How to find itineraries with max/longest port times

[gamblingcruiser]

Hi All,

We've only taken two cruises (just returned from 9 day from NY to Caribbean 5-26 on Princess) and one thing is for certain, we find the several hours in ports to be much too short to do any extended tours, nightlife, etc. Besides working with one's TA (we love to do our own research), does anyone know of any cruise lines and/or itineraries that maximize port times up to and including overnight stays? We were in San Juan and would have liked to visit Aricebo radio telescope but the drive alone is about 2 hours each way; St. Maarten and St. Thomas, wanted beach time and got two hours at St. Thomas (wow!). Grand Turk was great, dock built just for Carnival company ships with a thousand beach chairs, but that was only about 4 hours.

Thank you for any comments/opinions.

J & M

[kitty9]

For longer stays, you'll have to hit the more exotic ports outside of North America. You'll not find the mainstream lines that stay in Caribbean/Mexico ports overnight or until late in the evening. The only port where they do the overnights in Bermuda and sometimes Bahamas. The reason they don't stay long is cost. They have to pay higher port charges if they stay beyond certain times.

[quester1]

Hi All,

We've only taken two cruises (just returned from 9 day from NY to Caribbean 5-26 on Princess) and one thing is for certain, we find the several hours in ports to be much too short to do any extended tours, nightlife, etc. Besides working with one's TA (we love to do our own research), does anyone know of any cruise lines and/or itineraries that maximize port times up to and including overnight stays? We were in San Juan and would have liked to visit Aricebo radio telescope but the drive alone is about 2 hours each way; St. Maarten and St. Thomas, wanted beach time and got two hours at St. Thomas (wow!). Grand Turk was great, dock built just for Carnival company ships with a thousand beach chairs, but that was only about 4 hours.

Thank you for any comments/opinions.

J & M

 

I agree several hours in port are much to short, especially if you have to use a tender to go a shore. For this reason my DW and I find the smaller cruise ships (under a thousand passengers) that can dock in port give usually have more usable hours on shore.

The cruise lines in building the big “mega” ships have an ulterior motive other then featuring the islands; they are the destination in and of themselves. The cruise line wants to spend the majority of your time on the ship, spending your money in their bars, restaurants, spas, casinos etc. For this reason, the itineraries include more days at sea and shorter times in port. This goes for the contrived ports such as Carnival’s dock in Grand Turk. Carnival financed the construction of this port and shares in the revenue that the port generates. The port has become an extension of the ship a little better than the beach day at the cruise lines private island ports.

We have taken two cruise that stayed overnight in port (at least 1.5 – 2 days in port). The first was on the Tahitian Princess in French Polynesia and the second was on the NCL’s Pride of Hawaii in the Hawaiian Islands. Unfortunately both these ships have been or are being repositioned to other cruise areas. However, I understand that that Most of the other cruise ships sailing these areas stay at some of the ports overnight such as Holland America, Princess, Regent (Radisson), Star Clipper etc. Incidentally Star Clipper is offering free airfare from LA to Tahiti for their 7, 10 and 12 day cruises. This makes the cruise a very good bargain.

My favorite site for researching destinations and itineraries is ****************. On their site the cruises are organized by destination, cover a one or two month period, as soon as the cruise lines release their itineraries. Most of the major cruise lines for a destination are listed side by side making it very easy to compare itineraries including the amount of time in port. The site also has links to ships information, destination information, cruise line information, prices etc.

[vowsatsea]

Hi All,

We've only taken two cruises (just returned from 9 day from NY to Caribbean 5-26 on Princess) and one thing is for certain, we find the several hours in ports to be much too short to do any extended tours, nightlife, etc. Besides working with one's TA (we love to do our own research), does anyone know of any cruise lines and/or itineraries that maximize port times up to and including overnight stays? We were in San Juan and would have liked to visit Aricebo radio telescope but the drive alone is about 2 hours each way; St. Maarten and St. Thomas, wanted beach time and got two hours at St. Thomas (wow!). Grand Turk was great, dock built just for Carnival company ships with a thousand beach chairs, but that was only about 4 hours.

Thank you for any comments/opinions.

J & M

 

 

I was on the same sailing, and the port times were not as short as you're saying. Unless I'm reading what you're saying the wrong way, then I don't understand where you got your times from. :confused: We docked in St. Thomas at 7:00am, and had to be on the ship at 3:30pm. That's between 7 and 8 hours...St. Maarten was either the same amount of hours as St. Thomas, or maybe a little more. The sun was setting as we were leaving. And Grand Turk was between 5-6 hours, but we were right there, so that was a good amount of time. :confused: I don't mean to come off as rude, but I didn't remember our stays in these ports to be as short as you're stating.

[cruiselover57]

Hi All,

We've only taken two cruises (just returned from 9 day from NY to Caribbean 5-26 on Princess) and one thing is for certain, we find the several hours in ports to be much too short to do any extended tours, nightlife, etc. Besides working with one's TA (we love to do our own research), does anyone know of any cruise lines and/or itineraries that maximize port times up to and including overnight stays? We were in San Juan and would have liked to visit Aricebo radio telescope but the drive alone is about 2 hours each way; St. Maarten and St. Thomas, wanted beach time and got two hours at St. Thomas (wow!). Grand Turk was great, dock built just for Carnival company ships with a thousand beach chairs, but that was only about 4 hours.

Thank you for any comments/opinions.

J & M

 

Sometimes you have to go on a longer cruise (i.e., maybe around 14 days) in order to get some overnight stays (i.e., Hawaii, Europe, sometimes in Acapulco).

 

Laurie

[airlink diva]

I noticed that Seabourn often stay in port longer than the other cruiseline. However be prepare to pay the cost for staying a long time!!

[gamblingcruiser]

Sabrina, you weren't being rude, but you must understand that different people see and experience things differently. My DH was stating what he and I would like to experience. That's what this board is all about - different ideas, thoughts and feelings. We like to do things leisurely and thoroughly and really enjoy spending a lot of time in new places exploring etc. We aren't the shopping types and even between just the 2 of us, we have different ideas of what the perfect day would be. So .... if we could have a FULL day or even overnight in a port we'd surely be able to satisfy what we both would like to do. Of course we could accomplish this by taking a second cruise to the same area!! And I'm sure this is part of what the cruise lines want you to do!! If you knew us better, you also would know that if we pull into port at 7:00 AM, I'm not going to be the first one off the ship - the second cup of coffee hasn't even started to brew yet at that time! We loved our cruise and by comparing this one on the Caribbean Princess to our first on the NCL Majesty - well, there is no comparison - this cruise was far superior in all but one area. We just loved being in Bermuda for 3 entire days while on the Majesty and now that we can compare it to what we consider the short port visits, we would just love to find a combination of the two. Reading the other messages, it appears the only way to do this may be on costlier lines - just thought we'd put the idea out there to get some enlightened responses from those more experienced cruisers than ourselves.

[cb at sea]

I agree that some longer stops would be nice. While I actually cruise for the ship, it's nice to be able to wander off and on the ship at will--and on the shorter stops, there's just no time for that!

Years ago, we docked in Nassau at 8am, and didn't depart until 2am! That gave us plenty of time to do several things.

Same with Aruba on one cruise--early morning arrival, and about a 15 hour stay! Nice! We were able to go to the beach, shop a bit, go back to the ship and change, and go to dinner on the island!

10 hours should be the minimum stay!!!!

[vowsatsea]

Sabrina, you weren't being rude, but you must understand that different people see and experience things differently. My DH was stating what he and I would like to experience. That's what this board is all about - different ideas, thoughts and feelings. We like to do things leisurely and thoroughly and really enjoy spending a lot of time in new places exploring etc. We aren't the shopping types and even between just the 2 of us, we have different ideas of what the perfect day would be. So .... if we could have a FULL day or even overnight in a port we'd surely be able to satisfy what we both would like to do. Of course we could accomplish this by taking a second cruise to the same area!! And I'm sure this is part of what the cruise lines want you to do!! If you knew us better, you also would know that if we pull into port at 7:00 AM, I'm not going to be the first one off the ship - the second cup of coffee hasn't even started to brew yet at that time! We loved our cruise and by comparing this one on the Caribbean Princess to our first on the NCL Majesty - well, there is no comparison - this cruise was far superior in all but one area. We just loved being in Bermuda for 3 entire days while on the Majesty and now that we can compare it to what we consider the short port visits, we would just love to find a combination of the two. Reading the other messages, it appears the only way to do this may be on costlier lines - just thought we'd put the idea out there to get some enlightened responses from those more experienced cruisers than ourselves.

 

 

Yeah, I totally understand what you're saying. I made sure I stated "unless I'm reading what you're saying the wrong way..." because I had a feeling I was. I wasn't sure if you were referring to the actual amount of time that we were docked, or the amount that you were able to spend on the island.

 

I know for us, we got off pretty early in St. Thomas, and went over to the Skyride. Although we had about 8 hours in port, after we finished at the Skyride, I didn't want to take the chance and go and do something else, for fear that we wouldn't make it back to the ship in time...so the time definitely does get cut short.

 

Sorry about the misunderstanding :p

[vowsatsea]

I agree that some longer stops would be nice. While I actually cruise for the ship, it's nice to be able to wander off and on the ship at will--and on the shorter stops, there's just no time for that!

Years ago, we docked in Nassau at 8am, and didn't depart until 2am! That gave us plenty of time to do several things.

Same with Aruba on one cruise--early morning arrival, and about a 15 hour stay! Nice! We were able to go to the beach, shop a bit, go back to the ship and change, and go to dinner on the island!

10 hours should be the minimum stay!!!!

 

 

I would absolutely LOVE to spend 15 hours in a port. That's amazing! On our cruise that we had booked last year, we were supposed to stay overnight in the Bahamas. I was so excited. Unfortunately, NCL canceled the cruise on us, and we ended up with a completely different itinerary on Carnival.