Opinions on long cruises

[BlueLadyBlue]

DH & I are booked on the Rotterdam in January for a 51 day cruise from Rotterdam to Singapore (so excited). Our longest main stream cruise so far is 12 days. Just wondering how you all enjoyed (or not) the long cruises? Pros and cons? I think they may have to drag me off in Singapore kicking and screaming. LOL:D

[diamond forever]

Two years ago I was on a 30 day cruise sad face when it ended

November on a 31 day cruise can't wait :)

[comcox]

The longest cruises I've done were 35 and 30 days and they were both wonderful. A lot depends on how you enjoy your down time and whether the ship's amenities and activities are a good match for those preferences.

 

I love to read, watch good movies, and to swim/workout in my free time. So I look for a ship that has a great library, shows newer films and has a decent pool and workout room. I also look for a ship that attracts the kind of people I enjoy being around. So, for me, a long cruise's worst nightmare would be a Carnival ship full of 20-somethings getting drunk and playing stupid games:rolleyes:

[Martezz]

We have been on a 35 day Voyage of the Vikings cruise, 54 day Australian cruise and soon 68 day South America one...also took some short ones, but our preference is the long ones...we love them..even the spells of sea days. It is definitely one of the reasons we keep taking HAL cruises, as they off the only itineraries.

[Krazy Kruizers]

The longest we have been on a ship is for 30 days -- and we loved it.

So many places to see -- so many things to do.

We were sad when we left the ship.

[NMLady]

DH & I are booked on the Rotterdam in January for a 51 day cruise from Rotterdam to Singapore (so excited). Our longest main stream cruise so far is 12 days. Just wondering how you all enjoyed (or not) the long cruises? Pros and cons? I think they may have to drag me off in Singapore kicking and screaming. LOL:D

 

Although it was not on HAL, when I was on a 33 day b2b2b cruise, when it came to an end I was wishing we'd added the 4th segment for an additional 7 days. i think you're right that you won't want to leave the ship at final disembarkation.

[Lifeguard28]

Longest I've ever done is a 7 day cruise and each time I'm ready to get off. I think the key is to not be overly glutinous. Every cruise I just go all out on food and just about everything a cruise offers so by the time the cruise is ending I've had enough. If you pace yourself it might be enjoyable for longer cruises.

[kazu]

We got off a 31 day cruise a couple of months ago. Some of our roll call members were staying on for another 31 days. We envied them;)

 

While we were waiting for our transfer I asked others if they were glad to get off - there wasn't one that didn't say that they could have easily stayed on for the next segment:D

 

Long cruises can be interesting. Our ship started offering different breakfast options (along with the regular) and different offerings and 'specials' in the MDR.

 

I have a feeling you will have a wonderful time:D

[Randyk47]

I have a bit of envy but for us right now being gone more than two to three weeks.....and three is a real stretch....is not an option. I guess because it's not an option I try not to think too much about it now or at the end of a cruise....no sense in making myself feel worse than I do. Obviously we love cruising so there's always a bit of angst at the end of a cruise. In a dozen plus cruises over twenty years we've only been on one where we were ready to get off as soon as possible.

[oofroggie]

My longest was 114 day world cruise and even after all that time I was sad to go back home to cooking my own meals, doing laundry etc. I enjoy sea days to read a book, knit, talk to friends, and the guest lectures are great Short cruises with lots of port days are rush rush rush , eat everything in sight and do it all. No down time to just relax. You go home more tired than when you left. Long cruises are more laid back so it all depends on what you like. As for me give me the loooooong cruises every time. FYI my next cruise is 120 days, I can hardly wait

[Randyk47]

This thread got me thinking....which is always dangerous....and maybe this is the wrong place to ask or discuss but how in the heck do some of you manage to be gone that long? I kind of get 30 days but 120 days?!?! Wow! Now maybe it's because we have a house, pets, and jobs but that's an extraordinary amount of time away from home. I can understand shedding the house, outliving the animals, and eventually full retirement but still. Guess you all live in condos? :rolleyes::D

[KirkNC]

Our longest was 23 days. I look forward to retirement when we can take a really long one!

[kazu]

This thread got me thinking....which is always dangerous....and maybe this is the wrong place to ask or discuss but how in the heck do some of you manage to be gone that long? I kind of get 30 days but 120 days?!?! Wow! Now maybe it's because we have a house, pets, and jobs but that's an extraordinary amount of time away from home. I can understand shedding the house, outliving the animals, and eventually full retirement but still. Guess you all live in condos? :rolleyes::D

 

Randy - we were gone about 35 days. Dogs went to their favourite kennel and I had a wonderful neighbour to check the house and my plants.

 

Lawn already arranged to be mowed weekly.

 

Bills paid on line with my computer so it went pretty smoothly (despite a few worries).

 

However, with the dogs, I couldn't fathom going for 120 days either;)

 

Reading the world blogs, it seems that those that do it have it down to a fine art:D

[Kay240]

Longest I've ever done is a 7 day cruise and each time I'm ready to get off. I think the key is to not be overly glutinous. Every cruise I just go all out on food and just about everything a cruise offers so by the time the cruise is ending I've had enough. If you pace yourself it might be enjoyable for longer cruises.

 

 

When we cruised for 7 days every few years I ate everything in sight.:D As we began to have longer and more frequent cruises, I ate less and less. If you are on a 7 day B2B, you will have the same menu each week, but the longer cruises don't repeat the menu with a seven day rotation; the choices are "shuffled" and others are added. Instead of ordering two soups etc., I know I can have my other choice later in the cruise -or on the next one (which is usually a few months away.) Also, I don't need to "taste"; I usually remember what I liked (or didn't).

 

We have been on one 32 day cruise (up from a previous "high" of 17) and turned down the opportunity for a 35 day (Voyage of the Vikings); I realized too late that 6 grey days crossing the Pacific going home was the problem, not the total number of days we were on the ship. We had another cruise with 9 mostly sunny days crossing the Atlantic (had to miss Portugal) and didn't mind that.

 

Everyone who has cruised multiple times has a range of days they consider to be "just right", not too short not too long, so BlueLadyBlue will need to find the range she her DH are happiest with. Hopefully, 51 days is "it". BEST ADVICE: Travel light and let HAL do your laundry.:D

[RuthC]

I've done a lot of cruises in the 30-35 day range, and know I could easily do the 60+ day "Circle" cruises. Remember, one very long cruise is a lot different from several continuous cruises covering the same number of days.

On a long cruise you get to know the other passengers and staff. It's more like living in a neighborhood where everyone knows everyone else. You get into a routine; there's a rhythm that shorter cruises don't have.

The sense of relaxation on a long cruise is delicious. You know you don't have to rush to do it all, or see it all (or eat it all, for that matter), as you know tomorrow's another day.

So long as you don't need constant stimulation from outside sources, this could be your idea of heaven.

[Nanaimo Gal]

[The sense of relaxation on a long cruise is delicious. You know you don't have to rush to do it all, or see it all (or eat it all, for that matter), as you know tomorrow's another day. [/color][/size][/font]

So long as you don't need constant stimulation from outside sources, this could be your idea of heaven.

 

The longer the better in my opinion. As Ruth stated, a chance to relax, meet good friends etc. If I were rich enough I'd never get off the ship :)

[OlsSalt]

DH & I are booked on the Rotterdam in January for a 51 day cruise from Rotterdam to Singapore (so excited). Our longest main stream cruise so far is 12 days. Just wondering how you all enjoyed (or not) the long cruises? Pros and cons? I think they may have to drag me off in Singapore kicking and screaming. LOL:D

 

We knocked off one day and picked up this cruise in London for 50 days last Jan 2013 and loved every single minute of it. I was not ready to get off. I loved the daily routine it became. Only grumble was needing to take an ocean view room to make it fit the budget. Missed our normal balcony cabin and being higher up in the ship to be closer to activity levels, was the only drawback. But it was one fabulous itinerary moving across history, eons and cultures while saturating oneself thoroughly in the newly emerging Asian tiger country.

 

Only drawback which had nothing to do with HAL was the nightmare Indian customs has become for all the Indian ports - huge delays and craziness, multiple forms to fill out and total chaos breakdown when trying to get past their gauntlets at every port demanding all passengers do face to face interviews, which were a joke but didn't matter. As if merely getting an Indian visa was not an endurance test in the first place.

 

They hired the their troops to do this make-work and there was nothing HAL could do about it. I was ready to boycott India totally having watched this visa and immigration process for short-term visitors go from normal to absurd over the past 10 years.

[kakalina]

I am thinking as in many things you will find sturdy advocates both ways.

 

We love long cruises. The longer the better, for all of the reasons stated above. The sense of camaraderie that one developes with fellow cruisers is truly great. I have made some life long friends on longer cruisers, where on a shorter cruise I would not have had time to get to know them.

 

What amazed me on the last few cruises was the number of people who were taking their first cruise for 30 days. Talk about jumping in the deep end of the pool!

[oofroggie]

I am thinking as in many things you will find sturdy advocates both ways.

 

We love long cruises. The longer the better, for all of the reasons stated above. The sense of camaraderie that one developes with fellow cruisers is truly great. I have made some life long friends on longer cruisers, where on a shorter cruise I would not have had time to get to know them.

 

What amazed me on the last few cruises was the number of people who were taking their first cruise for 30 days. Talk about jumping in the deep end of the pool!

Talk about the deep end of the pool I met a lady on the world cruise that had NEVER cruised before. In fact I know 5 others that had only done 7 day cruises. As for me my longest was 14 days before the world cruise.

[rafinmd]

I'm a bit the oddball here. While I'm sure I would love a long cruise I usually find out at some point that another ship will have an itinerary that interests me more and I tend to string itineraries.

 

My longest time on a single ship to date was 26 days B2B on the Crystal Harmony. My longest time at sea on a single trip was 35 days on Rotterdam, Prinsendam, QM2 with land interludes of 4 days and 2 days between voyages.

 

My immediate future plans include stints of 21 and 26 days with 3 days in between and next spring 28 and 27 days, again with a 3-day interlude. At times I've been a bit antsy to go on to the next ship, but have never really wanted to get off the one I was on.

 

Roy

[USN59-79]

We knocked off one day and picked up this cruise in London for 50 days last Jan 2013 and loved every single minute of it. I was not ready to get off. I loved the daily routine it became. Only grumble was needing to take an ocean view room to make it fit the budget. Missed our normal balcony cabin and being higher up in the ship to be closer to activity levels, was the only drawback. But it was one fabulous itinerary moving across history, eons and cultures while saturating oneself thoroughly in the newly emerging Asian tiger country.

 

Only drawback which had nothing to do with HAL was the nightmare Indian customs has become for all the Indian ports - huge delays and craziness, multiple forms to fill out and total chaos breakdown when trying to get past their gauntlets at every port demanding all passengers do face to face interviews, which were a joke but didn't matter. As if merely getting an Indian visa was not an endurance test in the first place.

 

They hired the their troops to do this make-work and there was nothing HAL could do about it. I was ready to boycott India totally having watched this visa and immigration process for short-term visitors go from normal to absurd over the past 10 years.

Totally agree with your India comment. We took a Rome to Singapore last Fall on the Ocean Princess. Great cruise and ship, but I will never again take a cruise that stops in India. Concerning long cruises, we love them. Only problem is getting the post office to hold our mail for longer than thirty days. We cruised this Spring on the Volendam from Kobe to Vancouver and were offered another week aboard for the Alaska cruise. It was amazing the difference the atmosphere was on the last 7 days. The 7-day cruisers were always hurrying and never relaxing, trying to get the most from their short vacation.

[startwin]

My longest cruise so far is 22 days, and before that all my cruises were 7 days. I loved the longer cruise - as Ruth noted in her post, the relaxation aspect is huge! You don't feel the need to rush around experiencing everything. I would happily do 50+ days, but it's not likely to happen. However, after my next 22 day cruise in April, I will be looking into possibly a 35-day cruise for the following year. The hardest part is making all the arrangements beforehand to ensure house and garden are taken care of, mail and newspapers picked up, etc.

[Padraic]

My wife and I have taken a few 30 day cruises and have loved them but the longest was 63 days. On the long one my wife won another playing bingo . . . can't beat that. Would like very much to take a world cruise.

[OlsSalt]

I'm a bit the oddball here. While I'm sure I would love a long cruise I usually find out at some point that another ship will have an itinerary that interests me more and I tend to string itineraries.

.......

Roy

 

Our first long cruise was 42 days, which was also sold as three separate 14-day segments.

 

I remember how smug we felt at the end of each segment sitting on the deck enjoying our leisurely breakfast and watching other passengers scurry around getting ready to get off at the end of segment one. Then again at the end of segment two, same nice feeling.

 

Then boom, faster than we wanted it to be, we were the ones scurrying off the ship at the end of segment three. :(

[ClevelandOhio]

We have done numerous "long" cruises. Most of the time we have had a great time. Perhaps we are getting jaded but we had some boredom issues on our last trip. We did 49 days on the Masdam from Ft. Lauderdale to Rio and back. During the cruise we sailed up the Amazon to Manaus. The ports we visited were sometimes very different from each other and some were so similar that they blurred. Perhaps that is an issue when you visit so many ports in the same country. I am not complaining about the port issue, but just mentioning it as the way it was.

 

The Masdam is a nice ship with a great crew. Most things on the ship were up to par, with one glaring fault. ENTERTAINMENT. The ships cast was extremely good, but they only six or seven shows and those shows were spread out over the length of the cruise. There were acts on the stage most nights. They ranged from pretty good to laughable. We have cruised enough to have a good idea what we will enjoy and we pass on the showroom and attend the evening movie. Herein lies the problem. Apparently HAL is renting from a very inexpensive library of films. There was zero attempt to key the movies to the interest of the typical HAL passenger. There were way, way too many action movies, there were cartoons, there was even a documentary by Betty White on dogs. Well sure, the cruise line cannot possibily satisfy everyone with entertainment or movies. But the story gets worse.

 

The cruise had been marketed as a round trip and also as two separate legs. About 2/3s of the passengers did the round trip. At the turn around in Rio all of the movies were repeated! So at that point if you didn't like the showroom entertainment you had no other option. We complained (along with lots of other passengers) to the Hotel Manager. He explained that it was "beyond his control". The movie selection and the number of movies given to the ship was a head office function. Well duh! The Hotel Manager's Solution was to check videos out. Hmmm, trying to watch a video on a low res TV screen smaller than my computer screen didn't cut it either.

 

The bottom line is we honestly began to be bored on the cruise. There were a lot of sea days on the return leg and there really was nothing much to do at night.

 

Also we were at table for six and two of the seats were always empty. Fifty days is a long time to eat dinner with one other couple.

 

For reason's that were vague, the lecturer that we were supposed to have for history and port information was denied access to the ship by Brazilian authorities. Whether that is true or not I don't know, but in any case it its HAL's responsibility to ensure that faux pas such as that do not occur.

 

Our longest trip was the World Cruise on the Queen Mary 2 last year. We did 90 days, Not for a nano second were we bored on that ship. We had first class movies the whole trip and the showroom entertainment was much, much better than HAL. I attribute our dissatisfaction with the cost cutting on HAL.

 

That being said, we just booked a 30 day round trip from San Diego to Lima, Peru.