Advance Preparation Sound Judgment = Excellent Cruise!
Cruises are a fantastic break from the cares of the world. Twenty-four hours a day you are spoiled with relatively limitless food, a wide range of recreation, opportunities for adventure, and gatherings galore! In fact, there is a lot to pick from that most of us ask ourselves, “How on earth do I prepare for this?”
Whatever your reason for cruising, whatever the size of your cruise party, whatever the location of your cruise, and whatever the period of your time at sea, how you prepare is dictated by what you want to get out of your cruise.
1. Packing: Keep packing as light as possible. Take only what you absolutely require. While the majority of people’s image of cruising is everyone dressed up in seersucker and linen by day and dressed to the nines during the night, the truth is generally quite different for many. Most people will pack a number of active-wear or beach-wear attire for daytime wear on ship and on land, an elegant casual attire or 2 for the majority of evenings, and casual wear for the couple of “dress-up” nights most ships have.
2. Tipping: The service staff, those who serve you your food and clean up your cabin, relies on tips for most of their incomes. Often, the men and women occupying those positions are supporting entire families in Third World countries with those tips. Yes, tipping is optional, but my advice to you is to share a portion of the good fortune that allows you to take this cruise with those who are working actively to fulfill your every requirement.
3. Plan your expenses: There are activities for almost every imaginable budget and interest on every cruise. It’s unneeded to surpass your financial limitations during a cruise. If there’s something you want to do on this cruise that’s out-of-reach financially, start planning for your next cruise when you get home and incorporate that specific item as a main part of that strategy!
4. Time, like money, is a finite product that must be sensibly budgeted, too. Prioritize, then adhere to your top priorities. By restricting your activity choices during the cruise, you’ll have the ability to invest more of your energy into the things you do choose, feel good about doing so, and end your cruise prepared to come back for more as soon as you possibly can!
5. You probably don’t associate getting ill with taking a cruise, with the possible exception of seasickness, but it happens more often than the majority of people realize. Much shipboard illness is avoidable simply by practicing the same healthy choices on the ship that you do in your home. Yes, you do want to play hard, but not so difficult that you threaten your health and well-being.
I’m convinced that there’s no better holiday on the planet than an excellent cruise. If you take time beforehand to anticipate those needs you have that ship’s personnel aren’t likely to be able to fulfill, I think you’ll likely come away from your cruise experience with the same viewpoint!