Its coming home…. maybe! But you can still watch all the World Cup action on a cruise.

With Englands success so far in the world cup, for some it could throw up an inconvenient dilemma. What if I am on holiday or more specifically on a cruise when a game is on?

Ive had this dilemma before myself as I was due to go on a Royal Caribbean cruise in May when the Europa league final was on. Luckily Arsenal didnt make it as I think I would have been otherwise engaged onboard but for some the yearly calendar revolves around different sports so how can you balance the two whilst being on a cruise?

Luckily cruiselines know this and have their very own sports bars for the sports mad to retire to so they dont miss any action.

Below are some of the best ones in the business….

• Carnival’s Sports Bars
  Again the sports bars on Carnival are packed with TVs for watching games but the best feature for me (as someone who enjoys the occasional game of Fifa) a lot of these also have the option to play on the latest EA sports games whilst in bar, fantastic.

All Carnival ships have this

• Royal Caribbean’s Playmakers Sports Bar & Arcade
  Playmakers usually has over 30 flat screen tvs with different sports ons. Aside from that Playmakers serves bar food and has an impressive array of things like pool tables and arcade games. I was impressed with this compared to other sports bars I’ve seen and I would have been confident not to miss something important if I was onboard at the time!

Ships Playmakers is currently on – Symphony of the Seas, Independence of the Seas (Ive been in here on Independence and it is pretty impressive.) and Mariner of the Seas.

• MSC’s The Sports Bar/L’Olimpiade
  As well as a few big screens these bars also have the nice touch of lots of sporting memorabilia for the megafans and are quite a relaxed laid back affair. Some come with mini bowling lanes (at a charge) as well.

On the following MSC ships – Divina, Preziosa, Splendida, Fantasia, Magnifica, Seaside and Meraviglia

It must be said not every cruiseline have provision for this, or at least not the mega bars listed. I found on the P&O cruise I was on in October that options for sporting events seemed a little limited but for the sports fans out there there are at least some options going!