《Time for Cruising》 Maximize your travelling experience

Cruising is a getaway from everything and stick into a private place where you can just relax. Sitting by the pool, drinks in hand, without a care about the world. Eat well (all-day buffet), sleep well, head to the gym, and relax. Crusing is not simply “travel”, but more of a relaxing break.

However, getting on a cruise is an expensive investment. And there's always a few tips  from experienced cruisers on how you could get the best out of the journey and maximizing your experience.

1. Get on a ship with promising branding and facilities

Different cruise companies has their own characteristic and features. This also depends on where the cruise is from - whether it is run by a British, European or American company - they simply have a different style of doing things. Simply choose the one best that suits your need.

In general, cruise from the America (regardless of the cruise is running from which part of the world), is more enegetic and packed with activities, with warm welcome from the cruise directors and staffs, plus a sense of home and a big family.

Some features of cruise companies that I went before:

Princess - British company, more focus on space for self-entertainment, including a lot of music bars and open deck. A good boat if you want more individual thinking or reading space and enjoying the moment in the sea.

Royal Caribbean - American cruise targeting teens and kids. There's a lot of activties around the ship and mostly kid-friendly. There's ice-skating rink, water slides, rock climbing, mini golf and distinctive jogging track and basketball court. It's an active ship where activties simply overwhelmed your time and you are always busy with something to do.

Celebrity - Also an American cruise company, targeting young adult, adult and elderly with good show and food. This ship has the best specialties and performances, where you are very close to every staff - they simply have the same person following up your dining, room and activities. This is more of a balance ship, where time could be well spread out for both activities and personal time.

2. Less Sea Day or More Sea Day

This is really a personal choice. My parents find it boring for sea days - 1 day is fine, 2 continous days is badly boring, but a journey with 3 intermittent sea days is still OK. 

Although for me, a continuous 3 sea days is absolutely great - given that the ship is an active one, if not.... Well, let's stick to 1 sea day.

Some people find it great spending time doing nothing but relaxing over the sun deck or the pool, some people find it boring reading books or listening to music at the bar - so actually there's no definite answer whether more or less sea day is better, it depends on what kind of vacation and person you are.

On the other hand, if you simply want some quiet days with the ocean, a repositioning cruise is your dear friend. They simply have a cheaper price per night with more than 3 days continuously at sea. These are ships that go from one part of the world to another for servicing the upcoming season, say cruise running from Singapore to Australia in mid June.

3. Request the best room
When you are booking the cruise, you always have the right to choose your room. It is always important to get the right room, as I got a bad experience having to walk all the way from the elevator for 2 minutes back to my cabin... And there's 3 criteria for a good room.

i. Near to the elevator, no worries for the noise being close to the lift lobby - the cabin door is well shut, sound and water proofed - you could hear simply nothing from the outside. If you are weary a lot of people ganging around your cabin door, just get the rooms a few steps away from the elevator.

ii. Higher the deck on the entertainment floor

It is less noisy from the engines and more stable when the  deck level is higher. You can always find a better view of the sea and the port as well. Getting a cabin on an entertainment or restaurant floor (usually the pool and the breakfast deck) is always convenient for you to get around places without extra elevator-time.

iii. Get on the correct side of the ship

If you are a photography person or someone who love to stick around your staterooms. It is better to check with your dealer about which side of the ship is  has a better view of the coast and the ports. This is much better if your cruise runs on a scenic route along the coastline or specific scenic spots - what's better than having a private scenic balcony?

4. Smaller ship but less entertainment

If you prefer quiet days with the sea, you can also choose a small cruise. These cruise usually offers less entertainment - actually NOTHING other than bars, cafe and restaurants, hence cheaper to get on-board.

5. Cut the specialties and soda, or simply get a package in advance

Food and certain drinks (water, juice and iced tea) are free for refill throughout the cruise. You could carry them back to your room at your own needs - there's no need purchasing the high-ended water from France or Italy at your cabin.

book the beverage or specialty package in advance could save up to 25% of the ship price.

6. Bring your own water bottle

Carrying cups and cups of drinks back and forth your cabin could be a bit hectic, buying new bottles of water for each port is also expensive!! Why not just bring your own water bottle even the thermal one, refilling water, tea and soda from the ship? It could also cool yourself down or warm yourself up for different temperature needs.

7. Avoid professional photo

After getting on so many cruises, we occasionally buy any photos from the ship. We just bought one for a family photo. Taking the photo is free, but buying them are expensive - they are simply SLR cameras with big flash lights!!

8.Plan your own shore excursions

Plan your own activities or join a tour with a local travel agency and support the local economy directly.

Some of the port might be really difficult to get around without an excursion tour. In this case, you could try getting excursions from Shore Excursions Group>>, an international exursion provider - at least they are less expensive than the over-priced excursion from the cruise company.

If you are more of an adventurous person or like to make your own travelling plans, it would be great renting a car  or organizing a personal tour - for sure, this is still cheaper than the cruise excursions.

Please be noted that the cruise will leave without you on-board when you are late for the departure time - the cruise has to pay for every extra minutes they stay in the port! There's cases that passengers have to call on a cab - I mean helicopter, in catching the departed cruise. Trust me, you would never wanted to pay that extra money.

9. No airport transfer

The cruise transfer is just an overpriced big coach taking 40+ people to the airport or the town. If you are travelling in groups, it is cheaper to arrange a cab.

If you at enjoy in a bit hurry, bus is also a great deal getting back to the city or the airport.

10. Lay back, be open, ask more and have fun

Last but not least, open yourself to be inspired by everything you come up with on the ship. As I have previously mentioned in another post>>, there's no one on the cruise recognizes you and just do something awesome and unusual - Head into a beauty contest or a dance performance. 

The cruise directors  welcome questions and You could ask them about the ports, the cruise or even stories from them :) just lay back and enjoy the cruise.

Bon voyage♡