or: Tips for Cruises

Suggestions for those considering cruising

• pick an interesting venue / location or experience that you want to have, you will have this in common with all the other guests so have an instant talking point as many plan for these types of trips over quite a long period of time. They may be going for anniversaries, birthdays, retirement gifts or because it’s on their bucket list. 

• be open to meeting new people by sitting with different people each meal. Have some ideas of questions you may be interested in to know people better and have them as open questions where possible. Conversation will then flow and feel more natural. 

• try to limit your assumptions of people. Some cruises attract people from an older demographic, some from a younger, some are mixed but may be skewed toward one end or the other. All of these people will have something to teach you if you’re open to it. I’ve shared a room to Antarctica with two women older than me, from America, who were travelling alone for various reasons. They were both incredibly interesting and entertaining. There were about twenty people traveling solo on this trip from all over the world. To Galapagos, I was by myself and this group was a little more even in ages. There were three of us traveling by ourselves on this one and everyone else was a couple. We all ate together and shared stories. The Croatian trip was dominated by older couples from western Europe and Australia, mostly retired or taking a well deserved break from a busy career. We circulated among ourselves and spent time with everyone to varying degrees.

• choose a smaller cruise ship especially if you are traveling alone. This is because it is easier to meet people in smaller groups and cliques are less likely to form. It also gives you more of an opportunity to go to shore as you generally don’t have to wait so long for the water taxi / zodiac or similar to take you there. This is particularly true for Antarctica where you have to wait for the outboard boats to go back and forth. I also like it since the smaller ships generally have less of an environmental impact and give you the chance to know the crew better too. They will also keep an eye out for you and are usually interested to hear what you’re up to as well. 

• research various options to make sure it meets your needs. Some cruises allow for more active trips, some are more relaxing and about more for staying by the pool, some are party boats. There really is something for everyone!

• bring seasickness tablets if you happen to be one that is impacted by this sort of thing. I’ve been lucky so far that I’m not but you never know when something like this could start. Don’t have it be going to or from your dream location.