Cruisin' for Somethin'

I've never been drawn to the idea of going on a cruise. I prefer the idea of being in a place with my own timetable (or one that I've at least had a hand in constructing), so I can explore on foot what I want, when I want. Still, I thought that one cruise I might be interested in was up to Alaska's Inside Passage. I've heard that the scenery is beautiful, it's not overly focused on the all-you-can-eat buffet (another reason cruises aren't appealing to me) and the trips aren't very long. So I thought I'd check out the Cruises and Vacation Packages site to see what I could find out about Alaska cruises.

I have to say that although the site seems to be full of great information and deals on vacation packages, the information about the various cruises on offer is seriously lacking. I can look up cruises by the different cruise lines listed, but not by destination. When I click on the various cruise lines' names, I'm given a list of the ships in their fleet - but, again, not where they go. For a cruise expert, this might be fine - they might know exactly where each ship goes, or at least which ship they want to book. For a cruise novice like me, however, it's a frustrating exercise to have to check out each cruise line's individual page. I finally did find information on a cruise to Alaska's Inside Passage, but it felt more like that was based on trial and error than anything else. A destination list for cruises would be infinitely helpful.

Now, the vacation packages part of the website is another matter altogether - there are deals galore here, for just about every destination worldwide you can think of. And the deals do look good. Being a bit of a spy novel buff, this trip in particular caught my eye...

The bottom line for me is that this site doesn't make me want to go on a cruise any more than I did already, and it also doesn't make me optimistic that I'd find what I wanted there even if I changed my mind. Again, if someone is a cruise expert, this site might provide everything necessary... But really, everyone is a novice at some point, right?

Full disclosure: Cruises and Vacation Packages is part of the BootsnAll Travel Network, my employer. As I learn more about the various resources in the Network, I'll post information about them here.