Ocean Cruising

Cruising is a huge growth area in the travel market and has fast become the holiday of choice for many. For this article, the focus will be on ocean cruising and ships catering for 1000 or more people.

So, why cruising and what’s so great about it? Simply put, an ocean cruise happens when you board a ship that is quite literally sailing the seas and oceans of the world, generally for more than one night.

Large ocean cruise ships can accommodation anywhere from 1000 to 6000 passengers and often feature a large range of activities like ice-rinks, dodgem cars, mini-golf, shopping, libraries, lots of bars, destination briefings, pools, gym, full spa facilities, children’s activities and specialty restaurants (which may have a small cover charge). The ships are often compared to floating cities!

From our perspective, our love of cruising comes down to the pure ease of travel, variety of ports, value for money and flexibility of activities. We first dipped our toe into the world of cruising, when we booked a 7-night cruise out of Singapore. Beyond knowing our accommodation was onboard the ship, our meals were included, and we would be stopping at 4 ports along the way, we boarded the ship with no expectations or understanding of what cruising was.

What we experienced was a weeklong adventure, with something for each of us and a holiday style which suited our family perfectly. 

We found that one of the biggest advantages of cruising, is that once you are onboard you only need to unpack once, and your adventure begins! As soon as you have unpacked, you can head off to the pool, find a trivia, grab a bite to each or a drink with a view – the choice is yours. Another advantage of cruising is that you can choose the type of holiday you want.

It might be:

• Totally relaxing and you might do nothing beyond relaxing on a deck chair by the pool, book in hand or watching a movie

• You may want to, participate in as many onboard activities as you can

• Focusing on doing as many shore tours as possible

• Going to all the evening entertainment shows

• Celebration cruises for birthdays, wedding parties, anniversaries or other family events

• Any mix of the above – whatever feels right – the choice is completely yours!

Entertainment staff also ensure an assortment of onboard activities are available such as trivia, Name that Tune, shuffleboard competitions, scavenger hunts, themed parties, gameshows.

There are also alcohol tastings, the casino, theatres, art auctions and gallery so it’s hard to become bored. Look out for the onboard newsletter which gives you information about that day’s activities.

Information about the ports you are visiting is also provided including highlights of local attractions to visit.

When it’s time to visit your ports, shore tours can be pre-booked through the shore tour desk when on board or now on through the internet but tours do sell out so book early. An advantage of shore tours is that you will not be left behind if the tour is delayed getting back to the ship past the time the ship is due to depart the port. Alternatively, you can arrange your own shore excursions which we have done at times or just walk around the port and local area. It is important to know what time the ship will leave and what time you need to be back onboard to avoid the ship sailing without you. 

There are many providers of ocean cruising some of which are – P&O Australia, Princess Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruises, Costa Cruises, Viking Ocean Cruises, Oceania Cruises, Disney Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, Cunard, MSC Cruises,  and P&O Cruises. Some ships may be within sight of the shoreline as they travel while others cross the water with no land insight for a day or two. Cruises vary in length and purpose and with so many options in the market it’s now easier than ever to find something to fit your needs and budget:

• Short Break - 1-5 days length. These cruises often depart on weekends, for special events (i.e.  Australian Open, Melbourne Cup) or operate as themed cruises such as comedy or 80s. If operating as a sea break, the cruises have limited to no port stops.

• Week Away - 6-8 days. These cruises are a great length for the first-time cruiser, as it allows you the chance to experience life aboard the ship while allowing you to get a taste for the ports. Generally, the cruise will allow for between 3 or 4 ports and 1 or 2 sea days depending on the destinations.

• 9-15 days. This allows for 6- 8 ports depending on how many sea days there are.

• 16 or more days. The length of these cruises can be over 100 days (world cruise) or be about 30 days (relocation cruise) but provide the opportunity to go to much further and include several different countries or a long trip around one country.

Cruise lines offer both domestic cruises, that generally do not require a passport and sail from where you live or those that visit international ports and will require a passport. The international cruises may sail from a port near you, alternatively you can fly to the embarkation port in another country.

Some cruise ships also offer flight services to organise connecting flights which mean they will guarantee you reach the departure port or they will fly you there.

Cruise ships that have under 2000 passengers can offer itineraries to unusual locations such as traversing the Suez and Panama Canals which involve going through a series of locks as you the ship moves along through it.

Smaller ships also provide the opportunity to visit less frequently visited ports like Honiara in the Solomon Islands, Sabang in Indonesia and the Orkney Islands in the UK.

The size of the ship and port also impacts on whether the port is a tender port or the ship can dock at the wharf. This impacts on your in-port time as it is much faster to dock at the wharf because then you just walk off the ship. A tender port means you need to line up to get a tender ticket and then wait to board a tender A tender is a smaller boat to take you to shore - usually the ships lifeboats. Tender seats go first to people who have booked shore tours and then are opened to the other passengers.

We absolutely love ocean cruising and find it a wonderful way to travel together as a family. There is something on board for everyone and its something we wish we had discovered much earlier.

We already have another two cruises booked to do before the end of 2020. We keep a regular eye out for cruise itineraries we would like to do, as well as checking out what last minute opportunities are available.

So far, we have sailed on P&O Australia and Princess Cruises but are keen to try a couple of itineraries on MSC Cruises that we have not seen with other cruise lines. Taking a trip on a megaship is also in our future.

Cruising is a great way to sample a location to decide if it’s somewhere you would like to revisit and spend more time exploring it or not.

Ultimately, we hope you will enjoy cruising as much as we do.