We recently wrote about the things you can see and do when you are leaving on a cruise from the port city of Baltimore, and while we briefly touched on the cruises that depart from Baltimore, we didn’t do the subject full justice. Lots of people aren’t even aware that there are cruises from Baltimore, and even if you are, you probably don’t know exactly what options are available – like what cruise ships sail from Baltimore – nor might you know some good strategies for booking cruises from Baltimore. We have therefore gathered all this information in a comprehensive, easy-to-reference article.
We will begin with the basic facts. Only two cruise lines sail from Baltimore – Carnival and Royal Caribbean (the two largest cruise lines in the world, for the record) – and each operates one vessel. In terms of variety and volume, cruises from Baltimore are comparable to cruises from New Jersey, but both pale in comparison to the great wealth of cruises from New York, the giant cruise departure city of the North Eastern United States. Carnival operates the Carnival Pride, a reasonably large cruise ship with a gross tonnage of 88,500 that can hold 2,124 passengers. The Carnival Pride sails all year long, going to both the Bahamas and the Eastern Caribbean. During December, January, and February, however, it only goes to the Bahamas, but for most of the year you can take seven-night trips to either location. Royal Caribbean operates the Grandeur of the Seas, a ship comparable in size to the Carnival Pride. It has a gross tonnage of 73,817 and can hold 2,446 passengers. The Grandeur of the Seas offers a greater array of vacation options than the Carnival Pride. It too operates all year, but it travels to Bermuda in addition to the Bahamas and the Caribbean, and it also offers cruises to New England and Canada during September and October. In truth, though, there is little point in listing every possible cruise you can take from Baltimore, as you’ll learn these soon enough when it comes time to book the cruise.
And how exactly do you book a cruise from Baltimore? If you are fully committed to leaving from Baltimore, then the process couldn’t be simpler. First, there are only two possible cruise lines to choose from, so you could directly book with Carnival or Royal Caribbean if you prefer to work directly with the company. Or, if you prefer to hunt for a discount, you can use any number of cruise deal sites, as virtually every one of them (Expedia, Travelocity, CheapCruises, CruiseDeals, etc.) allows you to select a departure port as a search criterion, which will limit your search results only to cruises from whatever city you select. If you have a flexible schedule, these sites can be particularly nice to use because you can just scan the list of options until you come across the cheapest cruise and then book it. This is of course theoretically possible for any cruise you might want to take, but when you have a set search criterion like “departing from Baltimore,” it is reasonably easy to scan all the options to make sure you get the best deal.
So, Baltimore doesn’t have a huge cruise ship port that is constantly sending vessels to every corner of the globe, but there are cruises offered throughout the year, and these cruises go to popular destinations. Cruises from Baltimore are also particularly easy to book, as there simply aren’t enough of them to make the process too tedious or fraught with agonizing decision-making. So, if you are happy with a somewhat limited, but nevertheless solid, number of possible cruise vacations and you live in or near Baltimore (or want to pass through the city), look into sailing out of the city.
*Photo Credit: Iracaz / CC-BY-SA-3.0
