By Carol Johnson
When most people think of taking a cruise, they picture the Love Boat-a tremendous white ship festooned with flags, decks lined with expensive canvas chairs, bars, shuffleboard courts, and nattily dressed attendants standing at the ready to snap to attention to fulfill every little whim of every passenger. And speaking of passengers, a cruise ship usually carries hundreds of people jammed into tiny little rooms, packed into the onboard swimming pools, standing in long lines at elaborate buffets, and parked at tables in the noisy dining room, right?
Well, if that kind of cruise is your idea of traveling by sea, then you have plenty of cruise lines to pick from, and a huge variety of travel packages to select. But if you want a true seagoing vacation that will afford you comfort, relaxation, casual dress, spacious cabins, and a small group of passengers sharing the ship with you, then you need look no further than a freighter cruise.
In the mid-20th century, before the jet age, ocean crossings were very popular, with large ocean liners ferrying passengers back and forth across oceans around the world. But once people were able to fly to their destinations much more quickly, large ocean liners started losing passengers. So they retaliated against the decrease in popularity by boosting the amenities offered on board to make traveling by ship a vacation in itself, not just a means of travel.
Today the cruise industry is booming, and ships are regularly packed with vacationers who enjoy the fancy meals, glitzy celebrity entertainment, scheduled classes and activities, and exotic ports of call. But for an increasing number of travelers, those fussy extras are more like annoyances than amenities. If you're that kind of traveler, then maybe a freighter cruise is just what you're looking for.
Freighter travel offers travelers quiet days at sea in informal surroundings with no formalities. Usually the only scheduled activities are mealtimes, and passengers eat the same meals as the officers. Although no special diets are accommodated and the menu isn't fancy or exotic, the meals are well-balanced and the menu is varied, and the food is usually high-quality fare.
There are freighter cruises available to virtually any destination around the world, and on every ship you'll find spacious, well-furnished cabins with private facilities, larger than on most commercial cruise lines and all located on upper decks. Most freighters offer a small exercise room, swimming pool, a lounge with upholstered furniture, a library with a selection of reading materials, a television for viewing a selection of movies, and good deck space for walking, or just sitting in a comfortable deck chair with a good pair of binoculars and watching the ocean and occasional dolphins, whales, and sea birds that may join you for a moment or two.
Passengers can interact with the officers and crew, and may spend time on the bridge enjoying conversations with officers and learning about the ship-special experiences not possible on cruise ships where dozens of passengers visit the bridge in small groups as part of a tour. Most freighters flying under foreign flags allow passengers unrestricted bridge visitation, and with passenger loads of usually less than a dozen people, sometimes lasting friendships are formed between passengers, officers, and ship's crew personnel.
Often you need a long and flexible time period to make the most of a freighter cruise. Although some travelers use a transatlantic crossing as a leisurely way of going from one point to another, most passengers book a freighter cruise for its full itinerary, which can last anywhere from 2 weeks to 5 months. Modern containerships offer 1- to 3-week voyages, and various mail and coastal ships have specialty cruises that can last from a week to several weeks in any direction. The choices are limitless.
The best thing about a freighter cruise is that traveling by freighter is still the best cruise value to be found anywhere. Fares typically range from $90 to $130 per day, including all meals-less than half the cost of traditional passenger cruise ships. Most commercial freighter cruise companies charge the actual fares charged by the shipping lines and don't add any additional margins.
If there is a drawback to freighter cruising, it is that freighters are working ships, and therefore the average time in port is usually just a day or sometimes just a matter of hours. But for general cargo ships and ports without modern cargo facilities, the port time may be longer. Also, the ships usually dock farther away from city centers and tourist attractions, so you'll have to take a cab to do any sightseeing while the ship is in port.
But if you are an independent traveler who knows how to plan your own vacation time and you like to organize your own shore visit, your schedule is flexible, and you want to get away from the crowds rather than traveling with them, then freighter cruising might be just the ticket for you. The largest travel agency in the world dedicated to freighter cruising is Freighter World Cruises, whose motto is "If you have the time to relax and a cruising spirit, a friendly freighter waits for you."
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