Cruises - Go on, convince me!

We’ve been in about 4 cruises and our last one was a world cruise. We were away for 4 months and we enjoyed every minute.
What’s not to like?
Waking up somewhere different almost every day.
Experiencing other countries (although for a short time)
Entertainment (if you want it)
Clubs and activities (if you want it)
Meeting other people (if you want to)
Fine dining every day OR
Cafe style help yourself meals
Quiet rooms for reading or just watching the ocean

I could go on and on.

Having said all that, I will wait a couple of years until this Covid is under control, to go on another cruise.

All forms of tourism are environmentally unfriendly. I can't see it stopping anytime soon although I suspect that it will go out of fashion within a generation. Having said that I'm glad that I have managed a few cruises in my lifetime.

Incidently, Oceania cruise line don't have Captain's Nights, or a photographer pestering you each evening and no requirement to dress formally for dinner (though do stipulate no shorts).

Ive been going on cruises for the last 5 years . Different types of cruises for different people . If you want a lot of noise go on a carnival cruise . There are great cruise companies about. I personally don’t like ships with more than 2.500 passengers .

We had our first cruise the year before lockdown. On the whole we really enjoyed it, food was excellent and our cabin was ideal. However, Captains Night was a farce in my opinion. 'He' , the Captain , was supposed to greet passengers at a pre-determined time during an evening, all passengers were advised to dress in their finery, were offered cheap nasty 'champagne ' and we all waited around for 45 minutes waiting for the Captain to show up! It was obvious that a few of the passengers were looking down their noses at others who they didn't consider were dressed quite haute couture!
Now, I have no objection to dressing for dinner but I saw Captains Night as nothing short of an opportunity for people to show off and pay an extortionate amount of money to have their photo taken with the Captain.

What Curlywhirly said.
We have done the Nile twice and loved it but went on a larger boat to Norway and was not keen.
I would do a river cruise again.

We have been on 3 different types of cruise: River (the Nile); Ocean Cruises and Gulet Cruises.
The Nile cruise was amazing: small boat (only about 150 passengers) and visited the most magnificent sites.
The Ocean cruises: still not 100% in love with them. Advantages: gorgeous food; different destination each day; luxury surroundings (favourite cruise line is Oceania which is very luxurious). Disadvantages: same surroundings every evening; we miss being able to wander around the streets of a resort after dining out; huge ships (that's why we choose Oceania, their ships are relatively small); expensive excursions (we did our homework before we sailed and booked independent excursions with local travel companies who guarantee to return you to the ship in plenty of time before it sails (always a worry!).
Gulet cruises: absolutely loved them, we've been on 3. A Gulet is a small (only holds 12 passengers) wooden sailing boat that sails round the coast of Turkey (or Greece and Croatia). They sail to a different place each day, giving you to opportunity to swim each time they make a stop. The food was amazing. It is the most relaxing holiday we have ever been on. The only disadvantages are that the cabins are small and basic and you are living cheek by jowl with other passengers (on each of our holidays we filled the boat with our friends, so no problem, but I do wonder if would be as enjoyable to be in such close proximity with strangers).
Each type of cruise is very different, I would certainly recommend trying at least one, until you do, you will never know!

Vegansrock No abuse from me. I agree totally.

Cruise ships are definitely environmentally unfriendly. They contribute massively to the pollution of the oceans and marine life. They may be fun for those on board but they are floating tower blocks discharging waste into the sea on a daily basis. I now expect a load of abuse and insults but had to put that information out there.

It is possible to make a cruise work for you. If you want to be social fine, or would rather keep to yourself that's fine too. You wake up each morning in a different port or you can sit and watch the ocean. I didn't think that cruising would be for us but I'm so glad we did while we were able. I've seen fiords and glaciers, whales and bald headed eagles, grisley bears in the wild, visited the gold room in the hermitage and listened to elderly ladies tell us about life under Russian rule in Estonia. Would never have done any of that without being able to cruise.

A Bodie = Cambodia

You have a lot of fun on a good cruise and meet lots of people from different parts of the world. Some are better than others. We have been on quite a few from the rather posh Viking cruises to various river cruises and also the Princess cruises. I have to say the Princess cruises were the most fun with heaps of entertainment all day and night and the food is pretty good. I wouldn’t go on the lower end of the market cruises because they are more geared to young ones and you get lots of kids milling around which can be annoying and too noisy. We went on a Scenic cruise round the Mediterranean and also the one from Budapest to Amsterdam and they were good. I
I think the latter was with APT. Also round Vietnam and. A Bodie is good. I wouldn’t go on a cruise for years because I had visions of being seasick but they are pretty stable and even though we have actually been through a cyclone in the pacific we were ok.

Cruising is not for everyone but then lots of holiday types are not, for example camping, caravaning, skiing, sailing, hosteling, independent travel I could go on and on.
As far as cruising is concerned there are many types of cruises catering for different age groups, family ships, expeditions ships etc.
We have for most of our lives arranged our own travel however when we wanted to visit Rio and South American on doing the maths it was less expensive to go by cruise and this would include all our meals. Likewise to visit the Orkney Islands, Shetland Island would cost more when you consider the ferry sailings.
We look on traveling by cruise ship as a way to travel from A to B without the ordeal of having to take planes and have a good time while traveling there.
We all have options you don't have to cruise it's not compulsory.

The formal evenings are not intimidating, you simply need a long black skirt and a few sparkly tops, job done !

We enjoy cruising now and again ! Don't cruise on a regular basis. I love being onboard and waking up in a new place each morning. Not remotely interested in the captains table!! Dressing for dinner is something I enjoy - only a few formal evenings , usually after a day at sea. Other eating options available if that doesn't float your boat!! There are lots of people but I have never had any trouble finding a quiet place to sit and read.
We dine on a table of 8 , bound to be someone to like!! Breakfast can be a bun fight but can always opt for table service in the restaurant.
However Covid will have to be well and truely beaten before we go again!!

GillT57

*Ixion*, I rest my case! If however, you would like to know about cruises from someone who has been on a few recently ( pre -covid obviously), do please PM me and I can give you some advice on cruise lines and destinations.

Thank you so much for your kind offer - however, I'm not convinced yet! If we do go ahead in the future, I will certainly get back to you!
Maybe I'm just too anti-social??

Only been on one cruise on a small boat to the Fjords. Not sure it was my thing. DH called it 'Butlins on the water' as the entertainment and activities during the day are very similar. The excursions are very expensive, but if you go on your own you're always worried about getting back in time. If you don't they go without you. I loved all the dressing up for dinner but this wasn't every night. Didn't like having to sit with other people though. However the people on our table were lovely. Not sure I would go cruising again, but you need to give it a go to see if you like it.

Ive done 3 Norway, The Rhine and Red Sea longest 6 days they were good, you do have the routine queueing for excursions they are optional you can stay on board if you want.
Try a short one Norwegian Fiords or similar, the Mega cruise ships in the Caribbean wouldn’t suit me, plenty of others.

LOVE cruising. Prefer small ships not these massive ones. No Captain’s Table after about 15 cruises but not of great interest to us anyway. Meet lovely people. Wake up in beautiful places every day. 5 star food, no trudging around looking for somewhere to eat. Entertainment which you can take or leave. Dress up if you want to, don’t if you don’t.
So glad we’ve cruised in the past. Seen so many wonderful places and met some equally wonderful people.

Ixion, I rest my case! If however, you would like to know about cruises from someone who has been on a few recently ( pre -covid obviously), do please PM me and I can give you some advice on cruise lines and destinations.

A brother and SiL of mine, ditto a sister and BiL, are very keen on cruises (smaller ships only), or they were, before Covid put paid to them for now. Sister and BiL have just been bumped off a U.K. waters cruise because of restrictions. They did book late but sister was very disappointed.

Dh and I have never fancied them, because like a pp, we were fish in previous lives and like to be in the water, rather than on it.

One mini cruise I’d love to do again, though, was a Greek island thing for about 4 days - we were on hols with friends - 12 of us inc. kids, when we saw a lovely wooden yacht in the harbour, saying for hire with skipper, sleeps 12!

It was brilliant - no dressing up, lazy island hopping, lots of swimming off the boat in gorgeous aquamarine water, tying up each evening and finding a simple harbourside taverna for dinner. And remarkably reasonable.
I could do that again any day - preferably for more than 4 days though!

Guess I'd just feel really embarrassed being seen to disembark from something like this.

Whitewavemark2

Our first cruises in the 80s were delightful, but they have definitely changed since then.

I would only choose a small boat now and pay as much as I can afford to get the same quality as we did then. Our last cruise was a few years ago and it was grim. We went with Celebrity, crowded restaurants, crowded sun deck, queue to get on and off the boat etc. A suite might have saved the queuing I suppose, but the crowds would still be there.

Sort of now decided to put cruising back to either when we are too old or dodgy on our pins to cope with a different sort of holiday.

But I’m sure that other folk will totally disagree with me?

That was one of my conditions we have a suite and a generous balcony.

The ship will only be maximum of 1/3 capacity, so hopefully we can avoid crowds and queues as I detest both nowadays.

We have been on two very different cruises. The first was on the Nile in upper Egypt. Not a large ship but friendly. OH and I were the only people not to get food poisoning! We have lived overseas so knew not to eat anything like salads or have ice cubes. The other cruise was to Norway and the fjords. We had to dress for dinner, which was fine. The experience was good except OH got very seasick at one point!

Our first cruises in the 80s were delightful, but they have definitely changed since then.

I would only choose a small boat now and pay as much as I can afford to get the same quality as we did then. Our last cruise was a few years ago and it was grim. We went with Celebrity, crowded restaurants, crowded sun deck, queue to get on and off the boat etc. A suite might have saved the queuing I suppose, but the crowds would still be there.

Sort of now decided to put cruising back to either when we are too old or dodgy on our pins to cope with a different sort of holiday.

But I’m sure that other folk will totally disagree with me?