Choosing for Cruising: How to Select and Equip the Perfect Cruising Yacht

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If you can find any sweet spots where your kids are on holiday but others aren’t – those are the best dates to plan your cruise for.

Larger ships are ideal for big groups or multigenerational travel, where grandma can hit the spa or the café while teens are at the pool or your little ones are busy at the supervised kids’ club. For me, I would always go for an inside cabin, unless I were cruising somewhere particularly scenic such as Norway or Alaska when I feel that a balcony would be worth the extra cost.River Cruises: These all specialise in river cruises in various parts of the world: Amadeus Waterways, Viking River Cruises, APT River Cruises, AmaWaterways, Tauck, Scenic and Discover Egypt. The cruise line offers amazing value for money, fun for the whole family and a variety of leisure facilities. Most of the cruise ships have multiple dining venues and you can enjoy the freedom of eating at any of these when you wish and with whom you want (some dining venues may cost extra). Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Epic has water slides, a rock-climbing wall and the Nickelodeon characters SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer on board; Carnival’s Carnival Sunshine has water slides and an adventure course with tightropes, swinging planks and nets.

On these ships you never have to worry about bagging a sun lounger (as there are plenty) or asking the cost of a drink (they are included). m. Avoid cabins below frequently used passageways on the top decks where footsteps and the sound of deck chairs moving frequently can be annoying. Youngsters are treated to 24/7 Disney magic onboard, with kids' clubs in the Oceaneer Club and Oceaneer Lab, as well as special film-themed areas.In fact, the same line can offer different experiences based on the age and size of a ship, the destination and time of year you're sailing. Still, Leppert suggests a weekend trip could be enough for those that just want to try out cruising for the first time to see if you like it. Its newest vessels offer the unique Cirque Dreams and Dinner Show (part acrobatic show, part alternative dining venue), jazz and blues clubs, musicians and comedians and on Epic, a recreation of the Cavern Club in Liverpool, where the Beatles first played. While that’s a good idea for some, Sloan also points out that cruise lines don’t always put their best ships on shorter runs. If you’re most excited about being on board and love waterslides, zip lining, go karting and generally being active, then a larger ship will have more to offer.

Still, while most major cruise lines have a rather extensive deployment of ships around the world, not every company sails to every destination. On Sapphire, there is slightly less choice: two balcony cabins are allocated for single occupancy, and there are 44 single cabins in total. Trust me: Less fun than talking about a budget is spending money that you don’t have, so be realistic about what you can set aside for your cruise vacation.

Commencing your onboard experience in your cabin is a good idea, as this will help you to get your bearings, as well as assist in familiarising yourself with the ship’s layout.

It’s easy and affordable to reach the boarding port, and shuttling between the clusters of islands offers a compact, convenient way to experience a multitude of cultures. The air holiday packages shown are ATOL protected by the Civil Aviation Authority as we act as agent for licensed cruise operators. We asked three Traveler-approved experts for their seasoned advice: Gene Sloan is cruise editor for The Points Guy; Jason Leppert is cruise editor for TravelAge West; Carolyn Spencer Brown is Cruise Media’s chief content officer. Even handier, when on a Caribbean cruise almost every island accepts payment in dollars, so there’s no need to juggle currencies.

Transits, when the ship is en route between ports, are known as sea days (like the term shore excursions, it's more cruise lingo); passengers, obviously, remain on board.