Advice & Tips

Cruisers who prefer natural light will typically choose a balcony or oceanview cabin for their sailing. But how do you decide which cruise room is the best for your family or travel group?

We break down the balcony vs. oceanview cabin debate, so you can pick the perfect cabin category.

Balcony cabins on cruise ships

It's no surprise that balcony cabins are the most popular cruise ship cabin type. People love to have a private veranda where they can read, sip a drink, and gaze out to sea, away from the hubbub of the pool deck. But not all cruise ship balconies are the same – and you might be wondering which is the best room to book.

Whether you’re looking for an extra-large balcony or more amenities in the room attached to that balcony, a little research will reveal which veranda cabins stand out as better than average.

Is it better to book a cabin in the front or back of a cruise ship? Will I get better views on the starboard or port side of the ship? Which deck is best on a cruise ship? 

When you’re faced with choosing one specific cabin among the hundreds (or thousands!) of rooms spread across multiple decks on a giant cruise ship, these questions can be overwhelming. You want the best cruise ship location, but how do you know which room that is if you’ve never been on that ship before?

Cruise travelers who sail roundtrip from a U.S. homeport to the Caribbean, Mexico, or Canada have a choice many international travelers do not: They can travel with or without a passport.

The passport exemption is part of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) that allows cruisers on a “closed-loop” sailing (one that begins and ends at the same U.S. port) to substitute alternative forms of identification, such as a driver’s license and birth certificate, for a pricey passport. 

Not all cruise ship cabins are created equally, and there are a few you might want to skip over when booking a cruise.

Staterooms on a cruise come in all sorts of sizes, shapes, and different amenities. Most are perfectly fine, but there are some you shouldn't book depending on your preferences or group size.

Read more: Here's How to Choose a Cruise Cabin

Cruises are a fun vacation, but like any trip, there are some weird things that can happen which may not make top 10 articles, but are still something you should be aware of.

Like all forms of travel, nothing ever goes exactly perfect, but being aware of certain pitfalls can make the fallout far easier to handle should it happen to you.

Check out this list of things that might happen to you on a cruise that no one really talks about.

Perhaps no other question has been asked as often as when can I get back on a cruise ship again.

For months, cruise ships were prohibited from operating in the United States due to the No Sail order by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  That was lifted in October, but the new Conditional Sailing Framework is not an open call that some hoped for.

Cruising is on the verge of resuming, and when it does, we can expect cruise lines to take new precautions -- everything from additional cleaning and improved air filtration to the enforcement of mask-wearing and social distancing.

Cruises have many nuances and moving parts that make planning more confusing than what you'd experience with a land-based vacation. You might be wondering, "Should I book my cruise through a travel agent?"