First time cruising

You may have heard about cruises on Europe’s rivers, sailings around the Mediterranean coast or trips to a far-flung destination such as Alaska. Indeed, the breadth and scope of cruising itineraries is mind-boggling. But when you start displaying tell-tale signs, it’s time to grab those travel stalwarts – the brochures – and let your imagination do the hard work. Here’s our guide to the five signs that a cruise beckons.

1. You dust off your old school atlas and look at places you’ve always dreamt of visiting since you fell asleep as the boring geography teacher droned on. Daunting though it may sound, the good news is that there are very few places to which you can’t cruise; indeed, most of the world can be considered a cruise option. This means that the chances of finding the seaborne holiday you’re looking for are high.

2. True cruise wannabes are the nerdy types who spend most Saturday and Sunday afternoons studying various cruise lines’ webcams, watching the glistening white ships heading south from ports in Florida bound for the Caribbean.

3. Other forms of cruise fever manifest themselves when friends and neighbours start extolling the virtues of their recent cruise and explain that their cabin was serviced by a charming steward or stewardess twice a day. They changed the towels, cleaned the shower, replenished the shampoos and even placed a chocolate on the pillow last thing at night. You know you’ve really got it bad when you place an After Eight on your own pillow at home.

4. The last time you took the family on holiday you began to wonder if all the added extras were going to blow the budget. There were constant pleas of “what can we do now daddy?”, the Internet was costly so you had to limit the amount of snapchatting, and to add insult to injury the weather didn’t live up to the forecast. Then the revelation hits you - a cruise would have offered better value for money, you could have visited multiple cities full of ‘must see’ sights without having to pay through your nose for trips to theme parks.

5. Since the previous Christmas when all the family came to see what Santa had brought, you’ve had a niggling notion that time is all too fleeting and it would be great to take the youngsters away with their grandparents. Doing this by opting for an ex-UK cruise can save a bundle compared with other possibilities. You’ll all be together, there’s something to keep every age group occupied, plus tots and teens are taken care of day and night, all meals and entertainment for all ages is included, and you can rest assured that there’s no safer place for the little un’s to be. The specialist team at Cruise Direct know all the tell-tale signs of cruise-longing so give them a call now on 0800 484 0370.