First-Time Cruise Questions And Hesitations From A Single Traveler

By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Travel Blogger

I have often thought about expanding my travel experiences by taking a cruise. Yet whenever I start to seriously consider it, I pause like a guy in a bar hesitating when approaching a beautiful girl. I don’t, by the way; I always charge in once I start because a girl can sense hesitation even if she doesn’t see it and she wants a guy with confidence, not a shaky one.

But I digress. For reasons not without merit, I am fearful of getting on a ship with a boatload of people who are married and boring, bring their screaming kids or are so old they turn in each night at 9 p.m. I am single and want to be around other single people. 

Now these concerns likely seem silly to seasoned cruisers but the last thing I want  is to be stuck on a cruise ship with boring people when I could be whooping it up at, say, the Giggling Marlin – its signature drink is called the Skip And Go Naked, prompting a few drunk tourists to do just that – and Squid Roe in Cabo. Reason suggests that with some 2,000 people on a cruise ship that I and any single friends would surely find someone we like to be around, but if don’t, we simply can’t go to a different place to find them.

And now I’ve read something about having to set a time to eat dinner, wear pants (long ones, not shorts) in the dining room and get randomly placed at a table with other cruisers whom you may or may not like. What if there’s a table full of cute girls right over there, and you’re stuck with a couple on a honeymoon and a bunch of old farts talking about all their friends who have either passed away or have one foot on the banana peel??

Gosh, just the thought of it makes me wonder why I would ever consider a cruise in the first place.

I don’t like to plan while on vacation any more than Shaq liked to take free throw lessons. I’m too spontaneous for that because I do enough planning while running PubClub.com. 

On the other hand, I can certainly see a couple of benefits cruising has over other forms of travel.

On A Cruise You Get A Nice Hotel Room

What’s the biggest pain in the ass when it comes to traveling? Well okay, finding a reasonably-priced flight with convenient times but after that it’s getting a hotel room. If you’re never been to a place before, you really have no idea what you are getting from looking at pictures and reading confusing reviews from people you don’t know. Show up and you may find out you’re miles from town and the room is – egad! – a dump. Or at the very least not what you pictured in the pictures.

On a cruise ship you don’t have to worry about that because it’s like staying on the Las Vegas Strip – you know all the rooms are modern, clean and nice. Plus they are automatically in the center of all the action because, well, you’re on a cruise ship. You’re either in the middle of the action or you’re overboard.

Food Is Included In Your Cruise

That’s always something one has to wonder about when traveling – where do we eat? That’s taken care for you on a cruise ship. Now the dinner thing is a potential curveball but at least it’s there for you. And it’s included in the cruise ship price.

So I’m still about as torn as a loose spinnaker in a storm on a sailboat but one day, I suppose, I’ll find out for myself. Then I’ll do some “boots on the ground” reporting about my experience.