My First Cruise: Are they just for the older generation?

Looking back at the Ship in Kotor, Montenegro

Recently, I went on a seven day cruise across the Adriatic Sea. The cruise began in Athens, and it stopped on a few Greek Islands such as Kefalonia, Corfu, Katakolo, but also went further afield to Croatia. Italy, and finally Montenegro.

As somebody who had never been on a boat for more than a couple of hours, a whole week seemed a little bit daunting. However, my experience was rather enjoyable! Growing up, I assumed cruises were for the older generation, and although my experience did somewhat live up to these stereotype's, there was a lot to enjoy about my experience.

Typically, my style of travel is more budget friendly, but there is something so lovely about having an unlimited amount of food, drinks, and entertainment whenever you'd like. Additionally, the ability to go to bed in one place, and wake up somewhere completely new without any stress was my favourite part!

The places we visited were beautiful, and some of these places I am not sure I would have ever picked to visit if I did not go on the cruise. For example. Katakolo also known as Anicent Olympia, is quite difficult to reach unless you are on a cruise. Marvelling at all of the incredible ancient architecture was one thing, but being able to see where the first Olympic games were held, well that felt truly special.

Random Things I wish I knew before going on a cruise:

In my experience, you may book onto an excursion, however if not enough people also book onto the same excursion, it may be cancelled. I discovered that not a lot of people wish to go hiking, or do a lot of walking as part of their excursions, thus the super 'adventurous' activities were cancelled. This is where I found the age of those on board did affect somethings here and there!

Ships have time slots! If you arrive at a port earlier than expected, the ship will simply circle the location until your original arrival time. So unfortunately, you do not get longer at one location which was a little saddening.

Ginger is used as a natural remedy for sea sickness. who knew!? Definitely not me. I had one experience with feeling slightly woozy at the ships rocking, but nothing that a motion sickness tablet or even a bit of ginger did not solve.

Would I recommend a cruise?

Absolutely. If you want to enjoy a stress-free holiday, then a cruise might be exactly what you are looking for. It is idyllic if you want to see a lot of places in a short time, but it did also leave me with the desire of returning to certain destinations, such as Kotor in Montenegro.