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What are the 10 good reasons to stay on board a cruise ship in port. I am on a cruise and I’m staying on board in port today, and that got me thinking why don’t I share with you 10 reasons that I think are great ones to stay on board and not explore a port, starting with this one.
It is important to remember that cruises is also vacation time. It’s a time to relax and if you are on a port intensive cruise you could end up coming back from your cruise tired, because you are exploring, coming back and eating, drinking, going to a show, staying up late. Taking a day out one day when the ship is in port and just relaxing, sleeping late as it is going to be much quieter and it is just a time to slow down and relax, and make your day a total relaxing day.
After all you’ve come for a great time but also to unwind. It’s a really good reason to stay on board. The second good reason is if the ports are not interesting, either because you have been before or it is just not interesting to you, or very appealing or the weather is not great , either too rainy or hot.
Or, perhaps you already have seen all the key sights and even the secondary sights are just not very interesting. Another good reason for staying on board is if the port is going to be crazy busy. I take a look in sites like CruiseTimeTables.com and take a look at how many ships are going to be in port.
You could be going to some ports where there could be 15,000 to 20,000 passengers coming off ships and making the place busy crazy, and so you it might be nicer to stay on board the ship in those ports where it is going to be crazy busy. Plan in advance and use sites like CruiseTimeTables.com and see how busy the ports will be and perhaps choose one of them which is going to be crazy busy and stay on board and not fight all the crowds.
The fourth reason for staying on board depends on the type of ship you are cruising on. If it is a big resort ship which has huge amounts of facilities, like rock climbing walls, ice skating rinks, go karting and 4D rides and huge amount of facilities. It is worth spending one or two days on the ship because the ship is part of the vacation, which you have paid for in your fare.
If you are out exploring ports all day you won’t have time to experience them all. If it is a resort ship I like to plan day on board rather than going to the port as it is a resort in its own right. On smaller ships with much less facilities it may less worthwhile and much more about the ports.
If you are cruising on a ship with lots of facilities it is a good idea to spend at least a day on board. Another good reason for staying on board is you will find on port days there is usually a lots of offers. So, particularly the spa will have discounts or 2-for-1s which making going to the Spa much cheaper.
There might be happy hours and cocktails of the day or other activities which are much cheaper. It is a great way of doing some of the things you want to do but for much less money. I love going to the spa but its really expensive and going on port days is what I do as its much cheaper. When you are on a cruise you know that finding space and time in the laundry can be quite difficult.
On port days the laundry is usually quiet, you can get a machine and drier and you can do it much easier. A great reason for staying on board is simply the ship is not that busy. And that is particularly around the pool, finding a great lounger and good spot close to the pool can be a challenge or using the hot tubs.
You’re going to find great loungers, use the hot tubs, many of the other facilities around the ship, restaurants, afternoon tea if you want to go to that will be quieter, if you want to do flow riders, use the waterslides you are going to able to do it multiple times without lining up. The ship is much quieter , things you want to try and do will just be completely empty or free to do.
Find a fantastic lounger in a great spot, use the pool and hot tubs is a great reason to stay on board. Another great reason to stay on board is even if there are not lots of facilities in board there will be lots of activities to do on the ship like trivia, craft classes, fitness classes. There will always be a full schedule of events.
The ship will have a full program of things for people who stay on the ship to do, even if you are on a small ship. So, if you are yearning to win that trivia competition, the advantage on a port day is there will be less people and less competition and increased chance of winning. But definitely there will be loads of things to do, so don’t think that there will be nothing to do as there will be a full daily program of events.
One of the key reasons I stay on board on port days is I can get around the ship and take videos and photographs of the ship when it is not crowded and full of people. You can get great pictures of your friends and family and port days are a good time to do that, as you will be able to take nice photos of the ship, posing on staircases.
So, I will stay on board in one or more ports so I can take my photos and videos without having lots of people in them. It’s a great way of exploring and seeing the ship and taking the photos you want, and really important of course is the photos taken by the ship photographers are pretty expensive.
It is a time to explore and take great photos you want. Staying on board will also help with your budget. If you go out on excursions, it could costs quite a lot of money. Cruise excursions can cost quite a lot of money from $50 – $100 and upwards per person per excursion. So, that can ramp up quite fast.
Even if self exploring you will have costs for touring and entrance fees for museums and sights, eating out, drinks and so on. So staying on board can help you with your budget by avoiding some of those costs like food and entertainment are included in your fare on the ship. It is a good way of helping to manage your budget.
So, if there are some excursions you really want to do in some ports then staying on board on other days could help make them possible within your budget. Staying on board is one way of managing your budget. There is a lot of good reasons for staying on board in port. Those are the ones I think are good ones.
If you have any others let me know.
