Which lines have the most sea days ?

A thread about sea days got me thinking. Are there any cruise lines that usually or traditionally feature more sea days per cruise? I like itineraries to be broken up - not 5 port days in a row, shudder.

I realize this often depends on the length and the destination, but in well-frequented places like the Caribbean or the Med, where itineraries are often similar, maybe some lines like to dawdle more than others?

Thanks, as always.

I think it is much more dependent on the itinerary, than the cruise line. Caribbean, Alaskan, the Med are all pretty port intensive. While a cruise to Hawaii from the west coast usually has 10 or so sea days and 4 or 5 port days. We are on a South Pacific cruise net Saturday that has 9 ports and 18 sea days

I think it is much more dependent on the itinerary, than the cruise line. Caribbean, Alaskan, the Med are all pretty port intensive. While a cruise to Hawaii from the west coast usually has 10 or so sea days and 4 or 5 port days. We are on a South Pacific cruise net Saturday that has 9 ports and 18 sea days

Yes, ^^^ this.

It's not so much about the line as the itinerary.

The really port intensive itineraries: Mediterranean, Baltic, Alaska and some Caribbean. The least - trans-oceanic crossing, either the Atlantic or Pacific. In between - Asian, African and South American.

Another consideration is whether the cruiseline/ship are doing repetitive "loops" or if the ship is more of a meandering itinerary. You don't mention price points, but the luxury lines tend to have more itins that are "exotic" and have more sea days. For example, doing a set of back to backs out of Cape Town in December. 30 days total with 10 sea days. There just isn't the time to have sea days on a 7 day closed loop out of Ft. Lauderdale.

Look to the upscale/luxury lines for itins not in the Med, Baltic or Alaska or Caribbean. Or if you want mass-market lines, your best is to look at trans-oceanic crossings.

One thing to be sure of....make sure the line has YOUR kind of entertainment/activities for those sea days. The upscale lines have enrichment lecturers galore and interesting activities. Mass market will be more in the way of line dancing classes, art auctions, and activities that remind me of a summer camp atmosphere. Research and find what is best FOR YOU!!

I think it is much more dependent on the itinerary, than the cruise line. Caribbean, Alaskan, the Med are all pretty port intensive. While a cruise to Hawaii from the west coast usually has 10 or so sea days and 4 or 5 port days. We are on a South Pacific cruise net Saturday that has 9 ports and 18 sea days

Agree- it is the route, not the cruise line. But....certain cruise lines do more exotic routes- HAL for example, which lend themselves to more sea days. Other cruise lines- Carnival for example- stick to more traditional 7 or 10 routes, which have less sea days. That is a general statement, but you don't see Carnival doing lots of South America routes, Panama Canal routes, South Pacific routes, like HAL does. Princess and RCI seem to be expanding in this direction. Princess Australia has some longer routes. Celebrity is a little behind, but moving into this concept.

Any Trans Atlantic cruises on any cruise line will have lots of Sea Days.

(Same is true for the Pacific.)

There a 75? night Circle South America from Australia next year (maybe '17).

From memory after leaving America there are about 9 sea days in a row at one point .

Agree- it is the route, not the cruise line. But....certain cruise lines do more exotic routes- HAL for example, which lend themselves to more sea days. Other cruise lines- Carnival for example- stick to more traditional 7 or 10 routes, which have less sea days. That is a general statement, but you don't see Carnival doing lots of South America routes, Panama Canal routes, South Pacific routes, like HAL does. Princess and RCI seem to be expanding in this direction. Princess Australia has some longer routes. Celebrity is a little behind, but moving into this concept.

Yep, itinerary is what determines the sea days. Our Med cruise from Barcelona to Venice had only 3 sea days and 10 port day, seven of them in a row. Our South American cruise from Valparaiso, Chile to Ft. Lauderdale was pretty evenly matched with one sea day and a port day and another sea day, etc.

All cruise lines doing the same itinerary will have to have the same arrangement. All modern cruise ships travel at about the same speed for the same reasons - increasing fuel economy by going as slow as possible while staying on schedule by arriving in time for passengers to visit the port, and departing as early as possible at the end of the day to keep the speeds down as much as possible.

Thanks all. I wish price point didn't matter, but luxury lines aren't happening for us in the foreseeable future, darn.

It does seem as if there's a bit of consensus that HAL might have more sea days?

Thanks all. I wish price point didn't matter, but luxury lines aren't happening for us in the foreseeable future, darn.

It does seem as if there's a bit of consensus that HAL might have more sea days?

Certainly Hal have some of the more interesting & far-flung itineraries, which does tend to mean more sea days between ports. Especially Asia & the Pacific.

Or ships on re-positioning cruises - most cruise lines switch between seasonal bases eg summer in the Med or Alaska and winter in the Caribbean, and those re-positioning cruises usually involve lots of sea-days .......... and keen prices - cos regardless how popular the re-positioning cruise, the ship has to sail from one seasonal base to the other.

Or consider a leg of a round-the-world cruise (a high proportion of cruisers on a round-the-world cruise are actually only on the ship for one or two legs).

JB :)

I think it is much more dependent on the itinerary, than the cruise line. Caribbean, Alaskan, the Med are all pretty port intensive. While a cruise to Hawaii from the west coast usually has 10 or so sea days and 4 or 5 port days. We are on a South Pacific cruise net Saturday that has 9 ports and 18 sea days

Bingo!

I do just want to add two items related to itinerary and revenue.

Some lines depend more on on board revenue than cruise fare and structure more ports to pick up more money from shore excursions and some lines have a greater number of shorter cruises which usually mean more port days.

Crossings have a good number of sea days but again some lines structure it with mostly sea days and some depending on where you are sailing have stops to break it up.

Keith

Trans Atlantics, consistently have more sea days. Trans Pacific, likewise. Trans Atlantics are very good value if you can get a decent airfare.

Cunard's QM2, on B2B trans-Atlantics, will give you six sea days followed by one port day then six more sea days. After that, some of HAL's longer itineraries, or particular segments of any line's world cruise can give you many sea days - but you will have long flights to and from.

Doing 18 night Valparaiso to Tahiti on Oceania in January. If I remember correctly - 9 sea days. The rest are island stops with one overnight in Bora Bora. For mass market cruisers, just the included airfare/credit makes this an attractive alternative for folks who normally fly to/from Caribbean start/stop ports.

Thanks all! [emoji572]️

I've a good idea of how many sea days we'll be having when I read the itinerary; sailing from the UK to the Med is 2 1/2 sea days to Gibraltar, or 3 to Madeira; a T/A to the Caribbean will be about 8 days with a stop at the Azores/Madeira in the middle; it's going to take more than 2 days from Dubrovnik to reach Spain etc....and a simple cruise to Norway for just a week will have a sea day at beginning and end, and 5 fjord ones in between.

I did notice that we crawled around the Caribbean, with very little distance travelled overnight, on some occasions, so we probably had an extra sea day or two added in the fortnight's cruise.

Thanks all. I wish price point didn't matter, but luxury lines aren't happening for us in the foreseeable future, darn.

It does seem as if there's a bit of consensus that HAL might have more sea days?

Actually the consensus is that it's the itinerary and not necessarily the cruise line.

Could do one of the Cunard Queens RT NYC-Southhampton. That's about 12 sea days.