Why I like cruise vacations

[Rogillio]

To me there are 2 main reason we cruise. One is for the cruise experience of shows, family time, good food, fun activities on the ship. The other is tourism - visiting various ports of call.
Obviously cruising for tourism has limits....to cities with a port! So sometimes you just need to forget the boat and head inland.

Our latest family vacation was to Peru. After 8 days of packing, unpacking, taxis, busses, planes, trains and boats I told my wife, "Our next adventure needs to be a cruise!"

This was our Peru trip in a nutshell:

Fly to Atlanta
Fly to Peru
Shuttle to Hotel
2 nights in hotel
Shuttle to airport
Plane to Cusco
Shuttle to hotel
1 night in hotel
Shuttle to train station
Train to Machu Picchu
Train to Sacred Valley
1 night in hotel
Bus to Cusco
Plane ride to Amazon jungle
Shuttle from airport to river
Boat ride into the jungle
2 nights in Cabana in the jungle
Boat ride to city
Bus back to airport
Plane back to Lima
Shuttle into city
Shuttle back to airport
Fly to Atlanta
Fly home

It was a great adventure! What was missing is the R&R part of a vacation. It seemed like we were constantly on the move, packing and unpacking, busses, planes, trains and boats.
We sailed the Med, the Baltic, Carribbean and Hawaii. The best part of those trips was being able to unpack and stay put for a week and take our 'hotel' with us as we traveled!

I'm looking at a Mississippi River cruise maybe for next year. They look similar to ocean cruises as far as elegance of the dinning rooms and shows an such.....obviously on a much smaller scale though. They seem rather expensive though. Anyone ever done a river cruise?

 

[Dramatic Muffin]

That sounds like an amazing vacation! But I know what you mean. I was just in Europe for two weeks and I'm exhausted. I told my daughter that my next trip is going to include some lazy beach time.

 

[SwimMom2]

Isn't that the truth! We love all types of vacations but after our first cruise, I told DH I think we are at a stage of life where cruises suit us very well. With little ones, unpacking once is priceless.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

My daughter and I were talking about this last night. After 2 summers in a row of cruises, (2013 & 2014), we went to Hawaii this year. It was great and we had a wonderful time but it wasn't the same relaxing and fun family trip that we get on the ship.

Luckily, we'll be on the Wonder from Vancouver to San Diego in September to get our cruise fix.

Next summer we've got a Mediterranean cruise booked, (not on DCL though), and are tentatively planning out 2017 and 2018 cruise destinations. We got did by the cruise bug bad on our first Fantasy cruise and cruises are really the only vacations we want to go on!

 

[TestingH2O]

This is why we are ready to become "cruise people." My parents are in their 70's and have said that, while they still love to travel, their days of taking the train to a different city in Europe every couple of days have passed. With a young child, I also love the idea of her being able to get comfortable in her space so we don't have to readjust to a new bed each night.

 

[Mrs Green]

This really hits home for me. We are frequent road trippers and often vacation in a way that is constant activity and constant family time (even extended family since we live away from both our families) but then get home feeling like we need a vacation from our vacation! We are highly anticipating our Alaska cruise next summer so that we can hopefully strike a great balance of family time vs adult time (and no extended family!), activity vs relaxation. I keep telling my dh that after our cruise we will be hooked on this type of trip but he doesn't agree...YET!!!

 

[thumpie's mom]

I was hooked after our first cruise! It is the only vacation where I feel I can actually relax and it is okay to have some down time.

 

[PrincessTrisha]

We used to do Disney World all the time; or take 4-5 days and hit up Atlantic City (staying at whichever casino gave us a free room so we'd move every night) or get in the car and travel for a couple of weeks, always moving forward, a different stop every night.

For us, cruising gave us something different, something I personally craved which is a bit of stability. We get there, we stay there. No living out of a suitcase, no thinking about where and when and what to eat, no heavy planning (except for which cruise and travel to and from the ship). Just relaxation and fun.

As well, my mother had a stroke in 2006 and is now a full time wheelchair user. It's so much easier to know what the accessible features of the ship / cabin are than to be chancing it each night in different hotels or even restaurants and comfort breaks.

 

[cheermom2four]

We travel a lot by plane/vehicle. My reason for booking two cruises next year is I'm tired of flying and being on the go constantly as I may have an almost 4 year old but I also have kids ranging from 15 to 27 years (yep I'm an older parent) an I really need to learn to just slow down. I need some down time from laptops, cell phones, etc and to just reconnect with my family without having to rush here or there. I already told my DH when we cruise in Feb without the kids for the first time and on the Magic, I'm not getting us internet and we are just going to put our cell phones away in the safe and leave them there. I'm looking forward to just sitting by the adult pool or even by the kid pool if my kids arent in the clubs and not having to be somewhere. My parents cruise a lot and now I know why they switched from driving/flying to vacations and just hopping on a boat and staying put for a week or two with the same cabin on their floating hotel.