Let me start off by saying, we’re more of travelers than vacationers. My goal with travel is to see the world and experience as much culture as I can, ideally in beautiful settings. There is, of course, nothing wrong with relaxing vacations and I’ve had my fair share of them. I just usually choose more adventure type travel.

“Cruises offer a way for many to travel without a passport, without spending hours researching destinations and booking transport and accommodation, and without taking months off at a time.”

I’d always just assumed cruises were expensive and less flexible, so I shied away. While we were spending a week in Roatan though, which is a cruise heavy destination, I got curious and started researching. To my surprise, cruising can be a very economical way to vacation. So I started looking into it a little bit more and a Transatlantic Cruise to Barcelona caught my eye. I booked it (because of course I did) and then got a little nervous at the idea of spending 16 days on a boat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean having never stepped foot on a cruise ship, so I decided to book a shorter cruise as a trial run.

I found a great deal on a repositioning Pacific Coast cruise from Los Angeles to Vancouver and booked. We’d added Vancouver to our list of must-visit cities after an accidental layover and it seemed like a two birds, one stone situation.

Ship

We cruised on Royal Caribbean’s Radiance of the Seas. This smaller ship holds around 2,100 passengers and it’s designed for port-heavy and visual journeys like Alaska’s Inside Passage. Having nothing else to compare it to, the ship felt massive to us. There are 15 decks and many restaurants, bars, and hangout areas and we didn’t even take advantage of everything offered. Other passengers on our itinerary remarked that it was dated and less impressive than other Royal Caribbean ships, but we didn’t mind.

To me, it felt like an older, mid-range hotel. And for the price we paid (around $1200 all-in), this seemed more than reasonable.

Room

I booked the cheapest room possible, which was a guaranteed interior stateroom. It was tight, but we didn’t spend a lot of time in the room and as two average sized people, it was decent. Would I have loved to be able to drink my morning coffee on a balcony? Yes. Did I want to pay twice as much to do so? No.

The room was definitely dated inside with the furnishings and decor, but I didn’t expect anything else. I would probably choose an interior again, unless there was a really great deal on a balcony.

Food

In joining a Royal Caribbean Cruises Facebook group (side note: don’t do that), I had read a lot of complaints regarding the food. Mostly that it had gone downhill in the recent past. And SO many complaints about the limit on lobsters(??). Having no taste for lobsters and no previous experience to compare it to, I found the food pretty good.

We took advantage of the continental breakfast room service, eating brunch/lunch in the large buffet room (called the Windjammer). We ate every night in the Main Dining Room and also had some snacks from the Park Cafe and the Boardwalk Dog House.

All of the food was tasty, in that mass-produced kind of way. The menu changed daily and there were always vegetarian options and healthier fare. This was our first ever all-inclusive experience and it felt pretty on par to what I’ve heard from others in standard all-inclusive resorts across the Caribbean.

Ports

On our five night cruise, we had two sea days and two port days -- one in Seattle and one in Victoria. We disembarked in Vancouver and in conjunction with the cruise, we’d planned a week and a half in Victoria and Vancouver.

Now, I’m not one of those people that believes you must spend a week or a month in a destination to qualify yourself as having visited, but I am an advocate of slow travel. I also have extreme anxiety around deadlines and the thought of being left by a cruise ship makes me physically nauseous. This particular combo made this part of the trip not particularly pleasant for me. In Victoria, we knew we’d be coming back and didn’t feel rushed in exploring, but you cannot see and experience Seattle, or anywhere, in nine hours.

This comes back to your goal when traveling, but it felt counterintuitive to us. While I’d love to say I’ll come back for a longer visit, the world is wide and I’m hungry to see more of it, on a limited time and budget. So it’s unrealistic. I’d rather spend enough time in a destination to fully experience it, without feeling like I missed out.

Excursions

We went on one excursion offered by the cruise line so I could have the experience for this blog. After disembarking in Vancouver, we did a tour up to Howe Sound, including the Sea-to Sky Gondola to Grouse Mountain and a stop at Shannon Falls. The sights were truly amazing and I enjoyed the tour, but I felt similarly about this experience as I did to the ports. We were rushed and had we visited on our own, we’d have lingered longer. We’re also not really fans of group tours in general for this reason. When possible, it’s so much more enjoyable for me to move at my own pace.

The excursions through the cruise line are also much more expensive than what you could book on your own. I get that you’re paying for the convenience and the security of knowing your ship won’t leave without you, but as a budget traveler, it hurt me a little.

Our thoughts

While cruising kind of goes against a lot of my ideals (cultural immersion, eco-conscious tourism, and getting off the beaten path), we absolutely loved it. We were both surprised, but would definitely cruise again -- with a caveat. I would not choose a route with destinations we really want to see. I chose a Pacific Coast itinerary specifically because it seemed more adventurous than the Caribbean, but now I see that a big part of the allure of cruising is time spent on the boat.

Experiencing an all-inclusive style of travel was definitely different for us, but felt SO luxurious. Free ice cream at any time? Count me in. If we cruise again, we’ll definitely pick a route visiting places we’ve already been, so there’s less pressure to go, go, go and more room to relax.

I know we’re not the target demographic for cruising and the complaints I had are well documented online, but I think it’s important to try new things and gain perspective. I used to wrinkle my nose at the concept of cruising due to the stigmas in the travel community, but now I realize they’re a pretty affordable way for people to see more of the world with less resources.

Travel is a privilege, full stop. But some aspects can be mitigated with this travel style. Cruises offer a way for many to travel without a passport, without spending hours researching destinations and booking transport and accommodation, and without taking months off at a time. In a society where time and money are ever dwindling, these benefits cannot be overlooked.