Why is Cruising your Favorite Vacation

[mamaofami]

Decided to move this off the latest Noodam review and give it a forum of its own. To all of you who love cruising, why is it your favorite vacation?:)

[CDRMark]

......but it isn't.
We are new to cruising (since 11/2004) and love it, but it has not become our only or fave vacation; just part of the mix. Another arrow in the vacation/recreation quiver.
Cheers
Mark

[LAFFNVEGAS]

For us cruising has become a way of life. DH and I both work hard, I work 6 days a week and generally log in 65 to 70 hours at work in a week. So I like to relax and not have to think about what I am doing next on vacation. We can do that with cruising. We unpack and from there the ship takes us to different ports to see different things. There is no wondering where we are going to eat and is the food good? We already know we love it. The service is always excellent and the we love the accomodations, we know the bed is going to be great and not some lumpy old mattress and the best part is the rocking us to sleep at night;)

A cruise can be as relaxing or as jammed pack full of fun as you want. We normally prefer the quiet, do nothing but relax type of cruise but in 5 days this will be a go-go-go type of cruise. Even though it will not be our normal style I am still getting extremely excited:D

[happy cruzer]

I like the way you phrased your question, about cruising being a good "vacation". I personally think that people are told that it is the best way to travel and see places which I do not agree with. In my opinion the ports and traveling is icing. The vacation is all the things that LAFFN mentioned. I love the service and the food. High quality at a reasonable price. Great entertainment and activities. Many conveniences - unpacking once, your same cabin and restroom each night setup just the way you like, your beds setup just the way you like, etc. To us vacations mean relaxing and getting to do a bit of travel.

We also love to travel on roadtrips and landtrips. Those tend to turn into marathons and we need a vacation at the end of them.

To each their own!

[RuthC]

From the first I found cruising to be an unusual combination of relaxation, excitement, and fun. And one heck of a good way to meet interesting people to share this journey! :)

Now, as a single redux, I still find all that, plus it's a safe way to travel the world. I feel comfortable with my shipmates, and I love having tablemates with whom to share the details of the day. I can be alone when I want, and find others when I want company.
And the nightlife can't be beat (compared to home). :D

For me, it's the best of all worlds.

[sab490]

Carol -

That is an excellent question, but one I find difficult to answer. Back in the day when I took land vacations, I always felt that when I got home I needed a vacation to recover! When I return from a cruise I feel refreshed. Maybe it's the calming effect of the water. Maybe it's the social athmosphere where you feel comfortable chatting with people with whom you have very little in common except they are also thrilled to be on the ship. Maybe it's going to sleep at night and not having to worry about all the things you have to do and decisions you have to make the next day. It's probably all of the above and then some.

We are thinking of taking a short land vacation this summer. Maybe after that I will have a better perspective on why I like cruising so much.

- Steve

[Mary Ellen]

First of all, your question is based upon an assumption - that cruising is our favorite vacation. Yes we love cruising, but DH and I also love going to DisneyWorld on vacations. We like it so much there that we have timshares IN DisneyWorld (Disney Vacation Club). As CDRMark put it so well, "Another arrow in the vacation/recreation quiver".

Now, as to why we like cruising (I'm guessing this the question to which you want the answer). I like seeing new things and DH HATES driving vacations - living out of a suitcase, checking in/out of hotels/motels every day, at which unknown restaurant do eat, no evening entertainment (other than TV) and coming home more tired than he left. Cruising fits the bill for both of us (even if I do get seasick easily). As you can see, our next cruise would be kind of difficult to 'do' if not by cruise.

[grammyc]

I must agree with all of the above! Just returned from the Veendam on our first cruise and it was heaven!!! DH and I have been married for 32 years and vacation twice a year. Normally, it's a trip to see our kids and grandkids with a stop in Lake Tahoe or Vegas. I enjoy those trips, but I always feel unrested at the end because we never stop and really rest. And there is always the "Where do you want to eat? . . . I don't know, where do you want to eat?" syndrome. That gets old quickly! Without saying the same things as the posters above, it was the most relaxing vacation ever! Will definately plan on a cruise for 2008. Most definately plan to stay with Holland and the Veendam. Happy cruising to all! :D

[innlady1]

Carol,

We're relatively new to cruising, but it is quickly becoming our #1 "vacation of choice."

We have just today booked the 11/10 11-day cruise on the Noordam, so I guess I've put my money where my mouth is!

I'm in the hospitality business, owning a B & B on a lovely island destination. And I have to say, (I hope our C of C isn't reading this! ;) ), cruising is a lot less expensive than an island vacation here...those of us in the lodging business try to keep our rates in check, but the gourmet restaurants are very expensive.

So, I can truly appreciate the great value that cruising offers.

We sailed on the Caribbean Princess last year, and got the bug. But I have to say that for those of us in the Northeast, the Noordam is just so very easy. And HAL is "one step above" Princess in every area (except the shops...which was better for our budget!).

A limo picked us up at our house to take us to Boston, from there we took the HAL bus and never saw our luggage again until it was safely deposited in our stateroom.

We were able to unpack once, and enjoy five ports of call. Room service for breakfast if we chose to do so (which we did every day! :) ). What's not to love about having breakfast on your verandah, watching the world go by? Or, sitting there with a good book during the day, or watching the sunset in the evening?

The food...so many choices. Entertainment....the same. The service...impeccable (I'd love to have some of the HAL crew work for us at our inn!). Whatever you'd like to do, it's available and at your fingertips. So many choices on a cruise that one can't possibly do everything there is to do!

You can do a little or you can do a lot...it's all up to you...but the whole cruising experience is just so relaxing.

There are just so many reasons why I'm totally taken with cruising....I would bore you with the details. Suffice to say, this was only our 2nd cruise, but hopefully there will be many more to come! :D

[booboo29]

:D We also live in a tourist destination type place (that also happens to be an Island). DH and I spend our time "entertaining" the tourists that are kind enough to visit our corner of the world and allow us to make a living. Every vacation we have taken since our honeymoon has been a cruise. As far as we are concerned, it is the only way to travel. I am a human stress ball and I can't stand working out of a suitcase. It ususally takes us about two-three days traveling before we get on the ship and I am SOOO ready to get unpacked, relax, and not worry about a thing for the next 7-10 days.

We love to wander around the ship, people watch and talk with the crew. I have been to the Philippines so it is especially fun to speak with the Filipinos as I sometimes know exactly where they live. I'd like to belive they enjoy getting a chance to talk about home too.

DH and I are both in our 30's and we don't forsee changing our vacation plans (or cruise line HAL) any time soon!

Frank and Jennifer

[innlady1]

Thanks, Carol, for posting this thread! We so enjoyed meeting you and Sam on the Noordam! :)

[We2Cruzers]

We've only been on two cruises thus far, but I find it an altogether great vacation. The rooms we've been in have been lovely, the service wonderful and courteous, the food and entertainment very good - and everything is right there for you - no driving around and getting lost, no time wasted with numerous check-ins as when you travel on land tours. I think having the sea to watch at anytime day or night and feeling the roll is just fabulous. And though I love travelling and visiting new places, we loved our cruises so much that this year we are doing a transatlantic crossing - and we won't have to leave the ship for six days.
:)

[mamaofami]

Sheila, So glad you made the decision and booked another cruise. I presume with your friend who was too sick to come on the 2/7 trip. Did you take that aft cabin? Sounds great!

[BCEagle78]

For us, we find cruising to be a very good value. We live in Florida so when we cruise the Caribbean, we can drive to the port. We have the advantage of avoiding paying airfare.

We love the food, we love the variety of ports. Every stop is a new adventure, even when the port is a repeat.

Our favorite part of cruising is actually the days at sea. It is so relaxing and so much fun.

We would take a cruise over most any other vacation!

[mamaofami]

To answer my own question, we started cruising 3 and a half years ago with HAL. Before that, we took a cruise to Bermuda but can't recall the name of the cruise line. I like knowing exactly where my "home" will be, the layout of the cabin so nothing will be a surprise. I like the predictability of cruising; the service is always good, the food to our liking, it's one stop unpacking, and my DH and I can enjoy activities during sea days that don't have us together all day long. We can each enjoy our own activities and meet up later for a meal, if that's what we want.

I can't say I think the entertainment is the best because living near NYC I am very spoiled. But, it's always enjoyable.

I love not worrying about where we will eat, when we will eat, making reservations. And when we are in port, if it's the Caribbean, we know where we want to go and what we will do so there's no surprises on that front either. Crusing to me is a very relaxing experience. I love sitting on the balcony and watching the ocean go by.

And now that I discovered the Noordam, and can drive to the pier in half an hour, well, how can I beat that.I can escape the dreaded cold and snow by just driving to the pier. Add it all together, and it's one terrific vacation.

[innlady1]

Sheila, So glad you made the decision and booked another cruise. I presume with your friend who was too sick to come on the 2/7 trip. Did you take that aft cabin? Sounds great!

Yes, we did, Carol (the aft cabin). I have to try it at least once, having read so many positive reports about the aft cabins here on CC! :D

Yes, we're doing this with our friends...he who had had surgery before the 2/7 cruise and was unable to make the voyage. He's having another surgery on Wednesday....hopefully he'll have better luck this time around.

I hope we can cruise again when you and Sam are on the Noordam! Maybe next February or March?

[kryos]

Cruising is my favorite type of vacation because it is relaxing. True, it is not the best way to see the world. You don't get enough time in ports to truly do that. But it does let you see a bit of a lot of places. It also lets you accomplish that with a minimum of fuss and bother.

Once I am on the boat, even though we're still tied up at the pier, I can literally feel all the stress dripping off of my body. I know that for the next so many days, my every need is gonna be met with a minimum of trouble on my part. Want something good to eat? It's right there ... in fact, in several places. Want something to drink? Right over here. Want some entertainment? That's in a variety of places. The list goes on and on.

And the best thing is that most of these items are included in what I already paid to be on the cruise, so I have no unexpected expenses that I didn't allow for.

Like several others on this thread have already said ... I work hard for a living. I have a lot of stress in my life and a lot of responsibility. So, when I go on vacation, I don't want any of that. I want instant gratification ... all of my needs met ... and I don't want to have to go to any trouble to get them met. A cruise fits the bill perfectly.

Yep, I have a feeling I'll be cruising for some time yet ... and enjoying every minute of it.

Blue skies ...

--rita