cruise for two

A small prefaceRecently, cruise vacations have become increasingly popular, and this is not surprising. The cruise provides an opportunity not only to have a great rest, constantly being in the fresh air, but also to get acquainted with interesting tourist sites and natural attractions. It can be considered as the most comfortable form of sightseeing tour. Formally, we can say that a cruise is a group excursion tour in which a ship is used as a means of transportation. In fact, this main feature leads to great differences between cruises and bus tours.

1. Sea cruises

 

• Movement along the tour route is carried out by sea on large cruise ships. Your ship is both a means of transportation and a hotel, so you don’t have to carry things along the route and move from hotel to hotel - this is very convenient.

• All transitions between ports are carried out in the evening and at night. You return from an excursion at the end of the day, have dinner, walk on the deck, breathe the sea air, visit bars, restaurants and show programs, go to bed, and wake up in the morning and find that you are already at the next point of your route and everything is ready for new ones. excursions. Thus, moving along the route is carried out without any effort and is almost invisible to you.

• The cost of a cruise is largely determined by the comfort and prestige of your ship (and cabin) and varies quite a lot. It should be noted that even not the largest cruise ships have a sufficient level of comfort and correspond to the level of 3-4 * hotels. At the same time, the cost of a weekly cruise on such a ship is quite comparable to the cost of staying in a hotel on the shore. • Meals on cruises are usually all-inclusive, excluding alcoholic beverages. In this regard, when mooring in ports, it makes sense to return to the ship at lunchtime to have a bite to eat and at the same time relax a bit.

• Usually the ship spends one or two days at sea during a cruise. On this day, you can sunbathe on the deck and swim in the deck pool. If you wish, you can sunbathe and swim at any free time.

• It is clear that your ship can stop only in fairly large ports. In this regard, you need to understand that only these port cities can be visited without additional efforts. To see the sights located far from the mooring ports, you must either participate in organized excursions or use public transport services yourself. Keep in mind that boarding the ship usually ends one hour before it leaves.

• When choosing a cruise, it is important to understand and interpret the indicated route well. To attract tourists, itineraries often indicate attractive cities that are not actually located directly on the sea (for example, Rome, Florence, Paris, etc.). To explore such cities, you need to order long excursions. Russian-language excursions (if possible) are ordered in advance when booking a tour. Already on the ship, you can sign up for a tour in a foreign language. All excursions are quite expensive, especially those ordered in Russian.

• In the evenings, there are usually shows on the ships, which for the most part are quite nice. Their visit is free, but it is good practice to order one or two alcoholic drinks (which, unfortunately, cost money) while viewing them.

• On cruises, it is customary to dress in evening wear towards the end of the day, and events such as the captain's dinner may have even stricter dress requirements. The severity of these requirements is very dependent on the class of your cruise ship. In any case, you will need to bring some extra clothing with you. Of course, you can try to ignore these requirements, but being a black sheep is not always pleasant.

• It is good practice to spend a week on the beach either before or after the cruise in an area close to the start or end of the cruise itinerary. Rest after the cruise is optimal, because during intensive excursions you can get a little tired, and a week of rest at the sea will be very useful.

2. River cruises 

River cruises are in many ways similar to sea cruises, but they provide the opportunity to make excursions in the inland territories of countries and at the same time have several significant differences: • River cruise ships are quite small, which is due to the size of the rivers and the low height of the bridges under which you have to swim. In this regard, they do not have premises for holding shows and accommodating a large number of various bars and restaurants.

• The mode of passing the route is noticeably different. At night, the ship mainly stays in ports, and the passage of the route is carried out for the most part during daylight hours. This is due to the fact that the observation of the coast, with the cities and natural attractions located on them, is one of the main components of the excursion program itself and is a great pleasure.

• Since usually the zone of excursion interest is directly the area of ​​the ship's parking, there is no urgent need to purchase centralized excursions, and sightseeing can be done independently on the basis of pre-stored guidebooks.

You can see the prices and rating of cruises on the website cruisecritic