Ideal length of a cruise?

Hi,

New here, from the UK. Sailed 2 cruises both with Royal Caribbean, 2014 Serenade Barcelona round trip and Anthem Southampton round trip. Both amazing experiences and already dreaming of the next one.

Let's face it though, cruising is not cheap. For the last 2 years it has been our main holiday. Both cruises I've been on have been 11nt and 12nt respectively.

Browsing through RCs ships and a lot of them based in the Caribbean only do 7nt sailings or even shorter. Typically the most interesting sailing next year (12nt San Juan round trip) is on the

Serenade, I want to try a different ship!

There is obviously a lot of demand for shorter sailings so my question is simple; what is your ideal length of a cruise and why?

Hi,

 

New here, from the UK. Sailed 2 cruises both with Royal Caribbean, 2014 Serenade Barcelona round trip and Anthem Southampton round trip. Both amazing experiences and already dreaming of the next one.

 

Let's face it though, cruising is not cheap. For the last 2 years it has been our main holiday. Both cruises I've been on have been 11nt and 12nt respectively.

 

Browsing through RCs ships and a lot of them based in the Caribbean only do 7nt sailings or even shorter. Typically the most interesting sailing next year (12nt San Juan round trip) is on the

Serenade, I want to try a different ship!

 

There is obviously a lot of demand for shorter sailings so my question is simple; what is your ideal length of a cruise and why?

For a first cruise I'd say 8-10 nights is probably ideal.

As we are all different maybe work your way up from there.

For us ideal seems to be as long as we can afford, both time and money (and we never seem to have both at the same time).

3-4 weeks is my ideal length of cruise. It takes the first week to fully unwind from work and everyday life I find. If I could afford it I'd take even longer cruises.

We started with a 13 night cruise, were a little worried but it was unfounded, not long enough. Since then have done 8 night, 14 night, 17 night and about to do a 10 night.

What we found is 8 nights are just too short, we only just relaxed and had to get off. But time constraints mean a short holiday is a way of getting a cruise fix between longer cruises.

Our longest the 17 night made us realise that we could stretch to a 21 night but that would most likely be our limit. The food starts to look the same, the entertainment is rotating and we were ready to debark. Its not like we were not enjoying ourselves, it just felt the right amount of time.

I have come to the conclusion that I could not do a world cruise, not at this point of time in my life anyway.

I like long cruises and have taken several of them but that is not practical for many people.

I would say that 12 or more days is quite nice.

Even when I worked fulltime when I would take a 7 day cruise by the time I was relaxed it was around day 4 and I knew in just a couple of days it would be time to pack and get ready to leave. My first cruise of a greater length while working was 12 days which was perfect because by the time I was relaxing I knew I had several more days to enjoy the cruise.

Keith

I've done a 10, 11 and 18 night, I found the 10 a little too short and the 18 was fantastic but I was ready to get off. We're going a 12 night in a December and I have a feeling that will be my perfect length.

I think a big reason for all the 7 night cruises from the US is that most Americans only get 2 weeks of annual leave a year, so more than a weeks takes up a majority of their holidays. While here in Australia we get minimum 4 weeks annual leave so we're used to 2-3 week holidays and like cruises that match that, plus it takes 2 days sailing to get to NZ or the islands, the most popular cruise destinations here.

Now that we both have health issues and no longer have direct flights to anywhere, the shortest cruise we will do is 14 days. We have to drive to a hotel before we fly out, then stay 2 or 3 days at embarkation port, then stay overnight in a hotel before flying home, and then finally staying in a hotel before driving home. Thus we are gone for nearly 3 weeks.

To do all that for cruises under 14 days is not worth it to us.

Time and cost of travelling to port mean we like cruises of 14 days or more. Also, not flying, 14 days or more mean reaching new and different destinations.

DH finds 7 days or less too short (& not worth the $$$ to fly to)We usually aim to do 10 - 15 day cruises. We're not retired yet so vacation days are limited, and even if we were retired, I start stressing about my dogs if I'm away from them too long. (They have a great time at their grandma's house, I'm the one with separation anxiety :rolleyes:)

Cruise lines are using the short cruises to get people to try or for experienced cruisers to string together for B2Bs. We did one B2B for a total of nine days. I didn't really care for it, the turnaround day was a bit of a waste, but that hasn't stopped us from booking another one, this time 2 seven days for a 14 day cruise. I think I'll likely do laundry on the turnaround day (after the required immigration shuffle, of course ;))

Noting the OP is from the UK. I think many non-US cruisers prefer longer cruises by choice because they have many more days/weeks of vacation and tend to take longer trips.

Here in the U.S. I find most of my working friends and family take 7-day vacations because that's the time they can get off work. I am retired now but when I was working I could only get vacation in one week "blocks" and it was hard to string two blocks together.

Definitely prefer 10-14 days now that I am retired.

Obviously finances also come into play as well as school vacations etc

Our ideal length would be 355 days (want to be home the 10 days around Christmas).

Hank

About half of our cruises are repositionings coming home from Europe - so we really want to get all the way. Other than that, ten to twenty days seems good: a week is too short, and much more than three weeks makes it a hassle to meet other obligations/activities.

I agree with 10-20 days. We don't like being away from home for more then 3 weeks or so at any one given time, whether it be a cruise or a land trip.

Almost all of our cruises have been more than 7 nights. And, even with the 7 night cruises we often add extra days before or after the cruise.

I enjoyed the 12 night because it was longer. I think the max might be 21 nights and the least would be 9 nights.

14-17 days. We do not like more than 2 sea days in a row. We were ready to jump on our first and last TA. By day 14 we are ready to disembark and do some independent land travel.

We find that after a time all the food begins to taste the same.

Reading the previous post just emphasizes the different strokes kind of thing. DW and I love our sea days and actually will choose long cruises because they have lots of sea days. On our Pacific crossing last year 12 of our first 14 days were sea days and we almost did not get off the ship in one port (Honolulu) because we said, "why bother." We have cruised with folks that go crazy with even a single sea day, but on long HAL cruises that seems to be the exception. We honestly have yet to find the ideal long cruise and have gradually worked up to 60-65 day cruises. But even after 62 days on the small Prinsendam, DW turned to me the last day and said "I could easily do another 62." Regarding the food issue we will often have nice long lunches in various ports. And when we have overnights (common on long cruises) we will usually enjoy a long dinner (usually with some other cruisers) at an outstanding local restaurant.

We have met a few folks that do cruise over 300 days a year and they all seem to be very happy cruisers.

Hank

So far, our longest cruise has been 11 days and we enjoyed every minute. However, 7 days seems long enough.

Happy cruising!

Hi,

 

New here, from the UK. Sailed 2 cruises both with Royal Caribbean, 2014 Serenade Barcelona round trip and Anthem Southampton round trip. Both amazing experiences and already dreaming of the next one.

 

Let's face it though, cruising is not cheap. For the last 2 years it has been our main holiday. Both cruises I've been on have been 11nt and 12nt respectively.

 

Browsing through RCs ships and a lot of them based in the Caribbean only do 7nt sailings or even shorter. Typically the most interesting sailing next year (12nt San Juan round trip) is on the

Serenade, I want to try a different ship!

 

There is obviously a lot of demand for shorter sailings so my question is simple; what is your ideal length of a cruise and why?

That all depends on how many days off we can get and how long it will take us to travel to/from the embarkation port. We have been on 3, 4, 5, 6,7, and 8 night cruises. While we prefer longer, it is not always feasible with our open schedules so we take what we can. Until we retire, I can't see anything longer than an 8 night in our future and those would be rare. After we retire....I'm planning on taking some much longer cruises :D.

For Europe, my preference is about 10 days....with a point to point between major cities that I want to spend more time on land and see more in depth. But, seven days works if I want to spend more time on land. Even when we retire, I expect the land portions to extend more than the cruise length, particularly given that cruise prices have gotten more expensive relative to land vacations.

For the Caribbean - as long a cruise as we can given the allocated vacation time. That said, last Caribbean was shortened significantly due to a ship issue and we finished our vacation in South Beach and had a great time there.

For me, that length justifies the cost and the hassles of flying. Plus, if I am in mostly one place as I was in Australia, I have a better chance to see the differences between regions.

I like 12 - 14 days cruising and two days pre cruise with one day post cruise in embark/debark city.

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I have never been on a cruise where I was truly ready to go home. I agree that a week is too short. My longest is 14 days. As others have mentioned, I am not well enough organized to be gone for more than a month.

Most of my cruises and travel are ex-US. For me, about 2-3 weeks is good. Even when I retire, I doubt I'd cruise for longer at a stretch. But I would definitely spend longer on land trips where I could base myself in in location for a while and enjoy it. And I'd be happy to precede or follow that with a cruise!

For those who say they will wait until they retire for their 'real' travel, if possible, please don't do that. Not everyone actually survives in good enough health to travel or for that matter to retire. Travel as soon as you can, as much as you can. My DH and I made travel a priority from early in our married life, as soon as we were able, and I am so grateful now we did that. We were both extremely healthy and hearty and active, and then DH was not.

For those who say they will wait until they retire for their 'real' travel, if possible, please don't do that. Not everyone actually survives in good enough health to travel or for that matter to retire. Travel as soon as you can, as much as you can. My DH and I made travel a priority from early in our married life, as soon as we were able, and I am so grateful now we did that. We were both extremely healthy and hearty and active, and then DH was not.

Excellent advise!

I do hope you continue to cruise as long as you are able.

I have enjoyed your posts through the years here on CC.

And I too need two day pre cruise and at least one day post cruise.

And a 12-14 day cruise is perfect. I like the rotation of one or two port days followed by a sea day.The full transit of the Panama Canal was perfect in this regard.