The Pros and Cons of a Cruise Holiday for Young Couples: Is It Worth It?
Have you ever thought about going on a cruise holiday and been unsure whether this style of travel suits a younger demographic? If so, you’re not alone; I grew up hearing stories from my grandmother about her going on cruise holidays with friends ,and always thought they sounded so interesting, but were catered for an older generation. Things have since changed though and cruises are becoming increasingly popular with a sudden boost of younger generations holidaying in this way.
Thanks to more and more cruise lines popping up targeting younger age groups and lifestyles (I’m looking at you Celebrity Cruises and Virgin Voyages!), this is becoming a more popular way to travel.
But does this style of travel really suit younger generations and is it worth it? And are more traditional cruise companies doing the most they can to keep up? My husband and I have been on two cruises and in this blog post, I’ll share an honest review of the pros and cons as a millennial DINK couple.
Sailing away…🚢
In the last couple of years, my husband and I have been on two cruises both with P&O, a cruise line which could be considered as more traditional than some of the newer players in this market. The two P&O ships we’ve sailed on was the Arcadia, an adults-only ship, and the Ventura, a more family-friendly ship.
As we had never been on a cruise before and didn’t know what to expect, we chose to go for a short itinerary for our first one. A lot of cruise companies offer short holidays ranging from 2-5 nights on board and act as great taster cruises. On our first trip on the Arcadia, this was a three night taster cruise sailing from Southampton to Bruges in Belgium. Similarly, we opted for a 5-night New Year’s Eve itinerary on the Ventura which included a stop and Amsterdam and Bruges, again, sailing from Southampton.
Despite these being short trips, we learnt a lot and the pros and cons of this type of holiday became really apparent…
The pros ✅
Stress-free travel 😌
One of the main pros of a cruise holiday is it is definitely a more luxurious way to travel or at least it felt like it especially as my husband and I are very much budget travellers. From the moment you get to the cruise port, this is where the cruise experience really starts. As soon as you arrive, your bags are collected and are placed onboard the ship for you. Once your cabin is ready after embarking, you’ll find them placed outside your cabin door ready for you, which is a nice touch!
This, coupled with the fact that there are no bag limitations, or weight restrictions as opposed to flying, this makes for a really stress-free way of travelling.
You will usually be told at what time to embark, which can be a few hours before the ship departs the port and this is a nice way to get onboard earlier, explore the ship and make the most of the amenities before you’ve even left the dock. On both cruise holidays, the staff at the embarkment stations were really nice and took care of everything prior to boarding which was a welcome change from the standard airport security we’re used to!
Food, food, food! 🍽️
Another big pro for us on this type of holiday is that all of your food is included and depending on the service, sometimes drinks are included too such as coffee at breakfast. If like us, you like to budget for food when travelling it’s really nice knowing that all your meals have already been paid for. Not only are main meals included (and some of the swanky restaurants are included too!), but even snacks meaning that there’s always food available!
If you like all-inclusive holidays, this element of a cruise holiday will probably appeal to you more! If you manage to get a great deal on your cruise holiday (like we did), having food and some drinks included really helped and realised how much money we were saving by eating on-board. Depending on the cruise company you sail with, some have drinks packages which include various options too. This is at a premium on P&O cruise ships, and as we tend not to drink a lot anyway, we decided against this and just bought drinks as we wanted them. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the prices weren’t too bad, and a cocktail was around £8 in the swankiest bar at the top of the ship; I’ve definitely paid more for a cocktail in my local pub!
Lots to do 🎭
I was a bit apprehensive at first when thinking about spending a lot of time on the ship especially on sea days. We didn’t want to be cooped on the ship for too long and wanted to be out exploring the ports that we docked in; however we were pleasantly surprised by the entertainment on board. There was always something to do, including lots of meet-ups, clubs and even quizzes that you could take part in. We actually made the most of the evening entertainment as every night there was a show and there was also a casino on board. We wouldn’t usually get dressed up on holiday and it was very out of the norm but in a totally cool way that we could dress up to the nines and hit the casino and cocktail bars. We had to keep reminding ourselves that after all we were on a ship in the middle of the sea!
Switching off 🤳
One surprising factor I like about the cruises was how cut off I felt from the world, especially on days at sea. There are Wi-Fi packages of course and some cruise liners do offer Wi-Fi as part of their standard rate however P&O do not. As we were only on the ships for a short amount of time we opted to switch our phones on aeroplane mode which was a really tranquil experience.
Although being disconnected might not be to everyone’s liking (my husband didn’t like being cut off!) I found it to be a peaceful experience knowing that I could completely switch off and nobody could get hold of me which allowed me to completely relax.
Pro tip 
: Look out for any data and networks your phone may connect to while at sea as you can be charged an extortionate amount! Just to be safe, we always had our phones in aeroplane mode at sea, and then used data roaming once we’d docked in a country.
The cons ❌
Cruise itineraries 🗺️
The major disadvantage of this style of travel is that depending on many external factors, just because the cruise itinerary says you’re going to a certain place, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going there. I mentioned earlier that both cruises were due to dock in Bruges when in fact, we never actually got there!
On both instances we were struck with adverse weather conditions and given how small the port is in Zeebrugge we were unable to dock. On the first cruise rather than docking in Bruges the captain did make a detour and we instead spent the day in Rotterdam. Although it wasn’t part of the plan, it was really nice to visit a city that we probably wouldn’t have visited, and was nice to explore somewhere new and not be at sea. On our second cruise, however, there was no detour and so we simply spent the day at sea. Even though there was nothing that anyone could do due to the weather conditions, it is definitely something to be mindful of when booking a cruise and thinking of the time of year and destinations. Both of these cruises were during the winter in the northern European sea which does get some pretty terrible weather but even some Mediterranean cruises in the summer can still get affected by detours. Although there is nothing that you can do as a guest and it is completely out of your control, it is something to bear in mind with this type of travel as you may be spending more days at sea than you intend to or may end up somewhere completely different. If like us you don’t actually like being at sea (we much preferred exploring new ports!) the cruise itinerary is definitely something to think about.
Although you could argue than even flying doesn’t guarantee a smooth journey (as we know from experience!) I do think travelling by ship does provide more unknowns when it comes to reaching a particular destination.
Pro Tip 💡: Don’t be wedded to your itinerary and take it with a pinch of salt that things could change and see it as more of an adventure when they do.
Choose your ship wisely 🛳️
The next thing that we quickly learned was to choose your ship and cruise liner wisely. Some people choose cruise itineraries purely based on the ship and now we understand why. Despite the Ventura being newer and one of the largest ship in P&O’s fleet, we weren’t overly impressed by the facilities on board and felt it could really do with a renovation (especially the cabins). This was especially disappointing as we had paid for upgraded cabin and therefore expected more luxury when this wasn’t the case at all. We much preferred the Arcadia as despite being smaller, it seemed newer and the facilities were better. Plus the fact it was an adults-only ship added a touch of luxury.
Do your research 🔍
We would also choose another cruise liner next time. We wanted to try P&O as being one of the biggest cruise liners to sail from Southampton but we did find them a bit too traditional. Having done more research on what Virgin Voyages and Celebrity Cruises offer and how they target travellers of our age, we would be much more inclined to choose these for our next cruise holiday.
In conclusion…⚓️
Travelling by cruise is definitely a more luxurious holiday and there are some really great positives but also some downsides to consider.
I guess this boils down to; would we do another cruise holiday? The answer is yes, and I do think they’re worth it, however with the following in mind…
📃 Research the ship
🛳️ Consider the cruiseliner wisely
🌍 Consider the time of year and itinerary
Happy sailing!
