Do any others find RCCL's itineraries repetative and boring?

[psupa]

I LOVE to cruise, but I frankly cannot find an itinerary on RCCL that appeals to me anymore. Caveats: don't want to fly to Australia, and we prefer warm weather itineraries, so no Alaska, Boston, New England. Also, I am going to Europe with my bff next year, so I'm not interested in that long flight again for a while.

 

I looked this morning, because we got a gift certificate from our son for Christmas, and I could not find a single cruise that interested me. I finally called to make sure I could use the certificate on Celebrity. They seem to have more variety.

 

We just got back from Princess to Hawaii and Mexico b2b, and it was fabulous! RCCL seems to only want to do Bermuda, Bahamas, and cookie-cutter Caribbean.

 

We love RCCL, and we love the Caribbean, but they only go to the same 6 ports for the Eastern itinerary, and 6 Western, give or take a few.

 

We are itinerary cruisers, but love RCCL ships and loyalty perks. But, we don't love it enough to repeat the same itinerary year after year after year.

 

I'll keep looking, but right now my future bookings are with Celebrity and NCL. Am I being fussy, or do others feel this way, too?

 

This was why we cruised the Carnival Pride Journeys cruise from Baltimore in January. We did a b2b (21 days). First leg 11 days sailed to the ABC islands, Grant Turk and St. Croix and ended in San Juan, PR. The 2nd leg 10 days sailed from San Juan to St. Thomas, St. Martin, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, Dominica and Tortola and ended in Baltimore. It was so nice not to have to fly. I wish Royal would do something like this.

Edited April 11, 2016 by psupa

[pspercy]

That was last year. There aren't any for this year, or the next (so far).

 

That's why we're going (Panama Canal) on NCL :)

Edited April 11, 2016 by pspercy

[bogofman]

We too find the itineries repetitive and boring, especially in Europe. We love cruising and will still do so but we are starting to look elsewhere. There is only so much of Rome, Florence and Napkes we can do. We'd like to see more visits to ports in Spain, the Adriatic coast of Italy, more of the Balkan countries etc.

 

We also find that RCCL have 7 night cruises that are exactly the same, it would be good if they alternated the itinerary so you could make a decent 14 night cruise out of it.

 

Got to agree with this

 

The cruise lines doing the European destinations , generally all do the same ports.

 

 

Last year we did not get off in Livorno ( florence/pisa)

 

this is the worst port we have stopped at in europe, they even charge to get out of the port.

 

La Spezia is a much better port

( but only been there once as most ships use Livorno :-( )

 

There are so many potential good ports in Europe but the ships always go to the same ports.

 

its not helped by the move to large ships as they cannot stop at that many ports, and also Venice has banned larger ships from entering.

 

So a lot of the bigger ships don't go up the Adriatic.

 

It tends to only be the smaller older ships,

 

Now we have the problems with the Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Tunisia etc stops further reducing the destinations

[bogofman]

 

We also find that RCCL have 7 night cruises that are exactly the same, it would be good if they alternated the intinery so you could make a decent 14 night cruise out of it.

 

 

We feel the same.

 

Other lines ado the same, NCL do the same 7 days cruises as well without change.

 

Does it come from Head office setting up cruise lengths similar to US departures.

 

 

I understand that holidays that people take in the US are shorter than we Europeans get from work?

 

I that right? most in UK and i assume rest of Europe take 14 day vacations as the norm.

 

 

I've seen a lot of the lines are reducing the cruise lengths on med cruises this year and next.

 

there are now a lot of 10, 11 and 12 day cruises in addition to the 7 nigher.

 

14 nights are very thin on the ground.

 

I wonder if this is similar to the super markets reducing the package sizes but keeping the price the same , hoping no one will notice.

[george35]

Like you my wife & myself have been on 55 cruises both across the ocean (Europe) but not any where past Hawaii( served in Korea & have no desire to go any further ), we just love the relaxing time on the ship when we are in port. But I do agree the ports are the same old, same old, thats why we stay on ship. But RCL is still getting our passage so they make out OK weather we get off or not.

 

george35

[LarryL]

What an interesting thread. I guess I can see after 64 cruises they may seem repetitive, especially if you prefer a specific region. While we have far, far, less cruises under our belts we have already begun to feel like the ship, itself, is the destination as much as ports of call. Don't get me wrong, we love the ports, but being on the ship on sea days is a preference.

 

I do wish RCCL would consider a world cruise so we had options.

[pcur]

That was last year. There aren't any for this year, or the next (so far).

 

Hi, Patti!

 

Yes, I noticed this, too. It's like RCCL got same-o, same-o this year.

[Coralc]

Hi, Patti!

 

Yes, I noticed this, too. It's like RCCL got same-o, same-o this year.

 

I will write soon. We will be curtailing our cruising after this year (Bill not me) So maybe it will be more exciting when we start back up again. :D

 

~Patti :)

[ship4us]

Is Royal Caribbean planning any panama canal cruises in the future, looking at maybe 2018? Can't find anything.....

[Biker19]

Very unlikely. This issue is being debated in the 2018 schedule thread.Won't know for sure till the itineraries come out in late March.

[Ocean Dancer]

One reason we haven't been on Oasis or Allure, it's so been there done that, The ship is the destination, as Anthem, but we had a nice 12 day itinerary.

 

We are looking for longer cruises and a P/C.......how many more times can we do or want to do a traditional East/West or Heaven forbid, Nassau or Freeport?

 

Get with it Royal, Have one of your newer larger ships do a 14 day and please start up the P/C.

 

We are doing an 11 day southern for Thanksgiving :)

[Janet524]

After taking as many cruises as we have, we've pretty much "been there, done that" with most of RC's itineraries. We are at the point where we take a cruise just to get away and enjoy the cruise experience. Not having to cook or clean for a week or so, and having someone wait on me for a change is great. Also really enjoy the shows, especially on the Oasis class ships.

 

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[luvscruising2007]

Royal's website used to have a page where you could click on ports and then select "Show me cruises that visit this port". I have trouble finding this anymore.

 

If you go to the Excursions page under plan your cruise. Click on ports. Then find the port you want and click it. There is a box on the right hand side of the page that has several options. One is to search for cruises visiting that port.

Hope this helps.

[deliver42]

I love Royal, but agree about the itineraries, so I booked the Celebrity Reflection for 2018 that is an 11 night southern out of ft. Lauderdale that goes to Panama, overnight to Colombia, Costa Rica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel.With the perks added in, the price was more reasonable than Royal on a 7 night Harmony.

[Rafa]

Do any others find RCCL's itineraries repetative and boring?

QUOTE]

 

No.

 

...but I have only cruise 1/8 of what you have, by the time I get to 64 cruises I'll probably will be bored of the itineraries too. Lucky you!!

[davekathy]

Repetitive...yes. Boring...no. We always find something different to see and do at each port we visit.

[molsonschooner]

I agree that the itineraries don't vary that much. However, we have noticed some stops added recently that Royal typically does not visit that often, like Bonaire, Tortola, and Grenada.

 

I have seen more stops in St. Kitts lately as well

[nealstuber]

Look, even with 4 ports on a 7 day cruise, we still spend about 75% of our waking hours on the ship.

 

Even if it's a different ship on RCCL, the venues are similar, we hope for the same food, and while one of RCCL strengths is different shows on different ships, that's still a small part of the on board experience.

 

We cruise because the ocean is always blue and the sunsets are always beautiful. Even the worst ports of call have more variety to be experienced in 6-8 hours than what's to be experienced the 60-80 hours we will spend awake on the ship.

 

So I don't see how one could be bored with the ports and not be bored by similarities of the shipboard experience.

 

We're not bored by either, and if we were, I don't see how it could be RCCL's fault. We get to take great vacations more than most but we still see our vacation time as a precious commodity. So when we find something that works for us, we'll happily do it again rather than risk trying something different that might not be a winner.

 

 

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Edited September 28, 2016 by nealstuber

[JimAOk1945]

I love Royal, but agree about the itineraries, so I booked the Celebrity Reflection for 2018 that is an 11 night southern out of ft. Lauderdale that goes to Panama, overnight to Colombia, Costa Rica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel.With the perks added in, the price was more reasonable than Royal on a 7 night Harmony.

I agree. We did that itinerary on Princess and loved it. We would have done it on Royal Caribbean but they didn't have it available. But as you can see we have two more Royal Caribbean cruises booked. We really enjoy RCI, but cruise on other lines for a change of scene. Have fun and take lots of pictures.

 

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Edited September 28, 2016 by JimAOk1945

[kalliekae]

Like others have stated, we enjoy cruising because it's a relaxing vacation even if we go to the same Caribbean ports that we've seen many times. We are also limited as to when we can take vacation time so the Caribbean has to be our destination lately. Dh has been golfing on the last couple of cruises we've done and I've enjoyed staying on board the ship that day. Since Royal's ships are a destination, I enjoy staying on board. It would be nice for the Oasis class ships to go to the southern Caribbean, but I would imagine it is because the docks are not built that can accommodate that size of ship. I would enjoy doing the Panama Canal again on a Royal ship so I hope they add that itinerary now that the new locks are open on the canal.

[Ocean Dancer]

What an interesting thread. I guess I can see after 64 cruises they may seem repetitive, especially if you prefer a specific region. While we have far, far, less cruises under our belts we have already begun to feel like the ship, itself, is the destination as much as ports of call. Don't get me wrong, we love the ports, but being on the ship on sea days is a preference.

 

I do wish RCCL would consider a world cruise so we had options.

 

Isn't being on a ship on sea days your only preference? :) There is no other choice.

[Queen of Oakville]

Work schedules make it so that we can only do 7 day cruises to the Caribbean. Flight costs make it so that we fly out of florida.

 

We are generally restricted to 7 day East or 7 day west. Would love to do a southern and see some different ports.

 

But at the end of the day, we don't cruise for the ports, we cruise for the ship and what she offers. Most ports, we don't even get off the ship anymore.

 

 

saw some nice 10 day holiday itineraries, but sadly could not make it work out with our schedule

[squadron]

Unfortunately, the restrictions cannot be changed right now.

 

I remember not too many years ago that RCCL had Mexico, Hawaii, and Panama Canal cruises. They were offered on a regular basis in-season. Also, their transatlantics included Caribbean ports on the front or back-end. Now, those are interesting itineraries.

 

RCCL has two Hawaii cruises to/from Vancouver at the start and end of the Alaska season. It has no Mexico and Panama Canal anymore.

 

Have been several times on the Vancouver to Hawaii and it's island hopping. Also enjoyed the Pacific Coastals. However I would like again to do the Mexican winter times cruises. Other lines seems to be able to fill their ships why not Royal? There are lots of us from the Western side of the US and Canada who like to cruise. I'm finding the long expensive flight to Fort Lauderdale has lost it's charm!

[LarryL]

Isn't being on a ship on sea days your only preference? :) There is no other choice.

 

The is another choice but it wouldn't be a very good one would it? :eek:

[ship4us]

Very unlikely. This issue is being debated in the 2018 schedule thread.Won't know for sure till the itineraries come out in late March.

 

Thanks, really hoping they have the panama canal cruise again. I agree with the other post, not a lot of variety in cruises for RC. I like RC and we've been building our points so trying to stay with them. I'll look for the 2018 thread. Thanks again.