Why did you choose this cruise at this time?

For your upcoming cruise...why did you chose THIS particular cruise? Ship? Itinerary? Vacation lined up with cruise dates? Raise? Favorite time to cruise? Rates?

DH and I have to plane no sooner than 6 months out as his vacation cannot be confirmed any sooner. He's an ICU nurse in the burn unit of one of our local hospitals. Me? I can cruise anytime. DH and I prefer to cruise in May..before hurricane season and when the weather is too hot. However time nor finances didn't allow. Plus our newest grandson was born on April 18.

We chose this cruise as we have never been to Jamaica, and it's one of the places on the Beach Boys Kokamo song, which got us into cruising in the first place. Also we were excited to see that we will be on the largest ship we've ever been on, in our first cove balcony.

Ok...your turn...GO!

I chose Miracle Mexican Riviera because I don't have to fly anywhere, it's only $800 per person, which was a lot cheaper than Hawaii, and I figured it was a good way to get my new(ish) boyfriend into cruising. I do love the Spirit Class ships as well, and I always love Puerto Vallarta. Oh, and I always vacation in the fall when there are less kids.

With more $$$, I probably would have preferred to cruise out of Florida on a Southern or Eastern Caribbean cruise, but it wasn't in the cards this year.

We always vacation in May or Oct (we live in a ski town and those are our mud months). It is just a great coincidence that those two months are off season pretty much everywhere :D W. Caribbean because it has lots of port days - we get bored just sitting by a pool.

Booked this one which is almost 17 months away so we can pay it off a little at a time as we go. Picked the ship because we can drive to the port (8 hours), and picked the exact sailing is to two ports we've not been to. Will have to take DD out of school, but she has straight "A's" so don't anticipate a problem for her. Hasn't been on the other three times we've cruised, two of them when school is in session. It's so much cheaper when school is in session.

I chose Miracle Mexican Riviera because I don't have to fly anywhere, it's only $800 per person, which was a lot cheaper than Hawaii, and I figured it was a good way to get my new(ish) boyfriend into cruising. I do love the Spirit Class ships as well, and I always love Puerto Vallarta. Oh, and I always vacation in the fall when there are less kids.

 

With more $$$, I probably would have preferred to cruise out of Florida on a Southern or Eastern Caribbean cruise, but it wasn't in the cards this year.

DH and I sailed out of Long Beach to Catalina Island and Ensenada on the Ecstasy in the month of July once, thinking the water would be warm and great for swimming. Boy, were we wrong! So I see you like Puerto Vallarta...is the water ever warm there? I'm talking at least 77 degrees...and even that's a little cool.

Mexican cruisers?? What say ye? When should I plan a cruise for the west coast? I would like to do a Panama Cruise someday too!

I have 3 upcoming. Next week was to try another cruise line, no flying, a private island I have not been to, and to see if I will like the line. If not I still have time with no money loss to canx next years with them.

The 2nd one is due to 1.5 drive to port and itinerary.

3rd one is for birthday.

We leave on the pride next Sunday and due to my husbands work schedule and my disabled sons schedule it was literally the only sailing on any ship from any port we could take all year

It goes to port canavaral, Nassau and Freeport, none of which I have any desire to go to

But it's a vacation right, better than being at home!

If I could choose, I'd do the southern Caribbean in a second

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I sail on the Breeze in 22 days. My BFF and I were originally booked on a Mediterranean cruise for the same time. Unfortunately, life happened to her. Her dad passed away and she lost her job. We decided to take a Caribbean cruise which is way less expensive than our original plans. We're planning on our dream Med cruise sometime in 2016.

DH and I sailed out of Long Beach to Catalina Island and Ensenada on the Ecstasy in the month of July once, thinking the water would be warm and great for swimming. Boy, were we wrong! So I see you like Puerto Vallarta...is the water ever warm there? I'm talking at least 77 degrees...and even that's a little cool.

 

Mexican cruisers?? What say ye? When should I plan a cruise for the west coast? I would like to do a Panama Cruise someday too!

I've done this itinerary once before, and I've been to PV many times on vacation. PV and Cabo are a lot further South than Ensenada, so generally the water is warmer. I have been to PV in September, October and November, and in November it starts to cool down until the summer season again. Still not cold like So Cal or Ensenada, but it's not warm like the Caribbean.

In the summer and early fall (until mid to late November) it's very warm! If you're planning a West Coast, plan for October.

Edit to say, according to the average water temps I just researched, it's above 80 degrees until December.

On Carnival we sometimes choose Fantasy when a 7 Day sailing is being offered because Charleston is a very convenient port for us. :)

LuLu

Our past 3 cruises were because they were close (from Long Beach) and we were off from school. Our next cruise we chose because:

1. There were no 7 day summer cruises from Long Beach
   
2. My mom's fellow nurses said we should try Eastern Carribean
   

Half Moon Cay! We went in January and it was cold. :( I was so sad, so booked the same cruise for April next year thinking the weather will be nicer.

Booked our next cruise because we have done several 7 night Alaska cruises + land and this is an 11 night, RT from San Francisco. More time to enjoy the ship and easier/less expensive air.

My kids are in school until the end of June. My husband works in a school until the end of June and teaches a college course in August. That leaves us July. My husband dives and has always wanted to dive in the Cayman Islands. I found a ship and a time that fits those needs.

Lisa

End of April for us! Birthday, Anniversary......

A different itinerary adds to the decision. . Home port isn't on the the list, but, it helps! Have only sailed the same ship twice.

Oh, as some may know, I AM an aft cabin snob! "If I can't see the ship's wake, I don't want to take it!";)

We chose our upcoming cruise because it is only 1 and a half hours away. Date, because it is after Spring Break and before Summer. One ship leaving from our port with 2 itineraries. We chose the better one. We will be sailing in Carnival Pride this Sunday!!!! Yaaaay

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My 40th b-day

NCL canceled my dream cruise, but Carnival had an even better replacement! :D

March 2013, I booked an 11 day Southern Caribbean cruise out of Miami for January 2015 on the NCL Pearl. Perfect time for us to vacation and a great price. Carnival didn't have anything equivalent at the time - actually nothing even close.

Flash forward to January of this year: the rumor in the hood, Pearl was going to be chartered out cancelling a slew of cruises. I was searching and searching for a replacement until lo' and behold, Carnival announced the Pride was going to do a 14 day Panama, Southern Caribbean repo back to Baltimore. It opened for booking about a week before the official cancellation notice came from NCL. I was on the phone with my PVP to book the Pride before I even finished reading the letter.

Although the Pride is in March, It Was a No Brainer. This itinerary IMO is so much better - and I am one happy clam.

NCL canceled my dream cruise, but Carnival had an even better replacement! :D

 

March 2013, I booked an 11 day Southern Caribbean cruise out of Miami for January 2015 on the NCL Pearl. Perfect time for us to vacation and a great price. Carnival didn't have anything equivalent at the time - actually nothing even close.

 

Flash forward to January of this year: the rumor in the hood, Pearl was going to be chartered out cancelling a slew of cruises. I was searching and searching for a replacement until lo' and behold, Carnival announced the Pride was going to do a 14 day Panama, Southern Caribbean repo back to Baltimore. It opened for booking about a week before the official cancellation notice came from NCL. I was on the phone with my PVP to book the Pride before I even finished reading the letter.

 

Although the Pride is in March, It Was a No Brainer. This itinerary IMO is so much better - and I am one happy clam.

She is a great ship

Two reasons--one, our son is out of school for the summer. Second reason is because it's when DH could get time off. He's a retail manager, so they're really only allowed to take time off in the spring and summer and maybe the early part of the fall if they're lucky. Once about October hits, then any time off requests (unless it's some kind of emergency) are pretty much turned down. October is when they start getting ready for the holiday season which starts in mid-November and lasts until mid-February.

We just finished our 6th Carnival cruise on the Sunshine recently and booked on board for the Freedom 4/4/15 8 night to St Maarten, St Kitts, San Juan and Grand Turk. We booked for the itinerary since we want at least one new port (St Kitts) and the other ports we truly enjoyed. Since we have to fly we've done all different itineraries (16 ports in 6 cruises, repeating very few). We have been changed to the Conquest but are still very excited for this next cruise. :D

My sister has never been on a cruise and she turns 50 this year the day before Halloween. We loved Halloween on the Breeze last year so I gave her the trip as a gift for her birthday but she could pick the itinerary.

I narrowed down the list to the Sunshine and both the Dream and Conquest Class ships, and gave her a list to choose from, all cruises within our budget, and all sailing over her birthday, which happens to coincide with Halloween and if you haven't sailed over that holiday - let me tell you are missing a heck of a fun party at sea!

She chose the Dream sailing to Montego Bay, Cozumel and Grand Cayman. I love GC and always have a good time in Cozumel so I think she picked well. But what surprised me the most was that she told me she chose that cruise mainly because of the three sea days!

When we looked at our job schedules, time off and location there were only 2 options anyway. Once Carnival, the other NCL. I'm not big on NCL so Carnival it was!

1. No single supplement 2. Excellent price

We chose the Splendor again because we had a great cruise the first time, like leaving out of NYC and like the itinerary with Grand Turk and HMC.