Whether you’re cruising from Southampton, Liverpool or Newcastle in the UK, or you’re off on a fly cruise, chances are at some point in your trip you will have a sea day. Yes, it’s a shame that this is a day when you won’t wake up to the sight of a new port, but there will still be plenty of things to do around your ship – here I’ll explore some of the common activities you tend to find on board on a sea day.
First of all, what is a sea day?
A sea day is a day effectively spent in transit on your cruise as you’re getting from one place to another.
How many days at sea will there be on your cruise?
Sometimes you’ll only have one or maybe two sea days in a cruise, depending on how far apart the ports on your itinerary are. Some voyages such as transatlantic crossings, or world cruises will of course have a lot more days at sea during a single cruise. Sometimes sea days may be unplanned, for example if the crew are unable to launch tenders due to weather – it’s quite common to have a sea day off the coast of Guernsey when tenders can’t get into St Peter’s port!
Whether it is planned or not, there will often be a fuller entertainment programme on board during a sea day. Here are just some of the sea day activities and events that can help you avoid boredom and make the most out of your day at sea!
Passenger Choir
I’m kicking off with something that’s probably a real marmite activity, but having done amateur musical theatre for years, I love a good sing song, even if my singing voice is questionable at best!
On all the cruise lines we’ve been on, we (and yes, I’m talking about my musical theatre hating parents) have always had a go at the passenger choir. They vary in terms of complexity depending on how many sea days you have and who’s leading. This means we’ve experienced both karaoke tracks and cheesy pop songs and musical theatre pieces with 4 part harmonies (hi Kelly!).
The latter is usually as fun as the former, if not funnier. You rehearse for as many hours as can be fit into the entertainment schedule, and then there’s usually a performance towards the end of the cruise. This involves dressing up, smiling your best smile, and in mine and my mum’s case, trying to concentrate on singing and not laughing (sorry Kelly!)
We’ve had some good giggles at choir and met some lovely people, both passengers and entertainment staff!
Enjoy some afternoon tea!
Eating turns into an activity on cruise ships, and sea days are the perfect opportunity to treat your to an afternoon tea.
Many cruise lines frequently offer some form of afternoon tea in the buffet, both on sea day or on port days, so if you don’t want to splash the cash, this is a quick and cheap way to enjoy an afternoon treat.
Some cruise lines offer something a little more special, often taking place in the Main Dining Room or in one of the speciality restaurants.
Marella Cruises offers something called the Great Musical Afternoon Tea in their venue The Dining Club – it’s a tasteful journey through some of your favourite musical theatre shows, with some delicious themed dishes – I experienced this on a Marella Explorer 2 cruise and really enjoyed it! This afternoon tea will cost you around £15 per person.
You know I love a good photo
P&O Cruises offers a special afternoon tea designed by their Food Hero, Eric Lanlard. This afternoon tea, which comes at a £15-£20pp cover charge, takes place on selected sea days in the Epicurean restaurant on Azura, Britannia, Ventura and Arcadia, and in the Ocean Grill on Arcadia.
If you like the finer things in life, Cunard’s afternoon tea is an iconic tradition at sea , with white gloved waiters, Wedgewood china and Twinings tea.
A note for afternoon tea, let them know a day ahead if you’re gluten free as it gives them time to put together some yummy treats for you!
Go Behind The Scenes!
A lot of ships offer some sort of behind the scenes tours – some go into places like the bridge and anchor room, they normally have a fee attached – but we’ve also been on galley tours and backstage theatre tours – always fascinating!
Flash Mob
This is maybe another marmite one, but on our Sapphire Princess cruise we had a go at doing the passenger flashmob. Not-very-secret rehearsals were held on sea days up in Skywalkers nightclub, and we performed at the end of a passenger showcase at the end of the cruise. As well having an absolute whale, it certainly helped sweat off some of the cruise calories you end up scoffing! On that particular cruise we had 4 sea days going to and from Bali, so plenty of time to learn our moves.
Embrace a themed day at sea
Now this one is SUPER cruise line specific, but Disney Cruise Lines day at sea are very exciting, with select sailing featuring Star Wars Day at Sea and Marvel Day at Sea.
Star Wars Day at Sea gives you the chance to feel the Force, with Jedi training sessions, meet and greets with the heroes (and villains!), movie screenings, family trivia, a ship-wide scavenger hunt and youth club fun with the lovable BB-8! Plus there are some amazing stage shows and fireworks to end the day!
Marvel Day at Sea lets passengers mingle with icons like Spider-Man, Iron Man and Captain America, experience the mystic arts with Doctor Strange – plus adults can dance the night away in Fathoms (the nightclub) enjoying a cocktail and maybe even a dance off with Star-Lord and Gamora!
Escape Rooms
I’m sure we’ve all seen escape room attractions on land, but did you know some cruise lines have them at sea? We had a go at one on Sapphire Princess – I can’t recall the name, it was something to do with a magician. If you’re not quite ready to find your sea legs, you could look for an escape room on land instead!
Royal Caribbean go all out with their Escape Room experience though, and
Learn to dance – or just do it anyway!
Most cruise lines offer some sort of dance class on sea days, with loads of different types. Whether you’re a beginner with two left feet or really know your samba from your salsa, it’s a right laugh. Some of the more popular classes include line dancing (can’t say I’ve ever tried) and ballroom dancing – P&O even have Strictly themed cruises with dance classes from professional dancers!
I tried my hand at Irish dancing on our British Isles Royal Princess cruise. Safe to say I’ve not missed my calling in life!
Learn to play an instrument
I had no idea this was a thing until I sailed on Sapphire Princess – there were two opportunities to learn to play an instrument! I attended the first sessions for Ukelele lessons and drum circle lessons – these were given on each sea day and culminated in a passenger performance towards the end of the cruise (which I actually end up performing at anyway!)
Have a game of Quoits
I’ve got to include this just for my mum and dad! Quoits is a game popular on P&O Cruises – you throw a rope ring and try and get it nearest to a central dot – you score points depending on how close to the dot you get. I’m not very good at it and I think the rules are a bit more complicated than that – I just tend to have a go and believe people when they tell me how much I scored! Another popular deck game that can be found on more ships is shuffleboard.
Join in with ship rituals!
Cruising often gets associated with pomp and circumstance, but they know how to joke around as well! I’ve been lucky enough to experience two cruise lines “Crossing the line” ceremonies, where the crew complete challenges to please Neptune so that he’ll let us cross the equator! Get involved, cheer for your chosen team, and be ready to “Kiss the fish!” during this quirky sea day tradition!
Viking Cruises have a slightly colder ritual for crossing the Arctic Circle – it involved jumping into a pool full of ice! (Photos from Emma!)
Get Quizzical!
Most cruise lines do some sort of quiz, either a general knowledge/pub quiz type set up or sometimes music quizzes. I don’t want to brag, but we quite often walk it! I think we won every one we did on Holland America at Christmas! Apparently
A lot of cruise lines also run TV style game shows on board, things like Liars Club (a take on Would I Lie To You) and Mr & Mrs.
Learn to cook
Some ships include facilities where you can take cooking classes – sometimes you can even
Just Lay Back and Relax!
Some of these activities might not be your cup of tea, which is fine. Sometimes there’s nothing nicer than grabbing a cold drink, finding a spot on
What are your favourite sea day activities? Let me know in the comments!
Check out some of my latest blogs on cruising!
- How to complete UK Passenger Locator Form for a cruise (with pictures)
- P&O Cruises expands international sailings with return to the Caribbean
- What you need to know about sailing with Marella in Summer 2021
- Sky Princess is returning as the UK’s homeport ship for third year in a row!
- Princess Cruises has announced details of their All-Inclusive UK ‘Summer Seacations’….and they include port stops!
