Dinner Cruise

Are you all at sea over choosing a dinner cruise - make a meal of it with our free guide

Whether it's a quiet night for two under the stars or a buffet party where the kids are welcome, a dinner cruise has it all

A dinner cruise is the perfect way to enjoy an evening of your beach holiday. After spending a day sunbathing, swimming, surfing or enjoying other activities, these cruises are a great way to take a calming break. Wherever your holiday is based, there will certainly be a choice of places to enjoy a relaxing cruise while enjoying the local cuisine. Together with your partner, a relaxing sailboat expedition and a bottle of champagne on an exotic dinner cruise is a perfect way to have a good time.

Many cruise ship companies have separate dinner cruises for couples and for families. After the meal, they offer entertainment for their guests with dancing and music late into the night. Children on the family cruises will love the relaxation of rules and enjoy their parents adopting the more continental attitude towards what constitutes bedtime. Most cruises will have live entertainment like a band or a comedian but it is also possible to find more cultural type presentations such as hula shows on Maui cruises.

There will be a fixed departure place and time for your dinner cruise. The time is usually early enough so that the ship can be out at sea in time to give sunset and landmark views and for people to relax before the partying commence. On a more romantic dinner cruise, the meal will, if possible, be eaten on deck and under the moonlight or starlight. A family dinner cruise is likely to be a more informal affair indoors with buffet style 'help yourself' which, of course, is popular with children and parents.

If the dinner cruise is near a major town or city then the location for the meal may be just off the coast and sufficiently close so that the city skyline and its lights form a backdrop to the scene. Sometimes, and particularly on a cruise of this type, the ship will put ashore near a nightclub where those who have nocturnal tendencies and the energy can continue their revelling into the early hours.

Some people may opt for an all-day cruise which ends with dinner. Although this is obviously going to be more expensive, it does mean that more sights can be taken in and that passengers have a greater opportunity to get to know each other.

A dinner cruise is great fun and the food is almost always to the highest standard as well as being plentiful. It has long been known that a well-fed crew was a happy crew and it was only logical to apply the same reasoning to passenger-carrying vessels. The result is that each ship will attract experienced chefs, the fruits of whose labour you are encouraged to sample. Don't forget, though, that it can be cold on deck at night and it is a good idea to have warm clothes with you when you board your dinner cruise ship.