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?

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

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? 🙄

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.

Not everyone. My idea of hell

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.

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.

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.

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.

You are still stuck on a floating petri dish...

I understand why people like them. They are good value compared to other holidays, they are easy and unchallenging holidays where you unpack once and don’t have to manage transfers etc. They have kids clubs and entertainment.

They are really popular for families where I live (Australia) because they are really the only type of AI holiday on offer. But we have huge seas and our kids can get seasick stepping over a puddle so never in a million years would I consider it. Seasickness is incredibly common on cruises here but sailing from Australia to NZ is a completely different situation compared to sailing around the Mediterranean.

When DH and I are retired I might consider a cruise where you sail close to scenery and wildlife like Alaska but zero interest in being trapped in a giant floating hotel in the middle of the ocean eating from a buffet.

I'd never do an ocean liner as they scare the f outta me but I've done a luxury river cruise down the Rhine and it was stunning.
The service was exceptional and the food was all cooked by a Michelin starred chef and his team.
Honestly, I had the best time.

@Remaker I am in Australia too. My DD used to work in a hotel in the city of Sydney and they had truckloads of people flying in from America and Europe to go on a cruise from Sydney Harbour. She said they were mostly older people. Still, flying all that way just to go on a cruise!

I would try a Mediterranean cruise because at least there are plenty of ports but going on a Pacific cruise - no way. It takes like 3 days to get to NZ.

We hated cruising. But, were more adventurous travellers who hate crowds.

I dislike the amount of people crammed on board & you can't sit anywhere nice as the spots all over the ship get claimed at 5am & the spa was full of drunk idiots who claimed it the entire cruise. Constantly marketed at for photos/spa packages/ paid outings. We were told not to go snorkelling at the free spot close by docking because it wasn't safe, to get everyone to pay for a guided activity which was a 30 minute snorkel for eye watering cost (we ignored along with half the ship). It took 3 hours to get off the ship when they used tenders, and has only two hours on land!

The food was ok once we figured out we had to go to the restaurant at 5pm bang on. Buffet was grim & overcrowded.

I can see why some like it, but it's not for me!

No because Bob and Mary aren’t constantly driving around when at home (and that’s not even a good analogy as cruise ships emit
more pollutants than cars), or releasing sewage into the oceans.

As with most holidays, it obviously depends on your travel company imo. I’ve had horrific flights with budget airlines, cramped, delayed, drunk passengers, lost luggage but also pleasant flights with a scheduled airline. It’s simplistic to apply a broad statement. The cruise industry is the same.
A small ship, varied itinerary, with a good amount of time at each port can be a great holiday. We visited Norway this summer on a modern, low CO2 emission ship (the only type legally allowed through the fjords from 2026). It was spectacular watching whales from the balcony with morning coffee and hiking or cycling different mountains. The food was great - no shared tables, silver service and the ship smoother than crossing the channel. A lovely restful holiday, no flights and no towel wars around the pool!

I'm happy they exist for those people who would genuinely really struggle to holiday without one (some types of disability, for example). They should be a rareity though. It's not a very sustainable way of travel (though progress is being made on green synthetic fuels). And cruise ship tours are unpopular for the way they charge into popular cities en masse and flood the place with their footfall while spending very little money. There is a trend to charge these places heavy fees for docking and I think we should be moving further along these lines.

Fantastic kid clubs on board

A cruise is my idea of hell, but I have a strange fascination with YouTube cruises.

I've learned a lot.

Different lines for different people. Disney is great for kids, Silversea better for adults and more luxury.

Itinerary - do you want more ports of more sea days? The Queen Mary crosses the Atlantic so is all sea days.

Is there somewhere you HAVE to see, if that port is dropped how will you feel?

Languages, Costa do announcements in 5 languages which some people find annoying.

Size of ship, some have room for thousands of people. If you are in a tender port then the priority to get ashore goes to people who have booked an excursion with the ship.

Things on the ship, do you like shows? Roller coasters? Pools? Type of dining? Talks / lectures?

Type of cruise, there are naked cruises, cruises dedicated to a type of music.

I think cruises can be fantastic holidays if you make the right choices.

Personally I don't like being on water, I'm not even keen on cross channel ferries.

I’ve only been on one, but really enjoyed it. I loved waking up somewhere new every day. And getting a taster of places I could go back to. I’d definitely go again

Noisy, brash and full of people. Shopping malls. Sports bars. Casinos. Hundreds of people on sun loungers round a pool. Bloody water slides with people screaming continuously. Restaurants that look like the food court in a shopping centre. Indoor seating areas with massive screens everywhere. There always seems like there's massive screens everywhere, inside and out and constant noise including 'entertainment' bellowing down microphones into pool areas and loud music.

I've never been on a cruise like that - which line/ship was that?

We go with Azamara. Small ships. No casino or sports bars. Certainly not massive screens everywhere. No water slides. No loud music round the pool. Or anywhere else for that matter.

And actually we love all sorts of holidays - city breaks, sometimes combined with a cruise, cottage holidays in the Scottish highlands and islands. People who go on cruises don't have some strange mindset where we can't do anything else.

You'd think wrong. I like beaches, to go for a walk and photograph on their natural state, but resort beaches crammed with loungers and umbrellas as far as the eye can see are my idea of hell.

A lot of snobbery here

What ship were you on? This isn’t my experience at all.