Cruise ship at sea at golden hour
About

About Cruise Blueprint

Real experiences. Honest advice. No fluff.

What This Site Is

Cruise Blueprint is a small, independent cruise planning resource built on real experience. Not a travel agency. Not a review aggregator. Not a content farm optimised for search traffic.

The idea is simple: there's a lot of cruise content online, and most of it isn't very useful. It's either too generic to help with specific decisions, too obviously written to sell something, or so comprehensive that the actually important information gets buried.

This site tries to be different — shorter, more specific, and written as if giving advice to someone who actually asked. The goal is to help people plan better cruises, not to impress them with how much content exists.

Who It's For

Primarily people who are new to cruising — or who have cruised before but feel like they didn't quite get the most out of it. People who want honest, practical advice rather than a list of things to buy or book.

The guides here are written for people who want to understand what a port is actually like before they arrive, what cabin type actually suits how they travel, and when an excursion is genuinely worth the money versus when it isn't.

If you're looking for a comprehensive database of every cruise ship ever built, this isn't it. If you want clear, honest advice that helps you make better decisions about a specific trip, this is the right place.

How This Site Works

The principles behind what gets published here.

Real experience only

Everything on this site comes from actual trips. Not press trips, not sponsored content, not research from other websites. If it's here, it's because someone actually went there and paid attention.

No affiliate links or paid placements

There are no affiliate links on this site. No cruise line partnerships, no sponsored excursion recommendations, no commission arrangements. The advice here isn't shaped by what pays — it's shaped by what's actually useful.

Honest over positive

If something is crowded, we say so. If an excursion isn't worth the money, we say so. If a port is better explored independently, we say so. The goal is to help you make better decisions — not to make cruising sound better than it is.

Practical over comprehensive

There's no shortage of cruise content online. Most of it is either too long, too generic, or too obviously written to rank on Google. This site tries to be the opposite: short, specific, and actually useful to someone planning a real trip.

Ships I've Sailed

Every ship I've been on — sailed and still to come.

Norwegian JewelSailed

NCL · One of the early ones — a proper introduction to freestyle cruising.

Carnival ValorSailed

Carnival · Big, bold, and very American — great fun for what it was.

P&O IonaSailed

P&O · One of the biggest ships in the P&O fleet — modern, polished, very British.

Rhapsody of the SeasSailed

Royal Caribbean · Italy and Montenegro — the cruise that made this site happen.

Serenade of the SeasSailed

Royal Caribbean · A beautiful ship on a beautiful itinerary — one of the best I've done.

MSC MeravigliaSailed

MSC · Huge ship, fantastic promenade — MSC at their most ambitious.

MSC SeascapeSailed

MSC · One of the newest in the MSC fleet — modern, sleek, and very well done.

MSC VirtuosaSailed

MSC · Rotterdam, Cherbourg & Zeebrugge from Southampton — May 2026. Done!

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NCL DawnUpcoming · September 2026

NCL · Portugal & Spain / Iberian coast — September 2026. Can't wait.

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Everything on the Site

All guides and port pages, in one place.

Follow along

Day-by-day updates, port photos, and the bits that don't make it into the guides.