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

Has anybody ever repeated the exact same itinerary, same ship, same or similar cabin (or cabin category) as a cruise you had recently taken?

Here's my story:

Six months ago we started planning for a 28th anniversary cruise. My strong desire was to have a stress-free experience, even in our planning! So the first thing I thought to do was simply book the same cabin (or same category, at least) on the same ship on the same itinerary we had taken on our last cruise, three years earlier, 1. because we loved that cruise so much! and 2. because we knew exactly what we would be getting, where we would be going, etc. It would be a sort of Staples-like "That Was Easy!" moment, to simply push a button and have everything decided.

In the end, we didn't do this -- I did a tremendous amount of research about all the possible cruises we might take, spent a lot of time researching cabins, compared ports, etc., etc., etc. Ordinarily this sort of research energizes me, but in this particular case, I found it exhausting. So we finally just chose one of the many cruises I had looked into, and booked it. It was on a ship and cruise line we had not been on, sailing to ports we had never visited, leaving from a city we had never been to. It was a good feeling to have made the decision, but then a whole host of other stresses came up as we planned for flights, excursions, OBC's, ground transportation, etc. Unanticipated costs were mounting, too! At one point I was ready to simply cancel the whole thing, because there seemed to be too much to do, too many decisions to be made before we sailed! My totally relaxing cruise vacation had become anything but!

In the end, the cruise itself was, indeed, very relaxing, and all was well. But I still have this nagging question about whether I should have gone ahead and repeated that well-beloved previous cruise.

Has anyone else done this, and if so, how did it go? What were your reasons for repeating exactly what you had done before, and did it work out as you anticipated?

Obviously, we would like to have cruised so many times that repetition comes naturally, but we aren't there yet. I guess I wonder how many choose to repeat rather than ending up repeating because you've already done it all and there are no new options.

We go on cruises to see new places, so I wouldn't want to repeat exactly same cruise. We live in a port city, so maybe when we feel old and tired, we'll choose convinience. Not yet.

Has anybody ever repeated the exact same itinerary, same ship, same or similar cabin (or cabin category) as a cruise you had recently taken?

 

Here's my story:

 

Six months ago we started planning for a 28th anniversary cruise. My strong desire was to have a stress-free experience, even in our planning! So the first thing I thought to do was simply book the same cabin (or same category, at least) on the same ship on the same itinerary we had taken on our last cruise, three years earlier, 1. because we loved that cruise so much! and 2. because we knew exactly what we would be getting, where we would be going, etc. It would be a sort of Staples-like "That Was Easy!" moment, to simply push a button and have everything decided.

 

In the end, we didn't do this -- I did a tremendous amount of research about all the possible cruises we might take, spent a lot of time researching cabins, compared ports, etc., etc., etc. Ordinarily this sort of research energizes me, but in this particular case, I found it exhausting. So we finally just chose one of the many cruises I had looked into, and booked it. It was on a ship and cruise line we had not been on, sailing to ports we had never visited, leaving from a city we had never been to. It was a good feeling to have made the decision, but then a whole host of other stresses came up as we planned for flights, excursions, OBC's, ground transportation, etc. Unanticipated costs were mounting, too! At one point I was ready to simply cancel the whole thing, because there seemed to be too much to do, too many decisions to be made before we sailed! My totally relaxing cruise vacation had become anything but!

 

In the end, the cruise itself was, indeed, very relaxing, and all was well. But I still have this nagging question about whether I should have gone ahead and repeated that well-beloved previous cruise.

 

Has anyone else done this, and if so, how did it go? What were your reasons for repeating exactly what you had done before, and did it work out as you anticipated?

 

Obviously, we would like to have cruised so many times that repetition comes naturally, but we aren't there yet. I guess I wonder how many choose to repeat rather than ending up repeating because you've already done it all and there are no new options.

Well, we did the same cruise, same itinerary, but not same room, about 2 months apart. We took our kids (well, they're adults now) on a Mexican Rivera cruise to introduce them to cruising. But the youngest couldn't get off school (college) for the trip we initially planned. So we repeated 2 months after the first for his sake.

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

~~~

Yep, we do it quite often and have a friend who does it several times a year. The particular cruise is the Celebrity Eclipse's 14 day Caribbean cruise. Although we seldom take cruises less then 25 day....this one 14 day itinerary is very appealing because its a true 14 day cruise (most 14 day Caribbean cruises are actually back to back 7 day) and we love that class of ship. Although we book other cruises and lines (over 70 days a year) we keep doing this 14 day cruise. Our friend does it 2 or 3 times a year and they actually do often get the same exact cabin.

Hank

I can't imagine going on the same vacation, land or sea, year after year. There are tons of different places to see and visit and I always look forward to a new experience.

We did a b2b from Fort Lauderdale to the Amazon and back. The two cruises hit the same ports, but in reverse order. Had a fabulous time

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.

Several repeats of the...Mexican Riviera, Eastern Caribbean, Alaska..we don't mind at all and actually love the do over's & over's & over's etc.

We've taken many, many cruises all over the world and the one we repeatedly take is to Bermuda every year or two, usually in May or Sept and have been at least 20 times over the past 30 yrs. We've taken the same line and/or ship several times. Living in metro NY area getting to the ship is pretty effortless, we LOVE Bermuda and docking there for 3 or 4 days and getting on/off the ship 24/7 makes for a relaxing, restful, enjoyable vacation. And a one week cruise to Bermuda, when all is said and done is about half the price of a one week fly/stay to Bermuda. Ere're already booked on HAL for next year. For that cruise, HAL is our preferred line, the ship docks in Hamilton and now that the ship's casino will be able to remain open while in port (although that makes no difference to us) HAL is returning to Bermuda.

In January and February we were in the same cabin on two sister ships, doing almost the same itin out of Long Beach.

Imagination 4day Catalina-Ensenada

Inspiration 3 day Ensenada

We have done these itins, combined, at least 15 times on four of the Fantasy class sisters. If not in the exact same cabin real close to the previous cabin.

Long Beach is only an hour from home.

10 times to Bermuda and Never had the same cabin twice .

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

Our 1st 2 cruises on the Sky were the same itinerary & same cabin as we got comped cruises and were testing the waters with NCL~ going back for a 3rd comped trip on the Sky and decided to get the same cabin for fun~ doesn't bother as as there is always something new to do on the ship~

Well, we did the same cruise, same itinerary, but not same room, about 2 months apart. We took our kids (well, they're adults now) on a Mexican Rivera cruise to introduce them to cruising. But the youngest couldn't get off school (college) for the trip we initially planned. So we repeated 2 months after the first for his sake.

So you took some of your offspring on the first, and only your youngest on the second?

Sounds like a good reason to repeat!

And did you find you enjoyed it again equally the second time? (Assuming you enjoyed it the first time...:rolleyes:) Was everything (on the ship, I mean) pretty much the same -- same entertainment, same ambiance, same service? (It was only two months later, so I presume the officers and crew were the same...)

Yep, we do it quite often and have a friend who does it several times a year. The particular cruise is the Celebrity Eclipse's 14 day Caribbean cruise. Although we seldom take cruises less then 25 day....this one 14 day itinerary is very appealing because its a true 14 day cruise (most 14 day Caribbean cruises are actually back to back 7 day) and we love that class of ship. Although we book other cruises and lines (over 70 days a year) we keep doing this 14 day cruise. Our friend does it 2 or 3 times a year and they actually do often get the same exact cabin.

 

 

Hank

Good to know I am not a pathologically sentimental (or just plain lazy) cruiser! There are also others who value "tradition!" ;) What is the itinerary on your "best beloved" 14-day cruise?

So you took some of your offspring on the first, and only your youngest on the second?

Sounds like a good reason to repeat!

 

And did you find you enjoyed it again equally the second time? (Assuming you enjoyed it the first time...:rolleyes:) Was everything (on the ship, I mean) pretty much the same -- same entertainment, same ambiance, same service? (It was only two months later, so I presume the officers and crew were the same...)

Yes, we took oldest son and daughter (plus her boyfriend) on the first cruise, and youngest son on the second.

It was basically the same cruise, same ports (Puerto Vallarta, Cabo - 2 days), and port times. Although, on the second one, we had to divert to Cabo after we had passed it enroute to PV for a medical emergency. We were delayed getting to PV because of it. And the weather was a bit chillier in Dec than Oct.

Personally, I'm not enamored of Mexico, but we took ship's excursions both trips (different ones) and found them enjoyable. Although, the sight of machine gun equipped police on every corner in PV was a bit daunting.

We took these cruises on Disney. We had the same Cruise Director both trips, but different Captains. On the second one the "regular" captain was on vacation. The main shows in the big theatre were the same, but the individual entertainers (comedians and so on) in the adult cabaret were different.

Yep, we have and we've already booked for the 3rd time the same cruise, ship and category. We sail to the Caribbean every March. Like everyone else, we want to get out of the cold. We liked the itinerary and ship and when only spending one day in each port, we never feel like we've actually seen it all. So, next March we will sail on Celebrity Equinox for 10 days for the 3rd March in a row. It'll actually be our 4th year in a row on Equinox, but our first year was Panama Canal. Since many people go to vacation spots and stay for a week or longer, I can't see getting bored with any one port any time soon.

We have been to Alaska 5 times on Princess on two sister ships with 2 similar itineraries. Same ports, different order, different glaciers. 3 of those have been in cabins in the same area. Due to time and finance restrictions, we have been limited to the round-trip Seattle Alaskan cruises. I've toyed with the idea of going on a different cruise line, in order to hit different ports and try a different ship, but I am comfortable with Princess and afraid I wouldn't like another line as much. I'm in the process of planning another cruise this summer... to Alaska on Princess on a different sister ship. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. :D

I have repeated a few vacations (including cruises to Alaska twice and Pacific Northwest twice) but other than that I try to go to new places.

I have been to Jamaica (land trip) and a cruise from Puerto Rico to St. Martin & St. Thomas. That is enough of the Caribbean for me. No need to repeat any cruise to the Caribbean.

I've been to Europe 6 times on land vacations (differeing locales) but only 1 Med cruise. No need to repeat that either (especially at the cost of it).

I've done New England/Canada cruise, no need to repeat that one either.

I would like to visit the Baltic countries and New Zealand, but doubt that will happen now as I no longer want to fly those great distances.

The ship to me is my transportation and hotel to visit new and foreign countries. I don't do many of the activities on-board ship, not interested in the pool or laying in the sun by the pool, trivia games, water slides, lectures, etc. I do sometimes play bingo, but generally read a good book on my balcony while at sea.

So no, I wouldn't be interested in repeating ship/cabin/locale year after year. Lots of folks do though from reading this thread.:D

I took a get a way 4 day in a suite (before the 100% back promotion), so I rebooked same suite, same itinerary the following month to take advantage of the promotion. I was already booked on 7 day ( now 9 days away!!) so it was truely a free get a way.

I like to go somewhere new so Its doubtful I will ever be on the same Itinerary.

However...

For our first cruise last year we booked ourselves into an ocean view on the Carnival Legend sailing round the Baltics. After floating around here we found out about the amazing inbetween lifeboat cabins with opening french doors and after 3 calls to Carnival we got switched.

Adored the room and location....amazing cruise.

This year we saw an amazing deal on a Panama Canal cruise on the Legend again by coincidence. There were no amazing cabins left like last time so I left it. A week later I checked an an amazing cabin came up so I booked and I then found out a lady in our roll call had our cabin.

I kept checking cabins out of sheer interest and suddenly there was our cabin from last year...free! I knew how good the view was for a cheap price so called Carnival and switched straight away. I never found out why the lady cancelled but I hope shes ok.

So we have the same ship and same cabin....but a very different journey!

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.

As Lulu pointed out, many people take the same kind of vacation (whether a cruise, land trip, camping...). If you find it relaxing and enjoyable, isn't that the most important thing? I have no interest in going on a camping trip, but I wouldn't put down somebody who prefers that. And some people put down cruises (there's a thread about someone getting those kind of comments about his planned honeymoon cruise), but sometimes it's someone who has never done a cruise or has, but it wasn't their cup of tea. Others want to go someplace new each time. To each, his own.

For us, it's often that going on a cruise out of Los Angeles is easier as we're an hour's drive from that port. And coupled with having a school-aged kid, that limits when we could go, which can affect itinerary.

We have been on the Mexican Riviera itinerary twice (on two cruiselines, and the second time with our girl). The Baja one is one that many in LA/OC do because it's a short one and you leave from LA or Long Beach, but to me, Ensenada is a boring port (Catalina Island is the other port if you go on the four-day cruise). We've done the three-day one twice (when I was pregnant to fit in a last cruise before the baby and hubby's work schedule didn't allow for a longer cruise at that time; when we decided to take our girl on her first cruise, we repeated the same cruise on the same ship; we didn't go with Royal Caribbean for a same of cruise line because they were still allowing smoking in the dining room, on that first Baja cruise, and they were booked for the specific weekend we had in mind for the second one). We did the four-day Baja cruise another time but on a different Carnival ship.

We have gone on three Hawaiian round trips on Princess (our last three cruises, in fact, on the Island, the Golden, and repeating the Golden) as we found them to be enjoyable. In fact, there's been many passengers who have done this itinerary on Princess a lot more times than we have.

"In the end, we didn't do this -- I did a tremendous amount of research about all the possible cruises we might take, spent a lot of time researching cabins, compared ports, etc., etc., etc. Ordinarily this sort of research energizes me, but in this particular case, I found it exhausting. So we finally just chose one of the many cruises I had looked into, and booked it. It was on a ship and cruise line we had not been on, sailing to ports we had never visited, leaving from a city we had never been to. It was a good feeling to have made the decision, but then a whole host of other stresses came up as we planned for flights, excursions, OBC's, ground transportation, etc. Unanticipated costs were mounting, too! At one point I was ready to simply cancel the whole thing, because there seemed to be too much to do, too many decisions to be made before we sailed! My totally relaxing cruise vacation had become anything but!"

As for the OP getting stressed out, maybe there's ways to make it less stressed out for you. If flights stress you out, maybe that's something a travel agent can research and book for you. Make sure the TA gets you into your embarkation city at least a day ahead so you'll be less worried about a rush to get to the port on time. If you don't like red-eyed flights or many stops, tell the TA to avoid them, even though you might be able to find a cheaper flight that way. Usually we leave from LA (as I said above, we can drive there), but whenever we leave from another port, we always get to the port at least a day ahead. We then have a day we can relax, do a little sightseeing, do a little shopping for things we left behind (wine, sodas, etc.). Much less stress for us.

For a hotel, I do a spread sheet using research I do online (the Auto Club guide I can get for free is a great help too) with the things important to us (price, age of hotel -- hubby doesn't want to stay in a hotel older than so many years, parking fee if we rent a car). The last time we did this, I had eight months to make my spreadsheet and come up with a hotel.

But the time before that, hubby decided he wanted to book a cruise that was leaving in 8 days! (he was ticked off about something at work...and he didn't have to reserve vacation time more than a week ahead at his work place) In just a few days, I booked the flight to Miami, the pre-cruise hotel, the cruise itself, the three post-cruise hotels as we wanted to visit hubby's relatives there and also the Keys, the rental car (which was one of only two glitches for that trip as Alamo was a mess when it came to their shuttle, their lack of availability of vehicles, the lack of honoring any grace period for rental fees), the pre-flight hotel (the other glitch -- they first gave us a room on the smoking floor, which we turned down, but even the room on a non-smoking floor stank). This was when we just had dial-up Internet so I did a lot of the booking on the phone.

As for shore excursions, 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.

Take a second before booking your next cruise and decide what stressed you out and then let something go. If you feel you won't have enough time to do your planning, decide to just do a staycation, and book the more complex one with a lot of advance time.

We've taken many, many cruises all over the world and the one we repeatedly take is to Bermuda every year or two, usually in May or Sept and have been at least 20 times over the past 30 yrs. We've taken the same line and/or ship several times. Living in metro NY area getting to the ship is pretty effortless, we LOVE Bermuda and docking there for 3 or 4 days and getting on/off the ship 24/7 makes for a relaxing, restful, enjoyable vacation. And a one week cruise to Bermuda, when all is said and done is about half the price of a one week fly/stay to Bermuda. Ere're already booked on HAL for next year. For that cruise, HAL is our preferred line, the ship docks in Hamilton and now that the ship's casino will be able to remain open while in port (although that makes no difference to us) HAL is returning to Bermuda.

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: