It’s the beginning of the year, and it’s time to start thinking about the upcoming adventures and holidays to be had! A cruise is definitely one of our favorite ways to really relax and unwind. I have been on about 6 cruises and James 3 cruises. We’ve sailed to the East and West Caribbean, Bahamas, and from Vancouver to Alaska. I’m here to tell you why we love cruises with 8 reasons why you should consider planning a cruise for your next vacation.

*This post contains affiliate links. That means, I may receive a commission for some of the links in this post- at no cost to you. See our Disclaimer page for details*

1. Minimal Planning & Stress Free

Cruises are SO carefree. Literally, once your booked and you have your itinerary, it’s smooth sailing. There’s very little planning involved. Pick your excursions and you’re done. Even the excursions themselves are minimal planning. If you book through the cruise, the tickets show up in your room with details of where you need to be and when. Not saying that you have to book through the ship, but booking this way is typically the smoothest way to go (though not always the cheapest).

With a cruise, there is  no need to constantly be wondering where you are going to eat, how you will get from one place to the next, or how long you should stay in each place. It’s all set up for you.

Now, I get it. I really love planning trips. But sometimes you even need a vacation from the extra planning and headache. James and I went on a cruise for our honeymoon. After planning our wedding for a year, a minimal-planning-needed vacation was just what we needed.

 2. No Meal Planning: All You Can Eat

There is quite the variety of food on board. Eat at the sit down restaurant, or grab food quickly from the pool-side buffet. And when I say buffet I mean a smorgasboard. Salad bar, pasta dishes, freshly made sandwiches or cooked to order burgers and fries, to name a few. Can’t decide what you want? That’s okay just order both. It’s all included. Which brings me to my next point…

3. Affordable and All-Inclusive

Relatively speaking, a cruise is a very affordable holiday. Our 7-day honeymoon in the Bahamas was about $2000 which included entertainment, accommodation, food and non-alcoholic drinks (soda and alcohol not included). Compared to other all inclusive resorts we looked at, this was really the most affordable option by several thousand dollars. To us, all inclusive means not having to pull our your wallet every meal, which is a good feeling.

Related:  Cruise Alaska’s Inner Passage

4.  BYO Wine & Mixers

Most cruise lines allow you to take one bottle of wine per person and also you’re allowed cans of mixers. Have a glass of wine in your room, or on your private balcony before heading out for the evening.

5. Dress Up For Dinner

After a day of pure relaxation, I think it’s nice to get all dolled up and head to the dining room for dinner. I believe most cruises have a “formal dress” night so everyone in the dining room is in cocktail dress or suits and ties. Dressing up not your thing? That’s cool. You don’t have to. There are plenty of other places to eat that don’t require a formal dress code.

6. Entertainment All Day Long

On Holland America and Carnival Cruise lines, staff deliver an itinerary to your room daily and seriously every hour there is something – often more than one thing- available. From workout classes (did I mention there is a gym on board?), games, card tournaments, and even lectures on the history of the ports. On our Alaska cruise we attended a flower arranging class (my grandma likes flowers). On a Caribbean cruise, we took salsa dancing lessons.

At night, there is a show which is typically dancing, comedy or magic. After hours, you can dance the night away or head to the piano bar. On our Alaska cruise, there was an amazing band that played a rendition of Bruno Mars “Uptown Funk” to end all other renditions. I can hardly listen to that song anymore because they were THAT GOOD.

7.  Multiple Destinations

I love falling asleep in Puerto Rico and waking up in St Thomas. Or sailing away from Ketchikan only to wake up in Juno the next day. The beauty of cruising is getting to see all these pretty and unique places in just a few days! Though, it’s true, you will likely miss out on the “full experience” but I think cruising offers a great taste of a lot of different places. You can cover a lot of ground, or err, ocean, in a week. Bonus: you only have to unpack once.

8. Great Service 

When you’re on vacation, it’s important to have staff that make you feel welcomed and taken care of. We’ve had such great experience with staff on both Holland America and Carnival. From start to finish, the staff was friendly and always had an answer to our question.

Well, have I convinced you? Share with friends you need a little push to sail away… and if you need even more inspiration read our post on our Alaskan Cruise.

Travel On, 

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*This post contains affiliate links. That means, I may receive a commission for some of the links in this post- at no cost to you. See our Disclaimer page for details*