How do you pick your cruises?

Do you first go by ship, intenerarys,ports?

There's like 5 ships I like various ports although Allure, and FOS are almost the same except FOS goes to Coco Cay and Allure goes to Nassau. So any tips on how you base your decisions on?

Do you first go by ship, intenerarys,ports?

There's like 5 ships I like various ports although Allure, and FOS are almost the same except FOS goes to Coco Cay and Allure goes to Nassau. So any tips on how you base your decisions on?

Just booked the Navigator this evening. Got a 6 day cruise for about 1/2 the cost of a 7 day on the Freedom. I book whatever gets me the most bang for my bucks and departure port (I'm not a flyer so we cruise while we're in FL during the winter).

If the prices were better, I'd book the Freedom every year. Love that ship!

Cathy

Do you go to the same ports or like to find all new ones?

If you do May 28 out of SJ going down to Aruba curaçao do you get hurricanes?

I book more for ship, but try to avoid Nassau at all costs. I do like to mix up ports and go to new places. I'm not opposed to visiting a port twice, but don't want to do a same whole itinerary more than once.

I went out of SJ in Nov on Carnival and just really like port intensive but was tired at the end, I don't want to many sea days on a ship with nothing to do. What is your favourite class of ships, this will be our first on RC and 4th altogether

I look for the best price during the times we can cruise.

I go by port. I like to sail out of port Canaveral so we have always done Disney cruise line. on the other hand I have wanted to sail the oasis since it was built but never felt comfortable with its port. now that its coming to p.c. i'm finally doing it. we have the first cruise from this port booked.

since the price is so much less than dcl we may change completely and start cruising rcl as our first choice.

as to ports, that doesn't even enter the equation. if its one we have been to many times or one we have no interest in we just stay on the ship and relax with fewer people on board.

1) Price

2) Itinerary / Departure Port

3) Ship

Cruise Line

Departure port

Price

Itinerary

Cruise Line

Ship

Taking for granted we're sailing RCI and noting consideration is given to each of these factors (which are listed in order of importance):

Itinerary

Price

Departure Port

Ship

Taking for granted we're sailing RCI and noting consideration is given to each of these factors (which are listed in order of importance):

Itinerary

Price

Departure Port

Ship

Assuming we are traveling with RCCL (we enjoy their product the best and they have by far the best policy for price matches and canceling trips prior to final payment)

1 - price (must be reasonable)

2 - itinerary (please find me some new islands and avoid Jamaica and Nassau)

3 - ship (does it have a flowrider)

4 - what shows are on the ship

My plans are made on the basis of: #1-The Ship; #2-The Price; #3-The departure port, and the date. I like to leave winter behind, and sail to where it is warm. I can't afford to cruise more than once a year, so that one-week break from winter makes the rest of the time till spring more bearable.

My first cruise was to the Eastern Caribbean on the Oasis in November 2012 with my live-in family of four, because my DSIL wanted to sail on the (then) largest ship. He is wheelchair-bound with MD, and he loved the accessible ocean-view balcony. He spent many happy hours there while my DD, DGS & I enjoyed the various shows. I would not have sprung for two ocean-view balcony cabins except for the convenience of the connecting door between them.

In February 2014, I sailed the Oasis again - this time with my younger DD. I opted for an interior cabin in order to save money, and we found it quite comfy. My only "mistake" was to choose a cabin that was very far forward, and I really felt the strain of walking to the other end of the ship for the MDR and WJ.

This past February (2015) our family of four cruised on the Oasis again - in the exact same cabins we had had in 2012. On all three of these sailings, we managed to be served by the marvelous waitress who had added so much pleasure to our evening meals on that very first cruise.

While onboard this year, I booked another eastern Caribbean on Oasis for my younger DD and myself - for next February (2016). I tried to get an interior cabin at the aft end, but none of those were available to book at that time. However, the agent was able to put us in a balcony cabin overlooking Central Park, near the aft elevators. The price was $300 more than the interior, but with $300 onboard credit, so I decided to book it. I am looking forward to sitting on the balcony with my DD, playing Scrabble, people-watching, and making up our own stories about the lives of the passengers in the cabins across the way.

I don't mind that we have visited the same three ports each cruise, because I haven't ventured far afield. I guess you could say that I really just go for the ship. I did a lot of traveling on land in the US and Europe in my 30s & 40s. At 75, I'm content to be served and entertained for seven days, without having to expend a lot of energy. As the primary shopper and chef in my family of four, this is a great luxury.

DSIL & DD are thinking of taking a trip to England in 2016 or '17 instead of another cruise, and my other DD & I will probably do another February Caribbean cruise in 2017, but I would like to switch to the Allure. After sailing on the Oasis, I really like all that this class of ship offers, but am ready to see different shows, and different artwork in the stairwells & halls, etc.

Since the Harmony is currently priced significantly higher than the Allure, that played a big part in my selection. I currently have the Allure cruise booked for February 2017, but will have plenty of time when I'm on the Oasis next February to see what I can get in the way of better pricing and OBC. That will also give us the chance to see how much we enjoy the Central Park balcony, or if we would rather switch to an interior to save the money.

I doubt that I will be in a position to take many more cruises, so I intend to enjoy myself as much as possible while I can.

We pick by ship, price, itinerary & departure port, in that order. Prefer to sail out of Port Canaveral, and excited that Oasis will be based there next year, having never sailed an oasis class ship. We would love to see a regular southern caribbean itinerary added to the mix from PC. Was hoping that with the Explorer doing a few runs on the Southern route, last year, maybe Royal was considering it... Hopefully somewhere the future. :)

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Price and itinerary. Sometimes the ship, as long as the price isn't crazy. I have no interest in the Harmony. I've sailed the Oasis, and loved it. The Harmony is the same, except for the slides, and an insane price.

#1 Itinerary

#2 Price

#3 Ship/Port

*Always subject to available dates/vacation time.

Hi

First for us is time frame usually Feb /Mar to escape some winter. Then it's ships,and ports . We just did in Nov the Jewel of Seas out San Juan . Our first port intensive cruise excellent time. This was very good ,but will probably stay with our usual cruise time in winter .. We like ports and seas days to relax . Keep on cruising:)

Lookin to cruise

kruise runner:cool:

Cruise Line

Departure port

Price

Yep. That's how we do it. Don't care where we go or if we've been there before. Only once have we chosen the ship first and that was to experience Allure and reprise our (Mariner) honeymoon cruise with Captain Johnny at the helm again.

Taking for granted we're sailing RCI and noting consideration is given to each of these factors (which are listed in order of importance):

Itinerary

Price

Departure Port

Ship

Agree completely-- same ordered list for us

Date

Price

Ship

Itinerary

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Itinerary AND price, at the same time. Where do I want to go and is there a cruise going there that I can afford?

I have a mental list of possibilities, and, if I see a plausible itinerary, I will plan from there. There are also places I have little desire to revisit, but if an itinerary includes those ports in addition to the ones I want to see, I'll suck it up and find something to enjoy.:D

Basically, the whole Caribbean is of little interest to me any more, though we will be doing a Panama Canal cruise later this year.

The cruise line is secondary, and the ship doesn't matter at all. (The really huge ones can't really visit anywhere but the places I have no interest in visiting.)

We normally do Caribbean cruises, have done approx. 50 over last 40 years

1st where ship leaves from ( prefer Texas or NY)

2nd Price, look for a bargain for either mini-suite or suite

3rd The ship and line, we are open to cruise many lines but there is a few I will not sail again

4th the ports- not that big since we have done them so many times

For us, it's a combination of ship and price. We prefer to leave from our homeport (NY/NJ) Itinerary matters less.

We decide around when we'd like to travel (eg April 2016).

We have to fly to the ship port, but Florida is a closer one, so we start by looking at cruises that depart from a Florida port.

The ship to us is just as important, if not more than the stops, so next step would be looking at the ship classes that interest us. For example, we are coming with our kids so we're interested in Oasis, Quantum or Freedom class.

Then from there, look at itenirary. We preferred eastern over western Caribbean, since we've done western twice, so we went with allure fir week we wanted to travel.

Of course, price factors in there, which would also help select stateroom category.