To wonder why everyone raves about cruises?

I've never been on a ship where anyone has fallen in. I think mostly when that happens people jump.

Or they are pushed. Really interesting grey legal area. If you want to knock off someone, take them on a cruise.

See the earlier posted article. The 218 cruise shits (was a typo but I left it) in Europe produce 4.4 times as many sulphur oxides as all the cars in Europe.

Plus, I don't drive my car into a fjord while throwing sewage out of my window. I mean Venice doesn't even have any cars!

They really are dreadful for the environment. Air and water.

My dad loves it, as he can just switch his brain off once he steps onboard. My mum loves totting up all of the “deals” & will happily hoover up the buffet (and more). They’ve done several cruises.

Cruise ships don't go to Venice.

I've been on more than a dozen cruises and never been seasick or got Norovirus. I do know some people have got Norovirus though.

I don't eat all day on board because I know how easy it is to pile on a few pounds so I keep busy with the many activities. All cruise ships I've been on have a gym. I use it for an hour or so every other day. Plus swimming.

I've never been on a ship where anyone has fallen in. I think mostly when that happens people jump.

The entertainment is really good. Some are like West End shoes.

Not everyone. My idea of hell

The single most important way to have a fabulous cruise is to plan your time onshore. Big ships generally tend to dock in big ports and it stuns me the number of people who say they went to Marseilles/Rome/Florence etc. etc. and there was nothing there. Of course there bloody wasn't - they were in a busy port.
You actually have to plan ahead and have an excursion or tour or taxi or train booked to take you somewhere.
Some ports are easy to walk off ship and be in the heart of town ie Lisbon or Corfu but many are not.

Do your research and plan ahead!!

DH and I go on a cruise holiday most years, sometimes 1 week or sometimes 2. We don't take DC with us as they are all going adults now. I love cruising by night mostly and waking up in a new country most days. I don't mind not seeing everything in a country because I know I'll likely come back again on a different cruise. The entertainment is excellent. I love the ballroom dancing shows the best and DH likes the comedians. The tribute acts and some of the magicians are often good too. There is something going on most of the time from cooking displays, ice carving, card games, ballroom dancing lessons for beginners, quizzes, to sudoku challenges. The food is varied and plentiful. On some cruise lines you can have speciality restaurants included. On others you have to pay separately. Some of the excursions are good but others not so good. You can always disembark and just browse yourself provided you are back to shop on time. There are lots of different bars onboard from Jazz to Frank Sinatra type singing. You can choose to dine on a large table with others or sit on a table for 2, you get to choose. There are excellent kids clubs and stuff for kids to do from climbing walls, swimming, basket ball, board games to gaming and karaoke singing. The deserts are particularly good and the free tea/coffee stations are open 24/7. I find cruising relaxing. The internet signals are not good at sea but fine daytime at port.

Pressed post too soon

The sea
Cabins
Long corridors
Too many people
Environmental impact
Cruise ships all arriving at one port
Being scammed by the local taxi operators
Too many people
The people who bleat on endlessly about how many cruises they have been on
And why don't you try one
Forced party mindset
The drinking
Shite entertainment
Too many people
Going to ports and then travelling by bus 90 mins to go somewhere - why?
Too many Americans
Did I say too many people? 🙄

Too many people
Too many people
1 and a 1/2 hours in Santorini 🙄😳

I’m super curious (and have no horse in this race). But those who are concerned about the environmental impact.

A. Do these ships not have the equivalent impact of a small 5K town?
B. Isn’t the individual impact just transferred from the place where all the passengers are from? Ie. Bob and Mary have an input of X per day at home and they have the same impact of X per day on a boat.

On other words for the week on board a cruise ship… Bob and Mary are contributing to the impact of that particular boat but they are not contributing to their impact at home?

I feel like that’s the missing part in all of the “cruise ships are bad” articles.

🤷‍♀️

I've done two small ones with P&O and loved it.

Food :I was very pleased. We did freedom dining so could come and go to the formal restaurant as we liked.

I really enjoyed the black tie night - sauntering about looking at the outfits was fun.

The entertainment - SO impressed. Absolute professionals doing several different shows every cruise, with smaller things like singing duos, pianist, harpist too.

I enjoy talks, demonstrations, history, literature, all were well represented.

The cabin - we went utter basic. Our choice. Two narrow beds, a teeny shower/ loo room, wardrobe and desk. I would love to try the swanky suites but we were practical money wise.

The people - both were child free. Our preference. So generally an older age group, no problem with rowdy groups.

Things to do - several pools on each, including a little one in the stern of the ship I don't think many had noticed, with its own bar. A very civilised library. The crows nest piano bar. Gym and beauty salon, tho you pay for those.

Excursions - did a couple of coach trips, felt a bit works outing to Clacton, but well run. I most liked when ship docked right inside Norwegian harbour town and you could just step out and you were there.

Constant sense of slight anxiety that the thing might sail off without us, tho!

Not a seasick moment either time.

I'd jump at another one.

Quite. They worked well for my elderly ILs when they had mobility difficulties and basically wanted to stay in a floating hotel with no reason to disembark. It’s baffling why anyone else would contemplate a cruise.

The fjords are about 8,000,000 times more stunning when you catch them without any cruise ships belching their way down the middle

Terrible. I don't want a day to see a place. I want a week, minimum. And I don't like being on ships.
But apparently I can't possibly know that, and cannot say I don't want to go on a cruise without trying one.
Wrong.

I've always assumed the people who go on cruises are exactly the sort of people who go on an AI beach holiday

The answer is ' everyone' doesn't.

Enthusiasts do. Think very carefully about what you are looking for in a holiday yourself before being swayed by others' opinions.

I can't help but agree. I can understand why elderly people and those who are not mobile due to disabilities find them suitable. But for people who are mobile I find them to be lazy and distasteful way of travelling.

Yes but I've seen plenty on telly belching out black smoke and polluting the ocean with noise and sewage. I can't imagine the amount of fuel needed to shift an actual city stuffed to the gunnells with people around the world. It's just awful and I wish they could just be banned. We don't need to fuck up the environment just to listen to some cheesy singers in the bay of biscay and do a taster visit of Rome for a few hours.

Well I don't like a sun lounger holiday and have never been on one. I am very very particular about the holidays I like and neither an AI resort nor a cruise would pass the muster with me.

Not sure why the 'cruise line people' feel the need to trot out the old 'AI generic holiday line' as if that is the killer punch and everyone else goes on these by default. There are other holidays available you know, perhaps you ought to look further afield and expand your horizons?

Whenever I think I could get over my fear of being on a boat with 1000 other people that I can't get away from, I watch the videos of the ships hitting bad storms and that's enough for me. I will never, ever go on a cruise.

The ones I go on are not awful. Smaller ships, no formal dressing up required. And it's actually quite easy to get away from people if you gave a balcony cabin. The thought of going on a package deal to some samey generic med resort to lie on a sun lounger for two weeks is awful to me.

The thought of being on a massive cruise ship full of people that you cannot get away from sounds truly awful to me. The pools look so so small and the cabins cramped. A day at sea to wake up somewhere new is just not worth it to me. I like going out to different restaurants in the evening when I am on holiday, would never want to be cooped up on a ship eating in their restaurants with hoardes of other people.

So when people wax lyrical about something that sounds so awful then yes, you will likely get a strong reaction.

I don’t know why cruises attract so much hostility, often from folks who have never been on one.

Me neither. I often find in irl that if I mention that I line cruising the reaction is as if I'd announced that I enjoy eating babies.

Well, have you not seen the new Top Gun?