Ten Myths About Cruising

By now, you must know that one of my passions is cruising (technology and politics are the other two).  I’ve spent a lot of time on cruise ships, but also a lot of time answering peoples’ questions about cruising.  It’s about time for me to do some mythbusting – about cruising.

1.    I Wont Be Able To Stay In Touch

Cruise ships are communications rich.  Whilst admittedly expensive, you can stay in touch with friends, family and even your bank account.  Internet cafes rank amongst the most popular places on the ships, ranging from a separate, dedicated rooms to keep the Internet addicted away from those onboard who are Internet-phobic to the floating version of Starbucks, making sure you can have your coffee and your Internet, too.  (And in one ship’s case, there is a Starbucks at sea – on the Allure of the Seas.)   For those who can’t leave home without their laptop, netbook or iPad, discreet hotspot signs can be found in the public areas on most ships, with wireless services increasingly being extended into passenger cabins.  Phone your thing?   Take your cellphone.  Expensive, but you can TXT and chat all you want from any ocean, budget permitting.   If you are a current events fiend, CNN, CNBC and sports channels are usually there for the watching.

2.    It’s for old folks

Wrong!  Baby boomers, young retireds (the ones who actually made money in the IPO/Silicon Valley Boom) and families are the fastest growing sectors amongst cruise passengers.  In fact, if you want a holiday away from the kids, pick your cruise carefully.  Avoid the school holidays (taking care to factor in the Northern Hemisphere school holiday season, July and August).

3.    I’ll get fat

Take the stairs instead of the lifts and religiously visit the fitness centre.  Also, the walking track (usually perched above one of the upper decks) will be calibrated to tell you how many circuits equal a mile.  But frankly, after the first week, enough food already!   Also, avoid organised shore excursions which ferry you around by coach.  Much more fun to set off on foot and explore.

4.    It’s boring

What do you do at home?  Go see a film?  Plenty onboard.  Go out for a meal?  Food awash.  Play on your computer?  See (1) above.  Go visit friends?  Hundreds onboard!  Read a book? Ship’s library, your Kindle or iPad or even those dog-eared paperbacks you brought along. Go shopping?  There are even sales and jumble sales onboard.  Play bridge? Sqauds of bridge players.  Missing your spanner?  On one cruise, Terry and his new-found buddy even tried to reverse engineer the new, fancy shower taps over the bathtub.

5.    It’s expensive

Wrong again.  Where else can you get your hotel room, food (all day long), entertainment, transportation and  educational experiences for, let’s say, $150 a night per person?  Discounting will drive even that price down (and of course, you can pay a lot more).

6.    I’ll get seasick

Ships use their stabilisers to keep their carpets clean.  Seriously – stabilisers keep modern ships relatively stable, and anyway, by time you have been on for two or three days, your sea legs will have matured.  But if you feel queasy, sea sick tablets are available on board, and then there’s the old, tried and true remedy, ginger.

7.    There are no interesting cruises nearby

How wrong can you be!   Have you sailed around New Zealand?  We’ve done it about 6 or 7 times and never get bored.  Alternatively, in two days, you can be on the beach in some palm-filled South Pacific Island.  Been to Tasmania or Darwin lately?  Lots of cruises go from or return to Auckland, so if you pick a cruise that doesn’t include Auckland return, you can do it with only one flight.

8.    It’s not a kid-friendly holiday

Big myth.  On our last ship, we were wishing that the “kids only” area was available for adults, too.  Separate oasis area with a lagoon type pool, awesome club rooms, video games, all the crayons and paint your kids can use – all supervised by wonderful youth coordinators.

9.    No escape if I don’t like my table mates

Ask the maitre d’ to change your table, or, if you feel really cornered, opt for Anytime or Casual dining.  You will still have plenty to eat, and make new friends each time you sit down for dinner.

10.    The crew go home at night

No they don’t, nor is the ship powered by a long electrical cable plugged into Miami.