Has your attitude to cruising changed?

[Nebr.cruiser]

We've cruised about 30 times. So far, we've never just stayed on the ship, although I can see this happening at some point.

 

If it's a new port, we definitely take some type of tour, unless it's the type of port you can easily see things on your own (like Mykonos). We haven't taken a ship excursion in years, but won't rule them out if circumstances warrant.

 

If it's a port we've been to multiple times, like Aruba or St. Thomas, we often just get off the ship and walk into the town or around the harbor area--we like to walk for exercise anyway.

 

Even for ports we've been at before, I research and often find a different type of tour than we have done before at that port and either book with a private tour company ahead of time or sometimes pick up a tour on the dock.

[iancal]

Have to agree with you Cruise life. We travelled extensively in Europe prior to doing our first Med cruises 2 years ago. We did several-mainly because the prices were rock bottom.

 

Taking these cruises made us realize how much people miss by taking the cruise vs a land trip. It has changed our attitude. We did many Caribbean cruises as a respite from the winter months but the shine is off for us now. Make no mistake, we did like the ships. We simply found the experience lacking.

 

We are now doing cruises as part of a land trip, and even then only if we get the right itinerary/price. Our choice this year was a Med cruise or spending time in Malta and Sicily. The latter won out hands down.

[OCruisers]

As time goes by long flights to distant places has lost its appeal to us. Glad we did it but no longer enjoy doing that.

We actually love and have the most FUN on Caribbean cruises ... just what we now enjoy most. :D

LuLu

[dorisis]

One other thing, we both have traveled to Europe, Asia and hubby to the Middle East so we don't feel this desire to cruise the med or the orient. It makes it easy to pick cruises close to home for the joy of cruising and trying new ships/upgrades. I would never cruise the med or the orient before a land vacation there. Discovered that about Hawaii despite a wonderful cruise. Some places require a longer stay to experience fully...6 or 10 hours doesn't cut it.

 

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Right on. We do most of our cruising out of easily accessible Florida ports and the ship or cabin (if it's a suite) become the destination.

[Warm Breezes]

Our attitude hasn't really changed. We just now choose to stay onboard and enjoy an empty ship sometimes when we hit a port we've been to multiple times before....and sometimes we don't. Some ports we do ship excursions, some we do independant excursions, some we just get off and check out the area around the port, some we don't get off at all, and some we grab a taxi and head off to the beach. We like to mix things up all the time and always have.

[cruisemom42]

Most of us have lives that change over time so it's not surprising that how we vacation (or cruise) would also change.

 

I was lucky enough to start cruising as a child (Sitmar, out of Fort Lauderdale where my grandparents lived). Back then, I didn't care if I ever got off the ship and saw a port. I just enjoyed being on board and making friends with other kids on board -- there weren't a ton of us, but just enough to have fun.

 

After a hiatus, I started cruising again with my son when he was around 5. Much like me as a child, the ship was a big draw for him, although I made sure he did a fair amount of sightseeing on our Alaska cruise and later on a Baltics cruise.

 

Lately, I've been cruising solo and the ports have become the main reason to cruise for me. (The cruising experience itself having changed so much, and not really for the better).

 

Perhaps someday when I'm much older, I'll be content to take cruises again where there's no need to get off the ship to enjoy the beauty of the landscape and the sea....

[Laurie S.]

We cruise to dive in new places, so we never would stay onboard at a port. When we occasionally have a port with no diving, we hit the beach. Often, we'll take our equipment back to the cabin, and go back off to see things. That's why we cruise! :)

[ocholoco]

I think other folks have pretty well covered the range of thoughts on this topic but I'm throwing my two cents in anyway! Mostly because I'm really new to this particular revelation. We are not 'the ship is the destination' type folks and have always reveled in each and every port. Explored on our own, traveled long distances inland to see even more amazing things or went on all day excursions to dig deep into whatever a given country had to offer.

 

Then, this fall, we went on a B2B of 14 days with 10 ports of call. Dear Lord. I'd not felt old like that before, heh. We learned it is okay to sometimes take it a little easier. We still got off the ship at every port to at least walk around, but we took a couple of them *extremely* easily. There is nothing wrong with enjoying a good book at a lovely cafe in a far away place. I'm never going to be someone who just doesn't get off the ship at all, but there is a time and place for a little "leisure" in my vacations!

[jocap]

I've gone the other way....our first cruise touched 10 Caribbean ports- Ideal for OH's snorkelling, but not really my scene, although I bought an excursion every other day. The rest of the time, I'd have a short stroll, but the heat defeated me, so most of the day was spent on board, mainly in the air conditioned library.

I haven't stayed on board much since, but I avoid the hot places- although one day the temperature in Venice was well over 30 degrees, so I was soon back on board.

[Keith1010]

Sometimes the more we revisit a place the better time we have. In many places there is so much to see that you can't possibly see it all even if you have returned a few times. On top of this there are times that we want to revisit a particular site so we can spent more time there.

 

Keith

[JustinPlusLauren]

I like to visit new ports and re-visit old ones. I just do new activities at the old ports. I think that for my next cruise I would like to go somewhere other than the Caribbean as I've been there on 5 cruises now - time for something new! For me, the warm weather and exploring the ship is so much fun...but I mainly cruise for the ports!

[donaldsc]

When I went on my first ever cruise I went on a shore excursion every day and felt like I had to see every new Country and all the big sites, never imagining this would be the first cruise of many.

Now I'm getting ready for my 10th cruise and I'll be visiting half the ports for the 2nd or 3rd time, so I've already seen a lot of their big sites and I'm wondering whether to re-visit them, or maybe I need to change my attitude in those ports and enjoy just relaxing in port or on the ship.

On a recent cruise I overheard a lady say they hadn't left the ship all week, they'd been everywhere already, but the ship was better than any hotel.

Has anyone else experienced this as they clock up the cruise miles?

 

We cruise solely for the destinations and not for the ship we get there on. If I ever get to the point where I run out of interesting to me destinations that I can afford to cruise to, I will stop cruising. In other words, a cruise ship to me is basically transportation. Also, I dislike sea days and to me, spending a day in port without leaving the ship is just another boring sea day.

 

To be honest, I am beginning to get to the point where there are no more interesting destinations. As it is, we do at least 50% of our travel time on land trips. The last cruise we did was to the Amazon so there were no alternatives but to go by ship. The one before that combined a 2 week Baltic cruise which was excellent with almost a month and a half on land in England.

 

I have done the Caribbean once - it was enough.

 

I have done Alaska once on a big ship although we did take our grandaughter on a trip to AK that included one week on land (independent, not a CruiseTour) and one week on a ship. We did that for her,not for ourselves. We have also done an AK cruise on a ship that held only 50 passengers which was our best AK cruise and one I would repeat in a heartbeat. We have also done a 2 1/2 month driving trip in AK.

 

My problem is that most of my bucket list cruise destinations (Antarctica again, South Georgia Island, Spitsbergen, the Northwest Passage) cost 20 - 30k and I can not afford to do them.

 

Bottom line, we are running out of interesting places that we want to cruise to. We will never run out of interesting land trips that we want to do.

 

This may sound depressing but it is what I feel.

 

DON

[pris993]

We have been cruising for 30 years, have over 50 cruises on 9 different lines.

 

In the beginning we would be on deck when we arrived in port. Now we take our time. We do get off most ports, we explore ports on our own.

 

We often cruise on new ships, that makes it interesting, besides changing cruise lines.

 

When we visit ports we have been to before we always plan to do something new.

[LindaM]

I agree with a previous poster that a cruise is not a good way to experience other countries. We've done land tours to do that. We have never combined both, but that sounds like it would be the best of both worlds.

 

What we do differently is that we don't feel the need to see everything a port offers. We used to tour everyday-- those all day tours. We'd come home exhausted. Now, if we do a tour one day, the next day we will just walk around. Actually, some of our best memories are of experiencing how the people live. We are able to see most everything, and still are able to enjoy the cruiseship experience. It is (after all) a vacation. We used to stay in insides because we'd be gone everyday. Now, we book better cabins because we do spend more time in them.

[iancal]

We will be doing more land trips now that we are retired. We have more time and are not in any way limited in terms of when we can travel. Cruises were great when I worked. Had long hours, lots of pressure so a cruise was a wonderful escape.

 

Spent a month in Thailand last winter and going back for six weeks this winter. Cannot imagine limiting ourselves to one day stops in Bangkok or Phuket when there is so much to see. The added plus in SE Asia is that we find land trips to be less expensive than cruise prices. We can travel for a month or longer on what we would pay for a 12 day cruise.

[Cruisin'Kim]

On our next cruise to the eastern caribbean we are going to ports that we've been to several times, but we're going on the Allure for the first time - very exciting! We plan to just enjoy the ship, we may visit a couple of the ports, but we know specifically where we want to go - the beach, poke around the shopping area, etc. Some of the ports we won't visit - will take advantage of the deals at the spa and the quiet ship!

 

 

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[Putterdude]

While we still very much enjoy cruising and hope to continue cruising for many years to come, I would say that we are definitely more blasé about it. Yes, new itineraries excite us but with Alaska and Caribbean itineraries which we have done a lot .... well we often don't do much.

[h_blond2]

On my first rew cruises I felt like I had to be busy doing something at all times! On my last cruise, I took a nap...that's something I would've never done before! I don't think I'll ever stay on the ship while in port, but I've learned to relax during the sea days.

 

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[larry_s_taco]

We've done most of the Caribbean ports multiple times. We still take tours, but a lot of times it is more fun to research the localities, then venture out to the local's favorites. We find it fun to take the local transportation rather than taxis, tours, ect... We have often been warned not to do this, but we have always found the locals friendly and helpful. You get a real feel for the islands, and not just the face presented for the tourist of them.

Edited June 17, 2014 by larry_s_taco

[geoherb]

The ship is frequently our primary destination. We stay on the ship a lot of the time in the Caribbean when we're returning to an island we've been to several times before.

[dorisis]

At one time the ports were most important then the ship became our destination. Now we book suites and the cabin is the new experience. Everything changes including our attitude to cruising.