Do you cruise 'just' for itineraries or are sea days important?

[BarbinMich]

17 hours ago, villauk said:

 

 

I think age does have a lot to do with it. You’ve been married about the same number of years I’ve been alive, so I probably will have a different perspective by the time I’m of a similar age. We fly to virtually all of our cruises, don’t live anywhere near a port, so it can be shorter to fly to Europe (mainland) and embark on a ship than driving to our nearest port. We also take land trips in Europe as it’s much closer for us and we still travel as a family.

 

We say our teens are very lucky as they’ve been on all our sailings and seen much of the world - more than we had seen at their age. On a side note, our honeymoon was to your west coast and island-hopping in Hawaii (many moons ago but not quite 51 😁).

Thanks for sharing!  And, yes, your teens are lucky to be seeing the world via cruising.  Our kids, from their younger ages to their teens were with us on all the US and Canada trips we did before they left for college.  One of their earliest trips was our first one to Disney World when they were 4 and 7 (or maybe younger).  We also took them to Disneyland and Seaworld in CA at a young age.  Unfortunately, our daughter got scared in the pirate boat ride at the former so maybe she was too young for that <g>.

[Ombud]

I started wondering when I was on the Royal in October in Cabo. I got off but only for an hour ..... really preferred the less crowded ship

[NMTraveller]

Itineraries are most important for us.  I would not do a TA or other cruise with a bunch of sea days.

[Coffeeluvr05]

Gosh, that is a tough one. Itinerary is important, but I have to have sea days. I want to feel like I went on a vacation before I have to go back to work, not need recovery from my vacation. 

[GUT2407]

Didn’t know I could choose an itinerary and say “But leave off the sea days” thought it came as a parcel.

[GUT2407]

1 hour ago, NMTraveller said:

Itineraries are most important for us.  I would not do a TA or other cruise with a bunch of sea days.

But a TA is an itinerary.

[NMTraveller]

8 hours ago, GUT2407 said:

But a TA is an itinerary.

It is an itinerary with a bunch of sea days and not many ports.  We cruise for the destinations not for the sea days.

[Jnsplace1]

I'm still an explorer, so for me it's in this order

 

*itinerary (balanced with some sea days for relaxing)

*Days of cruising (Not retired, time is limited)

*Cruise line

*Ship

 

 

 

[BarbinMich]

3 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

It is an itinerary with a bunch of sea days and not many ports.  We cruise for the destinations not for the sea days.

True, but if it's just destinations one wants, one has to take long flights both ways from the US.  After retirement, we had the time to sail one way and fly the other way.  And as I probably said before, we like sea days.  Princess and HAL always have 1-3 lecturers on different topics and we always enjoyed those.  Plus I like to play bingo and the slots so lots of daytime for that while my DH watches TV, snoozes, etc.  Then we spend the evening together at various forms of entertainment (shows, games, etc).

[FritzG]

We usually look for the most sea days with an itinerary that appeals to us.  This spring we are taking the LA-Hawaii cruise as a B2B.  We'll be on board for a full month, and we'll have 20 sea days although not more than 5 in a row.  We've taken this cruise several times already, and we love the sea days.  I'll repost when we finish the B2B to let you know how 2 sea day intensive cruise in a row work out.  

 

[HappyCruiserettu]

13 hours ago, BarbinMich said:

True, but if it's just destinations one wants, one has to take long flights both ways from the US.  After retirement, we had the time to sail one way and fly the other way.  And as I probably said before, we like sea days.  Princess and HAL always have 1-3 lecturers on different topics and we always enjoyed those.  Plus I like to play bingo and the slots so lots of daytime for that while my DH watches TV, snoozes, etc.  Then we spend the evening together at various forms of entertainment (shows, games, etc).

We love the sea days for relaxing. We are well-seasoned seniors, so port intensive cruises are wearing.

 

[Rick&Jeannie]

We lean more towards the itineraries and the ships but do usually enjoy the sea days.  Not sure we would like a really long cruise with many continuous sea days.

[Reader0108598]

I love sea days could care less about  the Islands ..been there done that! Hubby hates sea days is all about the islands !

[mcrcruiser]

We have 87 cruises to date &  5  more cruises booked  .We tend to look for longer cruises ;as we are retired  .The itinerary is important & so are sea days  ,for  gym ,pool & on board entertainment & games  

 Living in the San Diego area most of our  latest cruises are from close by ports to Hawaii ,Mexico ,coastal California . We just booked a 14 night  Alaska cruise from San Pedro (near LA) on Sun Princess for Aug 2021 with no  flying  .Although we have 5 prior Alaska cruises under our belts ,we simply love the awesome landscape & animals of Alaska  

 We also like the Trans Atlantic  longer cruises & booked a  April 19 ,2021  on Celebrity Reflection ,a 16 night cruise to Amsterdam ,Netherlands  & then onto one week in London 

 Prior to the above cruises we booked the 7 night Mexican Riviera cruise this April 18 ,2020 on  Royal Princess & the B2B  April 23 ,2020  Caostal California .

  Our San Diego port is where we booked the Holland America 18 night cruise to Hawaii round trip back to San Diego on HAL's newer Pinnacle  class ship Koningsdam .This cruise does 2 days in Honolulu  & 2 days in Maui /Lahania

 We love all 3 lines ;but ,use each for different itineraries 

 

 

[Nebr.cruiser]

We like a good mix of both and really do enjoy sea days.  Last year our Caribbean cruise had six port days in a row; it was just too much.  

 

We really enjoy cruises like Transatlantics where there are many sea days in a row.

 

Sometimes a port days can be very low key too, especially if we have been there before.  So far we have always gotten off the ship, but maybe just for a couple of hours.

[susancruzs]

Being older, retired, I like both.  I do cruise for itinerary, don't go to the Caribbean, haven't in years.  This year I'm doing the Baltic itinerary again (much to see), followed by the transatlantic.  

 

Baltic is port intensive but great ports, adding TA on for relaxing time after busy itinerary.   I've been a transatlantic fan since my first cruises, 80's.  I took 2 Caribbean, for 3rd flew to England for a TA, loved it.  I don't care for 7 day cruises.  I was lucky working, 5 weeks vacation, 15 holidays, I could do what I wanted for vacation.  I realize many people don't have that situation.

[Ombud]

I am doing a Hong Kong to Australia cruise this year & my 1st TA in 2021. Both have extended stints of sea days but are on Royal Class ships (Majestic & Enchanted). I don't think I'll be bored 

[BarbinMich]

I neglected to mention in my original post that in addition to the 10 TAs we've done to Europe, we've also done 3 Europe-only cruises over the years.  Actually our first such cruise was our first in Europe:  on the "old" Regal Princess and we went from Civitavecchia to Copenhagen in 2003--wonderful introduction to the ports of Europe (Cannes, Barcelona, Lisbon, Vigo, Le Havre, Dover UK, Antwerp, and Amsterdam).  Then in 2008 we did a "Greek Isles" cruise out of Civitavecchia on Celebrity's Galaxy, visiting Mykonos, Rhodes, Santorini, Istanbul (overnight), Ephesus, Athens, and Naples.  Finally, in 2014 on Celebrity's Eclipse out of Southampton we visited Gibraltar, Villefranche, Civitavecchia (we just stayed in town as we'd already been to Rome several times), Livorno (also stayed in town as we'd already been to Florence), Genoa, Malaga and Lisbon.  Hated the long flights each way on these trips, but well worth it!

[curlybelle2]

Since we are from Michigan we cruise in the winter to the Caribbean. We usually choose the time of year, ports we are interested in and cost.

We only cruise once a year but now that we are retired, we can bump that up to twice a year!  😁

[Hlitner]

We generally choose our cruises for itineraries (with some notable exceptions) but actually enjoy our sea days more then many ports.  To us, our most perfect cruise was a 62 day voyage that had 23 sea days :).  We loved most of the ports, but treasured those wonderful lazy sea days :).

 

A friend insists you can tell a real cruise lover by asking them how they feel about sea days.  Those that love sea days are true cruisers while those that simply love ports are ferry lovers.   Not sure I agree with that friend, but it is certainly fruit for thought.

 

One other thought.  We booked a 16 day Princess cruise (later this year) as a means of getting from the USA to Europe (where we are spending some land time post cruise).  Our main motivation for booking the voyage was that it was a great alternative to flying (Business Class) to Europe.  The fact that the ship has some decent ports (including Greenland) are fine, but did not motivate our booking decision.  We have been to all the ports 3 or more times.  So I guess we could make a case we booked that voyage for transportation and not for the sea days or port days :).

 

Hank

[SinbadThePorter]

I like a sea day. I like two sea days in a row rather less. Three sea days even less.

 

Once you go past three sea days that's it for me, I want to get off.