Cruise Shore Excursion

Our experiences on our luxury cruise vacations have always been enhanced by the cruise shore excursions that we've taken.

We have had cruises where we have taken excursions with the cruise line out to places where we can snorkel. The great advantage to that is that they take us to places we would never be able to find in the time we are there on shore. When we arrive on shore, we find that a large part of the time after we got there was finding our bearings.

One cruise shore excursion we took was out on a catamaran into the ocean between two islands. At this point, we used the snorkel equipment that was supplied for us and went out into the water to see the beautiful wildlife.

The fish were abundant and close to the surface. We, and our friends spent several hours swimming in that part of the ocean looking at the turtles, stingray and fish that were so abundant there. The water was blue. In fact, I have been amazed that the water in these places like the Caribbean and Hawaii is really as blue as the pictures make them out to be.

Others went to an underwater museum. Theirs wasn't a cruise sore excursion. They took it on their own by wandering the city we were in until they found it. Later we found a fort that had been used by the military at the beginning of the 20th century. It was very interesting. This was something we found on our own.

Sometimes we have been able to find our way around the place we docked on our own. And sometimes we've joined the cruise line shore excursions. Other times, we just relaxed on board the ship enjoying its many amenities.

The shore excursions just added to the already enjoyable luxury cruise vacations that we have taken.

Inexpensive Cruise Vacations

One of the exceptional attributes of cruise vacations is that they are a known quantity.

When we've taken vacations in the past, we can usually depend on the cost of the room and maybe the transportation to get there. But, then there are the added costs of any entertainment, local transportation, and dining to name a few.

We used to think that cruises were expensive and frivolous. I also thought that it wold be stupid just setting around on a boat for a week to get somewhere. After all, we could fly to one of these places and spend all our time there. The problem is that I hadn't experienced one of these cruise vacations to know that they didn't have to be expensive.

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After going on our first cruise I realized that the cruise is about the cruise. It isn't about going to the different ports that it stops in. The port excursions are not really the point of the cruise.

Our last cruise was about $380.00 for my wife and me for four nights on board a cruise ship. We've also found that it doesn't matter if we spent a little or a lot of money on the cruise. All of the activities on the ship are still available to us. Even if we wanted to participate in one of the activities that are included in a $1,800.00 cruise, we could pay a little more than what we spent on the inexpensive cruise vacation and participate in those.

The thing is that we don't have enough time on the cruise to do all the things that are standard for the inexpensive cruise. We really don't feel like we are missing out because of the things that are not available to us in the expensive cruises.

Luxury Cruise Vacations

Of any vacation I can think of, the most enjoyable I have been able to take has been vacations on luxury cruise ships.

We have enjoyed vacations in Hawaii, along the Oregon coast, on the tip of Baja Mexico and various parts of Washington and Canada. But, the cruise vacations are the most relaxing and enjoyable by far than any of those.

On cruise ships, we travel from port to port by sea and don't have to arrange transportation, or worry about keeping a schedule. We always port on time and we aren't even aware that we've done it because we are usually asleep.

Our meals are available to us at any time. We can have the meals brought to us or walk just a short distance to extravagantly prepared and served meals. Supper time is the time that we all gather together after our day of relaxed and enjoyable activities.




The activities on board a cruise ship abound beyond what a novice would think possible. To name some of the possibilities:

• Various games
• Gambling
• Dancing
• Exercise classes
• Saunas
• Massages
• Yoga
• Swimming

The real reason I love these vacations, though, is that there is no work involved. We don't have to find a place to eat or prepare it ourselves. We don't have to clean our rooms up, they are picked up at least twice a day and if we asked, it would be more often. Our clothing is washed and ironed at very reasonable cost, so we don't have to do that either. There is nothing we have to do. How can a vacation be better than that?

Think of it. Nothing you have to do. You can do things. You can leave the ship if you'd like because they dock at different ports during each cruise so you can go ashore. You can exercise. You can dance. You can leave your room to eat. But, you don't have to.

During our last cruise, I figured that if we had decided to stay in Portland and do the things that we did that first day, we would have paid for the whole cruise.

We:

• Traveled (think cab)
• Ate a five course culinary delight
• Went "out" for a Broadway show
• Enjoyed a movie in a theater
  
• Spent the night in a top-star room (think hotel)
  
• Ate a steak breakfast for room service the next morning

The whole cruise was $380.00 for the two of us.

All in all, we just did things we would not have done if we weren't on a cruise ship. Even if we were on vacation somewhere, we would not have done all these things because the expense and time would have constrained us.

That was the first night.