Lessons Learned at Sea: Our Top Cruise Tips and Hacks
In this episode of Her Travel Expert, we’re diving into all things cruising! With years of experience on various cruise lines, Kirsten Maxwell and Meagan Wristen share their top tips for planning the perfect cruise—from choosing the right ship and itinerary to budgeting, excursions, and onboard experiences.
We’ll discuss how to find the best cruise deals, the importance of picking the right cabin, must-know packing tips, and how to navigate hidden cruise fees. Whether you’re a first-time cruiser or a seasoned traveler, this episode is packed with insights to help you make the most of your next voyage.
Welcome back to Her Travel Expert and today we are talking about all things cruising. So we’ve both taken a ton of cruises and what do you what do you look for when you initially start trying to plan a cruise?
Table of Contents
What do you look for when you initially start trying to plan a cruise?
Kirsten Maxwell
I think for me, I do a lot of research on the cruise line. I mean, are they well-reviewed? Are they well-liked? Do I know anybody who’s been on a cruise with them? Looking at costs obviously, is important. What destination? Where they’re stopping? Are those places I’ve been? Places I want to go back to? New places to me?
Kirsten Maxwell
I mean, I think those are probably how it’s in the nickeling and diming kind of thing, what kind of extras are going to be on there. I think we’re going to get into all of these topics, but to kick it off, that’s probably what I’m looking at. Anything different for you?
Meagan Wristen
I start with the destination. So not even necessarily the port that you sail in and out of, but where it stops. Typically I know at least one or two places I want to stop at. And so I go from there. Because not all cruise lines go everywhere. So that that’ll narrow it down pretty quick. Unless it’s like a Mediterranean cruise and then everyone wants to be on that one and there are a ton of options. So then I switched to price.
Meagan Wristen
Then I think it kind of depends on a lot of the itinerary for me. Is it a new stop every single day?
Do you have a day off? Do you have a day at sea? Are there too many days at sea? I don’t want to be at sea for five days out of a 10-day cruise.
Kirsten Maxwell
That’s fair. So you mentioned pricing. I guess the the next question that comes up a lot is budgeting.
How do you find the best deals on cruises and where should people look for those?
Meagan Wristen
So I use
Kirsten Maxwell
Okay. Yeah. And i there’s another like conglomeration kind of site where you can search for all different cruises, Cruise Direct. I don’t know if you’ve ever used that, but it kind of gives you a good comparison, reviews of different ships.
Kirsten Maxwell
I think for me, I’m also looking for how old the ship is. I think that a lot of people can get overwhelmed by destinations, itinerary, et cetera.
Kirsten Maxwell
Make sure you’re choosing a cruise ship that isn’t 25 years old and outdated and the room smell moldy or any of the things above. I just look for different things that might give me ideas. And I know that travel agents are also a great source for cruises because they see everything, they can book everything at no charge to you, but they also sometimes get some perks that the regular traveler might not be, might not have available to them.
Meagan Wristen
Yeah, and if you are looking at an older ship, just look and see what year it was refurbished. Because if it’s been refurbished in the last few years, it’ll be way better.
Finding the Right Ship
Kirsten Maxwell
That’s right. So moving on to the the next thing we’re going to tackle is how do you find the right ship for your group? So whether it’s just your family group, whether you’re going with girlfriends, I mean, because now cruise lines are trying to shift everything to be kind of the theme organized, you know, the Disney is for family.
And then you have
Meagan Wristen
I mean, I think it starts with the ages. Do you need a kids club? Do you need a teens club? Do you need, a singles meetup or, you know, so I think you kind of take a factor in each individual and what’s available.
Meagan Wristen
I mean, some cruise ships don’t have teen clubs and then others have phenomenal teen clubs. So I think if you’re traveling with teens, you’re making a huge mistake not to have a teen club.
Which ones have you found have good teen clubs?
Because I’ve only been on, I think, I know for sure Disney has a teen club. I’m thinking maybe Royal Caribbean does too. But there are other cruises teens might love.
Meagan Wristen
Yeah, Disney has an entire section at the front of their ship where it’s teens only.
Meagan Wristen
They have their own hot tub up there on a sun deck, like I barely saw my kids the last time I was on a Disney cruise.
Meagan Wristen
I think our kids might’ve been together, but they were together.
Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah, they were.
Meagan Wristen
We barely saw them. And then when we stopped at the Castaway Cay the private island that Disney owns, and they had a teen club on the island.
Meagan Wristen
We were on the island, we couldn’t find our boys, and they were in the teen club. You and I didn’t realize there was a they had their own club, even on the island.
Meagan Wristen
That’s something to look at. Norwegian Bliss, when we were all on that, that had a great teen club.
And Royal Caribbean has teen clubs.
Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah, I think that’s a hard thing with teens is sometimes the teen clubs can be hit or miss. They’re going to either be way too oriented towards the tween ages or they’re awkward and your kids are just like, I’m not going to go meet other people like that.
So yeah, hit or miss, like as, as much as we try, right? To make sure they have everything available to them. Sometimes they’re just not even going to take us up on that.
Meagan Wristen
I remember walking into the Norwegian Bliss Kids Club and like, I’m pretty sure Noah was DJing. Like I forget what the other kids are doing, but I just remember I was like, Oh, that’s a DJ.
Kirsten Maxwell
What is going on? Yeah, that’s awesome. And that’s what you wanted. And if it’s not on the ship, you need to make sure you’re choosing destinations that your teens are going to enjoy.
Excursions
Kirsten Maxwell
So would you say that, you know, when you’re looking for cruises, because I think they all have different excursions, and we just touched a little bit on activities, are you Looking at their excursions as a whole or do you plan on doing your own excursions? Do you book them independently of what the cruise is offering? The reason I ask is I’ve been on a few river cruises and small ships and their excursions are included. I mean you they are planned and you can choose the ones you want to do.
Meagan Wristen
Like, Amawaterways, you can…
Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah, you can choose from a list of activities or you can choose the one activity for the day or you can plan it on your own. So do you have a preference as to what you do when it comes to excursions?
Meagan Wristen
I mean, if I’m on a cruise and it’s included, we’re gonna do the included activity because why spend more money?
You’ve already spent money to have this all-inclusive cruise experience, so you’re gonna utilize it. When Eden and I did Amawaterways, they had… Typically three excursions that each stop and then you could choose by activity levels.
Meagan Wristen
So That worked out perfectly for us. We did an amazing bike tours. We did walking tours Very deep historical tours. It was a river cruise down the Danube River. I thought it was perfect and I didn’t have to plan all I had to do was show up and I really liked that When we went to the Mediterranean
Meagan Wristen
I have been to Barcelona and I had an agenda and I wanted to bang it out. We were on a tight schedule. So we were the first people off the ship and we went with that agenda and it worked out perfectly.
If it’s a new destination, I don’t know what to do. Maybe we’ll book an excursion through the ship. I know one of the things about booking through the ship is they won’t leave you. So if you’re running late, they will wait.
I have never seen anyone get left, but then you see on the news people get left.
Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah, I think that that’s a huge thing, too. I mean, when we went to Aruba, we did a day trip. We did on our own as a land vacation. But there are plenty of cruise ships coming in and there were people on our Jeep Safari who were on a cruise and they were the entire time kind of concerned watching the clock.
Are we going to be done on time because they had to be back for the cruise ship? I don’t like that. So to your point, if you have a limited time, I think in port, it’s very important to do their excursion versus booking it on your own.
With that being said, when we went to Iceland, we decided pretty late that we’re going to do a Windstar cruise. And so a lot of their excursions, I feel like we’re either booked up or I felt they were more expensive than what I could have booked on my own. So we did book a couple on our own that I think were great.
But I will say that sometimes excursions cruises can offer, you’re not going to get anywhere else. so To your point, AmaWaterways, we did this nighttime hike to a castle on the Rhine River. I mean, it was gorgeous. You got to do a little tour and learn about the history of the castle.
Nobody else is really offering that.
I think somebody else does like an excursion to, is it Ephesus, Ephesus in Turkey. It’s like this nighttime candle lit, you know, experience.
Meagan Wristen
In the library in Ephesus, it’s Windstar.
Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah. And have you done it?
Meagan Wristen
That’s on my bucket list.
Kirsten Maxwell
Okay. Yeah. So it looks pretty amazing. other things where we’ve gone to, when we went with, uh, Emerald Cruises, we went to a home visit and we got to cook learn about traditional Bulgarian pastry.
We learned to cook with a mom and dad and then they showed us their farm area. It was just one of those things that are unique and interesting. I love those kind of excursions where you kind of get to know the locals and those are are worth it for me every time. If that’s offered on your cruise sign up for it
Meagan Wristen
That’s interesting. I did something like that with Club Med, but it wasn’t a cruise.
Common Excursion Issues
Meagan Wristen
I know of the things that I ran into in Tahiti is that there are limited options depending on what island you’re on. Although I wanted to book separately because it would be cheaper, that tour company wasn’t available that day because they’re already taken, if the crews already hired them. So there’re they’re available every day of the week except for when the cruise ships are.
Meagan Wristen
So that was something kind of interesting that I ran into.
And then a few times I haven’t had anything planned. and was not sure what to do. So I walked off the ship one time and the taxi cab driver’s like, you want to go to Portofino? I was like, I sure do. How much? And it was 200 bucks for him to take us and bring us back. We stopped in another city as well. And I thought, I mean, for the four of us, private tour, let’s go. I thought that was a great deal.
Kirsten Maxwell
So to your example, this summer we were doing Star Clippers cruise and we had different port stops. One of them was Taormina in Sicily and I didn’t really want to be on a bus with everybody. So I planned to just show up at the port, grab a taxi, it’ll take us blah, blah, blah. Well, it wasn’t that easy. They have a deal going where they will take you and they’re going to sit and wait for you, wait for you, and they’ll charge you $200 for it.
Mind you, this is only a 30 minute drive. But when you’re kind of show up at port and you don’t have any other options, you do what you got to do. The guy was great. I mean, took us there. We got to tour the city for about four hours. Then he took us back to the ship. Perfect. That’s great.
Wanted to do the same thing when we got to Amalfi, but because we want to go to Ravello.
That did not work out. We got to port late that day. It was a three o’clock arrival. And you kind of get stuck with, oh, what is there to do? So we walked around Amalfi town, which was fine. Went to the church, had lemon sorbet, blah, blah. But you have to pay attention to arrival times as soon as they give them to you because it may affect what excursions you think you’re going to do if you’re not going to do ones that the cruise offers.
Meagan Wristen
That’s true. I will say that the time we walked off and caught a cab, we were in Genoa, which is a major city in Italy, which means there were a ton of cabs there.
That was not the case in Mykonos, where there’s only like 50 cabs on the island. I think the last time I was there, you know, like one year there were 54. Now they’re down to like 50. Next time I’m there, might be down to 40.
I mean, it’s an island, so the resources are limited. So that’s one thing to keep in mind too. And then I guess when picking a ship too.
Meagan Wristen
One of the things I didn’t mention earlier is, about the ports, some ports only a smaller ship can get into. So one of the mega ships that has all the amenities for the kids and all that, all the tons of restaurants and huge gym may not be the best choice. If you’re wanting to go to a tiny island, they can’t park there.
Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah. Yeah. We did a lot of shuttling back and forth and the tender on the Star Clippers cruise. And I’m thinking there were some days where it was really rough seas and I did not love that.
That’s a good point about the ports. Like can a big ship even get anywhere close. Are you going to be tendering in? You know, that takes time and how many people are on the ship, because if you have to tender, the fewer people, the better, because it’s way more efficient.
Meagan Wristen
Yes. Yeah. Like, I mean, when you go to Cozumel, they’ve got the massive docks, like they’re ready to park multiple ships and you just walk on and off.
You could get on and off multiple times during the day and walk around. A lot of times you can’t do that because if you do tender in, which when I was on the, in the French Polynesian islands at no time was there a dock.
I don’t think, I think we tendered in every single time. And that adds. So then it’s not just about when you’re back on the ship, it’s when you’re back at the tender. Which again, they didn’t leave anybody.
So the one day I knew I was really going to be rolling the dice, I told the guys like, we will see you at four at four.
Kirsten Maxwell
That’s good.
Meagan Wristen
I’m like, that’s the last pickup, right? He’s like, yes. I was like, we’ll be there. The last pickup, but it’s a small ship that’s seen us every day. So I could tell him that and he knew who we were. And so when we walked up, he’s like, we’ve been waiting on you. I was like, okay.
Where do you choose rooms on the ship if for whatever reason, do you have a strategy?
Kirsten Maxwell
Okay, I think we’ve covered a lot about excursions and activities and on and off the ship and stuff. So let’s go back a little bit more to the actual ship and the rooms and everything else. So tell me, how do you choose a cabin? Because I mean, you’re traveling, I think, typically with a group of four. And for us, we’re traveling with a group of five, which makes things a lot more complicated.
Meagan Wristen
So I try and get a balcony room with a limited view. Often times the limited view might be because the, the emergency boats are right there, but your views stellar. You just take your camera and go shoot around the tinder boats.
Kirsten Maxwell
OK, that’s funny. I never thought about that.
So I try to be mid the middle of the ship because I do have motion sickness. And so that helps.
Kirsten Maxwell
There are some cruises that will let you have joining rooms. So I sometimes have to look for that if I’m if I’m traveling with my kids, because we I think the rule typically is you have to have an 18 year old in each room.
Thankfully I only have one that’s still under 18. So I can always put the boys in one room and my husband and I in another.
Meagan Wristen
Well, that was the thing for me for the longest time was I didn’t have a second adult with me. So we were all four of us, even once they got bigger in one room.
A lot of times we had the bunk beds, like the couch makes into a bed and a bunk bed comes out of the ceiling, but they’ll come in and put it away.
So during the day we had a little more room, but, like say we get back and it’s been a hot day and everybody wants to take a nap. Now I need the bunk bed back out and they’ll come do it. It’s not a huge pain.
Kirsten Maxwell
I think that you know when you’re traveling with groups you just kind of want to make sure you can get on the same floor. I mean they usually let you pick out your room and depending on how early you book you you’re gonna have more availability obviously but towards the end you may just be stuck with what you get.
Meagan Wristen
I mean, it’s, it’s totally doable. If you want the bunk bed left out the whole time, they’ll leave it out the whole time.
Yeah, we’ve never managed to get connecting rooms, but on MSC I think there was just one room in between us. So we were so close, but I think a connecting would be much better.
Packing for a Cruise
Kirsten Maxwell
Okay so this goes along with what the next question is. It’s about packing tips because as we know those rooms can be very very small. So what what your tips for packing for a cruise?
Meagan Wristen
Well, I’ll talk about some mistakes I made. How about that?
Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah perfect.
Meagan Wristen
I didn’t know that there was a white night. So we needed white clothes for like an incredible white night. We didn’t have them. And then there was a formal night and I didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t know research.
Kirsten Maxwell
You’re winging it? Are you serious?
Meagan Wristen
So I didn’t know. And we’re like, so like on formal night, I was like, we’ll go to one of the other restaurants that isn’t, that way nobody sees us. That way we didn’t show up in the dining room like, inappropriately dress. So we worked around packing tips.
We always pack carry-on anyway. All cruise lines have laundry service. It’s a little spendy. So if you, when you are booking it, if you can add the laundry service, yes, and then use it.
Kirsten Maxwell
Highly recommend. That’s a great tip. Yeah, I think we’re the same. We pack carry on. The nice thing is most beds in a ship are elevated enough so they can put your luggage under there once you empty it.
I’ve been on a couple ships. Windstar for sure had, I don’t know about your ship, but we had plenty of room in our closet. It was a walk-in.
Meagan Wristen
Yeah, I had a walk-in closet.
Kirsten Maxwell
And their laundry service was great because I had to use it every day. I didn’t have a laundry package, but it’s because my luggage got lost. So literally we were operating on like two outfits for for both my son and myself.
I think that the other tip is don’t bring like huge amounts of toiletries, but also know not every ship’s going to provide shampoo and conditioner and soap. So take that for what it’s worth.
Ask those questions before your trip. Go in the forums, there’s Facebook groups for almost every cruise ship. You can look in there and see like, hey, what’s provided, what’s not. Yeah, I think bringing an eye mask sometimes, just depending on the destination.
Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah, yeah, we to Iceland.
Clever Items to Bring
Meagan Wristen
I always have an eye mask and a white noise. I have a white noise app.
Kirsten Maxwell
I mean, it wasn’t getting dark. It was 24 hours of sun. So it was kind of dark, but not super dark. So if you’re a sensitive sleeper, make sure you bring that eye mask. Obviously you’re already doing it, but trying to think of other things that have been helpful. Oh, like those like little clips like that you can hang on, like, cause you always have your neck badges. What’s the word, lanyards.
Also, a place to hang those or keep those or, you know, whether it’s like one of those little hooks that just stick on the wall, command hooks?
So you can just stick it on the wall and it’s easy and convenient. You can just stick it next your door and it comes off at the end of the trip so that was useful.
Meagan Wristen
See, we prefer to lose our keys all over the room and then look and look and look and because you got to have your key to hit on and off the ship.
Kirsten Maxwell
Oh gosh I’m all about a lanyard, especially when you’re traveling with kids I mean they will lose to your point those keys all day long. If you have it on their neck and it’s a little tuck pocket They’re good, they’re not going to lose them.
Meagan Wristen
At least now they’re starting to use bracelets that don’t come off.
Kirsten Maxwell
That’s true too. Yeah, those, I love those too, but not every ship is there yet. But yeah, definitely a good idea.
Dining Tips
Kirsten Maxwell
The other tip question was gonna be about onboard dining, which obviously depends on the ship. I mean, you have a Royal Caribbean ship, you have 20 options. You have a smaller river cruise ship, you might have one option. What are your tips for dining on board?
Meagan Wristen
Figure out if you need reservations, because if you do, you’re going to want to make reservations either before or as soon as you get on board.
Meagan Wristen
Norwegian is like a freestyle so you can walk up to any restaurant eat at pretty much any time during certain hours. My boys love buffet they want to go to the buffet they want to work out and then they want to go back to the buffet. They can do it since their metabolism is good. If there’s no buffet they feel deep disappointment.
Kirsten Maxwell
I think that that’s an important thing to note too, because river cruises are more of the set dinner times, right? So if you’re, I mean, and not everybody’s bringing a kid on a river cruise, I highly would say maybe ages 12 and up.
Know that your kid is not going to find any onboard activities, except for maybe a small swimming pool. I’ve been on one that has a putting green, but there really is not a lot on board for kids to do or teens or whatever.
So they really have to be young adults, if you will, because they’re going to be sitting with you at each and every meal. They’re going to be if it’s just you and them or a small group. I mean, they’re usually conversing. Our rule is pretty much at the dinner table you’re not on your phone.
Leave the phone in the room, you’re going to interact with people. So thankfully I have kids who are pretty outgoing and you do as well. It’s never been a problem. But know that the small ships are really not always 24 seven food versus the big ship where you can always find whatever it is you want to eat.
Meagan Wristen
I know when we’re on Royal Caribbean, that’s one of the things we like is because we’ll go to the shows, we might go to the karaoke bar. Now it’s midnight and we’re like, we’re hungry. Well, the pizza place is still open. So there we are at midnight having pizzas.
Kirsten Maxwell
And it’s working for your metabolism, I’m sure.
Meagan Wristen
And then we go to the gym. No, we don’t.
Hidden Cruise Fees
Kirsten Maxwell
That’s right, yeah, no, not really, not really. Okay, I think this is gonna be probably the final question when we can wrap it up unless you have something else to talk about. But knowing about surcharges, because I think every cruise line has this, where people don’t always realize, you pay for a cruise, but there are sometimes a lot of things that are not included at all.
Restaurant surcharges, like we mentioned, laundry, Wi-Fi, all those kinds of things. How do you deal with that? Or what is your tip for getting around all those nickel and diming things that, well, that’s how I feel about it. But do you have any workarounds for those?
Meagan Wristen
So the Wi-Fi, I’ve got T-Mobile. It works all over the world. And the kids have T-Mobile. So we don’t necessarily need the Wi-Fi. One time Noah was still he in summer school and so we really needed the Wi-Fi. I believe we got it for two devices and they had to share. Laundry, I try and add it ahead of time. Everything’s a little cheaper, typically, if you’ll add it before the cruise.
Kirsten Maxwell
That’s right.
Meagan Wristen
Keep an eye out for different specials through the year. If you’re lucky, you’ll get one that everything’s all that stuff has been included for whatever reason. I’m trying to think if there’s anything that I was kind of surprised about.
Meagan Wristen
On MSC, when an American books, it includes tips, but when a European books, it does not include tips.
Kirsten Maxwell
Well, fascinating.
Meagan Wristen
Yeah, so then I’m like, I got a little confused because there was some stuff set up for tipping in the room. And I’m like, I think I’ve already tipped. So then I had to go back through and check to make sure that I had tipped.
I know on Amawaterways, it did not automatically charge for whatever reason. So the last day I went and made sure our tips got paid.
Kirsten Maxwell
That’s huge. And that’s a great reminder. Again, though, just like the other things that you don’t ever think about, like or you might not think about, they just need to be done ahead of time.
Like you mentioned, the restaurant reservations, I feel like Royal Caribbean definitely has a handful of restaurants that require reservations. Sometimes they’ll let you do them in advance.
Other times it’s right when you get on the ship, so you have to be kind of Johnny on the spot, get there early, go straight to the dining room and book it. I don’t love that way, and that’s maybe why I prefer to taking the smaller ships.
I am not a T-Mobile user. I have Verizon, so I do rely on the Wi-Fi, and we kind of have to limit that, because like you said, it has a certain amount of minutes or data usage on it. The nice thing about Star Clippers is they have Starlink on it, and so it was like, boom, you are connected to the internet no matter where you were.
So that was a really nice feature to have granted. I paid for it, but you know, I wasn’t, I wasn’t downloading movies. I mean, those, you know, obviously are going to take up your data, but no sending photos, no Instagram.
Meagan Wristen
You have to tell your kids no YouTube.
Kirsten Maxwell
I mean, just all those little things add up.
Kirsten Maxwell
Funny stuff
Meagan Wristen
Because if it is if it is a data plan, it’s not like just, you know, unlimited daily, if it’s if it’s only a certain amount each day, you do want to be mindful about what you’re doing on the Internet.
Cruise Drink Packages
Kirsten Maxwell
And another thing I just thought about is alcohol. Alcohol is usually not included. Sometimes it’ll be basic like well drinks are included, but most of the time you’re paying for the alcohol.
You can get an alcohol package on, I think almost every cruise it feels like. But for me, I’m not, I’m not a big drinker like that. So it’s never going to be worth it for me to, to invest in it.
Meagan Wristen
Yeah, they’ll do, sometimes the bigger ones have a drink of the day, so it’s cheaper.
Some of them have, if you buy a cup, like the first day, and then you get like the drink of the day in that cup, it’s cheaper throughout the whole week. But I think for the most part, tea, coffee, water is unlimited. Then I know some of them have soda packages. We don’t drink soda, so.
Kirsten Maxwell
That’s another thing – ship coffee, not always my favorite. I mean, I know Disney has their own, I didn’t like it. I brought my own coffee with me. So plan on that.
Typically, it is water and soda included. I know some will include wine with dinner, but others will charge a surcharge if you’re going to order alcohol while you’re eating.
Meagan Wristen
And I know there’s a few that you can bring a couple of bottles of wine on board and you just pay a fee for them to open it.
Kirsten Maxwell
Right. Yeah.
Meagan Wristen
Take a glance at maybe what they offer and you may want to bring a bottle of wine or two.
Kirsten Maxwell
Some will let you bring it back on the ship, depending on the port you’re visiting. You just have to check the rules.
Meagan Wristen
Sometimes they’ll take it and keep it and they’ll give it to you at the end of the cruise.
Kirsten Maxwell
Yes. That’s right. When we were in Dominican Republic and people were getting rum. You could take it back on the ship.
Meagan Wristen
One of the ships took my steamer iron one time, but then the other ships haven’t. So kind of like random rules like that.
Kirsten Maxwell
Really? Well, like they think it’s a weapon or?
Meagan Wristen
Maybe that’s a packing tip. Check the not allowed to bring on the ship because they will take it from you.
Kirsten Maxwell
That’s good advice.
Meagan Wristen
You’ll get it back, but they’ll take it.
Cruise Entertainment
Kirsten Maxwell
Anything else you think we need to cover as far as cruises? I feel like we did a pretty good overall view of what you might need to know before you take your first cruise or if you’re taking your 100th cruise maybe we had a tip you hadn’t thought about before so.
Meagan Wristen
I mean, the shows, I think making time to see the shows being back on board, depending on the show. Because I was, I was stunned. Like we went on a Royal Caribbean cruise and we didn’t go to any of the shows.
Meagan Wristen
The next one I went on, we went to every show and I’m like, holy smokes. These are the best shows that see I’ve ever seen. And I couldn’t believe I skipped them previously.
Kirsten Maxwell
Wow, and now I want to go on a cruise again now that we’ve been talking about it.
Meagan Wristen
One was a diving show and it was like. Really good. An ice skating show. Because they had an ice skating rink on board. It’s such a small ice rink, but they’re doing like full on. Like I was like, wow, I can’t believe I’m seeing this.
Kirsten Maxwell
Now I want to seek those out and maybe get back to sailing some bigger ships. Because you’re right, I miss those shows every time. It’s like, nine o’clock bedtime.
Maybe not that early, but you know what I’m saying. It’s just a, it’s a long day at sea usually or a long day out exploring. But that’s a good tip to stay up for the shows and, and, uh, leave some time.
Meagan Wristen
That was one tough thing about MSC is they did parties for like the whole ship, but they were so late and I’m so jet lagged. I just couldn’t quiet make it. And I don’t want to be, I don’t want to be up till one or two o’clock in the morning.
I’ve heard Virgin is a real good time. So you might want to find out how good of a time if it works for your, for your schedule.
Kirsten Maxwell
Okay, well thank you again for chatting. This has been great. I hope you guys enjoyed and learned a few things about all things cruising.
