During the last Christmas, I have been on a Cruise to New Caledonia & Vanuatu, the South Pacific. This was my first long cruise ever and I did enjoy it very much.  Australia is one of the countries where cruising is gaining more and more popularity may be because of our easy access to ports. In my trip I visited the beautiful islands of Port Vila ,Mare, Noumea, Mystery Island & Lifou.

Since I found it as a good option for many travelers, sharing my 15 reasons why the Cruise Holidays are awesome.

1.Perfect for Last minute Travellers

As you already know, one of the key aspects of this travel site is to make travel more enjoyable for those part-time travelers who take a short break from their busy day to day life to travel for fun or for passion or for both. Which means your time is limited, money must go a long way & you have the expectation of having those picture perfect holidays! For those who manage to get last minute leave approvals & impromptu vacation, cruise deals come as a life savior.

Which means your time is limited, money must go a long way & you have the expectation of having those picture perfect holidays! For those who manage to get last minute leave approvals & impromptu vacation, cruise deals come as a life savior.

Good news is that closer to the departure date (usually the last week), the ticket price starts lowering down. So if you want to steal a deal for a probable vacation, keep your eyes open for the cruise deals.

I found these websites useful for Australian cruises, you may find similar ones in other countries as well.

https://www.cruisesalefinder.com.au

https://www.ozcruising.com.au/

Home

2. Value for money!

All expense covered unless you choose otherwise.

If you are budget conscious, food & accommodation are covered and there are a lot of free entertainment activities onboard just within the cost you paid while booking for the cruise. Considering the flight, accommodation & food costs which you may have to pay for an itinerary to some of these remote islands, I truly think cruise deals are great value for money.

3. Less Travel Planning

No more accommodations to be arranged, tours to be researched, compared & booked. Cruises come with the options for onshore excursions which is a great way to plan your sightseeing on your shore days.

Unless you choose to design your own port tours( which I chose most of the time), cruising takes away that added stress of travel planning, though this comes at an additional cost than your booking fee for the cruise.

4. Onboard activities/Entertainment for all age groups

When I planned for a 10-day cruise people kept on asking “won’t you get bored staring at the sea for so long! ”

No, I did not stare at the sea for 10 days. Every sea day (where you are cruising but not getting off the ship), as well as the shore day, comes with a daily brochure of activities inside the cruise ship which is so entertaining.

This includes activities for kids, teens (including adventure sports), families & elderly which varied from dance classes, the music of all genres, comedy shows, culinary shows, late night parties, theme parties, casinos, board games, wine/ whiskey/Rum tasting etc.Some of them are daily and some are less frequent.

However, you always have the option to ignore all of them and lie in the pool sipping your cocktail!

5. Stage Shows at no additional cost

Stage shows by the cruise entertainment team, music bands, and comedians at no extra cost!

Since I don’t watch a lot of stage shows, it was entertaining for me to have so many options onboard.

6. Connectivity at your choice

The choice is yours,  during your vacation would you like to be connected with rest of the world or not?

Though the idea of a total isolation is tempting, having my family miles away makes me prefer to have the option of being connected at least once in a couple of days.

The connectivity is not at par with what we have inland, but still, you can choose to be connected if you would like to. Cruise ships provide multiple plans for connectivity (data based costing, social plans only connection, daily plans etc). To give an idea of the cost, I had the social plan option which was 10 AUD per day to connect to social media.  International dialing was around 10 AUD per minute.

For those who choose to work from Cruise, ( or make promises to your boss that you will be available on phone & emails )this could be a challenge as the connectivity does not look that great  & is also expensive ( could be specific to the ship I was on! ).

7. Easy access to untouched Islands by cruise ships

Accessibility by air or road is limited to certain islands either because of the cost or because of the less number of services. You may not want exotic islands to be left out of your itinerary just because you did not want to pay for the exorbitant flight tickets ( or because you could not fit the flight timings into your itinerary because of the selective day’s transport services!)

8. Awesome Dining options

Multi-course fine dining options every single day at no extra cost is simply awesome!  Pantries with multiple cuisine options(the Mediterranean, Asian, Indian, Western …)

9. Reasonable Room Service

Every time you come back to a neat and clean room, thanks to the good room service. This was much better compared to some of my expensive stays.  I even had cute towel animals waiting on my bed every time I returned.

10. Freedom of Choice – What to do in each port 

Like I mentioned earlier, the shore tours arranged by the cruise save you the hassle of travel planning.

But if you are not a very “tour package” type of traveler, you can still make the cruise work for you. It is more flexible than a package tour. So you get to decide what you do to a certain extent.

For every port days usually, there are shore tours organized by the cruise company at an additional cost. However, it is up to you to choose from them cruise ones or to organize by yourself depending upon the place, costs, and other options. Yes, you do have the freedom of choice!

11. Journey as beautiful as the destination

Being down under in the Southern Hemisphere, it takes a long haul flight for us to get to most of the destinations. Also since holidays are numbered, you would not want to spend anything more than a day’s travel time just to reach the destination.

In a cruise, the journey is as beautiful as the destination itself that you don’t feel the travel time as an additional time to reach your destination, but it just adds on to your vacation ( which is so cool! )

12. Pamper Yourself

For the fitness freak in you, health & wellness sessions starting from morning stretch to yoga to aerobics!

Also, spa facility is available onboard (though I found it expensive).

Watch out for their specials. Afterall, what is a vacation without a good massage!

13. Great for elderly & less mobile 

The interesting thing I noticed was the number of children bringing their elderly parents for cruise holidays. Cruises are designed with wheelchair access, so is a great option to take less mobile relatives/friends on a cruise if generally in a good health condition (though there are in-house medical services, it might not be as exhaustive as on land. So getting the right insurance will be key)

14. Awesome Sailing Away views

Unique views from the decks while sailing in and away.

One thing I always enjoyed while visiting a new destination by air is the first view out of the plane.  Similarly, I just loved the first glimpse of a port/island from the deck. And it is slow, allowing you to indulge in the moment, unlike any other mode of transport.

15.  Unpack for once

Yes, we hate packing & unpacking and hate it even more, when we have to do it multiple times.

Here we just unpack it for once for the entire trip and then just do the laundry. (only if you have not packed enough stuff for a long-term cruise ! )

I hope I have managed to convince you to book your next holiday on a Cruise.  If it is your first time, please check out the first time cruise tips

If not, do you have any more reasons why you love the cruise holidays?

Happy Cruising!