Forget airports and waiting around for flights. These days it’s cool to cruise from the UK. It is so cool, in fact, that almost as many Brits sail from our shores as those that opt for a fly-cruise. Not bad considering just one-third of cruising Brits sailed from the UK in 2004.
Why the change? Well, for one thing, it is so easy. You don’t have to worry about those flight delays or cancellations that have become all too common. Plus, there is no limit to how much luggage you can take. You simply load up the car, drive to the port, hand your bags over to the crew to be delivered to your cabin, and check in. What bliss! Two hours after arriving, you’ll have found your room, explored the ship, and will be enjoying the first cocktail of the holiday. And that’s no exaggeration. I know because I have done it.
With cruises from ports all around the UK including Portsmouth, Liverpool and Newcastle, you don’t always have to drive to Southampton either – although as the busiest port, it does have the most choice.
If you sailed from the UK 30 years ago, chances are you’d be on a cruise ship that was British through and through. Set dining, strict formal nights, and roast beef and Yorkshire pud on the menu every Sunday was the norm. Not any more. Over the past 20 years or so, American and European cruise lines have muscled in on the UK act with ships that offer a more laid-back style of holiday to appeal to a younger generation.
British lines P&O Cruises, Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines and Ambassador Cruise Line are still hugely popular with their mainly UK customer base, but even they have moved with the times, offering speciality restaurants alongside the main dining room, while also relaxing dress codes.
Even Cunard, the king of formal, has rowed back on the number of dressy evenings scheduled on each cruise. Over-50s favourite Saga, meanwhile, has taken a leaf out of the luxury lines’ book and dismissed allocated dining altogether. Now you can turn up and eat when you feel peckish, sitting as a couple or joining friends. It’s your holiday, your choice.
So far so British but just look at the other choices you’ve got. Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises offer holidays on larger family-friendly ships with a lively American vibe that are a destination in themselves. What with a multitude of restaurants, goodness knows how many bars, water slides that promise to take your breath away and kids’ clubs that keep the children entertained with fun, games and activities, you don’t really need to get off.
Hop on Norwegian Cruise Line’s Iceland adventure on Norwegian Prima in September next year and you can speed around a go-kart track on the Atlantic one day and dip in geothermal waters in Reykajvic’s Blue Lagoon the next. Best of all, you can do all that sailing out and back from Southampton. No flights, no bother.
Princess Cruises’ American-style Sky Princess is back in the UK next summer with its swanky suites and lively piazza. You can find out why Oceania Cruises is a foodie favourite on various sailings from Southampton or treat yourself to an ultra-luxury voyage from Dover with Seabourn that comes with champagne on tap. New in summer 2025, Holland America Line joins the UK’s no-fly cruise club with 10 sailings round-trip from Dover on Nieuw Statendam.
Between them, these lines offer cruises to the Mediterranean and Baltic. Visit the Norwegian Fjords, Iceland, Greenland and the Canary Islands, all without setting foot in an airport. You can go in search of the Northern Lights in Norway and if time is on your side, island-hopping in the Caribbean, circumnavigating South America, or even sailing around the world. If adventure is calling, Silversea has a raft of new no-fly expedition cruises next summer that take passengers bird-spotting and hiking around the UK. Talk about choice and variety and right on our doorstep too! I wonder how long it will be before history goes full circle and more Brits cruise from the UK rather than fly. Watch this space, as they say. 
