Views on a cruise

We really love cruising and have done half a dozen now using Celebrity, Cunard & Royal Caribbean. The idea of waking somewhere different every day appeals to us &, being country dwellers, the idea of restaurants, bars, a theatre and dancing all close at hand is a welcome novelty. I notice a lot of posters who don't like the idea of cruising seem to think there's a compulsion to join in and do things at specific times with everyone else. Certainly on the cruises we've been on, this is absolutely not the case & we've pleased ourselves & done what we wanted when we wanted. My favourite was a Baltic cruise with 2 days in St Petersburg & a visit to the Hermitage - magical.

I'm going on a cruise in a couple of weeks. A 4 hour trip up the Leeds/Liverpool Canal on a narrow-boat, with my choir mates. Afternoon tea included.
That's far enough away from land for me!

I love cruises and have been on eight, mostly with my husband, but three with my sister. I loved them all. I particularly enjoyed visiting China, Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. The Baltic cruises and Norwegian cruises were also fabulous. I love the food, the freedom, the people we meet and have made friends with from all over the world, some of whom we are still in contact with several years later. As others have said you can do as much or as little as you want to, you can dine on a table for two, or a table for a group, you can swim or relax, dance the night away or retire early. Everyone we have met, fellow passengers and crew have been lovely.
We have cruised with Holland America, Cunard, Norwegian Cruise Line, Costa, and Celebrity.

Absolutely no, my idea of hell. I would hate not being able to spend a bit more time in the countries we visited. If I wanted to go to a show or see a film I could do it without going on a ship. Also I am with Jura2 and the damage to the4 planet.

Where did that second 4 come from?

jura2, you rightly wondered about the damage done by cruise liners to Venice, the "wonderful, frail, ancient city". Venice seems like a metaphor for our planet.

I read posts yesterday telling me that people "know" the messages about the bespoiling of the natural world (as was. It's a bit less natural these days.) They weren't interested to hear more, including the tv news last night that the Arctic has now been found to be more horribly polluted than was previously known. So, this morning, we're back to comparing cruises...

Simply having enough money to do any particular activity shouldn't give us automatic entitlement to proceed. Wouldn't the pleasure gained by someone while knowingly polluting the earth be utterly negated if they had to look into the eyes of a child in the future and confess to having knowingly contributed to their struggle for survival? Sadly, there's no need to wait a generation or two to do that. Those children are already born and already suffering, every day. If they were our own flesh and blood I imagine there'd be wall to wall outrage and demands for help and change. But pollution is no respecter of borders and it is already affecting UK children.

Our earth isn't going to magically mend by us all being "woke" and just never buying 10p plastic bags again. What we'll have to do will, I'm sure, mean sacrifice at a very personal level. We'll need to stop doing many of the things we very much enjoy. We really hate that, even when it's only temporary like a diet. But we've listened so long to the advertisers telling us that we're worth it, so now every day's a treat day for many. We consume too much of everything, which turns out to be unsustainable.

In the meantime, keep cruising???

PS My intention here is NOT to criticise any individual or cause distress. I'm worried, and thinking 'out loud'. I would have loved to live in a world of endless plenty where we could all harmlessly enjoy our favourite pleasures and pursuits.

Like everyone else, I don't know what the solutions are but it looks like they will need to be many and radical. We've been sophisticated and created lots of different types of pollutants, which don't exist in isolation but are interwoven and demonstrating the laws of unintended consequences. We can't blithely continue pretty much as before in the hopes that salvation magically appears just in time.

Just got back from a cruise to Norway and Iceland. My 7th cruise with P&O and had a fabulous time as usual.

I went on several cruises and loved them. However I would never go on one of those huge ships but would pick something small. I went on a river cruise with Viking which was superb. Some ships are like floating holiday camps, I think with cruising you get what you pay for.

Our cruise was a cross between Titanic and the shining

Never. Not if I was paid. See the world while ruining it? No thanks.

I never fancied a cruise until our closest friends went on their first one as a treat to celebrate the end of cancer treatment. They did the Baltic Cruise with Azamara and that was our first one too. We loved it! There are roughly 700 people onboard and there are 3 choices of restaurants to eat in. We found that there were plenty of people to talk to yet we didn’t feel forced to socialise - we could eat on our own without any awkwardness. We’ve done two river cruises in the last two years and have enjoyed them equally as much. The excursions on river cruises are normally included in the price and so you don’t feel obliged to go on them. However the values are good and we usually had three to choose from. The crew are generally brilliant - attentive but not intrusive. I wasn’t feeling great one day on this year’s trip and got to the dinner table but couldn’t face eating so returned to the stateroom. Five minutes later our “butler” rang me to see if I was all right and offered to bring me something light. I was very impressed and very grateful for his arrival with a tray of fruit. I’d definitely recommend Scenic River Cruises although I’m sure the others are equally good.

It was absolutely awful from the entering the tiny cabin. Toilets and baths that overflow or block at will. Being herded around on the tours without enough time to really enjoy places on the trip. Broken glass under the bed. Cups and glasses in the cabin not cleaned. Queing for ages to get admitted into the restaurant to eat. Overpriced drinks. Crowded pool areas. I could go on for hours. Don't do it - we wished we hadn't. 18 nights stuck on a cruise ship and not a fish in sight! (The med is too polluted)

Been on 3. Hurtigruten first in Norwegian winter from Tromso to Kirkenes on the Russian border to see the Northern lights. The utterly pristine, deep powdery snow in Kirkenes I’ll never forget. Also did reindeer sledging. That was scary when they bolted after “meeting” a husky group sledging group.

Next was a 4 week retirement Caribbean Christmas cruise in 2017 on the small P&O ship, Adonia which again, was fab but ship has very sadly now been sold. However, some ports were out of action after the hurricane season (could not be helped) and there was some repetition of visited ports and the ship’s entertainment in the second fortnight.

Then last year we thought it would be nice to go from Southampton this time again on P&O around the Med. Sorry but this one was Benidorm-on-sea and chavvy. Never saw any trouble but there were some very rude mobility scooter users. I’ve never seen so many tattoos in over 70’s male and female We were truly shocked and couldn’t really relate to anyone. I remember one woman encountering Indian food in the buffet restaurant for the first time and asking the server behind the counter what the horrible smell from the food was. Don’t know if we will do it again.

Floorflock, can you say which company this was with, please? I agree, it sounds awful, but others must be better.

Viking Ocean ticks all our boxes. Quiet, tasteful decor, interesting company if you want it, excellent food in a choice of venues etc etc and absolutely no extra charges. Lovely

Been on 4 and loved it...

Have been on 6 cruises, 2 on Queen Mary 2 which does take dogs as the kennels are on the top deck. However, I believe it is for passengers going on the New York/Southampton voyages, usually in winter I think. Possibly for people doing long stays. Anyway, she's a beautiful ship and I'd cruise again now I'm alone but refuse to pay the exorbitant single fares and I'm near Southampton too. I did go to S.America with a friend but flying back for 17 hours was awful, plus I find 3 weeks is maximum for me. We once did 38 days to Sydney, wonderful entering the harbour early morning, never forget that, also on another cruise we passed through the Panama Canal, took 8 hours. Oh, the memories come flooding back of happy days. Do go on a cruise, I have loved them.

Give me a river cruise any day . You always have something good to look at out the window It far less stuffy than a river cruise and when you dock there are about a hundred of you at the most to cater for not 3 thousand like a sea cruise.you also do not loose any days just cruising .
As an aside the only sea cruise we did was for a big wedding anniversary and we were so sea sick we wanted to die . We phoned to get the doctor and was told she had a long list of patients to see beofre us and could we come down to her surgery instead. I was so ill I would not even lift a finger to scratch my nose in case I was sick again. DH's abiding memory of this was our bottle of gin sliding side to side and we could not move to stop it.

Never really fancied cruising, but decided a few years ago to try it. Have since been on a few (about once every 4 years) and still have mixed feelings about them. Love the fact that you are in a different city/country almost every day; the food and service are really good and if you choose a decent cruise line, the ship and cabins are of a good standard. Downside for me is the evenings - it's a bit like groundhog day, the same suroundings each evening. I miss not being able to go for a wander around the city we are visiting after our evening meal. We have also been on a river cruise (the Nile) and river cruising is nothing like ocean cruising - I think it's much more enjoyable, you have something to see the whole time the boat is sailing as you are so near to land. I can thoroughly recommend the Nile cruise, it was fascinating and there is just so much to see. Our ocean cruises were with P & O, Cunard and Oceania; Oceania was by far the best, the cabins are beautiful with lovely Bulgari toiletries and gorgeous bedding and the food was really, really good.

Oh Floradora, that sounds horrendous. I can just picture that bottle going back and forth!

I was fine when our ship hit some choppy seas ... not the mill pond my Father had kept saying we'd experience. So he and I were having dinner in a rather empty
dining room. I assumed my Mother was in the cabin but he later asked me if I'd seen her. She'd disappeared.

Twenty minutes of dashing round different areas when I suddenly saw 2 feet sticking out of a ladies cubicle. My poor Mother. Flat on her back.

I went to assist but she calmly told me she was feeling the best she had all day and to just leave her there.

Only just back from our first, a Baltic cruise , fourteen nights on a vast Royal Caribbean cruiser with 1000 staff and 3500 ‘guests”. We did it as a special treat for our fortieth wedding anniversary, actually the day we sailed out if Southampton.

Fantastic destinations, Helsinki, St. Petersberg, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Tallin, Skagen, Stavanger, Oslo. Obit a couple if days at sea in the Baltic plus one journey up and one down through the channel and North Sea.

I loved it, but not sure I would have loved a long sea voyage across say the Atlantic and for me it was all about the destinations but my wife, who was more dubious, wants to go again so I guess it was right fir us.

Food was amazing, had to work very hard not to put on major pounds it was that nice, and we were lucky with a dinner group of like minded and similar humoured folk, but that could have been complex if we had not been lucky, but we were and the few formal dinners only demanded a cocktail dress and a lounge suit, no DJs for us, something that I know worries some people.

Like everything American, RC are a US company, you have to be very firm to keep the tipping under control, you have to make a point if cancelling the automatic tipping on the first day before you actually sail or you risk being lumbered, but that is the only important ‘rule’.

Sort out the destinations and visits you want to see before you go, I borrowed good guide books from our local library ands scanned town maps which proved invaluable as the ones the ship issues are all about expensive souvenir shops.

Great entertainment every night, the ice rink show was amazing, and I think if you go onboard with an open mind you will have a whale of a time.

Went on our first cruise this year and really enjoyed it. It was a German River cruise with about 130 people on board. We are going to try a Fjord cruise on a much larger ship next year to compare.

I ve never been on a cruise I couldn’t afford one but I ve never wanted to I can’t stand the thought of being in a herd and unable to escape and having to dress a certain way to fit in and all the dreadful tipping oh no thanks I ll do my own thing not be one of hundreds confined in a big space eating at 5he sane time and all the one upmanship
My friend loves cruising and puts on 1 to 2 stones every time

The thing about cruising is that you can make it work, whatever your preference. Traveling made easy, excellent food, entertainment etc. You can join in or do your own thing. Sadly DH health prevents us from any sort of travel, but would go again in a flash!

the world is a beautiful place. Is it wrong to want to see some of it? Some of the places visited by the smaller cruise ships depend on tourism for jobs for their children. Many places we visited no longer have fishing as their main income. They rely on tourists to come and visit and to spend money they can use to care for their families. I am not talking about the floating hotel type of ships but the smaller cruise lines.