How do you choose

Just curious as to how everyone chooses their cruise...For us it is a date/time that works for us...ports..ship...cruise rate etc. Past Guest party is not a breaking factor for us as it seems to be for many.

Just curious as to how everyone chooses their cruise...For us it is a date/time that works for us...ports..ship...cruise rate etc. Past Guest party is not a breaking factor for us as it seems to be for many.

The bottom line price for the time frame were looking at

Manily NO- FLY cruises for us

Just curious as to how everyone chooses their cruise...For us it is a date/time that works for us...ports..ship...cruise rate etc. Past Guest party is not a breaking factor for us as it seems to be for many.

Itinerary then ship. We're very fortunate that we can cruise any time of year and cost is not an issue.

We almost always sail out of ports we can drive to, LA and San Diego. So then it's itinerary and price.

Just curious as to how everyone chooses their cruise...For us it is a date/time that works for us...ports..ship...cruise rate etc. Past Guest party is not a breaking factor for us as it seems to be for many.

Price, and where it leaves from, then itinerary, then ship. I have not made a bad choice yet:D Loved all my cruises, including the ones on the other cruiselines.

Price

port of departure

itinerary

ship

sometimes port of departure, itinerary and ship are a toss up, but price is always a bottom line( or top)for me.:)

Itinerary then ship. We're very fortunate that we can cruise any time of year and cost is not an issue.

I'm with you; however we do have our preferred months. So....

1. Month we would like to travel

2. Itinerary

3. Ships / Cruiseline

4. Departure port (fingers crossed it's not Miami)

5. We have a winner!

We are blessed that price is not an issue since our vacation time is our #1 priority

- First we figure out what kind of cruise we are interested in (family fun, just mom and dad, laid back and casual, more elegant) and narrow it down to a few cruise lines.

- Second we pick the region we wish to sail on and look at itineraries

- Third we look at price.

Since we have to fly to get to any port.....it is generally the itinerary (to ports that are new to us), followed by pricing which normally predicates the cruise line.

However, there have been a few cruises we have planned for other reasons....such as our upcoming cruise on RCI Allure OTS, based ONLY on wanting to try that class of ship (the itinerary is an old one for us). So it can vary.

Price is "usually" the number 1 factor.

After that I usually try to go by the itinerary and then the ship with the "most" offerings on it (like the 2.0 or waterworks or ______).

I mainly cruise with NCL but have been so sick of the same ports over and over that I find myself always looking at Carnival for that "new" port. :D

Normally price and if my boyfriend can get the time off from work . He works as a produce manager so he never gets holidays off

Itinerary

Ship

We only have a small 4-5 week window to cruise in and always summer, plus i can only ask off 10 weeks or so out. So price plays a small factor. I keep wanting to try RCI but Carnival always beats their price. Four years to retirement, guess we can try another line then.

The biggest thing for us is date. My children's school district is well... horrible when it comes to missing days. To put it lightly, I just had a court date because my youngest DS missed 10 days of school with doctors notes because he had pneumonia in November. :rolleyes: Happily oldest DS goes to a private school for special needs that doesn't care at all, they happily give me a paper to fill out to make any vacation "for educational purposes".

After figuring out dates that are okay, the real fun beings for me! I find cruises in that time frame and put them all on a spread sheet along with ports and dates with prices.

Then comes researching ports of call if I don't have a clue about them and what we would want to do. After a few choices, those go into the spread sheet as costs!

Then comes travel since we drive. Happily that is cheaper than flying for 4 at least! For us travel has to include things like 2-3 hotel stays, parking, food, gas and most important dog boarding!

Once everything is added up we decide. A good example of having to look at everything is I really wanted to do a 6 or 8 day Breeze in August, but ended up on the Pride. Real reason? After travel costs even though the Breeze was significantly cheaper for fare, the travel costs were 3x as much as the 4 hour drive to Baltimore.

Then again, who knows! I saw the NCL sales when they were having a KSF, 50% deposit and free good perks (UBP). The date kinda worked (youngest is missing the last 2 1/2 days of school...) but the price was just stupid stupid good for it and less than our August Carnival cruise. So I did that one totally on the fly!

1. Living in Florida we first look for cruises that leave out of our state.

2. Season - Refuse to do another Jan or Feb cruise. Open to hurricane season up until the second week of September and then no way.

3. Departure Port - Have this same exact battle every single time we cruise - Do we stay close to home and leave out of Pt. Canaveral or drive down to Miami for a newer ship and maybe only one port difference between cruise options? Pt. Canaveral ALMOST always wins. Even the big mega ships on RCCL will eventually make it's home in Pt. Canaveral. Waiting a year or two is worth skipping the 8 hour drive to Miami.

4. Specific Dates - we always try to have the cruise fall on a holiday so it's a freebie day off work.

5. Ports

4. Price

5. Cruise line

This would be 100% different if we were trying to coordinate flights!

1. We like to cruise in January. We like the weather, it's our anniversary month.

2. We (I) LOVE Miami. So I typically try to find a Miami cruise.

3. I like the newer ships, so I look there first

4. I like ports that I haven't been to before. So if there is a cruise that hits even one new port I am on it if affordable.

5. Price is a factor, but we book a year or so out, so we have time to pay it, so it doesn't hurt the wallet so bad. So while we look at it, we don't decide only by price alone.

1. We choose the date that will work with all of our schedules.

2. Itinerary. I still have a bucket list of islands I want to visit; I try to find an itinerary that has the most new ports for us. I also consider the times in port important when deciding.

3. Cruise line & ship. For us the ports are still what we cruise for, but I like being on a ship that has good entertainment for sea days & evenings.

4. Final deciding factor is cost. I factor in flights, pre and post stay, as well as perks that are being offered such as OBC, free drink or dining package etc.

We decide where we want to cruise. Then we look at:

Preferred cruise lines or other options

Itinerary and dates available vs when we can go

Price

For our upcoming cruise to Hawaii, we looked at Celebrity and Royal Caribbean, but the dates didn't work, so we chose Carnival. Plus the price was right.

Cost is usually not a factor as we now always have to travel at the most expensive times of the year.

I mostly go off the reviews of the ship, then itinerary . My favorite ship I was on so far was Spirit (loved the layout) so I am looking forward to Pride.

With our kids schedule the only time we can really cruise is spring break, so we look at price then distance to port (drive from Michigan), then ship then ports.

First criteria is what fits into the time frame we can go considering transportation if we need to fly/drive.

After that it all depends on what we want out of that vacation.

Disney Wonder, Disney Magic, NCL Epic, and Ruby Princess the ship itself was the 2nd and final criteria.

Carnival Freedom (1st time around) itinerary was the 2nd and final criteria.

Carnival Elation, NCL Jewel (1st time around), Carnival Destiny, Carnival Freedom (2nd time around) and Carnival Splendor price and/or itinerary was the 2nd and final criteria.

Carnival Inspiration, Carnival Glory, and NCL Jewel (2nd time around) embarkation port was the 2nd criteria. Price and/or itinerary was the 3rd and final criteria.

We always need to decide our wants before searching for the ship the best fits those wants.

Itinerary

Ship

 

We only have a small 4-5 week window to cruise in and always summer, plus i can only ask off 10 weeks or so out. So price plays a small factor. I keep wanting to try RCI but Carnival always beats their price. Four years to retirement, guess we can try another line then.

I have the same problem with RCI. I usually have a specific week I am looking at the only time RCI comes close to the other lines is with an older ship vs a newer one of the other line or their itinerary is not as good as others in that time span....I've picked the newer ship or better itinerary every time. Someday I'll get to try them, but it will probably be after we have more flexibility with our vacation time.

Time frame, port of embarkation, ports of call, ship, price last.

We typically will cruise only certain weeks of the year.

We look thru what is available than a combination of ship, itinerary and price to make selection.