Cruise holidays evolve

The traditional view of a cruise holiday as being formal and perhaps a little old fashioned, with a strong focus on dressing for dinner, ballroom dancing and etiquette has given way to a new version of the cruise. Today, most cruises are deliberately designed to offer entertainment to all age groups, with a lot of options so that everybody can find something they want to do. Children are no longer expected to act like little adults and have a wide range of activities and supervised clubs that will ensure they are fully entertained while their parents get on with having fun too. Many ships serve as a floating entertainment centre, where ‘sea days’ which were traditionally seen as boring are even more filled with activity and entertainment than port days. Often they contain luxury amenities that allow the holidaymaker a chance to experience new pleasures: spas, modern, well-staffed gyms, education centres and classes in everything from foreign languages, to pottery, to Japanese cooking.