Cruise Tips & Advice

10 Tips for Traveling Abroad on a Cruise

1. Ensure your passport is valid for at least six months beyond your return date. Many countries enforce this strictly, and cruise lines are required to deny boarding if you don't comply — regardless of your itinerary.
2. Check the U.S. State Department's Consular Information Sheets for every country on your itinerary. They cover entry requirements, health advisories, local laws, and current safety conditions. This is not optional research.
3. Research local laws before you go. What is legal at home may not be in port. This is not theoretical — cruise passengers have been detained for possession of items that seem trivial to Americans. Know before you go.
4. Make two copies of your passport: one kept in a separate bag from the original, and one left with a trusted contact at home who can fax or email it to a consulate if needed.
5. Leave a complete itinerary with someone at home — ship name, cruise line, sailing dates, and the cruise line's emergency number. If something goes wrong ashore, this contact is your first lifeline.
6. Know the location of the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate for each country on your itinerary. The State Department app makes this immediately accessible. Store it before you sail.
7. Carry small bills in local currency for markets, street vendors, and port-side tipping. Many vendors in port towns do not accept credit cards, and currency exchange at the pier is invariably poor.
8. Do not leave valuables unattended on port beaches or in open bags ashore. Pickpocketing near cruise docks is well-documented in numerous ports worldwide and is frequently opportunistic rather than violent — but the result is the same.
9. Purchase travel insurance that specifically covers emergency medical evacuation. A helicopter evacuation from a remote Alaskan port or a Caribbean island can cost $50,000 or more. Standard health insurance rarely covers this.
10. Understand your ship's departure policy completely and take it seriously. Ships depart on schedule. If you miss the ship — whether due to a delayed tour, a traffic accident, or simply losing track of time — reaching the next port is entirely your expense and your problem.

Norovirus on Cruise Ships: Facts vs. Fears

The media loves a norovirus story on a cruise ship. The resulting coverage is almost universally misleading, and it shapes cruise decisions in ways that bear little relationship to actual risk. Here is what the data shows.

1. The CDC's Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) requires cruise ships to report any illness affecting more than 2% of passengers or crew within 24 hours of arrival at a U.S. port. This mandatory reporting requirement is why cruise outbreaks make news — restaurants, hotels, resorts, and theme parks have no equivalent obligation.
2. Norovirus — a group of highly contagious viruses that cause gastroenteritis — is the most commonly reported illness on cruise ships. It is also the most common cause of foodborne illness in the United States overall, affecting approximately 20 million Americans annually in schools, restaurants, hospitals, and nursing homes.
3. Peer-reviewed studies comparing outbreak rates on cruise ships to comparable land-based settings consistently show lower rates on ships. The visibility of cruise outbreaks reflects reporting requirements, not elevated risk.
4. Frequent, thorough handwashing with soap and water is the most effective prevention. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are substantially less effective against norovirus — the mechanical action of soap and water is what disrupts the virus. Ships that enforce soap-and-water stations at dining venues are following the science.
5. Ships that experience a reported outbreak implement enhanced VSP-guided sanitation protocols immediately — thorough disinfection of surfaces, increased crew vigilance, and isolation of affected passengers. These protocols are highly effective at containment when followed properly.
6. If you feel ill at any point during a cruise, report to the ship's medical center promptly. Early intervention benefits your recovery and gives the ship the best chance of preventing any potential spread.

Choosing the Right Cabin

• Inside cabins are genuinely darker and significantly quieter than balcony or ocean-view cabins. Travelers who sleep deeply and spend their days in port or participating in onboard activities often prefer them — and they represent substantially better value per cruise dollar.
• Avoid cabins at the very stern of the ship or directly above or below noisy public venues: the pool deck, the theater, the nightclub. These are legitimate nuisances, not minor inconveniences, and the ship's deck plan makes them identifiable before you book.
• Obstructed ocean-view cabins have a lifeboat in the sightline. This is disclosed on the deck plan. It is not a dealbreaker for most travelers — you still get natural light and some view — but it should be a deliberate choice rather than a surprise.
• Balcony cabins on decks 8–10 typically offer a better balance of view and protection from wind than higher decks. Upper-deck balconies can be uncomfortably exposed in rough weather or at speed.
• Solo travelers should specifically seek cruise lines that offer solo-cabin categories at single rates, or guaranteed single-supplement pricing. Paying double occupancy for a solo traveler is a significant added cost — one that is avoidable with the right research.
• For Alaska, a balcony cabin is worth the upgrade premium. Wildlife viewing — whales, eagles, bears, calving glaciers — from a private outdoor space is a genuinely different experience than watching through a window or competing for rail space on deck.

Booking Shore Excursions

• Book high-demand excursions — whale watching in Juneau, Chichen Itza from Cozumel, the Colosseum in Rome, Glacier Bay ranger-led programs — months in advance. They sell out well before sailing, and the ship's onboard booking system often reflects what was already gone at time of embarkation.
• Independent excursions are frequently less expensive and occasionally superior to ship-sponsored options. The tradeoff is simple: if your independent operator is delayed and you miss the ship, no one is waiting. In well-established, easily navigated ports like Cozumel or Grand Cayman, independent excursions are generally fine. In remote or complex ports, the ship-sponsored guarantee has genuine value.
• Review excursion operators on Cruise Critic and TripAdvisor before booking through the ship. A highly-rated private operator in a specific port may offer a far better experience than the ship's generic group tour — at lower cost.
• Some of the most memorable port experiences cost nothing at all: walking a historic city center, finding a working fish market at dawn, sitting in a harbor cafe with local coffee. Not every port requires an organized excursion to be worthwhile.
• Tender ports — Santorini, many Caribbean anchorages, some Alaskan stops — add time to your port day that is easy to underestimate. Factor tender wait times (potentially 30–60 minutes each direction during peak hours) when scheduling excursions and planning return timing.