Collecting countries for the bucket list - which cruise is most cost-effective

[ggbonner]

My countries experienced tally is currently 6. I would like to push it to 30+ ASAP. I am in the USA, and so I figure the best way is to cruise and hit a country a day. However, I have already seen the USA, France, Netherlands, and the UK. Therefore, the Virgin Islands, Saint Martin, Aruba and Curacao don't do me any good. I haven't cruised before, and I have dog-sitting issues, so I want to keep it to a week or so at maximum for the first cruise. Ideally, the cruise would be 7 countries, mostly adult travelers, in the dead of northern hemisphere winter. I expect from a cost-effectiveness standpoint that flying into San Juan would be best.

 

Are there any cruises that go something like: San Juan, St. Kitts, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada, Barbados, Antigua, San Juan? That would be 7 countries in 7 days...the max. I have found some that are 4 countries. Can anyone find a 7-8 day cruise that does better than 4 countries?

 

The major consideration is NUMBER OF COUNTRIES. The minor consideration is number of countries/$.

[spookwife]

no such animal exists. you have to factor in at LEAST 2-3 sea days tranist total on most 7 day cruises. to the Caribbean.

[Velvetwater]

It would be better to do a Panama Canal cruise of around 13 days. Maybe a reason to look into other ways of caring for your dog when you are away?

 

Also if you are heading over this way Baltic cruises do a lot of countries in comparison to some Med ones.

[zqvol]

Your best bet would be on one of the luxury lines that sail from Saint Thomas or San Juan or St. Maarteen. Sometimes on Sea Dream Yacht Club you can get 6 countries in seven days. BTW, don't dismiss Virgin Islands, Saint Martin, Aruba and Curacao. They are territories of other countries but certainly count as a new country, and with St. Maarten you get two countries in one day.

[buggins0402]

It's all so vague...people ask me how many countries we've been and I haven't a clue. I'd rather focus on areas, rather than somewhat arbitrary geographical boundaries that change over time..there is a vote for independence in Catalonia later this month...will we all add a country to our list? Or, perhaps just say that all the regions of Spain are unique and worth a visit?

 

What if Curaçao and Aruba become independent....would you have missed to wonderful islands to add more countries to your list?

Edited September 15, 2015 by buggins0402

[pris993]

If you want to visit a variety of countries try doing a cruise in the eastern, and western mediterreanean and/or northern Europe... first cruise we did many years ago west from Venice Italy to through the Adriatic to Athens, Istanbul, back to Rome, Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Gilbrater, Lisdon, LaHavre France ending in Southampton England. This got us hooked we have over the years returned to Europe many times... visting most ports and many countries including Eygpt, Israel, Morocco, Ireland, Scotland, Belgium, Poland, Sweden, Finland, Norwqy, Netherlands, Russia...

 

So much to see and do, we never get tired of returning.

[kitty9]

If you look at Travelers Century Club, an organization who's members have visited 100 or more countries, you will see that they DO include countries/islands like Curaçao, Martinique, St. Thomas and St. Maartin, as separate nations, and therefore they count towards the required 100 countries.

 

I think that what you want cannot be accomplished in even two, 7 day cruises. Like someone said, if you can handle a longer cruise, a Panama Canal cruise is an excellent choice. Depending on itinerary, you could stop in some Western Caribbean islands plus Columbia, Panama, Costa Rica and Mexico.

 

If you can swing a 14 day cruise on Celebrity's Eclipse, you'd hit a number of different islands.

 

Or you could do the 14 day Baltic cruise on Eclipse, and the countries you visit are England, Belguim, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia and Russia. That itinerary would check off a lot of countries.

Edited September 15, 2015 by kitty9

[GUT2407]

I'm not sure what the point is of just wanting to get to 30 countries if you don't get to see them.

 

But a world cruise will fit the bill.

[donaldsc]

 

The major consideration is NUMBER OF COUNTRIES. The minor consideration is number of countries/$.

 

So you are going to travel just to add countries to your list. Does this make any sense to anyone.

 

However, if you are going to travel just to add countries, I would not go on a cruise but do it by air. Do a WEB search on "around the world airline flights". There are sites that help you plan multi-city routes. I am not sure if adding this address is allowed on CC but check out this site - http://www.airtreks.com/ which lets you set up around-the-world flights. You may not step out of the airport but are actually setting foot in each country you land in.

 

If just being in the airport does not count, perhaps you can set up the airline schedule so that you have a couple of hours layover in each country which should give you enough time to go outside of the airport and stand on the sidewalk outside of the terminal.

 

If you work at it, you could probably hit 3 - 4 countries a day so in 7 days, you would add 21 - 28 countries to your list.

 

I have to ask - why are you doing this insane thing?

 

Hope that this helps.

 

DON

Edited September 15, 2015 by donaldsc

[amp-qld]

If you look at Travelers Century Club, an organization who's members have visited 100 or more countries, you will see that they DO include countries/islands like Curaçao, Martinique, St. Thomas and St. Maartin, as separate nations, and therefore they count towards the required 100 countries.

I think that the Travelers Century Club definitions of "country" and "visit" are too generous. I prefer the stricter definitions of the International Standards Organisation. On that basis, I've been to over 120 countries, of which only about 10 have been just to increase the count.

[chemmo]

As someone else indicated seeing and experiencing countries and cultures is more important than just ticking them off. If you are sticking at 7 days you are pretty limited. If you look at the Eastern Med you can get cruises that start in Italy and visit Greece, Turkey, Israel but they are more than 7 days. Not only will you tick off some countries you will have had a real taster of a range of cultural differences.

 

If you really want to travel look at some repositioning cruises. Singapore to Abu Dhabi visiting Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Dubaii or Hawaii to Sydney visiting some of those real bucket list places like Bora Bora or Tahiti. Although most of these cruises fit in the 14/16 day length you really need to add some time at both ends.

 

If I am honest, unless you are willing to commit to 14 days plus, it is just a game.

[Hflors]

My countries experienced tally is currently 6. I would like to push it to 30+ ASAP. I am in the USA, and so I figure the best way is to cruise and hit a country a day. However, I have already seen the USA, France, Netherlands, and the UK. Therefore, the Virgin Islands, Saint Martin, Aruba and Curacao don't do me any good. I haven't cruised before, and I have dog-sitting issues, so I want to keep it to a week or so at maximum for the first cruise. Ideally, the cruise would be 7 countries, mostly adult travelers, in the dead of northern hemisphere winter. I expect from a cost-effectiveness standpoint that flying into San Juan would be best.

 

Are there any cruises that go something like: San Juan, St. Kitts, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada, Barbados, Antigua, San Juan? That would be 7 countries in 7 days...the max. I have found some that are 4 countries. Can anyone find a 7-8 day cruise that does better than 4 countries?

 

The major consideration is NUMBER OF COUNTRIES. The minor consideration is number of countries/$.

 

Why don't you try a cruise out of San Juan, Porto Rico. Celebrity cruises Royal Caribbean and Carnival all do 7 days. I am sure the southern Caribbean route does at least 4 countries. Good luck to you.

[John Bull]

As Adrian's post, first of all you need to decide "what is a country".

Here are the lists of the two organisations Adrian mentioned, they have slightly different interpretations:

The Century Club's list at

http://travelerscenturyclub.org/countries-and-territories/alphabetical-list

is generally regarded as the standard for leisure travellers, though there are inclusions & exclusions with which I disagree.

The ISO definition of a country is ISO 3166 & their list is at

https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#search

Other organisations will have slightly different interpretations of "what is a country"

 

But since there's no official definition, you can kinda make up your own rules. ;)

 

For instance, although the US Virgin Islands are US territory, and the British Virgin Islands are a British overseas territory, I rate it logical to count these as two separate countries - in addition to the US itself and ................. errrr............ "Great Britain".

But then is Great Britain a "country"? Or the four countries of England, Wales, Scotland & Northern Ireland? You'll get different answers from Olympics fans (Great Britain enters an Olympics team) and soccer or rugby fans - there's great rivalry between the four countries.

I consider myself to be Engish, but my passport is British.

 

Curacao became an independent country a few years ago, Aruba is pretty autonomous too. And I certainly count them as different countries to the Netherlands.

 

Here's another example of how different folk can have different ideas of "what is a country".

I've been to both West Germany & East Germany decades ago, before the re-unification of Germany. Two very separate countries at the time. And I've returned since then.

So have I been to one country? Or two? or three?

 

Not gonna get involved in any heated arguments about what constitutes a "country" :p. Just pointing out the different opinions.

 

Yes, best bang for your buck is likely to be an eastern Caribbean cruise. But I'm not sure you're going to find one from San Juan (which incidentally I rate as a country in its own right) - there are plenty of port-intesnsive cruises out of Barbados which do the rest of those on your list and more, but they're Brit cruise lines, mainly P&O or Thomson. You can probably book cruise-only with them & fix your own flights. Don't know how prices will compare for you (bear in mind that on-board costs are lower than on US ships), and your fellow-passengers will be 95% Brits (but we don't bite.;))

Google something like "P&O Caribbean"

 

Or Europe.

A western or eastern Mediterranean cruise, or a Baltic cruise. All the US lines offer those cruises.

But of course you'll have to allow for expensive flights over the Pond.

 

Hope this helps.

But suspect it simply confuses :D

 

JB :)

[dorisis]

Western Caribbean goes to the Central American countries.

[buggins0402]

As Adrian's post, first of all you need to decide "what is a country".

Here are the lists of the two organisations Adrian mentioned, they have slightly different interpretations:

The Century Club's list at

http://travelerscenturyclub.org/countries-and-territories/alphabetical-list

is generally regarded as the standard for leisure travellers, though there are inclusions & exclusions with which I disagree.

The ISO definition of a country is ISO 3166 & their list is at

https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#search

Other organisations will have slightly different interpretations of "what is a country"

 

But since there's no official definition, you can kinda make up your own rules. ;)

 

For instance, although the US Virgin Islands are US territory, and the British Virgin Islands are a British overseas territory, I rate it logical to count these as two separate countries - in addition to the US itself and ................. errrr............ "Great Britain".

But then is Great Britain a "country"? Or the four countries of England, Wales, Scotland & Northern Ireland? You'll get different answers from Olympics fans (Great Britain enters an Olympics team) and soccer or rugby fans - there's great rivalry between the four countries.

I consider myself to be Engish, but my passport is British.

 

Curacao became an independent country a few years ago, Aruba is pretty autonomous too. And I certainly count them as different countries to the Netherlands.

 

Here's another example of how different folk can have different ideas of "what is a country".

I've been to both West Germany & East Germany decades ago, before the re-unification of Germany. Two very separate countries at the time. And I've returned since then.

So have I been to one country? Or two? or three?

 

Not gonna get involved in any heated arguments about what constitutes a "country" :p. Just pointing out the different opinions.

 

Yes, best bang for your buck is likely to be an eastern Caribbean cruise. But I'm not sure you're going to find one from San Juan (which incidentally I rate as a country in its own right) - there are plenty of port-intesnsive cruises out of Barbados which do the rest of those on your list and more, but they're Brit cruise lines, mainly P&O or Thomson. You can probably book cruise-only with them & fix your own flights. Don't know how prices will compare for you (bear in mind that on-board costs are lower than on US ships), and your fellow-passengers will be 95% Brits (but we don't bite.;))

Google something like "P&O Caribbean"

 

Or Europe.

A western or eastern Mediterranean cruise, or a Baltic cruise. All the US lines offer those cruises.

But of course you'll have to allow for expensive flights over the Pond.

 

Hope this helps.

But suspect it simply confuses :D

 

JB :)

 

Great post JB! You really summarized the country counting issue I have. The one list is way to aggressive, the other leaves off things I would count because they are so separate in my head (the UK "countries"). Then something I hadn't counted then gets independence....(one of the Caribbean Islands was pretty recent).

 

Then on Sept 27th, if the vote in Catalonia goes toward secession - do we now have two countries?

 

I've given up.....and will now just focus on what I want to see irrespective of borders. Perhaps that's because there will be no notches in the belt this year or next...just seeing little areas of Europe we've missed.

[whogo]

Welcome to Cruise Critic, ggbonner! Interesting task you have set out for yourself. Are you willing to expand your list of countries according to the Travelers' Century Club rules? If so, the Carnival Liberty may be the ship for you.

 

Wed Oct 14 Barbados 05:00:00 PM

Thu Oct 15 St. Lucia 08:00:00 AM 05:00:00 PM

Fri Oct 16 St. Kitts 08:00:00 AM 06:00:00 PM

Sat Oct 17 St. Maarten 07:00:00 AM 05:00:00 PM

Sun Oct 18 San Juan, Puerto Rico 07:00:00 AM 10:00:00 PM

Mon Oct 19 St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands 07:00:00 AM 05:00:00 PM

Tue Oct 20 Dominica 10:00:00 AM 06:00:00 PM

Wed Oct 21 Barbados 08:00:00 AM

 

Seven new countries according to the Travelers' Century Club, eight countries if you make the easy journey to the French side of St. Maarten. For a ninth country you can take the ferry from St. Thomas to the British Virgin Islands.

 

If find nothing else close, if you insist on disallowing Virgin Islands, Saint Martin, Aruba and Curacao.

[zoncom]

Look up back to back Caribbean on Celebrity Summit round trip out of SanJuan

[Floridiana]

. Aruba and Curacao.

 

John Bull wrote it already, independent countries, not Dutch anymore.

[ggbonner]

Are you willing to expand your list of countries according to the Travelers' Century Club rules?

 

[sNIP]

 

If find nothing else close, if you insist on disallowing Virgin Islands, Saint Martin, Aruba and Curacao.

 

Not really. I will consider Aruba, Curacao, and the Kingdom of the Netherlands side of Saint Martin (I've been to France already), but I don't think it will help as I don't want to go over 7 days. I don't think I get sea-sick, but I don't want to find out the hard way on day 1 of an 18-day cruise. And I have no idea whether my wife gets sea-sick. There is also the issue of cost. I want the cost to be VERY low. So that's longer cruises and European cruises out. I'm thinking of $400 round-trip flight to San Juan plus a 400-750 dollar cruise (times two people), plus maybe a couple of extra days in San Juan.

 

I don't think there is any cruise that both hits Aruba/Curacao AND does the other Islands in 7 days. I suppose out of San Juan that they will all spend at least one port call each way in Virgin Islands or else sea transit. That means 5 countries max for 7 days. I sea a few with 4/7, and hope to find an economical 5/7 or 5/8, and would jump on a 6/8.

 

I'll take a look at the "British-based" as suggested. It may work better to start in Barbados. That could cut out the wasted V.I. day. But flights to Barbados are much more expensive than to San Juan.

[Hlitner]

Your best best would be to take a 100+ day World Cruise. As to the Caribbean, we love the Celebrity Eclipse 14 day Caribbean cruise which hits at least 7 islands (countries) on its cruise.

 

Hank

[sail7seas]

You've already 'seen' the U.S? Wow......... U.S. is a huge country. Few of us who were born in America will ever "see" all of our beautiful country. :D

 

As to adding countries quickly, go to St. Maarten and you can do two countries at once. The island is shared by part French and part Dutch. If you do a day tour to Anguilla, you add another. Three countries in one day. (I noted you've 'been to France' already. :)

 

Do A, B, C islands..... close together and three countries.

Panama Canal cruise (even a partial transit) could take you to Costa Rica, Columbia, Panama, maybe Bahamas.

Edited September 16, 2015 by sail7seas

[GUT2407]

Just out of interest can you explain this keeness to gather countries, any countries, it sounds like you a not even interested in where you go or what you see, merely counting countries.

[Extra Kim]

Me and my fiancée "collect" countries and after discussing back and forth we decided that if you cross a border to get there we count them as a country even if they are a part of something else. With that said, we DON'T count Saint-Martin / Sint Maarten as two countries we count it as a own country. Not a part of the Netherlands or France. I have been in Holland (the Netherlands in Europe) and I have been in St Maarten AND St Martin but I haven't been in France.

 

We do count Puerto Rico as a country, flying all the way from Sweden to a Island in the Caribbean with no physical connection to the U.S and not counting it ? Well to us that´s just not right.

The same goes with the Islands in the mediterranean and the Canary Islands.

 

By the time we hit our goal of 50 countries / Islands, we might start counting only "real" countries.

[paul929207]

Me and my fiancée "collect" countries and after discussing back and forth we decided that if you cross a border to get there we count them as a country even if they are a part of something else. With that said, we DON'T count Saint-Martin / Sint Maarten as two countries we count it as a own country. Not a part of the Netherlands or France. I have been in Holland (the Netherlands in Europe) and I have been in St Maarten AND St Martin but I haven't been in France.

 

We do count Puerto Rico as a country, flying all the way from Sweden to a Island in the Caribbean with no physical connection to the U.S and not counting it ? Well to us that´s just not right.

The same goes with the Islands in the mediterranean and the Canary Islands.

 

By the time we hit our goal of 50 countries / Islands, we might start counting only "real" countries.

Go for it. If you and your fiancee are enjoying working to hit countries, have fun.

[Velvetwater]

I love country (and city/county in some cases) collecting purely to experience different cultures and culinary delights.

 

Good Job I live in Europe. :)

 

Couldn't care less if certain islands count or not as long as I get something different from them.