7 Reasons Smart Cruisers Stay On Board During Port Days

7 Reasons Smart Cruisers Stay On Board During Port Days

I noticed that more cruisers than ever are staying on board their cruise ship, rather than getting off in ports to self-explore or go on excursions. With many changes in ports and on ships in recent years, I too have started remaining on board in more ports.

There were even two cruises in the last year where I did not get off the ship in any port at all!  What is going on? And why and when should you also make the smart choice to stay on board in port?

Risky Ports

I never assume that just because my cruise ship is calling somewhere that the port is safe.

In recent years, some ports have become less safe, as tourism has grown and related crime has too, with affluent passengers visiting these ports seen as easy targets.

Every time I go on a cruise now, particularly if visiting places I haven’t been to, I check the latest travel advice on the UK Foreign Office site, which is easy to do by typing the port or country name and “FCO” into Google.

In the USA, the State Department offers that advice to USA cruisers. For example, on a recent Caribbean cruise, I discovered Cozumel, that I usually am comfortable with and felt safe in, had a raised warning because there’d been a gang related murder and safety problems near the port.

There is cautionary advice about a high risk of crime at the time of writing this in the Caribbean for places like Jamaica, Bahamas, Honduras and Belize, and in the Mediterranean about pick pocketing and muggings in cities like Barcelona, Rome, Venice, Athens, Florence and Pisa.

So, I tend to stay on board if I think the port is dangerous, risky or there’s warnings about uncomfortable harassment of cruisers by locals.

Little To Offer Ports

Another reason I often stay on board, is in ports that have little to offer without a lot of cost and time to get to the sights.

With more and ever bigger cruise ships, they increasingly dock far from the town centre, in industrial and container working ports. I can’t just step off in a picturesque town and explore .

For example, on a Western Mediterranean cruise calling into Marseille when I went there on a big ship, Norwegian Viva, we were miles out in a busy working port.

As I would have had to line up and wait for a 30- to 40-minute shuttle bus into and back from town, I avoided the hassle and stayed on board and enjoyed the ship.

However, when I then went there on Azamara Quest, being a small ship, we docked right in the city centre, so I stepped off and explored the Cathedral, castle and marina which were all within a short walking distance.

Here’s my top tip when planning to see if a port will be worth staying on board. I use WhatsInPort.com as that tells me where cruise ships dock by port, if it’s an industrial port, and if sights are close by or not.

South Africa

It also saved me from an unpleasant day on board on a recent Silversea South Africa cruise.

It told me Richards Bay port was industrial and had nowhere close by to walk to and explore, but also that it was a port that loaded coal onto freighters and visiting ships get covered in coal dust. Sitting by the pool or out on deck was a no go. So, I knew to book an excursion and not stay on.

I often choose to stay on board if the port is a long way from the sights worth seeing, and will cost a lot of money, time or hassle to get to. And especially if I have been to them before.

These ports are common in Europe and Asia. For example, ports like Le Havre are up to two hours from Paris,  Livorno 1.5 hours to Florence, Civitavecchia about that to Rome, La Spezia about the same to get to Cinque Terre, and so on.

My top tip is if your itinerary has the name of a famous city like say Florence, but in brackets after it has another name like in this case Livorno or say Venice with either Ravenna or Trieste after it, then that means the ship is docked far away and so a costly 7- to 10-hour excursion is needed to see the places.

But, even if the sights are close to the ship, there is another time I decide to stay on board.

Overwhelmed Ports

And this is if I know that the ports are going to be overwhelmed and packed, making getting off less appealing.

With the numbers of ships, especially mega ships, calling on the same ports, as only some can handle them, these days many ports are extremely busy and crowded, especially in the Caribbean, and Mediterranean, in places like the Greek Islands, Barcelona, La Palma and so on.

My top tip is I check my itinerary on the website CruiseTimetables.com, as that tells me how many ships and which ships will be in that port at the same time.

If there’s a port with many large ships, meaning 15,000 or more cruisers will be crowding the town and sights, I plan to stay on board.

Let me give you an example. I did two back-to-back Caribbean cruises earlier in the year. One was on the circa 6,000 passenger Symphony of the Seas, followed by the 1,200 passenger Oceania Vista, both calling into Nassau in The Bahamas.

After looking at CruiseTimetables.com I made plans to get off on the Symphony of The Seas stop, as there would be only two other relatively small ships in town, but on the Oceania Vista call there would be 5 mega ships in and so many thousands of cruise passengers packing out the town, beaches and sights.

There is a fast-emerging development in some cruise ports now that I factor into my decision to stay on board or not.

Unwelcoming Ports

And that’s ports where the locals do not welcome or don’t want us as visitors.

There is a growing trend, more so in Europe, of hostility and protests towards tourists and cruise passengers, including cities like Barcelona, Venice, Seville, and in Palma and parts of Norway.

For example, in Barcelona, locals sprayed visitors recently with water guns while they were eating out on the Ramblas, near the cruise terminals.

In parts of Norway, like Stavanger and Bergen, there were stickers and posters up saying cruise passengers were not welcome last season.

So, if I find there’s protests growing or expected, I consider using that as a stay on board day.

Many of these reasons for staying on board in port are new and emerging developments, but now I want to move from port-side factors to ship-led reasons for me staying on board when in port.

Getting Package Value

I often stay on board these days to get the greatest value from ever more costly packages or add-ons I’ve bought. They can add a lot to my cruise cost, so I want to get my money’s worth!

Let me give you some examples.

When on Holland America, I like to book one of their Retreat Cabanas on warm weather cruises. They are in a secluded area, with a private covered space with loungers, and I can order and have drinks and lunch served there.

But they must be booked for the entire cruise. It cost over $400 for a recent seven-night Mexico cruise on the Koningsdam.

As it was even quieter when people were off exploring, I started to stay on in port days to use it and get the full value.

On a recent Cunard Queen Anne Canary Islands cruise, I’d brought a costly two-week pass for the thermal suite. So, on some port days, I spent time hanging around the even quieter than usual thermal suite to get our money’s worth.

Packages

Of course, these days, cruise lines encourage us to buy various packages and add-ons, ranging from drinks and Wi-Fi packages to ones that bundle things like drinks, Wi-Fi, gratuities, and speciality or casual dining like Celebrity “Always Included”, Holland America “Have-It-All”, Princess Plus and Princess Premier, and Norwegian “Free-at-Sea”.

The advantage of staying on board in port is not only can you get reservations for things like the dining easier for daytimes, but also you can make the most of these packages.

For example, if you’ve got a drinks package and you are out in port most days, you’re not getting your value and money’s worth.

Not that I’m advocating that you should be drinking loads, but even I get more from my soft drinks package because I don’t drink alcohol – from the coffees, juice, mocktails and sodas.

Plus, of course, if you’re out in port, even on many cruise line private islands, drink and food is going to cost you, but if you’re staying on board, your food is included as are drinks if you have that drinks package.

Although Wi-Fi has become much better with the rollout of Starlink, the most affordable packages doesn’t usually include streaming, and I usually find that I get much better bandwidth and speed when most passengers are out in port.

But staying on board can also help control cruise costs too.

Helps The Budget

And there’s two key things that I want to talk about, one of which is I love staying on board because I can take advantage of port day deals.

I enjoy having a massage, but I find cruise prices so expensive. But every line always has deals in the spa on port days, plus I can get appointments at times that suit me best.

Speciality dining is also usually cheaper at lunchtime than for dinner on most ships. So, I can try speciality for less.

Also, it means avoiding the costs of excursions by staying on board some days. Excursions can easily add hundreds of dollars a day to any cruise.

Of course, one of the key reasons for staying on board is to enjoy the ship and make the ship the destination.

Ship As Destination

On many cruises, the main reason I stay on board is to get time to try and do everything, and use venues like the pools, hot tubs, gym and even buffet for lunch without crowds or lines. This is especially appealing if there are ports I have been to before.

Now, those two cruises I mentioned at the start where I never got off the ship at all were both mega resort-style ships where I saw the ship as my destination not the ports.

One was a 7-night Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas Western Mediterranean cruise and the other a 10-night Norwegian Viva Cruise from Rome to Lisbon.

There was so much to do on both and I just couldn’t get to do it all on the limited sea days, especially with the lines of people who had been out in ports now trying to pack things in.

So, on Symphony of the Seas, I was able to do the water slides on repeat with no waiting, try the Flowrider without lots of people watching me falling off and embarrassing myself, trying the monster slide, and all the different dining venues, which would be impossible to do if I was focusing just on doing them at night and sea days.

I could do the trivia shows when people are out with greater chance of winning because it wasn’t so busy.

On Viva I did the same, like the Go-kart, the water slide ride, and even go to the afternoon tea without all the crowds on sea days.