Why Have So Few Americans Taken a Cruise?

Exact numbers vary according to different sources, but the remarkable truth is that the majority of U.S. citizens have still never taken a single cruise. But why?

I think the reason is twofold: vacation time and false perceptions.

Annually, Americans barely take two weeks’ worth of vacation time off work these days, so a newbie may not want to dedicate seven days to a weeklong cruise and risk half that time to something they are unsure of. But there are shorter three- and four-day sailings and sometimes even briefer ones to try. After all, Carnival Cruise Line even guarantees you’ll have a great vacation.

The greater issues I believe are misconceptions about cruising. My wife recently posted an impromptu survey on her Facebook page asking her uninitiated friends why they have not cruised, and almost all of the responses pointed to false understandings or fears.

Some claimed fear of gastroenteritis, the infamous Norovirus specifically, but it’s about time the mainstream media wised up to the fact (as we have pointed out before) that this is not a cruise ship-exclusive phenomenon. Besides, it’s often commonly introduced by passengers themselves, and cruise lines are doing an admirable job of reducing outbreaks.

Others still mentioned fears of seasickness and claustrophobia, but again ships have never been bigger. There are plenty of expansive spaces to roam freely about. And the same expanding scale is making them ever more stable.

In fact, a fascinating documentary on the development of the Voyager of the Seas from Royal Caribbean International said the ship had to be able to recover from a roll of 49.5 degrees, beyond what a layman would consider the point of no return, to be certified – which it was.

Still, people have images of the Titanic or Costa Concordia in their head, extraordinarily rare instances. Truth is cruise travel is statistically safer than even air travel, which is widely known to be one of the safest forms of getting from point A to point B.

Other misconceptions speak to money and the destinations themselves. Remarkably, people still think cruises are expensive, when it can actually be cheaper to sail than stay home if the right deal is found. Also, some do not like short periods of time spent in port, and thankfully more and more cruises focus on extended stays and more frequent overnights like Azamara Club Cruises.

In the end though, I conclude that people either get cruising or they don’t. They either understand the great appeal of unpacking once and leisurely visiting wonderful international ports and the allure of the ship itself as a destination, or they don’t. The bottom line is there is still huge potential to share with others what cruising is all about and get the uninformed onboard and bought in.

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