Discussion - How do you pick your next cruise?

[ABQrobin]

12 hours ago, Chervil said:

1. Itinerary - we decide where we want to go and what we want to see

2. Departure Ports - We live in Texas so prefer to sail out of Galveston

3. Cruise Line - Dictated by the first two

4. Ship - Our dates are flexible usually within a few month span, so we try to avoid older/smaller ships

 

We like to try new things, and to try new itinerary/ports of call. (although our recent cruises may not necessarily reflect that)

However our daughter (in her 20s) finally agreed to go with us this trip.
She loves to travel (has been to Paris/China/South Korea/Mexico/Various US States) and prefers to be able to go and do as she pleases. The thought of a cruise ship has always sounded too "confining" to her (she doesn't like being told how long to stay in port, when to be back on ship, etc.)
So our main decision this trip was to take an itinerary we had already sailed that we felt she would enjoy.
Jamaica/Grand Cayman/Cozumel
At the very least, she is getting a "sampler platter" of three places she has never been to before and can decide if she wants to go spend more time there.
We told her that if she didn't enjoy herself, we wouldn't bring it up again, but that she should do it at least once "for us".
 

 

This happened with us too..... our son had always traveled with us on land vacations up until college.  Then he was always too busy.  We started cruising in 2014 and he was out of college and working, couldn't afford to take time off to go with us and didn't want to spend his $$.  So I even posted here on CC a few years ago, asking how we talk him into going.  I got a lot of negative replies back from people telling me to stop trying to get him to go, it was his choice not to go, blah blah blah. 

 

Well, I finally talked him into going, we paid, for a 5 day cruise out of Galveston (he lives in Houston).  He was very skeptical, thought it would be too confining and too many people, etc.  (All our trips when he was younger were to places more rustic, stayed in tiny hotels, spent time with locals, etc).  So we got him on the cruise.... and he LOVED it.  He really liked getting up every morning and going up on the top deck, grabbing coffee and a chair, along with his journal, and staring out at the beautiful ocean.  He loved the live music performers.  He loved going to the Mayan ruins (Uxmal) with us, same type of thing we did on trips before, as well as a beach/snorkeling day in Coz.  So....  my point is, your daughter may do the same thing!  She may think its going to be horrible, but she may find things that really appeal to her.  Our son hasn't done another cruise yet but says he will, he really enjoyed it and wants to see more ports.  I bet your daughter will feel the same.  Our son still talks about how much he loved his coffee by the big ocean view every morning.  

 

 

[ProgRockCruiser]

15 hours ago, MommytoAsquared said:

 

Where does one find an Adults Only cruise?  That sound awesome...

 

Poster is looking at an All-Inclusive Adults-Only Land Resort, not cruise, but is using similar logic.

[Hose A De RR]

19 hours ago, ABQrobin said:

Here's my list:

 

1.  We pick by cruise line first, we like the Fun Ships and see no reason to switch

2.  We pick by New ports, so many new places yet to see

3.  We pick by whole itinerary, might be repeating one

4.  We pick by ports we love and want to repeat because we want different shore excursions at a specific port

5.  We pick by departure port... this could be higher on the list depending

6.  We pick by ship (our next cruise is the Vista, so this time is the only exception where the ship mattered.  DH is dying to do brewery tour!)

 

  

Sign up for the brewery tour as soon as you get on the ship. They fill up fast and are offered only on sea days.

Also, ask the Brewmaster about the next brew day. We did the Horizon TA in May and Colin brewed in the evening.

[K&RCurt]

18 hours ago, MommytoAsquared said:

 

Where does one find an Adults Only cruise?  That sound awesome...

 

 

You may have to go outside your comfort zone to find this, but well worth it IMO.

 

Our criteria:

 

1) First we consider the dates, itinerary and price of the yearly charter offered by our most favored charter operator.  If we can do that, we are there, as we have many friends who go on this charter every winter and we have made other friends on board who go every year.

 

2) For other cruises - Are any of our friends going on a cruise that is interesting to us.  This year good friends are taking a 5 day to Cuba so we decided to go as well.

 

Otherwise:

 

3) Dates

4) Itinerary

5) Ship size ( I have no interest in the RC Mega Ships)

6) Cruise Line

7) Ship

8 Price

Edited January 11, 2019 by K&RCurt

[Sun4Me2Please]

First of all we have to pick by date. We currently raise our Granddaughter so we have to work with her spring break schedule. Once we have that figured out we pick our cruise line, we typically go with Carnival.... have been for several years. This is not to say that we won't book a different one, but it works for us. We then look at where to go out of. We have gone out of Miami, Port Everglades, Port Canaveral, and NOLA. We always look for 7-8 day trips. If I have to pay for the flight to and from I want to make sure our trip is a longer one. Then we look at ports. The ship typically does not matter, but shortly after booking for this March on the Conquest, my husband came across a great deal on the new ship Panorama next March so I guess we just go with whatever moves us at the time. We always like new ports, but there are only so many of those., For us it just comes down to what we can find that intrigues us over the time we are available to travel. We do not do summer cruising this is when we enjoy our MN summers!

 

[Chervil]

@ABQrobin - Thank you for the encouragement!

That was our feeling as well.
We know she will enjoy the coffee and sitting out on the balcony, as well as the live music.
And just the experience of being waited on (full service meal at the MDR, room being made up and freshened for you, etc.)
Even if she decides it's not her cup of tea, then at least she will have tried it and "know" she doesn't, instead of just feeling like she wouldn't.
 

Glad to hear your son enjoyed it! Hopefully y'all get to cruise with him again soon!

[Cruiser_1977]

2 hours ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

Poster is looking at an All-Inclusive Adults-Only Land Resort, not cruise, but is using similar logic.

That is true...However, I believe the minimum age of Viking Cruises is 18. I just can afford them as a single yet...

[KarimaJ]

First by date since my daughter is still in school

I pick by NEW ports to us (Don't want a lot of repeat ports unless there's something I want to do)

I pick by ship (one that has waterslides and things my daughter enjoys)

I pick by the itinerary as a whole 

I pick by the departure port (Usually not San Juan as it costs more to fly into)

I pick by cruise line

I pick by ports we love

[evandbob]

After 50 cruises, we look for "special" or "niche" cruises:

 

1) Length of cruise:  we look for 9 - 15 day cruises

2) Newer ports

3) Different continents/countries

4) Value

5) Balcony or suite availability 

6) Different offerings on cruiselines other than Carnival

7) Carnival casino offers and Diamond perks.

 

For 2019, we have booked a few Carnival casino sailings, a 15 day TA to Spain on NCL, an 11 night southern Caribbean itinerary on Celebrity, and for 2020, a 9 day Carnival out of Dover, England to 5 Norwegian ports.

 

Variety is wonderful at this stage of our lives.  Being retired allows cruising almost any time of the year.

[schazzy]

For us the most important thing is dates, we prefer late April-early May as our main vacation time.

 

Next would be departure port, we drive to the port, no desire to fly, so it has to be out of Charleston or any Florida port except Miami (I can drive for a while, but that's really pushing it.)

 

Then it's on to itinerary, have made it a point to find cruises that are at least 7 days, avoid Nassau and Freeport and have at least one new port.

 

Then cruise line, we have only been on Carnival so far, but open to other lines, we are sailing RC for the first time next year.

 

Then ship, we are staying away from Mega ships, I think ships around the size of the Dream-class is as large as we would want to go for now.

[mediccruzin]

1: Port closest to me ( Galveston a hour drive NOLA 3-hour drive)

2: My shortest work week ( shift work some weeks long, some weeks short)

[no1racefan1]

DH and I both have limited vacation time, so our first two considerations are 1)Length and 2)Dates. After that my order would go:

 

Itinerary as a whole

Price

Ports new to us

Cruise line

Ship

Departure port

 

We have to fly no matter what, so departure port isn't going to be a huge deciding factor.

 

Edited January 11, 2019 by no1racefan1

[Nightrythm]

Usually I know the rough time period when we want to vacation.

Step 1: I list the itineraries as a whole. On a spreadsheet, with pricing, sea day notes, all kinds of data.

Step 2: I take anything off the list that is too pricey.

Step 3: I highlight the ports that are new to us.

Step 4: Discuss the options/pros/cons with my spouse. (Local departure ports is always a pro.) 

Step 5: Get specific prices on the narrowed down list from my Travel Agent.

Step 6: Book a cabin!

 

Other times, a friend sends an email inviting us to join them on a cruise they've got booked. Which is how we're sailing on the Panorama much sooner than I would normally book.

 

 

Edited January 11, 2019 by Nightrythm

[Jeffn57]

1.  pick by cruise line -  Carnival of course
2. I pick by the departure port  - We prefer Miami of Fort Lauderdale

3. I pick by the itinerary as a whole - We really like western or Southern

4. I pick by ship (either a new one or one we loved previously) 

5. I pick by NEW ports to us   - Always like to go to new places

6. I pick by ports we love

 

 

 

[livingthedream1]

Dates first since we usually travel with my daughter

Cruise line for us always Carnival

Port that we will be leaving from

Ship and its amenities has to have the Steakhouse and Alchemy bar

Ports of call do not mean as much to us .   

[Tapi]

My last cruise (over Thanksgiving 2018) was chosen, first by date, then by price but we ended up with an amazing cruise!

 

I was conducting a search and when I sorted cruises for those dates by price, I realized that we could sail in the Mediterranean out of Civitavecchia in a wonderful 2 deck loft suite for about half what we had paid to sail the Western Caribbean out of Port Canaveral in a standard stateroom the previous Thanksgiving! It paid  to expand our search beyond what I may have normally considered. Instead of a ho-hum cruise to the same destinations, we enjoyed a cruise of a lifetime!  

Edited January 12, 2019 by Tapi

[v3cruiser]

1.  Price per person. Generally dont like to go more than 100/person night unless drinks or other packages are included. bare bones room rate with no perks we like to stay at the 100/per person /day price.

 

2.. Itinerary, prefer places we haven't been to yet. More port stops than sea days. About 3 to 1 or greater.

 

2 . Value. Are drink packages or other freebees included or not?  If so, how does the price compare to similar itineraries without them? What is the price spread? Pay a little more for included deals or not?

 

3. Port. We generally have to port in US. Would love to consider ports overseas but airfare cost and additional time to get to port is just not doable right now.

 

4. Ship Size. Medium to smaller ship. 120k to 85k tons.

 

5. Amenities on ship. Like to have a variety of dining options and bars.

Edited January 12, 2019 by v3cruiser

[sprint180]

By date

if w/ husband it will be to Caribbean so then by ship

if w/ kids it is destination

then by ports

 

[AQW]

Right now we're only cruising Carnival. We do two types of cruising... getaway cruising and vacation cruising. Getaway is simple: we live less than 30min from the port of Long Beach, so we'll jump on whatever 3- or 4-night sailing is convenient and inexpensive. (Just got home from a 4-night on Imagination two days ago.)

 

Vacation cruising is a different story. We generally have an idea of what we want to do (Alaska, Hawaii, exotic Caribbean) and wait for awesome cruises, especially 14+ nights. I'd been stalking Alaska for years when they announced a 14-night Alaska itinerary round trip from Long Beach; we jumped on that SO fast! Similarly, we've been wanting a Med/TA B2B and have almost booked them more than once but the timing was never right... when they announced the Legend for 2020 it was a *perfect* fit so we jumped on it. Tickled to death that we were able to get our favorite bowling-alley balcony cabin, which we also had on the Pride (15-night exotic Caribbean in 2015) and the Miracle (14-night Alaska in 2017).

 

We'll be looking for Northern Europe in 2021, so I'm expecting to have to look beyond Carnival.

[mek]

I travel frequently  and have a considerable amount of vacation  with only a few weeks when it's not good  to be away from work.

I look for deals - I've traveled all over the world and have been to most most of the places I want to visit, sometimes for crazy low prices, ( and occasionally not.)  I've never had my heart set on going to one particular place at a particular time and have been known to change one cruise for another if something better comes along.

Generally, the cruise line and ship aren't as important to me as the itinerary; however, the exception to that is cruising in the Caribbean.

Entertainment is important to me, so I almost always take that into consideration.

 

 

Edited January 13, 2019 by mek

[airlink diva]

I primary pick with factors of ports and dates

If there are ports that I like or want to visit, that is main factor in the majority of my cruise.

Equally is the date.

With my current job, we have to request time off in advance and certain time of the year, during our peak time is harder.  Also while not at the bottom, still not high on senority so that plays a factor.

Sailing solo makes cost a factor too.

[CdrescherRBL152]

We start with Carnival's website.

 

Then comes itinerary.  Try to find one with a new port or two.  But give lots of thought to how it is routed. We like to have a se dy                                            in the middle somewhere and two at the end if we can find it.

 

Next where it departs from.  As we try to find a new port to leave from if we can.

 

lastly the ship.

[ricew001]

On 1/10/2019 at 1:20 PM, ABQrobin said:

Talking with a few of my friends who have never been on a cruise before - the question always comes up.  How do you pick your cruise????.  

So I thought I would start a little discussion here.

Please put these in YOUR order, and tell us why.

 

I pick by cruise line

I pick by ship (either a new one or one we loved previously)

I pick by ports we love

I pick by NEW ports to us

I pick by the itinerary as a whole 

I pick by the departure port

 

so....let's go.  I will post mine too.

 

We pick by excursion. Hubby is a train nut so first cruise was so we could ride the White Pass in Alaska. Second one was so we could ride the Sugar Train in St Kitts. 

Those two cruises made him fall in love with cruising so now it's:

 

1 - ports/itin - which still relies heavily on something we really want to do

2 - departure port

3 - cruiseline

4 - ship

5 - date

[jodyneel]

It varies by cruise as who I'm cruising with and why I'm cruising changes. For instance:

 

First cruise (birthday present for my then girlfriend, now wife):

1. Date (had to be a specific week)
2. Price
3. Itinerary
4. Departure port

Family cruise (my parents, brother and SIL came)

1. Itinerary
2. Price
3. Dates

Engagement cruise

1. Itinerary
2. Cabin
3. Date (some flexibility)

Bachelor / Bachelorette Party Cruise

1. Date / Duration (needed a weekend over a handful of possible weekends)
2. Cabin (the group took all the aft balcony cabins of one floor along with some indoors nearby)

Cruise after first child (MIL, FIL came along)

1. Departure port (wanted to drive)
2. Date (child had to be > 6 mos)
3. Cabin (needed a tub to bathe the infant; upgraded to an Owner's Suite and discovered the joys of separating the bedroom from the living room; in-laws on a different floor)
4. Itinerary (kept it short)

Cruise after second child (departure port didn't matter as we flew; MIL, FIL, SIL all came)

1. Cabin (group had three sequential adjoining rooms on aft balcony; one was a Vista wrap-around suite for the tub)
2. Date (2nd child had to be > 6 mos)
3. Itinerary (not another Bahamas; took a week)

Cruise after third child (upcoming, MIL, FIL, SIL + her boyfriend coming)

1. Departure port (driving; flying with 3 very small children seems daunting)
2. Cabin (it's hard to find accommodations for 5 with a tub, way harder than with 4, so CS for us; all nearby on same floor)
3. Date (3rd child had to be > 6 mos)
4. Itinerary (something different)

These have all been Carnival, but other lines were looked at (I have a soft personal goal that all my kids will be Platinum before college).

 

You'll notice that cabin is frequently high on my list, which I've mentioned to Carnival repeatedly as a shortcoming  - the website doesn't let you do searches across cruises based on cabin criteria; apparently it's the same limitation for the Carnival staff.