Most Recommended Itineraries

[kirenne]

Hi everyone,

 

I am still very new to cruising and would like to know - what are your most recommended itineraries? Princess specific, of course.

 

For future cruises, I am very interested in seeing Australia/New Zealand, Japan, Ireland/Scotland, and potentially Hawaii (I have been previously, but not on a cruise!) What trips stuck out to you as the best in terms of the amount of days/ports visited/excursions available/Princess ship? I know that is a lot of things to consider! :)

 

Very curious to hear some opinions.

 

P.S. I apologize if this has been posted elsewhere, I couldn't find anything using a basic search of the Princess forum.

Edited June 6, 2016 by kirenne

[gotta cruise again]

At this point, for us, it's an itinerary that doesn't require expensive and long flights. So that pretty much eliminates Europe, Australia, etc. I also don't particularly care for many consecutive sea days so another option like Hawaii would be off the table for us. Of course, I'd like to go to Europe again and would love to go to Australia (have been many times to Hawaii but not via a cruise and prefer land trips there).

 

Even though we've cruised to Alaska, there are many things to do so going multiple times is fine with us. We also like the Caribbean but want to go to islands we've not been to many times, which is getting more difficult with Princess as few 7-day cruises are offered during times we're available to go.

 

Don't know if that helped at all--probably didn't. But maybe it helps you to think about places you want to see, if there are 'hassles' involved in the trip (i.e. long flights), timing of the particular cruises, etc. Personally, I don't think there are any "wrong" cruises to be on if timing, costs, etc. all work out!

[kirenne]

Don't know if that helped at all--probably didn't. But maybe it helps you to think about places you want to see, if there are 'hassles' involved in the trip (i.e. long flights), timing of the particular cruises, etc. Personally, I don't think there are any "wrong" cruises to be on if timing, costs, etc. all work out!

 

Thanks for your input! Appreciate hearing your opinion :)

[Traveler30]

Hello

I think one of the best cruises is the 14 day Panama canal, but on that cruise a balcony or mini suite is a must. It has a lot of history. The Caribbean is also nice. Everyone has a different opinion, it depends on what you are interested in seeing.....Happy cruising

[oskidunker]

Baltics or med

[ggprincess2004]

This question is so specific to individual situations: retired v. limited vacation time; into kicking back and relaxing v. go, go, go see it all, do it all; nature v. history v. geology v. culture; drive v. fly to cruise port; and lots of other things as well.

 

So here I go - with unlimited vacation time, we love sea days. The relaxation, the pampering, did I mention the relaxation? So we love the cruises from the west coast R/T to Hawaii. But, we had been to Hawaii before for land vacations, so we had been on each island for at least several days at a time before we started cruising, and the single day for each island was fine with us.

 

We really detest long flights. We are willing to endure the 5 or 6 hours to get to the west coast, and have bitten the bullet for Europe a few times. We will bite the 20 hour plus bullet for Japan.....but there are just some flights we don't want to endure.

 

 

Nature, scenery - Alaska. This to me is one of the perfect cruises unless you must have beach time. There is so much to do in each port, we love to do it b2b from Vancouver, to hit the ports twice.

 

History, scenery - Canada/New England especially the Quebec to Ft. Lauderdale cruise which gives you some sea days to relax as well. Starting in Quebec with a few days there before the cruise is great.

 

Baltic, Med - port intensive, long days in port doing as much as possible, seeing as much as possible, great trip but not the most relaxing cruise. The way to end it is with a crossing back to the US....sea days to catch up on your rest.

 

Caribbean - for the beach crowd, the total relaxation crowd, the water babies, the shoppers, and many times for us, stay on the ship and enjoy the nearly empty pools, etc. But there are great things to ashore in a lot of ports, we've done them pretty many times. Snorkel, sail, dive, explore, swim with dolphins or stingrays or sea turtles...for us there are great winter get aways, but we like to be on board for a minimum or two weeks, ideally longer, a lot longer.

 

 

Pacific coastals - not the top of my list, but we are combining one this coming spring with a Hawaii cruise and I know we will enjoy it. The weather can be cool along the coast, etc., there are interesting things to do in lots of the ports.

 

Panama Canal - always fascinating, always hot and humid and buggy, kind of meh on some of the ports associated with most of these cruises, but I love the canal.

 

Australia/South Pacific, still on our bucket list. I want a 30 or so day crossing from the west coast through Polynesia, to Sydney, a circumnavigation of Australia and a 30 day or so cruise back to the west coast....still waiting to find the perfect itinerary.

 

Japan and Asia - heading over next fall, cannot wait, it seems that it will be rather port intensive on those that concentrate on Japan, but we have some stretches of sea days as we head further south to Vietnam and Hong Kong.

 

So it has to do with what you are in the mood for, have the time for and how much energy you like to expend. Frankly, IMHO there is no such thing as a bad cruise (ok, there have been disasters but we haven't been on those ships) and so much of adventure is what you make of it.

 

Ships - um.....I would hesitate to sail the Island since they added the cabins and took out the aft lounge. Other than that, even the Dawn and Sea are still just fine with me. Recently we have tended to gravitate to the Grand and Caribbean, as they have window suites (as does the Golden) and have itineraries we enjoy.

 

Ports - again that is so individual. The Baltic and Med are fantastic for art, history, culture.........Alaska nature...Hawaii nature, geology, culture....they all have something to offer, and if a great beach means the world to you, there are certainly those as well.

 

We are asked time and again what our favorite cruise and/or port was. It is just about impossible to answer in terms of the ship or port or itinerary, it is more about the experiences, or the people with whom we cruised - yes, the best cruises, whether the Baltic, or Hawaii or Alaska, or the Panama Canal or the humble Caribbean have been all about the people with whom we have cruised.

[paul929207]

Australia - We did a 28 day circumnavigation.

Ireland/Scotland - British Isles cruise was 12 or 14 days as I recall

Hawaii - there are several cruises from the west coast (LA, SF, Vancouver & maybe San Diego) they are about 15 days. Another is the South Pacific cruise. 28 days. Visits 4 Hawaiian Islands, 2 Samoan and 3 in French Polynesia. 18 sea days which we loved. Went on this last October, going again this year and booked for next.

We have not been on a real cruise to Japan, just his a port or two. Nagasaki and Okinawa.

[capriccio]

 

Nature, scenery - Alaska. This to me is one of the perfect cruises unless you must have beach time. Add a cruise tour onto the cruise if you an afford it (both budget and time).

 

History, scenery - Canada/New England especially the Quebec to Ft. Lauderdale cruise which gives you some sea days to relax as well. Starting in Quebec with a few days there before the cruise is great. One of our favorite cruises!

 

Baltic, Med - port intensive, long days in port doing as much as possible, seeing as much as possible, great trip but not the most relaxing cruise. The way to end it is with a crossing back to the US....sea days to catch up on your rest. Haven't done the Med (lived in Italy and Greece so it isn't at the top of our list) but the Baltics is fantastic.

 

Caribbean - for the beach crowd, the total relaxation crowd, the water babies, the shoppers, and many times for us, stay on the ship and enjoy the nearly empty pools, etc. But there are great things to ashore in a lot of ports, we've done them pretty many times. Snorkel, sail, dive, explore, swim with dolphins or stingrays or sea turtles...for us there are great winter get aways, but we like to be on board for a minimum or two weeks, ideally longer, a lot longer.

 

Pacific coastals - not the top of my list, but we are combining one this coming spring with a Hawaii cruise and I know we will enjoy it. The weather can be cool along the coast, etc., there are interesting things to do in lots of the ports. We had a wonderful 7 day Los Angeles to Vancouver 'wine country' cruise a few years ago and highly recommend it.

 

Panama Canal - always fascinating, always hot and humid and buggy, kind of meh on some of the ports associated with most of these cruises, but I love the canal. The weather wasn't bad in early January when we went in 2008 or 2009.

 

 

 

A great list of cruises. I would add, especially since the OP mentioned Ireland and Scotland, the British Isles cruise. It is another very port intensive cruise. Go in August and don't miss the Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

[Cruisin' Chick]

This question is so specific to individual situations: retired v. limited vacation time; into kicking back and relaxing v. go, go, go see it all, do it all; nature v. history v. geology v. culture; drive v. fly to cruise port; and lots of other things as well.

 

So here I go - with unlimited vacation time, we love sea days. The relaxation, the pampering, did I mention the relaxation? So we love the cruises from the west coast R/T to Hawaii. But, we had been to Hawaii before for land vacations, so we had been on each island for at least several days at a time before we started cruising, and the single day for each island was fine with us.

 

My last three cruises were the RTs from LA to Hawaii on Princess, so obviously we love them. We are within driving distance of San Pedro, where the port of LA is, so no flying necessary. There's plenty to do if you want on the sea days. Some years ago one of the cruise directors put together a cultural program with Elua, a musical duo, that is a fun way to spend time coming and going to the islands.

 

We also have been to Hawaii on land trips, so spending time in Hawaii during a cruise is a bonus.

 

...

 

Nature, scenery - Alaska. This to me is one of the perfect cruises unless you must have beach time. There is so much to do in each port, we love to do it b2b from Vancouver, to hit the ports twice.

 

Alaska is another excellent itinerary, and a cruise is probably the easiest way to go. Princess offers RTs from Seattle and San Francisco (sometimes even from Vancouver) and one-ways, south bound and north bound. If you're on an one-way, you can tack on a land tour, usually to the interior area of Fairbanks and Mount Denali. Princess and HAL are known as the leaders in the Alaskan market.

 

 

 

On our dream list (I refuse to call it a bucket list) are cruises to Australia/New Zealand, South America, the Baltics...but for us, those all involve long flights, and I'm not great with flying.

[Woobstr112G]

My vote is for the Western Med - Trans Atlantic itinerary. We've done four and loved every one of them. I would do them every year if I could but DW has other itineraries in mind for me to spend my hard earned money on.....:):):)

 

Bob

Edited June 7, 2016 by Woobstr112G

[Woobstr112G]

On our dream list (I refuse to call it a bucket list) are cruises to Australia/New Zealand' date=' South America, the Baltics...but for us, those all involve long flights, and I'm not great with flying.[/quote']

 

We did one on the Diamond in 2009 and absolutely loved it. We had a return planned on X for 2018 but had to cancel due to my retirement date. When you finally book one, you will have a fantastic time.....:):):)

 

Bob

Edited June 7, 2016 by Woobstr112G

[OzKiwiJJ]

For an Australia / New Zealand cruise you would need to combine a Round Australia cruise of 29-30 nights, with a round NZ cruise of 13-14 nights.

 

Most of the NZ cruises visit:

Auckland

Tauranga (for Rotorua)

Wellington

Akaroa

Dunedin

and do scenic cruising through Doubtful Sound, Dusky Sound and Milford Sound which is a major highlight of an NZ cruise.

 

They may also visit one of these:

Bay of Islands (best in my opinion)

Gisborne

Napier

Picton

 

As an example the March 17 Round Australia cruise covers:

Sydney (New South Wales)

Hobart (Tasmania)

Burnie (Tasmania)

Melbourne (Victoria)

Adelaide (South Australia)

Albany (Western Australia)

Margaret River (Western Australia)

Fremantle near Perth (Western Australia)

Broome (Western Australia)

Kimberley Coast scenic cruising (Western Australia)

Darwin (Northern Territories)

Yorkeys Knob near Cairns (Queensland)

Alotau (Papua New Guinea) - they always visit one non-Austalian port

Brisbane

and end up back in Sydney.

 

Hope this helps.

[GUT2407]

Time is the issue.

 

Did a wonderful circumnavigation of Australia and New Zealand last year.

 

Tassie a few times.

[moki'smommy]

We are somewhere around 35 cruises with a total of over 365 nights, most not on Princess. Others have mentioned many good points.

 

If you live within driving distance of a good port, those cruises just went up on your list (we don't). You'll save the time, money, and hassle of flying. Next, WHY do you want to cruise? Are you interested in relaxing sea days, seeing a part of the world that you haven't been able to explore before, or a combination of the two?

 

You are not going to get to "know" an area from a cruise ship. You are going to get a taste of it. In my 20s, I did the "backpack thru Europe" bit. I spent a week in Florence, a week in Rome, etc. and felt that I saw most of what I wanted to in those locations. From a ship you'd have one day--not nearly enough to really get the flavor of a place or interact with locals...but you do get to see some of the sights.

 

On the other hand, a ship can give you a taste of a lot of locations without the transportation, packing and unpacking, etc. hassles.

 

For a first timer, I'd look at a one week cruise. If you don't like it, that's not too long. BUT I remember a friend who said that if you don't like cruising, you haven't found the right line for you yet!

 

Favorite cruises--long Med cruises (we did 12 night B2B with different ports...total 24 nights), Alaska, Panama Canal, Trans-Atlantic. This year we are doing B2B in Japan. If we have a long flight involved, we want a long cruise and possibly some land time before or after.

Edited June 7, 2016 by moki'smommy

[kirenne]

For a first timer' date=' I'd look at a one week cruise. If you don't like it, that's not too long. BUT I remember a friend who said that if you don't like cruising, you haven't found the right line for you yet![/quote']

 

Thanks for the advice! I'm doing a Voyage of the Glaciers cruise this Saturday on the Star, very excited. I know I'm getting a little ahead of myself thinking about future cruises, but I can't help myself!

[IECalCruiser]

No one has mentioned South America. We have done Caribbean, Panama Canal, Mexico, Pacific Coastals, Alaska, Hawaii, Baltic and Med cruises as well as South America. The Baltic and Med cruises are so port intensive that they can be tiring, but fascinating. The South America cruise had some fascinating ports, very good wine, penguins and 'rounding Cape Horn with enough sea days to still be relaxing.

[capriccio]

No one has mentioned South America. We have done Caribbean, Panama Canal, Mexico, Pacific Coastals, Alaska, Hawaii, Baltic and Med cruises as well as South America. The Baltic and Med cruises are so port intensive that they can be tiring, but fascinating. The South America cruise had some fascinating ports, very good wine, penguins and 'rounding Cape Horn with enough sea days to still be relaxing.

 

We are doing LA to Rio next winter but I didn't want to get ahead of myself and recommend something I hadn't yet experienced :D. I loved your description of the itinerary - that's just what we are hoping for!

 

Many years ago - when there were still 3 small Princess ships - we took a two week cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Manaus, Brazil (up the Amazon) on the second version of the Royal Princess. That was a fantastic cruise and I was sorry to see Princess cancel that itinerary.