In 200 words or less, what was your best cruise itinerary?

[nednrom]

1) Renaissance IV - Athens/Mykonos/Kusadasi/Kas/Bodrum/Istanbul

2) Starr Princess Ft. Lauderdale/Grenada/St. Lucia/St. Vincent /Martinique/St. Thomas/Ft. Lauderdale

 

I can't pick one over the other .. Renaissance is a sentimental one,,the cruise line doesn't exist anymore but was awesome.

 

Gail

Edited November 24, 2014 by nednrom

[Susie51]

12-night British Isles cruise on NCL Crown. Edinburgh was my favorite port on that cruise.

[threeofus]

7 years ago: Rome with stops in Turkey, Egypt, Mykonos, Athens, Naples and back to Rome. The world was in a different place!!

[chris_kelowna]

Our 18 day cruise from Sydney to Perth calling in at Auckland, Tauranga, Napier, cruising the sounds, Hobart, Adelaide, and finally beautiful Perth. A great balance of ports of call and lots of sea days. The Tasman Sea was rough and wonderful - rocked me to sleep at night! I loved it all

[lj77346]

Tahiti - beautiful beaches, friendly people, no hassles

[mariapd719]

It was 8 or 9 day Voyager repo cruise in 2005. It went to Aruba and Haiti only the rest were sea days. Best cruise ever. Also loved Explorer 5 day 2011 Bermuda overnight. ( also love Liberty 5 day 2013). Those were my top 3 cruises.

 

My perfect cruise would be 5 days and go to Haiti for 2 nights and Cococay for a night. The private islands are my favorite.

[cruiseapril]

We really enjoyed a Southern Caribbean cruise to: Curacao, Isla Margarita,

Barbados, Dominica, St, Thomas, and the Bahamas. We liked having the Dutch, Spanish, British, Creole, US, and Bahamian experiences- quite varied with lots of exploring and nature tours.

[mom4mom]

I have two favorites which had unusual itineraries which I've never seen repeated. One was a 10 day Hawaiian cruise with 2 overnight stops and we were able to use the ship as our hotel the first night, too. The second was a 12 day Italy cruise on the Legend of the Seas with overnight stops in Venice and Livorno. What also made these both so special were the excursions which we shared with both friends and CC people. You are all the best!

[Toddcan]

Honolulu, Kahului, Hilo, Kona, Nawiliwili on NCL ranks as our #1 itinerary.

Specifically:

 

1. Watching the lava flow into the ocean at night from about a mile off shore - boat stood there for 30-40 mins, just rotating around to give everyone a view.
   
2. Sailing past the Napali coast - you cannot believe there is a place like this on earth until you see it.
   
3. Different port every morning - with an overnight at one. Lots to see and do. Each island has its own gorgeous places to see.
   
4. Luau on the beach.
   

#2 Itinerary: Anything with Labadee.

[FOXTROT]

Leg 1 of a B2B started in Tahiti. Cruised around French Polynesia. Leg 2 Cruised up to Hawaii stopping at Christmas Island. Stopped at several Hawaiian islands. Too bad the cruises are no longer offered.

[besberry]

World Cruise 7th Jan - 24th Apr 2013. 106 magical nights. Caribbean, Panama Canal, North America, South Pacific, Oz, Asia, Arabia, Suez Canal and Europe.

[Big_G]

Alaska first and Panama Canal second.

[Toddcan]

World Cruise 7th Jan - 24th Apr 2013. 106 magical nights. Caribbean, Panama Canal, North America, South Pacific, Oz, Asia, Arabia, Suez Canal and Europe.

 

We have a winner. May as well close the thread now :) That sounds sweet!

[StarSong]

I'm a little surprised - happily so - that Haiti, the DR and cruise line owned resorts have so many fans. We've sailed the Caribbean several times but not yet hit any of those destinations. Will have to make sure they get on our ever-growing list of places to cruise.

 

Ditto Hawaiian cruises. Like most CA residents we've been to Hawaii, but on traditional vacations involving hotels with land underneath. :eek:! Maybe it's time to revisit the 50th state, this time with a floating home base.

 

Another common theme seems to be very l-o-n-g cruises, which would be lovely if only our pesky work (and our equally pesky budget) would cooperate. Perhaps one day cruises lengthier than about 14 days will be in the cards, but we're not there yet.

[cruisemom42]

Recently answered here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=44642062&postcount=2

 

Voyages to Antiquity -- small ship cruise, ports included Egypt, Syria and Lebanon (only 5 years ago it was possible.....)

[Floridiana]

Aranui from Papeete to all 6 of the Marquesas Islands, sails close to the coast, anchors in small bays, only two sea days.

[Lady Chew]

2012 HAL Grand Asia & Australia ... 75 days. Seattle to San Diego via ...

 

Japan (several ports), Korea, China (several ports including Hong Kong), Viet Nam (2 ports), Singapore, Indonesia (3), Samoa, Fiji, Australia (5), New Zealand (2), & Hawaii (3). Many overnight stops. Lots of sea days between countries to rest up.

 

Smaller ship was able to go upriver and dock in the middle of the cities, so no long rides to get in & out of the port.

 

Service was top-notch, food was wonderful & varied ... many special activities ... weather was great the whole time.

 

Oh, and our team won trivia!!

 

Don't know how many words this is!!

Edited November 24, 2014 by Lady Chew

[Aquahound]

Mine isn't nearly as cool as some of these world voyages, but my favorite started with an overnight in Venice, went to Dubrovnik, Argostoli, Corfu, Santorini, Catania, Naples/Pompeii/Sorrento, Rome, Livorno/Florence/Pisa, and ended in Barcelona. It was on the HAL Nieuw Amsterdam in 2012.

[Padraic]

2012 HAL Grand Asia & Australia ... 75 days. Seattle to San Diego !

 

Took the 2007 version of this HAL cruise for 63 days. However, I think my ideal cruise was on the HAL Prinsendam. 46 days from Lisbon, down the west coast of Africa hitting ports in Morroco, Senegal, Ghana, etc. to South Africa. Then across the Atlantic to Brazil, down the Amazon and then on home to Ft. Lauderdale.

[paul929207]

2013, Grand Princess circumnavigation of South America

[SuiteTraveler]

I'm very envious of those who are free to take longterm cruises! They sound marvelous!

 

My favorite so far have been Med cruises - I've done 3, all equally outstanding.

[ontheweb]

Baltic cruise on the Star Princess from Copenhagen to Copenhagen to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary.

 

The other ports (not in order):

 

St. Petersburg, Russia with an overnight and a great private tour with people from our roll call

 

Oslo, Norway--a great port though it alternated with a port in Germany for Berlin. We were glad we had a week that included Oslo.

 

Stockholm, Sweden--had a wonderful time, but was a port with so much to see and do that we wished there was a lot more time there

 

Talinn, Estonia--like being in a medieval village.

 

Gdynia, Poland for Gdansk--our anniversary was on our day there.

 

Helsinki, Finland

Edited November 24, 2014 by ontheweb
spelling correction

[Azure Moon]

12 Day Grand Mediterranean Cruise we took on NCL's Spirit last year.

 

Itinerary was fabulous:

Barcelona (Spain),

Toulon (France) Went to St. Tropez and Port Grimaud,

Livorno (Italy) Went to Cinque Terre,

Civitavecchia (Italy) We went on a couple pic stops then to the Vatican

and museum,

Naples (Italy) Went to Pompeii, Positano, and Sorrento,

Sea Day,

Mykonos (Greece), Walked around port area

Istanbul (Turkey), Self-guided tour with roll call friends. Saw the Hagia

Sophia, Blue Mosque, the Cistern, Grand Bazaar

Izmir (Turkey), Went to Ephesus and a rug shop

Athens (Greece) - the second Sea Day was swapped around in place of Athens, due to a strike that was to take place the day we would have been in Athens, then the cruise line substituted Dubrovnik for Athens:

Dubrovnik (Croatia) We walked on the wall around the old city,

Venice, where we overnighted on the ship. We walked around, listened to

the live music at St. Mark's Square in the evening,

dined next to the Grand Canal, shopped.

 

We flew from USA to Zurich (Switzerland) and from Frankfurt (Germany) back to the USA.

 

USA customs officer was surprised we'd been away less than 2 weeks! :D

[tbmrt]

We live in FL and for years have cruised from the various FL ports to Caribbean.

 

Thinking of flying to other ports for different itineraries.

 

Is it usually less expensive to get our own flights or should we book flights through the cruise ships/Travel Agent?

 

Suggestions as to moderately priced cruises from ports with reasonable airfare from FL appreciated. Saving the more expensive cruises/ports for our special anniversary.

 

Thanks

Barbara

[navybankerteacher]

Mediterranean and trans-Atlantic itineraries for the ports and sea days: but for the ease and almost magical change of environment: sailing HAL's Noordam out of New York (just 45 minutes from home) to the Caribbean in January is tough to beat. Following on-deck muster drill in 18 degree bone-chilling wind, we eased down the Hudson, watching the Manhattan skyline pass, seeing the setting sun silhouette the Statue of Liberty just before passing under the Verazzano Bridge, through the outer harbor and into the rough Atlantic: watching green water covering my window as 30+ foot seas lulled me to sleep.

 

By early afternoon of the next day we were in the 70 degree waters of the Gulf Stream a couple of hundred miles off the Virginia Capes - what a great way to escape winter for 11 days. If HAL were to reintroduce that itinerary, I could assure them of my business every winter.