Do you tend to choose cruise based more on itinerary or ship.

[Heatherco]

We just booked a cruise for next February and wound up choosing based more on the itinerary for the first time (but also taking the ship into consideration as well).  In the past, it has primarily been based on price and ship...particularly when bringing all three kids with us.  This time it is just my husband and I so we opted for a longer itinerary on a ship we know we both like.

 

Booked the 9 night Explorer of the Seas for February 7.  Would love to try an Oasis class or larger, but this time we wanted more days with long times in ports to escape some of the winter weather here in Massachusetts.

 

Do you tend  to book based on ship or itinerary more?

[Clarea]

Price.

[Cruiser_1977]

Dates then Length then Itinerary then Price then Ship/Cruise Line

Edited June 26, 2019 by JennyB1977

[Thorben-Hendrik]

4 minutes ago, Heatherco said:

Do you tend  to book based on ship or itinerary more?

Timing!😇

[Cru1s1ng2009]

timing and close to my house honestly. With my kid finally getting out of school next year we are finally booking a long cruise to the southern Caribbean where we haven't gotten to go yet. 

[nelblu]

Evenly split, ship and price.

[WNcruiser]

Depends on the destination. If it’s Caribbean the ship and price is most important as we have been to most of the islands. 

 

If it’s a new part of the world then definitely ports, price and then ship. We can be flexible on dates. We are no longer loyal to anyone, regardless of our status. 

[BigHouseFootball]

Since no one is playing by the rules you set out, I will. 

 

When we first started cruising it was more about the ship. Especially our first cruise. But, as we have cruised and tried different ships and cruise lengths I am finding that I cruise for the ports. 

 

So now I am fully in the itinerary camp. My favorite aspect of cruising is that I get to cross off several different countries in one trip. And bonus, my hotel comes with me. 

 

 

[karena1]

For our short 3 night cruise, we are pretty much locked into Navigator.  But for 7 night cruises, we go for itin and ships - hence why we currently have 5 booked out of San Juan for Freedom - love the Southern Caribbean and never get tired of it.  We only do Caribbean so other than Freedom, we base it on price/itin both, so we have Symphony for this Dec and Oasis for next Dec.  The rest of our 7 nighters are on Freedom.  

 

The key for us is we always book our cruises a soon as the itins/dates come out. Every single on of my cruises have gone up, not down, and I have 20 booked through April 2021 right now.

Edited June 26, 2019 by karena1

[LEtue]

Itinerary, ship, price.....

[njkruzer]

Depends. Sometimes just want to get away other times the destination is paramount.  If more than one ship than will pick by ship.

[bogofman]

Probably influenced by where you live,

 

We are from the UK and choose if possible 14 night cruises with lots of different ports, 

Trying to go on a different itinarey each time.

 

I'd say we book itinarey,  ship, price, but that does not mean at any price.

[lovescats5]

We used to book by price.  Then thru a change set of circumstances we ended up in a Sky Loft on Oasis just after the genie came into existence and we booked on cabin.  After we sailed Oasis we booked Anthem, still Star Class so that did not change, but the ship was awesome and son and husband got hooked on iFly.  Now we book by ship if certain cabins are available.  Royal had to implement the Star Class level and it makes for a wonderful, stress free vacation.

[mugtech]

Book by itinerary as long as the ship is acceptable.  We will take an Oasis class ship cruise for the ship since all the itineraries are old, will be the exception.

[John&LaLa]

Departure port, ship, itinerary for the 7 day and shorter.

 

Itinerary and price for the longer ones

[sunsetme]

itinerary is very important, next comes the ship, then price

[loman]

Ship .... Oasis class  

We have tried other classes and find the big one suites us better .

That particular class tend to cost more , but that's o k with us .

 

[Ourusualbeach]

Price, ship then itinerary

[vickiw0318]

Definitely, itinerary.  I will go for ease occasionally - like sailing out of Galveston to the same old ports, but I love seeing new places.   My last trip (from Southampton) was to Germany, Norway and Belgium.  I am still sad that the trip I had booked for next summer to Spain, Morocco, Portugal and the Canary Islands was cancelled when the Indy was repositioned.

[Tree_skier]

1. Dates
2. Price
3. Ship
4. Itinerary

That is the order of priority for us. Price and ship could swap places depending on dates and itinerary.

[SelectSys]

I tend search for cruises on ships that are Radiance class and higher.  I also tend to search for cruise longer than 7 days.  After that it becomes a combination of factors as are listed above - price/day, duration, ports, etc.

 

[livylotte]

Itinerary. Always.

[HBE4]

13 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

1. Dates
2. Price
3. Ship
4. Itinerary

That is the order of priority for us. Price and ship could swap places depending on dates and itinerary.

 

Ditto for me.

[Anita Latte]

When we first started cruising...it was based completely on itinerary. Sailing around DS's academic year schedule, we would look for shorter cruises as we found that a 7-night cruise was rough during a one week school break. DS had a more "balanced" school year, so we had single weeks off in September, November, February and April. The 5 nights were the best fit.

 

In pursuit of that goal, we ended up sailing on Connie, then Carnival Fascination, then Enchantment.

 

Alaska was all itinerary based.

 

Now that DS is heading off to college in the fall...for the first cruise DH and I are taking on our own...and after we just moved down to Florida...I picked the class of ship first, wanting to take DH on Oasis class. I was able to take a TA with my parents on Allure while DH graciously stayed home with DS. I looked at all the Oasis class ships from Florida ports and then picked the best combination of itinerary and price...and that's how we ended up with a booking on Harmony.

 

Continuing to look...because I can...LOL...I started looking for an aft facing balcony. So again, ship based but specifically ships with aft facing balconies that were "normal" balcony type staterooms and less expensive. It was quite the search to find an aft facing balcony leaving from a port within driving distance on an itinerary that was interesting enough to warrant sailing. And that's how we ended up on a shorter Explorer cruise with two ports...Coco Cay and Labadee. Might need a drink package for that one...

[davekathy]

Itinerary, cruise line and price