Thread: Has Anyone Done a Freighter Cruise?

I came across this website and it made me wonder if anyone here has actually been on one of these adventures!

http://www.freighterworld.com/

I haven't myself but I do of friends who have. The general concensus is that they are very good value for money, you never or rarely miss ports through weather cos what the ship carries has to be delivered come what may and the ships are well appointed too with very attentive staff, good food and so forth.

I have included profiles of a few of the ships and their facilities on here...

http://www.cruiselineforums.com/foru...ight=freighter

You only usually have a max of tween 10 and 40 ish passengers, so the care from the staff is very good and you get to go places not usually seen on cruise ships.

They have been recommended to me and I have seriously considered them.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for all your hard work, Ally...you are a Research Wonder!!!

Can't wait to also hear some first-hand accounts from people who have actually done this! I will also post some links as I come across them.

I saw a show on this quite a few years back. Looked intriguing, but not enough to make me try one!

This is Aranui 3, she is one of the larger freighters used to carry passengers aswell. She is, as you will see from the photos, as luxurious as any purpose built liner and she is extremely popular too...

http://www.travltips.com/aranui.html

I agree, most intriguing, but I'm not sure it would be for us. Generally they are quite long cruises, at least the ones I've looked at. Maybe some day.

Is there a midnight buffet?

Aranui does 14 night cruises, the site posted about her shows the full itinerary for a sample cruise in 2006.

This is something I always wanted to do when I was younger, but most of the cruises were much too long for me to consider then. And now that we have been on a cruiseliner, I think it would be very hard to convince my husband to do this. But I bet if there was a great itinerary, he'd be game!

Just about every freighter/containership does some passenger work too. The beauty of it is that in most cases you can get off anywhere you decide along the route, so if you want to do a 14 night or a 110 night cruise, the choice is yours. The freighter lines will, within reason, be able to accomodate your requirement.

I friend of mine used to go on the banana boats owned by Fyffes to/from London/Windward Islands at least once a year. She went on her last banana boat when she was 98 yrs old and she was treated like royalty, just as she was when she started freighter cruising when she was in her 40's.

The ships are not purpose built for passengers very often but their facilities are extremely good and as there are less passengers anyway, the service is excellent too.

If you want something a little different from the usual and you are a bit more adventurous, then a freighter cruise is perfect. There are no missed ports, they run with the weather and you visit uncommercialised parts of the world that are usually unspoilt too. Its not formal as such, the crew eat with you sometimes or on other ships they have seperate facilities. Some ships have pools, most have bars its alot like being on a liner except you are delivering goods.