hapster85 Posted May 17, 2018 Author #51 Share Posted May 17, 2018 We are from Ontario, Canada. For us it is a 8 1/2 hour drive to Bayonne. We have sailed out of there three times now, once about 4 years ago, last Dec (2017) and again last week. We like to be able to drive to the port, and like the cruises that start and finish from the same port. I use a scooter, and have a lift in our van so that we can transport it. I have never flown with my scooter, but have heard some horror stories from some who have. We also drove to Quebec City for a east coast cruise about 3 years ago.In theory, we could drive to Baltimore in 9 hours. Realistically, it would be more like 12 with stops, and that is the closest port to us. So unless we move, which is not likely before retirement, cruises will always involve a flight. Even if we lived closer to one, I don't think I would want to use it exclusively. With only 5 cruises taken so far, ships and ports of call are all still very new to us. We're very much enjoying the diversity so far. That's yet another reason we are looking so forward to our first B2B on Adventure next month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare island lady Posted May 17, 2018 #52 Share Posted May 17, 2018 Nobody is really from Florida, they just live there Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk LOL...standard question down here: "Where are you from"...meaning imported in from what state. ;) I bet Bella is a native like Katie is though. :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare island lady Posted May 17, 2018 #53 Share Posted May 17, 2018 LOL, speak for yourself. Signed, A Proud Native Floridian Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Seminole? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psac Posted May 17, 2018 #54 Share Posted May 17, 2018 We did one cruise out of San Juan years ago, and most of the ship was Spanish speaking. As a non-Spanish speaking NYer of Puerto Rican descent, it was a little annoying as most of the staff assumed I spoke Spanish as well. Also there must be something cultural about sitting on the steps. Almost every single staircase on the entire ship would have people sitting on it just hanging out. Not ideal if you ask me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare John&LaLa Posted May 17, 2018 #55 Share Posted May 17, 2018 LOL...standard question down here: "Where are you from"...meaning imported in from what state. ;) I bet Bella is a native like Katie is though. :cool: Bella is from Georgia. Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baron Barracuda Posted May 17, 2018 #56 Share Posted May 17, 2018 Winter sailings from NY definitely have many more locals. Not surprising. For locals, safer to drive to ship than risk winter flight disruptions. If you're not from the northeast though why sail from NY and risk 2-4 sea days in cold weather? Canadian sailings from Bayonne however are fairly geographically balanced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tatka Posted May 17, 2018 #57 Share Posted May 17, 2018 Winter sailings from NY definitely have many more locals. Not surprising. For locals, safer to drive to ship than risk winter flight disruptions. If you're not from the northeast though why sail from NY and risk 2-4 sea days in cold weather? Canadian sailings from Bayonne however are fairly geographically balanced. And Bermuda... Just not 5 dayers on Anthem.X Summit or NCL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gatour Posted May 18, 2018 #58 Share Posted May 18, 2018 Got it. :) See post #17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armac Posted May 18, 2018 #59 Share Posted May 18, 2018 Sailed From Southampton a few years ago about 2500 Brits 400 us and 180 Canadians, other nationalities made up the rest. This info came from the cruise director. I will say the British know how to party, I would love to cruise from England again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tatka Posted May 18, 2018 #60 Share Posted May 18, 2018 In theory, we could drive to Baltimore in 9 hours. Realistically, it would be more like 12 with stops, and that is the closest port to us. So unless we move, which is not likely before retirement, cruises will always involve a flight. Even if we lived closer to one, I don't think I would want to use it exclusively. With only 5 cruises taken so far, ships and ports of call are all still very new to us. We're very much enjoying the diversity so far. That's yet another reason we are looking so forward to our first B2B on Adventure next month. We live in Massachusetts and most of our cruises after we stopped flying (unless cruise is overseas) are from NY, NJ with some from Boston and Baltimore, but once a year we drive down to Florida to experience other ships and deeper Caribbeans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Tapi Posted May 18, 2018 #61 Share Posted May 18, 2018 After living in 4 different states, we settled in Atlanta a few years back. We sailed one time out of Mobile, AL (our closest embarkation port). Most people, if not all, were from states in the southeast which should’ve come as no surprise since Mobile has a small regional airport, and the only ship sailing from there is a smaller, old Carnival ship that operates short itineraries back and forth to Cozumel, which won’t attract people that are coming from far away places. But it was a fantastic cruise. Southern hospitality at its best. Most polite and well mannered mix of passengers I’ve ever sailed with. That alone made this cruise more memorable than other cruises I’ve taken on far newer and larger ships and to much more interesting destinations. I should’ve known that this cruise would be different the moment that they started playing “Sweet Home Alabama” as we sailed away from Mobile Bay. Sent from my iPhone using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerak11 Posted May 18, 2018 #62 Share Posted May 18, 2018 We live just outside of Toronto so for us it is about a 7-8 hour drive to New Jersey. We've sailed Anthem before and are again for the upcoming New Years cruise. It is so civilized and relaxing to drive to the port rather than all that's involved with flying. Flying 4 people from Canada is expensive so we often fly out of Buffalo but even that would be over $1000 to get to Florida. Plus we have the option of watching the weather and leaving early to miss a storm when driving. I will say that on our last Anthem cruise I definitely noticed a high percentage of New Yorkers. Absolutely not a negative thing but it added a different character to the ship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare rimmit Posted May 18, 2018 #63 Share Posted May 18, 2018 (edited) I have found that the vast majority of Non Floridian homeport cruises in the US tend to really have a large proportion (85%) of people within the 4.5 hour radius, maybe 10% within a 10 hour radius, and the final 5% random. This includes ports like LA (when RCI sailed out of there), Galveston, NYC, and Baltimore. I live in KY and Baltimore is 6 hours and NyC 10, so ever since we had kids, we do our best to drive to a port. The convenience of Baltimore for us can not be understated. The repositioning definitely skew toward the the final destination port by quite a bit, but much less so than a round trip homeport. My guess is 70% live very close to the final destination when cruising back to the US. We were on the Ovation as it moved to China, and each leg got progressively more Chinese as it go closer to China and the crew became more Chinese as well to accommodate the increase in Chinese passengers. We haven’t cruised out of FL in many years, as you can only go to the Caribbean so many times, but from what i can recall, during the off peak it was 80-85% FL and 10-15% people who seemed to fly in. During the peak season all the bets were off as all the Diamonds abandoned ship as the prices went up and the ships were loaded with families on vacation. I’d say most were flying in at that point. For Disney, I’d say the 7 day disney cruises were primarily people vacationing in FL. I don’t remember meeting too many native FL on those cruises, unlike an off peak RCI, where People were always asking what we were doing so far away from home. European and exotic cruises also had a wide swath of people, with no specific population dominating. It was a little heavier on Europeans or native continent but never so much so that as an American i felt out of place. The exception is on a Non US cruise lines like a Star cruises. On that ship an American would definitely be an odd one as it is mainly Asians as they only advertise in Asia. I have found while Alaska skews toward the west coast heavily, it like the European and international cruises brings in a heavier fly in crowd as well. Probably because Alaska tends to be more expensive and is often viewed as a bucket list level trip. Expeditions, like Quark, are totally different and even though they are US company there can be very few Americans on board. The last one I did had only 5 Americans, but the manifest is much smaller (50 pax). Edited May 18, 2018 by rimmit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Tapi Posted May 18, 2018 #64 Share Posted May 18, 2018 We sailed in 2016 on the MSC Divina out of Miami. Since MSC is still fairly new to the US market, it seems that Americans haven’t fully discovered this great alternative. The passenger mix was heavily from European countries as well as South America. Americans were a small minority and the ones we met were from the South Florida area. Every important announcement was made in 7 different languages to accommodate the diverse clientele. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet people from other countries and cultures while still sailing from a US port, but we did share a van at one of the ports of call with a group of Americans who were hating the cruise. All they did was talk about everything that they hated about MSC and they felt that it didn’t cater to them. So they were going back to Carnival or Royal for their next cruise. Sent from my iPhone using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare sparks1093 Posted May 18, 2018 #65 Share Posted May 18, 2018 And Newenglanders like us.Also it has sometimes people from overseas who visit New York. Yep, driving to the port is much more convenient than flying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holden0301 Posted May 18, 2018 #66 Share Posted May 18, 2018 We love the convenience of sailing out of NY/Bayonne. It's an hour and a half drive from our Philly suburb. However, the ships and itineraries aren't always the best. We've done many out of there, but also out of FL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rala Posted May 18, 2018 #67 Share Posted May 18, 2018 The majority of cruisers are from "out of town"....sure, some locals will take a cruise now and again, but the MAJORITY are folks who fly into the port city to have a vacation. READ the thread...once again your information is mostly wrong probably because you only sail from Florida to the Carib. to get a tan. :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare island lady Posted May 18, 2018 #68 Share Posted May 18, 2018 Bella is from Georgia. Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk LOL...I bet she knows a few Bulldogs then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare John&LaLa Posted May 18, 2018 #69 Share Posted May 18, 2018 LOL...I bet she knows a few Bulldogs then?She thinks she's a Dawg Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare island lady Posted May 19, 2018 #70 Share Posted May 19, 2018 She thinks she's a Dawg Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk Aww...so sweet! Hi Bella!! :hearteyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
95south Posted June 7, 2018 #71 Share Posted June 7, 2018 Cape Liberty cruises like the Anthem you have a lot of New Yorker's mainly long island, NJ, and PA. I find a lot of those people drive to the port, like more thank 1/2 the ship drove from home to the port on embarkation day! Also a good number of Canadians who drive from Ontario as well. The rest of the passengers are from all over the US and some Europeans mainly Brits. Florida is a mix from everywhere since it's more of a destination port than NJ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tatka Posted June 7, 2018 #72 Share Posted June 7, 2018 Cape Liberty cruises like the Anthem you have a lot of New Yorker's mainly long island, NJ, and PA. I find a lot of those people drive to the port, like more thank 1/2 the ship drove from home to the port on embarkation day! Also a good number of Canadians who drive from Ontario as well. The rest of the passengers are from all over the US and some Europeans mainly Brits. Florida is a mix from everywhere since it's more of a destination port than NJ. And New England. :) Especially when there are no cruises from our port in Boston. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scorpluvsdolphins Posted June 7, 2018 #73 Share Posted June 7, 2018 LOL, speak for yourself. Signed, A Proud Native Floridian Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Yep. Me too. And native to the Space Coast. Born in Melbourne, FL Raised in SB. Sent from my iPhone using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scorpluvsdolphins Posted June 7, 2018 #74 Share Posted June 7, 2018 We cruise from NYC, live close to the port, and find the majority of passengers are from the northeast. Cruises out of here are generally pricier, and hotels and transportation expensive. If I had to fly to a cruise, there is no way I’d fly here. Our kids always meet other kids on cruises, most live at most an hour from us (they had teen meet ups). Unless you earned a free cruise. Sent from my iPhone using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katmu Posted June 7, 2018 #75 Share Posted June 7, 2018 As someone who has to fly to any of the US ports, I've found this thread pretty interesting. I've researched sailings from NY/NJ, Galveston, Baltimore but usually seem to end up sailing from one of the FL ports. NY/NJ usually seem to be more expensive both due to hotels and the cruise fares are not always as good. I do think we will probably end up trying one from Galveston at some point as I've seen some good fares from there even though we will still have to fly. I'm also a little jealous. Sailing in the winter always requires flying in plenty early just in case of bad weather at home even though we've only been delayed once in the 23 years we've lived in Minnesota. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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