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Comment by xradionut | Hacker News Reader

In my humble opinion, this is a shitty idea. There are other quiet places with decent enough bandwidth that don't have the costs or risks of a cruise ship. My favorite one is the study section of the local library. I've also gone out to a cabin in the woods that only had a satellite link. My neighbor has soundproof walk-in closet.

As for the risks of a cruise ship, if something goes wrong, your options are limited. I say this as a navy veteran that's had to deal with multiple things that go wrong on a ocean vessel. (Fire, flooding, engine failure, etc...) As a civilian, I'm very wary of cruises.

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A better option, in my opinion, is an all-inclusive resort. My preference is Mexico. After going recently, my main takeaway was how nice life would be if everything were always taken care of for me -- cleaning, food, etc. It's going to cost more than a cruise, but cruises have all sorts of hidden/surprise fees that you don't have at a good all-inclusive resort. Our resort was calm, peaceful and full of couples, no rowdy partiers. Good internet access, the highest quality service imaginable, and some of the best restaurants I've ever experienced (where you can order whatever you want without the stress of worrying about cost!). If you go during low season, you can get a great rate, and some rain shouldn't bother you if you're there to work.

Our resort was calm, peaceful and full of couples, no rowdy partiers.

That reminds me of a funny experience I had in Cancun a few years back in Cancun. My wife booked a room at the all-inclusive Temptation resort because it had the best rate. When we got there, we were surprised to find that it was basically clothing optional. Be sure to check out the hotel website first if you want to avoid distractions!

Add to that Turkey and Greece.

What resort did you go to? Mind if I ask what the approx. costs where?

http://www.occidentalhotels.com/resort/royal-hideaway-playac...

I booked it through Costcotravel.com. It's much cheaper in the low season. Paid $325/night total including tax; that's for two people and it included round-trip airport transfers ($120 value). If we were to have a dinner experience like what they offer in the US, it would easily run $300+ each time.

What kind of risks do you have on a cruise ship that you do not have in everyday life traffic, public places and outdoor activities ? Statistically, your cabin in the woods with nobody around is probably an order of magnitude more dangerous than a cruise ship ;)

Getting sick is a big one.

How many people die per 1,000 passenger miles?

Not really the right comparison, since you're not using the cruise for transportation.

Better question might be deaths/injuries/etc per day, as compared to living in a city, a cabin in the woods, etc.

What things can go wrong on a cruise ship that are very bad for people onboard? Isn't a life boat just a short run away?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Concordia

or if you're of a different age:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Titanic

2 incidents in 100 years, seems safe...

Those are only the two he mentioned off the top of his head.

And how many planes come down per year ? The probability of something like that is extremely low. Life is risky, you also have a theoretical risk of dying of a heart attack every second.

Things can also go wrong sleeping in your bed at night.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_fransisco_earthquake

read the comment to which I replied. it will put it in context.

No power for 3-4 days. Google "cruise ship no power", it happens more often than you'd think

That means

-no showers

- no toilets flushing.

- No internet

- no hot meals

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/fire-carnival-cruis...

Oh god, that sounds nightmarish.

Norovirus.

Norovirus by itself is enough to keep me off cruise ships. http://www.cdc.gov/features/norovirus/

I thought I'd share an interesting segment from Tina Fey's book regarding her honeymoon cruise when a fire broke out on the boat.

"In the event of an emergency, it is the entertainers who are in charge of the lifeboats. Because the rest of the crew has actual nautical duties, the kids from Fiesta Caliente are trained to man the lifeboats. If you ever have to get on a lifeboat, the person in charge of your safety will likely be a nineteen-year-old dancer from Tampa who just had a fight with his boyfriend about the new Rihanna video. James also told me that each lifeboat has a gun on it and that once a lifeboat is in the water, the performer–lifeboat captain is trained to shoot anyone who is disruptive. This is apparently legal in accordance with maritime law."

I worked on a cruise ship as an entertainer and can confirm this. Except for the gun part. We had lifeboat assignments and had drills each cycle before the passengers arrived. We were trained on getting people in, not what to do once in the water.

Wide-spread gastro-intestinal illnesses - google "cruise" and "norovirus"

http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/surv/gilist.htm

It is important to distinguish among cruise outcomes - I'd rather experience a 24-36 hour power outage than a fire that resulted in passengers at sea in lifeboats, but there appear to be some narratives that conflate "our honeymoon was not what I had dreamed of" with "captured, burned, sunk, and destroyed" without any points on a scale in between.

Third party advice I'd heard on cruising:

avoid the very cheapest lines

choose an operator with a generally nordic background (not flag/registration, more company origin).

Going to the library doesn't get your room cleaned and our meals prepared.

The whole point of the suggestion is that a Cruise is an entire package of benefits.

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