A cruise for everyone?
Andy Jarosz of 501places.com wrote a beautiful post the other day about cruises. To sum up, despite people that there’s a cruise for everyone, he still remained sceptical.
My attitude is largely the same. I am yet to see one reason why I would enjoy a cruise. I hate travelling as part as a big group, I like my own space, I like to explore destinations in the evenings, I like to eat somewhere different every night, I’m only 30 years old, I have my own teeth, I get stir crazy when confined to a certain place and I like to discover rather than be shown.
I’m sure anyone who actually knows my personality and tastes would struggle to find a cruise that I’d not despise, let alone enjoy.
Try everything once?
Yet this doesn’t stop people who either don’t know me at all or don’t know me that well suggesting that I should give cruising a try (and that, yes, there’s a cruise for everyone). After all, until I’ve tried it, how do I know I won’t like it?
This “you’ve got to try everything once” mentality is quite prevalent in travel. But it is a nonsensical attitude.
Time constraints
Let’s face it, unless I live to be 400,000-years-old, I won’t have time to try everything once. None of us have the time to try everything once, and thus we have to prioritise what we do try. And the order of priority is defined by the basic human decision making process – we assess the available evidence and ourselves, then make a judgment.
Assessment of evidence
I have never run across a motorway. I can’t categorically say that it is a bad idea to run across a motorway, but based on the evidence and knowledge I have accumulated over the years, I can make a reasonably confident assessment that – yes – it would be a bad idea.
Similarly, I’ve never listened to a Mika album, but overwhelming evidence suggests I wouldn’t enjoy it. I’ve never tried Chef X’s avocado recipes, but the fact that I can’t stand avocado suggests they’re not for me. I’ve never watched any of the Twilight films, but it’s reasonable to say that I’ll think they’re a cinematic abomination.
What to try first
And so on. Now whilst I could buy that Mika album, try the avocado bake and plonk myself in a cinema seat for two hours to watch pathetic hormonal monsters fawning over each other, to do so would probably be a waste of my time and money.
And with that time and money, I can try something that I haven’t listened to before, tasted before or watched before. But I’ll pick things I’m more likely to enjoy based on the evidence put in front of me.
Mumbai, skiing… and cruising
The same principle applies to travel. I’ll probably hate Mumbai so, given the choice, I’d go to Buenos Aires or Kiribati first. I find people who talk about skiing all the time unbelievably tedious, so I’d rather try out a week’s walking holiday than a week’s ski holiday. And with so many things across the world that I haven’t seen or experienced yet, that cruise is going to have to wait another 399,970 years.
Tags: cruises, travel media
I completely agree with you David, especially as each individual is completely different and will therefore have differing tastes.
I know with me if anyone says ‘oh, but you have to try it.’ I’m even more determined that I won’t like it. I would much rather make my own decisions and be pleasantly surprised when I enjoy something that I didn’t think I would.
I’ve also wondered about this ‘try anything once’ question. There’s something in each of us that makes us want to validate our own choices and decisions by seeing others follow the same.
We feel good when a friend chooses the same car that we recommended, or goes on holiday to the same place and raves about it (I remember studying something about cognitive dissonance years ago and think it’s vaguely related to this). Having been married for over 17 years and without kids we’ve experienced this in a similar sense from parents and friends (it’s only now easing off).
For the record, I did once run across the M1 when I was 17 and lived to tell the tale (ran out of petrol, hitched to nearest services and back with can). Very irresponsible and not to be recommended.
I write about cruising for a living and there are plenty of people I know who would be unlikely to enjoy a cruise. So I wouldn’t waste my time trying to persuade them. Personally, I love a lot of the ships I go on and really struggle with others. You can’t lump all cruise holidays into one category. You can’t compare a week’s expedition in the Galapagos with a week in the Caribbean on a giant ship full of casinos and midnight buffets.
But why are so many people so keen to knock cruising? Cruise-bashing is everywhere, mainly among bloggers who have never been on a cruise. I would never take a coach tour, or go to a caravan park, or a holiday camp, but I’ve got better things to do than slag something off just because it’s not for me. It’s fair enough to criticise something if there’s a valid argument behind it but most cruise-bashers have no perspective on the industry at all. They just assume it’s not for them and consider that a good enough reason to get stuck in.
@sam – I can be rather stubborn in that sense too. There’s a rebel without a cause waiting to get out in all of us.
@andy – The evidence against the motorway run stacks up
@sue – Thanks for dropping by and offering a comment. It’s an interesting point you make about cruising getting a disproportionate amount of criticism.
But I’d argue that’s because it gets a disproportionate amount of coverage (and often disgracefully uncritical coverage at that). I’ve not got figures, but I’d guess that more people stay in holiday parks or go on coach trips than go on cruises. But you don’t often hear of a ‘holiday park industry’ or ‘coach trip industry’. Cruising, on the other hand, is heavily promoted to the point where it gets people’s backs up.
For me, I criticise partly because I’m fed up of having cruising forced down my throat (I’m partly the same with ski holidays, and if the papers were suddenly full of pieces on coach holidays, I’d be the same with that). The ‘there’s a cruise for everyone’ idea grates immensely. But my major issue with cruising is the effect it has on the destinations that the cruise ships visit. When you see Caribbean islands effectively run for the cruise ship passengers it’s desperately sad – and it has a direct effect on the experience of anyone travelling independently.
Ah – I tried so hard not to focus on cruising too heavily in this post as well… Ne’er mind.
Yes, well, I’m sure you can do the maths! This disproportionate amount of coverage is directly related to the cruise ads carried by newspapers! A sad fact of publishing today, although helpful to me, personally, as it’s my income. As for the uncritical nature of that coverage – I agree, much of it doesn’t help the first-time cruiser make an informed decision, which is why I particularly enjoy working for a site that DOES offer grittier, unbiased reviews.
Most writers who accept a cruise as a freebie do have a good time and as a result, write something positive. But so do writers who accept freebies at luxury hotels, or free airline seats in business class. And that’s a whole new can of worms!