternating between a meal, a nap, a drink, sitting on the balcony and watching the world go by, decompressing from port days and the overall busyness of life. Sometimes we'll opt to go to the theatre and watch a movie.
Some people are all about the shipboard experience, they are out mingling with the other guests, participating in every activity the cruise director has going. Others go to the spa. Some people shop the high end boutiques or play the table games in the casino. There is a jogging track and a gym for the athletically minded, there's also usually a library or quiet space to read a book, which is especially good if you have an inside cabin and want to relax but not feel cooped up in a windowless room.
I took a 2 week Mediterranean cruise a few years ago. It was my first and my last, never again.
3,500 passengers + 1,100 crew +/-, lineups for breakfast and lunch, dinner in the restaurant at the same table with the same people every night. Entertainment was on par with Holiday Inn lounges. Sure you could eat and drink as much as you wanted and then some, but I wasn't there to overeat and get drunk every night.
As for visiting ports... dock at say 8.00 a.m., line up to get disembark which could take an hour and then you had to back by 4.00 or 5.00 p.m. The ports were about a good 30 minute bus ride into the town/city and unless you were taking a guided tour (extra cost) you had to find your own way to the local bus stop.
Staying on board was an endurance test. Screaming kids running along the hallways, pushing all the elevator buttons and running up the stairs to beat the elevator was a favourite. Even though it was a huge ship, you can only walk around the various decks so much and if you wanted a chair....good luck finding one!
Just writing about it, brings it all back to me. Ugh!
I took a 2 week Mediterranean cruise a few years ago. It was my first and my last, never again.
3,500 passengers + 1,100 crew +/-, lineups for breakfast and lunch, dinner in the restaurant at the same table with the same people every night. Entertainment was on par with Holiday Inn lounges. Sure you could eat and drink as much as you wanted and then some, but I wasn't there to overeat and get drunk every night.
As for visiting ports... dock at say 8.00 a.m., line up to get disembark which could take an hour and then you had to back by 4.00 or 5.00 p.m. The ports were about a good 30 minute bus ride into the town/city and unless you were taking a guided tour (extra cost) you had to find your own way to the local bus stop.
Staying on board was an endurance test. Screaming kids running along the hallways, pushing all the elevator buttons and running up the stairs to beat the elevator was a favourite. Even though it was a huge ship, you can only walk around the various decks so much and if you wanted a chair....good luck finding one!
Just writing about it, brings it all back to me. Ugh!
There are children on the boat? I didn't expect that to be common, sounds like they were bored if they were playing with elevator.
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The company I take also gets to more remote areas because the ships are small. In Manuel Antonio National park in Costa Rica, you ordinarily have to wait in long lines to get in because they restrict the number of people in the park at one time. Our group was permitted to enter via "water landing"- just get out of the skiffs and start enjoying.
