The key is booking a short holiday cruise. Sometimes a very, very short one-day cruise will let you have the experience without the major time expense.

There are a number of great options for these types of cruises, depending on the region you are visiting. You may even use the one-day cruise as part of your transport to your other holiday locations. Consider taking a cruise from New England to Florida. That is just one of many one-day cruises offered by Carnival cruise lines. Others will allow travel along the U.S. west coast, around the Hawaiian Islands, or even into Mexico.

On the other side of the world, there are day cruises offered through Sydney Harbor in Australia, voyages through the waterways of China, and even cruises that will take you through the Isles of Greece or the Mediterranean.

I guess the point here is that there are one or two day cruise options in all different climates, on all different continents and they will all give you a different way to view that region, while still having time in your holiday vacation to spend on land or visiting other areas.

In addition, if you are booking your cruise at a special time of year, there may be other cruise opportunities waiting. A number of the cruise lines offer special cruises around holidays. If you were thinking of traveling on the Fourth of July, near Thanksgiving Christmas or New Years, you should see what kind of extra special cruise offerings are available.

Before you book a one day cruise, it is important to know just because it says it is a one-day cruise, it could actually be a little longer. The term one-day really refers to the one night you will stay on the ship. So, if you leave early the first day, spend the night and spend much of the next day aboard, your trip will really be more like a two day stay.

Here is a list of very popular one-day cruises

Seward, Alaska ? Cruises here will take you out to Fox Island where you can see wildlife usually only reserved for National Geographic videos, such as sea lions, sea otters, humpback whales, and puffins.

Valdez, Alaska ? Here the one day cruises will take you though Prince William Sound to watch the whales, and get up close to the glaciers.

Monterey, California ? Another offshore wildlife adventure sails for a day from this port, where there is a good amount of whale watching to be done as well as catching the antics of sea otters and seals.

San Diego, California ? For a day of fresh air, and great scenery, this is the one-day sail to take. Sometimes it will also turn into a wildlife-watching trip.