Cruise Ship Vacation vs. Land Based Resort Vacation
Instead of taking an ordinary family vacation this year, consider the rewards of a cruise vacation. As opposed to just staying at the resort you are visiting, you could be visiting a different country almost every day. Even with time restrictions while in ports of call, cruiseship vacations are fun and educational because you can visit four countries in seven days. From weekend getaways to world cruises, there is a cruise available that will fit within your vacation schedule. Although the three and four day “getaway cruises” are very popular, the average cruise is seven days. You can book a romantic getaway cruise to the Bahamas or Mexico from ports such as Port Canaveral, Florida, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Miami, Florida, Mobile, Alabama, New Orleans, Louisiana, Galveston, Texas, San Diego, California, or Los Angeles, California. If you desire to visit the Virgin Islands of the Eastern Caribbean or a couple of the Central American countries in the Western Caribbean, seven to 10 day cruises are also available out of these same ports. When shopping around for a cruiseline, you will find that most cruiselines are very competitive with their rates, Carnival is usually the cheapest and Disney tends to be the most expensive. All cruiselines offer optional travel insurance at very low cost. I highly recommend purchasing this insurance. It covers a wide variety of situations ranging from canceling your vacation because of illness or family emergency, to becoming ill while onboard, to having to be airlifted off the ship because of medical emergency. On one cruise, I became ill the day before the cruise and was very ill by the time everyone was ready for supper that evening. I had to spend the night in the ships’ hospital where I incurred a bill of $995. The travel insurance I purchased paid the bill 100%. While I have been on a total of eight cruises between Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Princess, it is difficult to say which cruiseline is my