LOVE Princess, but hate my itinerary options, WWYD?

[caribill]

Lets start with that Princess is hands down my cruise line of choice. We have tried Royal, Carnival, NCL and they are just not on par (with NCL being the closest). We are almost elite (need 3 more cruises), but have seen out cruising options severely dwindle over past couple of years.

We are middle aged couple who works for a living and has a kid (6 yo) and we are not willing to fly to Europe or Asia and cant take 10+ days vacations (yet at least). So this leaves us with East Coast ports, i.e. Ft. Lauderdale, as NY options are laughable. I am not going to go into another lament on "oh why Princess hates families/people that work/east coasters", it is just what it is...

My question is what would you do in our situation? We just came back from a short B2B on Emerald (4 and 5 day, LOVED it) and I am looking to book next year's cruise. No options aside from tried and true eastern/western routes (been there done that, my DS doesnt even want to get off the ship in Princess Cays any more). I am seriously thinking of defecting to NCL for NY to San Juan cruise or trying something out of our home part (Baltimore). Thoughts?

 

If you want 9 days or less from FLL or Miami, it does not matter what cruise line you are on, the itinerary will likely go to ports you have already visited before.

 

Your recent cruise was in wintertime, so suggestions about Alaska or a Canadian itinerary do not apply if winter is when you want to cruise.

 

And if you cruise in winter from NY or Baltimore, many of your cruise days will be in cold weather.

[sueandkent]

Lets start with that Princess is hands down my cruise line of choice. We have tried Royal, Carnival, NCL and they are just not on par (with NCL being the closest). We are almost elite (need 3 more cruises), but have seen out cruising options severely dwindle over past couple of years.

We are middle aged couple who works for a living and has a kid (6 yo) and we are not willing to fly to Europe or Asia and cant take 10+ days vacations (yet at least). So this leaves us with East Coast ports, i.e. Ft. Lauderdale, as NY options are laughable. I am not going to go into another lament on "oh why Princess hates families/people that work/east coasters", it is just what it is...

My question is what would you do in our situation? We just came back from a short B2B on Emerald (4 and 5 day, LOVED it) and I am looking to book next year's cruise. No options aside from tried and true eastern/western routes (been there done that, my DS doesnt even want to get off the ship in Princess Cays any more). I am seriously thinking of defecting to NCL for NY to San Juan cruise or trying something out of our home part (Baltimore). Thoughts?

 

We are experiencing the same thing. We graduated to doing 10+ day cruises on Princess just to get something different but as we still work too its not always a viable option. Faced with what to do for this fall with just time to do 7 days we decided to try another cruise line (NCL) to change up the home port (Port Canaveral) two of the port stops (Tortola and Great Stirrup Cay) along with hoping to have a different onboard experience with a new to us cruise line. I couldn't do another Princess Cays 7 day out of FLL again so this was the better option. We're 3 away from elite so it stings a bit changing lines but I want to enjoy my vacation too.

[MrMan]

First I am a little different in that cruise ship status is a big who cares for me, partly because I live on the road and try my best to avoid the 'elite' warmed over nibbles functions, be it airline, ship or hotel. So my tainted view would be look where you want to go first, then ship, then line.

 

If you must stay on Princess, one of my favorite cruises, one which I actually was not looking forward to, was the California coast cruises. Especially if you can get an overnight in SFO to go for a nice evening away from the ship. It was outstanding. If you are a foodie, great places to eat be it San Diego, LA, SFO, Vancouver or wherever you end up. And being 7 days you may be able to tack on a couple of days at Disney or Universal with the kids.

[nattie]

Thank you all for awesome suggestions! I'll try to convince DH to do CA coastal, but I am not hopeful.

I think we will switch it up and do NCL option from San Juan to NY this Dec (they have awesome sale now with lots of extras included) and RT Seattle on Princess early June 2017 instead of one winter cruise.

[AZ Ocean Lover]

One more option to consider that we did a few years ago and still talk about. It will also get you very close to elite.

 

Fly to Seattle, enjoy this fun city for a day or so and then take a one night cruise to Vancouver. Vancouver is a fantastic city to visit, so much to do, see and eat. Spend a couple of nights there and then take the cruise down to Los Angeles. I didn't check, but see if you can get one that stops along the way so your 6 yo doesn't get too bored. The cruise we took had all sea days but I think you can get one that stops along the way.

 

There is obviously a lot to do in LA if you have the time before returning home.

 

Two cruise credits and a great time.

[geoherb]

The Caribbean Princess is doing an 8-day itinerary some to the southern Caribbean: Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao.

[iceleven]

I am considering Seattle... Except I grew up in cold climate and HATE cold, so not too keen on Alaska. As for CA, may be... we have visited before, but never cruised.

 

July cruising in Alaska has been, for me, warmer than it is in San Francisco the same time of year. It's rarely been a cold cruise for us (four times to Alaska) and feels mostly like a nice warm spring day.