Is the ship or itinerary more important to you?

[jim1reed]

To me the ship or cruise line does not matter. The price has to be good and I want to be able to drive to the port.

 

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[newbeestl]

Itinerary.

 

 

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[innola]

Itinerary! We cruise to visit other places. The ships' amenities are so similar.

[mek]

In the Caribbean, the ship is more important than the itinerary just because we've been there so much. When doing "exotic" cruises, the itinerary is much more important.

[NCteacherlovescruising]

When we cruise just the two of us..............Port in Florida. First criteria. Second...newer ship. Clean. Food is edible. Casino for DH. Trivia for both. Southern Caribbean parts are our favorite. Cruise in "off" seasons for price...........and demographics. Which are older, like we are...........

 

When DD and family cruise with us....................Any ship during Spring Break, within few hours drive. ( Toddler). That is Jax. Port Canaveral. Tampa. So..............That is RCCI and Carnival. NCL out of Tampa. The Dream is newer. (2009). clean to a fault. Camp carnival. Food is good. Pizza, grill..MDR at Lunch and Breakfast. Trivia.

Ports on that week........our most unfavority. Western Caribbean. We don't snorket. We have been there many times. Scared sometimes. Belize. But that is where we are going....on the Dream........Saturday. It was the best choice of what of what we wanted.

 

Price was not that much better than Princess. HAL would have been better due to discounts (community workers discount..teachers) but drive to Ft. Lauderdale with toddler.......No. Not yet.

 

it depends. Since joining ancestry.com, and learning my DNA goes back to the Orkney Islands, I want to go there. That involves some serious saving, of which I am doing now. That will be totally if the ship goes there..............and other Scots Town which end in Wall...like Klingwall......or Dingwall....all connoting Scandinavian Viking ancestry. ( which most Scotch have. The Vikings did not raid all of the time......they had some "off" time too and left little Vikings all over the British Isles.)

 

The next cruise we have booked after this one.....goes to St. Croix and St. Barts. Never been to either. Also big promotion ..1.2.3 on Celebrity. Will have to drive to Ft. Lauderdale..but

Price matters. I can hop on a bargin quick. But I am retired and have time to do that now.

 

Does HAL give teachers a discount??

[PhxRain]

For us, it's itinerary, then I find cruises within our budget for the itinerary we want. Don't care which ship, as long as it gets us to where we want to go for the price we are comfortable paying.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Usually the ship is most important to me but not always. If I'm going on a shorter Bahamas or western Caribbean, I will book based on ship, or maybe price or even departure port. On say, an Alaskan or far eastern Caribbean trip, the ship means less than the ports I will be visiting.

[T. Advisor King]

Itinerary way more than ship. In fact, we just booked on the Breeze B2B with the Glory and we made our decision without even knowing which ships we were on. In fact, I still have to think hard about it to remember what ship we're on. We just wanted to do Eastern Carib (without our kids) followed by Southern (with them).

 

As far as I'm concerned, a ship is a ship. Most of the time is spent in the ports (not counting sleeping and in the dining room, which is pretty much the same regardless -- ditto for sitting in a deck chair around the pool) so the ship itself is really incidental to the vacation.

 

Put it this way, if someone asks me what I'm doing if or vacation this summer, I mention the ports, not the name of the ship.

 

The departure port can also be important. Galveston is in a much lower geographic zone for our airline points than, say, Miami. That said, if we're paying cash or cost is not a key factor, we'll sail out of almost anywhere (e.g., Barcelona, Athens)

[mzloolue]

First is departure port.

 

Then price.

 

I really don't care where I go.

I am there for the boat ride.

 

Except that I would rather not go to Jamaica or Aruba or the D.R.

 

Actually I could do a five day or seven day with no ports and be perfectly happy.

Love those sea days!

Edited March 10, 2014 by mzloolue

[TheCalicoCat]

itinerary. The ship just gets me where I want to go. My son is only 5, maybe when he is 15, we will pay more attention to the water park, etc.

[sonicbuffalo]

Usually the itinerary.....but for our upcoming cruise....we definitely picked this cruise for the ship....can't beat the Allure!:D

[ibcnusoon]

Itinerary for sure!

 

Last time we booked for the ship, Norwegian Breakaway, 5 sea days and two stops: Port Canaveral and Nassau (missed port stop at their private island). As nice and beautiful and amenities galore on this ship, we still felt like we had island fever and couldn't wait to get off.

[Saltz]

I weigh in price, itinerary, and length of cruise days all together on my initial decision. Then from there I narrow down choices regarding the ship based on reviews.

 

 

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[MrCruzeaddict]

The ship. We've been to most of the islands that are on most sailings, so we just like to enjoy the ship.

 

 

Joe

Edited March 10, 2014 by MrCruzeaddict

[Honolulu Blue]

What is most important to you when planning your cruise...the ship, the itinerary or the departure port?

 

First I'd like to quote someone from upthread that said something very astute:

 

...There is definitely somewhat of a pattern to all the answers here. I've noticed that cruisers that are veteran cruisers seem to enjoy the ship more. Newer cruisers want to experience as many different islands as they can, so the itinerary appears to be more important to them.

 

That seems generally true. I know it's true in my case, as my first cruise is coming up in about two weeks.

 

Now back to the original question. I'm from Michigan, so the departure port is important, but for different reasons than those who live within driving distance of one or more.

 

The questions I look at for the departure port are:

 

a) How much does it cost to get there?

b) Can I get there before the ship leaves?

c) Can I leave the same day the ship disembarks?

d) If I have to stay an extra day, what are my options and how much do they cost?

 

And having only seen pretty photos and text descriptions, all the ships are pretty nice, though some have different features.

 

If I had to rank them all, I'd say price, itinerary, departure port, and ship. That's my opinion and worth about what you paid for it. Subject to change without notice.

[Brooklyn Boy]

It depends. This past Sept my wife and I sailed the Legend B2B Dover to New York, and New York to Tampa. For the 15 day T/A the ports were most important (Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland) WOW!. For the 11 day from New York to Tampa, the ship was more important. Since we live in Florida, and sail mostly from ports we can drive to, we had already been to most of the islands.

[maldenmusic]

Actually the port is most important since my daughter and I always cruise and we are poor school teachers. So we have to cruise from a port (usually NOLA) that is closest to us. When Mobile was a port we liked using that one too.

[trippingpara]

My wife and I are newer cruisers, so itinerary and price are the most important to us. So far, we have not been able to find that happy medium between the right ports, the right price tag and the right ship. Our next cruise is to celebrate our daughter's graduation from college. She wanted to go on either the Allure or Oasis if possible but her main focus was just to go on a cruise and to see St. Maarten and the Caribbean. When we priced it out, there was over a $1,500 difference between Carnival and Roayl Caribbean (and that's with an extended aft balcony on Carnival and a regular balcony on the Oasis) and we're going to 3 more islands than the Oasis was going to. I'm sure some day, the ship will matter more to us, but right now it's all about the islands and price.

[ch27088]

We are recently back from a wonderful cruise and are looking to plan another for this summer. What is most important to you when planning your cruise...the ship, the itinerary or the departure port?

 

We set a budget and then look based on departure ports (driving distance) and itineraries. Now I am wondering if I should book the next one based off of the ship. I have read the Breeze is a beautiful ship and I would love to try it. However, we could get an extra night for less money on the Legend. (Also looking at several other ships/itineraries at this point and haven't even set a firm budget yet...to many decisions)

 

I do the same thing as you do when booking a cruise. I set a budget and then look at the different departure ports (as far as driving). We love in Alabama and will be leaving out of New Orleans on a cruise later this year. Taking the train to and from New Orleans.

 

Next year we will do a cruise out of Tampa, but will plan on leaving 2 days ahead of time as we will be driving from Alabama to Tampa. I also look at the time of year when planning my trip. During the high season, costs are higher.

[wantocruisemore]

The itinerary is what I look for first. I'm usually confined to a particular month. Then when I find the itinerary I want, I compare the ships. I loved Liberty last sept. So when planning for next cruise I checked on Liberty. although other ships did essentially same itinerary, I liked the idea of back on the Liberty. Plus, now with port Canaveral we could drive.

[sjn911]

Usually the itinerary.....but for our upcoming cruise....we definitely picked this cruise for the ship....can't beat the Allure!:D

 

I really want to do the big ships..I also value the small ones.

 

Biggest ship for me so far was Star Princess and it was wonderful..

 

I know I will enjoy the behemoths too ...it is just what one is up for in vacation...PS I loved you Sun review...thank you....Sarah

 

I do think a smaller ship is better usually for a port intensive trip. Of course..in mass market cruising...we are not talking super small but they are usually still easier to get on and off of for lots of ports and easier to get to elevator to cabin to crash after being pooped...it is all relative.

 

I think I am ship and cost tied first...only if it is nice enough...not the bells and whistles..the service and repair report is what I listen too.

 

Itinerary close second.

 

Port third...because i have to fly anyway..California is slightly easier and shorter but still 2 planes.

Edited March 10, 2014 by sjn911

[ccruisequeen]

Ship. I end up with the same itinerary anyway, here on the west coast there's not much choice, but at least I have a new ship on which to win a Ship on a stick.

 

 

 

Edited March 10, 2014 by ccruisequeen

[Phlybice]

We are recently back from a wonderful cruise and are looking to plan another for this summer. What is most important to you when planning your cruise...the ship, the itinerary or the departure port?

 

We set a budget and then look based on departure ports (driving distance) and itineraries. Now I am wondering if I should book the next one based off of the ship. I have read the Breeze is a beautiful ship and I would love to try it. However, we could get an extra night for less money on the Legend. (Also looking at several other ships/itineraries at this point and haven't even set a firm budget yet...to many decisions)

 

Except for specialty cruises like Bermuda or Hawaii, or even a stop in Caracas years ago, we cruise for the ship. We have found most ports are extremely similar, and do remember our first cruise having no interest in even getting off the ship. Until we saw that (at the time) basically everything shut down on board. We sure are glad that changed over the years.

[jsfromsc]

Itinerary is most important to me. That said, one of these days I hope to sail out of Charleston so I can enjoy an easy drive to port. The main thing that's held me back is that I'm reluctant to sail on such a small, old ship again. I like a balcony room and I don't want to pay for a suite just to get one.

[NCteacherlovescruising]

We were debating on choosing based on the ship because I wanted to try the Breeze. However, we ended up booking based on itinerary because it had two ports we haven't been to yet, St. Kitts and St. Maarten, as well as, two we had been to and enjoyed, Grand Turk and San Juan. Plus it's 8 days instead of 6. The ironic part is, it's on the Freedom which we were just on a couple of weeks ago. The whole time we were on it, I kept saying next cruise I was going to pick a ship with Guys Burgers again because I missed them. Oh well!