Cruise holidays are a little different from staying in a hotel and passengers will have a few factors to consider.
While guests are usually able to take as much luggage as they’d like, they’ll need to consider the location of their cabin or whether to book excursions.
A cruise passenger has also warned passengers to be careful if they need to book a flight to reach their cruise departure destination.
Reddit user ‘medina607’ warned that they made a mistake on their first overseas cruise because they “didn’t arrive a day or two early so that I could sleep the jet lag off in a comfortable hotel room”.
Passengers will usually have the option of booking a flight with the cruise line but this may be more expensive than booking travel themselves.
Another person said: “You flew in the day of an international cruise? Very good thing you made it.”
Cruise ships usually won’t be able to wait for late passengers as the lines have to stick to strict port departure times.
This means that if a flight is delayed or cancelled, tourists might end up missing their cruise and having to chase it to the next port.
For this reason, it’s a good idea to book a flight to arrive the day before the planned cruise departure date.
It’ll give passengers more time to adapt to the new time zone and will give more leeway in case there’s a delay.
However, this can be a pricey option as passengers may have to fork out for a hotel room in their departure port.
Another Reddit user said: “When flying overseas, it’s good to build in an extra day in case of airline chaos.
“Many routes are operated once a day and if it’s cancelled, it can be another 24 hours before you get another go at it.”
If the cruise starts in a big city such as Barcelona, it’ll also give tourists some extra time to see the sights before their cruise begins.
