Why did you choose this cruise at this time?

[BenjiRodney]

We choose Conquest as we had previously done the Southern Caribbean 3 Novembers in a row. We have not been to two of the ports on the Conquest.

 

 

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[sjcruiser]

Our cruise had been planned two years out, as my mom requested to go on a cruise for her 65th birthday with the family, even though her birthday is in July. We also sent her on one solo for her 60th. The date for our Sunshine cruise was the only one in which worked with most peoples schedule, and the price was right for everyone with air and hotel included compared to the weeks in the month prior. We chose the Sunshine because half of us were on the Breeze last summer, and we decided to give it try since it is the "newest" ship in the fleet. After we booked this cruise, Carnival decided to give her a free cruise, which she'll get to enjoy the week prior to her big day.

Edited May 3, 2014 by sjcruiser

[aussielozzie18]

Did Christmas Cruise last year and loved it. Wanted to experience NYE this time.

Kids loved RCL but wanted to go on a bigger ship - so Voyager it is.

I wanted to cruise somewhere warm, kids wanted to go somewhere new, so we are doing Fiji & New Zealand.

[tickford]

Cheap price sealed it, combining it with seeing our friends who live in the port it is leaving from, had they not lived there probably wouldn't be doing this particular cruise, they are going with us. No matter where a cruise leaves from we have to fly to join it, not many leave from our home port.

[MuffyKismet]

We got off our 29th cruise in January (short weekend getaway cruise) and brought our neighbors 1st cruise for one of them. Well on the way home , they said they had such a great time, lets book another one , this time a longer one! That was music to my years so I got on my I-phone and started looking up 7 day or longer cruises and on bigger newer ships, so came up with the Carnival Breeze, Sept 13th booking and we booked it right then and there. This is the 1st time Ever booking a cruise so far out! I am SO glad we did it, Our cruise will be paid off by June 30th and then I will start stocking $$ away for all of our on-board expenses and excursions so that by the time we sail in September everything (including tip, parking, excursions, cheers program) will ALL be paid for!!! It has been a blast looking up our ports of call (all of which we have never been to before (oddly enough for being on 29 cruises already) and on the Breeze, have been on the Dream and loved it! Have checked nearly everyday for price drops but our rate just keeps going up, maybe after final payment in June they will start going down?? LOL We booked SPA rooms which I am super excited about because loved loved loved the cloud 9 Spa on the Dream (which I paid $150 to use for the week) this time it is included in the price of our SPA room. We have 7 of us total so far going and am hoping to talk a few more folks into joining us! I have so much fun looking on Cruise Critic boards , we have a GREAT roll call this time and have even made our own FB page , looking forward to meeting our roll call members, have even planned an excursion with many of our roll call members!! I never could understand why people booked cruises out so far, but now I totally get it!!!!! I plan on making this a habit! We live in SW Florida so we often would go on last minute cruises , some only 2 weeks before we cruise! We are making this a cruise of a life time, pulling out all the stops on this one, since we had 9 months to plan for it, everything and anything was affordable! Can't wait for Cruise # 30 on the Carnival Breeze , Sept 13t,2014. Then with my husband excellent luck, he won a 5 night 6 day cruise on Royal's Brilliance of the Seas December 6th. Balcony room , including tips, taxes and port fees total of $513 for the both of us!!! He won it on a local radio station!!! Feeling pretty blessed!!!!

[dorisis]

I just booked one after getting an e-mail from our TA. He is doing another Valentine's day cruise. It is 9 days out of a port close to where we live.he does great group cruises at great prices and we DO like more than 7 days.

[RWolver672]

We usually cruise every other February. We cruised in 2013 so that meant 2015 was our next one. Before we had even talked about booking another one, our son said that he was going on the Victory for a five day cruise with a group from our fire department. They are renting a house in Fort Lauderdale three days before the cruise so we are going in on it with them.

 

Five days is too short for us so we decided to do a B2B on the Victory. My brother and sister in law always cruise with us so we told them about the cruises and they booked too.

 

Brother owns his own trucking company and after they thought about it for a while, they decided that it was too long for him to keep his semi off the road. They looked into just taking a seven day cruise. We told them that as long as the one they picked was close enough for us to get from Miami to the port of their departure, we would cancel our second leg and join them on the seven day cruise.

 

They picked the Liberty out of Port Canaveral. It leaves the day after we return in Miami. Both cruises visit Grand Turk and Nassau unfortunately. It's still a cruise and we can always stay on the ship and enjoy her if we don't feel like getting off in those ports.

 

Our ten day cruise has now become:

Three days in Fort Lauderdale

Five days on the Victory

One day travel from Miami to Port Canaveral

Seven days on the Liberty

One day stay in Port Canaveral after the cruise

Home to rest.

[Nebr.cruiser]

We have a cruise booked over Thanksgiving break. We'd normally never book during a school holiday, but this time we are celebrating our 50th anniversary by taking the family on a cruise, and due to school and sports schedules this is the only time that works.

 

We also got to book on a 3-4 passenger sail free deal.

 

Normally, we cruise during December or January because prices are lower and we want to get away from winter. Since we live in the middle of the country, we have to fly to any port, so that's not a big factor.

 

Our other 'sometimes' cruise date is a TA during April. We don't like to cruise in the summer because that's the best weather here, plus my husband is very busy then with his construction business.

[calliopecruiser]

I noticed this cruise because of its great number of sea days and minimum number of port stops, so I could maximize what I love best (sea days). The fact that it is on Crystal was another bonus, because it's just a 25% single supplement with great food and a lovely atmosphere.....and the final selling point was that the cruise ends in Auckland, and I've never been to New Zealand. Triple hit!!

 

I'm spending 10 days driving around New Zealand after the 15 days transpacific cruise.

[frawnsay]

I wanted to try a cruise. Husband wanted to go to Alaska. Alaskan cruise it is!

 

Dates are the major criteria, as we have small children. Luckily, Grandma is a school teacher, so summers are available for free childcare while we sail.

 

Since this is our first cruise, we didn't want anything too long, so we opted for a quick 7-night RT out of Seattle.

 

That brings me to the next point: airfare. Being from Missouri, we must drive/fly to any port. Seattle was much less expensive for us as apposed to Vancouver or other destinations.

 

We chose X as I wanted something a bit more upscale from my parents' experiences on Carnival. Dear friends love RCI, and they recommended RCI or X. Our TA is an old family friend who specializes in, you guessed it, RCI, X, etc.

 

Finally, price. The earlier in the summer we cruised, the better the price.

 

Cruisin' later this month!

[gymbomb]

I picked the timing due to my work schedule and we went with the itinerary my MIL preferred since we wanted them to come and watch the baby a bit for us on board!

 

 

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[KBS1607]

Since it's a big anniversary we decided to actually be on the cruise on the day. That limited our choices quite a bit. DH surprised me by saying we could do 14 days so we're doing a Panama Canal whole transit.

 

Our 25th anniversary we didn't take our big trip until four years later. I like the new plan better. :)

[KBS1607]

double post sorry

Edited May 3, 2014 by KBS1607

[travlnblueberries]

I call it Hump Month.

It's a cruise that satisfies us till the next one, in a couple months.

[iancal]

Australia/Fiji. Date...part of a larger plan to escape winter. Plus, it was a freebee move over deal from Princess for giving up a spot on an overbooked SA cruise. Can't beat that. We picked an expensive one that we would not normally choose and air will not be bad since we will be travelling from Thailand.

[CasinoCruzGirl]

My next cruise is on the breakaway because I love that ship and we are going in November because that was the best time for my husband the workaholic to get some time off. We live in New Jersey so the port is only about 40 minutes drive that makes a big convenience in booking this cruise. I booked casinos at sea (CAS) so I got a great rate for a suite which I was dying to try on NCL

 

Happy sailing to all

[no1racefan1]

We are sailing on NCL's Pride of America in a couple of weeks. We chose this time because when we got married, we established a tradition of taking a trip somewhere new every year as our anniversary gift to each other. We usually take land-based vacations, but since this is our first milestone anniversary (5 years) we decided to go big. Our anniversary is May 23, so we always travel around that time.

 

We chose Hawaii because again, we knew we wanted to make the 5-year extra special. We chose the POA because of the heavy port-based itinerary, knowing we probably won't ever go back to Hawaii just because we have so many other places we want to visit. We want to see and do as much as possible in the time we are there.

Edited May 4, 2014 by no1racefan1

[mohawk1129]

Sailing the Valor in September for our anniversary. We sailed from Puerto Rico for our honeymoon. In the last year all the kids are out and on their own and my mom whom we were caring for passed away. It was time to take time for ourselves.

[jocap]

For five years we've meant to try the Independence OTS....and then the announcement came that she was leaving Southampton this year, so we thought we'd better book.

We cancelled a cruise to Norway on Celebrity Eclipse two years ago after OH had an accident...so Indy and Norway make the perfect holiday for us. ;)

[Slugsta]

I cannot sit for long, so we need to leave from the port less than an hour away from home. Want to'do' the med but I can't stand much heat so off season would be best and I always prefer later rather than earlier. Thought it would be nice to do a little over 2 weeks and I would like to visit Dubrovnik.

 

So we looked at everything available and it came down to a straight choice between 2 that were virtually identical in date and itinerary so we went with the cheapest :)

 

Hence we are going from Southampton to the med and adriatic on P+O Azura in September of this year. I would really have liked to try another line, or revisit Princess or Cunard, as we have doneP+O several times and Azura once before but it just didn't work out that way this time.

[lady_cruiser]

Our up-coming cruise was chosen because the price was right and its going to Belize.

[dorisis]

I'm addicted and need at least one or more booked. If for no other reason, they give me something good to look forward to. When you get way up in age, like me, you need that instead of looking back.

[preschool teacher]

I've always wanted to cruise the week of Christmas (we always go in early dec.)

But the prices are crazy....this year I spotted a cruise Xmas week on the Vision... Out of tampa ..we got a great military rate....so happy

[Krissica]

We always take a cruise in October for my birthday and December for hubby's birthday. We stick with Carnival because of price and experience. We try to choose cruises with ports we haven't been to so we can see new places.

[beachbum53]

We used to cruise in February, as a way of celebrating our anniversary. So nice to get away from winter weather for a week, but horrible to come back to after the cruise is over.:( So, about three years ago, we switched to cruising in May. Couldn't have made a better choice. There's a two to three week period, from about the end of April to the middle of May, between the end of Spring Break and the start of the summer vacation season, when cruise prices go down a little. It's generally referred to as "off-peak". The weather in the Caribbean is perfect at that time. Not too hot, and the ocean is fairly calm. Due to medical bills and a few other issues, we've had to skip cruising this year (bummer). We just booked an 8-day Southern Caribbean on the Carnival Breeze for May/2015. First, because we've heard a lot of good things about the Breeze, second, we want to give the cove balcony a try, and third, we really like the itinerary. It will be two years since we've been on the ocean. That's too long of a dry spell for me, and swimming in a lake is no comparison.