Most Port Intensive Cruise

[Jane2357]

As I work my way through a long list of places I'd like to cruise - I'd ask you what was your most port intensive cruise? How many port days together and how did you cope.

 

We have 10 port days in a row :eek: on a 14 day cruise, only 3 sea days with that being the 1st day and the last 2 days.

I'm 57 and in good health (although last cruise I did come down with some ship chest infection) but I'm worried about keeping the energy going - especially when I want to maximize the port experience knowing that I may never return to these ports. What tips and strategy do you use?

[Keith1010]

Often Mediterranean Cruises are very port intensive.

 

I am a believer in pacing yourselves.

 

In short, don't try to schedule every hour of the day. When booking tours don't do full day tours. Prioritize where you want to tour and in some ports just go out and about with a plan but not a formal excursion.

 

Keith

[paul929207]

We were on a b2b2b in the Eastern Med in 2012 and had 16 port days in a row. This included an over night in Venice, which was also the turnaround port.

[margeecruiser]

I take naps!! I cannot survive tours day after day without it. When we get back on the ship, we go to the room and actually get in bed for a nap for 45 minutes to an hour. Then we shower and dress for dinner. We don't try to stay up really late, but in bed by midnight. We book late dining so the timing works for us.

 

It is tiring, but we are in our mid-70's and this works for us. We do full day tours, but only because the ports and history are so amazing. I'm talking about Europe and not beach-type outings.

 

Margee

[Jane2357]

We were on a b2b2b in the Eastern Med in 2012 and had 16 port days in a row. This included an over night in Venice, which was also the turnaround port.

 

16 - :eek: wow! So how did you manage? We are doing British Isles and have 2 days (our 1st ever overnight) in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland (Dublin).

[Grannycb]

Been there and done that, learned a valuable lesson. You can't see everything, but you can enjoy everything you see. We try to do half day tours about every other day. Full day tours are reserved for the absolutely must see destinations.

[KirkNC]

Often Mediterranean Cruises are very port intensive.

 

I am a believer in pacing yourselves.

 

In short, don't try to schedule every hour of the day. When booking tours don't do full day tours. Prioritize where you want to tour and in some ports just go out and about with a plan but not a formal excursion.

 

Keith

 

Yes the Med is the most port intensive we have seen as well. As Keith says, you just have to pace yourself.

[Hlitner]

"Pacing yourself" is very good advice. We often watch folks run themselves ragged on Med/European cruises. For some this is OK, but others get to a point where they do not even have a great time, and can hardly remember where they were or what they have done. We just returned from a 2 month trip which included a 25 day cruise and a lengthy driving trip in France/Germany. If we had tried to see everything and do everything we probably would be buried in a French Cemetery.

 

Just remember, it is your cruise/vacation and you are the one who determines your own schedule. There is no rule that says you must always take long organized shore excursions. You can go off on your own, go to a beach, have a long lunch in a café, or even spend a day on the ship.

 

Hank

Edited July 5, 2014 by Hlitner

[travlnblueberries]

I find that I feel like I need a vacation after one of these. Anymore I don't worry about seeing or doing everything. Just relax and enjoy.

[marco]

For us, it would have been a Med/Greek Isles cruise. I think there was only one sea day and some days were two Islands in one day. For that cruise, we were on a smaller ship which worked out extremely well as everyone was off and ashore in about 15 minutes. On some larger ships when we had to tender, getting your tender boarding pass and waiting for your number to be called.....sometimes we waited an hr or so.

[celebrity]

"Pacing yourself" is very good advice. We often watch folks run themselves ragged on Med/European cruises. For some this is OK, but others get to a point where they do not even have a great time, and can hardly remember where they were or what they have done. We just returned from a 2 month trip which included a 25 day cruise and a lengthy driving trip in France/Germany. If we had tried to see everything and do everything we probably would be buried in a French Cemetery.

 

Just remember, it is your cruise/vacation and you are the one who determines your own schedule. There is no rule that says you must always take long organized shore excursions. You can go off on your own, go to a beach, have a long lunch in a café, or even spend a day on the ship.

 

Hank

 

Hank, would love to know your strategies for planning. You take the most fabulous vacations!

[Doug R.]

We had a seven day Southern Caribbean out of San Juan that had the first full day as a sea day and then 5 ports back to San Juan.

[celebrity]

We had a seven day Southern Caribbean out of San Juan that had the first full day as a sea day and then 5 ports back to San Juan.

 

Done that and it is exhausting but as others have posted, the Med ports tend to be the most intensive with 12 hours off the ship walking, climbing, etc.

I selected my Med cruise based upon sea days. It was between a cruise where the first full day was in Rome vs a cruise where the first full day was a sea day. I selected the latter and was so glad I did.

[paul929207]

16 - :eek: wow! So how did you manage? We are doing British Isles and have 2 days (our 1st ever overnight) in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland (Dublin).

We had been to several of the ports before, so we just planned to take it easy those days

[sail7seas]

We cruised Maasdam, back-to-back, seven days each cruise on Canada/New England itinerary year after year. We loved that cruise and it was six ports in seven days, each week. It sails Boston to Montreal to Boston and the itinerary repeats in the reverse order. It is one of HAL's best short itineraries IMO

 

The first few times we did the itinerary, we didn't have to run around like crazy as we knew we would be back in that port the next week. After years of repeating those ports, we had done the 'required' tourist/sightseeing and knew where we wanted lunch in each port, what we wanted to see and do. :)

 

Throughout all our travel for many years, we never raced around frenetically trying to see and do everything. We chose the things that interested us the most and if we had extra time and energy then we added more to our day.

 

 

Edited July 5, 2014 by sail7seas

[donaldsc]

We were on a b2b2b in the Eastern Med in 2012 and had 16 port days in a row. This included an over night in Venice, which was also the turnaround port.

 

Sounds wonderful. I hate sea days.

 

DON

[griffy116]

Did a Med cruise 2 years ago with 2 sea days. Did a Med cruise this June with only one sea day. We had a great time, saw amazing things but we would have LOVED to have had one more sea day. We wanted to make the most out of our days and these are the only tips I can offer. We booked a private driver. This gave us several advantages. We could be flexible. On one of our days, the guide/driver was pushing us pretty fast and we talked to him and explained that we needed a more relaxed pace, including some time to sit and relax at a cafe to refresh a bit. If we had been on a ship sponsored tour, this wouldn't have been possible. After spending just that one hour relaxing, we were ready to head out again. We knew what to cut out of the day and what to include that was important to us. We were also able to relax and even take a quick snooze on the ride back to the ship. We made sure we had a short rest/nap after we returned to the ship. We didn't try to see and participate on everything on the ship. We turned in early because we were getting up VERY early every morning but one (our glorious sea day). Our sea day was our second day on the ship and it would have been great to have a sea day at the end to relax, but for us, that would have meant missing one of the ports. There's no magic tip, but we made the most of our trip and the most of our downtime. The cruise was well worth the post-cruise exhaustion.

[Jane2357]

For those of you who have done a British Isles - here is our schedule - please comment on which port you feel we could do a self explore day with no tours. Also we are departing the U.S. on Wednesday to arrive Amsterdam on Thursday - which should give us time to sightsee and rest after the flights.

 

Amsterdam - depart

Sea day

Le Havre, France - I have arranged for a private tour for 4 (my sister & BIL) and this is the day we do a full D-Day Tour - the port I most wish to really experience and a splurge. Glad it is our 1st port as we'll be fresh.

St Peter Port, Channel Isles

Cork, Ireland

Waterford, Ireland

Holyhead, Wales

Dun Laoghaire (Dublin), Ireland 2 days, overnight This is our 1st ever overnight and I have a girl friend in Dublin - we'll spend 1 day with her and 1 day on tours or self tour

Belfast, Ireland

Glasgow, Scotland

Liverpool, England

2 Sea Days

 

[ontheweb]

Our very first cruise was a 7 day Western Mediterranean on the Splendour of the Seas. We did not have a sea day until the very last day.

 

By the last day, my DW said, "I'm tired of people waiting on me. I just want peanut butter and jelly."

[momofmeg]

Our Sept, 2000 southern Caribbean cruise (out of San Juan) had 5 ports and 1 sea day for a 7 day cruise.

 

Our med cruise in June 2014 had 3 seas days for a 12 day cruises. I forget the number of ports but one port, Venice, we over nighted and spent 32 hours there, so I am guessing 7 ports.

 

Three times we have done no sea day cruises, two were only a 4 day cruises. In 1999 on Sovereign of the seas from Miami,we had Nassau, Coco Cay and Key West. Again in 2010, NCL Sky from Miami and we did Nassau, Freeport, and NCL's private island, great Stirrup Cay. In 2001 we did Sovereign of the seas, a 3 day from Pt. Carnival, and we did Nassau and Coco Cay.

 

When we first started cruising back in 1998 I was much younger and hated sea days,I found them boring; now that I am older, I love them. The Med cruise 2 years ago was exhausting for me and I wish we had another sea day or 2, perhaps it would have been better as 14 day cruise huh? and still cover all the ports.

[momofmeg]

For those of you who have done a British Isles - here is our schedule - please comment on which port you feel we could do a self explore day with no tours. Also we are departing the U.S. on Wednesday to arrive Amsterdam on Thursday - which should give us time to sightsee and rest after the flights.

 

Amsterdam - depart

Sea day

Le Havre, France - I have arranged for a private tour for 4 (my sister & BIL) and this is the day we do a full D-Day Tour - the port I most wish to really experience and a splurge. Glad it is our 1st port as we'll be fresh.

St Peter Port, Channel Isles

Cork, Ireland

Waterford, Ireland

Holyhead, Wales

Dun Laoghaire (Dublin), Ireland 2 days, overnight This is our 1st ever overnight and I have a girl friend in Dublin - we'll spend 1 day with her and 1 day on tours or self tour

Belfast, Ireland

Glasgow, Scotland

Liverpool, England

2 Sea Days

 

 

We did cork on our own. we took a train to Cork (it docks in that county but not that city) and then walked 2 blocks form the train station to the bus station and took a bus to Blarney. Easy-peasy and the train ride was fun for me anyway!

 

We had a lot more time at Blarney castle too, as the ship's tour came after us and left before us, of course they went to Waterford too. We wanted to concentrate on Blarney.

 

we got back to the dock in time to tour the museum there which I loved since 2 of my gg grandparents left Ireland or the US from there!

 

BTW, I l would love your itinerary. Hubby wants to do that cruise or else a land tour of those Scotland cities along with Liverpool. We still on the fence about doing that next year. It all depends on my health as I am not doing so good right now.

 

Please post and let us know how the cruise went and what was the best for you!

[Jane2357]

We did cork on our own. we took a train to Cork (it docks in that county but not that city) and then walked 2 blocks form the train station to the bus station and took a bus to Blarney. Easy-peasy and the train ride was fun for me anyway!

 

We had a lot more time at Blarney castle too, as the ship's tour came after us and left before us, of course they went to Waterford too. We wanted to concentrate on Blarney.

 

we got back to the dock in time to tour the museum there which I loved since 2 of my gg grandparents left Ireland or the US from there!

 

BTW, I l would love your itinerary. Hubby wants to do that cruise or else a land tour of those Scotland cities along with Liverpool. We still on the fence about doing that next year. It all depends on my health as I am not doing so good right now.

 

Please post and let us know how the cruise went and what was the best for you!

 

Sorry to hear about your health - lets hope you improve soon and then you could be on this cruise with us as it isn't until Aug. 2015, 14 months from now. :D Celebrity Silhouette Check it out and thanks for your tips!

[LindaM]

We used to book a tour for EVERY day of a 2 week European cruise. We'd come home completely exhausted. Now, if we do a group excursion one day, the next day (in most cases) we'll walk around on our own. We pace ourselves and it works. We do not feel bad that we may have missed something, because we can go back someday. We just missed Alhambra, because we did an all day in Seville the day before. We just saw it on Rick Steves....we'll be there again next year, but I think we'll do Costa del Sol instead...since we saw it on TV! Sometimes walking around and experiencing how the locals live can be equally as rewarding, at least for us!

[dsrdsrdsr]

Hurtigruten, Norway. 61 ports in 12 days. :)

[pris993]

Often Mediterranean Cruises are very port intensive.

 

I am a believer in pacing yourselves.

 

In short, don't try to schedule every hour of the day. When booking tours don't do full day tours. Prioritize where you want to tour and in some ports just go out and about with a plan but not a formal excursion.

 

Keith

 

Agree. That is what we do. Plus we know we don't need to do it all, we will return. Love the Mediterraean. Lost count how many cruises we have done there. Going again in October.