Cruising 101
A cruise can be your worst nightmare, or it can be your best vacation ever. Choose the wrong ship and you could be trapped in a Las Vegas at sea for a week, wandering in search of an empty lounge chair, bombarded by infomercial-style sales pitches, forced to dine with strangers whose idea of a thrill is the ice sculptures at the midnight buffet, and waiting in hour-long lines to get ashore in tourist-jammed ports. Choose the right ship, however, and you could be exploring exotic islands that are tough to access any other way, from a perspective that sheds new light on the country's history and culture. You could be standing in the ocean breeze on your cabin balcony at sunset, with nothing in sight but a sparkling azure sea. You could be enjoying a vacation that combines sightseeing and spoil-you-rotten pampering, minus the stresses of moving from hotel to hotel.
But turning yours into the perfect vacation requires minimizing the drawbacks, maximizing the benefits, and custom-tailoring the whole thing to your needs and interests.Truth In Travel
Condé Nast Traveler is committed to reporting on travel fairly and impartially. We travel anonymously and pay our own way.
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