7 day is just not enough

[Joeci]

We will be booking our next cruise soon, can anyone tell me the differance between a 7 and 10 day cruise, do they attrack different crowds, this will be our 4th, 2 carnival, 2 rccl we would like to relax a little this time around any insight would be a big help. thankyou

[marco]

If you are cruising say, the Caribbean, we find a 10 dayer more relaxing. One week, your're on, before you know it, it's the end of the week and you're off. Ports usually are interspersed with sea days rather than 2 days at sea, 3 ports, 2 days at sea, which makes it more relaxing as well. Obviously, you get to more ports, too. I find if you are taking the same line at approx the same time, to the same destination, demographics are not that much different between a 7 day and a 10 day. Now, if you are comparing a 7 day Carnival to a 10 day HAL, of course the demographics are different, but if you want to compare a 7 day Carnival to a 7 day HAL, they're going to be different, anyway.

[CaptData]

It also depends when you go. If the same time of year then you may find a few less children on the 10 day.

[michmike]

once you've done a 10 day, it's hard to go back to 7. Something nice about hitting day 7 on a 10 day cruise and knowing you still have 3 days to go. We're spoiled.

 

Plus as someone else pointed out, generally the longer the cruise, the fewer the children, which is a plus for us.

 

Aditionally you'll have the best of both worlds in that you have 1 or 2 more ports and at least one ( maybe 2) additional sea days.

 

Just my opinion, but would almost always opt for 10 days in an outside cabin over 7 in a balcony and the cost difference between the two, depending on line and season, is generally minimal.

[10X]

Michmike - we're almost neighbors (about 30 minutes apart). I'll be up in Ionia tonight.

 

I agree with everyone here. The longer cruises tend to attract fewer families, so less children and they attract fewer of the party crowd. In addition, they are much more relaxing. We found that, at times, we simply would relax on the ship or go into town for only a short while, then return. There just wasn't the rush to do everything all at once because there are more days to do things. We did 14 nights in 2003, 10 nights in 2004 and our next one is 14 nights in 2006.

 

We're not rich by any sense of the imagination. We will almost always opt for an inside cabin to keep costs down.

[kryos]

We will be booking our next cruise soon, can anyone tell me the differance between a 7 and 10 day cruise, do they attrack different crowds, this will be our 4th, 2 carnival, 2 rccl we would like to relax a little this time around any insight would be a big help. thankyou

The longer the cruise, the older the passenger demographic generally. Also, you will usually find less kids onboard the longer cruises, especially if they take place in months when school is in session. While a parent may be willing to pull her kids out of school for a seven-day cruise, she is not likely to consider that a possibility on the longer ones. The kids would just miss too much vital school work.

 

The reason for the older demographic on the longer cruises is very simple. It's usually the older folks who have the time/money to take the longer cruises. They've raised their families and while they may still be active in their careers, they have reached a point where they have more vacation time and more spendable cash. The younger cruisers are still raising families and struggling with budgets. So, they are less likely to have lots of extra vacation time or money to manage the longer cruises.

 

Of course, these are generalities. I'm 49 and I'm going on a 30-day Hawaii/South Pacific cruise in January (gotta celebrate that big 5-0 in some memorable way!) :) But, I'm single and have been with the same employer for 27 years. While I'm certainly not rich, by using the guaranteed share program on HAL, I was able to manage the fare for this. I've also got plenty of vacation time to cover it. None of my friends ... a few of them older than me ... could even consider it.

 

So, as you can see, there are certainly exceptions to the above-stated generalities.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[michmike]

Hey neighbor - I spent 25 yrs working in Ionia for Corrections. Retired from that and now work in Grand Rapids. What line do you folks tend to cruise? We have 4 trips on HAL and our first was on Celebrity. Taking a look at Celebrity again for a 12 nite Panama Canal trip over New Years. I'm 57 and DW is somewhat less than that (he says... diplomatically)

[10X]

Michmike,

 

We're 57/55. 10 cruises, Princess is our favorite. I'm retired State Police. Our next cruise is 1/28/05, 14 nights, Sea Princess to the southern Caribbean. Interested in dinner at the Corner Landing south of Ionia?

 

Contact me direct: shoot3gun@yahoo.com