Curious....Do you really want to cruise?

[K1P2Par3]

Our first cruise was a quickie to Canada, just to see if we enjoyed the experience. We loved it, and knew that someday we'd cruise again. The problem is, we really enjoy exploring our destinations, mainly on our own, and a cruise with multiple stops doesn't give us that opportunity.

 

We spend a week in St. Maarten every year, at our timeshare. We know the island well, we have our favorite beaches, restaurants, etc. There is actually a small restaurant where the owner recognizes us every year. It feels like our home away from home. We have also seen several European countries and a good chunk of the USA.

 

Our second cruise was to the Eastern Caribbean. I had misgivings about having only a few hours in each port, but it turned out there was a plus side. I know now I'll never go back to Grand Turk (too flat, not at all pretty), I wouldn't mind going back to Puerto Rico, and I would love to go back to St. Thomas for a week and explore it more thoroughly. So, if you look at it that way, a cruise gives you the fun of cruising, and it's a sampler of destinations that will help you decide which ones are worth going back to.

 

My hubby and I both love the cruise experience - not so much for the pool, the food, the activities, the shows - but more for the idea that we're traveling on water to get from one place to another. We spent a lot of time on both cruises just sitting on our balcony, watching the water, marveling at the vastness of the ocean and sky. Sounds corny, I guess, but it takes me back in time. It's a pleasant, relaxing, amazing way to travel.

 

So I guess this was a long-winded answer, with the point that I like to have my cake and eat it, too. I enjoy flying to one destination, and doing the research about what to see and do when we get there. But I also like being out on the water, and seeing a variety of destinations. In fact, the ship itself is another "destination" because there's a lot to explore and do onboard.

 

I would say don't write off either type of vacation. Life is too short to get to everyplace I want to see - I'll never make it, even if I live to be 150! If I get to some of them for a few hours via ship, and some of them for days at a time, via plane, I think that will be a nice mix.

[Nowisthetime1]

:)To us a cruise is the best way to travel and still have some time to relax. Our longest cruise was 21 days and shortest 7 days. We are never ready to get off of a ship. We are both positive people and do not let little things bother us. Like anything in life there is always something to complain about, but why bother. Life is too short. We have met some rude passengers but why let them bother you. You probably will never see them again in your life. And there is no guarantee no matter what one does or where one goes there may never be any problems. Your attitude is what makes them ruin your vacation or not. We have traveled by land alot also, but a cruise is the most relaxing and enjoyable to us. We are going to Egypt for 16 days in Sept, by land. Although we are going on a boat down the Neil for 4 days making daily stops. We have found most of life is what YOU make it not what is happening. Your reaction can make a big difference. I hope you truly enjoy your cruise and welcome to the cruise family. We have a 7 day cruise scheduled in Dec and an 11 day cruise Mar 21, 2011 already. My dream is a cruise over 100 days or around the world. Money is all that stops me. God bless you! :)

[Upandadam]

We cruise because we love the ship and the ocean. We also mix it up with all inclusive resorts as well as various other vacations, but most of our week long or more vacations are on a ship because it.s on a ship. Lol

[chachi]

I take a few cruises a year, but I also take land vacations. I am lucky because I have 15 weeks of vacation at work with many other long weekends. I have no children. I am able to take multiple trips a year. I love cruises, but I also love land vacations. I have also volunteered abroad to learn about other cultures. I would never give up land vacations for cruises. I also would not give up cruises. Just have to do both.

[Newcruiser65]

I take land based vacations which I enjoy a lot, but cruising relaxes me in a way that I can't explain. Maybe because I was California born and bred and have been living in the south for the last 20 years or so. I guess I miss the ocean so being out on the ocean feels wonderful. There has not been a single cruise I have been on where I was ready to get off of the ship when the trip was over.

 

Sea days are my favorite. My boyfriend loves visiting ports and is not as ocean obsessed as I am. He enjoys going to different places while I enjoy relaxing on the sea. So it works perfectly for us.

 

My kids love both land base and cruising equally. They are just excited when I tell them we are going somewhere, wherever that may be.:)

[JennLuvs2Cruise]

I have traveled to many places inside the US and outside of the US, and not always from cruising. But at the end of the day, I prefer to cruise. I just cruised in June and we are already planning one for next June. I love the ease of cruising.. not having to worry about where to eat, where to stay, what to do, where to go. It is so stress-free for my family & myself. I sailed in June with my son who was 9 months old at the time and the staff was fantastic with him. It was such an easy way to vacation with an infant. I'm really looking forward to next summer's cruise.

 

PS - I went to Australia five years ago for three weeks & it was a FANTASTIC time. Pretty expensive, but well worth the journey!! ;)

[cls624]

We have been alternating our Cruises with land vacations, every year.

We don't want to get bored with just Cruising.

We take big vacations once a year. In summer we also drive down to Tennessee to visit my parents, brother and sister in-law, who live just South of Knoxville.

We do love the Caribbean!!

My husband isn't ready for the Mediterranean yet!:rolleyes:

 

My Dream Cruise is Hawaii!:p

[mrs141]

Before I was introduced to cruising by my friend, I traveled all over the US. When my friend explained to me everything about the cruise...unlimited food, seeing exotic islands, relaxing, etc. I was interested. After my first cruise I was hooked. You can't beat the price you pay and everything you get with your cruise.

 

On top of that. I love being out in sea. I have no stress from school, work, no cell phone. I am at my own pace and I can have fun and relax.. YEAH

[hubofhockey]

The people who do multiple Caribbean cruises every year are hard core cruisers. We like going on cruises but have overdosed on the Caribbean. We did a Med cruise this year (without the kids) and will do one next year on the Carnival Magic. After that, we'll mix in a land vacation with the kids and do a British Isles cruise on Princess. When we go to Europe, we'll do a few days at the embarcation or disembarcation ports. For us, it's good to mix things up and that includes cruise lines too.

[SASA13]

The reason I love to cruise is because it is a "NO BRAINER". The only thing I have to think about is

what to wear, what to eat, and what to do.

 

Working all year at a high stress job, I look forward to a vacation that takes little to no thinking while doing it.

[Synthetic]

I started cruising back in the 80s while in the military as a 'vacation' where they truly couldn't bother me... I got instantly hooked.

 

Even now that they have cell service at sea, I still love that it is perceptually unheard of to bother someone on a cruise unless it is an extreme emergency.

 

Work has NEVER tried to use the number I leave them to contact me if absolutely necessary... Maybe it is the $12.95/minutes ship-to-shore fee lol

 

If for no other reason, I love that you are truly untouchable on a cruise.

[Time2CruiseAgain]

We love cruising! We love sitting on the balcony and the peace of the sea! We love the ports and the no planning needed basically!

 

Most of all we love that it is a total get away from everything - with cell phones turned off and we don't purchase internet time!

 

We just wish we could do it more often!

[near the beach]

Do you really want to cruise? Yes! We wouldn’t if we did not want to. We always drive to the port we are sailing from. No air fare or transfers. No hotel before or after the cruise. That in its self could cost as much as a cruise. A cruise can be as active or as lazy as you want it. We vacation to get away from it all. No work, no computers, no cell phones. On land vacations the cells phones seem to stay on. About the only time I want to know what is going on in the world on a cruise is once in a while I visit the sports bar. Every cruise is something new. Even if we have been to the same port before. If we had more vacation time we would cruise more. Much more. As Captain Jack Sparrow said “Show me that horizon”. :cool:

[azpilot]

Sure but we don't cruise every year either or multiple times a year all the time. We split up cruising with doing other vacations each year. We may cruise 1 time a year and do some small 3-4 day weekend trips somewhere or we may do vacations to parts of the US and then do no cruising. This year and next we are doing 3 cruises and then hopefully after the 2012 cruise we will take a break and do our Southeast Asia trips to Japan and possibly China.

[Vanessa L]

The more I thought about this question it seems to become dumber and dumber to ask but I figured whatever, I'll ask anyway. Do you who cruise multiple times year after year, vacation after vacation really want to? Even those who just started. We will be going on our first on the Victory next year and we can't wait, so I don't want to come across as knocking cruisers. But I think there is so much to do out there. Like I would love to do an entire Uk tour vacation or Scandavia, or even spend a couple weeks in Australia and New Zealand, even here in the states. Thats just to name a few. So do you guy's just do it because it's a fabulous bang for your buck vacation going to many exotic places, or do you ever want to branch out at the cost of cruising less? Like I said, no knock against cruising because I'm pretty sure I will get the bug,(and that worries me a little) but do you forsake other dream vacations to do it? I would ask the same question in reverse to people that do the same land vacation time after time.

 

I concur that cruising is not the be all, end all. We cruise because we love it but also see the rest of the world as well. We try to alternate cruising with trips to Europe or Asia. I've seen most of the islands in the Caribbean, so cruising for me is strictly RnR. I enjoy going back to some islands, but mostly, just enjoy the relaxation that comes with cruising. When touring Europe or others, having to pack and unpack makes it less relaxing, IMHO.

[StingRaysfan]

I love to cruise... I agree with everyone that said it was just a relaxing, no worries way to travel. We still do some land vacations, but usually in the US. Whether is just visiting family, Vegas, the Grand Canyon or renting a cabin the mountains...

 

But when it's all said and done.. it's just more relaxing to cruise. I don't have to worry about where I'm going to eat, or cooking for anyone, and there is always something to do to include just vegging on the balcony staring at the ocean. It's easier to plan... and being in Florida, it's cheaper and more convinent too. It turns me off when plane fair to get somewhere is the same price as a cruise.

[LHP]

I think you area assuming that people who cruise frequently don't do anything else.

 

In our case (and I am sure many others) you would be wrong.

 

Yes, we cruise a lot. But we also have done everything from land tours to Italy, Israel, Poland, Alaska to theme parks, water parks and Nascar races.

 

We just spent a week last October in Charlotte taking our son to all the Nascar garages before ending up in Talladega for the race.

[golfadj]

Interesting thread.

 

Cruising is nice and easy. Get to the ship unpack and you have your home for the next 7-8 days.

 

Would not like to stay one week in one place would get bored rather quickly.

 

Nice having great food and entertainment so convenient at a price we can afford to go 2-3 x per year. Easy to make friends on roll calls and around the ship so have others to hang out with each time.

 

I do run a business and will take my laptop wherever we go and keep up with business on a cruise.

 

Rigght now hard to get away for more than about 10 days so we have been going to the Caribbean up to now.

 

Honestly getting bored with the same islands over and over and after the next two (S Caribbean and Bermuda) we do plan to try other places such as Europe which might well be a land tour but would be two weeks trips.

[Alliezona09]

We cruise because my husband does not fly~ so if we didn't cruise then we'd only get to see the USA~one day we want to take the roundtrip Hawaiian cruise and eventually do transatlantic~and to answer your question YES, I REALLY want to cruise~ I love love love cruising!

[elcuchio24]

We mix cruises with land vacations, driving distance vacations, and volunteer work-ations. Makes every experience more meaningful if you mix it up some.

[notme1955]

We cruise and take land vacations.

 

Both are great, but my preference is cruising. I love being on a ship on the ocean. Nothing beats it! I love watching the ocean. I could, honestly, care less about most of the ports, nor am I that interested in the food. If I could take a week long cruise to nowhere, I'd be perfectly happy!

 

So, to answer the OP's question, I cruise because I really, really WANT to do it!

[Jolimont]

We don't cruise that much, once the year at most, sometimes we go a couple of years in-between. So most of the vacations we take are on land, with family, visiting Europe, visiting the US, we get around. But when Mama wants a vacation--a real vacation where I don't have to do anything--we cruise. I LOVE IT, it's so relaxing for mothers. So there you have it.

[Texas_firefighter]

We got to visit 4 of the Hawaiian Islands (5 ports) by taking a cruise. It would have been so much more $$$$ if we had done this by land, but now we can someday go back to our favorite Hawaiian Island as a land vacation.

 

 

Exactly!! We have cuised the Hawaiian Islands and feel the same way about going back (hopefully).

We've been to Cozumel many times on cruises, but most enjoyed the week we stayed there flying in before our cruising days began. Always will blend in land based vacations.

[cruisenanny]

We are addicted to cruising & to Disneyworld.. There are many many things I would love to do, but when it comes time to book a vaycay, there is never anything I would rather do more than cruise or visit Mickey.... When we eventually decide to see Hawaii, Alaska & Europe, I'm pretty sure it will be via cruising also. We love the all inclusive, no worries, out of touch with reality kind of vacation that a cruise provides.... Not to mention there is just nothing better for me than being at sea, I would cruise WITHOUT ports of call!

[valtandc]

The more I thought about this question it seems to become dumber and dumber to ask but I figured whatever, I'll ask anyway. Do you who cruise multiple times year after year, vacation after vacation really want to? Even those who just started. We will be going on our first on the Victory next year and we can't wait, so I don't want to come across as knocking cruisers. But I think there is so much to do out there. Like I would love to do an entire Uk tour vacation or Scandavia, or even spend a couple weeks in Australia and New Zealand, even here in the states. Thats just to name a few. So do you guy's just do it because it's a fabulous bang for your buck vacation going to many exotic places, or do you ever want to branch out at the cost of cruising less? Like I said, no knock against cruising because I'm pretty sure I will get the bug,(and that worries me a little) but do you forsake other dream vacations to do it? I would ask the same question in reverse to people that do the same land vacation time after time.

 

I agree completely with you. I couldn't imagine only cruising. The main reason is I just want to get away from people on some of my vacations....or really explore a culture or area. When I spent a week in a house in antigua for example, I rented a jeep. I found so much to that island...the people...the food....privacy.....can't wait to do something like that again....

 

or sugmerge yourself in a city for say 3-5 days and just explore at your pace........

 

....but I sure as hell can't wait for my cruise in 6 weeks....cause they are awesome!!!