Sea Days Vs. Port Days

[Nana G]

We also enjoy port days better. So much to do, so little time. Sea days are rather boring if you just want to fight crowds, argue about chairs at the pool, or catch up on sleep. To each his own. 1 or 2 tops for sea days. Do enjoy getting back on ship ahead of the crowd on port days too, with all the free space!

[shepp]

All this praise for sea days is making me feel better, since my two upcoming bookings have a higher proportion of sea days than I've yet experienced. But I love port days in places I want to go to, which is pretty much everywhere. Maybe I just don't get jaded. I mean, I've spent literally months visiting the Lake Tahoe area over the years, and still find it exciting and beautiful. I suppose that Diamonds International and Margaritaville can get old, but honestly, scuba diving off Cozumel or hiking in Alaska is (even) more fun than winning at trivia.

[wizard-of-roz]

All this praise for sea days is making me feel better, since my two upcoming bookings have a higher proportion of sea days than I've yet experienced. But I love port days in places I want to go to, which is pretty much everywhere. Maybe I just don't get jaded. I mean, I've spent literally months visiting the Lake Tahoe area over the years, and still find it exciting and beautiful. I suppose that Diamonds International and Margaritaville can get old, but honestly, scuba diving off Cozumel or hiking in Alaska is (even) more fun than winning at trivia.

 

Yes, this is very true.....the wonders of the sea and land do "trump" any trivia game and the solitude of a quiet ship and quiet buffet! :)

[janina]

We enjoy the sea days. I can relax and not run around.

[Tatka]

I look at the "problem" this way - you can turn any port day into the sea day, but it's pretty much impossible to turn sea day into port day. So I prefer as many port days as possible, but I am not trying to kill myself with gazillion excursions. :)

 

But, I also would take 9 dayer out of NYC area with many seadays for the same price as flying + cruising 7 days.

[VibeGuy]

I look at my days as one of three:

 

1. Sea Days
   
2. Port Days With A Goal (tending to be exhausting/non-relaxing)
   
3. Goal-less Port Days (chill)
   

 

One and two are pretty self-explanatory.

 

It's the third category that is key for me. There are ports I really could not care any less about. These are the places where I might wander to the grocery store to stock up on local snack/junk food as awesome souvenirs or whatever, but I'm not there to participate in a particular activity or see a particular sight. If I don't get up until the crack of lunch, and I'm only off the ship for an hour, it's not a waste, it's me having a lazy vacation day at a fabulous resort.

 

I try to pick itineraries where I'm not doing four of any of the three in a row. Alaska is a good example; doing the VAN-ANC-VAN B2B, you have a frenzied day (embarkation) followed by a sea day, followed by, in my case, a non-goal oriented port day, followed by a go-like-hell day, followed by a go-like-hell-very-very-long-day, followed by two effective sea days, followed by an epic saga day, and then it's reversed. That really, really works for me.

 

In the Caribbean, St. Thomas, for example, can go either way - if I'm B2B and calling there twice, one day is a St. John's goal-oriented day, the other, I might walk to the Pueblo market and otherwise hang out onboard.

 

E

[Ms. Alpha]

I have used the number of port/sea days and the number of port days in a row to make decisions on which cruise to take.

I enjoy seeing new places and love to tour exotic ports, but I also don't want to go home so tired I need a vacation. On our last cruise, the last 4 days of a 10 - day Panama transit were ports in central America. I had never been to any of these places (and did not now if I would ever get back) so I was torn, biut we had to pace ourselves. Since most of the tours were very long as the attractions were far from port, we deliberately chose not plan an excursion for one of the middle ports. We relaxed on board while most passengers rushed ashore, then went ashore at our leisure for a short trip through the market and headed for the beach for a walk and swim, then returned to the ship in time for a late lunch on a quiet ship. If I was revisiting a port I had seen before, I might be tempted to stay on board.

 

I love the relaxed pace of sea days! We are low key people and enjoy the quiet time (together or separately). We don't go in for trivia, or other games, but like finding a place to relax (balcony, library, outer decks) and soak up the joy of cruising. I would have trouble doing another 7 day cruise (unless it was part of a b2b as they are usually port intensive.

[The Wilkies]

Definitely sea days. My real hate is something like 5 ports of call in 5 days. Love it when there is a sea day or two between.

[bmccarthy]

We love both, but mixing it up is the best. I like having a sea day at the beginning to get acquainted with my surroundings and to relax from traveling, plus one at the end to relax from a busy week and time to pack.

 

Our first cruise was an 8 night itinerary with 5 port days. Our last day was a port day, but wasn't till afternoon, so we were able to pack a little in the morning. We only had 1 excursion booked that was all-day relaxing at a private island. We really enjoyed the sea days relaxing and hanging out with fellow cc friends. We also spent parts of the some of the port days on the ship before getting off.

 

I have also done a couple of weekend Bahamas cruises with no excursions booked. Sometimes I get off and meander around, sometimes I stay onboard and enjoy the ship when it is less crowded.

 

There have been ports where we didn't have anything booked and we got off and walked around the shopping areas. That wasn't very exciting as we aren't big shoppers.

 

Beth :D