DnD CruiserZ

Wow, I got two duh's in a row! that has got to be a record. Would you travel or have you traveled to NA for a cruise?

Well, thanks for not being snarky! It was kinda touch and go there. 😀 If you have read all the posts, you will have noticed I pointed out that most of these long trips to the embarkation port are not people coming to a NA cruise/itinerary but rather us going abroad as well as UK/European travelers (also not coming to NA). As I had stated, is that because we just don't have interesting enough itinerates out of NA ports or the cruise lines available here are not up to par? Just playing you know whos advocate. If it is the destination as you said, why bother with the cruise portion at all? Port time is usually limited, most of your time is spent onboard and if as you said "If you just want a week at sea, most people can find a ship of similar class that sails from a port a lot closer to home", why not just travel to the port locations directly and have a "land" trip? Please don't misunderstand me, I'm not questioning peoples choices, but rather trying to understand something I don't have enough experience cruising to understand. What is the big draw over just a land trip? To me, based on the consumer grade cruises I have been on, I don't know that I would fly more than 4-6-8 or I don't know how many hours to get there to get a cruise ship experience I could potentially have driven to. If it is the destination, then why steal "destination time" by spending it on a ship? I am hoping it is the quality of the cruise AND the itinerary combined to make it worth while and since I have only been on NA Carnival/NCL/RCCL, I don't know what I'm missing. obviously I need to find a "better" cruise line experience. Someday I will!

Are cruises that far away that much different from a cruise you can get to by cab? Obviously the ports of call are different but the actual cruise portion itself. Is it different enough to warrant a 8-9-10k mile flight or series of flights to get to. Again, obviously the ports of call are unique and I am guessing that is main of the reason for the long travel to embarkation, not just the cruise portion or am looking at it wrong?

I assume at some point we will book a cruise that is exclusive/special/unique/desirable enough to require such advanced planning!

With the exception of John Bull, everybody who has responded so far is from North America going elsewhere. I assume it's partly due to time zone differences and we may get more responses as the day/night progresses from other parts of this wonderful world. I know it is too small of a sample to draw any conclusions but are North American ports/itinerary's not attractive to the rest of the world? In my small 4 cruise history, it seemed like the vast majority of the people on my cruises were North American. Is this due to economics? Shorter travel is obviously cheaper. Some North Americans can afford to go farther and apparently do. Will the same happen with the rest of the world? Is what we have to offer enticing enough for people from the rest of the world to break open their piggy bank and travel to North America to catch a Mexican Riviera, Alaskan or Caribbean cruise? For those who traveled half way around the world to go on a cruise, if you lived over there, would you have traveled here for a cruise? Hmmm...

I guess the test would be; Would you have booked the Cairo trip had you not been going on the cruise? I am going to assume in this case you are going from New England to Cairo. Any other destinations or activities are just a product of efficient travel planning!

Spent a long weekend in Savannah, October last year. Beautiful place.

I have been in the "How many days until your next cruise" topic and I was surprised to see some people counting down from hundreds of days. I mean HUNDREDS of days. It got me to thinking about not only how far out in time but how far in distance have people traveled to go cruising. Some people live in a port city where they may be able to just roll out of bed and head to the terminal while others may be in the middle of their county and have miles and miles to go...still others may go to another country. So, what is the farthest you have traveled to get to your cruise? Mine was from Phoenix, AZ, USA to Orlando (Port Canaveral) FL, USA

In one hour and 30 minutes, we will be under 60 days!

8²+1² and 7²+4² Also the Magic Constant in a 5x5 Magic Square.

2015 on the Carnival Imagination. 3 couples, all our first time on a cruise. 3 day cruise out of Long Beach. Nobody new what to expect or if we would all like it. If anybody got sea sick or anything, it was just a few hours to the end of the cruise! We all had a great time. Some of us (not me) were hating the drive back to Phoenix if you catch my meaning...

And we made it...I can almost smell the ocean.

This won't help pre cruise but it might be interesting to know later. When we cruised on NCL to AK in May, we were told by some ship staff, shuttle bus drivers, excursion operators we had between 2400 to 2700. I think the ship full is 4008. The point is all 3 sources were within about 300 of each other. I would assume there might be some sort of communication between the cruiseline and the ports so the restaurants/shopping/excursion operators/shuttle busses know what to schedule for. I would like to think they would have more busses available for 4008 people potentially getting off the ship than 24-2700. Or...I'm crazy to assume there would be some kind of planning... Edit...I guess during the cruise, they will share that information, so never mind, not a big secret...carry on...

68 days 5 hours and 36 minutes...

yup, counting the days (yea, I said that) until then...

We are on the Panorama Sep 3rd. We booked the pasta class. From the time we first looked at cooking classes to when we decided to book it, one of the options no longer showed up. I think it was the pizza class but I may be mistaken.

Search for in-room-food-beverage. I originally posted this as a link but it did not work unless your are signed in. Try this one https://www.carnival.com/in-room-food-beverages/

(8² + 3²) -2 (Actually in five hours from now...)

Thank you for the insight. I figured it was something along those lines. One of these years we will book a cruise worthy of selling out years in advance. For now, we just enjoy the mass market 3, 4, or 7 days away from work!

Wow, over 2 years! I can't imagine booking that far out since I don't even know what I'm having for dinner tonight! Heidi13 and anybody else, out of curiosity, why book so far in advance? I have seen it many times, even in this thread. If it locks in a great deal or considering inflation right now (in the US at least) it might save money in the long run, I get it. Is it to get the "right" cabin? Something to look forward to for 2 years? Again, just curious. I think the longest I waited was maybe 5 months...

LXXII

Right on the money!

0b1001001

Carnival Inspiration Oct 2019 As you can see, fog rolled in rather abruptly during a life boat drill. We may or may not have played a prank on a friend who did not make this cruise. A properly cropped photo showing dense "smoke" and life boats in the water along with a message that may or may not have lead the friend to believe we were in a life boat off the coast of Mexico, being evacuated due to "an issue" on board.

Carnival Inspiration Oct 2019 As you can see, fog rolled in rather abruptly during a life boat drill. We may or may not have played a prank on a friend who did not make this cruise. A properly cropped photo showing dense "smoke" and life boats in the water along with a message that may or may not have lead the friend to believe we were in a life boat off the coast of Mexico, being evacuated due to "an issue" on board.