Smart Cruisers Stay On Board On Port Days More Than Ever. Here’s Why

Smart Cruisers Stay On Board On Port Days More Than Ever. Here’s Why

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 too. 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? Welcome aboard, I’m Gary Bembridge, and here’s what I think, starting with 4 
port-related factors that affect my decision. 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 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 high risk of 
crime at time of recording 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. 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 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. 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 explore, but also that it was 
a port that loaded coal onto freighters and visiting ships get covered in coal dust and 
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. 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. 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. 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, we started to stay on in port days 
to use it and get the full value. On a recent Cunard Queen 
Anne Canary Islands cruise, we’d brought a costly two-week pass for 
the thermal suite. So, on some port days, we spent time hanging around the even quieter 
than usual thermal suite to get our money’s worth. 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 you can 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. 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. 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, try the monster slide, try 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. At the beginning of this video, I mentioned that there are ports that are increasingly 
more dangerous to go to currently so join me over in this video where I talk about 
them in more detail but more importantly what you should do in any of those ports if 
you do want to get off. See you over there.

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 too.

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?

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00:00 Start
00:36 Risky Ports
01:56 Little To Offer Ports
04:26 Overwhelmed Ports
05:54 Unwelcoming Ports
06:50 Getting Package Value
09:16 Budget
10:00 Ship Destination