Long haul travel – cruise ship vs. plane
Flying
On March 7, 2017 two 30-something kiwis set off on the adventure of a lifetime. Already too old for working holiday visas and too indecisive about location to put the effort into finding sponsored work overseas, Rowan and I made the decision to just travel – as cheaply and for as long as possible (which we calculated could stretch to roughly a year).
Bags packed with probably more than we would need, we set off for the airport at 9pm to make our midnight departure. In total our journey would take 30 hours including a 5-hour stop in Shanghai on the way.
As far as long-haul flights to Europe go, this booking was carefully orchestrated to be as short and painless as possible. No ridiculously-early morning departures or arrivals for us. (This, by the way, is what differentiates travel in your 30s to travel in your teens and 20s – my last trip to Europe 14 years ago took closer to 50 hours with a 12 hour stop in LA, and 10 hours in London. I never left the airport). We settled in at the gate for our first round of waiting, looking forward to a nice glass of wine and an in-flight movie.
But, no matter how much you are looking forward to your travel adventure, nothing can really prepare you for the misery that is a long-haul flight. After boarding the plane at midnight, dinner and wine is served at around 1.30am. By now I’m just craving sleep and the wine no longer appeals. I ate before the flight so I’m not really hungry, but if I don’t eat now I know I’ll be starving before breakfast is served at who knows what time it is anymore.
As much as I try to twist myself into a comfortable position, it’s impossible to sleep in the cramped seats in economy class, so I end up watching four movies in a row. Overtired and emotional, the fourth movie I choose is (unwisely) a tear-jerker, which leaves me in the middle of a full aeroplane surrounded by strangers who have no idea what you’re watching, with tears streaming out of my bloodshot eyes, and rolling down my red and blotchy cheeks. (Repeat for flight #2).
Despite our wise preparation, that mysterious ailment, jetlag, still hits us after we arrive in Paris, and knocks us out like clockwork at 2pm in the afternoon for the next 5 days. Never mind that we have sightseeing to do, or an inclination to check out Paris on the only Saturday night we’re there. This is the start of our big adventure.
Cruising
The Northern Star cruise ship departed from Auckland in 1969 to the fanfare of classical music and scores of well-wishers waving from the shore. My mother, in her early 20s, was on board with a couple of girlfriends, setting off on the adventure of a lifetime.
The choice to travel by ship was basically a matter of economics for my mother because long haul flights out of New Zealand were still incredibly expensive back then. The expense and time that it took to get to Europe meant that many New Zealanders would spend several years in the UK and Europe when they finally got there, and this no doubt sparked the tradition of the ‘Big O.E.’ or extended overseas experience.
My mother set out for her OE in style. The journey would take over a month, with stops along the way in Tahiti, Mexico and Panama, before arriving at its final destination in London.
Forget bloodshot eyes and sleeping upright, this would be a journey with regular parties, games, exotic excursions, sunbathing and cocktails.
Flying vs. cruising in 2017
I never even contemplated the idea of traveling by ship to Europe when we were booking our travel for this trip, but looking into it now I see that it’s definitely still possible…if you can afford it. A 54-day cruise from Auckland to the UK starts at about $8,500. Assuming this is NZD, this comes to $157 a day including all meals and on-board entertainment – not too bad, but still more than 2 times our daily travel budget, even when you factor in the cost of flights.
With stops in Bay of Islands, Sydney, Brisbane, Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Oman, Dubai, Jordan, Egypt, Greece, Montenegro, Croatia, Italy, Spain and Portugal before arriving in the UK, you would hardly need to explore Europe at all when you got there.
Besides the relative comfort, another argument that comes to mind for travelling by ship is the idea that it might be better for the environment. I wasn’t sure whether this was the case, so I googled it and found the Guardian had done my research for me: (https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2006/dec/20/cruises.green). Taking a cruise ship produces more carbon, more waste, and more damage to the environment than flying. Besides this, most cruise ship customers will fly at some point anyway, to get to the start or back home from the end of their cruise. The number of people travelling by both air and sea is increasing as around the world people’s living standards are going up and travel prices are coming down.
I hate to end this blog post on a negative, but, basically travel in general is bad for the environment. At least now that we’re here in Europe we’re travelling as much as possible by bike, foot or train and possibly leaving less of a carbon footprint than in our real lives.
