I hate cruise ships. Personally I think they are the worst way to travel — overpriced for their value, boring, bad food, bad for the environment, and never providing enough time to enjoy a destination. You end up spending a whole lot of time staring at an overcrowded pool, the endless ocean, and a smelly cramped cabin.
But I'm not myopic enough to think everyone shares that view. In fact, cruise tourism is at all time high with an expected 27.2 million passengers this year, according to The Telegraph, up from 17.8 million in 2009.
ADVERTISEMENT
Thankfully, I found a hack a few years ago when planning a trip to Croatia — a destination that has only recently become overrun with cruise ships — that has helped me avoid much of the crowds.
Before booking my dates, I consulted a cruise ship calendar like those on CruiseCal, CruiseTT, or Crew Center. Such calendars will show you how many cruise ships are in port on certain days and the passenger load of each ship.
While it's pretty much impossible to avoid every cruise ship that's coming into port for certain locations (like Dubrovnik, Croatia), you can navigate your way to less busy days.
Or you can plan your big sightseeing days on days when fewer cruise ships are in port. There's nothing worse than trying to scale Dubrovnik's breathtaking city walls on a day when four or five cruise ships-full of people are trying to do the same thing.
Using CruiseTT helped me avoid crowds as I visited Split, Dubrovnik, and Hvar Island in Croatia and Kotor, Montenegro, all top cruise ship stopping points. I simply booked my dates for each place based on the days when less ships would be in port. It made all the difference.
ADVERTISEMENT
Unfortunately, I forgot to consult a cruise ship calendar this past summer when I was visiting Mykonos, the Greek
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7scHLrJxnppdkr6p7xaKlmqaTmnyntc2apZydXZ7DpnnVoqqirJWZeq670Z5kraCRo3p0fIycpq6mpKe2pr%2BMmqWdZaSdsm6uxKyrZqyinrCsecivnGaen6q7pXnTqGSarp%2BesXCCy3Foo2mi