Anybody ever repeat exact itinerary, same ship, same cabin?

I feel your pain. I work full-time and this year we were going to take two weeks off to go to Europe (maybe cruise/maybe land). The stars aligned this year - I turned 60 and I got an extra week of vacation. But, it is terribly stressful trying to plan the trip, fear of picking the wrong this or that, researching all of the options, etc. I'll bet that we end up going to Hawaii for two weeks - something we have done numerous times and know it like the back of our hands, just because it would be stress-free. Don't feel guilty about doing something that is enjoyable and comfortable. I figure when I retire I'll be up for adventure. Right now I look forward to relaxation.

 

I would definitely like to re-visit some of ports that we have been to just to do something different. I'm still kicking myself for not taking a tour of some sort in St. Maarten instead of snorkeling. I feel the need to go back to really appreciate the island.

It is interesting to me that you think after you retire you might be up for adventure... I am beginning to think my adventure days are behind me! I did all that bumming around the world stuff when I was in my twenties and thirties. We would take uneaten food off plates that had not yet been cleared from the tables at sidewalk cafes, and beg food from the back doors of restaurant kitchens. We would hitchhike! (Remember hitchhiking?) We would sleep on trains, on buses, in open fields, and on total strangers' floors! :eek: We'd brush our teeth and wash our underarms (and sometimes our hair) in railroad station restroom sinks. And somehow that all seemed perfectly reasonable to me back then!

Of course, there's no way I would travel like that anymore. But even though we have the internet now with lots of good travel info, I find the idea of "do-it-yourself" travel daunting. Come to think of it, maybe it is because we have the internet that I am trepidatious! There is so much info available and just too many decisions to make. I guess I had better get myself a good TA if I want to tour without a ship!

Yep, two out of three. Same ship, same cabin. Itinerary a little different, but still southern Caribbean.

 

Why? From the minute we walked onto the Legend this past early February it was the most pleasant ship with the most congenial passengers I've experienced in eight cruises. We signed up for a return voyage after only a few days. So did many others, and they're already on the roll call for the cruise. This is a winner cruise. Wouldn't miss it for the world.

Do you mean Carnival Legend or RC Legend of the Seas? You make it sound so fabulous, I just have to know!

 

As for shore excursions' date=' why not have your spouse google each port and the two of you decide not to do something in every port (grabbing a taxi and going to a beach is less stressful than having to plan every second in your port stay). A couple of cruises ago (one that we booked less than two months before the sailing), hubby said let's not book any excursions, and I stuck to that.

 

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Wow, thanks for all the advice and insight! All great! But I highlighted this particular comment, because that is exactly what I did on this last cruise -- this was absolutely one of the reasons this cruise did turn out to be very relaxing, in spite of the stress I felt planning it.

 

We booked only one excursion (4 hour snorkeling with beach time) out of three ports! (Usually we plan an excursion, though not necessarily a ship-sponsored one, for most ports, ) At the other two ports, we (well, I, with hubby's approval) had already decided we would be totally leisurely and simply get off the ship when and if we chose to, and make our way easily to something we wanted to do nearby. That is what we did, and it worked out great!

 

I think for me the key to doing this in the future will be to choose a cruise which stops at one of two kinds of ports: ones we've been to before, or one's we aren't very interested in. That way we can either get off in a familiar place and do what we like (as we do in Nassau), or get off and poke around if we want to but not feel we've missed something if we don't (that was Cozumel, for me, though I am glad we got off the ship and snorkeled), or simply not get off the ship at all (which is something we have yet to do).

 

We've only been on four cruises, but I've learned something valuable on each of them.

Wow, thanks for all the advice and insight! All great! But I highlighted this particular comment, because that is exactly what I did on this last cruise -- this was absolutely one of the reasons this cruise did turn out to be very relaxing, in spite of the stress I felt planning it.

 

We booked only one excursion (4 hour snorkeling with beach time) out of three ports! (Usually we plan an excursion, though not necessarily a ship-sponsored one, for most ports, ) At the other two ports, we (well, I, with hubby's approval) had already decided we would be totally leisurely and simply get off the ship when and if we chose to, and make our way easily to something we wanted to do nearby. That is what we did, and it worked out great!

 

I think for me the key to doing this in the future will be to choose a cruise which stops at one of two kinds of ports: ones we've been to before, or one's we aren't very interested in. That way we can either get off in a familiar place and do what we like (as we do in Nassau), or get off and poke around if we want to but not feel we've missed something if we don't (that was Cozumel, for me, though I am glad we got off the ship and snorkeled), or simply not get off the ship at all (which is something we have yet to do).

 

We've only been on four cruises, but I've learned something valuable on each of them.

The funny thing is that right before that cruise (the one for which hubby said let's not book any excursions), maybe a week or so before, hubby asked if there were some excursions we could do. I gave him a withering look, and that put an end to that idea. And that was maybe a week or so after our teen melted down that we'll undoubtedly do whatever her father wants to do in each port. I gave her the brochures for each port that I had saved from the previous cruise (with the same itinerary) and some post it notes. Then the three of us plopped down on the master bed and came up with an agreement of what we were going to do (unless an attraction wasn't going to be open on that port day which was the case with an astronomy observatory the girl suggested). So we ended up doing what she wanted in Hilo (candy factory, which we followed with a pilgrimage to Hilo Hatties), the beach on Kauai -- which was a repeat of the previous cruise, seeking out a jodo temple on Maui which was the girl's idea, but we followed that with shopping, and shopping (my idea)/Waikiki beach (my hubby's -- he likes to make a pilgrimage to the area where we had honeymooned years before). So everyone was happy and it was low key with no time deadlines except getting back to the ship on time. As opposed to some people who I see putting up their schedule on Cruise Critic with every second planned out. Not my thing.

Do you mean Carnival Legend or RC Legend of the Seas? You make it sound so fabulous, I just have to know!

Theres also a Seabourn Legend :D

We are this upcoming cruise we did the same one back in Feb 2012. We really enjoyed it and our room is two doors down from our old room. our old room was already taken. If we see them out we weill give them a talking too lol JK

Its not bad there is a girl here at my work that does to the same resort in mexico every year for the last 6 years. No different :)

But my 2015 cruise will be in all new ports.

Theres also a Seabourn Legend :D

So there is! I had forgotten about that! (There's also a Viking Legend river cruise ship, but I didn't think that one applied... ;))

 

Its not bad there is a girl here at my work that does to the same resort in mexico every year for the last 6 years. No different :)

 

Exactly! My husband used to go to the same Minnesota fishing camp every year of his childhood with his extended family, loved it, and still waxes nostalgic about it 40 years later! Yet, it was he who didn't seem too interested in repeating the cruise we had liked so well. That surprised me, because he has always been all about tradition, and I, all about new adventures! So at least we keep things fresh in our marriage by being a bit unpredictable! :o

(And perhaps if it had been he who had been doing all the planning and legwork for the cruise, he would have been the one to say, "Let's repeat what we know!")

We have sailed Maasdam about 34 cruises; same cabin about 20 or more of those cruises and same itinerary a great many times.

In some cases, our cruises are more about the ship and our friends aboard than anything else. Other times we repeat a particular itinerary on the same or different ship because we liked it so well.

We have sailed 14 of HAL's current fleet of 15 ships so it is not as though we don't sail other ships.

What we like most about cruising is the fact that we can see new places all over the world so we'd never choose the same itinerary. We might well, however choose the same cabin (and we have!!) and the same ship (yes, several times).

As we get older though, we're more interested in cruises which sail from the UK rather than getting to ports elsewhere in Europe so it is possible (probable?) that we'll start repeating itineraries.

We have repeated several itineraries on the same ship -- but in different cabins.

Done the same as above -

Three cruises on the Epic - Love the ship, know the beaches we like, knew what to expect and easy to pack, and plan

We will miss the Epic, but the Breakaway was amazing, and the Getaway will be a BLAST! (taking grandson and his femily)

Nothing wrong with doing the exact same thing on cruises again.:)

No different from people on land vacations who always rent the exact same place year after year.

LuLu

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What you said.

Love the Southern Caribbean itinerary and repeated the same cabin twice since I was lucky enough on the Victory to have the 2 window oceanview cabin when it was considered a 1A. Cheapest room on the ship with a couch queen bed and two windows. I actually got home from my first cruise and booked that week to return same cabin.

Third time I went with a sister who was sharing expenses the third time so we did the aft wrap which was amazing. Changed up the hotel to Hotel Herencia a wonderful B&B from my basic Plaza de Armas, but still did mainly the same excursions so she could share them with me.

And scheduled to go again with another sister, although on another ship since they switched out with the Valor. However did manage to get a two window oceanview that looks like it may be as great as my Victory room.

I did others in between but found myself missing starting from Old San Juan and my catamaran and snorkel trips that enjoyed each time. Plus I get to share it with my sisters which is amazing.

I find myself looking over other cruises but my wish list cruises still a bit out of my price range and ability to take time off. For relaxation and the guarantee of a lovely time I'll take my Southern Caribbean for now. High on my list of things to do though are the Fjords, Alaska Land and sea, and Australia/Fiji.

One day perhaps, but happy to repeat whatever makes me happy.

It has happen ..

I often repeat ship, destination, and cabin. DH is disabled and we only cruise from Bayonne or Baltimore because I don't fly with him. With the limited number of accessible cabins, I have also had the same steward. On the Explorer OTS our waiter recognized us from prior cruise.

Anyway, I find each and every cruise to be unique but enjoy knowing what to expect. DH can't get off the ship at ports but I do a different shore tour each visit.

But if I could do anything I wanted to, I would do a different ship each time with a different destination. There is a whole world out there waiting to be discovered.

We've done the same cruise, same itinerary and same cabin category. We had a great time on one of our cruises and during planning with different folks and some of the same, they all wanted to go on the same cruise we had already done. With new people, some of the excursions were different, different people who were seeing these places for the first time and we weren't disappointed. We are always excited to see new places, but we still have our favorite itineraries and ships that we would do again in a heartbeat. Every cruise is different, even if you go to the same places on the same ship.

We almost repeated a cruise on the Connie. Ports were Cozumel and Key West. Hubby and I had done it NY 's week 2013 and we were taking our daughter this coming Thanksgiving week. It just so happened a couple of folks on our roll call have done the Silhouette for St. Kitts, San Juan, St. Marteen itinerary and they had nothing but good things to say about it. Hubby and I decided we would do it possibly the 2 of us in early 2015, but then there was a nice price drop Thanksgiving week this year. The price was even better than if hubby and I took it on our own in January, so we switched the the Silhouette!

Our daughter, who teaches, is very excited as we usually do shorter cruise with her because they cost more when she can go.

I am sure, too, we will do the Connie again. Maybe Thanksgiving week 2015-lol! We mayl go to Sea World that week to I guess since we won't do it now this coming Thanksgiving week!

Bermuda is on my "future cruise" short list, and has been for some time -- the problem for us is we live in Georgia, and it's hard to find Bermuda cruises convenient to us. Some of the cruises from Florida don't stay long in Bermuda, and our favorite lines don't usually sail from FL to Bermuda. So we'll probably have to bite the bullet and fly north to sail! HAL is our preferred line, too -- which ship will you be on? How are the seas on the way to Bermuda? We've only sailed in the Caribbean, which, so far, has been is mostly like sailing in a bathtub. :rolleyes:

We flew to NY when we did Bermuda. We almost did another from Charleston on the old NCL Majesty but we kept hearing bad things about that ship. However, that is only a 5 hour drive and heck flying to NY was over 2 hours, and when you factor in time driving to airport, being an hour early for flight,etc. The 5 hour drive would actually be simpler than flying.

We've done the same itinerary, sometimes the same ship, but not the same cabin. Flying is a huge trial for me, so we are not currently considering Europe, Asia or Australia cruises. Just getting to FLL is an endurance test for me, so we most often cruise from the west coast. Have done the Sea of Cortez 3 times, and Alaska 6 (or 7?) times.

I often repeat ship, destination, and cabin. DH is disabled and we only cruise from Bayonne or Baltimore because I don't fly with him. With the limited number of accessible cabins, I have also had the same steward. On the Explorer OTS our waiter recognized us from prior cruise.

Anyway, I find each and every cruise to be unique but enjoy knowing what to expect. DH can't get off the ship at ports but I do a different shore tour each visit.

 

But if I could do anything I wanted to, I would do a different ship each time with a different destination. There is a whole world out there waiting to be discovered.

You are an inspiring example of someone who is able to graciously enjoy what you have without stressing over what you don't, and I am glad you seem able to enjoy your cruises! You seem to be a "cup half full" sort of person.

Which of us, in whatever circumstances we live, do not repeat from time to time the litany, "but if I could do anything I wanted to..." Most of us will never experience being free to do anything we want, so it is good to relish what we can do!

I have done the Norwegian Spirit 6 times with the same itinerary!!!! I loved that ship! Made lots of friends and then it went to Europe! :(

I have done the Norwegian Spirit 6 times with the same itinerary!!!! I loved that ship! Made lots of friends and then it went to Europe! :(

Do you mean you made friends with the officers or crew (who then went to Europe :() or friends with pax with whom you repeatedly cruised on Spirit, and who all miss the ship as much as you do?

We've done the same itinerary more than once--eastern Caribbean and Alaska round-trip from Seattle. We've sailed the same ship more than once. The most was three cruises on the Ruby Princess within four months. The only time we've had the same cabin was on a back-to-back cruise.

A lot of the time, the ship is our primary destination.

We've done the same itinerary more than once--eastern Caribbean and Alaska round-trip from Seattle. We've sailed the same ship more than once. The most was three cruises on the Ruby Princess within four months. The only time we've had the same cabin was on a back-to-back cruise.

 

A lot of the time, the ship is our primary destination.

I feel that way, too, but I have wondered if the ship I remembered from a previous "favorite" cruise would not be the same a few years later... One always hears the expression, "You can't go home again..." I wonder if in trying to relive a past experience I would be disappointed -- potentially more disappointed than if I tried something new, where my expectations were less specific...

These questions are what prompted me to start this thread. So far most folks seem to have had positive experiences on their "do-over" cruises, so that is encouraging!