So, you’ve decided to escape terra firma and try out your sea legs. If you haven’t been on a cruise before, it might be a daunting task trying to book a cruise with all of the options and available. Everything from number of days, type of cabin, destination, to added drink and dining packages and in port excursions all must be considered when booking your seafaring vacay.
Decisions, Decisions
It might be a good idea to start short if you have never been on a cruise before. Finding out you are claustrophobic or that you get seasick after embarking on a cruise is not something you wish to discover after you leave port for a two week voyage. Since I wasn’t sure of my sea-worthiness, our first cruise was a three day that left the Miami port Friday afternoon and returned early Monday morning. A stop at Royal Caribbean’s beautiful private island, CocoCay, and one in Nassau, Bahamas was the perfect test-drive to see if I wanted to expand our cruising experience.
I had wanted to go on a cruise since I watched “The Love Boat” as a kid and imagined that I was Julie, Your Cruise Director ( if you know, you know, lol). Since I get antsy in small spaces, a balcony was a must. Even though most cabins on a ship are slightly bigger than a walk-in closet, being able to step outside was comforting. Not to mention my absolute delight in waking up to watch the sunrise in the morning as we pulled into a new port. We have since been on another cruise that was one week long and watching the ship being guided into port by the pilot boat each morning was sometimes awe-inspiring.
You can find cruises that call for the swimsuit of the day to ones that require long pants and down jackets. We love a tropical trip, especially when the hawk is blowing in Detroit but would love to explore an Alaskan cruise in the future. We flew to Puerto Rico on our last cruise for a seven day Southern Caribbean cruise that took us to St Lucia, St Maarten, Trinidad, Tobago and a couple of other sun-drenched locales where we soaked in the rays. I have shivered just looking at pictures of a snow covered deck on some of the cold weather itineraries but the beauty of photos of Alaska and the Inside Passage are breathtaking and, after all, that’s what packable down is for!
While most people think of a huge ship criss-crossing an ocean ie The Love Boat, when considering a cruise, there are also small ship cruises as well as lines that offer river cruises such as Viking. While an ocean cruise ship can carry anywhere from a couple to several thousand people, most river cruises reach capacity at a couple hundred people or less. River cruises are more port intensive and you generally will always have land in sight. The clientele is also usually older and more well-heeled. You won’t find long lines to get off the vessel in port on a river cruise but your dining and entertainment options will be much more limited. Different lines are also more formal than others, with passengers wearing gowns and tuxes to formal dinners each night to shorts and flip flops at the buffet on others.
You also need to consider whether children cutting you off in the buffet line is a deal breaker. If so, many cruise lines offer a child-free experience. You can guarantee your adult fun on lines such as Virgin Voyages and Viking, with age limited to 18 and above. If the children’s laughter keeps you young, Disney CLEARLY caters to the young and the young at heart and Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and Carnival have large ships that have activities that will keep the kiddos busy. From exclusive kids clubs to kiddie pools, you can find a family friendly ship that will keep everyone happy.
I booked our first cruise through CheapCaribbean.com and was grateful to be able to speak to a real human being to get me up to speed on all there is to consider and got onboard credits as well as an amazing price. I spoke to an older gentleman who had been on over forty cruises. He assisted me in picking a cabin on the “right” floor (not above or below a restaurant or pool or next to a supply room) and gave me the pros and cons of the unlimited drink and the dining packages. He also advised we board the ship as early as we could because your vacation begins as soon as you step foot onboard. We were able to get assistance with many decisions that seemed overwhelming at first glance. You can book directly with the cruise line or with sites such as CheapCaribbean.com, vacationstogo.com, expedia.com and many others. Do your homework to get the best deal as you may find that an onboard credit offered on one site saves you hundreds of dollars.
It’s the Size of the Ship and the Motion of the Ocean
Our first cruise was on Royal Caribbean‘s Navigator of the Seas, which holds 3388 passengers, and the second was their Jewel of the Seas, which clocks in at 2191 at full capacity. There were times when the only way we knew the Navigator was moving was by looking at the passing scenery. We definitely felt more motion on the smaller ship and I actually had to take some motion sickness medication once when the seas were on the rougher side. We are now booked for a cruise of Greece and Italy this fall on the Odyssey of the Seas, which holds 4284 people, so as you can tell, we are getting hooked on cruising.
While being out in the middle of the sea may not be everyone’s idea of the perfect vacation, it does allow you to explore different places and perhaps scout out somewhere you may want to spend more time. We plan a return trip to St Maarten for a land based vacation in the near future after spending a day there on our cruise. You can think of cruising as a sort of all-inclusive resort that moves from place to place allowing you to return to the same room at night knowing you will be able to explore a new location the next day. When the Beach Boys sang “Aruba, Jamaica, oooh I wanna take you to Bermuda, Bahamas come on pretty mama….” in their hit song Kokomo, they just MIGHT have been talking about cruising!
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Julie's Adventures In Wanderland 