Guest Post: Six Reasons You Seriously Need to Consider Booking a Cruise

This is a guest post! Please join me in welcoming Erin of Her Heartland Soul!

Hi everyone! I’m Erin and I blog over at Her Heartland Soul. I’m so excited to be visiting Roxy’s blog today! If you’re the kind person of who has a hart time picking one destination for your vacations, I’ve got the perfect suggestion for you: take a cruise instead! I recently took an amazing 10 day Caribbean cruise aboard Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas. It was so luxurious and we had such a fun, relaxing time.

Last year my husband and I wanted to do something a little different for our winter vacation. We don’t have kids yet, and don’t live near family, so we decided to eschew the traditional cold and snowy Christmas/Hannukah/New Year’s celebrations at home and travel the world. We figured we have decades ahead of us to be rooted, so why not untether ourselves for the holidays. We were in search of an experience that was relaxing and fun, in a warm environment, with plenty of things to do and ways to celebrate the holidays.

Like any good millennial, I turned to Google for advice. And article after article pointed us towards booking a cruise. Initially I wasn’t too enthused about this idea. I had never cruised before and always thought cruises primarily catered to retirees. I had also heard cruises described as “floating Walmarts” before on more than one occasion. I don’t know about you, but that’s the last thing I want to hear about a potential vacation options.

The more I read about cruises though, the more I realized that there is a cruise for everybody, and every age.  There are large boats and small boats. Boats that go to the biggest tourist destinations and boats that go to small, exclusive locales. Cruises have come a long way in the last few years and have worked hard to modernize and appeal to audiences old enough to want more than a booze cruise but young enough to still want lots of entertainment and fun.

So with a lot of excitement (and still a little apprehension) we booked a 10 Day Southern Caribbean cruise aboard the Royal Caribbean Serenade of the Seas. It was hands down the best vacation we’ve ever taken. And I would book another cruise in a heartbeat. If you’re on the fence about if cruising is right for you, below is plenty of photo evidence and then six reasons you need to seriously consider booking a cruise.

 

Six Reasons You Need to Seriously Consider Booking a Cruise

1. The ability to wake up in a new destination every day, without having to lift a finger
If you want to explore multiple destinations in one vacation, there’s no easier way to do it than on a cruise. You unpack once, have the same room the entire time, and don’t have to worry about coordinating transport (and all the headaches that can involve) to get you from Point A to Point B.

You’re also able to visit multiple countries without having to worry about going through customs at each destination. You show your passport when you board the ship, and then for the rest of the trip you simply scan your cruise card when entering and exiting each port.

On our ten day cruise we were able to visit five different countries. Cruising is a great way to explore new areas without committing to an entire vacation there. Josh and I loved exploring the Caribbean this way and would like to explore parts of Europe and Alaska this way in the future.

2. Save money on your vacation
This surprises a lot of people to find out, but cruises are an incredible value. When comparing trips our friends took to Paris and Hawaii around the same time as us, we discovered our trip cost significantly less per day than our friends.  And this was with us upgrading to a balcony room, scheduling excursions at every port, eating at the specialty restaurants onboard, and splurging on the unlimited booze package.

You can have a top of the line vacation on a cruise ship, and it likely will cost you less than if you had a top of the line vacation on land.

3. Unlimited food and booze
I love a good all-inclusive and love that most cruise ships operate this way. There is something so relaxing about not having to deal with credit cards, or calculating tip amounts, or dealing with receipts when on vacation. There is food and booze 24/7, which while not so good for your diet, is incredible for putting you in a vacation state of mind. Order two different desserts, room service at 2am, or your third mimosa without a care in the world.

4. There is an entire crew whose job is to keep you entertained
You will be hard-pressed to be bored on a cruise ship. The reason for this is every cruise ship has a cruise director in charge of planning events for the day. And boy do they know how to pack a schedule. From trivia, to wine tastings, Zumba, art classes, Bingo, pool parties, dancing lessons, scavenger hunts, and Broadway shows, there is always something going on.

Josh and I were ended up loving sea days just as much as port days because there were so many fun activities that appealed to us. We unfortunately couldn’t get to them all, which just means we need to take more cruises!

5. The ability to schedule your time your way
One of the things I loved most about our cruise was how customizable it was. You can participate in every activity the ship offers. Or you can laze away the day napping and reading poolside. On port days you can chose to explore the destination or stay on the ship. When visiting a destination you can choose from a wide variety of excursions (which I highly recommend!) or you can strike out on foot and make your own adventure (which I also highly recommend!).

Josh and I picked our cruise based on the size of the ship (small) and the destination list (less run of the mill). By researching online, we were then able to find out which destinations we wanted to explore on our own vs. which destinations we wanted to explore via a ship excursion.

In Dominica we signed up for the river tubing excursion and had an absolute blast. In Tortola we actually caught a ferry to Peter Island and spent the day relaxing at the spa and on the beach of one of the world’s most exclusive resorts.  We loved our vacation so much because it was completely customized to us.

6. Ability to completely disconnect from the world (if you want to)

Something that cruise ships get criticized for is that their Internet is expensive and slow. For me this was the biggest plus. I’m a digital marketer by day and a blogger by all the rest of my free time. I am always in front of a screen and need a break from it every once and a while. On the cruise, Josh and I turned our phones off, and didn’t turn them back on until the vacation was over.

If you want to pay for Internet on the ship, or connect to free WiFi at ports you can, but there is something so incredible about spending an entire vacation connecting not to technology, but to the people you’re with.

So what do you think, have I made you want to take a cruise? If you want to read the entire recap of our 10 Day Southern Caribbean adventure, check out the links below:

Cruising on the Royal Caribbean Serenade of the Seas
A Day on Peter Island
Horseback Riding in St. Kitts
River Tubing in Dominica
Eating Our Way Around St. Martin