Have you cruised the same ship more than once?

[Pianoman6582]

I was just reading BeadBabe's review of The Pearl and started off by saying it was her second trip on her. I have cruised 8 times, all different ships... So far. I have not only booked the Sun again in 2013, I have the same aft suite. I was wondering how many of you do repeats, or same ship with different itineraries? Is it because you have a favorite, or for convenience? Or some other reason? I have looked forward to all my cruises. But since I know what I am missing I am looking forward to it more than ever, and in a different and special way.

 

My Lee and I just got home from our 27th NCL cruise. It was our tenth cruise on the Gem....

 

We repeat cruise for several reasons...

1. We love to leave out of NY. This is mostly why all our cruises have been on NCL: they leave out of NYC year round. When we get on the highway, we don't even have to turn... We merge there times, and we are on the pier. One night cruises, ten-day Carib, a bunch of times to the Bahamas...all leaving out of NY, with no air fare or checking of bags over 50 lbs.

2. Speaking of the Bahamas, we LOVE Nassau. Nassau has become a familiar place for us, that we can readily navigate. We can go to Atlantis, the beach clubs on the other end of the island, bum around Nassau proper, and let's not forget CABALAN the awesome Filipino restaurant my "brotherfromanothermother" showed us.... Pork Sisig is not to be missed of you have the chance.

3. Speaking of my "brotherfromanothermother," He is just one of many crew members with whom we've become good friends. We have broken our NY rule quite a few times to specifically sail with our friends. Look, NCL's big thing is making their ships your "Home Away From Home...." What else is more like home than having someone you know and love, on the gangway, waving, and smiling ear-to-ear...sometimes in disbelief that you've come just to see them.... We have sailed with my aforementioned "brotherfromanothermother" nine times.....

4. We LOVE NCL ships... Specifically the Jewel/Dawn Class and Sun Class ships. We can walk around the Gem and never wonder which direction in which we are walking (fish swim forward, for those less familiar with Gem and a few others, on the stateroom floors where there are no windows, look at the carpet. The fish swim towards the front of the ship). I take great pleasure in helping those who are looking at little ship maps and wall directories, or just wondering aimlessly.

 

Long answer to a short question... The short answer? We cruise on NCL time after time because it truly is our home away from home.

 

And I ThAnK yOu:

JWK: Rah RAh NCL

[ncovert]

I was just reading BeadBabe's review of The Pearl and started off by saying it was her second trip on her.

 

I have cruised 8 times, all different ships... So far. I have not only booked the Sun again in 2013, I have the same aft suite.

 

I was wondering how many of you do repeats, or same ship with different itineraries? Is it because you have a favorite, or for convenience? Or some other reason?

 

I have looked forward to all my cruises. But since I know what I am missing I am looking forward to it more than ever, and in a different and special way.

 

We did it because of the location of debarkation and price.

[DMH15]

Many thanks to all of you for replying to this thread. I loved hearing each and every explanation.

 

I am so thankful that my introduction to cruising was on the wonderful Norway. And three other NCL ships were each enjoyable and different in their own way. I would repeat on any of them, although the Norway only in my dreams.

 

I wonder if any of the crew from 2009 will be on the Sun in 2013? Probably highly unlikely. I would love Karin (concierge) and Pedro (CD) to be there.

 

Keep the replies coming folks. Thanks!

[Azure Moon]

Sailed NCL Dawn twice.

 

2009 Canada/New England itinerary.

2010 Bermuda itinerary.

 

I used to think I didn't want to repeat a ship until I'd sailed on a lot of a company's ships, but we enjoyed the personnel, entertainment, and ship so much that we didn't mind sailing on the ship a second time. Having the different itinerary provided freshness to the second sailing.

 

I also used to think I didn't want to repeat an itinerary until doing a wide variety first, but this year we've made our 3rd trip to the western Caribbean :o...but they were made on two cruiselines and three different ships :rolleyes:.

 

Guess one of these days we'll do a western Caribbean cruise on a ship we've already been on, then the rest of my "I'm not going to do XYZ until XYZ gets done first" thoughts can be thrown out the window :p:D.

[thescot123]

Will be on the NCL Spirit for the 3rd time in Oct.

 

1. Wonderful ship with splendid asian decor.

2. Wonderful crew and officers.

3. Ship not too big or too small.

4. N.O is easy to drive too, don't have to deal with planes.

5. Excellent ports, Belize, Costa Maya, Cozumel & Roatan.

[karoo]

I have been on the Pearl, the Sky twice, the Pride of America, the Sun, the dawn three times and am about to go on the Spirit The Pearl is my favourite however I book according to th dates i can go workwise and the Itinerary.

[auntierobin]

We sailed the Pearl and loved her and talked our friends into going to Alaska with us in June. Then we sailed the Jewel this summer and have switched everyone over to the Jewel for Alaska, why? We fell in love with the Jewel and her staff, and as a matter of fact we have another cruise scheduled for 2013 on her and as soon as the new itineraries open up we are going to book the Panama Canal on her.

 

Do we hate the Pearl, absolutely not! We just like the Jewel better.

 

So if she is sailing an intinerary that we wish to travel we will pick her before another ship. But we are not adverse to traveling on others.

 

We would like to do South America or a 14 day cruise to Alaska, since NCL doesn't not have those itineraries available we might even have to stray. Maybe not, depending on what we hear in October.

[doodlesinkentucky]

I was just reading BeadBabe's review of The Pearl and started off by saying it was her second trip on her.

 

I have cruised 8 times, all different ships... So far. I have not only booked the Sun again in 2013, I have the same aft suite.

 

I was wondering how many of you do repeats, or same ship with different itineraries? Is it because you have a favorite, or for convenience? Or some other reason?

 

I have looked forward to all my cruises. But since I know what I am missing I am looking forward to it more than ever, and in a different and special way.

 

 

I do not pick a cruise for the ship but the ports, timing, money I have to spend! We will be going on the Star again next March. I like to see different ships but it will be totally fine to be on the same one again. They have refurbished it so it will look a bit different! We just plain love cruising!;)

[sparks1093]

I was just reading BeadBabe's review of The Pearl and started off by saying it was her second trip on her.

 

I have cruised 8 times, all different ships... So far. I have not only booked the Sun again in 2013, I have the same aft suite.

 

I was wondering how many of you do repeats, or same ship with different itineraries? Is it because you have a favorite, or for convenience? Or some other reason?

 

I have looked forward to all my cruises. But since I know what I am missing I am looking forward to it more than ever, and in a different and special way.

 

We've sailed the Sky twice. It was a time and money issue. It helped that we really liked the Sky.:)

[NMLady]

I was just reading BeadBabe's review of The Pearl and started off by saying it was her second trip on her.

 

I have cruised 8 times, all different ships... So far. I have not only booked the Sun again in 2013, I have the same aft suite.

 

I was wondering how many of you do repeats, or same ship with different itineraries? Is it because you have a favorite, or for convenience? Or some other reason?

 

I have looked forward to all my cruises. But since I know what I am missing I am looking forward to it more than ever, and in a different and special way.

 

We've cruised twice on the Sun. Did Panama Canal in 2006 and did b2b2b in 2010. We choose our cruises by itinerary and then by price. Only after those two factors do we look at the cruise line and/or ship.

[slotaddict]

Dawn - x3

Spirit - x2

Celebrity Century x3

Celebrity Horizon x3

 

 

For us its all about the ease of cruising..itinerary does not much matter to me..for instance on one of the Celebrity cruises we cruised out of Philadelphia to Bermuda...Philly was about 20 minutes from our house...

 

I do plan on sailing on the Dawn once again in 2013 when she ports in Tampa, which is about 60 miles from our house....

[cruiser-007]

Just like a few other posters, it's the time of year, the price and the embark location. We're sailing the RCI EOS again in mid-December because the price is amazing for 12 days. If we fly to cruise, it will dwindle our vacation budget down to force us to take a 3-5 day cruise. There are some other good cruises from up north here and I'm always pricing them too.:)

[CruisinMaterial]

I was wondering how many of you do repeats, or same ship with different itineraries? Is it because you have a favorite, or for convenience? Or some other reason?

 

I have spent over one month onboard the Norwegian Jewel going to different places from as far away as Alexandria, Egypt to as close to home as sailing from New York City and the Caribbean. I picked the ship because I liked her talented crew and would prefer her crew and senior management over any other. If I find something that works I stick with it.

The same goes for the Norwegian Spirit which I have spent 23 days on. It is the second longest time I’ve spent on any cruise ship with a total of three cruises (and the last one being an exotic 9 day… lol). Anyway, I love the Norwegian Spirit’s décor. It’s the best in the NCL fleet. The ship’s layout is easy to navigate and the public spaces are so beautiful to be in. Her Promenade deck cannot be matched on any other Norwegian ship for seating and for a nice walking track (inclines in the aft part to go up over Window’s Restaurant).

Largely I stick with a ship because of its good crew. John O’Hara is the best hotel director I’ve ever met on any ship, anywhere. I repeated the same voyage 7 weeks after taking it and meeting him on it the first time on this ship because he left such a good impression. When my favorite DJ from the Norwegian Sky transferred to the Jewel it was a match made in heaven. However, when the Nickelodeon at Sea came onto the Jewel and there was a management shuffle, there was a noticeable difference in everything so I switched up ships and tried something new including the Norwegian Epic and back to the Spirit.

A ship is only as good as the crew you have on her. The Spirit has a great crew and some new faces I got to know this voyage would definitely be a reason for returning to her again maybe when she sails the European itineraries next year.

[Hikini]

First cruise, Star then Sun thru PC, since then Star every time. Isn't it a wonderful ship? I love feeling like I'm home when I board her.

 

13 days!:D

 

Happy tears for you, sad tears for us as we just came off the Star 2 days ago. I nearly ripped the railing off as they had to drag me down to the gangway!:mad:

 

Yes, the Star feels like home. I'm really sad to see it leave the Seattle to AK itinerary. As we entered our suite I said, "Honey, I'm home!"

 

Have a great time VV - I will think about all the fun you're having and all the great food you're having! You will have to say hello to Rocky in Cagney's for us.

[tiyana4]

Eleven cruises so far and no repeat ships or identical itineraries. We cruise strictly for the ports and with the exception of some unavoidable ports [Cozumel (3 or 4x?), Belize (2x) St. Thomas (2x) and Nassau (2x)] we haven't visited many of the same ports.

 

While we don't necessarily like to revisit ports, there are two ships I can name right off the bat that I would absolutely sail again: the Sun and the Sky. I hope to add the Epic to this list next year.

[STARFISH*4]

5X on the STAR (easy inexpensive cruises for us to the Mexican Rivera and then an AMAZING cruise to the Panama Canal)

 

2X on the SUN with 3&4 coming up this December and 5&6 coming up next

(Great prices/itinerary)

[biker@sea]

After a cruise on NCL Spirit to Bermuda we loved the ship so much 1 week later we booked a last minute B2B to Canada doing 3 cruises in a months time.

 

We also had 2 crew member from NCL Dream that went to NCL Spirit that we sailed with 6 times and are still facebook friends.

[itravelalot]

I have never been on the same ship twice, but am not against it. If the timing and the itinerairy were right, absolutely!!:D

[Pokeraddict]

Pearl 3

Star 4

Jewel 3

Sky 2

POA 2 plus another this January

Jade/POH 1

Sun 1

[Senoj84]

I've sailed the Carnival Liberty twice, I sailed with family both times and they just decided to sail the Liberty again because of the itinerary and date.

[TravisJ]

I have cruised on the Jewel 3x. Once was a back to back and the other was simply out of intinerary convenience.

[MCAT48]

My husband and I have been on 2 cruises so far and both have been on the Gem. We loved it both times! This next cruise we are booked on the Star! we loved the Gem and the best part was our favorite bar server remembered us when we went on the second time. Would def. go back on the Gem but i'm excited to try something new!

[DMH15]

Thank you all for sharing. I have enjoyed reading your posts. I need a cruise bad!

[gelo7]

I have Cruised the Carnival Fantasy twice and will do the Holland America Eurodam for a second time next Spring.

[camz]

3X on the Majesty, now retired

1X on the Dawn

1X on the Gem

Next up the Star.....