Picking a cruise based ONLY on dates

[DT1304]

I have limited time off next year, and the dates are very specific.

 

I want to book a family vacation, and another cruise is an option.

 

I have looked for cruises that sail on my specific dates and I have found a couple of cruises on Royal that fit in with my dates.

 

There are cruises with Itineraries that were never high up on by bucket list, but would be nice to visit.

 

Has anyone here ever booked a cruise based only on the dates, and not taking into account the ports, which RCCL ship etc?

 

I would be travelling from Australia, and the total time I have is 2 weeks in July.

[iujen94]

Our spring break cruise is based on dates first and ship next. We cared more about the ship (Harmony) than the ports (all of which we've been to and we aren't crazy about). If you've got a few options to choose from, I'd say decide which you care about more - the ship or the ports - and decide from there!

[mollyeilis]

Sounds like a decent way to pick a cruise. Whatever works works!

 

 

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[Keith1010]

Yes there have been times that we had very limited dates and picked the cruise based on those dates.

 

This included a cruise just for my wife and myself and also cruises for our family.

 

Every cruise is exciting.

 

Keith

[Vacationdreamer<><]

Yes. Dates often dictate any of my vacation plans. Accepting that and heading forward, we always end up having a great time. Enjoy whatever you can coordinate and make it work for you.

 

 

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[Ourusualbeach]

All of our cruises over the last 6 years have been picked based on dates. March break or Christmas (2 week window set Christmas to sail)

[BethV114]

We actually picked our Liberty cruise in April based on dates. We have a specific time when we can go over our daughter's spring break, had already promised her a trip to Texas to visit family, and really can't afford to take two separate trips (one for family, one for fun). We ended up with Liberty because the dates worked and we knew that we did not want to do less than a 7 day cruise. The itinerary is not my favorite (Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Falmouth), but we know there are things to do in each port that we will enjoy, and we are all honestly looking forward to some additional sea days so that we can relax, rather than get up and off the ship early each day.

[Lordnlkon]

We typically go on specific time frames as well but it is the opposite of school breaks. We just take the kids out of school.

[johnx7]

I do it for almost every cruise I take.

 

I can usually only travel during January or February, and my possible dates are my first parameter to narrow down my choices. By doing this I was able to visit ports otherwise I wouldn't have been to, and I don't regret it - it's the opposite, I'm grateful for being to those places. :)

[awestover89]

We also typically book most cruises based on dates. Sometimes it's a general time frame, like near a birthday, other times it's a very specific date. Our first Alaska cruise we had a specific date and a specific departure: my husband was starting a new job in Anchorage on June 28th and we were driving to Alaska the week before that, so we grabbed a cruise that left the 19th and returned the 26th. Worked perfectly.

[smilesonfaces]

We booked our flights from the UK to Florida first as they were a real bargain. The cruise then had to fit within the dates. I spent months studying the ports and watching You Tube clips of the ports. Following on from Hurricane Irma our itinerary changed anyway. Luckily we had not chosen the cruise for the specific ports as we went to different ones anyway. I would book primarily with dates in mind as ports can always change anyway.

[depplep]

I booked our next cruise on Freedom solely on dates. My husband could only get that specific week off and Caribbean resorts in February are astronomical so we decided on a cruise and Freedom worked for us. We didn't care what ports we stopped in as we've been to almost all of them. We just wanted to spend a week laying in the sun.

[mugtech]

I have limited time off next year, and the dates are very specific.

 

I want to book a family vacation, and another cruise is an option.

 

I have looked for cruises that sail on my specific dates and I have found a couple of cruises on Royal that fit in with my dates.

 

There are cruises with Itineraries that were never high up on by bucket list, but would be nice to visit.

 

Has anyone here ever booked a cruise based only on the dates, and not taking into account the ports, which RCCL ship etc?

 

I would be travelling from Australia, and the total time I have is 2 weeks in July.

How far are you willing to travel to take a cruise? Sounds like maybe Alaska or Europe.

[CA_Cruzing]

Dates first, then all other variables get played out.

 

Always works this way for us.

 

With kids and family, it’s what you do.

 

 

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[jasper15]

Yes our cruise on Anthem last year was due to it fitting in with a pre-planned trip to New York. We are going on Voyager in 42 days, just because we could fit it in between a family member's birthday on January 10th, and a big work conference on 28th. Always dates.

 

I'm waiting for December 11th when Royal release their new itineries, so I can book our holiday for June 2019. Hopefully we can manage a B2B in Europe.

[rafinmd]

Not entirely on dates but sort of. I now have 153 C&A points and as a solo I need 11 more days for D+. I'm also on the Crystal World Cruise January to April and in Alaska July and August.

 

My Grandeur cruise had to be late in the year and among the options I chose the one that was 12 days over 8-10 days.

 

I like the itinerary St.Croix, Antigua, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and St. Maarten. Not bad for a cruise I can get to from my house on a city bus.

 

Roy

[lbjen]

That is pretty much how we do it too, we went on Oasis this summer and stopped at two ports we’d already seen when we last cruised out of Galveston, rather than going to places we can only get to out of FL. It felt like a bit of a shame but that was the only week we could go and Oasis was what we really wanted to see. If I’m honest, excursions aren’t really my thing anyway, they are way too expensive.

[printingchick]

I wouldn't say SOLELY on dates, but primarily. When my daughter got married, she wanted to leave for her honeymoon within a day or two of her Saturday wedding during the month of May. That seriously limited their choices. They actually ended up on Carnival, who had a six day cruise including three ports of call - a pretty decent itinerary. My daughter would have preferred Royal Caribbean, but prices/dates/itinerary for the dates they needed weren't especially attractive. Obviously dates were not the ONLY factor in their choice, but it was definitely the biggest factor.

[Frick_&_Frack]

I always book by date. I use that, determine what sailings fit, then decide from there (usually, for me, it's by embarkation port, then ship - itinerary never really means much to me).

[frisbeewife]

One of the advantages of being retired is, obviously, you're not bound by dates such as vacation time, school schedules, etc. But sometimes dates are still a factor if we're planning to take our kids/grandkids with us or if we want to celebrate something special like a birthday. Even if it's just me and DH and no special occasion, the time of year is usually important. We like shoulder seasons so we might narrow it down to, for example, the month of May.

 

Usually our first priority is itinerary and then we decide on the date or season we want to go. Right now I'm waiting for the summer 2019 Baltic cruises to open up - we'll probably aim for either May or September to avoid the kids and crowds as much as possible.

[scott2165]

My first cruise was based on dates only due to child care. We just booked our second cruise, again based on dates we could all go as a family. You have to do what works for you. Our second cruise is the same itinerary as our first cruise but on a different and larger ship.

 

You have to do what you have to due based on time off and budget. I paid way more than I wanted because our vacation lined up with the 4th of July Holiday. For what I paid, I could have taken a bigger better cruise, but none of that lines up with work and school schedules.

 

Do what you have to do and have all the fun you can.

[wilmingtech]

I have limited time off next year, and the dates are very specific.

 

I want to book a family vacation, and another cruise is an option.

 

I have looked for cruises that sail on my specific dates and I have found a couple of cruises on Royal that fit in with my dates.

 

There are cruises with Itineraries that were never high up on by bucket list, but would be nice to visit.

 

Has anyone here ever booked a cruise based only on the dates, and not taking into account the ports, which RCCL ship etc?

 

I would be travelling from Australia, and the total time I have is 2 weeks in July.

 

 

Our next cruise (IN 13 DAYS!!!!! SO EXCITING!) was based on dates. The itinerary completely sucks and is not one that I would ever look at and go... "OH!! I must do that cruise!"

 

The cruise is the Anthem Dec 14th. 8 days stopping in Port Canaveral, Nassau and Cocoa Cay. The only reason we booked it was that my family lives in Boston and we were planning on visiting them for a couple weeks. After we talked about it we figured we would need a vacation after 2 weeks with them so we looked for cruises out of the Northeast in winter time during the two weeks we were there. And the choices were either Anthem 8 day or NCL 7day.

 

-Sean

[rncruiser]

We recently cruised on Allure. Cruise was booked solely on dates because our cruise on another cruise line was cancelled with only 5 days notice. Our vacation times were already set. We had been to all the ports multiple times, so we weren’t choosing based on ports at all. While we did get off the ship at all ports, we just wandered around and didn’t do any shore excursions. With the exception of Labadee, which we always love, we were back on the ship within an hour.

It was one of our most relaxing, enjoyable cruises to date.

 

 

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[KeywestK]

One of the best cruises we ever did was one I chose based solely on the sailing date. We were planning a land tour of France and Spain, and I came up with the bright idea that we should cruise home instead of fly. The dates worked out perfectly, and it was a wonderful experience.

 

People pick their cruises based on lots of reasons: dates, ports, or the ship. Go with whatever works for you!

[grandmarnnurse]

I always pick my ship and itinerary first and then try to find dates in the months that I prefer to cruise, which is January and February. When I was still working (I am a retired RN) I just requested off whatever dates I settled on.

 

 

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