your favorite longer/exotic cruise...

[Faith77]

For years I've been reading world cruise and exotic cruise blogs. In 2-3 years I'm hoping to do a longer/exotic to me cruise for about 30 days as a retirement gift to myself.

 

Each month I come up with another idea. I've thought about an Around OZ cruise offered by HAL and Princess and the Voyage of the Vikings cruise that HAL does each summer. I've also thought about doing a combo Europe + TA cruise or a longish river cruise--years ago I did a Russia river cruise which was wonderful.

 

Would love to hear from solo cruise critic folks about your favorite cruises. Faith

Edited January 15, 2014 by Faith77

[journeymore]

For years I've been reading world cruise and exotic cruise blogs. In 2-3 years I'm hoping to do a longer/exotic to me cruise for about 30 days as a retirement gift to myself.

 

Each month I come up with another idea. I've thought about an Around OZ cruise offered by HAL and Princess and the Voyage of the Vikings cruise that HAL does each summer. I've also thought about doing a combo Europe + TA cruise or a longish river cruise--years ago I did a Russia river cruise which was wonderful.

 

Would love to hear from solo cruise critic folks about your favorite cruises. Faith

 

I did my first transatlantic in April. Would have loved to do the next leg from Rome but didn't have enough time off. It's on my bucket list. Also, I say a cruise on SIlverseas leaving Barcelona and ending in Ghana in 2015. If I can get off work during that time I would like to do that cruise. Then take a land trip while in Ghana. I'm sure whatever you decide will be enjoyable.

[calliopecruiser]

I have a 15 day transpacific cruise coming up next fall, which I'll be using as a jumping-off point for spending an additional 10 days in New Zealand. I don't think I'd like more than a couple of weeks on a cruise ship - always eating in the same restaurants, etc. I know some people like to spend months that way, but it's not for me; I'd rather take a road trip for several months than a cruise for that length of time.

 

I'm a fan of cruising for sea days, and land trips to visit places. YMMV.

[Lois R]

So far my most favorite cruise was to the Med in 2012.....everywhere

I went it was a BIG WOW:D....Rome, Naples, Sicily, Santorini, Mykonos,

Rhodes, Athens and Ephesus (Turkey).....it was all just fantastic:D

The history of everything is simply amazing!!!!!!!

[Scrapnana]

You can get good deals with repositioning TAs which would give you money for a more extensive cruise as in Europe. On the world cruise I am on now, about 3/4 of the people are only doing a segment or segments. You could look into something like that.

[AmoMondo]

The longest cruise I've ever done Nd will ever be Ble to do, until I retire is 3 weeks. I love the long repositioning cruises. My favourites out of the ones I've done are probably Livorno to Durban and Venice to Rio de Janeiro, although Buenos Aires to Southampton was excellent too.

 

Most exotic would be a 2 week Indian Ocean spending several days in the Seychelles, Mauritius, and Madagascar with one day in Reunion.

 

Future planned trips will be Venice to Dubai as I really want to do the Suez Canal and I'm hoping to part of a 33 night from Dubai to Freemantle (I'll do the Dubai to Singapore segment if price for solos is not dire)

[topguy]

My longest was a Med cruise in 2011. All the ports were new to me except Rome. The only problem is the short time in each port. I've traveled to Europe several times, but on land vacations. You really can't experience a city without staying overnight there.

[kitty9]

I did a 35 day cruise on Crystal that started in Singapore and ended in Dubai. Stops included Vietnam, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, India, Thailand, Cambodia.

 

I did another cruise that started in Kenya, cruised around South Africa, Namibia, did a crossing to South America where we stopped in Argentina, Brazil, a few Caribbean islands and then ended in NYC

 

Finally, I flew to Sydney and did a cruise around Australia/New Zealand, then headed north to Indonesia, Brunei, Hong Kong, Shanghai and ending in Japan

[mtwingcpa]

I've been thinking about a 28 day cruise on Princess, round trip from LA to Hawaii and a handful of South Pacific islands.

 

Previously my longest cruise was 19 days from Seattle to Miami through the Panama Canal. That was cool, but like a lot of people I kinda hit a wall after 2 weeks.

 

I've actually thought about doing a 'round the world cruise, but I think I'd struggle with the longevity of it. :-)

[AmoMondo]

I did a 35 day cruise on Crystal that started in Singapore and ended in Dubai. Stops included Vietnam, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, India, Thailand, Cambodia.

 

I did another cruise that started in Kenya, cruised around South Africa, Namibia, did a crossing to South America where we stopped in Argentina, Brazil, a few Caribbean islands and then ended in NYC

 

Finally, I flew to Sydney and did a cruise around Australia/New Zealand, then headed north to Indonesia, Brunei, Hong Kong, Shanghai and ending in Japan

 

Hi Darcie! hope you don't mind me asking about your Singapore to Dubai cruise as I'm considering an itinerary like that, only the other way round. What is the position regarding Visas, do you have to apply for these in advance or are there block arrangements for cruise ships? Also were many ports easy to DIY with main attractions nearby or do you really have to do organised tours? (I know Mumbai, Dubai and Singapore well but all the bits in between are a bit of a mystery to me so far!)

 

Thanks

[AmoMondo]

I've been thinking about a 28 day cruise on Princess, round trip from LA to Hawaii and a handful of South Pacific islands.

 

Previously my longest cruise was 19 days from Seattle to Miami through the Panama Canal. That was cool, but like a lot of people I kinda hit a wall after 2 weeks.

 

I've actually thought about doing a 'round the world cruise, but I think I'd struggle with the longevity of it. :-)

 

I know what you mean about world cruises. The ports sound so appealing and although I don't have enough time to do one whilst working, I'm not even sure I could cope with it when retired. I've always enjoyed the 3 week ones but mad also happy at that point to come home (unlike week cruise when they nearly have to drag me off because I'm definitely not ready to be going home). Can't help feeling that instaed of it being a great treat I'd end up feeling fatigued by it all and almost claustrophobic. Can just imagine me wishing for a night on the sofa in my Jammie's for a change!

[kitty9]

Hi Darcie! hope you don't mind me asking about your Singapore to Dubai cruise as I'm considering an itinerary like that, only the other way round. What is the position regarding Visas, do you have to apply for these in advance or are there block arrangements for cruise ships? Also were many ports easy to DIY with main attractions nearby or do you really have to do organised tours? (I know Mumbai, Dubai and Singapore well but all the bits in between are a bit of a mystery to me so far!)

 

Thanks

 

A lot depends on the cruise line as to whether they arrange for group visas. But for me, since I prefer to do private tours, I made sure I had my own visas for each country that required one. Therefore, I had visas for Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Myanmar and India. The cruise line had visas arranged for everyone in Vietnam. Yes, you have to apply for these visas in advance, because it can take weeks to complete. I use a visa service, in that I can fill out just one set of paperwork, and the service does all the legwork. Since I don't live in an area that has foreign embassies, it's just easier to let the service do it all.

 

It's difficult to find reputable private guides in Sri Lanka and Myanmar, so taking a ship tour was best for me. In Myanmar, don't miss the Schwedagon Pagoda, both during the day and at night. It's an amazing experience. Sri Lanka continues a decades long war between the Sinalese and the Tamil Tigers, so again, you're safer with a ship tour. I highly recommend the Elephant Orphanage tour, which is about an hour's harrowing ride outside of Columbo.

[Faith77]

Great feedback on this thread. I never thought much about TAs until I started reading the solo section of cc. So much better pricing for us solos.

 

Any thoughts on big ship vs. smaller ship on a longer itinerary. On my recent Hawaii cruise on the Grand Princess Maui was a tender port. It took forever for the ship to get all of us off the ship and, later in the day, back on the ship. Really cut back time in the port. In the future, when I look at itineraries and ships, I will keep this in mind. Faith

[Splinter]

I have the HAL round trip 30 day cruise from San Diego to Hawaii and Tahiti on my bucket list. Hope to do it someday. I also want to do an Amazon river trip.

 

Best exotic cruises I have taken (although not as a solo) were a South America (Valpariso to Rio) 17 day trip (HAL) and a 20 day San Francisco to Sydney (Crystal).

[AmoMondo]

A lot depends on the cruise line as to whether they arrange for group visas. But for me, since I prefer to do private tours, I made sure I had my own visas for each country that required one. Therefore, I had visas for Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Myanmar and India. The cruise line had visas arranged for everyone in Vietnam. Yes, you have to apply for these visas in advance, because it can take weeks to complete. I use a visa service, in that I can fill out just one set of paperwork, and the service does all the legwork. Since I don't live in an area that has foreign embassies, it's just easier to let the service do it all.

 

It's difficult to find reputable private guides in Sri Lanka and Myanmar, so taking a ship tour was best for me. In Myanmar, don't miss the Schwedagon Pagoda, both during the day and at night. It's an amazing experience. Sri Lanka continues a decades long war between the Sinalese and the Tamil Tigers, so again, you're safer with a ship tour. I highly recommend the Elephant Orphanage tour, which is about an hour's harrowing ride outside of Columbo.

 

Thanks so much. We have visa service companies over here, so that sounds like excellent advice to use one. Some of those suggestions sound so amazing.

[AmoMondo]

Great feedback on this thread. I never thought much about TAs until I started reading the solo section of cc. So much better pricing for us solos.

 

Any thoughts on big ship vs. smaller ship on a longer itinerary. On my recent Hawaii cruise on the Grand Princess Maui was a tender port. It took forever for the ship to get all of us off the ship and, later in the day, back on the ship. Really cut back time in the port. In the future, when I look at itineraries and ships, I will keep this in mind. Faith

 

Sometimes the bigger ships cope better if you encounter rougher seas than the smaller ones but it really depends in the ship. If the smaller ship is built as an ocean liner, it can be better than bigger ones.

 

I've only sailed once on a really large vessel and whilst the ship itself was stunning with lots of great facilities, it wasn't as friendly, in my opinion. You rarely encountered the same passenger or crew member twice.

 

On smaller ships (and my experience of small is around 60k tonnes and around 1500-2000 passengers) over the space of a long cruise, you get to meet a lot of people and build up rapport with passengers and crew alike. This was true to extent on the larger 3000 pax ships but not quite as much.

[Chmielel]

My longest cruise was a trans pacific. I worked up slowly from 7 to 10 to 21 days. The 43 day South Pacific Treasures with New Zealand & Australia was a dream come true.

 

It begin in Vancouver and ended in Sydney. We had port call in Seattle, Nawilliwili, Honolulu, Kona and Lahaina in the Hawaiian Islands. Visited Pango Pango, and crossed the international day line. Dravuni, Suva, Fiji, Port Vila, Vanuatu, Luganville, Vanuatu Noumea, Ile des Pins.

 

Next we cruise around the North and South Islands of New Zealand and White Island an active marine volcano. Cruised Milford Sound, Dusky Sound and Doubtful Sound.We crossed the Tasman Sea to visit Tasmania, Eden and Sydney. The trip was full of special surprises!

[zoncom]

Think one of best solo combos is the Transatlantic plus a European 12-14N. Been on 4-6, always a nice singles crowd due to such low prices.One way air from cruise line usually affordable too. BUckets: 30N South Pacific rt from CA. Asian cruises for a month on Celebrity. Same South America. Hawaii-Papeete on Princess. WC on Oceania.

[bobbisailsolo]

I did a three week med cruise on Hal which was wonderful. When I worked, I always wanted to do a TA cruise, and just relax, but now that I'm retired, it doesn't appeal to me as much. Three weeks is about the most I can do, as I have 3 dogs at home. Big boarding expenses. I did a two week South American cruise, sailing around Cape Horn. It was great. I would love to do an amazon cruise on day. I visited china last year, not cruising, but I was not all that thrilled. I couldn't take the heat and humidity. So my desire to cruise there is a bit diminished. I think Australlia and New Zealand sounds wonderful!

 

 

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Edited February 9, 2014 by bobbisailsolo