Cruise Ship Vacations: Part 3
Welcome back to Part 3 of my series on my favorite type of vacation, cruise ship vacations. As you can tell from my previous 2 parts, this is one form of vacation I am extremely passionate about and I feel I can be a large source of knowledge for anyone looking to endeavor on the time of their lives. So in this part, we are going to focus on the main part of cruise ship vacations, and that is, the ship itself. These ships, or floating hotels/resorts as they are called come with a wide array of amenities to keep all passengers occupied as well entertained for their stay while onboard.
Cruise Ship: Overview
What is in a cruise ship you might ask, and the answer honestly is just about everything. Let’s take a step back and see that a cruise ship is normally 900+ feet long and over 125+ feet wide. These cruise ships are over 3 football fields in length and some of the newer mega-ships are over 4 football fields in length. These ships truly are an engineering marvel and are floating cities. Each ship can hold 5,000+ passengers and crew and has all the amenities to take care of everyone. Let’s go through different sections on the ship itself
Cruise Ship: Housing Qualities
First of all, each room is like a hotel room, albeit a small hotel room, but a hotel room none the less. These rooms have beds, couches, bathrooms, dressers, storage, mini-fridges, and balconies. All your standard amenities are there for you to partake in. Also, just like hotels there is normally room-service that is available nearly 24 hours per day, every day from your in-room menu. Each individual floor of the ship has multiple laundry facilities consisting of washers, dryers, irons, and ironing boards. Finally, if you’d wish to have your clothes professionally washed or pressed there is dry cleaning options available for you to use with same-day or 24 hour service. So as you can see your living quarters are perfectly thought out
Cruise Ship: Restaurants and Snacks
A cruise ship has plenty by the way of food and that if you are ever hungry or can’t find something to eat, there might just be something wrong with you. Besides your 24-hour room service options, there is a main dining room serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily. There is a buffet where you can eat all 3 meals per day. Then there are a bunch of specialty restaurants serving all types of made to order food like pasta, burritos, tacos, Indian food, deli sandwiches, sushi, pizza, and bar food. Let it also be known that on Carnival, all the dining except for the Steakhouse is included in your cruise fare and you can eat as much as you’d like.
Cruise Ship: Bars and Clubs
If you are looking to sit down and drink a nice glass of scotch, or would like to drink a mango tango while dancing to a DJ, then there is plenty available to you where you can get your favorite alcoholic beverage. Now since you know the cruise ship won’t take your cash, all you need is your room key and you are ready to PARTY! Here are some examples of the different types of bars across the fleet: Pool bars with wait staff, Caribbean themed bars, sports bars, wine bars, and piano bars. All these places offer a different atmosphere for you to get engulfed in. Aside from the bars, there is also a comedy club, a dance club with live DJ, and even a theatre showing Vegas-style shows and family friendly shows on a nightly basis. You can be entertained with a fantastic comic or by singing numbers performed to live music.
Cruise Ship: Outdoor Fun
If you are looking to stay in the sun and work on your tan, then the outdoor decks will have something for the entire family. First there is the main pool which has a saltwater pool and multiple hot tubs. On the pool deck you will find a huge big screen TV that is 60+ feet in size. During the day you will see a live feed from around the ship and it will show movies at night time. There is also normally an adults only pool that is restricted to guests 18+ years old. It is quieter here than by the main pool. Now across the fleet, most ships are starting to get mini water parks that have 2-6 slides for all age guests to enjoy, as well as areas for your little ones to hang out and splash around in the sun. If you aren’t about being in the water, there is also a running track, mini-golf, and even a sports court where you can play basketball or volleyball for most hours of the day. Whether you are a little one or an adult, you are sure to find something to do while onboard.
Cruise Ship: Indoor Fun
If you want to get away from the fun and sun, then there is just as much fun for you to be had at any time throughout the day. For example, there is always the casino for those of you who would like to donate directly to Carnival’s pockets. Then there is the wide array of shops on the promenade selling souvenirs, jewelry, art work, snacks, and all your pictures taken amongst the ship that week. Then there are the indoor bars for you to grab a quick drink. There is the theatre to see a show or play bingo and even a library if you’d wish to read a book or play a nice game of chess or checkers.
Cruise Ship: Conclusion
As you can see the modern cruise ship truly is a floating resort/city. Anything you can possibly want or think to do, there is something for you around the corner. If I can offer up a bit of advice, it would be to take your time going through all the different places on the ship as over the course of the week, you still won’t see everything there is to do. Never fear, you can always book another cruise to see what you missed!