After booking your cruise, the next best thing to consider tacking on to your vacation is a pre-cruise and/or post-cruise hotel stay. Granted, you need to plan extra time to accommodate this add-on, but the benefits of doing so, if you can afford the extra hours away from work and home, are immeasurable.
Eliminates Travel Delay Concerns
This has to be the most important reason to consider a pre-cruise hotel for one night at the very least. If you're flying at all to reach your embarkation destination, you do not want to miss the ship to board. In many cases, it may technically work out to fly in the day of, but any delays can quickly make that a precarious situation.
Besides, if you don't make it to the ship on time, it's your responsibility to join it at the next port, and often times the next port is not until after a sea day that you would not be onboard to enjoy. To avoid such a predicament, do yourself a favor and book a room for the night to ensure you can leisurely arrive at the pier the next day to board well on time.
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Eases the Time-Zone Adjustment
Another travel concern is jet-lag. For cruisers traveling long distances to board their ship, there's nothing worse than getting onboard and wasting your first day or two adjusting to the time zone in a groggy state. Arriving a couple of days ahead of time lets you adjust to the new time zone so that you are fully refreshed by the time you embark the cruise.
These days, there are more cruise itineraries that include an overnight visit in the embarkation port, but it's best to use that extra time to enjoy touring the destination than to spend it all acclimating to a different temporal cycle.
Adds One or Two Ports to Your Itinerary
For the majority of cruise routes, an overnight embarkation or disembarkation port stay remains uncommon. In those cases, coming in early or departing late effectively adds a roundtrip destination as one more port to visit or two if the sailing is one-way between different regions. In fact, many cruise lines offer pre-cruise and post-cruise packages that bundle hotel accommodations and touring all in one should you prefer not to bother with any of the extra planning involved.
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Makes for An Extended Vacation
Quite simply, adding one or more hotel nights to a cruise extends your vacation. Who wouldn't want to make a seven-night cruise a total nine-night trip, for instance? Especially if you are traveling far, making the most of the long flights it takes to get to some locations is a better way to maximize expensive airfare. It doesn't cost any more to fly roundtrip for a week vacation as it does for a two week one, give or take some depending on busy flying seasons.
Lets You Watch Your Ship Arrive and Depart
Another bonus benefit of getting a hotel before and after a cruise is the opportunity to watch your own ship sail from a distance. Before getting on, watching your ship come in early in the morning is a fun way to get even more excited for you upcoming voyage, and similarly if you'd like to reminisce about the great time you had onboard, you can watch it depart afterwards while dreaming of soon joining it once again in the future.
Wave Season Savings for 2017
For the Wave Season of 2017, Menin Hospitality is offering discounts on some very intriguing pre-cruise and post-cruise stays in Miami, Florida. Both the Mondrian South Beach and Shelborne South Beach properties are extending to cruisers, with proof of sailing, 20 percent room savings, 20 percent off bar and 20 percent off food and beverage, plus late check-in based on availability at the first hotel and late or early check-in at the second hotel. Just use code PKSAIL at the first. Also, the Bentley South Beach offers 10 percent room savings and late or early check-in as well.
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