So, who’s up for a cruise ship vacation (poll)?

In My Humble Opinion
61

I was one of those people, and that is not my point of view.

I was on a cruise from Southampton to New York. It was a small ship (900 passengers - nothing like those floating cities they have now). Five days at sea, and nothing but ocean all around during the day. There were activities, but not nearly enough to cover five days being confined with 900 people. On day 3 we hit the outer bands of a hurricane, with waves breaking over the deck and hundreds of lightning strikes lasting for hours.

Whether it was the continuous motion of the ship - multiplied massively by the hours we spent going through the hurricane - or the possibility of a virus passed around what was basically a sea-going dormitory, dozens of people were suffering various forms of digestive distress by the time we docked in New York.

I will say that the night sky was amazing on the nights that weren’t obscured by cloud cover, and seeing the Statue of Liberty as we sailed into New York harbor was unforgettable. But the overall experience was one I choose never to repeat.

By contrast, my 13-hour ,tourist class flight overseas was only mildly uncomfortable.

62

I voted Been on a cruise once, and it was OK but not great. Probably no more.

I was teaching taxes on one of those “tax deductible business cruises” 3 day LA to Baja. I taught two classes a day, and sat in a few others. Food was good, but I ate too much. I then sat in a deck chair and read. My cabin- being free- was tiny (everything was free but booze- i didnt drink- and some fees). I do love the ocean, and sitting & reading near it is something I love to do, so that was okay. But here is the point, I can drive to the ocean, sit and read a book, then eat at a decent buffet for far, far less. I am fine with people, however. Crowds were not a big problem- most of the time.

I cant see paying good money to do it today. Mind you- if it was one of those big sailing ships, i would like to try it. Like this one

63

That’d be the Norwegian chef.

64

Voted never done a cruise, but want to one day.

With provisos. I’m very uninterested in the highly advertised mega-structures that gouge you on the little things, with lots of distractions and booze to keep you busy on the whole place-to-place trip, and then drop you in places where the locals don’t want you.

I am interested in some niche cruises - my wife and I said that the cruises related to Max Miller’s Tasting History would be interesting. The combination of history, some shared interests with the other passengers, and food that is a PART of that combination would be nice.

(for reference)

We think other, similarly focused and probably smaller total scale events would be interesting as well. But who knows when/if we’ll have the time and money to do so.

65

Do the discounts offset the casino losses?

66

They don’t but if he didn’t gamble on cruise ships , he’d be gambling wherever we traveled instead. And I’d rather be on a cruise ship or all inclusive resort , not a hotel, while he’s gambling.

67

Does anyone else watch cruise ship tip videos? I have watched quite a few Life Well Cruised YouTube videos, and have found them to be quite helpful and entertaining.

68

Here’s the thing. I am an introvert, with moderate social anxiety. Strangers with whom I am obliged to interact even a little (with exceptions) are pretty much “ugh” to me. I don’t need to spend all that money to spend a week or two talking only to the person I came with, and avoiding everyone who wants to interact with me without having anything in common.

The crowds I spoke of in my post were the ones trying to sightsee in Venice at the same time as 20 or 30 other ships’ worth of people. In some ways, fewer people on board is worse, there is no escaping in the crowd if someone zeroes in on me. I’m not interested in scowling at people either, I just don’t want to have to deal with the expectations of random other people.

I have no doubt that some measure of my attitude towards taking a cruise is not entirely rational. I realize that I can’t objectively evaluate the experience of cruise ships without ever having been on one. But that’s okay, because not wanting to go on a cruise is just how I feel. That’s all part of my not being interested in other peoples’ expectations.

69

That’s really my issue with cruises as well, beyond the generally pre-packaged nature of the thing.

We actually took a cruise a couple of years ago in Hawaii, on the NCL “Pride of America” ship between the four major Hawaiian islands.

It was… ok. The food was ok- probably pretty impressive considering the volumes they have to crank out, but not anywhere near as great as what we could have got onshore, had we just spent the week of the cruise flying between the islands on Southwest and eating locally. As far as the ship stuff went, the whole thing was basically devised to sail overnight and wake up in a new port each morning, with a couple of places having a night in port. Our usual approach (we had our kids) was to go on the shore stuff all day, come back, rest a bit/hang out by the pool, have dinner, and then turn in kind of early. One night we saw a magic show that was decently fun, and we’d generally eat a late-ish dinner and let the kids play in the pool.

The shore excursions were kind of hit or miss. We had a couple (Maui and Big Island, and the submarine) that were fantastic, because the tour guides were very personable and willing to talk about their personal experiences, or because they were so unique (the submarine). Others were tourist trap crap (the Kauai afternoon one, the Maui morning one, and the ) and most were ok, but not anything special. All in all, kind of a wash vs. the stuff we could have got up to on our own.

I didn’t really mind the ship part, but my wife found out that she gets mal de débarquement syndrome, so she was NOT about the ship stuff at all. One son got queasy, while me and the other kid were kind of enjoying the whole thing when the waves got up one evening.

Still, when I think back on the two weeks we spent in Hawaii, most of my memories aren’t shipboard stuff or shore excursions, with a couple of exceptions (the Big Island tour in particular was fantastic), but rather the 3 days in/around Honolulu and on Oahu before the cruise, and the four days on the Big Island after the cruise.

Ultimately I replied “Been on a cruise once, and it was OK but not great. Probably no more.”, mostly because I’m not going on a major cruise line massive ship cruise again. I could see myself taking one of those European river cruises perhaps, or maybe one of those smaller ships to Antarctica, or even one of those sailboat cruises, but not the huge Carnival or NCL ones ever again.

70

I’m toying with going on a cruise. I’ve done a lot of group bus trips, and not having to schlep my bag and pack and unpack sounds attractive. It would have to be going to places in interested in visiting. I’m not really interested in spending a lot of time on the ship.

I didn’t vote, because I’m somewhere between “never been, want to”, and “never been, don’t plan to”. It’s a little more complicated because i like to travel a lot more than my husband, and these are mostly packaged for two people in a room. So i need to coordinate with a friend.

That’s one I’ve looked at.

71

I don’t even like overnight ferries.

72

I thought I’d like to go on one.

Too many things are against me.

Not to mention I’d be the wet blanket. No one needs or wants that.

:slightly_frowning_face:

73

The only one I would consider would be one of those small boat Antarctica ones, and that’s because you can’t realistically get there any other way and it’s not as though there’s a lot of culture outside the ports anyway. Aside from that, cruise ships sound like travel without any of the bits I find interesting.

74

Twice, both times on Delta Queen from New Orleans to Natchez and back with a couple extra nights in NOLA included in the package.

With a passenger load of less than 200 and something new at each bend in the river, we enjoyed ourselves.

75

I can’t speak for Viking, but in my experience it’s common for indoor bar areas to be pretty empty during daylight hours.

76

I’ve been on cruises, but they were board game cruises.
I did a transatlantic (Southampton-Vigo [Spain], Lisbon, Lanzarote, Tenerife, Halifax, NJ) cruise
(We were supposed to go to Bermuda but were diverted due to hurricane Tammy) and on sea days or evenings I was in the conference room playing games (I played ~40). I did do one trivia, and used the pool once or twice, but otherwise didn’t use the ship for anything but eating or sleeping.
My other cruises were shorter (Caribbean and Alaska), but were also board game ones.
I plan on doing another transatlantic this year (Barcelona, Mallorca, Cartagena, Azores, Bermuda, Orlando) – depends on if I have to sell my house to buy airplane tickets :wink:
This has been an every third year thing, we will see what 2029 looks like.
I have little interest in a non gaming cruise unless it was a specialty one (Eclipse, Galapagos, Antarctica, etc)
Brian
(for those curious, see Qwyx Events)

77

At one time I had the ambition to go on a bridge cruise, but I feel like this is not going to happen because my wife doesn’t play.

She’s done more than her share of vacations where she’s had to amuse herself for 3-4 days while I watch sports with our kid.

78

I don’t like people on my holidays, so I don’t even like a big hotel, let alone a resort or, god-forbid, a cruise ship. I hate being anywhere that is purely set up for tourism. I like to eat in local restaurants, and visit museums, and hire my own car to conduct my own self-guided tour, and stay in a villa with my own private pool.

I don’t like chain restaurants, or coach trips, or guided tours, or other people’s children, or following a crowd. A cruise is my idea of absolute hell.

79

I’m only a couple hours drive from two major cruising ports, so the value proposition is very different for me than for a family that needs to include plane tickets and maybe a hotel room in their vacation budget.

I don’t think I’d enjoy a cruise if it was my family’s one big vacation for the year, but as something to do for a long weekend (and often for about the same cost as a mid-range hotel room) it’s nice.

I do tend to avoid the main pool decks which tend to be packed with vacationers cramming as much sun and swimming into their day as they can. But those crowds generally mean other parts of the ship are pretty chill.

80

Yes, as a matter of fact. I enjoy the “Emma Cruises” YouTube channel. The cruising itself doesn’t strike me as all that appealing, but I like watching and I find Emma’s accent soothing.

The minister of my church is a regular cruiser. He and his husband go on at least one cruise a year, almost exclusively on Royal Caribbean. For next summer, he’s arranged a cruise where any member of the congregation can go with them, for a 4-day cruise between Miami and Nassau. We actually looked into it, but even with the group discount he negotiated, it’s still more than we wanted to spend on a vacation (and that wasn’t even counting the expense of getting to Miami in the first place!). Between that and my wife being prone to seasickness, we had to pass.