Rationale for choosing a particular Cruise

[MCC retired]

8 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

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

You are correct ! My error 🤔

[cruisemom42]

My decision process:

 

1. Does the itinerary excite me? (I look at ports, time in port, ability to DIY in specific ports, etc.)
2. Do I like the line/ship? (important factors: size of ship, experience knowledge of particular line, how solo-friendly are they? onboard enrichment?)
3. Is the cost within my vacation "budget"?
4. Does the timing work for me?
5. How does it compare with other options on the table? 

For me this last one is critically important -- I work and have a fairly generous amount of PTO but can only take so many trips per year. I prefer to vary between land trips and cruises, so I will look at all of the options before I make a decision. The fourth point is also important because for me it's better to spread my travel throughout the year -- I can only take off about 2 weeks at a time (certainly not more than 3).

 

Some years there is an overwhelmingly good argument for doing a particular place -- for example, the Polar Ice regulations that come into effect in 2022 will change where cruise ships can go in extreme northern and southern spheres. So I have booked a TA itinerary later this year (I hope!) that goes to several ports in Iceland and Greenland and sails Prince Christian Sound (Greenland) before it is only possible via the expensive expedition ships.

 

 

[sparks1093]

Itinerary and price are the two big ones for us. We realize that by putting price so high that we won't necessarily be sailing on the best ships with the best food and best entertainment but we are okay with that.

[drsel]

20 hours ago, davekathy said:

Desire to cruise

 

Desire to cruise as your No. 1 priority? Thats interesting!

[drsel]

19 hours ago, Lois R said:

What are yours?

1) Value for money

2) Ports visited and sightseeing available

3) Cost per day (including the cost of airfare, all visas, port fees & taxes)

4) Quality and quantity of activities, shows and entertainment onboard.

5) Convenient departure/ arrival at a nearby port (closer to our home).

6) the quality of food, drinks and service

7) the ship itself

8). the perks of our  loyalty status.  

9) the service by the crew and the way they treat you.

Edited March 25, 2020 by drsel

[George C]

Entertainment 

Suite perks, restaurants

Ship within a ship like msc yacht club and new celebrity ships

Embarkation port

[drsel]

15 hours ago, ldubs said:

1) What Mrs Ldubs selects

2) thru 10) See #1.  

 

Your Mrs is a very lucky lady. Normally I choose the cruise

[iancal]

In many instances we find the ships and or the cruise line that we are considering fairly equal.   For our past Med cruises we narrowed it down to a Princess, a HAL, and a Celebrity ship.  Same same for all from our perspective.   The first one to hit our price point for a balcony cabin got the business (all three times inside the final payment window).   It was the same three when we were buying a South America cruise.  On a fourth, RCI was the best by a long shot and their one way cruise air offer was exceptional.

 

The price differences at any one point in time were a little surprising.  For our Med trips HAL was typically 30 percent higher, Princess 20 percent, and Celebrity was the first to hit our price point.  For SA,  Celebrity was the by far the highest, followed by Celebrity  Princess hit our price point with a one day Canadian at par special.

[drsel]

2 hours ago, sparks1093 said:

Itinerary and price are the two big ones for us. We realize that by putting price so high that we won't necessarily be sailing on the best ships with the best food and best entertainment but we are okay with that.

thats being frank

[drsel]

15 minutes ago, iancal said:

The price differences at any one point in time were a little surprising.  For our Med trips HAL was typically 30 percent higher, Princess 20 percent, and Celebrity was the first to hit our price point.  For SA,  Celebrity was the by far the highest, followed by Celebrity  Princess hit our price point with a one day Canadian at par special.

I agree that HAL is overpriced for the minimal entertainment & activities they provide. Of course, the food & service is top notch

[iancal]

Yes...but for a Caribbean cruise a HAL was least expensive at the point in time when we booked inside the final payment window.

 

We see so little difference between HAL, Princess, and Celebrity based on our personal preferences.  We see far greater differences between ships in their respective fleets than we do with the cruise line itself.  They are all top notch.  For our OZ NZ cruise RCI had all of them beat hands down because we booked direct with RCI in Sydney instead of booking with our usual US on line agent.

Edited March 25, 2020 by iancal

[drsel]

19 hours ago, MCC retired said:

1 Itinerary

2 Price

3 Ship

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

Wow, 80+ cruises! I wonder if we will ever reach there

[pacruise804]

14 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

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

 

I'm not sure that is a fair statement - it depends a lot on what you consider "crappy."  Obviously a high-end, gourmet restaurant will have much better food than a large chain, but that doesn't mean everyone who enjoys Outback, Lone Star, etc are eating food that doesn't appeal to them.

 

My list:

1. Time of year - other obligations limit when we can cruise during the year

2. Purpose of cruise: special celebration, general vacation, with or without kids

3. Length of cruise - prefer longer than 6 day but often can't be away from home more than 9 days

4. Departure port location - because of number 1, generally limited to Baltimore/NYC/Brooklyn/Bayonne

5. Itinerary - not much sense sailing somewhere we don't want to go 😉 

6. Ship

7. Price

8. Loyalty vs. wanting to try something new

9-10 Nothing else comes to mind

[drsel]

What about grand shows entertainment and activities

[lenquixote66]

21 hours 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.

1) Can we get a handicapped cabin

2) Departure port

3)Itinerary

4) Cruise line

5) Itinerary

Nothing else really matters.

[drsel]

27 minutes ago, iancal said:

Yes...but for a Caribbean cruise a HAL was least expensive at the point in time when we booked inside the final payment window.

 

We see so little difference between HAL, Princess, and Celebrity based on our personal preferences.  We see far greater differences between ships in their respective fleets than we do with the cruise line itself.  They are all top notch.  For our OZ NZ cruise RCI had all of them beat hands down because we booked direct with RCI in Sydney instead of booking with our usual US on line agent.

Even celebrity has some fantastic last minute deals

[pacruise804]

23 minutes ago, drsel said:

What about grand shows entertainment and activities

 

If that was an additional thought for my post, I include shows/activities as part of the ship choice.

[iancal]

In the past, when we have booked inside the final payment window on competitive itineraries we have found that more often Celebrity has had the best pricing. This is on the day that our target price hits. Especially on Tuesday specials inside the final payment window. 

 

 The other plus for Celebrity is quite often they will have a guarantee cabin within a specific balcony category.  About 50 percent of the time we have actually been able to select our cabin.  We find that on Princess and on HAL more often than not at the same time we book their offering is for a balcony gty.  So this has been a plus for us when selecting Celebrity.  Plus Celebrity gives us a $200. credit when we book a balcony cabin.

 

Having said that we have never had a gty balcony assignment on any cruise line that we were not satisfied with.  Actually, the opposite has been true. We have often been surprised at the high cat. and good location of our balcony gty`s.

Edited March 25, 2020 by iancal

[Aquahound]

22 hours 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.

 

1. Itinerary and ship equally

2. Stateroom availability - must have balconies+ available

3. Price

 

Sorry...I can't come up with another 7 that isn't in some way associated with my #s 1-3. 

Edited March 25, 2020 by Aquahound

[bonsai3s]

Based on our old age...itinerary is most important. Then we prefer smaller ships.

[iancal]

We take itinerary as a given simply because the only cruises that we are interested in are those that have an itinerary that we want.  Same for time of year.  Both are given for us and really play no part in our decision making process.    Likewise, we only shortlist or consider  ships and cruises that have balcony cabins available.  

 

These are must haves for us before we will even consider a cruise.  We don`t bother shopping or comparing products that are of no interest to us.

Edited March 25, 2020 by iancal

[ldubs]

5 hours ago, drsel said:

Your Mrs is a very lucky lady. Normally I choose the cruise

 

Well, she is married to me so what more can I say!!  😄😄😄

3 hours ago, Aquahound said:

 

1. Itinerary and ship equally

2. Stateroom availability - must have balconies+ available

3. Price

 

Sorry...I can't come up with another 7 that isn't in some way associated with my #s 1-3. 

 

You reminded me that I guess I do have one criteria for stateroom location.  I need to be near egress points.  

[Tapi]

23 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

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

Not always. For our last cruise, we took the kids on a Caribbean cruise for their mid-winter break. We chose Holland America’s newest ship, the Niew Statendam (which was absolutely fantastic). A big selling factor was price. It was at least $1,000 cheaper than any other cruise we priced out for that week. Even a cruise aboard an older ship from budget minded Carnival was priced $1,400 more expensive than the Niew Statendam. And the itinerary was the best of all the cruises that we priced out for that week. An absolute winner. 

 

A few years ago, we chose a Mediterranean cruise over Thanksgiving because of price. It was cheaper than sailing in any other region of the world during that same time frame. Even a cheap Caribbean Cruise was more expensive. We sailed aboard the (then) brand new MSC Meraviglia, which was an amazing ship. The price was so dirt cheap that we decided to splurge and get a suite. For less than what a Caribbean cruise would’ve cost, we sailed the Mediterranean in a 2 deck loft style suite, with separate master bedroom, 2 bathrooms, living room, dining table, and a forward facing terrace with our own jacuzzi. 
 

So cheap doesn’t always translate into “crappy ship”. With some flexibility and ingenuity, there are some great opportunities at very affordable prices. 

Edited March 26, 2020 by Tapi

[drsel]

MSc has some fabulous new ships like Bellisima, Sea side and Sea view

[drsel]

Although I sailed in some very old ships, I wouldn't call them crappy.

we still enjoyed our Cruise