A decade ago, taking a cruise was quite a once-in-a-lifetime activity. Something you had to have a lot of funds for, saved for probably a decade, and was a holiday in itself. Ships were smaller, more exclusive, fancier. You wouldn’t think of taking a cruise without a dress or suit jacket.
But like all things travel-related, good or bad, it changes. Today, with mega liner ships carrying thousands of passengers into just about every country in the world, and starting from a massive array of ports of call, cruising can be affordable for nearly anyone.
Short, week-long tours of the Caribbean or The Mediterranean can be found for as little as 50-70$/day. A great deal for sure.
But the best deals come to the cruises that are a little unusual. Venture to small, unknown ports of call, or take a meandering journey, or are a little longer or shorter than most.
Nearly every cruise line has two main seasons. They cruise in the carribean during November – March winter season, and then they have to get over to Europe, or Asia to do their March-October circuit.
These lovely trips are where you can find deals for 30$/night. Not only is that upwards of two weeks on board a luxury floating hotel, but it covers all your food and entertainment around the clock. And if that’s not enough, most of the time you’ll also get to venture to some hard-to-get-to ports of call along the way. Bermuda and the Azores are popular on the European bound, and Easter island, Hawaii, or South Pacific islands are the highlights for those ships bound for Australia or Asia. For one, usually low, price.
I can’t remember the last hotel I was at that made me towel animals. But they’re a nightly occurrence onboard. Lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my! Maybe even a monkey hanging from the ceiling if you’re lucky. Popular breakfast conversation includes comparing the towel art found the night before.
Like to travel with lots of clothing options? Most ships don’t have luggage restrictions. They’ll even carry your bags on for free.
Don’t want to pay a large alcoholic beverage package? While this used to be much easier (back in 2013, I bought a bottle of wine at each port of call and with the in-room fridge, I had a glass at dinner every night), some ships and companies still permit this in small quantities.
Cruising is still a novelty. It’s exciting. It’s how I picture flying using to be back a few decades. When flying wasn’t a hassle to be endured, but it was part of the adventure of the trip itself.
Beautifully plated meals served sometimes around-the-clock.
Dinner entertainment, anyone?
Edible art.
When you arrive at your embarkation point, the process is almost always extremely well-planned out, and easy, as well as very fast. You can arrive and be on board and enjoying a game of mini golf within an hour.
Where are you within an hour after arrival at an airport? If you’re lucky, you’re through security. Maybe.
Yes. Cruising is time consuming. You can’t board a ship today in Los Angeles and be in Sydney tomorrow. Sure, sometimes you’ll run into bad weather and things might get a little rocky. But with advanced knowledge of storms and weather systems, it’s fairly easy for ships to avoid the worst of the storms. And if you’re traveling solo, unfortunately, most of the time, you’ll be paying double for your room (watch for ‘single supplement’ sales, or some ships actually offer single rooms, or roommate matching if your desire to save money exceeds your need for privacy).
But with cruising, you travel through the night. You spend days on board a floating luxury hotel. You watch the sunset over endless ocean from a hot tub. You get greeted by friendly staff (most often by name several times a day). You often get to explore island countries that are difficult to get to, and when it’s all over, you arrive at your destination refreshed, relaxed, and ready to start your holiday.
Sunset, somewhere mid-Atlantic.
Hard to relax when you have your pick of lounge chairs with a muted sunset, right?
For the backpacker crew, if you’re taking advantage of cross-ocean repositioning cruises, not only will you have all of these benefits above, but you’ll also get to know your fellow ship mates, much more so than on a weeklong sailing, and also, likely get to know the staff on a more personal level.
I’ll never forget the wild experience I had in 2013. I was cruising home from Europe to New York via Greenland. We were sailing through the Prins Christian Sund fjords. Every single guest was on deck, jaws dropped at the stunning beauty. At some point, the captain announced that, while our comfort and happiness was always number one, there were many crew members who had not only never seen snow before, but had never seen glaciers, or fjords. And that they would be allowing them to enjoy this experience with us when it was convienient, on our deck, together.
Cruising the fjords of Greenland.
For most of their work onboard, crew members are extremely rarely seen outside of uniform, or off duty. And when they are, they are never on passenger decks. This was an amazing opportunity for the crew, and I felt also, a wonderfully kind gesture on the part of our captain and cruise director. A few minutes later, I was standing at the side and a few young people my age came by and asked if I could take their picture. I hadn’t seen them on the ship and we got chatting. I found out that they were from Jamaica originally, and had been working on cruise ships for over a year, and had never seen snow in their lives. They were on deck in shorts and t-shirts, shivering in the 0° weather. What an opportunity!
Finally, cruising is becoming accessible to everyone, but also welcoming to everyone. Someone up there realized that (most) women don’t want to pack an evening gown in their backpack. They don’t want to bring their nice jewelery or need to pack three different pairs of shoes. Companies are realizing that they need to keep kids occupied on board. They’re realizing that single women would come to the dances if they had dancing escorts. They are doing many things to make sure that whether it’s your first time onboard, or your twentieth, it’s a wonderful experience for everyone involved.
As I mentioned in my post last week about my New Years resolution to travel slower, if this is also something you think you’d like to look into, a cruise may be just the slow transport for you :).
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