How do you choose your cruise?

Just Curious....and suffering from insomnia, dreaming of cruising!

Mostly PRICE! Whichever one I can get the best deal on...

Price and ports...

Mine is a combination of ports of call and departure point. I've never been to eastern Caribbean, (only done western and Alaska) or to Baltimore, so we decided on the Pride for the cruise in October.

We have a general time frame we want to cruise, then we only do 7-8 day cruises. The next thing is price, then itenerary, then ship.

I generally look at ports of call and then look for the best price!:)

I live in Louisiana, so I cruise out of New Orleans as much as possible. But, options are limited fast. I can drive to Florida in 15-20 hours so that is another option. I look at those two options and then decide.

Once I do all the cruises out of these ports I will start taking regular vacas to central and south America.

Cruising to the Caribbean is cost effective, but not my one stop.

First off is ports of call. After that, I start looking at prices for both the cruise as well as the air fare to get to that port city. Generally this means Florida for a Caribbean sailing as opposed to NOLA or Texas as air fare is going to be better (as well as generally better cruise prices).

Well this time, it was mostly length of cruise...we needed a three day due to my husbands time off work. Then second was departure port to what was closest to us, since we drive.

But when length is not an issue, it is usually ports and the ship that matters.

Your poll should allow multiple choices. I would pick a, b, and c.

We start with ports, and then price, including airfare. This year we also considered the length of flight ... transatlantic flights are just too long for us these days. Hard enough to have to travel half-way across the country in either direction! :eek:

Price and ports!

The price thing never works though!

We pick a cheap cruise to start with then keep looking at better cabins till its not that cheap anymore:rolleyes:

den

Price and ports.

I didn't vote because we pick our cruise based on what we want out of that vacation. In the past it has been based on embarkation port, itinerary, ship and price. Everything on your list but cruise director plus price which was not on your list.

To add...I would not cruise at all if I had to fly to a.port. it is cost effective bc I live near a port. With flying it would be cheaper for me to do a land vaca. Cruising is fun...but not that fun!!!

We usually pick the date first and then it's a combination of ship and itinerary. Price is never a deciding factor for us.

Ports of call would be 1st and then departure port is important. We never consider the CD when selecting a cruise and though we have CCL ship class preferences, we'd probably go on any ship (but if we had it down to 2 or more choices, we'd pick any class over Conquest class).

The week we cruise is also important as we have a very limited time that we can all vacation (as a family)...August (until school starts), Christmas break, Easter/spring break and Thanksgiving break. If it's just DH and I...well that opens up all of Nov, Dec, Jan and Feb as well. My girls play travel softball and DH helps coach.

Ports, then price. The ship can be the best in the fleet, but if it's going to Nassau and Ocho Rios, forget it!

Ports of call would be 1st and then departure port is important. We never consider the CD when selecting a cruise and though we have CCL ship class preferences, we'd probably go on any ship (but if we had it down to 2 or more choices, we'd pick any class over Conquest class).

 

The week we cruise is also important as we have a very limited time that we can all vacation (as a family)...August (until school starts), Christmas break, Easter/spring break and Thanksgiving break. If it's just DH and I...well that opens up all of Nov, Dec, Jan and Feb as well. My girls play travel softball and DH helps coach.

Really you choose on CD:confused:

Den

Ours is price and dates!

As long as the ship provides activities that fit my wants, I'm there.

The only one applicable to me from your options was Ports. But I actually use a combination of Price/Dates/Ports in that order.

For me it is a combination of factors to get that perfect cruise. (1) Price, naturally. I really wanted to go on the Breeze but the $1,500 difference made me chose the Liberty. (2) Departure Port. Live in Ft Myers and drive to either Ft Lauderdale or Miami. Cuts down on air fare costs. (3) Ports of call. I rather go on a cruise where I have not visited the ports before but that gets harder and harder to do as you cruise more (4) Ship. "Newer and bigger" is my motto. Age is certainly a factor although I will give Carnival credit for keeping up it's fleet. (5) Time of year. Certainly try to stay out of the Hurricane season and some holidays like Easter. (6) Length of cruise. Always try and do a 7 to 8 day cruise. (7) Entertainment. I love the Carnival shows but when you know what's coming all the time, it's time to switch. (8) CD. Why can't John Heald be on every ship?

No wonder it takes me awhile to pick that perfect cruise!

It's pretty much a given that we are going to the Caribbean, Western or Eastern, so we chose the ship to get us there.

We choose which departure port has the least expensive airfare.:p (Usually FLL or MIA.)