The Most Overlooked Benefit of Cruise Vacations

Cruise Travel Unveiled: The Ultimate Packing Hack

I want to share my thoughts on the most under-appreciated part of cruising. No, it’s not the ridiculously great value it represents. What other vacation lets you visit several countries for as little as fifty-two dollars a day. No, the most overlooked benefit of cruise traveling is this. No unpacking. No repacking.

This seems trivial or obvious, but think about this: If you were to visit three countries in Europe, how would that trip unfold? Well, first, you’d pack your bags and drive to the airport. So far, exactly the same as with a cruise. You’d land and maybe find a rental car, grab an Uber, or get into a car service to get to your hotel. So far, mostly the same.

But on a cruise ship, when you board, you go to your cabin, unpack your luggage, and that’s the last time you touch your bags for three, five, ten, or as many days as you’re cruising. Now let’s look at that land trip.

First, you pull up to your hotel. You check in, and they give you your room keys. Maybe there’s a bellman, or maybe you'll lug your luggage to your room. You lock the door and unpack, or maybe you live out of the unpacked suitcase. When it’s time to travel to the next city, you repack your bag. Each time you pack, there’s the risk that you forget something. A phone charger, a favorite sweater, or pajamas. Who knows. You’re stressed and rushing because there’s an eleven a.m. checkout time. Maybe you call the front desk and ask for an extension; maybe they grant it. Next, you lug your luggage to the elevator, heft it into your trunk, and start driving to the next destination. Or maybe you fly.

You pull up to your new hotel. You walk inside to the front desk. You get in line to check in, and they give you your keys. You find the elevator, and you lug your luggage to a new room. You unpack or live out of the unpacked suitcase. On the day it’s time to leave that city, you have to repack your suitcase, again risking forgetting something or losing something important. You lug your luggage to the elevator, hoist it into the trunk of the taxi, uber or rental car. You drive to the airport or the next destination. Feeling exhausted yet? Oh wait, we’re not done.

You arrive in your third city. You walk into the hotel lobby, check-in, and get your room keys. You walk to the elevator, luggage in tow. You repack on your departure date. At this point, after three repacking, you’re almost certain to have lost something. You lug your luggage downstairs and hoist it into the trunk of your vehicle, and you head to the airport.

Assuming a typical 30-minute commute to and from most hotels from various airports, you’ve spent three hours of your vacation, and probably more like six hours, commuting to hotels. You’ve spent another three or four hours checking in and out of hotels. You’ve spent probably four hours fussing with luggage. So on a seven-day vacation, you’ve devoted almost two full days to packing, re-packing, checking in and out of hotels, and commuting to the place where you will lay your head on a pillow each night. I’d call that a nightmare.

Your friend who had the good sense to take a cruise was fast asleep each night you were checking into or driving to your hotel. They were enjoying the nightlife of a new city or onboard the ship while you were waving down taxis and commuting in the back seats of cars to your hotel. The cruise ship vacation is so far superior to the multiple hotel check-ins and outs that It’s hard to imagine how more people haven’t figured it out.

So for your next vacation, consider a cruise. Not just a great value but a wonderfully relaxed and much more convenient form of travel.

And remember, search for your cruise on CruiseSheet.com the only cruise booking site that includes taxes and shows the cost per day in the actual search results. We are a full-fledged cruise search engine that helps travelers around the world enjoy the same deals we book for ourselves.