Cruise ships are a vacation option like any other. With a great offer of leisure and the possibility to visit several destinations at once in a boat full of amenities, more and more travelers are seduced by the idea of living the experience of performing some. Once for many people a trip by sea or river was synonymous with luxury but nowadays cruises are within reach of any traveler. If you have decided to live the experience of making one, in this article we present some useful tips if it is the first time you embark on one.
The first thing to keep in mind is where you want to go and the type of cruise you want to do as it is not the same to do a cruise of few days and to do a river cruise around Europe in one or two weeks.
Documentation
It is important to carry with you all the documentation provided by the shipping company: booking and payment vouchers, passenger cards, cabin number, boarding tickets, luggage identification cards etc. It will also be necessary to check the documentation to be shipped weeks before the departure date.
Health insurance
Even if you are sailing on a route within the European Union, boats are covered by the regulations of the country in which they are registered. Therefore, it is advisable to take a medical insurance with maximum coverage. Medical care inside a cruise ship is almost never included and, if it is, health services are expensive. An analysis can cost 1,000 euros and a simple query about 100, which is why it is fundamental to hire a personal medical insurance to avoid unexpected surprises.
Boarding on the cruise ship
When arriving at the embarkation station, all luggage must be delivered with the tags placed except the carry-on luggage. Then, at the reception desk, boarding tickets, documents and credit card for extras will be presented. It should be noted that there are no cash payments on board. Registering the credit card allows you to directly charge the expenses on board the cruise. At reception, each passenger receives a magnetic card that serves as a key and credit card to pay on board. It is not mandatory but registering the card is the fastest way that expenses go to the account, without having to make boring queues to pay for the last day of the cruise. It is important to keep all the receipts that are given when buying something because the last night is delivered an extract of expenses that will have to be checked if they are correct.
Tours
When making excursions on the different scales of the cruise there are two options. The first is to prepare them on your own and the second is to take the excursions organized by the boat. In the latter case you have to reserve them when you arrive at the boat or online. There are registration forms at the tour desk, next to the reception.
It is not advisable to make the reservation at the last moment as you can exhaust the places quickly. In fact, there is a time limit of about 48 hours before each.