I made it onto my cruise, now what?

My husband & I are unashamed that we love to cruise. We are not the target demographic of most cruises (late-20’s, no kids, not big drinkers or partiers, would rather read on a sea day than lay in the sun, would rather listen to a live jazz band than gamble), but we love it regardless. We’ve been on all sorts of cruises – a western Mediterranean cruise on our honeymoon, a rather last minute 10-day Caribbean cruise for vacation two years ago, & a cruise to New England &Canada last summer (where we became known as “the young people”).

This post should naturally start with some tips on navigating the check-in & boarding situation. It’s hard to give advice on, though, because each port is so wildly different. Port of Baltimore? Small & simple. Port of Miami? Huge. Port of Barcelona? Somewhere in between. My best piece of advice regarding this is to check in with those who are cruising with you & have cruised out of your port before on Cruise Critic (I promise I’m not getting paid by Cruise Critic… I just think their site is really helpful in cruise planning!).

I made it on board, now what?*
It’s important, when you board the ship, to only carry on as much luggage as you feel comfortable hauling around with you. Your cabin won’t be ready for you to head to until the early afternoon, so if you’re on board before then, you’re stuck with everything you carried on.The first thing most people who board on the earlier side will do is flock to the buffet restaurant for lunch. It will be total madness, especially with everyone hauling luggage around. My best advice (which I admittedly never take myself), is to skip the craziness & find a nice public space to wait in. Usually this means up on deck, so if it’s warm & sunny, pack your swim suit in your carry on bag & you can start working on your tan right away. Before you leave is also a good time to get a feel for the layout of the boat & explore a little bit. Stop by the dining room & find your table, if you’re planning on eating dinner there. Stop by the specialty restaurant & make reservations (if you’re interested in that). Stop by the spa, but don’t make a reservation – the prices will drop during the sailing! One of my favorite parts of any cruise is the sail away. Find yourself some deck space on the highest deck, watch them pull in the ropes & push off from the dock. No matter what port you sail out of, there’s always something very old fashioned & Bon Voyage-e about being part of the sail away. We do this even if we have a balcony room.

To the main dining room… or to the buffet?
This is an entirely personal decision, so I can only speak about our experience. We love sitting in the dining room, meeting new people, & especially, getting to know our wait staff. On our honeymoon cruise, we were at a fun table with two other honeymooning couples. On our Caribbean cruise, we were at a table with another young couple who actually was in the cabin next to ours. On our cruise this past year, we were disappointed that our table mates – two other couples – never showed. The positive part about this was that it allowed us more time to get to know our waiter, assistant waiter, & even the head waiter. By the end of our cruise, we knew about our waiter’s family back in India, our assistant waiter’s childhood in Istanbul & the head waiter had already plotted out our next cruise with our (not even in the picture!) children.

The food in the dining room is on par with the food served in the buffet restaurant in the evening (often they’re the same thing). What I like about having a dedicated waiter, though, is having someone to make recommendations, to bring me both the sugar-free dessert & the regular one (“You just have to taste it!”) & having someone get to know that by the end of the week, I’m always going to order a side of steamed veggies with my entree.

As for the dressing up part, that I often hear cited as the reason folks skip the dining room? I find it refreshing, after a day of touring or lounging, to change into a nicer outfit for dinner. It’s never formal (except on formal night, of course), but even throwing a cardigan over capri’s & a t-shirt can really get you into the “evening time” mindset.

P.S. Check out the dining room once for lunch on a sea day – Royal Caribbean has an awesome salad bar at theirs!

Two days (not lost) at sea
I talked about shore excursions in my first post, but didn’t talk about day at sea activities. Again, like many cruise things, these are up to personal tastes. A lot of people like days at sea because it’s a time to relax by the pool & lay in the sun. Not being much of a sun girl myself, I prefer to use sea days reading in the shade (I have read at least one, usually two, books on most cruises), either out on the pool deck (especially in the adults only space), on our balcony, or in the library. When we’re not reading, we spend sea days napping (a must!), hitting the gym, & occasionally taking advantage of specials at the spa. To me, the sea days are what make the trip: the other days are spent busy touring, the sea days are spent doing what you’re supposed to do on vacation: relax.

*I didn’t talk about the muster drill, the mandatory lifeboat drill you’ll have to do before you leave, for a reason: different cruise lines do it different. My one piece of advice is this: be on time & don’t try to skip it. Yes, it’s a “pain” (I’ve honestly never really found it to be a pain, but people will complain non-stop about it), but it’s even more of a pain when you have to stand there waiting for one person.

 Did I miss something? Do you have a great cruising tip I missed? Leave it in the comments below!