Under a NZ Travel Insurance, you will find various types of coverage especially for cruise travelers. It will help in making your trip successful as well as problem and hassle free. This insurance offers coverage for different variety of cruise liners and includes emergency travel, medical coverage, trip interruption or health assistance services. You must also know some money saving tips on the cruises, if you’re hard to pocket.

Once you’re covered with an insurance, then there is no need to worry about your holidays. The cruises help in maintain the capability of New Zealand as a cruise-friendly destination. But if you’re hard to pocket and are searching for few tips that will help you save money when cruising in NZ, then here are some of them.

• Booking your cruise on the last minute, once was an option to bargain the cruise shoppers, but now, by booking the cruises as soon as possible will be the best bet for getting a good deal.
• While booking a cabin, be aware that you’re going to use it just for sleeping; it would be money saving if you book a smaller one. You can book a small cabin, a veranda or some lower-cost room.
• Many of the cruise liners offer air and sea packages, which includes your air travel to the port and the cruise as well. As much as possible avoid such packages, rather book your own airfare.
• It will be better to book you’re tour or any other excursion independently. Make sure you also consider the number of excursions that you’re booking and try to explore the port city individually.
• One of the biggest surprise that you can get is the bar bill. As alcohol is not incorporated in the price in many cruises, you have to pay what the resort on the cruises demand. So, for saving your money check out if the cruise lines grants permission to carry alcohol on the cruise.

While enjoying on the cruise, be aware of the cashless system that the cruise ships provide. Your room is charged for everything that you buy on the cruise, so at the end of the day remember what all you’ve been charged and note it down. This will help in keeping in your budget maintained and avoiding surprise at the end of the vacation.This will help in keeping in your budget maintained and avoiding surprise at the end of the vacation.

Depending on the cruise line you pick, you will be presented with varied cuisine styles and varied themed restaurants. Also, if you do your homework right, you might get some really good deal on the upper tier restaurants on board or even get complimentary meals from them; a double heaven for a foodie, I will say.

Dining on a cruise can be a whole different experience for foodies who cruise for the first time. The variety of cuisine is so much that it sometimes surpasses those that you have tried on land. Some cruises have an elaborate schedule panned across the year where they host celebrity chefs on board who can tickle your taste buds and tantalize your palette in a way that can even exceed your expectations. Also, some of the cruises offer culinary/cooking classes on board and some of these can have one of the celebrity chef teaching a thing or two.

While deciding on a cruise, be sure to check out the dining options and the cuisine that they have. Cruise cuisine have various types of mouth watering themes like Mexican, Asian, Italian, grilling, healthy entrees, desserts, gourmet meals, sushi, etc that you can appeal to your taste buds and help making the choice a simpler task.

When on board, be sure to check out the dining options and the restaurants, some of which may require you to make prior reservations and can have everything from starched white table cloths to the silverware. Your meal choices can range right from breakfast buffets to midnight dinner with quite some creative menus and the timings can vary according to your cruise or your cruise ship.

So what are you waiting for? Book a cruise to your liking and get aboard for some of most exciting mouth watering treats that will leave your palette in a trance and you, satisfied (or asking for more!). And don’t worry, drooling at the site of these delicacies is understandable; as long as you are amidst other foodies or food aficionados.

MTS Oceanos

Probably the biggest maritime disaster resulting from neglect, the MTS Oceanos sank on August 4, 1991. The ship had been a victim of intentional or unintentional negligence since it had sailed the day before with a 10 cm hole in the watertight bulkhead, loose hull plates and check valves stripped for repairs. Hence, as would the fate be, the ship began to flood following an explosion (which was heard from near the engine room on August 3 at 21.30). The captain of the ship probably wasn’t a firm believer in going down with the ship or at least be the last one to leave, since the moment panic struck, the captain and the crew were the first to pack and leave the ship that too without properly informing the passengers. Luckily nearby vessels responded to the ship’s SOS which resulted in one of the most dramatic and successful rescue. The Oceanos finally went completely under to its watery grave at 15.30.

MS Mikhail Lermontov

MS Mikhail Lermontov was primarily launched as an ocean liner in 1972 but was later converted into a cruise ship. On February 16, 1986, at 17:37, on her journey from Picton, New Zealand, the ship struck rocks near Port Gore on its port side at about 5.5 meters below the waterline and immediately began to flood. The Captain was able to successfully beach MS Mikhail Lermontov but the anchor could not be dropped as electricity was out and hence, unfortunately the ship drifted back to sea. In another of the Captain’s error, the Russian vessel did not send out a distress call and refused to take help from the ships that had approached on seeing the ship’s condition. Luckily the ships decided to stay put and later picked up the survivor. One crew member died in the incident while all others were rescued. The ship went to it grave 20 minutes after the last person was rescued off the ship.

MS Sea Diamond

Little would have the Captain of the MS Sea Diamond thought that his ship would meet its grave due to  incorrect charts. Owing to these incorrect charts, the ship ran aground east of Nea Kameni on well marked volcanic reef on April 5, 2007. Another victim of human error, the ship immediately started taking in water and had an up to 12 degree list (starboard). It being 2007, all the passengers (except two missing) and the crew members were rescued with only four injured. The ship was towed off the rocks but since it had accumulated huge quantity of water, it sank just a few hundred meters from the shore. It was later found that the charts the ship (and all other ships) was using showed the rocks at a distance of 57 meters and a depth of 18-22 meters whereas in reality they were at a distance of 137 meters and a depth of 5 meters.

There have been various other cruise ship accidents in the past years like fire and spread of disease. Notable among them is the destruction of a restaurant on board the P&O Cruises’ Pacific Sun which encountered some rough weather. The video of the same made ripples throughout the internet. Second notable incident is where The Seabourn Spirit was chased and attacked by pirates. To be fair, the ship was near Somali but in the end the ship managed to loose them using the Long Range Acoustic Device.

Bookings

The very first key to saving on your cruise is to book it well in advance. Just like flight tickets, you can get great deals if you book for the cruise much prior to your date of travel, even if it is more than six months before. Also, cruise prices are higher during the holiday season, that is, around Christmas and New Years. If timing is not an issue for you, you can save a lot by taking up a cruise off-season. Inform your travel agent that you are interested in good deals for a good cruise few months down the line and be specific if you are willing to cruise off-season. In the mean time, subscribe to the newsletters or offers of the cruise lines that you are interested in. At times, the cruise lines come up with sales or heavy discount offers only for subscribed customers.

Also, you can opt out of the excursions at the ports of call and save quite a lot. And even if you feel like taking them up, do so when you are there. This way you will mostly have to pay less than what you would have paid during the bookings. Some cruises or some packages provide door to door service for the cruise, check up if it costs more if you travel by yourself and if you can opt out of it.

Your cruise price will include the food, but will not include alcoholic beverages. To put a tab on your drinking on board, opt for a soda drink pass as this will steer you off the cocktails since at the back of your head, you will know that you have paid for it.

On the Cruise

If still you give into the temptation of alcohol, be sure to buy the in-house brands. These usually costs much less than the others.

Hold on to your wallet while passing the on board stores. Many of us (and mostly our wives) can be lured in by the magnificence of the store displays and their look and feel and make compulsive decisions of adding them to our shopping cart. Also, it will be wise to keep a low count on the souvenir. If you have to shop or collect souvenirs, do them at the ports of call as these usually have lower prices and yet sometimes have abundant variety.

Lastly, if attending events is going to cost you, relax and don’t feel bad about not being able to attend them. At the end of the day, you are on the cruise to enjoy, there is a lot more you can do. And even if you feel bored by that stuff, you can choose to take a walk, visit the gym and do some pushups or catch up on a book you wanted to read. After all, what would be the use if you have to spend energy in planning everything; vacations and especially those on cruises should rightly be about relaxing.

Some of the most disastrous and famous ocean liner incidents include –

MV Wilhelm Gustloff

Named after the Swiss Nazi party leader, this ship that was launched on 5 May 1937, served in various capacities during its existence. Primarily a purpose-built – recreational liner to be used by high class Germans, the ship was later converted to function as a hospital ship. After serving as a hospital ship for fourteen months (September 1939 – November 1940), the ship was then converted into and used a ‘floating barrack’ till its final voyage of 30 January 1945. It was then part of ‘Operation Hannibal’ which was a rescue/evacuation mission of civilians, German soldiers and marines from Gotenhafen to Kiel. Having four captains (one military and three civilian) with conflicting opinions was probably the inlaid cause of the ship’s sinking because against the advice of the submarine captain, the ship sailed in deep waters where it was spotted by Russian submarine S -13 and attacked with three torpedoes. The total estimated loss of life of the incident is around 9,343 which includes civilian men, women and children, making it the biggest (single) incident, in maritime history, in terms of lives lost.

Cap Arcona

Similar to Wilhelm Gustloff, the Cap Arcona began its career as a luxury ocean liner which made Germany – South America runs. The ship was later enlisted into German Navy and used for transportation of prisoners of the Nazi concentration camps. The luck of the ship and major part of its passengers, which were imprisoned Jews, was the most ill-fated one as the ship was attacked only a day before (on May 3, 1945) the unconditional surrender of the German troops by the RAF. The pilots of the attacking planes didn’t know that the ship was carrying prisoners and hence even after bombing the ship they shot at the prisoners who had jumped in the water with 20mm  cannons. The prisoners (Jews) who tried to board the other rescue boats and ships were shot by the officers. The total lives lost in the disaster were estimated to be around 5,000.

RMS Lusitania

In another war time disaster, the ocean liner RMS Lusitania, which entered service for the Cunard Line was sank by a German U-boat (submarines as they were known then). On May 7, 1915, the German submarine, U-20, after a slight cat and mouse game sunk the ship by firing a single torpedo which hit it on the starboard side. However, the ship experienced a second explosion which is debated from either a second torpedo or the first one hitting fuel or one of the boilers. Evacuation had become a serious problem for the ship due to its list (bending) on the starboard side. Also the ship was still in motion and controls would not respond and hence, they had to wait till the ship slowed down enough to lower the lifeboats. The Lusitania sank in 18 minutes taking down with her 1,198 (officially 1195) people including about a 100 children.

RMS Lancastria

The RMS Lancastria was another of Cunard Line ocean liners to be hit during the World War II. The ship became a victim of the German air-raids while helping in Operation Ariel – the rescue and evacuation of British civilians and militia men from France. The ship had an official capacity of 2,200 which included a crew of 375; however, the ship had orders to disregard the international rules for this voyage and save as many people as it could. Hence, it is estimated that the ship, that fateful day bore an unprecedented 4,000 to 9,000 people. Earlier that day at 1.50 pm, another ocean liner, the Oronsay had become a victim of the German air-raids. Lancastria was given the go ahead by destroyer Havelock’s (its escort) captain but it would have to leave without an destroyer escort. Lancastria decided to wait but the decision bore ill-fortune as the fresh air-raids by Junker 88s that started before 4 pm spotted the ship and bombed it. By 15.48 pm, three bombs made direct contact with the ship and destabilized it. The over 1,400 tons of fuel that spilled into the water caught fire and made rescue and evacuation difficult. Only 2,744 survived with the death toll estimated to be more than 4,000.

RMS Titanic

The ‘unsinkable’ RMS Titanic’s ill-fated maiden voyage is probably the most famous ocean liner disasters of the modern age having a movie to its title as well. The largest passenger steamer (of that time) that set sail on its maiden voyage on April 10, 1912 was to travel between Southampton to New York when it hit an iceberg en-route and sank.

The irony that it was professed as being unsinkable and the fact that it sank on its maiden voyage even though it used the most advanced technology of the time, is what made this incident firstly unbelievable and later, when confirmed, one of the most disastrous incidents. 1,517 out of the 2,223 passengers lost their life that freezing night and a mere 706 survived to be picked up by the ship Carpathia.

Apart from hitting the iceberg, one of the factors that resulted in so many lives lost, was that the ship, contrary to requirements, carried only 20 lifeboats (of varying capacities), with a total capacity of 1,178 only. In a violent display, Titanic, hit by the iceberg on the night of Sunday, April 14, around 23:40 sank 130 minutes later to be engulfed by the Atlantic at 02:20, Monday April 15.

Travelers now have a wide variety of night time activities at their disposal on a cruise ship. Most basic of these is the wine and dine scenario. Cruise ships usually have more than one restaurant on board and can have restaurants dedicated to specific cuisine or setting. Fun-with-food can be your choice for the evening or you can choose to have a romantic dinner with your companion.

For the youth, most of the cruise ships have different dance clubs and pubs and there are enough of them available for the young at heart as well. The different kinds of bars, private karaoke and the casinos can keep you busy the whole night if you desire and can satisfy almost all your guilty pleasures.

Cruise ships have completely re-invented the night scene recently with what is now labeled as ‘freestyle’ wherein there are very few restrictions on the entry into the dance clubs or pubs on board. For those who want more ‘down to earth’ entertainment, there are also limitless possibilities of stand up comedies and night shows along with some versions of Broadway performances.

So what are you waiting for, get on board and let loose. The night at the seas is always young.

The Caribbeans

One of the most visited exotic destinations, the Caribbeans is probably the first choice every cruise planner makes. The allure of its pristine beaches, blue water lagoons, and the variety of activities  makes this part of the world a popular destination. Hence, a wide variety of cruises are available to choose from when visiting this heaven on earth. Your choice of destination can extend from the simplicity and luxury of Barbados or Anguilla to the tranquility of the US Virgin Islands and you can probably enjoy all the recreational activities possible in this area. The Caribbeans is especially a chosen destination for honeymoons or romantic getaways.

The Mediterranean

Next only to the Caribbeans, the Mediterranean sea and its islands form an exotic destination for the cruise lovers. Cruises from all major port cities of Europe are available to visit this fabulous destination  to bask in its scenic beauty, rich culture, luxury and serenity. You can be cruising to the turquoise waters of Cyprus – the birthplace of the Goddess of Beauty – Aphrodite;  enjoy the serene white sand beaches of Corfu; spoil yourself at the Mecca of parties – Ibiza; or experience cuisine, culture and calm on the biggest island in the Mediterranean – Sicily.

South East Asia

In recent times, South East Asia has become a prominent mark on a cruiser’s map. Destinations like Bangkok, Singapore, Kaula Lumpur and Hong Kong are now the favorite places that are being frequented for exotic pleasures and nature excursions. These destinations offer a wide variety of activities that can be taken up for both, adventure as well as pleasure.

Antarctica and Alaska

For those who are adventurous at heart, what better choice than an Antarctica or Alaska cruise. These cruises are ‘once in a lifetime’ adventure for many and are designed to satisfy the adrenaline yearning which asks for the most challenging of destinations and conditions. There is a lot more to do, like kayaking, bird watching, camping and excursion and whale watching.

Apart from these cruises, cruises to Madagascar are also becoming popular these days as the richness of nature here can be quite rewarding.

Oasis of the Seas

The biggest cruise ship or for that matter a the biggest passenger ship ever built, Oasis of the Seas sets a class in itself (Oasis class)  and is first of the ‘Project Genesis’ ships that includes her and her sister, the Allure of the Seas. Ordered in February 2006 and making her maiden voyage on December 5, 2009, Oasis of the Seas is a floating city which is actually categorized in seven neighborhoods due to its sheer size. Bearing the tag off the most expensive ship build till date, Oasis of the Seas has a passenger capacity of 6300 along with a capacity of 2165 is part of Royal Caribbean International’s fleet.

Passengers of the this ship can even choose from a wide variety of two story loft suites to luxury suites, some of which provide panoramic ocean views. These presently come with price tag that ranges from $4,553 to $22,703 respectively. Also among the attractions on the ship are a 5.3 m deep aqua theater pool, a zip line, two rock climbing walls, a casino and 21 swimming pools and jacuzzis. There is a wide variety of entertainment available as well along with various sports like tennis, mini-golf, volleyball and basketball.

Allure of the Seas

Sister ship of the Oasis of the Seas and inducted into service by the Royal Caribbean International a year after its sister, the Allure of the Seas belongs to the same Oasis class and technically beats Oasis of the Seas for the title of the largest passenger ship as it is about 50mm (2 inches) longer than its predecessor. Apart from the usual amenities and facilities seen on the Oasis of the Seas, Allure of the Seas has industry firsts like the first Starbucks coffee stand and Britto Store at sea and also for the first time, passengers aboard will be able to enjoy the company of DreamWorks characters during entertainment and events. The ship also features an ice-skating rink, a theater with 1,380 seating capacity and a two deck dance hall.

MS Queen Elizabeth

Named after a prior Cunard Line ship of the same name, the MS Queen Elizabeth is a tribute to the earlier Queen Elizabeths – Queen Elizabeth and Queen Elizabeth 2, and is identical to her sister ship, the MS Queen Victoria. However, the ship is larger than the latter and can also occupy more passengers (2,092). The interiors of the ship also keep up with the design of the original Queen Elizabeth and evoke a 1930′s feel with its art deco. The ship is supposed to fill in for the Queen Elizabeth 2 which was one of the most famous cruise ships. Queen Elizabet has the Britannia Club which is part of Queen Mary 2 but not of the Queen Victoria and it was officially named by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II before it set on its maiden voyage.