Why I'm unlikely to ever "Cruise" (At least on a large ship)

[Pushka]

IMO, you can get all the pros of a cruise by flying to an all inclusive resort, and then you don't have the cons (like tiny rooms, strict port visit schedules and inability to leave and go somewhere else). Do a day cruise if you need a water fix.

I get a lot of people like cruises because they don't have to organise anything and the company takes them to all the sights without any fuss.

That's not me, I'm an independent traveller, I don't like other people organising my itinerary. I don't do multi-day land cruises either; even an organised day tour is a stretch for me.

Well, not really all the pros covered there. With an AI resort that’s where you will stay. With cruises you visit multiple cities, places and countries without unpacking. If you find somewhere you’d like to spend longer then that’s a land trip. We did that with Santorini, and Croatia. I wanted to see the pyramids but that would never be a land trip for me, it was a simple day trip then on to the next fascination. You can still be an independent traveller and you don’t have to go the ships excursions. We had private excursions in Oman for 2 days - fabulous, then Jordan, Egypt for two days, and Israel for 2 days. We only did one ship excursion in 21 days and that’s because private vendors couldn’t do it.

I presume rebuttal is allowed? Well, for most I expect.

 

[justinbrett]

Well, not really all the pros covered there. With an AI resort that’s where you will stay. With cruises you visit multiple cities, places and countries without unpacking. If you find somewhere you’d like to spend longer then that’s a land trip. We did that with Santorini, and Croatia. I wanted to see the pyramids but that would never be a land trip for me, it was a simple day trip then on to the next fascination. You can still be an independent traveller and you don’t have to go the ships excursions. We had private excursions in Oman for 2 days - fabulous, then Jordan, Egypt for two days, and Israel for 2 days. We only did one ship excursion in 21 days and that’s because private vendors couldn’t do it.

I presume rebuttal is allowed? Well, for most I expect.

I guess the definition of a pro is in the eye of the beholder.

I listed that (going on someone else's itinerary that you have no control over) as a con.

 

[RooFlyer]

IMO, you can get all the pros of a cruise by flying to an all inclusive resort, and then you don't have the cons (like tiny rooms, strict port visit schedules and inability to leave and go somewhere else). Do a day cruise if you need a water fix.

I get a lot of people like cruises because they don't have to organise anything and the company takes them to all the sights without any fuss.

That's not me, I'm an independent traveller, I don't like other people organising my itinerary. I don't do multi-day land cruises either; even an organised day tour is a stretch for me.

Enjoy the independent travelling while you are (I think) young, or young-ish. Like I did for about 40 years; Russia, west Africa, South America, all over Australia and Nth America, you name it. Unfortunately, with age, for most of us, comes compromises, including the ability to travel as we once did.

That was part of my reason to begin cruising a year ago; plus where that cruise went to (Kimberley coast), its very difficult to travel independently and see the relevant sights. Even in my work, 4WD-ing all over Australia, I never saw anything like it - including Kakadu. Access via zodiacs off a small cruise boat is ideal. My next cruise, to Falklands, Antarctica etc is also badly served by all-inclusive resorts .

As I said, enjoy the independent travel while you can and I hope you maintain it as long as possible. Eventually the need to compromise will loom.

PS one pro of a cruise that an all-inclusive resort can't match is that it moves . Visit more than the local bar or beach or restaurants day in day out. Visit multiple countries, cities and experiences instead!

 

[latawiec]

IMO, you can get all the pros of a cruise by flying to an all inclusive resort, and then you don't have the cons (like tiny rooms, strict port visit schedules and inability to leave and go somewhere else). Do a day cruise if you need a water fix.

I get a lot of people like cruises because they don't have to organise anything and the company takes them to all the sights without any fuss.

That's not me, I'm an independent traveller, I don't like other people organising my itinerary. I don't do multi-day land cruises either; even an organised day tour is a stretch for me.

Justin and Lynda,

Nobody is pushing you to take cruises. If cruises are not for you, do not consider them, but allow others to enjoy them and express or exchange their experiences and information.
Don't like cruising, fine, but do not hate people who enjoy them. Be a bit more fair.

 

[justinbrett]

Justin and Lynda,

Nobody is pushing you to take cruises. If cruises are not for you, do not consider them, but allow others to enjoy them and express or exchange their experiences and information.
Don't like cruising, fine, but do not hate people who enjoy them. Be a bit more fair.

This is a thread for people who don't want to cruise...

 

[tgh]

This is a thread for people who don't want to cruise...

I suggest that the decision about what is appropriate or not appropriate lays with the moderation team..
Feel free to express your views to them ; request adjudication rather than attempting to direct the thread content personally
(Perhaps re read Steady's original post first)

 

[latawiec]

Enjoy the independent travelling while you are (I think) young, or young-ish. Like I did for about 40 years; Russia, west Africa, South America, all over Australia and Nth America, you name it. Unfortunately, with age, for most of us, comes compromises, including the ability to travel as we once did.

That was part of my reason to begin cruising a year ago; plus where that cruise went to (Kimberley coast), its very difficult to travel independently and see the relevant sights. Even in my work, 4WD-ing all over Australia, I never saw anything like it - including Kakadu. Access via zodiacs off a small cruise boat is ideal. My next cruise, to Falklands, Antarctica etc is also badly served by all-inclusive resorts .

As I said, enjoy the independent travel while you can and I hope you maintain it as long as possible. Eventually the need to compromise will loom.

PS one pro of a cruise that an all-inclusive resort can't match is that it moves . Visit more than the local bar or beach or restaurants day in day out. Visit multiple countries, cities and experiences instead!

Fully support your point of view.

We all have a full freedom of choice how we travel and what we select.

And please allow people to do this but don't rubbish cruising because it is not your preferred way to travel.

There is older generation that consider cruising as their last opportunity to travel and visit foreign places. Would you please allow them to enjoy it.
And allow them here to exchange their experiences. Thanks.

 

[justinbrett]

This is a thread for people who don't want to cruise...

I suggest that the decision about what is appropriate or not appropriate lays with the moderation team..
Feel free to express your views to them ; request adjudication rather than attempting to direct the thread content personally
(Perhaps re read Steady's original post first)

I literally made a post explaining why I don't like cruises, answering the thread title, and was accused of "hating people who enjoy (cruises)" and not being "fair".

I suggest people read the thread title.

If you don't want to know why I don't want to cruise, don't ask!

 

[RooFlyer]

And please allow people to do this but don't rubbish cruising because it is not your preferred way to travel.

And have never tried it!!

 

[Lynda2475]

Don't like cruising, fine, but do not hate people who enjoy them. Be a bit more fair.

Unlike a certain roo I havent hated on anyone, but this is a thread about NOT cruising (and why people dont want to), and the last few pages are full of cruising questions re discounts, which boat etc which are way way off topic and should be moved to more appropriate threads.

I suggested people post on topic, that is not hating.

 

[justinbrett]

That was part of my reason to begin cruising a year ago; plus where that cruise went to (Kimberley coast), its very difficult to travel independently and see the relevant sights. Even in my work, 4WD-ing all over Australia, I never saw anything like it - including Kakadu. Access via zodiacs off a small cruise boat is ideal. My next cruise, to Falklands, Antarctica etc is also badly served by all-inclusive resorts .

As I said, enjoy the independent travel while you can and I hope you maintain it as long as possible. Eventually the need to compromise will loom.

PS one pro of a cruise that an all-inclusive resort can't match is that it moves . Visit more than the local bar or beach or restaurants day in day out. Visit multiple countries, cities and experiences instead!

So to clarify, I mention all inclusive resorts as substitute for the cruise ship "sea day" experience (and what I think most people cruising in Australia on the Brisbane - Sydney - Melbourne - Noumena trips are looking for). I don't normally frequent all inclusives, I think I've done it twice (in Cancun and Matazlan) in my 20s which was great, but I wouldn't make a habit of it.

You can fly to the Falklands - I recently visited Juno (Alaska) by flying and watched the cruise ship dock and overwhelm the town. I have to wonder these masses aren't getting the full local experience. Granted Antarctica is a bit more difficult so would probably necessitate a cruise; although I just watched a video from YouTuber Trek Trendy who flew from CPT to Antarctica on a Gulfstream.

. The Greatest Day Trip Antarctica — White Desert

 

[latawiec]

Justin and Lynda,

Nobody is pushing you to take cruises. If cruises are not for you, do not consider them, but allow others to enjoy them and express or exchange their experiences and information.
Don't like cruising, fine, but do not hate people who enjoy them. Be a bit more fair.

Justin and Lynda,

I am not accusing you.
My apologies if you feel offended.

My expression was about unintentional direction of this thread being against cruising... and hence you get a lot of responses supporting cruises.

Quote: This is a thread for people who don't want to cruise..

 

[RooFlyer]

Quote: This is a thread for people who don't want to cruise..

Its not, of course. The thread topic is about unlikely to be cruising, (not never) but last time I looked, any AFFer can join in any thread and are allowed to express a contrary view, put appropriately - in many cases setting right a misapprehension or lack of knowledge of the OP (or others), to the OP's benefit.

Having a thread where everyone just agrees or has the same view as each other would be pretty boring, although it may suit some.

"Small ship cruising" - which is what most of us 'fans' do, is perfectly within the thread title!!

 

[latawiec]

This is a thread for people who don't want to cruise...

I suggest that the decision about what is appropriate or not appropriate lays with the moderation team..
Feel free to express your views to them ; request adjudication rather than attempting to direct the thread content personally
(Perhaps re read Steady's original post first)

The title of this thread is:

Why I'm unlikely to ever "Cruise" (At least on a large ship).​

Therefore, presumption that "This is a thread for people who don't want to cruise..." seem to be incorrect.

In my opinion the pros and cons should be acceptable within this thread.

 

[Lynda2475]

The posts that need to go were neither discussing pros or cons, but talking about things like discounts and specific ships only relevant if you have already decided to cruise. There are other ore suitable threads for that discussion.

 

[justinbrett]

Its not, of course. The thread topic is about unlikely to be cruising, (not never) but last time I looked, any AFFer can join in any thread and are allowed to express a contrary view, put appropriately - in many cases setting right a misapprehension or lack of knowledge of the OP (or others), to the OP's benefit.

Having a thread where everyone just agrees or has the same view as each other would be pretty boring, although it may suit some.

Posting rebuttals for people saying why they don't want to cruise is fine.

Telling people off for posting why they don't want to cruise is not.

 

[Lynda2475]

A ship with 200 passengers is hardly a small cruise, maybe it is dwarfed by those giant behemoth ships with 3000, but imo a small cruise has less than 50 passengers on board and can dock at any wharf, doesn't ever need a tender.

Again apart from Antarctica which one can't generally fly to unless working there, any where else can be done in more depth via other means.

Those most pro cruising seem to fall into the retiree bracket, not my demographic.

 

[RooFlyer]

You can fly to the Falklands - I recently visited Juno (Alaska) by flying and watched the cruise ship dock and overwhelm the town. I have to wonder these masses aren't getting the full local experience.

Definitely an issue and I agree. Before I started cruising myself, I visited Nassau in the Bahamas as an 'independent traveller' and was horrified at the tidal wave of pax off two mega-ships seething from the wharf and down to the main street, one end to the other. Fortunately most of them didn't venture off the main street and it was serene just a few blocks off the main street, inspecting Government House and other interesting things! No local experience for that lot except the burger and ice-cream joints and jewellery shops!

At the Falklands stop on my up-coming cruise there are 4 themed included day tours included - I'm doing 'Battlefields Perspective'. I should hopefully learn a bit.

But, also agreeing with the thread title , I'm not contemplating a large cruise ship cruise anytime soon. The Kimberly and Antarctica were/will be 'expedition' cruises, less than 200 pax each on board and mostly groups of 8-10 on-shore with a trained naturalist-type. My Galapagos cruise was 30 pax and again no more than 8 pax ashore in any group.

On the same theme, until about 2017 I had sworn off group tours on land also. But then I took one - to Iran, where independent travel would be difficult. Again, it was a small group tour (14 in all) and the stuff we were shown and had explained was so comprehensive, with like-minded travellers that it 'sold' me on that type of travel as well, for tricky-to-get-to places. My 5 Stans tour was in a small group. You cannot visit Turkmenistan except as part of a tour (granted, many may not want to!).

But back to the sea. Choose your circumstances and choose the cruise itinerary and type of vessel. I reckon somewhere, sometime there will be one for you - but "you'll never know if you don't have a go".

 

[Quickstatus]

move all the fan boy posts

Its more about them being around trying to convince the skeptical of the benefits of sitting on a boat laden with the best that humanity can muster.

'expedition' cruises

Are these are patronised by more intellectual passengers?

 

[serfty]

[Moderator Hat]

Some Posts have been moved here:​

​

Anyone Just Booked their Cruise (or are Planning to)?

Anyone planning to take a trip on the Icon of the Seas?

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

​

[/Moderator Hat]