Sort a long cruise's shore excursions by how much walking they take
Michael Lucas, who will turn 70 in 2027, is getting ready for a 129-day world cruise that starts in January 2027. He used Google's Gemini and NotebookLM to go through the whole itinerary, pick step-free shore excursions, and turn his cruise papers into port-by-port guides, maps, and short videos he can use on the trip.
What they did
After trekking to Machu Picchu and hiking around Iguazu Falls when he was younger, he writes that he has "no desire to push through exhausting, steep trails today." So he loaded his itinerary and cruise documents into Gemini and NotebookLM and asked for help with the walking side of the trip: excursions rated Easy or Moderate, flat walking routes, accessible vehicle transfers, ports where passengers ride a small boat (a tender) to shore, and landmarks he could photograph from the ship's deck without walking at all.
How it went
He ended up with a port-by-port guide to accessible shore excursions, a tender-port guide covering places like Easter Island and Bora Bora, a deck photography schedule matched to arrival times, an itinerary map, and video and audio overviews. He says planning with AI has been as rewarding as the trip itself. It wasn't perfect: the AI narration on one overview video skipped the Europe and Scandinavia part of the voyage, and he points out that image tools are bad at geography unless they're working from real map data.
Worth knowing
Excursion difficulty ratings, tender rules, and arrival times come from the cruise line and can change, so check every AI summary against your cruise line's own excursion descriptions and talk with its accessibility or shore-excursion desk about anything that matters for your mobility. Don't upload booking numbers, passport details, or account logins. Treat AI-made maps as rough sketches, not navigation.
Try it yourself
Copy this into Gemini (or any AI assistant). Replace the parts in [brackets] with your own details.
I'm attaching my cruise itinerary and the cruise line's shore excursion descriptions, with booking numbers and personal details removed. I walk [describe: e.g., short distances with a cane, no steep steps]. For each port, list the excursions in three groups: little or no walking, some walking, and strenuous. Give the reason for each rating from the description. Flag ports where we go ashore by tender, and suggest what I could see from the ship if I stay aboard. Quote the description for anything you're unsure about, and give me questions to ask the shore-excursion desk. [attach itinerary and excursion list]
Source: Michael Lucas, My Travel Blog (Michael Lucas), Aug 1, 2026. Read the original →
First-hand account by the person who did it. Summarized in our own words. Spotted a mistake or want this removed? Tell us.