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

[ozjuice]

I've done a few cruises but it wasn't until i did the Celebrity cruise around the Caribbean for 2 weeks that I really appreciated it's worth. Waking up 8 mornings at a new exotic port to spend the day exploring a whole new experience without having to unpack was amazing. The food was exceptional especially the extra restaurants. If you pay in advance for a deal it's minimal cost to use the special restaurants and they are well worth it. Generally i like to mix it up. Easy to play the all inclusive drinks pack to your advantage if you are savvy and polite. I never had a problem with 1 package being shared, in fact as there was 10 of us as a family get together, at dinner we used 3 card to share the entire dining drinks experience. Accommodation, service and food and of course overall experience was outstanding. Can't wait to go again one day.

 

[Cossie]

My first os trip was in 1976 on the Taras Schevchenko, a soviet ship that would spend the summer around these parts earning 'hard' currency then go back to Europe for the northern season. 6 weeks, Sydney to Southampton. Put me off cruising for life...

MS Taras Shevchenko (1966) - Wikipedia

One of her sister ships is still sailing, albeit heavily modified. Marco Polo, MS Marco Polo - Wikipedia and another, Mikhail Lermontov sank in NZ in 1986.

 

[drron]

We sailed on the Marco Polo when she was the Aleksandr Pushkin.A 3 day cruise to nowhere for the Bicentennial.She acted as one of the markers for the tall ships parade.
Has given me lots of stories of Russia service,bearded waitresses and how to manage children.

 

[UP4014]

I know it is a different type of cruising, but does anyone have experience (good or bad) with river cruising?
I must admit that I have looked at them with interest, as I don't do sea sickness well.

Being sea sick is a huge issue for me. As hard as this is to believe I've been sea sick (including vomitng until there was nothing left to vomit up) on a Manly ferry. There was an ambulance waiting when I got off but once on the wharf at circular quay I regained myself and dismissed the medical help. That was 1996.

There was a second time I had to do some hydro phone work on a deep sea fishing boat for a trans Tasman cable to come ashore, it was dragging the bouy through the surf Off brookvale in a 40 footer. I was ok until someone on the flybridge puked over the side right onto me on the deck below So no more boating for me, funny how you can remember smell!

The only cruising I do these days is rail cruising. With the right fellow passengers of course.

 

[RB]

t

I could see myself doing a Baltic cruise for the ease of access to St Petersburg etc but have no desire to do cruise across the Pacific or Atlantic. I have seen to many river cruise boats in Germany, tied up 3 or 4 deep and with all 1,000's of passengers being bused to the same places at the same times to really be a fan of them.

I am also a bit puzzled by the Euro river cruises. We are freelance travellers who enjoy walking and we are comfortable getting around on bus & train. It seems that the apartments we stay in give us more space than the cruise cabins & we have freedom of choice of dining & drinking. Sure we have to do things for ourselves but I would like to better understand the attraction of the river cruises

 

[p--and--t]

I am also a bit puzzled by the Euro river cruises. We are freelance travellers who enjoy walking and we are comfortable getting around on bus & train. It seems that the apartments we stay in give us more space than the cruise cabins & we have freedom of choice of dining & drinking. Sure we have to do things for ourselves but I would like to better understand the attraction of the river cruises

My only river cruise was on Avalon Waterways.
- Reasonable sized room
- Floor to ceiling windows giving uninterrupted views of towns countryside and castles etc.
- Watch our arrival in a new city every morning while having breakfast.
- Tie up on the wharf right in the centre of town
- Leisurely walk off the ship with a guide for a couple of hours and then whole afternoon to explore on foot on your own.
- Sail each evening just before silver service multicourse dinner. Menu changes every night. Wine included.
- Unpack once
- No more to pay
Of all the cruises we have done, the river cruise was the best. Calm waters. Maximum time “in port”. Far superior food to the big ocean ships. Not badgered for more money (except booze outside meal times). Only about 75 passengers on board the cruise we went on. Due to the high cost no "bogans" on board.

 

[RB]

My only river cruise was on Avalon Waterways.
- Reasonable sized room
- Floor to ceiling windows giving uninterrupted views of towns countryside and castles etc.
- Watch our arrival in a new city every morning while having breakfast.
- Tie up on the wharf right in the centre of town
- Leisurely walk off the ship with a guide for a couple of hours and then whole afternoon to explore on foot on your own.
- Sail each evening just before silver service multicourse dinner. Menu changes every night. Wine included.
- Unpack once
- No more to pay
Of all the cruises we have done, the river cruise was the best. Calm waters. Maximum time “in port”. Far superior food to the big ocean ships. Not badgered for more money (except booze outside meal times). Only about 75 passengers on board the cruise we went on. Due to the high cost no "bogans" on board.

Appreciate your answer & I can see that river cruises offer that but I am also feeling I can have similar experiences throughout a lot of Europe while freelancing on land. I notice a recurring theme in answers of only unpacking once but we travel light around 12kg so not a challenge.
So many parts of the Rhine & Mosel for example we have done this & if so inclined we could jump on day trips up and down the river to get the other perspective of the land.
Maybe it all comes down to what you are used to? I like to find my own way around & rarely find the need for a guide to show me around a town.

 

[Pushka]

I am also a bit puzzled by the Euro river cruises. We are freelance travellers who enjoy walking and we are comfortable getting around on bus & train. It seems that the apartments we stay in give us more space than the cruise cabins & we have freedom of choice of dining & drinking. Sure we have to do things for ourselves but I would like to better understand the attraction of the river cruises

I understand them but yowsers they are expensive. I’d love to do one from Paris through to Avignon. I’m not sure about different food quality as all cruise lines are different. Viking does great River cruises and in recent years have established excellent Ocean cruise options. We are using Viking Ocean in next May 19 for Alaska.

Re the guide thing. We have done our own thing and also used a guide in a cruise port but not through the ship. We learnt so much from our guide in Pompeii, who turned out to be an archeologist, that we would never have stumbled upon on our own. Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know.

 

[RB]

I understand them but yowsers they are expensive. I’d love to do one from Paris through to Avignon. I’m not sure about different food quality as all cruise lines are different. Viking does great River cruises and in recent years have established excellent Ocean cruise options. We are using Viking Ocean in next May 19 for Alaska.

Re the guide thing. We have done our own thing and also used a guide in a cruise port but not through the ship. We learnt so much from our guide in Pompeii, who turned out to be an archeologist, that we would never have stumbled upon on our own. Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know.

Pompeii is a rather extreme example to use for a river port?
I certainly use guides in some places such as the Forts of India or Sri Lanka but for a walk around Mainz, Koblenz, Cologne or Cochem or similar river locations I am comfortable doing my own reading

 

[Pushka]

Pompeii is a rather extreme example to use for a river port?
I certainly use guides in some places such as the Forts of India or Sri Lanka but for a walk around Mainz, Koblenz, Cologne or Cochem or similar river locations I am comfortable doing my own reading

I was referring to Pompeii as an example of where a guide was invaluable as the thread is about all cruises not just river ones. That’s why it’s in a different paragraph.

 

[Wello]

We, wife and I, last went on a cruise on the fun ship Fairstar in 1986 where she suffered terrible sea sickness, while I had a ball. Have finally convinced her to give it another crack on a modern ship and are heading off on a Holland America Line cruise in the Med in a few months time. Really looking forward to this part of our trip. Having considered all of the shore excursion options booked through HAL we were a little shocked at the prices so we have decided to book private shore tours for half the price or do our own thing at some ports.

Meggsy, I also travelled on the Fairstar, “The Fun Ship” in the 80s and got quite sea sick. It was only last year that I decided to finally try a 10 day cruise after doing a test on a weekend short cruise. I was prepared and took “Avomine” sea sickness tablets and felt great the whole cruise. Ships these days also have much better stabilisers but I would still take sea sickness pills as a precaution. If you feel good you can stop after a couple of days but they work best if you start the day before you get on the ship.

 

[Infreq]

Me too as far as sea cruises go (the Galapagos that is .. no luxury catamaran for me!). I wouldn't mind cruises per se, but for me the problem is they are over luxurious and therefore too damn expensive! My ideal would be a floating 4 star hotel. I don't need cabarets and all the plush add-ons - just take me around places.

I wouldn't mind a cruise, say up the Norwegian coast or the Caribbean or the Aegean sea, where there are lots of stops and the boat is essentially a way to get from A to B to C etc; I don't want it to be a destination (and money sink) in itself.

Bring back hitching a lift on a tramp steamer, I say!

You might be curious to have a look at the Hurtigruten - up the Norwegian coast to the Artic

 

[Ansett]

Not having good sea legs we have avoided cruising however two years ago Mrs Ansett and I and friends opted to do the 7 day cruise around the Hawaiin islands on board the Pride of America through Norwegian cruise lines.

I was rather dubious and rather nervous about the whole thing but have to say overall it was a good way to see the islands. The more casual dining of the Norwegian line made it more relaxing not having to rush to set meal times as some other lines have.

The down side was definitely the gouging for example the fact that there are no drinks packages available and an average bottle of wine was around $45 US and a beer at the bar up to $12 US then add on the Gratuity and if in port taxes it became expensive.

We had no internet through out the 7 days unless on land and WiFi was available, whilst it was available on board the price seemed excessive to me at $30 US Per day.+ +.

Excursions were 2 to 3 times the price of comparable packages that could be bought upon landing and all the time gratuity and taxes being added.

Oh and dont forget the daily room charge. I never understood this why there is a need to charge for the cleaning and make up of the room surely that should be a normal part of the price we paid for the cruise.

And to rub salt into the wound the waiters/waitresses were always holding there hand out for tips even after the compulsory gratuity charges are added to the bill.

Whilst you could bring WINE only on board that had been purchased locally there was a $15 US corkage fee plus taxes and gratuity per bottle, sneaking on wasn't an option as all bags were inspected upon re boarding and a charge added straight away to your account.

The boat itself didn't feel crowded until it came to embark or disembark at different ports with waits to disembark of up to 2 hours in one port where tenders were being utilised.

Overall as I said earlier it was a great way to see the islands. Would we do it again NO mainly due to the constant over price gouging and the constant pressure to keep tipping when a tip had already been added to the bill. We noticed that on 2 occasions when we didn't provide a tip it seemed like we were all of a sudden invisible to the waiting staff.

To give you an idea of how expensive it became we got our bill at the end of the cruise and the additional charges, with out doing any excursions, was a little more than the total price we paid for the 2 of us for the cruise.

When we go back to Hawaii we will buy an air pass and fly to different places that we want to revisit and spend as long as we want and explore where we want to.

Our perception at the end of this cruise was that there is a definite goal to empty wallets and purses as fast as possible and as much as possible and that has now put us both off of ever cruising again.

 

[Pushka]

T

Not having good sea legs we have avoided cruising however two years ago Mrs Ansett and I and friends opted to do the 7 day cruise around the Hawaiin islands on board the Pride of America through Norwegian cruise lines.

I was rather dubious and rather nervous about the whole thing but have to say overall it was a good way to see the islands. The more casual dining of the Norwegian line made it more relaxing not having to rush to set meal times as some other lines have.

The down side was definitely the gouging for example the fact that there are no drinks packages available and an average bottle of wine was around $45 US and a beer at the bar up to $12 US then add on the Gratuity and if in port taxes it became expensive.

We had no internet through out the 7 days unless on land and WiFi was available, whilst it was available on board the price seemed excessive to me at $30 US Per day.+ +.

Excursions were 2 to 3 times the price of comparable packages that could be bought upon landing and all the time gratuity and taxes being added.

Oh and dont forget the daily room charge. I never understood this why there is a need to charge for the cleaning and make up of the room surely that should be a normal part of the price we paid for the cruise.

And to rub salt into the wound the waiters/waitresses were always holding there hand out for tips even after the compulsory gratuity charges are added to the bill.

Whilst you could bring WINE only on board that had been purchased locally there was a $15 US corkage fee plus taxes and gratuity per bottle, sneaking on wasn't an option as all bags were inspected upon re boarding and a charge added straight away to your account.

The boat itself didn't feel crowded until it came to embark or disembark at different ports with waits to disembark of up to 2 hours in one port where tenders were being utilised.

Overall as I said earlier it was a great way to see the islands. Would we do it again NO mainly due to the constant over price gouging and the constant pressure to keep tipping when a tip had already been added to the bill. We noticed that on 2 occasions when we didn't provide a tip it seemed like we were all of a sudden invisible to the waiting staff.

To give you an idea of how expensive it became we got our bill at the end of the cruise and the additional charges, with out doing any excursions, was a little more than the total price we paid for the 2 of us for the cruise.

When we go back to Hawaii we will buy an air pass and fly to different places that we want to revisit and spend as long as we want and explore where we want to.

Our perception at the end of this cruise was that there is a definite goal to empty wallets and purses as fast as possible and as much as possible and that has now put us both off of ever cruising again.

There are all inclusive cruise lines where the $ you pay upfront = total cost. That helps a lot.

 

[RooFlyer]

You might be curious to have a look at the Hurtigruten - up the Norwegian coast to the Artic

Good point! I did, last time, but the timing didn't work out.

 

[Ansett]

Hi Pushka yes have seen those however the packages are not available on this cruise as it is deemed to be a family cruise we expected that we would have a good sized bill at the end of the cruise however the bill was far in excess of what I was expecting and being cruise virgins made it worse. My other issue with the drinks passage sis that is applicable to all people in the room and Mrs Ansett hardly drinks so that would not represent good value either.

I will say that the food quality and variety were really good what let it all down was the overpriced drinks and all the extra charges that we just weren't expecting.

 

[lastrow]

Thanks to Ansett for the heads up re the Pride of America cruise. My wife and I did the around Hawaii cruise on NCL about 15 years ago and that was fine. We certainly didnt have to pay extra to have our room serviced. It is interesting that at that time NCL had to include a foreign port in their itinerary so they could employ a non American crew. (The so called Jones law). As a result we spent 2 days sailing south to a tiny island called Fanning Island which was part of Kiribati and then 2 days sailing back to Hawaiian waters.
All round we found the Norwegian Wind a very agreeable ship, with courteous crew and good food. There was certainly no price gouging. Are the crew now American nationals?
Since then we have been on lots of cruises including Antarctica however the best experience was our APT river cruise Amsterdam to Budapest. Just magnificant.

 

[p--and--t]

Hi Ansett

Sorry to hear about your cruise experience.

Having done several cruises, first time I've heard of any room service charge.

I have been told cruises around the Hawaiian Islands are disproportionately more expensive than most others around the world and we have avoided them as a result.

My partner and I are not big drinkers so the alcohol bill is usually quite small.

Also we always factor in and pay for the "recommended" daily tipping with the cruise payment upfront before we depart.

Maybe the crews recognise our Aussie accents because I've never been asked for an additional tip on a cruise (beyond the mandatory already added to the bar chit).

When we took wine on board there was no charge if we drank in the room/balcony.

We never take cruise line excursions and use cruisecritic site to work out the good local guides and tours for tours at 30-50% of what the cruise line charges.

I do get frustrated with the total rip-off for internet that has so many drop-outs and so slow that you are lucky to get 2-3 emails out in an hourly charge. Luckily on a port intensive cruise you can usually do all the internet stuff almost daily for free in a coffee shop at the port.

 

[Pushka]

Princess Diamond had pretty good internet but the internet on Golden is pretty much rubbish. And I hate the log in log out process and I bet they get so much extra revenue with people not logging out properly and burning up their minutes.

 

[tgh]

Cruising = Unhappiness

Fort Lauderdale photographer finds a sea of despair in cruise life