If you have ever dreamed of seeing the planet by sea, you are not alone. In 2011, 19 million people took cruise ship vacations. That year, this kind of travel was a bit part of the tourism industry and bought in about $29.4 million. A cruise ship is considered to be one where transportation is not the main goal as passengers are bough back to their departure point. These ships are stocked, not with cargo, but with a number of amenities and activities to make the trip fun. If you want to see the world a different way, you may want to consider traveling by cargo ship. While for this kind of travel, you will not find shuffleboard one of the standard parts of vessel on board but there are other things you will experience that may make it worth it.
Your experience on a cargo ship will be very different but can be rewarding. Here are some benefits to travel via cargo ship.
You get a chance to really relax. For some people, being surrounded by tourists is just not their thing. Maybe you do not want an activities director hassling you all the time to sign up for the various things they have going on. Maybe one of the parts of vessel you wish they all had standard was an isolation tank. It can be easy to be overwhelmed with the crowds on a cruise ship, especially at meal times. Cargo ship travel lets you enjoy being on the ocean without having to deal with throngs of people vying for the breakfast buffet line. If you want some time to yourself to read, write or paint, for example, you might enjoy this kind of trip.
Your dining will be more low key When you travel on a cruise ship, you eat in large dinning rooms with thousands of other people. Most cruise ships have two sitting times for dinner and then a variety of options for other meals and late night eating. To give you an idea of how many people are eating on these ships, most cruise ships often blow through 20,000 pounds of beef a week. They also consume 28,000 eggs and 18,000 slices of pizza. The galley pantries marine equipment includes machines to make all that food for all of the passengers. on a cargo ship, you often dine with the crew and it is a more intimate situation.
You see a much different part of the ports you visit. Like on a cruise ship, one of the parts of vessel travel like this is the ability to go onshore and check out the cities your ship visits. You may even get more time if the ship needs full repair services or needs to deal with total care marine service. The main difference is that you are not offloaded at the touristy part of the dock. You will see where the workers get off the ship and how the working part of the different docks work. You can get an “insider’s view” of the life of every day people in the cities you visit.
Traveling this way is not for everyone. If you need a climbing wall and pool, which are not standard parts of vessel on a cargo ship, you may be better off on a cruise. If you want to have a bit more of an adventure, traveling the sea on a cargo ship may be more for you.
This kind of travel does book up early so make sure you make your reservations early. This is a different type of offshore vessels from a cruise ship so you need to be ready for that. The people on board are not there to entertain you but to get their work done so that is one big difference. If you are polite and take some time to get to know the other people on the ship, you can make sure you have a great time while getting to see life from a different perspective.
