Sunsave Holidays - - Can You Afford That Luxury Cruise You Have Always Wanted? Want to Go on a Luxury Cruise?

There are many ways of getting on a cruise ship!

There are many ways to get on that ship! Then you are mistaken, if you thought you would always have to go to a travel agent and pay crazy prices for a luxury cruise.

Now part of Carnival corporation and also prior to that worked for P&O cruises as a First Officer, i have worked for Holland America line. I have been at sea since the age of 18 and have sailed as a captain on some of the largest Luxury Cruise liners in the world, my name is Tim Riley.

I have cruised to almost every one of the favourite cruise destinations chosen by the travellers of the world and I have seen some pretty awesome sights too whilst accompanying them there.

I have completed world cruises and returned a wiser Man! Australia and most of the far East, south Pacific, south America, africa, caribbean, the Mediterranean, northern Europe, my wife and children have regularly accompanied me to some fantastic destinations like Alaska.

What's in it for You?

Or the ghettos that are carefully driven round so You the cruise visitor doesn't see them, you don't spend enough time there to find out the really nice places the locals go to relax. To visit multiple destinations in a short period of time and take in a snapshot of a culture or city, cruise ships are places for people to lay back and relax and let someone else do the driving.

But I'm sure there are many amongst you who are a little past the waiting on table team and would prefer to part of the 'being waited on' team, there are many lines to choose from, then sign up now, if you fancy signing on as crew and being paid a reasonable wage for long hours and a Lot of fun! When you sail as 'crew' you can get the opportunity to see more of these ports and see them regularly too.

The Lowdown on Cruise Ship Vacations

(all for $7 a head) It's amazing what bulk buying does to the price of food. Followed by the late night buffet and/or the chocolate extravaganza, long lunches in the sunshine and a great sit down meal in the evening, breakfast from 0600 to 1130, that includes the all day buffet! ! Their victualling rate is around $7 per person per day, cruise ship vacations generally cost the shipping company around $100 per head for a week to keep you on board!

The lower wages can be as low as $500/m! The guys and gals down on the lower decks don't fair so well and only the top 5 staff onboard get bonuses. The average cruise ship Captain earns somewhere around $130k a year plus around 10-20% bonus if his vessel is successful through the year, wages are pretty low.

There were some legal arguments made against these tactics and I am not at this time sure how they were resolved! Have left and gone on leave, as the personnel that were onboard when the money was given! Not really fair! The pay and tips are boosted from previous tips, sailing part full, so when the company is not making so much, this acts like a kind of 'smoothing' in the accounts! Instead of giving it all to the crew, the company also takes some of these tips and places it into various schemes for the crew fund. Which they are working for, cabin stewards/stewardesses all take a hit on their tips, bus boys, wine waiters, but the people you see face to face, now get tips. Laundry etc, galley staff, the crew working in areas away from the passengers, so. It has now become even worse for the crew as the tips are now pooled! Especially on American managed cruise lines, many of the crew have their wages boosted by tips.

Where in the World?

Into the shop ashore and in fact almost everywhere you go, onto tenders, onto buses, getting into dinner, apart from your cabin steward and it is very likely that you will be in queues for hours every day, you certainly won't get personal service, it can't possibly be luxury. 000 people, why would you want to take a vacation on a luxury cruise with 5, 000 people onboard, with some of these ships bigger than my home town and carrying in excess of 5? More passengers bring bigger problems for the ports and less intimacy for the passengers, the larger ships bring more passengers. Where piers are extended regularly to accommodate longer and bigger vessels, the Caribbean being a prime example, ports see this as a loss and are rapidly trying to respond to the demand for larger berths. Quaint little tourist traps of old, more commercial ports and not to the smaller, they will be able to go only to the larger, as cruise ships get larger. ). They will go elsewhere or ferry you in by tender (cruise companies make a lot of their profits through the tour companies, if the port charges are high! Ports in various parts of the world where it is financially viable, cruise ships travel to destinations!

000 crew a day into a village some 1000 yds long and 700 yds wide, 000 passengers plus around another 3, and then the cruise lines DUMP around 12, 000 in the summer for the cruise ship season, whose population swells to around 2, a little town of some 800 people living there during the winter, take Skagway in Alaska.

Take a hike, ) The mountains and scenery behind are a dream come true for hill walkers and adventurists! Even if it is being ruined, (I still love the place though! It is probably the closest thing to a one horse town most people that have visited will ever see, but if I were to guess, i have never counted the number of horses in the town.

My Advice to You

It's more spectacular, norway or even further up to Greenland, go to Alaska, if you like Ice and Snow, head to the sun; go for it, if you like the sun, i did say take a cruise, yes, take a cruise.

So there is choice and Cunard is in the middle to top end as well, celebrity and Norwegian Cruise lines fit in the middle as well. Then Holland America Line will suit. Need to sleep a bit more, royal Caribbean or P&O, with some great fun opportunities, something more sedate? Then Carnival is fine, and aren't too bothered about keeping them on a leash, if you have teenage kids. Find one that doesn't go to all the same places as the big cruise lines. Find the smallest cruise ship you can. . . . . Here's the BUT.

) And don't get hurt by propellers! (Dolphins and whales love swimming with sailboats! 000 other passenger pushing and shoving to get the same view and NO Engine or soot to spoil the tranquility, you can have that moonlit walk on the teak decks under the stars without 2, they even have sails and if the wind is right. Medi and caribbean under the windstar banner, smaller still and try out the really beautiful ships in the south pacific. 500 - 600 and you're onto the cruise of a lifetime. Less than a thousand and you're doing great. 000 passengers and that's a start, find a ship under 2. Go smaller rather than large, if you want something special, but be warned.

Less bus time and more You time. More intimate ports in more remote spots from the main civilisation centers, more private, visit smaller, smaller ships cause less local damage.

You just need to find your place in it, it is still a beautiful place. Travel the world and see it for yourself.

Captain Tim Riley all the best,