Big Boat vs. Little Boat; Quality Time on a Cruise

Have you read about, or seen the news about “The Oasis of the Seas” yet?  She’s a ship, a big ship.  At 222,000 tons, she is so mammoth, so gargantuan, and so incredibly colossal, that she is divided up into seven separate "neighborhoods" where passengers can “live in” during their stay.  There is one neighborhood called Central Park which is open to the sky and features trees, grass lawns and flower-beds.  Other passenger attractions include an ice rink, a cocktail bar that rises up and down the decks, a water theme park, a full-size fairground carousel, and a shopping area that also features bars, restaurants and cafes.  More than 2,000 crew members will provide service to 6,300 passengers, combining those two numbers will make a population so massive, that it will easily outnumber the entire populace of any Caribbean city she is scheduled to visit.  She has her own website, if you want to check her out:  www.oasisoftheseas.com. 

I have only one word to say about her.  “Bah!”  That’s right, “Bah,” I say!!  I never understood the cruise experience.  So what if she has a full carnival sized carousel on board.  My local mall has a carousel!  It also has shopping, several cocktail bars, a water park across the street, and there are many ice rinks around town (in case I develop a sudden urge to skate).

Of course I understand the urge to be pampered.  My mom is a “cruisy” and she tells me tales of endless buffets, personal attendants, and soaps and candles and things lavished upon her while on the cruise.  I guess I’m just not there yet, on my “life journey.”  I’d rather take a speed boat to the destination and spend a week on the beach rather than sitting at an endless table of food for a week, waiting for a short day trip to enjoy the beach for a few hours.  Yes, Ma… this means I’m “not old enough” to start cruising yet.

When we took our honeymoon in Alaska, we wanted to do it via an Alaskan cruise.  Several boats cruise up and down the inside passage and we looked at them all.  Since it was our honeymoon, we were both willing to out-spend our normal travel budget, but we were discovering that for both of us to book a cruise for a week in first class accommodations, we were going to spend upwards of 14 or 15 thousand bucks.  That was too high.  We started looking at mid-level cruises and smaller boats and my wife had an epiphany; if the price goes down with respect to the size of the boat, why don’t we just charter our own private boat or yacht?

We did.  For less than half the cost of the big cruise, we chartered a private boat with a king sized bed in our cabin, a captain, a naturalist (guide) and a chef.  Weeks before our arrival, our chef was coordinating the menu with us via email.  We caught fresh shrimp, halibut, and king crabs for dinner, followed some humpback whales, paddled kayaks near killer whales and sea lion colonies, spent time in logging and trapping ghost towns, spotted a mother grizzly and her cubs, combed the beaches for walrus tusks, and genuinely, we had an intimately incredible Alaskan experience for a lot less money.  We even sneaked in line in front of the Princess cruise passengers to take a float plane journey up over the mountains (our Captain knew the pilot)! 

Once or twice, a big boat went by at a distance and I was so glad I didn’t have to share the experience with 6,000 other people.  So if you ask me, the “Oasis of the Seas” is genuinely over-rated.  If you want to relax on a Caribbean beach, do it!  Just ask yourself if you want to spend your whole vacation within walking distance of that beach; or in a floating city that might afford you access to that beach for a few hours.  Me?  I say, “Bah!  Hit the beach with your own timeline!”

EXTRA: If you have questions for Ken regarding business travel, hotels, airplanes, etc, please send an email!  Your questions will be recorded and Ken will answer the best ones in his Ask the Expert podcast show.