I had never really liked the idea of taking a cruise before and as much as I do love to travel, there was just something about this mode of travel which really turned me off. In spite of this however, my good friend Stephen Buzzi decided that for my 30th birthday, it would be a great idea to buy me tickets on a cruise ship, sailing from Miami down to the Bahamas. Given that my friend had spent so much money on this trip, I had to hide the fact that I wasn’t really looking forward to it. The truth is however, I absolutely loved it and many of the things that I previously thought, were completely untrue. Here are the myths about cruises, and just why you should ignore them.

Full of Old People

There is a common conception that a cruise liner is full of the ‘purple rinse brigade’ and that no young people or families enjoy a cruise quite like the pensioners do. I must be honest, somewhat embarrassingly, I too held this opinion before I went. This is not to say that there would be a problem if the boat was full of old people, but it is nice to meet people of the same age and situation as you. Thankfully, my experience on the cruise was nothing like this and there was a wide spectrum of people from families, young couples, singles and old people, a perfect mix.

Extremely Expensive

Perhaps in the 1980s cruises were very expensive and this is why this notion of high cost has remained. The truth however, is that a cruise break will usually not cost any more than a standard holiday with flights and hotels, in fact sometimes it can work out cheaper. Most cruise packages offer unlimited food and drink for your cost, as well as your board and of course the journey itself.

Boring

I must be honest, I did think that my time aboard was going to be pretty boring as I waited to land at the next destination, but I couldn’t have been more wrong! The boat had a cinema, a gym, 6 restaurants, a theatre, a small shopping mall, swimming pools, wave pools, jacuzzis and sun decks, pretty much everything that you could possibly want. Boredom is absolutely impossible aboard the boat and to be honest I could’ve happily spent a week just on the ship.

Restricted

One concern I did have was that our land trips would be super restricted in terms of time, and that they would be heavily planned so that we couldn’t just wander about. The truth of the matter however is that whilst your time will be restricted as the ship needs t leave at the end of the day, this is relatively relaxed and there is nobody to tell you what you can and can’t do on land. In fact I found the ship’s staff to be excellent in terms of suggestions for what to do and where to go.

Don’t believe the myths, cruises are awesome!