10 reasons why you should cruise

You can forget about excel spreadsheets full of trip planning and air schedules. Instead, you can simply get onboard, unpack your suitcase and get to enjoying yourself. Rather than stressing over connecting flights and hotel bookings, you can focus on how to get the best out of your shore excursions and pre and post-cruise stays.

Beyond this, you’ll also have all your restaurants, entertainment and amenities easily accessible for whenever you want them. Depending on if you choose an all-inclusive cruise, there can also be an ease in simply paying one cost upfront and then enjoying the ship as you please, rather than constant spending and budgeting that comes with other types of vacations.

Cruising can be incredibly cheap if you get yourself a good deal and this is only becoming more true. Flights and hotels are hitting all-time highs in a post-COVID world while the price of cruising has remained relatively stable.

Cruising with big cruise lines like Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line and Carnival Cruises can prove incredibly cost-effective, especially when bringing children. Children under 12 cruise generally cruise for free with big cruise lines and the adult fares can also be incredibly reasonable.

A 10-night with Royal Caribbean in Australia will generally start from somewhere in the range of $1300 – $1600 per person. This allows not just budget travellers to get a good deal, but if you have some

If you’re cruising overseas you can also often get your cruise line to organize your flights for you, and they will generally be able to get you a better deal than what you’d find yourself.

While you could easily spend two weeks in Europe simply exploring and immersing yourself in one country, it’s also a pretty thrilling feeling to give your passport a real workout and come from a cruise being able to boast of the seven or eight countries you dropped in on along the way.

Whether you simply want a quick yet worthwhile taste of many countries, want to sample a countries culture and atmosphere before committing to a longer holiday or get giddy at the idea of waking up in a brand new place every morning, cruising can do this for you.

While if further immersion in one or two countries is what you’re after, there’ll always be cruise options for this as well, it’s not uncommon for cruisers to quickly become addicted to whirlwind of experiencing brand new cultures, cuisines and activities almost everyday.

Furthermore, ships will have the best shore experiences available, meaning it’ll be easy to maximise whatever time you have in each destination.

If this is all sounding enticing, you might also want to look into the world of river cruising. Particularly in Europe you can find a journey through the beautiful waterways will expose to bountiful amounts and variations of culture, even if you only travel for  short time.

Cruising can often offer a cut-price way to get to your bucket list destinations, or sometimes even the only way.

Particularly expedition cruising can take you off to remote areas where you’ll truly come home with something different from what 99% of holidays could offer you. Whether you want to waddle amongst the penguins in Antarctica, gaze over the sea cliffs of the Kimberley, watch the northern lights dance in the Norwegian sky or retrace Charles Darwin’s discoveries in the Galapagos, cruising will take you there.

Even if you don’t want an expedition based journey, big cruise ships will still take you out to once-in-a-lifetime destinations like rural Alaska, Scandinavian fjords, the Great Barrier Reef, Patagonia and so many more.

Cruising can take all the money, planning and inaccessibility that makes these areas so out of reach and mythical, and then offer you a ticket straight to front-row seats of these worldly wonders.

Even more excitingly, if you find out cruising is for you, you might one day dream of a world cruise. These long, circumnavigating voyages will threaten to leave your bucket list bare, as you tick off countries, continents and adventures that previously were pipe dreams.

Cruising is a food-lovers paradise. You’ll be constantly surrounded by a wide range of cuisines, there’s always options for fancier and more specialised dining and cruise lines carefully curate their food offerings to ensure your comfort foods will be available, but also offering opportunities to expand your culinary horizons.

Some cruise lines such as Oceania Cruises place a specific emphasis on the food onboard, with locally sourced ingredients and world-renowned chefs spoiling for you choice every night.

Even local lines such as P&O Cruises Australia have food options such as Luke Magnans restaurants Luke’s Bar & Grill, offering you the very best of Australian cuisine on your cruise.

Furthermore, if you find a favourite restaurant on your ship, it’ll be waiting there for you every single night.

Probably one of the strongest arguments for cruising is simply the versatility offered. You could travel with someone who has completely different tastes and interest to you and both have a spectacular time.

While one of you is shopping, the other can be indoor skydiving, while one of you is enjoying a spa session the other can be on the dodgem cars, one of you can enjoy the theatre, the other can make use of the drinks package at a nightclub.

Even down to craving different foods, you have multiple cuisines and dining options all over the ship, making it easy to enjoy the cruise without the need for compromise.

Also crucial to the versatility is the broad range of shore excursions that allow cruisers to essentially customize their holidays. Some members of the travel party might want to explore the town and hit the markets, while others might want to scuba dive or zipline, but they can both easily book their different activities and be back together on the ship later that day.

Cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean and Carnival Cruises set out to design their ships for the perfect family holiday, and if you ask any cruising family, they’ll tell you that they’re doing a pretty good job of it.

What really sets cruising apart from other family holidays are the kids clubs, meaning that whatever age your children are there will be places on the ship specifically designed to engage kids of that age and give them the perfect opportunity to make new friends as well. Plus,there’s no use dancing around the bonus of taking them off your hands for a few hours.

However, apart from occupying your children when you want a bit of spare time or they feel like being around other kids, cruising is also great for family activities. Particularly family-centric cruise lines are bursting with activities for the whole family from sports facilities, ice skating, waterparks, swimming pools, arcades and really most of what you can imagine.

Few holidays pack in more luxury than a cruise with a luxury line such as Regent Seven Seas, Ponant, Silversea or plenty of others. These cruises will generally have one upfront fare that will be all-inclusive for all the onboard luxury your opulent mind can dream up.

Whether you’re after intimate dining experiences, spa treatments, suite accommodation, butler service, premium venues or whatever else, you’ll find luxury around every corner.

The cruise line will take you care of every need and desire you could possibly have from the moment you step onto the ship.

Even if you don’t cruise with a luxury line, all ships will still luxury offerings available, allowing you to weave some indulgence into your vacation.

If you or inner-child have dreams of being an explorer, navigating the oceans to find what’s out in the world, expedition cruising can realise these dreams for you. Not only do expedition cruises take you to spectacular destinations and spoil you with the expected amenities, but cruise lines such as Coral Expeditions, Viking Cruises and Hurtigruten Expeditions can give you a truly immersive expedition experience. Not only in the sense of riding waves on zodiacs and kayaking amongst icebergs, but also getting to participate in active conservation research, listen to talks and workshops from the expedition team, and use science and reference facilities onboard the ships.

This means you can gaze over not just the destinations you’ve dreamed, but also the teams that are doing their bit in preserving their beauty and biodiversity, offering a chance not just to pad your travel resume, but to broaden your perspectives of the natural world as a whole.

While there’s no shortage of romantic vacation options across all of tourism, not much can beat gazing over the side of the ship as the sun sets itself above the ocean. Not to mention onboard you’ll also have fine dining opportunities, intimate bars and places to dance the night away, places to leave the kids and focus on spending time with your significant other and plenty of opportunities for splurging and pampering if you desire.

Beyond this, cruising also offers a chance to make your way out to romantic destinations, depending on how you want to spoil your partner,  you can quickly trade a morning sunset for a picnic opposite the eiffel tower, a beachside stroll in Hawaii or boat ride down the canals of Venice.

Also adding a romantic element to cruising is the lack of responsibility, with all your itinerary, travel and amenities laid out for you, you can simply focus on spending time with each other and forget about any of the hassles that come with regular travel.

However, more than anything else, the romance that comes with the ocean is truly difficult to beat, nothing creates a moment of romance quite like the perfect cocktail of ocean air, endless views and a sea breeze.