How do you choose?

Looking at cruises in 2019 I've narrowed it down to about half a dozen!! ? It's either Australia or Alaska-home (probably out of our price range tbh) or LA-home or a variation on a theme. Clearly I need to make a more balanced decision.

What criteria do you use; purely based on cost or ship or itinerary? It's soooo difficult.

Ultimately for us the decision usually comes down to some combination of all three of the criteria you have mentioned: cost, ship, and itinerary.

For 2016, we chose a round trip crossing from New York on QM2 because we were looking for a relaxing itinerary on a ship we love and I found an excellent fare by booking after final payment date.

For 2017, we decided to do something very different and opted for a port-intensive Baltic cruise on Royal Caribbean (a 13 day cruise with only one sea day and three days in Saint Petersburg). In this case, the itinerary was the overriding factor, but we were also happy with the ship and cost.

Now for 2018, we will be back to Cunard doing a more relaxing 21-day voyage on QM2 (New York-Southampton-Norway and back) in June. I had been keeping an eye on availability and pricing for that voyage for quite some time hoping another bargain fare might become available after final payment date. But when availability started getting tight last autumn, we decided cost could take a bit of a back seat this time and went ahead and booked it primarily for the ship and the itinerary.

Then when Cunard's 2019 schedules came out, we knew pretty early on that we wanted to do the 21-day round trip crossing on QM2 from New York in July which includes calls at Liverpool, Iceland, and Canada on the return crossing. I booked that one right away on the first day it was available to book in order to secure a preferred cabin location. Once again we decided the cost could take a bit of a back seat for this one. In this case, the ship and the itinerary were once again the most important factors for us.

So, no simple answer to your query, I'm afraid. And in the end the most important criteria for you are naturally what you personally consider to be the most important. But hopefully these musings of mine have been of some value to you.

Regards, John

Thanks for your 'musings' John. As usual you've put it into perspective. DH and I really fancied the Vancouver-home itinerary (Alaska would have been a bonus), but ill health stopped us doing anything when the itineraries were announced and in fact until only a couple of months ago our upcoming trip (starting on Sunday) was to some extent in doubt. I truly hate the word 'cancel' and it was mentioned too many times in our conversation to even think about booking something else.

Since then the price has, of course, rocketed to a point which would stretch our budget to beyond breaking point so we will definitely have to look for a slightly shorter trip. Plus, just to compound the situation DH suddenly announced he quite likes the idea of going back to Australia; Hence my dilemma.

Will visit the future bookings people whilst on board and see what they have to offer; who knows they may take pity on me and offer Alaska-home at a price we can afford (no chance!!) :)

Looking at cruises in 2019 I've narrowed it down to about half a dozen!! ? It's either Australia or Alaska-home (probably out of our price range tbh) or LA-home or a variation on a theme. Clearly I need to make a more balanced decision.

 

What criteria do you use; purely based on cost or ship or itinerary? It's soooo difficult.

Usually for us it's itinerary/ship/cost. Though QM2 is our favorite, we had a great time on QV. The Queens Grill on QM2 can't be beat, however. We did 2 cruises in the Grills on QM2. The rest were Britannia. We would have liked to do the Grills on QV, but it wasn't in our budget.

I start with where I want to go, then what can I afford and go for the one that best matches both. For 2019 I had to go for the 21 night QM2 trip, but Southampton to Southampton. It sounded too good to miss.