I have been on three cruises so far (Ruby Princess x2 and Carnival Inspiration) and I have another scheduled for 2021. Here’s why I adore cruising and some reasons why you may adore it too.

Cruising removes the burden of having to pay a balance in one sum because you can make payments.

Let’s start with the elephant in the room when it comes to traveling: traveling is expensive. The best way that I remove the burden of having to deal with a huge “travel bill” is to split up my payments and to book far in advance. If I wanted to book a cruise in the next 6 months, I wouldn’t be able to afford it or have the balance paid off in time however, if I scheduled and booked a cruise at least 12 months ahead of time, I have plenty of time to not only make payments on my cruise but also save up for the shore excursions and the flights. When it comes to any other travel reservations like hotel reservations or flights, there typically isn’t a way to make payments. You can either reserve it or you have to pay for it in full but divide the balance up by several months.

It’s a quadruple threat: accommodation, transfer, entertainment, and food.

When you go on a cruise, you become very spoiled, you eat and drink like a king. A long as you stick with the included dining options like the buffet, café, and main dining room, it’s all included. Want two entrees? It’s included. Want breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Included. Want 5 desserts? Included. If you get the soda package, you can order unlimited soda, iced tea, and juice. You want to go to a comedy show? Included. Want to go a game show? Included. You are on a moving vessel that has a new port and location almost daily.  All of this costs you nothing additional from the cruise balance. All included. 

Cruising gives you the perfect balance of adventure and relaxation.

On sea days, you are forced to stay on board and do activities at your leisure rather than rushing to the next attraction. You can nap all day without feeling guilty or feel  like you are wasting your vacation day. Sea days are the perfect excuse to sleep-in late. You can spend all day watching movies, playing board games, playing basketball or reading without feeling like “Am I wasting my vacation time not sightseeing because I am relaxing?” If you want to do activities and games on the ship, you can and it feels less forced and at your leisure. Compared to when you are staying at a location or “in port”, it’s easy to feel like you have wasted time sleeping when you could have been scratching things off of your bucket list. Relaxation is an important part of a vacation and it’s much easier to take a seat back to enjoy having nothing booked when you have a sea day.

No Time Wasted On Location

When you arrive in port, you have a length of time to sight see and do the activities that you want to do. This keeps you focused and prioritize what’s important to you. It’s easy to not take advantage of the time you have at a certain location when you are there all week or forget certain things that you wanted to do. I know this may seem like a contradiction from my previous reason however, there is a big difference between not taking time for yourself because you are trying to make yourself busy and making sure your top activities are completed in port. When you only have 8 hours in port, you have to have a plan accordingly if you want to do something on your bucket list, like swimming with sting rays or going seeing whales.

It’s A Better Deal Than Flying Into One of the Ports

It can be more cost effective to go on a cruise with certain stops than fly into one of the ports. For example, if I wanted to fly into Puerto Vallarta, just to get there from where I live, it can be a 7 hour flight and cost $400-500 per person. Not including hotel or food.  I might as well book a cruise, have it include “transportation” from Los Angeles, accommodation, and food. Another example if I were to fly into Key West, I could book a $300 -$600 flight per person to get there or I could just book a 4 day $600 cruise to go there and that price is based on double occupancy and again, includes everything needed: accommodation and food. 

Cruise Activities Gets You Out Of Your Comfort Zone

I can’t say I would voluntarily dress up in a dress and heels to go out for dinner while on vacation but because of formal nights, why not? I also can’t say I would opt to get my photo professionally taken, do karaoke, participate in random trivia games, play charades, go on a scavenger hunt, attend a comedy show to a comedian I haven’t heard of before, go on a waterslide, or a spa treatment I haven’t done before. I also don’t watch movies that I don’t personally select but who can say no to movies under the stars? Not only does cruising expand your horizons to locations but you are given experiences to easily try different activities, games, and food (and I know this is repetitive but it needs to be stressed, for no additional cost).