What is the farthest you have traveled to get to your embarkation port?

[DnD CruiserZ]

I have been in the "How many days until your next cruise" topic and I was surprised to see some people counting down from hundreds of days. I mean HUNDREDS of days.

It got me to thinking about not only how far out in time but how far in distance have people traveled to go cruising.

Some people live in a port city where they may be able to just roll out of bed and head to the terminal while others may be in the middle of their county and have miles and miles to go...still others may go to another country.

 

So, what is the farthest you have traveled to get to your cruise?

Mine was from Phoenix, AZ, USA to Orlando (Port Canaveral) FL, USA

 

Edited July 6, 2022 by DnD CruiserZ

[CruiserBruce]

SFO-Perth, Australia.  Literally halfway around the world. Also have SFO to Auckland New Zealand, SFO- Rome, and about to do SFO- Copenhagen for the second time.

[wcook]

This brings up a philosophical question. I just booked a cruise leaving from Cairo, Egypt. Now I’m obviously also going to explore Cairo while I’m there. So am I traveling all the way to Cairo from New England for my cruise? Or am I traveling to Cairo for its own sake, then traveling the 100 miles to the actual port for my cruise? 

[Flatbush Flyer]

here’s just a few of our “long” distance embarks:

SFO-SYD

SFO-CPT

SFO-ARN

SFO-FCO

SFO-LIS

SFO-GIG

[John Bull]

1 hour ago, CruiserBruce said:

SFO-Perth, Australia.  Literally halfway around the world. Also have SFO to Auckland New Zealand, SFO- Rome, and about to do SFO- Copenhagen for the second time.

 

Halfway round the world to Australia, same as Bruce (but probably in the opposite direction).

But for anything like that distance  I cant imagine anyone goes from airport to ship, then ship back to airport. We had stop-overs in Kuala Lumpar, a New South Wales road-trip before the cruise and a few days in Sydney post-cruise.

 

JB 🙂

[Essiesmom]

Savannah to Singapore;  Savannah to Buenos Aires.  Also Savannah to Tonga, but that wasn’t for a cruise.  Savannah to Kathmandu, also not a cruise.  EM

[DnD CruiserZ]

11 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:

Savannah to Singapore;  Savannah to Buenos Aires.  Also Savannah to Tonga, but that wasn’t for a cruise.  Savannah to Kathmandu, also not a cruise.  EM

Spent a long weekend in Savannah, October last year. Beautiful place.

[DnD CruiserZ]

1 hour ago, wcook said:

This brings up a philosophical question. I just booked a cruise leaving from Cairo, Egypt. Now I’m obviously also going to explore Cairo while I’m there. So am I traveling all the way to Cairo from New England for my cruise? Or am I traveling to Cairo for its own sake, then traveling the 100 miles to the actual port for my cruise? 

 

I guess the test would be; Would you have booked the Cairo trip had you not been going on the cruise?

I am going to assume in this case you are going from New England to Cairo. Any other destinations or activities are just a product of efficient travel planning!

[CruiserBruce]

57 minutes ago, John Bull said:

 

Halfway round the world to Australia, same as Bruce (but probably in the opposite direction).

But for anything like that distance  I cant imagine anyone goes from airport to ship, then ship back to airport. We had stop-overs in Kuala Lumpar, a New South Wales road-trip before the cruise and a few days in Sydney post-cruise.

 

JB 🙂

We stopped for 3 days in SYD on our way. The cruise was over the "top end" and ended in Sydney, so we flew home from there.

[ldubs]

Longest distance trips for us would be San Francisco to Singapore (about 8400 miles, couple two or three thousand more than to Europe).   Next would be San Francisco to Sydney.  

 

 

[Ashland]

So far for us would have been our Los Angeles to Singapore.

[iancal]

Calgary, Canada to:   Buenos Aires, Santiago, Sydney/Perth (OZ), Istanbul

[DnD CruiserZ]

With the exception of John Bull, everybody who has responded so far is from North America going elsewhere.

I assume it's partly due to time zone differences and we may get more responses as the day/night progresses from other parts of this wonderful world.

 

I know it is too small of a sample to draw any conclusions but are North American ports/itinerary's not attractive to the rest of the world?

In my small 4 cruise history, it seemed like the vast majority of the people on my cruises were North American. Is this due to economics? Shorter travel is obviously cheaper.

 

Some North Americans can afford to go farther and apparently do. Will the same happen with the rest of the world? Is what we have to offer enticing enough for people from the rest of the world to break open their piggy bank and travel to North America to catch a Mexican Riviera, Alaskan or Caribbean cruise?

 

For those who traveled half way around the world to go on a cruise, if you lived over there, would you have traveled here for a cruise?

 

Hmmm...

[CruiserBruce]

Nope, have sailed out of half a dozen US ports, several more than once. But there is a big world out there to explore, both on ships, and on land trips.

[Corby114]

Flew from JFK to Singapore on Singapore Airlines in January 2019 and January 2020 for two Asian cruises. The first one was a fifteen night sailing on the Holland America’s Westerdam to Thailand, Cambodia and four ports in Vietnam. The second sailing was an eight night voyage on the Norwegian Jade to Thailand and three ports in Malaysia. Both cruises were wonderful and I hope to return to the area again in the near future.

[TheOldBear]

We are local to NYC - in particular the Brooklyn cruise terminal - and that has influenced our choice of ships and sailings.

On the other hand, our upcoming cruise is a Brooklyn to Southampton round trip, with a 12 night Norway sailing in between. Looked at it that way, we are traveling 3000+ miles to what is the embarkation port for a cruise.

[John Bull]

38 minutes ago, DnD CruiserZ said:

With the exception of John Bull, everybody who has responded so far is from North America going elsewhere.

I assume it's partly due to time zone differences and we may get more responses as the day/night progresses from other parts of this wonderful world.

 

I know it is too small of a sample to draw any conclusions but are North American ports/itinerary's not attractive to the rest of the world?

In my small 4 cruise history, it seemed like the vast majority of the people on my cruises were North American. Is this due to economics? Shorter travel is obviously cheaper.

 

Some North Americans can afford to go farther and apparently do. Will the same happen with the rest of the world? Is what we have to offer enticing enough for people from the rest of the world to break open their piggy bank and travel to North America to catch a Mexican Riviera, Alaskan or Caribbean cruise?

 

For those who traveled half way around the world to go on a cruise, if you lived over there, would you have traveled here for a cruise?

 

Hmmm...

 

Sailing from the US is slightly problematic for those of us on other continents because of the grief and expense of entering the US just to cruise straight out again. As Brits we have a wide choice of direct Caribbean fly-cruises - cruiseline-chartered aircraft from UK regional airports, no immigration, no luggage carousel, no customs, not even airport terminal. Instead, off the plane & onto transfer buses to the port. Luggage follows in a truck, we don't see it from when we check in in the UK until it appears at our cabin. Similar for the return home - and not ushered off the ship first thing in the morning, instead the run of the ship until our flight transfer is called.

Brilliant.

The US can't compete with that.🙂

 

We've done many great road-trips in the States - for a 3 to 6 week stay the airport grief is worthwhile.

 

JB 🙂 

[George C]

Our longest we’re from Barcelona and from Hawaii and Athens 

[Blondilu]

Longest drive to a port was 12 hours.  Longest flight was to the UK, which was also about 12 hours.  Longest day was getting home from Quebec.  There are no direct flight to my home airport of San Francisco, so 3 flights plus layovers = a 19 hour day.

 

I have mostly sailed out of North American ports, in part because they are closer and therefore less expensive for me, but have been on a cruise out of the UK twice.

[ldubs]

15 minutes ago, John Bull said:

 

Sailing from the US is slightly problematic for those of us on other continents because of the grief and expense of entering the US just to cruise straight out again. As Brits we have a wide choice of direct Caribbean fly-cruises - cruiseline-chartered aircraft from UK regional airports, no immigration, no luggage carousel, no customs, not even airport terminal. Instead, off the plane & onto transfer buses to the port. Luggage follows in a truck, we don't see it from when we check in in the UK until it appears at our cabin. Similar for the return home - and not ushered off the ship first thing in the morning, instead the run of the ship until our flight transfer is called.

Brilliant.

The US can't compete with that.🙂

 

We've done many great road-trips in the States - for a 3 to 6 week stay the airport grief is worthwhile.

 

JB 🙂 

 

Interesting.  I find the experience flying to US airports to be pretty much the same as flying to airports in other countries.   When it comes to the grief and expense you mention, what makes it so different for a non-US citizen coming to a US airport? 

 

BTW, those options you mention for Caribbean cruises sound terrific.  

[Z'Loth]

Compared to others, mine was short.... Sacramento to Washington DC to Miami. 

 

[ldubs]

1 hour ago, DnD CruiserZ said:

With the exception of John Bull, everybody who has responded so far is from North America going elsewhere.

I assume it's partly due to time zone differences and we may get more responses as the day/night progresses from other parts of this wonderful world.

 

I know it is too small of a sample to draw any conclusions but are North American ports/itinerary's not attractive to the rest of the world?

In my small 4 cruise history, it seemed like the vast majority of the people on my cruises were North American. Is this due to economics? Shorter travel is obviously cheaper.

 

Some North Americans can afford to go farther and apparently do. Will the same happen with the rest of the world? Is what we have to offer enticing enough for people from the rest of the world to break open their piggy bank and travel to North America to catch a Mexican Riviera, Alaskan or Caribbean cruise?

 

For those who traveled half way around the world to go on a cruise, if you lived over there, would you have traveled here for a cruise?

 

Hmmm...

 

My longest distance port is outside of the US, but no surprise that we have also taken several cruises out of US ports.  If I were coming from somewhere else, I have no doubt I would take cruises from American ports -- so long as the itinerary was appealing.  I'm thinking Alaska, Northeast, an Panama Canal in particular.  While we are not big on sunny beaches, it is likely we would travel for Mexican Riviera and Caribbean cruises out of US ports, but not likely we would do so frequently.  

 

A related question might be if there were not so many American cruise passengers, how many cruise ports would still be viable?  

[Mary229]

Flying: Dallas to Athens.   For us South America is as close as Western Europe and almost as close as Anchorage.  
 

We have driven to Boston, Seattle, each 3 day, one way.  We have also driven to New Orleans and Galveston but those are only hours away.  

[John Bull]

11 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

Interesting.  I find the experience flying to US airports to be pretty much the same as flying to airports in other countries.   When it comes to the grief and expense you mention, what makes it so different for a non-US citizen coming to a US airport? 

 

BTW, those options you mention for Caribbean cruises sound terrific.  

 

Not much different to flying to other countries - lines at the airport for immigration, retrieving luggage, hauling luggage to a transfer bus, taxi or whatever, fighting downtown traffic, etc. And obtaining an ESTA - all just to join a cruise ship which then sails to the Caribbean.  And at the end of the cruise, being thrown off the ship with our luggage by about 9am when most west-east Atlantic flights are in the evening. 😟

My comparison isn't really with other countries, it's with those seamless UK - Caribbean fly-cruises.🙂

I don't understand why some Brits fly to Florida or Galveston for a Caribbean cruise - even if I had loyalties to a US cruise line, I'd switch loyalties for a Caribbean fly-cruise from the UK.

 

JB 🙂

[ldubs]

3 minutes ago, John Bull said:

 

Not much different to flying to other countries - lines at the airport for immigration, retrieving luggage, hauling luggage to a transfer bus, taxi or whatever, fighting downtown traffic, etc. And obtaining an ESTA - all just to join a cruise ship which then sails to the Caribbean.  And at the end of the cruise, being thrown off the ship with our luggage by about 9am when most west-east Atlantic flights are in the evening. 😟

My comparison isn't really with other countries, it's with those seamless UK - Caribbean fly-cruises.🙂

I don't understand why some Brits fly to Florida or Galveston for a Caribbean cruise - even if I had loyalties to a US cruise line, I'd switch loyalties for a Caribbean fly-cruise from the UK.

 

JB 🙂

 

You sum up the airport experience pretty well!  😀