When you are crunched on
time and don’t want to spend too much on a trip but, you would still like to
visit a few different places, cruises are a great choice. I have gone on two cruises with my mom
before. We didn’t have much time for a
vacation because of her work so we decided to go on a cruise as a way to visit
multiple places in a shorter amount of time.
Our first cruise together was out of Miami on Carnival and visited
St.Thomas, Turks and Caicos, Puerto Rico, and the Bahamas. Our second cruise was on the Princess Island
Cruise line and left out of Fort Lauderdale went to Costa Rica, through the
Panama Canal, Jamaica, Aruba, and Columbia in South America. We chose to fly out of Chicago O’Hare airport
because it was cheaper than Milwaukee and leave on a cruise out of Florida
because they were more affordable. If
you already live near a cruise port than it will be even cheaper for you. There are so many great destination choices
and many ports to leave from. I like to
choose a port in a city that is worth staying a few days in either before
and/or after to visit. The places that I
have chosen for us to cruise to are countries that are more difficult to
backpack or more costly to travel to individually and therefore, being able to
visit them on a cruise is definitely worth it.
When choosing an affordable cruise, you are saving money on food,
accommodations, and flights. But, just
be aware that if you like to drink, your bill at the end of the cruise may be
just as much as you paid for the cruise itself.
They will try to get your money somehow and alcohol is a great way. Thankfully I’m not much of a drinker but just
ask my mom and her friend!
I’m going on my first
cruise by myself in May 2015. I have
always wanted to travel to Northern Europe/Scandinavia/the Baltic but it is
known to be quite pricey up there and quite wide-spread graphically which, is
why I have yet to go. I found a great
deal on a cruise for that region. Well,
I found an even better one but since I will be traveling alone, I’d still have
to pay for a double occupancy room which is double the price. Some cruise lines do offer single rooms or
single occupancy rates but, they are pretty tricky to find and they are usually
more than or close to the double occupancy price. So, why not just pay for two, if it’s an
affordable rate, and enjoy the comfort of a larger room. I called my American Airlines cruise agent
(the airline in which I earn miles from) and had her do a bit of research for
me on good deals in that region. She
proposed one to me for around $1800 which left out of Denmark and visited Sweden,
Estonia, Finland, and Russia. $1800 may
seem like a lot of money but for what it would cost to for flights,
accommodations, food, daily purchases, and time, it works out quit evenly. It equates to about $360 per country,
including flight costs. The cruise will
take some stress off of the traveling and coordinating part and I can enjoy my
time there. I need a small break from
the long, stressful (yet amazing!), coordinating of my own backpacking
adventures. I will do a bit of outside
traveling from this cruise on this trip.
I plan to fly and visit Iceland and Norway before the cruise leaving out
of Denmark, then at the end of the cruise, I plan to fly to Poland to visit the
concentration camps, something that I’ve always wanted to see. Those flights from each of these countries
are less than $150 each and ill do some couch-surfing and budget accommodations
as well. Therefore, by adding this
cruise in there for that region helps with my budget, stress, and time frame!
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