List of your priorities when planning a cruise and why?

What is your list of priorities when planning a cruise....i.e. pick itinerary first then chose your cruise line? Choose the food and cost first, etc?

Thank you.

I only sail HAL so that question is easy. :)

I then choose whether Alaska, Canada/New England, Caribbean, Panama Canal and still maybe back to Europe.

Choose Embarkation Port

Date

Which ship

Itinerary

Price

We sail Princess.

We look for cruises going where we have not been before (the list keeps getting smaller). We also look for extended cruises, either one long cruise or several that can be combined.

Itinerary and dates, then we look to see if HAL, Princess or Celebrity has something that fits that criteria. We will look at other lines, but it would have to be a super duper deal!

We do 2 different types of cruises and our requirements differ depending on what type of cruise we are doing:

1. All about the ship - relaxation and rejuvenation cruise.

We choose mega-ships such as Oasis of the Seas, Allure of the Seas, NCL Epic, NCL Getaway, and NCL Breakaway for this type of cruise. These types of trips (all about the ship) are for relaxing. We don't do much in the ports, if we even get off the ship at all. We like good food, lots of entertainment onboard, having a suite and preferably good weather (although bad weather is not the end of the world if the ship is really good such as the Epic). The most important aspects of this type of cruise are a fantastic ship, a comfortable cabin and lots to do or not do, depending on what we feel like doing. I find the NCL Spa Suites are ideal for this type of cruise, but I just returned from this type of cruise on RCCL Allure of the Seas where we had the Owner's Suite and it was great, as well, although in a different way.

2. All about the ports. (Discovering new places and learning about their history.)

We choose the ports we want to see and find the ship with the best itinerary to fit our interests. Brand is not important as long as it is not a super cheap cruise - we prefer something moderate to upscale with reasonably good food, but if it is a port intensive cruise, such as the Med, then the food even becomes less important since we make it a point to take private tours and eat onshore. Often, all that we need from the ship in the way of food is a simple light breakfast and a nice dinner. The most important aspect of a ship for a port intensive cruise is to have comfortable beds and good showers.

What I wouldn't like:

Going on the same cruise line all the time which would be a nightmare to us or even worse the same ship over and over and over again and again. We would get bored with the same old menus in the various venues. We also get bored with the decor. We like to try different things beyond just the shore excursions, so typically, we wouldn't sail on the same ship twice unless it was a really amazing ship with so much to do onboard, you couldn't do it all in a week or it was the perfect itinerary at a great price.

Making sure I've got the $$$$$$$

Making sure we can both have the time off work

Making sure it departs and returns to Sydney

Finding a mid-ship mid-deck balcony cabin.

GO!

Price

Time of year -- I always try to maximize cruise time & minimize the days DH has to take off from work.

General aggravation in getting to the cruise port

Where it sails isn't that big of an issue as long as I'm warm when we get there.

Itinerary, itinerary, itinerary

Balance of affordability, quality of food and overall experience.

We look at cruising as a "sampler" for places we've never been or just breezed through on the way "from here to there." We try to start/stop in interesting new places so we can extend the vacation with 2-3 days pre/post cruise (to get the most out of our airfare or FF miles). If we really like a new port along the way, we'll consider a land trip there for a more in-depth experience at a future date.

So, first consideration is itinerary followed by cruise line since the ship will be our home for the duration. Because our food, service and amenities expectations are fairly high, but within a framework of affordability, we prefer Oceania. Next comes dates and we prefer shoulder seasons to keep transportation and related costs within reason.

All this will whittle down the list of possibilities to a couple or three options in a year when we'll probably choose that one cruise with the best O and TA perks and are able to use some combo of O air credit and FF miles to get business class tix w/o breaking the bank.

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1. Larger suite with veranda on a luxury or premium small or mid-size ship.

2. Itinerary.

3. Minimum formality of attire.

4. Dine any time.

We have three cruises booked, one each on Regent, Silversea, Azamara. I am expecting to sail on a variety of lines, thus loyalty programs are of little interest.

 

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What I wouldn't like:

Going on the same cruise line all the time which would be a nightmare to us or even worse the same ship over and over and over again and again. We would get bored with the same old menus in the various venues. We also get bored with the decor. We like to try different things beyond just the shore excursions, so typically, we wouldn't sail on the same ship twice unless it was a really amazing ship with so much to do onboard, you couldn't do it all in a week or it was the perfect itinerary at a great price.

That is what is so great about cruising. There is something out there to please 'most' of us. :) We sailed Princess, Celebrity, RCI and Carnival (sort of but that's a long story) and that was a total of about 16 or so cruises. We have sailed HAL over 80 cruises and about 35 of them were on Maasdam. :) We love that ship, her art, her suites, her crew, her itineraries........ :) What worked for us didn't have to work for anyone else. ;)

Happy sailing to all.

What is your list of priorities when planning a cruise....i.e. pick itinerary first then chose your cruise line? Choose the food and cost first, etc?

 

Thank you.

Departure port( we prefer to not have to fly if we don't have to)

Price

Cruiseline

we have tried several lines( Disney, Carnival, Royal and Celebrity) and have decided that Celebrity and Royal offer more of what we want at a price we can deal with

we also prefer the smaller ships( not mega sized)

as far as Itinerary..anything that DOES NOT include Mexico.. DH cannot enter Mexico due to his being Military and the country being off limits.

Princess was the second line we tried and it turned out to be a match. Because we're aiming for longer (for us that's two-week cruises) rather than shorter ones, we would like a self-service laundry room (due to an allergy to regular detergent).

I guess next would be itinerary. And availability of the type of cabin we want (insides or OVs).

1. Itinerary

2. Dates

3. Embarkation Port and Disembarkation Port (interest in sightseeing while in town, cost of flights to and from them, what airline carriers fly to and from them)

4. Price of cruise with everything added up - cabin, tips, port fees, taxes (to decide which category of cabin we'd choose for the cruise). We've stayed in inside, obstructed ocean view, ocean view, and balcony cabins depending on all of the price factors.

Living this far north - one thing only - airfare! Last yr, I had to cancel our Christmas cruise due to $1300 plus airfares. For this winter, I booked in a very narrow 3 day window of opportunity when flights first became available 11 months out, and got FLL from YEG for $473 return for this Christmas break. A couple of days later, they shot up to $1100 and just went up from there. Needless, to say, at that price, I was able to more than afford the $20 cancellation insurance! For this early Feb, I've already sent myself alerts to ensure I check air for next Dec. Don't want to ever miss out should this happen again.

1. Where the ship / cruise line is docked, so I can figure out if need to pay for airfare, car fare, transport. etc....

2. Time of year I'm going

3. Itinerary /ports of call

4. What does the ship have or doesn't have

5. price per person

6. Dress code for MDR (If I have to put makeup / jewelry on and/or better style of dresses / clothes)

7. What else I have to pay extra besides gratuities such as spa passes / Adult only area/ excursions / specialty dining/ etc...

We look at cruising as a "sampler" for places we've never been or just breezed through on the way "from here to there." We try to start/stop in interesting new places so we can extend the vacation with 2-3 days pre/post cruise (to get the most out of our airfare or FF miles). If we really like a new port along the way, we'll consider a land trip there for a more in-depth experience at a future date.

 

So, first consideration is itinerary followed by cruise line since the ship will be our home for the duration. Because our food, service and amenities expectations are fairly high, but within a framework of affordability, we prefer Oceania. Next comes dates and we prefer shoulder seasons to keep transportation and related costs within reason.

All this will whittle down the list of possibilities to a couple or three options in a year when we'll probably choose that one cruise with the best O and TA perks and are able to use some combo of O air credit and FF miles to get business class tix w/o breaking the bank.

 

 

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We picked our first cruise because it went to places in the Caribbean we had never been to. We figured we would then pick a place or two to go for a week or so. Even though that was 28 years ago, we have never gone back to the Caribbean. We decided there was so much to see in other parts of the world.

Departure port( we prefer to not have to fly if we don't have to)

Price

Cruiseline

 

we have tried several lines( Disney, Carnival, Royal and Celebrity) and have decided that Celebrity and Royal offer more of what we want at a price we can deal with

 

we also prefer the smaller ships( not mega sized)

 

as far as Itinerary..anything that DOES NOT include Mexico.. DH cannot enter Mexico due to his being Military and the country being off limits.

I learn something new almost everyday here on CC.

I had no idea U.S. Military were not permitted to enter Mexico. Is this a long standing rule or something recent?

We are always looking for something different, something that we have not seen before, somewhere new where we have not been before.

Where do we want to go?

Which itinerary suits us the best?

What do we want to see?

We have been cruising for about forty years (more then 3 1/2 years at sea as cruisers) and now would list our top 3 priorities as Itinerary, Itinerary, and Value. We have no real loyalty to any cruise line (although we are in the highest frequent cruise category of several lines) and actually enjoy the variety of cruising many lines (have been on 14).

However, our priorities do differ from many cruisers because we can take longer cruises (over a month long) which opens up the entire world for itineraries. For those who must keep their cruises to 10 days or less, we can understand the desire to stick with one or two favorite lines.

We would list a 4th priority which are the overall atmosphere of the line and ship. For example, just today we cancelled a previously booked HAL cruise (a $20,000 booking) because we had some issues with the cost per passenger day....and the final deal breaker was the smoking policy on HAL. All things considered, we prefer a cruise line that does everything possible to limit our exposure to cigarette/cigar smoke. HAL has tried to please everyone...and accordingly have pleased nobody (the price of compromise) and so they have lost our booking (and we have already cruised over 300 days on that line).

Hank

Departure port- like a place where we want to spend a few days after a cruise.

Itinerary

Sometimes we just can't resist those last-minute deals going anywhere.

Sometimes we have ports we haven't been to included in the itinerary and if air and cruise price is reasonable, we're on it.

We've cruised on Celebrity and Princess many times but only once on Holland America. Nothing wrong with HAL, just that we get so many benefits and OBC on the other two, they are always our first choice, especially Princess. It's hard to stray.

I guess you could say we are generally bargain hunters, trying to see the world without spending more than we have to. It's incredible the countries we've managed to get to when rates dropped significantly, including the Polynesian Islands, Egypt, Dubai, Bankok to Bejing, Antartica. Health issues have finally caught up with us so we may be doing the Caribbean more often now. Those long flights are killers. Just happy we can look back on some fabulous cruises and some great memories.

I always tell people, see the far-off places as much as you can while you can. That's what we did and I sure don't regret it.

We're limited first of all by the dates we can travel. DH is a university prof and I'm a librarian, also at a university, so we can only travel when school's not in session. Because of church commitments we can't travel during Xmas, Holy Week (which is a long holiday week here) or Thanksgiving. So that leaves the first week of January and the summer.

The second thing is departure port. We've been on about 11 cruises (nothing compared to what some of you have under your belt!) and all but 2 (Alaska and Western Carib/Panama Canal) have been out of San Juan. For us, these Southern Caribbean cruises are a relaxing, no-brainer vacation. Don't really care which islands we visit. It's all about taking a week to disconnect, read, relax, sleep.

The third is cruise line. Our favorite is Princess, but since it left San Juan we're cruising on RCCL, our second favorite (the difference between the two is negligible, really). We did Carnival twice, many years ago, and won't do it again. And our only bad cruise experience was on Celebrity, so even though the prices for the same week were several hundred dollars less for this coming January, I really didn't feel like giving them a second chance. So Royal it is :-)

Itinerary

Ship/Cruise Line

That's about it. The cost of one cruise line over another doesn't factor into our decision at all--if we don't have the budget for a trip we will stay home or take a different vacation rather than cruise on a line we have no interest in.

We are not loyal to any one line. We have some we won't cruise again (or ever) and we do have a strong preference for one line, but we don't choose a cruise/itinerary solely around that line. We are pretty much able to travel any time of the year.

Itinerary: We like to go to new places or maybe return to places we really enjoyed. There are certain places we do not want to return to. We like port intensive itineraries.

Ship/Cruise line: Would not want to go on the same ship twice. We would like to try different cruise lines but only those that offer anytime dining and casual dress as we are on vacation and do not like to have a set dining time or require formal clothes on vacation. Like to have lots of on board activities/shows/eatery choices.

Price: It usually comes down to a few ships with comparable itineraries so then we go by price.