Cruises with More Sea Days or Cruises with More Port Days

[mcrcruiser]

What is  your favorite & why ?

[DCThunder]

I prefer longer cruises rather than 7 days to the Caribbean or Alaska.  Consequently, those cruises tend to have an almost equal mix of port/sea days.  So the question is rather difficult to answer.

[OlsSalt]

I like cruises with no more than three port days in a row. Prefer a nice balance between ports and at sea days. Otherwise a cruise is becomes "work". The other preference is duplicating a cruise often enough, so that one feels less obligation to go ashore at each port. Or just pick a single place, shop or restaurant to re-visit. 

 

Some itineraries demand long stretches of at sea days so there is no choice, except for the choice to pick them for that very reason- trans-Atlantics and trans-Pacifics. HAL in the past  included many onboard enrichment options on those one at-sea cruises - 2-4 special lecturers - may they long continue. 

 

Long stretches of at-sea days are when HAL's sliding glass roof Lido area and 360 promenade are especially appreciated.

[hbsurfcitycruiser]

I prefer more port days. Because those that wish to relax can always stay on board if they want and can skip the port. There's usually less wind on those days compared to sea days so often times the pool is more pleasant to use. If someone suffers from sea sickness there's less rocking of the ship they have to deal with. If you forgot something it's typically more affordable to hop in to a store on land versus buying from the HAL gift shop. Most ports have free wifi nearby. Stuff like that 😎

[57redbird]

Ports, please --- I don't cruise to just see water.

[mom says]

Depends. If we are just doing a warm weather getaway during the winter (in lieu of an AI resort), then I don't care. If we are in the Caribbean I'm likely to just stay on board anyway. But if we've picked the cruise because if an interesting  itinerary, then the more ports the better. I can rest up when I get home.

[Shmoo here]

1 hour ago, mcrcruiser said:

What is  your favorite & why ?

I prefer more sea days, my husband prefers more port days, so we find a cruise that's pretty evenly divided between the two.

 

Me- sea days - I'm lazy, I don't mind just sitting, reading a book, or people watching on deck.

Husband - port days - he's into history and science stuff, so visiting historical places is high on his list.

[donaldsc]

I regard the ship as a big bus to get me to the places I want to visit.  I regard sea days as monumentally boring w nothing to do but stare at the ocean.  The main ship board activity that I like is attending a good lecture and good lecturers are rare because they do not generate revenue for the cruise company.  My ideal cruise would be mostly if not all port days.  The only type of sea days that I like are scenic cruising days.

 

DON

[shipgeeks]

More sea days, please.  The best, to me, is a transatlantic crossing.  

We do stay onboard while in many ports now; however, being in motion at sea is still much better than sitting still in a port.  Arriving, and moreso departing from a port, are second to sailing with no land in sight.

[TheOldBear]

We've done three transatlantic round trips, with a fourth booked. I would say we prefer sea days 😉

 

[shipgeeks]

Round trip transatlantics; that sounds like heaven.  All the sea days are just so festive, with a real sense of community.  Relaxed meals with conversation, hours of looking at the sky and sea.  I just love it.

[no1racefan1]

I'm in it for the ports! I use cruising as a way to travel between places while I'm sleeping 🙂

[badtwin]

We prefer lots of ports.  For us, cruising is a moving, upscale, America-style  hotel, without the need to pack and unpack ones suitcase, or decide where to eat every day.  We can spend our time touring the various ports and not worry about logistics.

[ldubs]

Not so long ago I would have wanted as few sea days as possible.  The more places to go and stretch our legs the better.  Now, for some reason that I'm sure has nothing to do with my older age, I like some sea days mixed in.  

[sullaRaffaello]

Days at sea. Ports are just an interruption of the flow of onboard life. I take a ship to be on the ship. If I really want to see land ports, I'll fly there. Just came back from a crossing from Miami to Barcelona. We stopped at Bermuda and the Azores. I'd have preferred to go non-stop from Miami to Spain.

[SPacificbound]

It depends on the cruise itinerary. For Alaska the less sea days were okay, but that is the shortest cruise we will ever have taken. We tend to do connecting cruises, and Transatlantic voyages, have only done one Transpacific.

 

Having said all that, I guess sea days is the answer. 😃

[cruisemom42]

More port days for me. Although I will say that 20 years ago I was perfectly happy with nine out of 10 port days and could sightsee all day. Now I would agree that having the occasional port day sprinkled in is sort of a nice "forced relaxation". 😆 However, I'm still not crazy about more than one sea day between ports.

[cruisemom42]

11 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

HAL in the past  included many onboard enrichment options on those one at-sea cruises - 2-4 special lecturers - may they long continue. 

 

They have not continued on HAL Westerdam's current trans-Pacific. No special lecturers. Even on the Japan-intensive portion there was no special lecturer -- well, unless you count the retired dentist with PowerPoint slides that he read to the audience....

 

 

[DarrenM]

equal amounts would suit me.

 

I love sea days but wouldnt if the ship was rocking all over the place. That would feel like a punishment to me.

 

So a few days in the Med during summer on a calm sea is just the ticket.

 

And I never get bored. Love running and walking, and drinking. And eating a bit too. Wife loves sunbathing, and reading, and drinking, so I make myself her personal waiter, and as long as she gets a regular top up of wine etc, I am free to do whatever I like. 

 

She has witnessed me getting gently drunk, without me even realising she noticed, as i went on a bar crawl around the ship.

 

And me believing I hid it well.

 

Is there anything better than sitting at a bar on your own with a beer watching the world go by?

[wowzz]

27 minutes ago, DarrenM said:

Is there anything better than sitting at a bar on your own with a beer watching the world go by?

Two beers ?

[puppycanducruise]

More port days for me.  The ship is transportation between ports, an easy way to see lots of places.  But then, I've only gone on 8 cruises, not the dozens that others have.

[DarrenM]

36 minutes ago, puppycanducruise said:

More port days for me.  The ship is transportation between ports, an easy way to see lots of places.  But then, I've only gone on 8 cruises, not the dozens that others have.

Thats 5 more than me

[Lois R]

I am happy either way 😀........examples would be when I go to Europe I love port days, I took a cruise last month out of Athens and sailed all around Greece and Turkey. It was very port intensive and that is ok with me😀. I visited a lot of places for the first time and in the couple of ports I had been to multiple times in the past, I just used them as an additional sea day🙂

 

I sailed to the Caribbean back in January and on that cruise? We went to a lot of ports and I never got off the ship ......I just relaxed and basically didn't do much of anything so it was really a full sea day cruise for me. (I had been to every port on the itinerary before).

 

Like I mentioned, I am happy with sea days and am happy with port days. It really depends on the specific cruise. 

 

I have 2 more cruises coming up..........one is very port intensive and the other is a TA crossing so one of each and I am looking forward to both!😀

[DarrenM]

so on our upcoming cruise,

11 night cruise

2 sea days

an overnight in Istanbul, so treating the 2nd day as a sea day.

we have booked a few excursions, Istanbul, the other place in Turkey who's name escapes me, Santorini, Athens and Sicily.

Last port before Rome, and being dumped off the ship, is Naples. Been there 3 times now, so we may treat this as a sea day also.

And we have a port stop in Mykonos, so might not get off there either.

 

that would give us 5 excursion days and 5 sea days. Perfect

[YourWorldWithBill]

When we first started doing more cruises than other travel, the destination ports were the focus. Now, although that's still important, we've learned to enjoy the sea says and the ship more. This can also depend on the cruise line: if it's a line with super food, then sea days feel even better!