To wonder why everyone raves about cruises?

[malificent7]

It has never appealed until recently. I thought it sounded like you are trapped to an itinery, on a long , boring journey woth only a day in each place and no space from fellow passengers but everyone I know seems to love them...i am seriously tempted.
So what is so good about a cruise and has anyone actually hated them?
Is the food as good as everyone says and is it relaxing? Apparently you don't get sea sick...is this true?

Cruise food and the options you have is nothing like AI beige food.

And you know that because.... You have been on an AI?

I am not talking about the food particularly - its more the actual concept of a packaged type holiday with the limiting experience that entails, such as eating in the same place every night, not being able to go out of an evening and peruse the lovely local restaurants as you are being hoarded off somewhere else on your floating block - polluting the sea as you go.

I've been on maybe 30 cruises and I love them. Every cruise line is different and suited to different experiences. You don't have to do anything you dont want to but there are lots things to do. Some of the speakers I've heard are really good. There are painting classes, gyms , films , choirs,wine, tastings, craft meetings. The food is fabulous and you can dine w8th different people or as a couple. im not very mobile and it's a good holiday for me. I've met some wonderful people, Sally Gunel, Mary Berry's brother! And just generally interesting travellers. They are really conscious of pollution and you can go to really interesting talks about how they deal with rubbish,effluent etc.

Which was your favourite @sunnysal?

It's totally different.

Every cruise I've been on, we are off the ship straight after an early breakfast, spend the day sightseeing, have lunch out, back on ship for dinner. Nothing like spending the day in your AI hotel.

My favourites are NCL and Cunard

God this makes it all sound even less appealing than before!!!!

Also staggered by all these people who have done 20, 25, 30+ cruise holidays - where on earth do you find the cash?!

Staggering.

@Marinade

They are safe and easy holidays for single mums with young children. And for older folks, who don’t have the physical energy of others but who want to see different places.

Where do I find the cash? When I first went on cruises, I could only afford a windowless inside cabin that probably used to be maid servant quarters (QE2, now that was a proper ship) but it was worth it to get on board. These days my annual cruise is my main luxury. I drive a cheap car. I never traded up on houses. I don't have kids (which drops my carbon footprint a lot). I don't drink. I don't do much socialising, mainly because so much of it revolves around drinking. But once a year I go on a fantabulous cruise. I missed it so much during Covid times. Holidaying in the UK in a nice hotel in an interesting area? Not remotely as good. And seen as so much weirder ashore to be travelling/dining alone. Whereas on board it's seen as perfectly normal. It is something to look forward to the rest of the year. Something I can so happily do alone. Something I have occasionally happily shared with my parents, who also love a nice civilised cruise.

God, I need to book my next one.

Is there a good way of dealing with the single supplement issue or do you just have to live with it? I've considered going on cruises but as I don't have a partner currently they are all nearly double the headline per person price and that's just too much to justify.

It's the main reason I can't afford two cruises a year. Though I was a bit naughty one time when there was a great deal for 2 people travelling, that didn't apply to singles, and pretended my non existent twin sister was going to come, then had to pull out at the last minute. Saved me over a thousand pounds. Though now they want passport/insurance details in advance online it would be harder to pull that one off...

We did a Norwegian fjord cruise this
summer. It was fabulous! Slightly choppy on the one day Uk to Norway, but once in the fjords, it’s super smooth. Plenty to do, whale watching, hiking, Flåm railway, kayaking, RIB safaris, e-bikes and zip-lining. All very wholesome. We went with Silversea. Highly recommended.

I haven’t got over reading that there’s a knitting area on the Hurtigruten! That’s next year’s cruise sorted! One of them, anyway!

I was reading somewhere about educational river cruises. That would suit T least one of my nerdy kids.

I think this is just river cruises… but google to find out who doesn’t charge the single supplement… https://rivercruiseadvisor.com/2024/06/single-supplements-for-solo-travelers/

Cruisecritic is also a reputable source for information.

You can do actual knitting cruises with them it seems:

https://arnecarlos.com/journeys/

I'm looking at a cruise round Japan. It's £10k. The single supp is over £8k! DP can't come.

I could let someone come for, say, £4k and still save money! I might look at one of those solo traveller websites and see if I can find someone to share with!

Can’t breathe!

We've loved cruising.So much so that we've done 15.
One of the great things is you unpack once and that's it.
Get a balcony cabin midships..and with cabins above and below.No noise from night club ..show room or dining rooms that way.
Yes the buffet can be a scrum but only if you go at the same time a loads of others .And you can lunch in other venues with no extra charge.
You can book excursions for each port.you don't have to stick to walking around the port all day.
These can be expensive if booked with the cruise line so it pays to do some research and book your own trips independently.
We've had some wonderful times including a Christmas cruise.
Sadly my lovely husband has terminal cancer so no more cruising...but lots of lovely memories

@Ineffable23
Most ships do have single cabins which are less than paying for a single in a double occupancy cabin. I believe the best are NCL ( Norwegian Cruise Line). The cabins are tiny but they are together and you have your own exclusive singles lounge nearby .
They do go quickly though. Lots of people want to sail as a single.
There are issues with some of their ships. Epic sounds bad!

www.ncl.com/uk/en/freestyle-cruise/solo-cruising

So very sad about your husband. I hope you’re able to have some more lovely memories before he passes. X x x x x

The worries about massive cruise ships running on traditional heavy fuel oils are not just about "carbon," which someone might offset in other ways, but about eye-popping amounts of sulphur dioxide and other stuff being emitted and all the stuff getting released in the harbors of charming historical cities. And the fact that cruise tourists tend to flood cities suddenly in huge numbers and spend less than other kinds of tourists.

More and more cities are banning them, and I don't blame them. They may play a role for disabled and elderly tourists, but Europe is building a lot of high speed rail and sleeper trains right now, and hopefully they will be ensuring some accessible accommodation, so it would be nice if this became an alternative for travelers who have less mobility but want to see different places.

Smaller cruise ships running on clean synthetic fuels would be OK, as long as they stop dumping crap in the sea, seriously.

@pestowithwalnuts 💐💐

@malificent7 look at cruise critic. A mine of information. Check out the reviews as each line has different classes of ship. Look at the boards and if you book then the roll call for your ship where you could share excursions. I think for some people on the first cruise though to do ships excursions can be a good starting point- but they are busy!

Cruise ships are in the business of keeping people happy and spending money, whereas ferries are in the business of getting you from A to B.

So it is in the interests of the cruise ship to keep things as smooth as possible, even if that involves skipping a port.

If you are travelling from Southampton to the med you might get a rocky ship in the bay of Biscay.

If you fly to the med to get on the ship then it will be as smooth as possible.

You can obviously take sea sickness pills and according to one of the YouTubers I follow you can get a jab on board that costs about £150, knocks you out for a few hours and after that you are fine

https://www.passionforcruises.co.uk/

a single friend raves about this company and has been on multiple solo cruises with them. No single supplement.