On cruise ships, misery may not like company but happiness certainly does.

That’s why most passengers often make friends with total strangers during a cruise, for they’ve got something in common – a love of the good life.

A new study from Harvard Medical School and the University of San Diego, California, has confirmed that happiness is contagious. But so is misery so maybe people should think twice about the company they keep, especially on a cruise ship.

The fact is that every cruise passenger has the ability to make you happy – some by embarking and some by disembarking.

One of the keys to finding the perfect cruise for you is to do some research on the size and type of ship that suits your particular need. The easiest way is to contact Virgin Cruises, for their consultants have great in depth knowledge of the cruise industry.

Just remember that when you’re booking a cruise, size is everything.

Small ships that carry up to 500 passengers may not have the range of public rooms and on-board entertainment that larger ships offer. But quite often they do offer a level of service not found aboard many larger ships. Plus they’re easier to get around and usually provide open seating in their dining room so that you can avoid people who would otherwise turn, for you, a happy voyage into a miserable one. Small ships also tend to be much more exclusive.

Medium-sized ships that carry from 500 to 1,000 passengers tend to appear more like the traditional liners most people imagine when they’re thinking of taking a cruise. They are also fairly easy to get around and have the advantage over small ships of being able to sail comfortably in areas of bad weather.

While finding your way around large ships that carry between 1,000 and 4,000 passengers can at times be frustrating they do have far more facilities and activities that appeal to people of all ages. And many people enjoy the huge scale and spectacle of the ship and the buzz of being, for the duration of the cruise, part of a floating leisure resort that travels around the world.

And which of the three do I prefer? It depends on the mood, timing, and the quality of the ship but I tend to go for the mid-sized vessels, for my home town on the Isle of Wight is so small there’s no place to go where I shouldn’t.

Talking of which, I was sharing a balcony and a bottle of fine wine on board Crystal Serenity a while ago with a fellow passenger admiring the elegant ship’s contemporary design.

My companion, who’d come out ahead in the ship’s Crystal Palace at Sea casino and was trying to hide the proceeds from his ex-wife said that happiness is good health and a bad memory.

He added that when he packed his suitcase and started to leave his wife she yelled at him, “You’ll be back before you know it you son-of-a-bitch. How long do you think you can stand happiness?”

Quite a long time, actually, judging by the beautiful demure woman on his arm and the smile on his face.

James Leavey

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