What new itinerary would you like when cruises are released this year?

[mahdnc]

31 minutes ago, dlexp said:

Every year I cross my fingers and hope to see the return of roundtrip Caribbean itineraries from Cape Liberty/somewhere in the northeast. With flying the way it is, the "simple" flight to Florida is becoming costly and unreliable enough to make me think twice. It's not only the folks in FL who would prefer to drive to the port! 

 

The last time we were able to do that on X was 2012 on the Silhouette, and [back in the day...] on the Galaxy & Mercury out of Baltimore. 

 

Do you recall the times when Horizon or Zenith would sail to Bermuda from Philadelphia?

[dlexp]

2 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

Do you recall the times when Horizon or Zenith would sail to Bermuda from Philadelphia?

 

I do! I only ever took the Zenith from NY, but once as a kid I went down to the Navy Yard to watch the Horizon sail away. How spoiled we were!

[mahdnc]

1 minute ago, dlexp said:

 

I do! I only ever took the Zenith from NY, but once as a kid I went down to the Navy Yard to watch the Horizon sail away. How spoiled we were!

 

I think that was in the early 2000's?  In the mid-90's (I moved away at the end of 1996) I seem to remember seeing Horizon or Zenith docked at Port Richmond.  It's possible it was Meridian as I saw the whole thing at a distance from Richmond Street or maybe it was I-95.

[dlexp]

 

6 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

I think that was in the early 2000's?  In the mid-90's (I moved away at the end of 1996) I seem to remember seeing Horizon or Zenith docked at Port Richmond.  It's possible it was Meridian as I saw the whole thing at a distance from Richmond Street or maybe it was I-95.

 

Cruise ships in Port Richmond is a wild thought! I don't remember the year -- could have been either the 90s or early 00's. Perhaps it was during the post-9/11 "Homeland Cruising" trend when no one wanted to fly anymore. That strategy is worth revisiting, if you ask me...

[Denny01]

It seems Im playing the game of defending X and making a lot of assumptions. There are 25 10-12N S Caribbean cruises that are still ongoing, and the TP cruises dont seem to have been canceled…at least not yet and so on And I don’t want to play that role since I dont really have any better insight than anyone else. 

 

So back to what this thread is about:

 

I agree on a TA both ways! We could take one across and enjoy Europe, or go both ways which gives us lots of options. 

 

I would LOVE more West Coast cruises with overnights in SF, a stop in Astoria and Monterey and maybe more US ports calls.

 

And along with that, Id LOVE East Coast Cruises. From NYC (OK, NJ) along the coast stopping in neat ports all the way to Florida. Then back. Did a S Caribbean cruise out of Miami that ended in NJ and spent days in Manhattan seeing plays. Us southerners would love that and our notherner friends would love to end up here and spend a few extra days. 

 

So I think more along the US coasts would be fantastic and not just repositionings moving up to Alaska or back out after the Alaska season, or the Summit moving out of the Caribbean and up to NJ for the Bermuda and the Greenland/Iceland itineraries. 

 

Heck, I live in a neat area of the Gulf Coast - Destin/Ft Walton Beach/Pensacola and there are great places to see here. Love to take people on a tour of the Naval Aviation Museum….Navy planes are So much more interesting that those AF airplanes!!

 

Enough. But you get the idea that I think some US ports of call would be fun.

 

Den

[gordylad]

Was thinking of some previous ports we have visited or would love to do an overnight stay:

 

Istanbul - we did an overnight on Celebrity a few years ago...fascinating city

Madeira - stopped on a Transatlantic with Celebrity and found the place really charming

 

Chania Crete - did not do an overnight but what we did see made us want to stay longer....when walking to the harbour area you can really feel the history and got us thinking about the trading ships from long ago

 

Honolulu - bring back one or even two overnights

 

[chemmo]

Wouldn’t it be nice if from Southampton there was a two way Mediterranean cruise focusing mainly on islands and including a taste of North Africa. One fourteen night leg Southampton to Cyprus and then reverse but with a totally different itinerary. Just a few suggestions….

 

Southampton, Le Havre, Gibraltar, Ibiza, Corsica, Elba, Sicily, Corfu, Santorini (overnight), (another island if time) Cyprus.

 

Cyprus, Alexandra, Crete, Malta (overnight), Tunisia, Morocco, Lisbon, Vigo, Southampton.

 

You could go one way and enjoy a week either in Cyprus or in UK or both or simply join the two cruises and have a month at sea!

Edited September 5, 2023 by chemmo

[JCMass.]

23 hours ago, WestLakeGirl said:

Thinking out of the box, and for Someone i know who would like to see something of Europe but who doesnt want to fly, a  cruise which originates in NY or Boston, goes to Europe, does two or three ports there and returns to US.  
 

And perhaps there are some Brits who would like to see some of the US but also don’t want to fly so maybe a cruise originating Southampton, coming to the US to Boston, New York, and maybe one or two others and then return to Southampton.

We would sign up for cruises from Boston to Europe and back.   Each year HAL does Voyage of the Vikings but it is 35 days round trip to Europe with many ports, it is very popular.  Something shorter like you suggest sounds great, and I expect would be very popular.  Boston is a popular embarkation port, the airport is just minutes away and there are lots of people who can just drive there.  

[ecslady]

13 hours ago, dlexp said:

Every year I cross my fingers and hope to see the return of roundtrip Caribbean itineraries from Cape Liberty/somewhere in the northeast. With flying the way it is, the "simple" flight to Florida is becoming costly and unreliable enough to make me think twice. It's not only the folks in FL who would prefer to drive to the port! 

 

The last time we were able to do that on X was 2012 on the Silhouette, and [back in the day...] on the Galaxy & Mercury out of Baltimore. 

Same here!  I would love a Celebrity ship out of Cape Liberty year round with the Caribbean itineraries. I remember doing the Silhouette cruises out of NJ and also Galaxy out of Baltimore too.

Edited September 5, 2023 by ecslady

[keysey222]

I'd love to see a shorter itinerary/segment of a cruise that contains the Amazon River. HAL does one that goes there, but it's far too long for us as we aren't retired. https://www.hollandamerica.com/en/us/find-a-cruise/s5x27a/x512-27-day-amazon-explorer

 

I can see one of the Xpedition-style ships doing this.

[Cruise Junky]

21 hours ago, Denny01 said:

Neat! But I think X is doing this in many regions…the Caribbean is a bit of a challenge, but we had booked the Iceland cruise with Norway as the follow-up. Had to cancel the 2nd leg to join our kids going to London…oh how we suffer!

 

Doing a Sydney around NZ and added the S Australia Wine cruise to Tasmania since it’s such a long flight over. 

 

Would love to do the Around Japan followed by the TP back to cut down on the flights, but doing Japan early Spring for the Cherry Blossoms! 

 

Enough. Love to do B2Bs to make up our own itineraries. 

 

Den

I’d like them to sell it as a 50+ day cruise so I don’t have to do the work in finding them. Have a couple per year that are also sold in segments and call them Grand Voyages.  

[2chiefs]

22 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We also like booking longer 3-5 week cruises. It would be nice if X designed their more unique itineraries so folks that like longer cruises can book 3 consecutive legs together without revisiting any of the same ports. 
 

Years ago we used to book B2B on Royal out of PR as they had two totally different itineraries every other week so there was no repeat. Now they do the same one over and over again so it's not worth going down there for a B2B anymore

 

[CruisinBanka]

6 hours ago, JCMass. said:

We would sign up for cruises from Boston to Europe and back.   Each year HAL does Voyage of the Vikings but it is 35 days round trip to Europe with many ports, it is very popular.  Something shorter like you suggest sounds great, and I expect would be very popular.  Boston is a popular embarkation port, the airport is just minutes away and there are lots of people who can just drive there.  

I agree! Boston is a great port and very underutilized by Celebrity. 

[WatchHill]

6 hours ago, JCMass. said:

We would sign up for cruises from Boston to Europe and back.   Each year HAL does Voyage of the Vikings but it is 35 days round trip to Europe with many ports, it is very popular.  Something shorter like you suggest sounds great, and I expect would be very popular.  Boston is a popular embarkation port, the airport is just minutes away and there are lots of people who can just drive there.  

I recall when the old QE sailed from Commonwealth pier on a regular transatlantic run. I also remember when it ran aground off Cuttyhunk. We sailed our boat out of Buzzards Bay to wave at passengers on the QE who waited until someone was able to check the ship's hull before it was taken back to Boston and placed in drydock.  Massport needs to get their marketing people to initiate contact with major and 'hidden gem" cruise lines to make Boston a premier cruise port. 

 

Darcy

[JCMass.]

4 minutes ago, WatchHill said:

I recall when the old QE sailed from Commonwealth pier on a regular transatlantic run. I also remember when it ran aground off Cuttyhunk. We sailed our boat out of Buzzards Bay to wave at passengers on the QE who waited until someone was able to check the ship's hull before it was taken back to Boston and placed in drydock.  Massport needs to get their marketing people to initiate contact with major and 'hidden gem" cruise lines to make Boston a premier cruise port. 

 

Darcy

That sounds wonderful, a transatlantic out of Boston.  We would take it for sure. 

[karmamule]

On 9/4/2023 at 9:31 AM, cruisestitch said:

SanDiego -Hawaii-San Diego

 

Boston -Iceland - Greenland  - Boston

New York - Ireland - New  York

buenos Aires - Antarctica - falklands - Buendos Aires

 

 

 

Since we live in the Boston area ANY cruises out of Boston other than Bermuda or Canada/New England (we're doing that in less than one month!) would catch our eye.

 

Boston - Greenland - Iceland - Boston would be TAKE MY MONEY PLEASE 😆

 

They have a repositioning cruise of Boston -> ABCs -> Miami. I'd love a 14 day version of that which returned to Boston. (Yes I know that's very unlikely but I can dream....)

Edited September 5, 2023 by karmamule

[EatonDoolittle]

On 9/4/2023 at 3:32 PM, tigervixxxen said:

Yeah I wonder how far south they could get round trip from Florida in around 14 days, if they could get to Brazil in that would be fantastic.

 

I am doing a 28 day Amazon Explorer on Holland America, R/T Ft. Lauderdale.  We get to the mouth of the Amazon (in Brazil) on day 8. Before that , we have stops in St Maarten, St. Lucia, Tobago, and Devil's Island , Guyana.

 

8 days to get back, stopping in Barbados, Dominica, and Tortola.

 

So, if there was no dilly dallying along the way, a ship could get quite far south in 14 days. But, as mentioned, the stops along the way will be nice. 

 

AFAIK, HAL it the only line that does that region R/T from Ft Lauderdale. They go once a year. 

Edited September 5, 2023 by EatonDoolittle

[gordylad]

sounds great

[JCMass.]

4 hours ago, karmamule said:

 

Since we live in the Boston area ANY cruises out of Boston other than Bermuda or Canada/New England (we're doing that in less than one month!) would catch our eye.

 

Boston - Greenland - Iceland - Boston would be TAKE MY MONEY PLEASE 😆

 

They have a repositioning cruise of Boston -> ABCs -> Miami. I'd love a 14 day version of that which returned to Boston. (Yes I know that's very unlikely but I can dream....)

Dream no more, we did a HAL cruise out of Boston last year to Greenland and Iceland and back to Boston.  They did it again this year in August.  Perhaps they will do it again next year.  It is a shorter version of their popular Voyage of the Vikings. 

 

Also NCL went to the Caribbean and back about 5 years ago and we did that too.  We also love cruising out of Boston and are always on the lookout for something other that the Bermuda and Canada/New England one's which we have taken a few times each.  

[Denny01]

There is the 

5 hours ago, karmamule said:

 

Since we live in the Boston area ANY cruises out of Boston other than Bermuda or Canada/New England (we're doing that in less than one month!) would catch our eye.

 

Boston - Greenland - Iceland - Boston would be TAKE MY MONEY PLEASE 😆

 

They have a repositioning cruise of Boston -> ABCs -> Miami. I'd love a 14 day version of that which returned to Boston. (Yes I know that's very unlikely but I can dream....)

Celebrity Summit does the Greenland/Iceland run from then to Boston.  Aug ‘24. 

 

Den

 

[SkystheLimit]

16 hours ago, gordylad said:

Was thinking of some previous ports we have visited or would love to do an overnight stay:

 

Istanbul - we did an overnight on Celebrity a few years ago...fascinating city

Madeira - stopped on a Transatlantic with Celebrity and found the place really charming

 

Chania Crete - did not do an overnight but what we did see made us want to stay longer....when walking to the harbour area you can really feel the history and got us thinking about the trading ships from long ago

 

Honolulu - bring back one or even two overnights

 

Would love to see Madeira in the summer with all the hydrangeas in bloom. The blue island.  

[hubofhockey]

On 9/4/2023 at 10:47 AM, firegal2539 said:

WestLakeGirl,

I agree. I can't fly for more than 3 hours at a time because of a blood clot problem so I can't go to Europe. I finally booked a roundtrip Transatlantic on Cunard, going from New York City to Southampton and back to New York City. The Transatlantic I really wanted was already sold out. In 2025 I am doing the roundtrip transatlantic and have added Rotterdam (Amsterdam) and one other port, so I will finally get to see some of Europe.

 

I would love for Celebrity to do a roundtrip transatlantic from Boston or New York City to Southampon and return but with maybe the Rotterdam stop and one or two others, around 19 days. I love sailing the east coast of the USA. I would love to do a Quebec or Montreal down the coast, including Halifax, Portland Maine, overnight in Boston, Newport Rhode Island, overnight in Charleston South Carolina and stop in either Fort Lauderdale or Miami, it would probably have to be at least 14 days. I would like to do the same on the west coast, start in Vancouver, overnight in Seattle, Astoria, overnight in San Francisco, San Diego, and get off in Los Angeles, maybe a 10 day cruise.

Candie

You would enjoy and even love Portland and Southern Maine more if you saw it in any other way than from a cruise ship.  From a cruise ship, you would even miss the great tourist spots (lighthouse, Kennebunkport, Ogunquit/Perkins Cove).  The best thing about Portland, other than the beauty of the old port and cobblestone streets is the great restaurant scene and you’d need time for that and the cruise ships are long gone when you would want to enjoy that.   

 

[karmamule]

10 hours ago, JCMass. said:

Dream no more, we did a HAL cruise out of Boston last year to Greenland and Iceland and back to Boston.  They did it again this year in August.  Perhaps they will do it again next year.  It is a shorter version of their popular Voyage of the Vikings. 

 

Also NCL went to the Caribbean and back about 5 years ago and we did that too.  We also love cruising out of Boston and are always on the lookout for something other that the Bermuda and Canada/New England one's which we have taken a few times each.  

 

We'll have to check out HAL!

[karmamule]

10 hours ago, Denny01 said:

There is the 

Celebrity Summit does the Greenland/Iceland run from then to Boston.  Aug ‘24. 

 

Den

 

 

2024 is already booked for us. I hope they do it again in 2025 because odds are very good we'd be on it!

[firegal2539]

hubofhockey,

I was orginally born and raised in Worcester Mass. I have been to Maine several times but not for an extended period of time. When I was looking for a cruise to Canada I found the Holland leaving from Quebec City and ending in Fort Lauderdale next month. We will stop at Portland. Because of my disability there were two shore excursion choices and I took the one that will go to the original L.L. Bean store. Now I wish I had chosen the Kennebunkport tour. I might change when I get on the ship the first week of October. Thanks for the information, Candie