No sea days

[patca]

Has anyone been on a 10 day cruise with no sea days?  Concerned that we will be exhausted by the end of the cruise   I know we could opt to stay on board,  but we really are interested in all the ports.

[dd likes to cruise]

We did an 11 night with just 1 sea day. I believe it was the first day too.  It was a Mediterranean cruise and it was tiring, but for the money we paid we wanted to see all those ports.  A few days we did not arrive at port until 11 am or so, so we did get to sleep in a few mornings. 

[cb at sea]

You'll just have to "pace" yourself if you go ashore in every port.  My hubby would LOVE all port days.  I don't mind a sea day, but not too many of them.  Having a shopping or beach day in between more physical activities would not be too exhausting!

 

[CruiserBruce]

Not sure how we will know if you will be tired...we don't know you.

 

We have a 24 day cruise coming up in May/June. I think there are 3 sea days in the entire cruise. As others have mentioned, you may have to pace yourself. Not every port requires an 8 hour excursion. Maybe a beach day, or a 4 hour excursion, or just walking around for a couple of hours, if easily done.

 

Have to admit a 10 day cruise with no sea days is fairly rare. Is every day a full 8 or more hours in port?

[ducklite]

We've done seven with no sea day and it was exhausting.

 

We also did a B2B for 14 days with only two sea days--also exhausting.

 

That said, it wouldn't bother me if it was a 10 day with no sea days in the Caribbean where the pace is typically slower to begin with.  (which is one of many reasons the Caribbean really isn't for us.)

[leaveitallbehind]

Many Mediterranean itineraries are very port intensive, but having no sea days is rare.  Personally, I would not care for that as I enjoy a mix of at least one or two sea days (on a 7-night itinerary) with port days.

[puppycanducruise]

We've done a few European cruises that were 12 days with one or two sea days.

The key, as others have said, is to pace yourself.  Some ports we do explore all day.  Other ports, half day. 

We do not stay up late on the ship at the bars or shows.  We are up early, eat breakfast then head out to sightsee.  Sometimes on a ship excursion, sometimes a private excursion and sometimes we just explore on our own.  Sometimes, we've been to the place before, most times we haven't.

However, I've never done a 10 day cruise with no sea days. As I get older, I can see that cruise might be exhausting. 

[patca]

1 hour ago, CruiserBruce said:

Not sure how we will know if you will be tired...we don't know you.

 

We have a 24 day cruise coming up in May/June. I think there are 3 sea days in the entire cruise. As others have mentioned, you may have to pace yourself. Not every port requires an 8 hour excursion. Maybe a beach day, or a 4 hour excursion, or just walking around for a couple of hours, if easily done.

 

Have to admit a 10 day cruise with no sea days is fairly rare. Is every day a full 8 or more hours in port?

It is a Baltic cruise on Oceana.  Most days are 8 am to 5 pm  with an overnight in St Petersburg.  We are spending 3 days before in Copenhagen and 3 days in Stockholm at the end.  I am thinking about taking Hop on Hop of where we can and as mentioned short walks at some ports. The only place I have been to is St Petersburg, but that was many years ago. Trying to find a slow paced tour for there.  I guess we will find out if it too exhausting for us.  Thanks everyone for weighing in.

[lenquixote66]

My wife and I would love a cruise of no sea days.

[soonernstlouis]

My first cruise in over 20 years was a 5 island itinerary with only 1 full sea day.  Due to bad weather the sea day was moved from the last day to the 2nd.  It was exhausting for us & we did spend less time on the beach or walking in the heat than we would have with less port days.  Just getting off most ships in port and walking to a taxi can be 1/2 mile or more.

 

In the end what was sacrificed for us was MDR dining and evening shows along with needing a vacation after getting back from vacation.  Was really fun though.

[Aquahound]

3 hours ago, patca said:

Has anyone been on a 10 day cruise with no sea days?  Concerned that we will be exhausted by the end of the cruise   I know we could opt to stay on board,  but we really are interested in all the ports.

 

I once did a 13 day cruise with 2 sea days and I was totally exhausted afterwards.  Then again, DW and I are very active in ports and probably log at least 10 miles on foot in each port.  10 days with no sea days?  I'm sure you'll love your cruise but that's an itinerary I wouldn't book.  I'd need at least a day at sea to relax with my feet kicked up.  

[evandbob]

Maybe start preparing for more active days prior to the sailing?  Increase your regular activity a little each day for a month before, so the change is gradual and not stressful?  By slowly building up to the amount of walking some tours require, you might not notice such a big difference during your cruise?

 

The OP lives in Florida and appears elderly in their photo, so the temp difference during a colder cruise itinerary may matter, as well as any possibile mobility issues they may have.  Perhaps using a cane or walker, even if they don't need one at home, may help with long periods of walking or standing.  Modern lightweight warm clothes can help rather than bulky, heavier versions we all used decades ago.

 

They can also vary the tours perhaps alternating those requiring walking with sightseeing from a van or bus?  Hopefully they have a wonderful cruise and get to see everything they want to experience.

[George C]

When sailing Caribbean I have no problem just staying on ship for many many ports, have done 50  Caribbean cruises. For Europe which we only did a couple of times I found it tiring , we did so many ten hours plus excursions. 

[Shmoo here]

3 hours ago, patca said:

Has anyone been on a 10 day cruise with no sea days?  Concerned that we will be exhausted by the end of the cruise   I know we could opt to stay on board,  but we really are interested in all the ports.

No, but we did a 10 night cruise with 2 sea days.  However, the first sea day was the first day out and we were still recovering from jet lag, so that day was lost.

 

Yes, 8 port days in 10 was tiring, but we followed it up with a 14 night TA with lots of sea days to recover.

 

 

Just realize you need to pace yourself, and it could mean not staying up late onboard, since you have something planned for the next day.

 

Edited January 26, 2020 by Shmoo here

[cruiserking]

There's bound to be a port or two you visit on your own instead of doing long excursions. There's always a chance you might miss a port. As others have said; pace yourself and have a great cruise. 

 

Jonathan

[ducklite]

2 hours ago, patca said:

It is a Baltic cruise on Oceana.  Most days are 8 am to 5 pm  with an overnight in St Petersburg.  We are spending 3 days before in Copenhagen and 3 days in Stockholm at the end.  I am thinking about taking Hop on Hop of where we can and as mentioned short walks at some ports. The only place I have been to is St Petersburg, but that was many years ago. Trying to find a slow paced tour for there.  I guess we will find out if it too exhausting for us.  Thanks everyone for weighing in.

 

We are doing a 10 day Baltic cruise in July and are expecting it to be exhausting.  We do have a sea day in the middle though.  We are in our late 50's and typically spend two plus weeks in Europe every year, usually land based, and always arrive home needing a vacation from our vacation.  This is why we come home on Saturday--we have Sunday to sleep and get laundry done.  🙂

[Lois R]

Hi, depends on the ports......and you can pace yourself...only you know you.  If it is a port that you have one thing

you want to see, or as mentioned want to take a HOHO bus ride? That is not an exhausting tour.....just stay on

for a couple of hours if you don't feel like walking around...….or if you find yourself too tired? Stay on the ship one day and relax. Nobody says you must get off the ship.

 

[Hlitner]

To me, a cruise like that is more like a ferry boat then a cruise.  We have done that kind of itinerary in the Caribbean, but stayed aboard the ship in multiple ports.  Whether or not you exhaust yourself is up to you.  We once did a fourteen day cruise with 9 ports and only got off in 1 port.  If you choose to exhaust yourself it is on you.

 

Hnak

[clo]

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

To me, a cruise like that is more like a ferry boat then a cruise.  We have done that kind of itinerary in the Caribbean, but stayed aboard the ship in multiple ports.  Whether or not you exhaust yourself is up to you.  We once did a fourteen day cruise with 9 ports and only got off in 1 port.  If you choose to exhaust yourself it is on you.

 

Hnak

We're doing a Baltic cruise in the fall with IIRC one sea day. But for us, the point is the ports so we're going to work on that.

[Joebucks]

We did a 7 day with no sea days. We psyched ourselves out in advance because that is what you are supposed to do when you hit land that often, right? Well, we weren't exhausted at all. Maybe it was because a few of the days we took it easy, just relaxing on the beach.

[Hlitner]

8 hours ago, clo said:

We're doing a Baltic cruise in the fall with IIRC one sea day. But for us, the point is the ports so we're going to work on that.

Agree that you need to check out all those wonderful Baltic ports.  I guess you could start a daily training program so you will be to the task :).

 

Hank

[lenquixote66]

Actually I am disabled and just want to be able to do one more cruise.

[Zach1213]

Definitely not for me. I like a good mix, and particularly like to end my cruise with a sea day or two. BUT, as mentioned before, the key is to either pace yourself at each port, skip a port or two if it's too much, or find a good mix of ports you want to do a lot at and other ports you want to do just a little at. 

[clo]

57 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Agree that you need to check out all those wonderful Baltic ports.  I guess you could start a daily training program so you will be to the task :).

 

Hank

I'm actually considering that.  I can't imagine doing this itinerary in one trip other than a cruise.

[getting older slowly]

Oh for sea days.... we love them....

 

If a cruise was all port day.... it would change the whole relaxation feel of the cruise

 

But each to his own

 

Cheers Don

 

PS will now only do cruises with sea days