Futuristic cruising and cruise ships

The Future is something many try and ignore, but it is coming, and it starts tomorrow.

It appears tomorrow is only the start of the future, so let's just dream and look at the dreamers. Some ships now have two surfing ramps, climbing walls and merry go rounds as well as multiple pools and sea screens. Why? They are just hotels, hotels that move you from place to place while you sleep. Hotels that are there to offer you the best and more, to keep you entertained and go home with a wow factor.

So as cruise ships get bigger and offer more and more, not just a choice of areas from ultra exclusive to the fun filled bar with karaoke, you realise they are sailing towns, sailing mega hotels, with night clubs and theatres and stages and fine dining. This is why you need to learn to cruise before you go. You need to ask, what you want from a ship.

Do you want an outside cabin with a view of the sea, or an inside cabin with a view of the pools, climbing wall and zip slide. Yes there are ships with a hollow inside and inside cabins, that is not the future.

If you do not want the fine dining option as the restaurants are a treat enough, and they are, and you don't want the many night clubs and zip wires, then the smaller ships are the ones you may feel happier in.

As the smaller ships get moved out to specialist cruising like the volunteer cruises where you go and help on islands like Haiti during the day and relax in style at night. (The P&O ship Adonia has been posted thus for a while, and one now looks at what used to be called mid sized ships like the Arcadia and they are the new small). Why not take a look at a ship like the Arcadia with our simple tour and see how easy it is to become familiar in the mid size (smaller) ship. Doris Visits takes you round the ship and gives you the numbers. Click this text to tour the Arcadia with Doris.

A ship such as some of these pictures have yet to be built, but they are getting bigger and some that have been built have 6,000 plus guests.

The Azura is a regular ship we travel on, and it used to be called a bigger ship, but at 3100 guests is it still large, or are they now the medium sized ships? The Azura packs a lot in, but it is still really easy to find your way round and it manages to keep the children so busy you don't know they are there most of the time. Take a look around the Azura. Click this text for the tour.

Here is another futuristic image, the ship car park. Will ports start to look like a shipping car park?

When we stopped recently at Tallinn, there were 6 ships parked there. Click here for the Tallinn film, a beautiful stop.

At the end of last year when we stopped at Tortola, they were rebuilding the Port to house more ships. When we were there this spring at the end of the Caribbean season if was finished, or that phase was, because cruising is being discovered by thousands more each week and is growing. Click this text block for one of our Tortola films.

Will large ships continue to visit the tiny places like Bequia in the Grenadines? ... that Doris Visits Bequia film is a must for island lovers. Click here for Bequia.

Or, and here is a thought, will giant cruise docks like space station docking stations be built, similar to oil rigs but with mega wow facilities which means travellers will want to visit space station like cruise stops. You see, the future is unpredictable, which is why there are betting shops on the High Street.

But the purpose of this blog is to say, if you thought you weren't a cruiser because you like ..... then you can find it cruising, whatever you like. I am tempted to quote the Status Quo track, only because as you know, Doris took Quo to Fiji and made a feature length comedy caper with them. Yes, what ever you want....

As we sweep gracefully into the future, it is about, what would I like to do, how, on what and where.

Imagine being waited on hand and foot, in the finest hotel and saying, take me to..... and maybe you could be taken there in style.

This might be a post to share, if nothing else it will generate discussion. Let Doris Visits show you the stops and a few of the ships and you do the choosing. But please follow us on twitter and our films on DailyMotion.

The future is watching these films on your television again, going full circle.
So if you have a new television, super new, and it is connected to the web; try and find the Opera App and search for Doris Visits in Opera on your television. Let us know if you find us.... please.

Please share this blog.

Tips...
1. Choose the right ship, that offers what you want.
2. Work out the additional costs of any extras you wish to take, from Exclusivity to Fine Dining and consider them part of the cost.
3. Don't expect Yorkshire Pudding on a Sunday if you are the other side of the world.
4. Walking Shoes. Bathers, sun cream.
5. Share your pictures with us and share these films with other cruisers.

For now, we have the ships that are in the fleet and Doris tours some of them. Here is the Azura. Check others and films on fine dining options and please follow and subscribe to the channels.