Most cruise itineraries will have a few seas days, which are ideal opportunities to familiarise yourself with the ship, take part in some activities, or just laze by the pool with a drink!
Plenty of room to laze!
On Crown Princess, I attended two wine tastings on sea days. I went with my mother-in-law and we shared a table with 8 other people, who we got to know really well and met up with again for the second wine tasting. We had to pay a fee (it wasn't much) but we were treated to amazing canapes (sweet and savoury) that matched the wines we were tasting. The maître d' taught us how to swirl the wine to check the "legs", and staff from around the world talked to us about their country while telling us anecdotes about their wine history. The wine tasting helped me and my mother-in-law decide which wines to have with meals (always a hard decision!). We also paid several visits to Vines bar to enjoy glasses of wine with complimentary sushi, and we tried a flight of wine with chocolate to match. If you don't go to a wine tasting, I recommend you go to Vines at least once!
Wine and sushi at Vines
There are lots of fun activities on sea days around the ship, with games in the Piazza, quizzes in Explorers or Vista lounge, art auctions and lectures, and games on the sports deck and around the pool. My children took part in a scavenger hunt on one sea day, when they had to run around the ship getting photos of particular areas or staff members. They won, and earned Princess cruises water bottles as prizes, so well worth taking part. There are other scavenger hunts that are run out of the kids club, and our teenage niece spent one hour of a sea day trying to find various objects. Anyone with a book or flip flop unattended, be aware!
Free art from a lecture we attended (also got free champagne!)
At the start of your cruise, look out for activities that run for the duration and need to be signed up for early on. On our first cruise we missed out on a junk modelling activity that began in the first few days, so we were prepared on our second cruise! The aim was to collect as much junk as possible from around the ship during the cruise, and at the end we had to construct a ship that could float 6 cans of soft drink. We had brought tape with us (Duck tape is essential on holiday!) but we also charmed the pool bar staff to get any rubbish they didn't need, like plastic wrap and empty cups. We didn't win, but our boat floated so we were happy!
Our junk model boat
Sea days are also a chance to spend any onboard credit you might still have, lose money in the casino, drink your way through the cocktail menu, have a meal in a speciality restaurant, or go to the gym.
Lots of drinks to try on sea days!
There is another side to sea days, and that is if the weather is bad... Here's a couple of clips from our first cruise. The first is the foghorn, which lasted the whole morning! The second was a choppy day at sea.
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