Do you do international travel in addition to cruises?

[clo]

I joined CC some years ago but only just looked it up again.  We did a few cruises and didn't find them all that compelling.  I described it as "the ports were either eight hours too long or eight days too short."  🙂  So we've been doing independent land travel and then some escorted trips.  But last year we went to Antarctica on Hurtigruten (the large ships can't disembark) and enjoyed it so much that we did one of their Norwegian coastal cruises (only about 100 pax).  And now we're booked on Oceania in December from Rio to Buenos Aires.  In reading a lot of the convo here it seems like some people either ONLY cruise or they do a heckuva alot of travel and, of course, only talk about the cruises here.  Could you tell me how you travel and, if it's cruise only, then why?  We're in our early 70s and are still hanging in there but figure the day might come where cruise only will make more sense.  Thanks for sharing your thoughts.  

PS:  When we travel, we like to hang out with the locals and cruise ships can make that tough(er).

[cruisemom42]

Welcome back to cruising. 

 

I love travel and my travel is mostly for the destinations. However, I grew up cruising and there is something relaxing about it, for me, in addition to going to interesting places. So I do both. I am still fairly young and am not retired. I have seen my parents travel all through an active retirement (and before) and as they got older, cruises definitely were more appealing to them. More comfortable conditions (especially if you do a TA rather than flying across the pond), no packing/unpacking and managing transportation from place to place.

 

Yes, one can say there is not enough time to see Athens in a port day, for example. But one can go to Athens first for 3 or 4 or 7 days if one wants, prior to boarding a ship. (And plenty of Greek islands can be enjoyed in a day....) .  And if one is a lifelong traveler, one often gets more than one visit to a place.

 

If you choose your cruises wisely (and it sounds like you do), cruising is a delightful change from land travel and both experiences end up broadening one's world view.

 

 

[Bookish Angel]

We do conventional cruises to chill out, now almost always in January for 10 days or more to warm climates.  It is an inexpensive (because we book very early) way to escape winter for more than a week and have relaxing couple/reading/napping/exercising time.   

 

We don't limit ourselves to cruising, though. When we went to South Africa and The Netherlands, we wanted a longer time to spend in the country and a more local experience and NO group tours.

 

That said, we have loved trips via ship to remote places (our favorite) because they are not like a garden variety cruise to the Bahamas, etc.  When we went to Antarctica and the Galapagos, the ships  small with few bells and whistles.  However, those small expedition ships offered us so much in terms of great lecturers and well-traveled, light-packing, learned passengers who wanted more than a drive-by to (maybe) once in a lifetime places.

Edited June 15, 2019 by Bookish Angel

[clo]

9 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

Welcome back to cruising. 

 

I love travel and my travel is mostly for the destinations. However, I grew up cruising and there is something relaxing about it, for me, in addition to going to interesting places. So I do both. I am still fairly young and am not retired. I have seen my parents travel all through an active retirement (and before) and as they got older, cruises definitely were more appealing to them. More comfortable conditions (especially if you do a TA rather than flying across the pond), no packing/unpacking and managing transportation from place to place.

 

Yes, one can say there is not enough time to see Athens in a port day, for example. But one can go to Athens first for 3 or 4 or 7 days if one wants, prior to boarding a ship. (And plenty of Greek islands can be enjoyed in a day....) .  And if one is a lifelong traveler, one often gets more than one visit to a place.

 

If you choose your cruises wisely (and it sounds like you do), cruising is a delightful change from land travel and both experiences end up broadening one's world view.

 

 

Thanks.  I appreciate your perspective.  And, yes, on our next trip, we'll spend a few days in Rio pre and a few in BA post.  And our ports are almost all 8AM to 6PM.  And, yes, again, re schlepping stuff.  The escorted tours began to annoy us (too much of being in a group) but dang it was nice to get to our hotel and have our tour manager hand us our keycards, arrange for the luggage etc.

[clo]

1 minute ago, Bookish Angel said:

We do conventional cruises to chill out, now almost always in January for 10 days or more to warm climates.  It is an inexpensive (because we book very early) way to escape winter for more than a week and have relaxing couple/reading/napping/exercising time.

 

We don't limit ourselves to cruising, though. When we went to South Africa and The Netherlands, we wanted a longer time to spend in the country and a more local experience.

 

That said, we have loved trips via ship to remote places because they are not like a garden variety cruise to the Bahamas, etc.  When we went to Antarctica and the Galapagos, the ships were much smaller with few bells and whistles.  However, those small expedition ships offered us so much in terms of great lecturers and well-traveled, light-packing, learned passengers who wanted more than a drive-by to (maybe) once in a lifetime places.

Having been to Antartica (400 pax) and Norwegian Coast (100 pax) they were a very different group.  We loved it.  And one those small ships you actually get to know people.  Maybe (or not) by name but by personality, life stories, etc.  Thanks.

[navybankerteacher]

After a few cruises the novelty wears off and many of the ports (especially on Caribbean cruises) are not worth repeating.  Additionally, from our point of view, the cost-cutting on mass market lines has diminished the experience.   Our cruising now is essentially  limited to smaller ships, and trans-Atlantics as a preferred way of coming home from land travel.

 

That said, the ease of a cruise for a quick escape from winter remains tempting - so we are on QM 2 Dec. 22 to Jan. 3 —- but other than T/A’s I doubt we’ll ever board Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, HAL or Princess again - and not even that for NCL.

[mom says]

We do both land vacations and cruises. It depends on what we want to do at that time. If we really want to explore a region, obviously we opt to do it by land- usually on our own but in Asia we have opted for group travel. 

 

When we cruise, it's for 2 reasons; either to chillax for a couple of weeks in the winter, or to try an itinerary in a new to us part if the world as a sort of scouting mission to search out places for future land trips. The latter was the reason for our Dubai to Shanghai cruise last winter. And we came away with plans for future visits to at least 3-4 new places. This winter our cruise is strictly in the former category. A Caribbean B2B where we will likely only get off the ship to check our emails and the local duty free.

 

Our next land trip will be a 3 week driving trip around Scotland.

[clo]

5 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

After a few cruises the novelty wears off and many of the ports (especially on Caribbean cruises) are not worth repeating.  Additionally, from our point of view, the cost-cutting on mass market lines has diminished the experience.   Our cruising now is essentially  limited to smaller ships, and trans-Atlantics as a preferred way of coming home from land travel.

 

That said, the ease of a cruise for a quick escape from winter remains tempting - so we are on QM 2 Dec. 22 to Jan. 3 —- but other than T/A’s I doubt we’ll ever board Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, HAL or Princess again - and not even that for NCL.

Have you tried Oceania?  Their ships have 600 and 1200 pax, their specialty restaurants have no surcharge, Jacques Pepin is the culinary director, they make it clear that they have NO activities for children :), etc.

[clo]

3 minutes ago, mom says said:

We do both land vacations and cruises. It depends on what we want to do at that time. If we really want to explore a region, obviously we opt to do it by land- usually on our own but in Asia we have opted for group travel. 

 

When we cruise, it's for 2 reasons; either to chillax for a couple of weeks in the winter, or to try an itinerary in a new to us part if the world as a sort of scouting mission to search out places for future land trips. The latter was the reason for our Dubai to Shanghai cruise last winter. And we came away with plans for future visits to at least 3-4 new places. This winter our cruise is strictly in the former category. A Caribbean B2B where we will likely only get off the ship to check our emails and the local duty free.

 

Our next land trip will be a 3 week driving trip around Scotland.

I'm glad to see that you do actually return to some of those "ports."  I hear that as a reason and then upon questioning they never seem to do that.  We have friends who will be spending a few days in Dubai and I can't wait to see their photos.  How long was that cruise?  

And, yes, when we did some of SE Asia we did an escorted trip.  The language would have made it really hard.

[frantic36]

We still do quite a bit of cruising but on smaller ships because we like getting to chat with others re their experiences. 

 

Because it is such a long way for us to fly we will usually add time on land. For example our upcoming cruise in the Med Athens to Venice, we will fly into Venice for six days, fly down to Athens and spend four days prior to joining the cruise. When we disembark in Venice we will fly home that day. We have visited Venice previously and do enjoy exploring it.

 

The ship only has 450 pax and visits mainly small Greek islands that we can walk enjoy and get a feel for to see if we wish to come back and spending longer on a land trip.

 

We enjoy the balance between staying longer periods in land destinations and cruising.

[SRF]

We go both.

 

Last year a cruise, plus several land vacations.   A week driving around Sicily.  A week in Hawaii (actually was for a funeral)

 

Plus some other short ones.

 

We do not cruise for ports.  As you say, too little time or too much time.  We cruise for the cruise.   But we have found some things to do in all the ports.

 

And then, on top of this, I do 8 - 10 international work trips a year. 😄

[mom says]

49 minutes ago, clo said:

I'm glad to see that you do actually return to some of those "ports."  I hear that as a reason and then upon questioning they never seem to do that.  We have friends who will be spending a few days in Dubai and I can't wait to see their photos.  How long was that cruise?  

And, yes, when we did some of SE Asia we did an escorted trip.  The language would have made it really hard.

We've had land vacations on several of the Caribbean islands that we first saw as port visits on a cruise. We have firm plans for a return to Thailand for a month as a result of our last cruise. Singapore and Vietnam are further in the future.

 

That cruise was a B2B on Celebrity Constellation-  29 days with the turnaround port being Singapore. We had 4 days in Abu Dhabi pre cruise (I'd return to the UAE in a heartbeat) and 4 days in Shanghai at the end (more than enough for us).

[K32682]

Cruising is a travel choice when there are no other practical alternatives and make sense due to location and lack of infrastructure. Otherwise we much prefer land travel because we see more, do more, learn more and aren't part of the "herd." Unless the boat is going somewhere interesting cruising is a among the duller ways to vacation.  

 

Edited June 15, 2019 by K32682

[navybankerteacher]

1 hour ago, clo said:

Have you tried Oceania?  Their ships have 600 and 1200 pax, their specialty restaurants have no surcharge, Jacques Pepin is the culinary director, they make it clear that they have NO activities for children :), etc.

Yes -the size and service on their ships put them in a different category.  I think it unfortunate that they are almost anti-child, because some parents would like to bring their young, and children should not only be exposed to floating malls.  QM2 does a good job of accommodating, while including, children —- most of whom do “behave up” to their environment.

[cruisemom42]

1 hour ago, clo said:

I'm glad to see that you do actually return to some of those "ports."  I hear that as a reason and then upon questioning they never seem to do that. 

 

As a solo woman traveler, this has been a good method for me. I'd traveled already several times to Italy, France, England, Spain -- but after my first Med cruise in 2005, which did a southeastern itinerary, I realized there was no reason I could not safely go to other places. Since that cruise, I've done land trips to Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Turkey, Israel and Jordan. 

 

Other places I find it is good to visit by land AND sea -- you get a different perspective. I spent two weeks in Japan a few years ago, totally on my own (except for one full-day tour to Hakone), and now I am going back next year on a circumnavigation of Japan via ship that visits some places that are more difficult to get to on one's own. (And it's during cherry blossom season...)

 

 

Edited June 16, 2019 by cruisemom42

[clo]

3 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

Yes -the size and service on their ships put them in a different category.  I think it unfortunate that they are almost anti-child, because some parents would like to bring their young, and children should not only be exposed to floating malls.  QM2 does a good job of accommodating, while including, children —- most of whom do “behave up” to their environment.

Good points.  I wonder if it's their relative small size and also the amount of space dedicated to culinary things.  We're grands with the kiddos ranging from 3 to 7; two of them would be fine (although bored at dinner) and the other two not.  Has to do with parents and consequences (or the lack thereof).  But I suppose this is a topic for another time.

[clo]

1 minute ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

As a solo woman traveler, this has been a good method for me. I'd traveled already several times to Italy, France, England, Spain -- but after my first Med cruise in 2005, which did a southeastern itinerary, I realized there was no reason I could not safely go to other places. Since that cruise, I've done land trips to Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Turkey, Israel and Jordan. 

 

Other places I find it is good to visit by land AND sea -- you get a different perspective. I spent two weeks in Japan a few years ago, totally on my own (except for one full-day tour to Hakone), and now I am going back next year on a circumnavigation of Japan via ship that visits some places that are more difficult to get to on own's one. (And it's during cherry blossom season...)

 

 

Ah, Turkey and Israel.  Two of our fave places.

[navybankerteacher]

8 minutes ago, clo said:

Good points.  I wonder if it's their relative small size and also the amount of space dedicated to culinary things.  We're grands with the kiddos ranging from 3 to 7; two of them would be fine (although bored at dinner) and the other two not.  Has to do with parents and consequences (or the lack thereof).  But I suppose this is a topic for another time.

Children are not necessarily “bored at dinner”.  If they experience dinner with their parents as a treat (ie allowed to take most of their meals as children - eating casually) they do learn to appreciate the occasional formal environment —- and inclusion in conversation.  That occasional formal environment can be seven (or more) successive dinners on a ship.

[clo]

2 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

Children are not necessarily “bored at dinner”.  If they experience dinner with their parents as a treat (ie allowed to take most of their meals as children - eating casually) they do learn to appreciate the occasional formal environment —- and inclusion in conversation.  That occasional formal environment can be seven (or more) successive dinners on a ship.

It's just the amount of time.  They get impatient.  At home they can be excused from the table.

[calliopecruiser]

Absolutely!  Sometimes I do some travel before or after a cruise, and sometimes (like this fall) I do a land-only trip.   I cruise for lots of sea days, not for locations; if I want to travel to a place, I make a land trip.  This fall, I'm travelling to Italy for a month, and then 3 months later, I'm board a cruise ship for a month-long B2B across the Pacific.  Sadly, at this stage of my life I can max out at only a month of travel at a time, so no before- or after- travel for the transpacific

[Hlitner]

Travel is a personal passion and we now are able to spend 6-7 months a year traveling.  While cruising is an important part of our lives, we also love land trips and especially are happy just flying to Europe, renting a car, and driving off to just about anywhere (we sometimes do no advance planning).  Like the OP we are in our 70s and while cruising is usually a very easy trip, the time we spend doing our own thing on land is very fulfilling.  Our favorite trips are often a combination of cruise (or cruises) combined with a few days, weeks or even months on land.

 

Hank

[CarrieAP]

Cruising for us started out as a once in awhile beach/warm weather escape from our hectic daily lives. This took a turn when we became unexpectedly "retired". Visited Europe for the 1st time last fall on our 1st transatlantic cruise and found the perfect travel formula for us. We stayed in Copenhagen 5 nights prior to the cruise and loved having the time to explore the city prior to embarking on the second part of our trip. Land trip and cruising combined- the best of both worlds! This fall we're spending a week in Barcelona prior to our 2nd TA, with similar types of vacations planned going forward. I never expected international travel would become a passion at this stage of our lives. We're novices and admittedly still anxious about navigating new cities and countries on our own, but hoping to gain confidence with each trip! 

[ontheweb]

We do both. Our last trip was a cruise, Boston to Montreal and then a few days staying in Montreal.

 

Our next trip is a land trip, Peru including Machu Picchu, definitely on our bucket list.

[marco]

Yes...particularly in Europe.  We do enjoy river cruises, but "ocean liner" cruises in Europe (for us, anyway) don't afford enough time in any port.  You pretty much are limited to coastal port cities, rarely are you in any city to enjoy some of the night life,  and  often the port is actually an hour or further away from the city and there isn't enough time to see more than a couple of sites.  In fact, we're heading out tomorrow for a land trip in Europe but as we have to have that shipboard experience, we're coming back on the "Queen Mary".

[LynnTTT]

We mostly do land trips.  We've taken three week tours of India, Turkey, Southeast Asia and China and Peru. And we've traveled on our own to the UK, Mexico France and Italy (several times).  It you are really interested is visiting a place, you really can't do it on even a 9 hour visit. We've been in Rome for a total of about 25 days so far and still haven't seen everything.

We are in our 70's and we will be taking our first river cruise from Budapest to Prague and then doing a world cruise next year.  We know we won't ever do a week in Tahiti or New Zealand or three weeks in Australia, so we may have to be satisfied with just a few short stops there.

Cruising is fun and relaxing but not a really the way to "see the world"