🚢 Ships | Just for the heck of it -- Traveling on a Cargo Ship

[user86]

That’s why most people don’t travel this way.

They do offer tours of the cargo hold area, but otherwise it’s off limits in other times. That’s about the most interesting thing you’ll see.

[Andrew]

@user86

That’s why most people don’t travel this way.

Well, I suspect that the people who do decide to don’t do it so they can work on their Netflix, that’s more what I was saying.

@user86

They do offer tours of the cargo hold area, but otherwise it’s off limits in other times. That’s about the most interesting thing you’ll see.

Curious where you’re getting the info you’re posting from? Have you done it?

[user86]

@Andrew

Curious where you’re getting the info you’re posting from?

I’m a professionally licensed boat pilot. I’ve piloted boats in Kaohsiung harbor but haven’t worked on a container ship, but many of my friends are in the shipping industry and do it regularly.

What do you think goes on in these cargo ships? What kind of interesting stories are you expecting? The crew is usually 90% male, and when they’re not resting in their cabins watching movies, they’re drinking in the galley. Most of my friends do it because they enjoy the solitude, and not because of interesting stories to tell.

Shore leaves are the most interesting part, but that’s the part where you don’t need to travel on a container ship to experience.

[Andrew]

@user86

What do you think goes on in these cargo ships? What kind of interesting stories are you expecting? The crew is usually 90% male, and when they’re not resting in their cabins watching movies, they’re drinking in the galley.

I would imagine it’s largely boring and slow and isolating, which I suspect is much of the point for the people who choose to do it as a passenger.

What I’m saying is that I doubt those that do are using the experience to “literally spend the whole day sitting in your cabin watching Netflix, or wander around the corridors” and have “not much to tell”, because it wouldn’t make sense when a flight ticket would be several times cheaper.

Workers maybe, when they’re not working, but I think passengers would want to get more out of it.

I looked into it a few years ago, but for me it didn’t seem justified, even when I had a longer attention span and greater ability to keep myself occupied without electronics.

[user86]

@Andrew

it wouldn’t make sense when a flight ticket would be several times cheaper.

It’s actually a budget way to travel around the world. If you pay for a flight to every single destination where the ship would stop for shore leave and pay for a hotel at each destination, taking the boat ends up being cheaper.

Probably wouldn’t make sense if you’re just going straight from Kaohsiung or Keelung to Los Angeles though.

[Andrew]

@user86

It’s actually a budget way to travel around the world. If you pay for a flight to every single destination where the ship would stop for shore leave and pay for a hotel at each destination, taking the boat ends up being cheaper.

Eh. It doesn’t look like that to me, judging from the typical prices I saw online (US$100–150 per day, for example — not sure how accurate they are).

It’s an odd comparison too. Of course nobody is going to take a vacation/travel around the world by flying from one container ship port to the next, but spending 40–50 or whatever days paying to travel just to have the odd few hours/couple of nights in each place doesn’t seem likely to be cheaper at all. The only way I think it’d make sense is if they’re getting something else from the process/solitude.

[user86]

@Andrew

US$100–150 per day

Hmmm this seems a bit high. Even my 7-day cruise with Royal Caribbean was only $120/day. Everyone I know who works on cargo ships tell me they sometimes have random passengers onboard because it’s a budget way to travel around the world.

It’s possible the agencies who advertise widely online are ripping people off, and that most people actually just make arrangements themselves through other channels.