Hi there. Welcome to my first blog post. Before we get into this, I need to come clean about something. This is a big announcement, and it’s going to set the tone for every single post on this blog that I write. Ready?
I’m a cruise virgin.
This means I’ve never been on a single cruise, or even just on-board a cruise ship. Ever.
In fact I can count all the boats I’ve ever been on, on one-hand, and still have four fingers left over. I’ve always had a funny thing with the water, I can swim and all that but I seem to have a habit of falling into rivers, and the ocean once stole my favourite football. I still miss that ball.
You’re probably thinking, why on earth is he writing blog posts on a cruise website if he’s never been on a cruise? And you make a fair point, but it’s a snap judgment. And it’s harsh. Let me give my reasons for writing this blog.
1) I’m going to go on a cruise. This blog will track that journey, and help first-timers as well I hope.
2) I know a lot about cruises. I research things properly, speaking to our expert team who’ve all cruised before, reading an insane amount of webpages about cruising including other blogs, and of course finding out what genuine cruise passengers think too.
3) I’m a damn entertaining blogger.
Ok, that last one is a joke, that’s up to you to decide. But this gives you the chance to follow a first-time cruiser when I get there, and I’ll detail everything along the way. More and more people are taking cruises, and maybe someone, somewhere is umming and ahhing (technical term) and my story might inspire them to book. And that would be great, as that means I’m doing my job well.
Since I’ve started working here I’ve learned a ridiculous amount. You have to when you’re a writer, otherwise it’s harder to write things and some of it will be lies, which isn’t fun for you or me.
What’s mad though is that before I started doing this I hadn’t really given much thought to a cruise holiday. I had some ideas in my head that just meant I never once even googled cruises:
- Cruises are way more expensive than other holidays – wrong
- Everyone on a cruise ship would be older than me – wrong
- Being a fussy eater, I’d struggle to find food I liked – wrong
- I might get bored, being stuck on a cruise ship at sea – so, so wrong
If you’re an experienced cruiser, you might look at that list and think me a bit of a close-minded idiot. But there are many people that haven’t taken a cruise before who will believe at least one of these things, it’s not just me. Actually the third one might be just me, as I’m one of those really annoying people who doesn’t like many foods (we aren’t trying to be awkward, it winds us up too), but the others are definitely shared misconceptions.
And that’s exactly what they are: misconceptions. I’m not going to go into great detail about each of these things here, because frankly I can stretch this out over 4 more blogs at least, going into each in more depth and providing you with more information than just rushing over them, but trust me, cruises aren’t more expensive than other holidays, people of all ages cruise, there’s loads of food choice and you cannot, and I mean cannot, get bored on a modern cruise ship. If you come back and keep reading my blog you’ll see what I mean when I really take each of these and smash them apart.
I won’t lie over the course of this blog. If there’s something about cruising that I don’t like, I’ll say it. And the first thing I won’t lie about is my job: I’m here to write a blog (among other things), I’m here to talk about cruise holidays in the hope that it makes you think about it more. I’m here to help clear up a few myths about cruises, maybe give you more information, and show you what it’s like as someone who’s building up to their first cruise. And hopefully, if everything goes to plan, I’m here to entertain you while I do it.
By Ian Lewis
Google
Comments: no replies