Rationale for choosing a particular Cruise

[drsel]

What are your top 10 criteria or reasons for choosing one particular Cruise over all the others?

Kindly rank each criterion in order of importance.

[navybankerteacher]

 

 

1) My wife shares my wishes.

 

Tied for next priority: 2) a ship I want to sail and 3) an itinerary a want to sail.

 

4)  Date that fits in with other plans - including land travel pre- or post-cruise, or both.

 

5)  Cost -least significant: if I do not think I can readily afford one of the above, it’s better to stay home.

 

 

Edited March 24, 2020 by navybankerteacher

[davekathy]

39 minutes ago, drsel said:

What are your top 10 criteria or reasons for choosing one particular Cruise over all the others?

Kindly rank each criterion in order of importance.

Desire to cruise

Itinerary

Time of year

Cruise coast

Airline coast

Cruise line

Ship

Loyalty program

Embarkation port

Our past experiences

 

What are your 10? 

 

 

 

Edited March 24, 2020 by davekathy

[drsel]

Thanks navy bank teacher. I agree, number one is the most difficult

[Lois R]

40 minutes ago, drsel said:

What are your top 10 criteria or reasons for choosing one particular Cruise over all the others?

Kindly rank each criterion in order of importance.

What are yours?

[Flatbush Flyer]

My list is based on our preference for long cruises exceeding 3-4+ weeks:

 

  1.   Itinerary

  2.   Ship ambiance

  3.   Quality of food

  4.   Quality of service

  5.   Ship size (incl. space & crew ratios)

  6.   Passenger demographics

  7.   Included amenities

  8.   Excursions

  9.   Bottom line value

10.   Responsiveness of company mgmt.

 

[MCC retired]

1 Itinerary

2 Price

3 Ship 

 

After 80 some cruises  , 4-10 Don’t matter to us at all.😉

[Shmoo here]

2 minutes ago, MCC retired said:

1 Itinerary

2 Price

3 Ship 

 

After 80 some cruises  , 4-10 Don’t matter to us at all.😉

Pretty much the same here

1. itinerary

2.  Dates

3.  Price

4.  Cruise line (ship)

[jocap]

Age-related concerns mean:

1. Embarkation  port.

2. Itinerary.

Really not too worried about anything else- ship, line or food. Our less good cruises have been weather related.

[Nebr.cruiser]

Itinerary and price--pretty equal.  Next, time of year, as we don't usually want to cruise in the summer or fall.  Otherwise, not very particular as to cruise line or ship.

[clo]

1 hour ago, jocap said:

1. Embarkation  port.

 

Curious why that matters specifically as it applies to age-related.

[aungrl]

Not Jocap, but I’m guessing he/she means that, at an older age, traveling a long distance to connect with a cruise ship is more difficult.

[clo]

18 minutes ago, aungrl said:

Not Jocap, but I’m guessing he/she means that, at an older age, traveling a long distance to connect with a cruise ship is more difficult.

We're in our mid70s so, among cruisers, maybe that's quite young 🙂 But our last cruise involved our flying three sectors to get to Rio, cruise to Buenos Aires and then three sectors to get back home. Anything to Europe would be the same.

[ldubs]

I have not booked a cruise in a long time.  So for me it is: 

 

1) What Mrs Ldubs selects

2) thru 10) See #1.  

 

 

[iancal]

apart from the obvious...

 

ship

time in port

cruise line

price, value

loyalty perks

 

 

[clo]

59 minutes ago, ldubs said:

I have not booked a cruise in a long time.  So for me it is: 

 

1) What Mrs Ldubs selects

2) thru 10) See #1.  

 

 

It's funny or I guess we're just lucky. We've rarely ever had a disagreement about where to go. Simpatico.

[navybankerteacher]

4 hours ago, MCC retired said:

1 Itinerary

2 Price

3 Ship 

 

After 80 some cruises  , 4-10 Don’t matter to us at all.😉

If price is more important than ship, you are likely to sail on a pretty crappy ship.

[Blondilu]

1-Price

2-Itinerary

 

There aren't any other criteria, really. I'm retired so the time of year is not important.  I pretty much stick to one line and any ship of that cruise line will do.  When I have been able to afford it I go for longer cruises further away from home and such itineraries would be my first choice.  Being more budget minded these days cruises closer to home (no flying or pre-cruise hotel costs) become my first choice.

[Tapi]

I have fixed vacation weeks every year.

For me, my search for a cruise goes like this:

 

1) Date first

2) Itinerary second (always looking for destinations or regions that I’ve never been to before).

3) Ship / Cruise Line (I prefer newer ships, and I try not to sail on the same cruise line two times in a row)

4) Price (once I’ve narrowed things down to a couple of cruises, I compare prices and make my final choice).

 

Sometimes I’ve sacrificed something that’s higher on the priority list (for example, I may select a less desirable itinerary if I really want to try a specific ship or if price is too good to pass up), but overall my system works well for me. [emoji3]

 

[ldubs]

2 hours ago, ldubs said:

I have not booked a cruise in a long time.  So for me it is: 

 

1) What Mrs Ldubs selects

2) thru 10) See #1.  

 

 

 

1 hour ago, clo said:

It's funny or I guess we're just lucky. We've rarely ever had a disagreement about where to go. Simpatico.

 

I think you jumped to a wrong conclusion.  We, Mrs Ldubs and I, seldom have disagreements.  I am happy to say, similar to your situation, we are highly compatible.   

[clo]

1 minute ago, ldubs said:

 

 

I think you jumped to a wrong conclusion.  We, Mrs Ldubs and I, seldom have disagreements.  I am happy to say, similar to your situation, we are highly compatible.   

Ah, so like I, she's the "Family Travel Coordinator."  Excellent.

[ldubs]

Just now, clo said:

Ah, so like I, she's the "Family Travel Coordinator."  Excellent.

 

YES!  And she does a great job and I really appreciate it!  If the details were left to me it would be a mess.  Or actually more like a "let's decide when we get there" approach.  Haha

[clo]

15 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

YES!  And she does a great job and I really appreciate it!  If the details were left to me it would be a mess.  Or actually more like a "let's decide when we get there" approach.  Haha

Oh yeah. We had a trip that got canceled. It had SIXTEEN components, some tiny and some not. Putting it together was tough, taking it apart was hell. Bob thanked me more than once.

[donaldsc]

1) Ship size - anything over 1000 passengers is too big

2) itinerary

3) Itinerary

4) Itinerary

5) Itinerary

6) Itinerary

7,8,9) Itinerary

10) Price

 

DON

[jocap]

9 hours ago, clo said:

Curious why that matters specifically as it applies to age-related.

Hi- good morning, on a bright sunny spring day here in the UK...

We find we get so tired on the long journey to our nearest international airport, or to drive 400 miles to Southampton. Put together with the fact that we live in a fairly remote spot in the Lake District, with poor roads- almost 2 hours before we touch a motorway (highway). We use the railway more, but even that means 3 changes....

Our local TA has several cruises a year where you are picked up at the door, and taken either to Manchester airport, or to the docks in Newcastle, on small coaches. 

The Newcastle port has a choice of 3 lines, all using older, small ships, and the itineraries are mainly to northern Europe. That's not a hardship, as we're not sun worshippers, plus 2 of the lines have some really interesting, unusual ports for small ships.

Hope you are keeping fit in these strange times. x