I took my first cruise more than a decade ago. Today, I’ve taken 28 cruises and counting, spending literally months at sea across nearly every major line.
And while I like cruising, I’m not above recognizing where it can fall short. To me, fixing these issues could take a cruise from great to amazing.
And I think you’ll agree…
The Entire Maze of Free & Paid Dining
Food is a major part of a cruise and for good reason. A modern cruise ship can have a dozen restaurants on the ship, and with so much time onboard, eating is one of the great pastimes on a cruise. But there’s also a major annoyance, and that’s the maze that comes with free and paid dining.
With your fare, you get a buffet and meals in the dining room included. The food here is decent, but any time you’re making meals for literally thousands of passengers, things can be hit or miss.
Depending on the line, just about all the other restaurants can be specialty restaurants, meaning they cost more to eat there. The food in specialty restaurants — which is prepared on an individual basis — is better, but it does cost extra.
Having to navigate the obstacle course of some food included on the cruise, some of it being an extra charge, some being mass produced and some being individually prepared makes many wish there were more simplicity when it comes to eating. Why can’t we all just eat where we want and have it included in the fare?
Over-the-Top Drink Prices
Drink prices on the ship are what I call “stadium” prices, like the $20 cocktails shown above (and don’t forget the gratuity!). Now, that might be fine for a night out, but for an entire cruise, it’s insanely expensive.
Drinking is a popular pastime on a cruise, and why not? There’s something about being in the warm weather near the pool and on vacation that makes it just feel right to have a drink in your hand. So what’s the issue?
One of my big complaints, however, is the pricing. If I go to a restaurant, then spending $12 to $14 (the average price for a cocktail) for a drink seems fine. But that’s just for one night. On a cruise you can’t escape that sort of pricing the entire trip or find a cheaper place to drink.
And even if the menu price is $14, you’re going to pay a lot more due to the automatic gratuity. With charging an extra 18-20% gratuity, your drink is more like $17.
Paying nearly $20 a pop for a cocktail? I can only do that once or twice before it’s no longer worth it.
Inauthentic Caribbean Ports
By far the most popular place to cruise based on the number of passengers is the Caribbean. However, after years of sailing I can tell you that one complaint I have is that the immediate ports are often devoid of any real culture.
The cruise port areas in the Caribbean are built to cater to tourists, leaving you with an artificial feeling and very little that’s unique.
Don’t get me wrong. If you want to go have some fun on the beach, get some sunshine, and enjoy some of the most beautiful water in the world then the Caribbean is great. And that’s something that I’ll always go for.
But sometimes you want to feel like you’re visiting a real place and not Disney World. There are only so many Margaritaville’s, souvenir shops, and beach bars you can visit before it gets a little old.
That’s why I always try to fit in an excursion that gets you out of town a bit to see the real place you’re visiting.
A Lack of Increased Space With Larger Ships
There’s no doubt that ships have gotten larger over the years. In the 1990s, the average ship was around 70,000 gross tons. Today, ships average around 150,000 gross tons with the largest reaching 250,000.
With that space comes more things to do, see, and experience. There are more restaurants, bars, lounges, theaters, and, of course, people. Now there are some passengers that have a real problem with big ships. I do see the appeal of smaller ships in that they are easier to navigate and get around.
But I like that the bigger ships have more things available for passengers, which comes in handy on longer cruises. The only issue is that just because they are larger doesn’t mean there’s more space per passenger. As ships grow, so too do passenger counts.
When you’re on a mega ship but still have to deal with crowded, congested walkways or long lines, it seems to defeat some of the purpose of having a larger ship with more space.
Pools Way too Small For the Number of Passengers
One complaint I have actually isn’t the cruise line’s fault. Even they can’t escape the laws of physics.
Due to the weight of water, cruise ship pools are notoriously small — especially given the thousands of passengers onboard.
Think of a cruise and you likely envision a sunny day at sea with lots of people soaking up the sun. At the middle of that scene is always the pool. But when you consider there are 4,000 passengers on the ship, those pools are insanely small for all those people.
The reason is simply that water is heavy and when you put it high up on the pool deck, that weight can have a major impact on the ship’s balance. But the result is that if you want a spot in the pool during the middle of the day, then you better be comfortable swimming in close quarters with strangers.
High Internet Prices to Stay Connected
Most people go on a cruise to get away, but these days you can keep in touch with the real world pretty simply. Every cruise ship will offer wi-fi for passengers.
Now the service is relatively slow compared to back home, even with the introduction of Starlink on most ships. Speeds are typically around 3-5 Mbps, which is enough to stream or surf the web, but you’ll notice that it feels sluggish. That’s not actually a complaint given that you can be hundreds of miles from land in some cases. To me, it’s impressive you can stay connected.
What is annoying is the cost. It can be as high as $25 or $30 a day on some cruise lines. In other words, you can spend more for internet on a three-day cruise than you do for an entire month back home. That seems to go beyond simply charging a premium for the service to actual price gouging.
Thankfully you can find deal that are offered, but you have to watch for them.
Having to Check Out Towels
Beach/pool towels are free to use, and I hope cruise lines don’t get any ideas about charging for them.
However, if you want to exchange them or get extras, it involves the inconvenience of having to check them out. Some lines like Virgin and Celebrity simply have them out for you to use and it’s so much nicer.
With pool towels, you might have them in your room when you arrive but if you want to change them out or you don’t already have them for you, then it’s an ordeal. You have to go find the towel station on the deck, tell them how many towels you want, scan your card, and then return the towels before the end of your trip or risk being charged.
Is it a major inconvenience? Of course not, but it’s much nicer when you can just grab a pool towel when needed and toss it in a bin when done.
If you sail those lines without the check-out process, then you know it’s a much nicer experience.
The 0.01% of Rude Passengers
When it comes to cruising, 99.9% of the passengers are no issue at all. But inevitably, there are always a few — especially when you have so many people onboard — that cause issues.
The good news is they are few and far between. Most trips you don’t even notice anyone behaving badly. Sometimes, however, they can put a damper on the trip. Social media often has videos of altercations on some cruise ships, but it’s smaller issues that you’re more likely to encounter.
Maybe someone is rude during the cruise or hogs a chair at the pool without sitting in it or does something like grab buffet food with their hands. Or they can be loud in the hallway going back to the room in the middle of the night, waking up everyone else.
With so many people on the ship, there are bound to be little annoyances here and there. It’s best to just let things roll off your back and enjoy the rest of the cruise because if you cruise enough, it will happen eventually.
Gratuity Charges in Addition to the Fare
Of course, the big annoyance that you’ve likely thought about if you’ve ever taken a cruise are those gratuity charges. I think I speak for a lot of people when they don’t mind seeing the crew get compensated. They are far from home, working hard jobs with long hours. They deserve every bit that they make and more.
But it’s how the cruise lines do the entire thing that is a major annoyance. You pay for the cruise and then you have this additional charge — that’s actually pretty significant of upwards of $20 per day — that’s then tacked on to the cost of the trip.
Technically the gratuity charges are optional, but let’s be real. The charges are automatically applied and it’s considered a faux pas to remove them. For all intents and purposes they are an extra fee that’s simply withheld from the cruise fare to make the trip seem less expensive.
I would happily pay the higher cost of a cruise with the charges included rather than have this extra charge hit my account. And I don’t think I’m alone.
