5 Ways to RUIN YOUR FIRST CRUISE - Don't Make These Mistakes - Royal Caribbean, NCL, Disney and more 

I was once on HAL. After booking the travel agent called me back and said: "Ehm.....I saw your date of birth. Are you sure you wanna go on that ship?!" LOL! However: On the entertainment level there were fantastic bands and there was party every evening with high class music! Soul, R&B, pop, rock and duelling pianos. Every day. Live! And the guests had been mixed in age! Alaska - it was really a wonderful cruise by all means!

If the cruise is from Europe, Asia or Australia, fly two days before the cruise.

Eeeek my next cruise is on HAL, lucky 13. My bestie and I will happily have the dance floor to ourselves 🤘🏻🎸🎶. We will bring the party hehehehe 😂

I take ginger pills every morning of the cruise just in case of motion sickness. I haven't had a problem when I have and it doesn't have any side effects. 😎

There is always a significant probability that something will go wrong when you travel. I always try to remind myself that the best stories come from those times (getting stitches on a cruise ship for example 😂)

I find the cruises we’ve taken where things went wrong are the ones I remember most! Sailing in a cyclone, looking for passengers of a ferry that went down, a rescue at sea of a small boat, emergency landing of our flight home, a storm so rough all the furniture went flying, etc. fun times!

A tantrum will stop as soon as the person gets what they want. A meltdown because of change of plans will not. And you can’t always tell the difference.. But the best advice I’ve gotten from watching all the cruise vlogs is ‘a cruise is what you make it.’ I was utterly positive I wouldn’t enjoy Virgin Voyages because I’m a really quiet Aspie and, whilst I’m open to many things, it all seemed like it would be too much and I’d meltdown. But VV sailed out of Melbourne and I put my money where my mouth was. It turned out to be one of the best cruises I’ve done. It was over Christmas and I was sailing solo. Everyone was very kind. I found a quiet spot to sit and read and it was just perfectly awesome. The only activity I did was Scarlet Night but didn’t do the after party. The only thing I hated was a ‘long black’ was an ‘Americano’ and cost a ridiculous amount because it was all in USD. I’d do another in a heartbeat.

Hissy Fit.... Kniption.. Tantrum.... blowing a gasket.... Karening..... My sugg for 1st cruise (and life)- You *will* encounter people that *will* annoy you in some way. Do not expend brain power on this situation. Instead, do a Dorothy! Click your heels, turn around. and be somewhere else. Let it go, don't fight it... take back your space and time, take control and remove yourself... spending any energy on changing or removing them is taking time away from *your* vacation. The ship (life) is massive and there is a space somewhere else that will allow you to enjoy the passage of time... ;) I had Holland coming out of my mouth before you said it!!!!

No matter how many times people are told: 1 - they won't fly the day before and will ask "why didn't anyone tell me?" 2 - they won't get a passport, an emergency will require flying and will ask "why didn't anyone tell me?". Thanks for the content ❤

No better line than HAL for Alaska! Been going for 75 years and stay in the ports longer….also hard to beat their food!

Yes: I've missed a sail-away trying to fly in the day of the cruise. Holland America is not as depressing as you've painted it, I've done 10 cruises with them. It tends to be a bit more civilized, but there is a party atmosphere, especially in their "Music Walk" areas. - I love the pre-cruise research, often finding gems that aren't advertised.

It’s always good to be reminded..patience. ✌️

I was thinking about avoiding seasickness, I usually use the patches that you put behind your ear. If you put it on an hour before you get on the cruise ship, it doesn’t make you feel weird and you only have to change it every three days…just saying! Love you Morgan❤

My wife says your hair looks cute today. Big fans.

I’ll add my two cents about Holland America, my favorite cruise line. The reasons you mentioned are exactly why I want to cruise on this line. BUT kids sail free promotions and an influx of younger cruisers is changing HAL. Especially on short cruises. I can assure you HAL stays busier and louder than you might think. A big fail is they’re trying to get families with kids on board without enough infrastructure to keep the kids happy.

Koniption is a great word

Wait a minute. What did you call Civitaveccia? 🤣Another word for hissy fit: tantrum. Great advice! I remember before my first cruise (NCL Windward), I was deathly afraid of seasickness, despite having spent the previous three years working on aircraft carriers (and a frigate).

I was so excited to book our Alaskan cruise on HAL’s Koningsdam last fall as I was ready to join the walker brigade that I had heard about from practically every comedian on other lines. Imagine my surprise as I looked around and saw what looked to be a ship full of Gen Xers, Millenials and a few Boomers here and there. A screwed up knee replacement has rendered me mobility challenged for the last 3 years but here I was on a ship full of party people. I tend to park in the casino in the evening but you could hear the music and partying from the incredible variety of music venues. HAL has been sailing Alaska for 150 years and it was obvious they get the best berths in ports so thought I’d try again this spring with an Alaskan land and cruise tour on an older ship, the Nieuw Amsterdam. I think I was the only one in a wheelchair during the land portion, for sure. If someone can point me to which ship actually has this older demographic, I’d be grateful!

We've never had a bad cruise. Our first we did it wrong. We sailed HAL after flying in the day of the cruise during hurricane season. Did I mention we took our teenage daughters? It was 2004, so there was no research and only ship excursions. We had a wonderful time. The girls didn't know what they were missing. They had Cedar Point season passes. This year, they're taking us on a transatlantic, so flying in early and lots of research. Never had sea sickness but always take medicine along, just in case.

Great video! We have 83 days till our first cruise, and we've been preparing as you've described. Top of our minds is we're going to have a great time! We know, as you do, that some of our best memories on trips come from the unexpected. Things we laugh about, even many years later. Chuckled so much on your bike trip!😅😅

I cruised a larger Norwegian ship the first time thankfully, although Carnival and Royal were closer. There's nothing wrong with either, I just think the first cruise sets future expectations. My 7 day itinerary was just the right mix of relaxation, socializing and partying with a multigenerational and multiracial group. A shorter itinerary (booze cruise) probably would have turned me off cruising all together!

I’ve cruised for years and my 2 cents is that you can always ignore and not do any activities you aren’t in interested in, but you can’t make a tame cruise have more activities. Big ships usually have adult only areas and if you go to bed a 10, make sure there are cabins to all sides of your cabin. You don’t want to be under a dance nightclub. We almost missed a cruise (think we were the last on). We drove down so had plenty of time….. husband forgot his insulin which he had just filled. Lucky he was a pharmacist at Walgreens so they hooked him up, costing us $400 because he had just filled it a day before. We did get reimbursed but it put a damper on spending.

Theres a cruise where it lights out at 10! Just tell me they have matinee shows and a 4 pm dinner and I am in!

I take the regular (not non-drowsy) Dramamine at night, starting the night before the cruise. I sleep great and the drowsiness is worn off by morning but still works for seasickness.

Every cruise I've been on except one, I arrived day of departure with no issues. But I agree the farther you are from where the ship departs should be considered. I've taken sea sick pills every day of every cruise and it didn't effect me, so each person is different. It's rare that I've purchased a shore excursion. I either just walk around on my own or stay on the ship. The best time on the cruise is staying on the ship when just about everyone else gets off.

Our first cruise was a Baltic cruise with NCL. I had done some research and pre bookings esp. for St Petersburg as you can only disembark if going on a booked tour unless you have gone through the lengthy process of getting a Russian visa (it was 2019). A couple of Irish guys we got speaking to knew nothing of this and had nothing booked which meant they would have had two days sat on the ship instead of touring St P. Luckily I gave them our tour information and they got booked but given it was the star port of the sailing it was shocking how little they knew!

We very nearly missed our first cruise (Alaska with Princess) as there was a problem with some electronics on the plane taking us from San Francisco to the cruise port. A bit discomforting to see the plane and a guy with some glue and a hairdryer going in to repair it. Luckily the flight was booked through the cruise line so they took care of shuttling us to the ship as soon as we got out luggage at destination airport. So we made it. Just...

Thank you for great advice. I've been on 21 cruises. Only 4 days were rough seas, but it didn't bother me. I've never been seasick, but I did catch a cold once. Only once did I feel like complaining. That was on the Norwegian Jewel. The dining room was very dirty. It felt like I was in a Denny's restaurant that hadn't been cleaned for a few days. It was not up to cruising standard.

We live in Vancouver BC and unless we are going to Alaska we fly to a cruise port as it is over 2100 kilometers to drive to Long Beach CA which would be like you driving to Madrid.

Loving the videos from Hawaii. All the uploads are great lately.

I would like for you to do a video on how many ways to say “Civitavecchia”! 😂

Thanks so much for this video. We have a family cruise planned for next year and 90% of the group are first time cruisers. I plan to send them a link to this video because everything you said was "Spot on".

We are booked on HAL for next week, ex Reykjavik. I really do hope there are hardly any kids on board. We booked HAL because we want Peace and Quiet after a long and exhausting illness. If that *Kids sail free* policy is their plan for the future then it is "farewell HAL" for us.

Have we ever missed a cruise due to travel interruptions? Nope, got to the cruise with two hours to spare...and sweating. CBSA in Montreal were doing rotating walk-outs and did so as we were coming up to the customs wickets. We had to stay over night, and then fly as early as we could to Ft. Lauderdale. We made it, but by the skin of our teeth. Do NOT, under any circumstances....EVER....plan to fly to get on a cruise ship the morning of the day in which it leaves. You'll be sorry.

Our first cruise was on HAL and it was perfect for us! Lots of things to see and do, and yes, we did tuck in early around 10 ;) Good luck in the tournament Morgan!

Hey Morgan. You nailed it with this video. A must see for all cruisers. Hugs from Tiff and I. Still reading your book and it’s awesome. It feels like you’re in the room as I read it. I can hear your voice page by page. ❤. Happy cruising.🚢

Thanks!

We drive but we always get there the day before and spend the night because I am not missing that ship for any reason. Plus it gives me time to rest the day before and boarding day is not stressful.

All fantastic tips Morgan I agree very much with doing enough pre playing to know you’ve got your basics covered but also leaving time w to relax- my top is only plan one shore excursion a day ding try to do two half day trips and your bound to end up both tired and the risk of loosing the later one if the first returns late so always a possibility. With the seasickness issue I’d probably say to do a short 3-4 day cruise to start with ( that way if you find you hsve a lot of problems your only on for a few days.)

I've never had a bad criose. It's always what you decide to focus on. If the food is not that good...well...I'm not going to gain any weight this cruise...or not many activities...put yourself out there and meet others. Go to the casino or do other things you might not do or even sign up for WiFi and watch RU-vid...I don't think you can search the entire internet on a boring cruise...LOL

I fly from Seattle to Los Angeles the morning of the cruise. There are so many flights. It's a 3-hour flight, in the same time zone. Always get in by 10:30 am. I usually make my boarding time at 12:30 pm. 4 times so far. Our weather on tgecwest coast is pretty good.

There are two types of people: those who plan everything themselves, and those who do not. Those who would rather not plan every detail outright would do better to use a cruise travel agent. Yes, travel agents are a dying breed, but those still doing this profession usually are planning cruise vacations and are better at working with a cruiser who needs help on which cruise line, which cabin, what time of year to cruise (and where), and so forth. I plan my vacations myself from A-Z, but my vacations are land-based. I would like to go on a cruise again someday (two years from now?) and will definitely use a cruise travel agent when the time comes. Virgin Voyages or Celebrity? As boomers hitting that 65-year-old milestone, we're probably more Celebrity than Virgin now.

All excellent points. I would add to your second one, at least in the US, do not take Amtrak to your cruise port even if you live in the most ideal location like I do. Amtrak’s on time reliably is just too uncertain and even for me living in the DC area it I were to sail out of Baltimore I’d still drive & just pay the extra cost of parking over trying to save a few bucks. I’ve heard of people taking Amtrak from North Carolina to Florida (I can’t remember which port) & almost missing their cruise because of delays and they left the day before. Also to your first point, if I had taken a Carnival cruise as my first and if it were anything like my first Carnival cruise then it’s likely that I would’ve ever cruised again. My first two cruises were on RC & I lived them and decided to try Carnival & my first experience was not a good one with them. However I did give them a second chance & that one was a better experience. I’m not as much into partying so RC, Celebrity, Princess & NCL are more to my taste.

OMG, you did not mention cruising from New York 😮

I hadn’t been on a cruise during the Pandemic. I finally went on Royal Caribbean a week before this past Christmas and contracted COVID. So I spent Xmas, and NewYear in isolation. It’s going to be a while before I go on another “COVID Of The Seas.”

I live in Miami and South Beach is one of the more expensive areas.

I disagree with you about the HAL demographic. HAL draws the passengers it does because those passengers are interested in the ports, good food and music. HAL does a wonderful job educating about the ports (and the mid-size ships can get into the smaller ports), the music walk on the bigger ships is fabulous. What the ships don't have is ice-skating rinks, ropes courses, roller coasters, flow riders, acrobatics shows, etc. Yes, if that's what you want, you need one of the mega-ships. I think HAL gets the reputation for "older" passengers because what they're good at draws a less-party-oriented, less kid-oriented demographic.

Morgan, 1 exception to planning is the RCL oasis class ships...because of the number of passengers if you don't do precruise planning and reservations you will definitely miss out on some of the events, restaurants and shows...currently on a 7 day Alaska cruise on HAL Eurodam...this cruise is sold out and their is a good mix of all ages...unlike the previous HAL Caribbean cruise I took in May of 23 which was extremely tilted to the senior category I'm Medicare eligible and I felt young compared to some of my fellow cruisers. I purposely choose HAL over Princess because the Eurodam is smaller than the Discovery. I feel the larger the ship the more difficult it is to approach the glaciers. I shall see on Tuesday. I will be leaving a copy of your book, "Getting Stitches on a Cruise Ship" in the library on the Eurodam. I purchased my copy from Amazon. It is an enjoyable read and perfectly suited to a 7 day cruise.😄

1) Motion sickness tip: We take Dramamine just before going to bed. We get great sleep and it is still in our system the next day - but no drowsiness. 2) We were flying from Wichita to Miami in for a cruise scheduled the last week in November. We sat in the plane for at least 2 hours while it was de-iced. Of course we missed our connection. We had to wait for another plane. Then the one they put us on had a mechanical problem. We had to get off that plane and get on another one. That was another 4-5 hour delay. We never fly in the day of a cruise, but the poor guy who got on in Wichita with us did. It was horrible to watch. Needless to say, we got to Miami after his sail away time. I don't know what happened after that, but I felt so bad for him. I am sure some people do just fine flying in the day of, but it is a risk we are not willing to take.

Good Morning Morgan

Always fly to cruiseport a day or two before embarkation. HAL, Celebrity, Princess YES. Carnival, Royal, Disney NO😅

Have a co-worker who did her first cruise last year. Now, not trying to sound like a snob, but she is not someone who travels much and has some, errr, irrational fears and generalized ideas about other countries. They tried to book places like the beach resorts in Cozumel the day before, were too afraid to venture off on their own, thought excursions were too expensive. They stayed on the ship the whole time, and came back to report that cruising was not for them. No, no it was not for them. LIVE A LITTLE. Plan ahead. Explore through RU-vid and google while planning. We have the collective knowledge of the whole world on a little 8 inch pocket computer. Also: Unrelated to that, but related to what you were saying about ports...Dover is not London!

All things considered, I would not choose one less olive than requested as the hill upon which i would die.😂

i do not like the motion sickness tablets, i also feel stoned on them, they make me feel horrible. i now get the same brand as the original motion sickness tablets called travelcalm, but i get them in the natural ones, which are just ginger tablets and with them each day as well as the seabands/ wristbands i seem to stay fairly well on the cruises that we have done :)

Our first cruise, in 2007, we flew down the day of. My inlaws were staying with our kids so we didn't want to impose more on them. Since then, we go the day before. Right now, we're concerned about our flight back-- what if it's cancelled, we end up in a different port, different day, etc. We were stunned that for an extra $12 we could pay for baggage tracking on this flight. Crazy! My husband asked last night if Barcelona was near Russia. He's very concerned as it WW3

Living in Brussels and the cruise leaving from Amsterdam, we thought just take the train on the day of the cruise. What could go wrong? It’s a train weather does not affect it right! WRONG We never had so many problems getting to a cruise port that is so close to home: 1 train was cancelled months in advance because it was a very hot summer and the Thalys trains were not coping well with the heat 2 there was a train strike in the Netherlands on the day of the cruise, so we had to reschedule for the day before and find a hotel close to the train station. Last minute so overpriced. 3 day of the cruise we go to check out of the hotel and ask for a taxi to take us to the cruise port, we were told that due to the train strike all the taxis were at the airport😮 Lucky for us the port was a 20 minutes walk and our suitcases have wheels 😊

Tantrum ! I’ve seen way to many tantrums at guest relations. It’s just embarrassing to think these people were allowed to come out in public.

❤❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉🎉

Our next cruise includes a flight which is obviously on the same day . What would happen if the flight is delayed/ cancelled? Would the cruise wait or would it just sail without us ? I would really appreciate knowing , just incase . 🤞🏽😉

They should tell you it’s a triathlon bike riding very strenuous

My first cruise was on Carnival, and I cruised with a bunch of people who would have made Ronald Reagan look like a long-haired hippie. It was a 7-Day Cruise though. I think the shorter Carnival cruises tend to be rowdier.

Sagrada famiglia

Vancouver is not in the US…😂

You need to stick to the point.

Just loving your channel. As I get ready to hopefully at 65 go. go. go. more often you just make me remember things from my very fortunate early travels and a few milife ones but only have been on a few shorties and a couple 5 to 7 day ones...but they all COUNT..lol. Loved your music and pictures with educationals..you are just great and so excited you love Hawaii. every Island and every hotel makes it a different experience but your first trip you usually know if you are a soul Hawaii lover..I am and you are too...sigh...loved those vids. !n 1980...I got to travel after study in France...and well loved how you put the Cultural Cruise of a lifetime and my main cruise was on a really old Epirotiki 4000 ton tiny 50's ship but it was part of this then American Express Budget and more realistic immersion in mostly nice tourist class situations and it was land and sea for Greece, Egypt and Cairo and we had a historian and ages were18 to 65 or so and you had to be able to walk and stand a while and the leader was a wonderful 30ish Greek woman who was fluffy not fat...and really tied all the history and what happened where with the nice things and relax things well planned and for me...I can not imagine any better way to do it when first in Middle East that way then age 20 then or 65...and I think now even on bigger ships fancier cruises and tours etc,,,you need real planned tours on land parts especially with the Jerusalem and Cairo part of things...you miss less and are far safer. Also, the bus rides into both places were as much of an education as the places..WOW. I was soooo lucky with sea sickness...I can NOT even ride a baby roller coaster but I adored the rough seas and I am sure that is because they were only so rough but once on a Costa ship.Ii sat on the window ledge of those round inside windows and watched the wves and felt the up and down like a see saw and lights on the waces at night and loved it. But i will take the sea sickness remedies in case so many years later,,,things chane a little. Great stories!!!

Great video Morgan! I wouldn't take motion sickness pills unless i needed them, but i guess i can see what some people do take them daily. For example, if they get motion sickness riding in a car and on amusement parrk rides 🎡🎢