Advice Needed. Can you take your bike on a cruise ship?

General cycling advice ( NOT technical ! )
xerxes
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Joined: 10 May 2013, 7:22pm

Re: Advice Needed. Can you take your bike on a cruise ship?

Post by xerxes »

I am in agreement with Billy Connolly about cruises - "Like being in prison with the option of drowning".
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Mick F
Spambuster
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Joined: 7 Jan 2007, 11:24am
Location: Tamar Valley, Cornwall

Re: Advice Needed. Can you take your bike on a cruise ship?

Post by Mick F »

Just a little Sea Story or two. :wink:

I spent many a year in the RN, and often took a bike with me - latterly my Mercian with HMS Sirius and HMS Argyll.
There are many places to stow a bike on board, especially if you remove the wheels and turn the 'bars.
I've cycled in more countries than many other people and never had an issue with storage.

We've been on cruises and wheels could go under a bed or in a wardrobe. The frame and luggage likewise.
It's only a matter of getting the bike bits up by the gangway and assembling it.

Countries and places in my history:
(In no particular order)
Gibraltar, including to the Top of the Rock, and into Spain.
Naples, including up Vesuvius to the Seismic Observatory.
Corfu
Haifa, Israel
Bahrain
Mombassa, Kenya
Karachi, Pakistan
Sri Lanka
Malaysia
Thailand
Bermuda
Singapore
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Jakarta, Indonesia
Nassau, Bahamas
Bunbury, Western Australia
Adelaide
Sydney, including into the Blue Mountains
Hobart to Port Arthur, Tasmania
Caen, and the Normandy Coast
Bremen, Germany
Bremerhaven, Germany
Antwerp
Amsterdam
Copenhagen

USA:
500 miles from Niagara Falls, Canada to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Taking in New York State, Vermont and Massachusetts.
Florida, Cape Canaveral and Jacksonville.
Wilmington, North Carolina
Manhattan
Mick F. Cornwall
Jdsk
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Joined: 5 Mar 2019, 5:42pm

Re: Advice Needed. Can you take your bike on a cruise ship?

Post by Jdsk »

Mick F wrote: 23 Mar 2023, 3:19pm ...
We've been on cruises and wheels could go under a bed or in a wardrobe. The frame and luggage likewise.
It's only a matter of getting the bike bits up by the gangway and assembling it.
...
As upthread it also involves other ways of getting off and on the boat. And out and in of the port area.

Jonathan
ossie
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Joined: 15 Apr 2011, 7:52pm

Re: Advice Needed. Can you take your bike on a cruise ship?

Post by ossie »

xerxes wrote: 23 Mar 2023, 12:35pm I am in agreement with Billy Connolly about cruises - "Like being in prison with the option of drowning".
Best keep clear of the thread then.

Having done quite a few cruises I'd probably arrange cycle hire in each port of choice. I'm not sure I've ever seen someone embark or disembark a cruise ship with a bicycle but I actually like the idea.
Last edited by ossie on 23 Mar 2023, 9:03pm, edited 1 time in total.
Mike Sales
Posts: 7898
Joined: 7 Mar 2009, 3:31pm

Re: Advice Needed. Can you take your bike on a cruise ship?

Post by Mike Sales »

xerxes wrote: 23 Mar 2023, 12:35pm I am in agreement with Billy Connolly about cruises - "Like being in prison with the option of drowning".
I think he pinched it from Dr. Johnson.
Samuel Johnson — 'Being in a ship is like being in jail, with the chance of being drowned.'

It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
wirral_cyclist
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Location: Wirral Merseyside

Re: Advice Needed. Can you take your bike on a cruise ship?

Post by wirral_cyclist »

ossie wrote: 23 Mar 2023, 8:55pm
xerxes wrote: 23 Mar 2023, 12:35pm I am in agreement with Billy Connolly about cruises - "Like being in prison with the option of drowning".
Best keep clear of the thread then.

Having done quite a few cruises I'd probably arrange cycle hire in each port of choice. I'm not sure I've ever seen someone embark or disembark a cruise ship with a bicycle but I actually like the idea.
Thompson boats (Marella branded now?) all had cycle hire onboard - actually we had guided rides with bikes thrown in but bikes might be available separately? Naples from the dock into city traffic was terrific fun! Going to see the Pope's gaff was no problem either as they bunged the bikes under the coach for the 70+ km journey into town - cyclists came back happier having seen everything, the rest of coach tour as miserable as usual (miserable might be compulsory, as it's every coach you see coming back to the boat).
RJS
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Joined: 16 Feb 2013, 10:05pm
Location: Torbay

Re: Advice Needed. Can you take your bike on a cruise ship?

Post by RJS »

There was a couple in the tandem club a few years back, who took there tandem on a cruise; rode it where they wanted when in port, not where the organisers wanted them to go. Ended up giving other passengers rides up and down the deck between ports.
Cheers, Roob.
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