Cuise Vacations -- Real Vacations

Of all the reasons I love being on a cruise a major one is that it is really a vacation for me! Our first cruise was truly my first real vacation.

Usually when we go on vacation there is still so much work involved (and I'm not counting camping as a vacation). My husband, friends and I have taken a few vacations. We have had a really good time but I always come home exhausted.

Even when we went to Hawaii for our two-week vacation, I ended up cooking several meals while there. Which means I had to take "vacation time "to plan a menu, grocery shop, prepare the meal and yes -- then there is clean up!

But when we have chosen to cruise for vacation, the only thing I have to do is unpack my luggage. That's it! Everything else is done for me.

On our first cruise, when I opened my luggage I found that all of the clothing that I had spent all that time ironing was in great need of being re-ironed. This, however, was not a problem. The cruise ship had a care-free laundry service on board. I simply put the clothing that needed to be pressed on a hook in our room and the very next day they were delivered looking better than they had when I packed them.

So on the next cruises we've gone on, I simply didn't iron my or my husband's chothes before packing. When we got to our stateroom I simply used their laundry service. We were so surprised at how inexpensive it was. My husband is the one who suggested we just let them press the clothing once we are on board. We even send our formal wear out and it comes back beautifully pressed.

Each stateroom is personally attended by a ship's stateroom attendant. We were so impressed with how well they cleaned and prepared our room. The stateroom attendants were amazing! We have always been surprised by how friendly they are and how tidy they keep our room.

We have had both Balcony and Ocean view staterooms. We found that they were both great! I think that if we were taking a cruise to warmer climates we would probably prefer the balcony room. When we took a cruise to the Bahamas we loved eating on our balcony. It was wonderful being in the sunshine, hearing the water as it rushed by the ship and all from the privacy of our personal fresh-air balcony. It was really a treat to order room service and have a beautifully prepared meal brought to our room. This, of course never costs extra. Really! Some mornings we decided to have breakfast in bed instead of going out of our room. We enjoyed that as well. It's really nice to have the ability to make these kinds of choices without being charged extra.

We were a little wary of getting and "ocean view" room. Was it just some room down in the ship that had a small glass hole in the side? We found that the ocean view rooms were way beyond our expectations. They were spacious and we loved being able to see out the large windows and to have all the day light come in. We would definitely make this choice again, we were not at all disappointed. After all it comes with the same great service, making our vacation really a vacation!

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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.