Re: Cruising.
Originally Posted by
Tpin
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I've spent nearly 3 weeks crossing the Atlantic with 3 others on a 40' boat
Small boats and yachts are great fun but are inevitably claustrophobic environments. The confined space being shared by multiple people gets frustrating and tedious very quickly. Add to that the lack of amenities and it makes for a hobby rather than a holiday. Whether yachts or canal long boats doesn't matter. No decent toilets, no baths, showers of any substance, cramped living quarters and only the sparse food and drink you took aboard.
Don't get me wrong, sailing is great, I love it, but when it comes to a proper holiday, needing to relax, walk about, engage in various activities, eat great food, have bars available etc then you can not match a cruise.
Originally Posted by
Tpin
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I can understand why others are attracted to it.
Cruising is loved by so many because it offers incredible flexibility combined with the constant luxury of having your own floating air conditioned 4-5 star hotel room, a myriad of restaurants and bars, plenty of lounge areas to relax in, space to walk around (e.g. walking miles doing laps of the prom deck), swimming pools, sun lounging areas where you are served cocktails, plus pubs, cabaret entertainment, activity classes of all kind (technology classes, crafts, health etc) and much much more.
You can do as much or as little as you want on a cruise. If you have a partner, you can go your own ways during the day with no qualms whatsoever. A lady might go spend half the day in the Spa area having treatments and relaxing, a gent might simply find a nice steamer lounger on the open prom deck and read a book, or go sit in one of the pubs and watch the live streamed football matches or golf or cricket etc.
Additionally during your time aboard you will meet a lot of new people and inevitably will form new friendships, some of which will develop into life long friendships.
You wake up in a different country each day and are free to go explore at your leisure. You can take excursions if you choose to knowing that the cruise line has already done the ground work and selected the best bits to explore and experience.
You can sail happily through force 8-10 gales and large swells with not too much ship movement. On a small boat that kind of weather would ruin your trip and probably stop you sailing altogether.
You can be safe in the knowledge that the ship has its own compliment of security staff who have an armoury and various technological deterrents to fend off any pirates or would-be boarders.
Cruise ships can travel at significant speed to get you from one place to the next quickly. They travel through the night and unlike a little 40' boat, there doesn't need to be one of you operating the boat, there is an entire crew to do that for us.
Finally cruising lets me visit many different countries without the hassle of being herded into airport lounges, having tiny baggage allowance and having to endure flights in tiny seats packed in like sardines in an aircraft that has no contingency measures or fail-safes in the event of engine failures and other technical disasters.
A cruise ship has life boats, life rafts, life jackets. It has large ballast systems where water can be pumped from one side of the ship to the other to counter any listing. If the engines fail, it doesn't plummet 30,000 ft to its doom, it just sits there on the water whilst they are mended or help comes. The ship makes it's own fresh drinking water in multiple ways. It can use reverse osmosis, or evaporation of
sea water or desalination.
On a cruise I roll up to the dockside in my car, my suitcases (as many as I desire) are whisked away by eager porters and I walk into the kiosk area where they check tickets/passports and baggage and then walk onto the ship. From arriving in my car to walking on the ship takes typically no more than 30 mins. My holiday starts IMMEDIATELY at that point. I can go relax in a bar/lounge, have a glass of "welcome on board" champagne, have some lunch, explore the ship, whatever I like. It doesn't really get more civilised and relaxing as that imo.