Port -V- Sea Days

[Alder]

We love cruising because you can visit such a variety of places on one trip – a floating hotel where (very often), you wake up in a different place each day. We don’t mind the odd sea day, but our holiday is not about the ship, but about the itinerary. If the trip looked great, we’d book even if we didn’t care for the cruise line or the ship and indeed, we have done that in the past. Ideally, we’d prefer no more than one sea day per week, or 3 (4 at a push) over a 2 week period and we would never consider a trip containing a large amount of days at sea. So, just curious what others think. If you had to choose, which is more important to you, the cruise ship or the itinerary?

[Cruising Golfer]

Neither, we sail for the R & R... Could care less about ports, with the exception of our next cruise... We are doing the Greek Isles and can't wait to see these ports!!!:cool:

[puppycanducruise]

We chose a cruise based on the itinerary.

Last year we did an 11 day Med cruise with 2 sea days. There was so much to see. It was only a taste of the area, but we stayed a few days in Rome before the cruise, and we over-nighted in Athens during the cruise. Maybe someday we'll do a land based tour to see more.

 

[paul929207]

We love sea days. Most of our trips are longer (30+ days) and usually have more sea days than port days. If they are more port intensive, we often skip one or more ports and relax on the ship.

[4Mast]

We chose by the itinerary - as we are in Europe we do Med cruises. The ship is not that important unless we find two itineraries very similar. We have been suprised at what in comparison the cheaper lines can offer - sometimes its better than the more expensive ! Sea days are to us a bit boring and we would hate to do several days at a time.

We have generally visited the places we go on non-cruise holidays and sometimes will after a cruise return for a couple of days. We also do not particularly like beach holidays

Edited July 26, 2014 by 4Mast

[JBM]

This is a point husband and I disagree about. He likes less sea days, he is antsy and gets bored. I, on the other hand, love sitting in the shade at the railing with a book alternately watching the water and reading...love it!

 

Our next cruise is on the Regal Princess in December. This cruise was chosen mostly because of the ship. Ports are good as well, their private island, Sts. Thomas and Maarten. However, best of all ....there are 3 at sea days....yes!!!

[calliopecruiser]

I want maximum sea days and minimum port days, so I guess you could say the itinerary is important because if there aren't enough sea days, I'm not interested. That's why I've fallen in love with transoceanic cruising - lots of days in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight.

[OCruisers]

We like it best when there's a good combination of sea and port days. :)

LuLu

[floridaglen]

The ship and the itinerary are both important to us. I'm not keen on too many sea days (we could never do a transatlantic cruise) but we do enjoy staying on the ship sometimes when we are in port and almost everyone else has gone ashore. This usually happens if we are cruising in the Caribbean and we have already visited that port previously. Last year we sailed on Allure of the Seas for a 7 night Caribbean cruise and never got off the ship once. It feels as though the ship belongs to us on those days! The ship is very important to us then, the bigger the better!

 

However, if it's somewhere we have never visited before, the itinerary is equally important. So it's 50/50 ship and itinerary.

[Kartgv]

For us, itinerary is first, then cruise line/ship. The more sea days there are, the more important the ship size/amenities becomes. Our ideal would be 1-2 port days followed by a sea day, then repeat as many times as possible - but that's usually not available. B2B's circumnavigating Australia and on to New Zealand came close - lots of ports, with periods of 1-3 sea days in between. The real problem comes in when there's an itinerary we want (Los Angeles>Hawaii>So. Pacific>Los Angeles) that has the ports we want, but a LOT of sea days(8 in a row on the return!). We're planning ahead, loading up the kindles with books and games, taking a laptop that plays DVD's, signing up for lots of shipboard activities, so we'll see how it goes.

[cruiseapril]

We cruise for the itinerary. We like 2 sea days on a 7 day cruise and the same percentage on other length cruises. We like to visit and explore ports.

[OCruisers]

For us, itinerary is first, then cruise line/ship. The more sea days there are, the more important the ship size/amenities becomes. Our ideal would be 1-2 port days followed by a sea day, then repeat as many times as possible - but that's usually not available. B2B's circumnavigating Australia and on to New Zealand came close - lots of ports, with periods of 1-3 sea days in between. The real problem comes in when there's an itinerary we want (Los Angeles>Hawaii>So. Pacific>Los Angeles) that has the ports we want, but a LOT of sea days(8 in a row on the return!). We're planning ahead, loading up the kindles with books and games, taking a laptop that plays DVD's, signing up for lots of shipboard activities, so we'll see how it goes.

 

We looked at that one too because it's a wonderful itinerary ... but, gosh, those 8 sea days in a row kept us from booking which might not have been a good decision for us.

Please do let us know how it went for you in case this opportunity is ever offered again.

LuLu

[paul929207]

We looked at that one too because it's a wonderful itinerary ... but, gosh, those 8 sea days in a row kept us from booking which might not have been a good decision for us.

Please do let us know how it went for you in case this opportunity is ever offered again.

LuLu

LuLu,

Princess is offering the 28 day South Pacific cruise again in 2015. We are already booked. Come join us.

[boogs]

We rarely do short cruises anymore. We prefer to get the maximum bang for our air travel buck by sticking with 14 night or more cruises with short 2 to 4 day land vacations on both ends. We typically are away from home for 20 to 30 days at a time.

 

While on the cruise, we savor those sea days. No need to get up early or go to bed early the night before for an early excursion start time. Just a day of complete relaxation. A perfect itinerary for us is to have port days separated by sea days. One day of high activity on excursions, one day of relaxation, then repeat. Our South American/Panama Canal cruise five years ago from Valparaiso, Chile to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida was almost a perfect mix, with never having two ports days in a row. VERY NICE!!!

 

Our Med 14 day Med cruise last year from Barcelona, Spain to Venice, Italy had six port days in a row beginning the very first full day, then one sea day, then three more port day, followed by two more sea days, and then the last port day before arriving in Venice. That was a grueling itinerary. We almost always felt tired and not nearly rested enough.

Edited July 26, 2014 by boogs

[Scrapnana]

I love sea days but will choose a cruise for the itinerary.

[Loving My Life]

Definitely cruise based on itinerary - the more ports the better! Can't do more than 2 sea days in a row.

[NMLady]

We love cruising because you can visit such a variety of places on one trip – a floating hotel where (very often), you wake up in a different place each day. We don’t mind the odd sea day, but our holiday is not about the ship, but about the itinerary. If the trip looked great, we’d book even if we didn’t care for the cruise line or the ship and indeed, we have done that in the past. Ideally, we’d prefer no more than one sea day per week, or 3 (4 at a push) over a 2 week period and we would never consider a trip containing a large amount of days at sea. So, just curious what others think. If you had to choose, which is more important to you, the cruise ship or the itinerary?

 

Even though we like to visit new places, we love sea days because of the leisureliness. So we look for an itinerary with lots of sea days but visiting at least one port where we've never been.

[Tosara21]

50/50 for us as we enjoy both.

If we are re-visiting a port, we usually just stay aboard and enjoy the ships leisure facilities.

We still enjoy visiting new ports so the itinerary is just as important, but a really good ship is equally so.

[dancinman66]

I like both but sea days are enjoyable breaks on long port intensive cruises

 

 

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[dorisis]

LuLu,

Princess is offering the 28 day South Pacific cruise again in 2015. We are already booked. Come join us.

 

That was a fantastic cruise. We did it on the Sapphire over a year ago and were never bored on sea days. Thinking of doing the 15 day Hawaii RT again next year. !0 sea days.

[lah66]

I think my answer is changing the more we cruise!

We originally planned cruises with a lot of port days and sailed with Disney, Princess, NCL and RCI. We wanted to see as much as possible! We have cruised to Hawaii, Alaska, Bermuda and the Caribbean.

We love going to the Caribbean in the winter to get away from freezing temps and shoveling! Our favorite has been the Southern route out of San Juan with port day after port day!

Since we have been numerous times, the ports are not quite as important anymore and we enjoy the sea days more. It is nice to find an itinerary that may have one "new" port for us, but that does not drive our decision. Cruiseline is not that important but we prefer RCI. Price is huge since we are paying two college tuitions! The day the ship goes out is important too since we only get so many vacation days.

I was trying to decide something different for my 50th birthday cruise. We decided to ignore the ports completely and book strictly for the ship! We just booked Allure for 2/2016. We may or may not make every day a sea day the entire week!

It is so much fun to hear others folks way of thinking!

Lauri

Edited July 27, 2014 by lah66

[Nebr.cruiser]

I guess for us it would have to be itinerary, followed by the ship. We've sailed on quite a few different lines and ships and aren't too particular about that.

 

As to itinerary, it depends. For winter travel to get away from the cold, we just want a cruise that goes somewhere nice and warm, (ie, Caribbean), with decent ports and several nice sea days. It's a bonus if there is a new port, but we don't mind several sea days in a row--we actually love the relaxation of sea days.

 

Other cruises are all about the itinerary, such as the Med or South America--kind of 'Bucket List' cruises.

[FTLcruisers]

When we first started cruising, we hated the sea days. Now that we have more than 50 cruises under our belt, we have learned that it is OK to relax on a cruise and we do enjoy sea days. We've even done a few TAs.

 

 

Marianne

[Slugsta]

We like a good mixture of sea and port days. We decide roughly what we want to do, then look at what we can get.

 

I do need plenty of down time, otherwise I become too exhausted to get any enjoyment from my time ashore. Sea days are an important part of the trip, not just empty time. Our trip to the mid this coming September has 17 days away with only 8 of those ashore. I hope to be able to do different holidays at some stage in the future (there are lots of places I want to see that aren't accessible from a cruise ship) but this suits us for now.

[geoherb]

I can't wait until retirement in a few years when we'll be able to take trans-Atlantic cruises and enjoy all those days at sea.