Cruising the World – Unpack Once for Endless Opportunities

Cruising!

We’ve finally made it to one of my favorite topics. Cruising and cruise ships!

Most people are firmly on one side of the other . . . cruises are a little slice of heaven or they’re the evil spawn of Satan. I’m on the heaven side, but if cruises aren’t your thing that’s okay. You can skip this section . . . or keep reading and let me know if you find any typos.  

Cruising Environmental Issues

I am acutely aware of the many downsides of cruising, specifically the environmental impacts. However, this is a site about travel itself, it’s not about the environmental impact of our travel.

There are better and more knowledgeable people out there who can help you understand the impact all of your travels have on the environment.

However, cruising is a HUGE part of the travel industry so it’s a topic that shouldn’t be neglected.

Unpack Once, See Everything

My favorite part of cruising? Unpacking once and then waking up every day in a new location!

If you’re a new traveler, this type of vacation opens up a huge world of possibilities to you, and at a great value. 

VALUABLE PIECE OF ADVICE

If you’re only going to take one piece of advice from me, make it this.

When cruising, do not FOR ANY REASON fly in on the day of your cruise.

You would not believe how many things can go wrong in One Morning.

In fact here’s a short list of thing that could turn your trip sideways. Note that none of these things have anything to do with you:

• Traffic on the way to the airport
• Long lines at security
• An airline computer outage
• A freak weather event (this happens across the US all the time)
• An airplane mechanical
• A badly behaved passenger who causes a flight delay

Because there are soooo many outside factors that can affect your travel journey, it’s by far better to arrive in your cruise port city the night before – AT THE LATEST – and spend $100 on a hotel room.

Give yourself a little breathing room.

If you fly in a day early you’ll never need to worry about missing your entire cruise because of a broken cargo bin door, a bird strike or a freak snowstorm that delays or cancels your flight.

Plus flying in early allows you the opportunity to explore your cruise start city. Most of these cities are fabulous places to visit.

The Cruising Sampler Platter

I’m a fan of cruising because I appreciate the “sampler platter” aspect of the trip.

My first Mediterranean cruise was a nine-day extravaganza that left from Rome and stopped at Olympia (Greece), Athens (Greece), Izmir (Turkey) and Alexandria (Egypt). As someone who grew up in a small town in the middle of nowhere, when I booked this cruise it sounded incredibly exotic and life-changing.

Our cruise director had recently won Cruise Director of the Year and was at the top of her game. Every stop was in a different exotic country and each culture was exciting to experience.

When I returned home I felt like I’d changed as a person. I’d certainly gained a deeper and better understanding of the world.

The cruise exceeded my expectations and I left Rome ready to cruise again!

I’ve returned to these sites multiple times. I still get that same tingle of excitement every time I visit.

Cruising Enhances Your Travels

Cruises include stops at both major and minor sites in their itineraries.

While cruising, your job is to enjoy your time in each city while considering which cities you might like to return to for an extended vacation.

Ports I Loved

There are places I’ve cruised to and I’ve found that a 1-day visit wasn’t enough. If a specific city speaks to me, I’ll add it to my future Must-Travel List. This includes ports like:

• Rome
• Naples
• Florence (Livorno)
• Venice
• St. Petersburg
• Jerusalem (Ashdod)
• Abu Dhabi
• Cartegena
• Boston
• Prince Edwards Island
• This list goes on and on

Ports I Liked

I’m fortunate to have crossed these places off my list, but wouldn’t make a special visit back:

• Crete
• Olympia
• Sicily
• Monaco
• Montenegro
• Costa Maya
• Cabo
• Aruba
• This list also goes on and on

Search for a Multi-Country Cruise

To get the most travel bang for your buck, look for cruises that stop in multiple countries. This type of trip is a bit more complicated to plan but it’s worth the effort to experience several new cultures during one vacation.

Remember, Research is fun. It’s exciting to live your trip before you actually experience it. 

Cruising Adds Value

Let’s dream big and plan a twelve-night Mediterranean cruise that starts in Venice and makes stops in Dubrovnik, Naples, Florence, Rome, Monaco, Nice, Crete, Sicily and ends in Barcelona. 

To me a huge Mediterranean cruise sounds both thrilling and exhausting (but exhausting in a good way). 

If the Mediterranean isn’t your thing you can find similar multi-country cruises all over the world. There’s an endless list of fabulous cities you can cruise to.

Try to Start and End in Two Different Cities

What makes this Mediterranean cruise itinerary so appealing is where the cruise begins and ends.

This already amazing trip turns into a grand vacation by spending at least three days in Venice before the trip starts and two days in Barcelona at the end.

Venice and Barcelona are each worth their own individual trips to Europe, by adding a cruise to connect these two great European cities adds a lot of value to your vacation.

Trying to explore all of these cruise stops on your own in a two week span would be exhausting and I’m pretty sure impossible. While you’re on the ship eating and sleeping, the hard work of “navigating” is being taken care of by someone else.

On this hypothetical but very do-able vacation-of-a-lifetime you’d fly into Venice three days early (remember, never fly in the day of, that’s just adding unnecessary stress and drama) and get a hotel in the heart of the town. After exploring Venice you’ll board your cruise ship, unpack and look forward to the vacation ahead. 

Save Money, Get a Good Guide Book

When cruising through the Mediterranean I recommend the Rick Steves Mediterranean Cruise Port Guide. With this comprehensive book in your pocket you can make your own fun in all of these world class cities without paying for overpriced cruise ship excursions.

A good guidebook will explain how to get to and from your ship, what not to miss and what to buy tickets for in advance.

If guidebooks aren’t your thing, sign up for CruiseCritic.com which houses an enormous amount of information from experienced travelers about every port in the world. I enjoy cruising but there are a lot of people out there who LOVE and LIVE to cruise and are happy to share their knowledge.

We’re all better for it.

Never Take a Paid Cruise-Sponsored Excursion

Lots of people get caught up in believing they need to take cruise-sponsored shore excursions or they’ll somehow literally miss the boat. This is absolutely NOT true.

Every onsite cruise excursion company is fully aware of what time every cruise ship docks and leaves their port. Additionally, all cruise excursion companies fully understand that the world runs on online reviews. If their customers miss their cruise ship the excursion company knows they’d be torn apart on the internet. They’re not going to let that happen.

There Are Always Other Touring Options

I prefer to plan my own onshore excitement, but if you feel you need to take an excursion there are two good options:

1. Shop around online before your cruise and sign up with an independent tour company (preferred method as you’ll know the price beforehand).

2. Wander off the ship and join an excursion that sounds like fun (a little more risky, comparing prices is awkward).

Regardless of what you choose, by booking directly with a local company you’ll save about 50% of what the cruise line charges for the exact same excursion. 

True Story: Most cruise lines contract with local shore excursion companies and then double the price. Keep the extra money in your pocket, or better yet spend it at a local small business. 

Be Your Own Tour Guide

If you need a reminder of the pros and cons of touring, here’s a refresher about Organized Tours.

If you decide to be your own tour guide, get a good guidebook, make a plan and be ready to have a great day.

It’s okay to feel bad for the cruisers cramming themselves onto the enormous tour buses. Be grateful you’re not going to spend your day making potty stops and forced souvenir shopping.

When touring on your own, always plan to return to the ship 30-45 minutes before final call.

Why Returning Early to the Ship is FUN!

If you explore on your own, ALWAYS return to the ship 30 minutes early.

Once onboard head straight to the buffet and grab a salad, a cookie and a water. Carefully carry your snack to the top deck and belly up to the railing.

From here you can watch the chaos as your fellow cruise passengers return to the ship.

If you make this a habit you’ll see the most amazing/funny/sad/obnoxious behavior . . . top deck peeping is easily one of my favorite cruising past times (and I’m not a people-watcher).

When the crew starts announcing names and room numbers over the PA of missing cruisers, you know something interesting is about to happen.

Try not to giggle when you see the missing passengers sprinting towards the ship. One of them always loses their hat.

Try not to worry too much when the ship leaves without the missing passengers. If the ship doesn’t depart exactly on time, they pay huge fees for EVERY EXTRA MINUTE they stay attached to the dock. No cruise line is going to incur huge port fines waiting around for folks who can’t keep track of time or are “impaired”.

Sometimes you’ll overhear from gossipy employees what actually happened to those who never returned.

Occasionally you’ll read about the folks who missed the boat in the news.

A True Story

I’ve taken many, many cruises and I’ve had ONE close call getting back to the ship on time. 

We’d spent the day in Sicily (Italy) and like an idiot I put my camera down in an internet cafe.

Some sticky-fingered teenage entrepreneur immediately picked it up when my back was turned. The owner of the internet cafe had cameras inside and agreed to watch the playback (although I’m pretty sure he already knew who had my camera).

The owner quickly discovered who took my camera, which was full of priceless vacation photos. After a very animated computer google-translate English to Italian discussion, my SD card was returned.

I persisted and eventually my light blue Canon camera was also returned.

This process took a very long time and I was very, very late for my ship!

The dramatic situation had drawn a huge crowd and, I’m not joking, some awesome Italian dude on a moped gallantly offered to escort me back to my ship.

As we left the internet cafe with my $100 Canon tucked securely into my pocket, the locals who’d gathered around and watched me negotiate the return of my property clapped and cheered and wished me well as we scootered to the port.

It was surreal. 

I was the last one one the ship and had about thirty seconds to spare. The security person scanning room keys flipped his computer around and showed me they were waiting for only me. 

Whatever dude. I beat the Italian Mafia.

Close-ish Calls

We’ve had a couple of other “close-ish calls” over the years (and what I mean by close call is we were within 15 minutes of all-aboard so we had to skip the salad bar to secure our position on the top deck to watch the people who were actually late). 

Running even kind-of late can get very expensive. If your finances are tight it’s a good idea to plan for this unexpected expense. A dude on a moped isn’t always around to save the day. Usually you’ll need to splurge for a taxi.

I’ve been on many, many cruises and here are my other three close calls:

• Once I had an Uber take us to the wrong cruise terminal in Sweden (a very, very expensive 50 euro mistake).
• In Naples my companion got tired of walking and we were running behind so I desperately secured a very expensive 20 euro taxi for our final six blocks (at the time that was about $5 per block).
• We once had a hard time finding our remote cruise terminal outside of Pisa/Florence. We flagged down a very expensive 30 euro taxi for our two mile journey and returned to the ship in plenty of time.

These minor episodes aside, we’re usually up on the deck, eating a salad and a cookie with thirty minutes to spare while we watch our fellow cruise ship passengers return.

Tips to Make the Most Out of Cruising

Cruising Do’s

• If you have several cruises you want to take but are on a budget, book an inside cabin for as many cruises as you can. Once you’ve had a balcony or better, it’s hard to squeeze yourself back inside. 

• Be nice to the crew. They gossip. They know who the nice people are and who they should avoid. 

• In fact, be nice to everyone. Period.

• Go for walks on the deck and enjoy feeling very small in the vast water.

• Enjoy the peace and quiet of no cell phone.

• Bring a couple of fabric softener sheets to keep in your closet so your clothes smell fresh.

Cruising Don’ts

• Don’t do all-inclusive drink packages. You’re taking a cruise to travel and explore, not to get drunk on a cruise ship. Drink sparingly and save the hangover for home, or for a different kind of trip.

• Don’t throw trash into the ocean.

• Don’t buy shore excursions from the cruise ship, unless you like paying double.

Cruising Secrets

• If you’re on a long cruise (10 days or more) towards the middle of your journey housekeeping usually offers a “laundry” special . . . they’ll wash, dry and fold as many clothes as you can shove into their little bag for about $20. We almost always take advantage of this laundry special.

• You aren’t obligated to do anything on the daily ship itinerary and you probably aren’t going to miss much if you don’t participate. Go to the shows that interest you and enjoy the movies you want to see.

• Cruises include activities for all personality types. Participate in what sounds like fun to you!

• Most of the food on your cruise is included in the price, specialty restaurants will cost more.

• I find the regular food offered in the dining rooms and buffet is varied enough and I’ve never felt like I needed to go to a specialty restaurant (I’m also not a huge foodie). If I want to eat something exotic I’ll go to a local restaurant while on shore.

• Some cruisers love jogging on deck, others spend time in the library or sit outside watching for birds. Find your cruising interest and embrace it. I’m pretty boring, on cruises I like to catch up on reading and watch the water go by.

Most Important Tip

Just because the cruise ship sells it doesn’t mean you have to buy it.

Thanks for Stopping By

Please feel free to share your questions or comments below. If you see any typos, let me know!

I encourage you to share my tribal knowledge with someone who loves or would love to travel.

The Art of Travel (TAOT) ~ Written by Kylie, a huge thanks to Alex for the great photos.