Cruising without Extensive Planning?

[Nebr.cruiser]

I could do it in the Caribbean, since we've cruised there so much; probably not in the more exotic, far-flung destinations.  Just getting flights and hotels can take a lot of planning sometimes.

[Northumberland]

As we are 2000 miles away from the nearest port, we've never cruised without planning ahead. We had planned on arranging a 2-3 month rental in Florida this winter in order to take advantage of last minute cruises, but Covid changed all that.

[getting older slowly]

After reading the comments

 

Planning seams to be related too. :-

 

Distance from start of cruise    ( ie flights to the other side of world or travel to the port )

Commitments    ( looking after family, pets, gardens,   or going to work )

 

Also the style of cruise..... meaning... it is to see things and places   or to relax

 

The other thing is finding the Right cruise at the desired price...

 

Finally some people  love to plan everything ( extensive )....

and others go with flow  and plan to get on the ship ( minimal )..

 

Don

 

 

 

 

[Markanddonna]

Like others have said, Europe and places like Australia and New Zealand: lots of planning. The Caribbean: not so much.

 

When taking a very special trip, I've learned you don't want to leave the planning to the last minute or even the ship's excursions.  On my last Easter Med. cruise, a group of Cruise Critics and I planned some sensational private excursions.  Word got out like lightning around the ship, and I had strangers leaving phone messages and notes on the cabin door to see if we had any openings.  Sorry, we didn't.  We typically got to see MORE, had a small group of 8-12 at each port, and paid a lot less than the ship's excursions.  

 

I just don't get people who don't do any planning until they get onboard. Even the ship's excursions are online before the cruise and are sometimes sold out.

[navybankerteacher]

1 hour ago, Markanddonna said:

...

 

I just don't get people who don't do any planning until they get onboard. Even the ship's excursions are online before the cruise and are sometimes sold out.

Same here - it seems that some people have tunnel vision, and think only about getting on a ship and ignore many related facets.  The most absurd strikes me as people who will fly to Italy for a cruise - planning to arrive the morning of embarkation  day and then board a flight home immediately after getting off the ship.

[iancal]

Does it really depend on why someone has chosen to cruise?  When we first started cruising in the Caribbean we were surprised to meet people who seldom got off the ship.  They had many cruises in the area and  simply wanted to relax.  Indeed, they preferred to be on board when everyone else was ashore.   Most especially those from the cold, snowy north.

 

Twenty five years later I can understand that.

Edited December 14, 2020 by iancal

[Smokeyham]

5 hours ago, Markanddonna said:

I just don't get people who don't do any planning until they get onboard. Even the ship's excursions are online before the cruise and are sometimes sold out.

I would agree with you for new-to-me locations, but I can see not doing any planning if you are on a cruise where you don't plan to take any ship's excursions and just plan to walk around ashore.   

[Markanddonna]

28 minutes ago, Smokeyham said:

I would agree with you for new-to-me locations, but I can see not doing any planning if you are on a cruise where you don't plan to take any ship's excursions and just plan to walk around ashore.   

Totally agree with that in places like the Caribbean that all morph sort of into one sandy beach with Spanish architecture. In Europe, you need to do a little research to find out if the port is worth a big excursion, or you are going to just walk around ashore.  I've certainly done that in Europe!

 

[Hlitner]

What a fun topic (gets the mind off of COVID).  DW and I have been on more then 100 cruises (ranging from 7 days to over 60 days) all over the world.  A majority of our bookings have been planned at least 6 months in advance and often accompanied with extended pre/post cruise independent land trips.

 

But sometimes (perhaps 20 of our cruises) we will book something at the last minute (within the final payment period) and once time we booked a long cruise only 6 days in advance.   When that happens I am usually a very busy guy arranging last minute air, hotels, rental cars, etc.  We also look at the new ports and try to determine what we want to do and how to do it (we seldom take tours/excursioons.

 

I can say that those last minute cruises have been some of our best trips!  But since we are very independent travelers they are also quite a challenge.  We have boarded cruise ships for multi week-month cruises with little idea of what we will do at ports (which can be anywhere in the world) but it always seems to work out.  In ports we know we sometimes have no clue as to what we will do until after we walk off the ship.  So, for example, one day we were docked in Naples and thought, "lets go to the island of Procida where we had never been.  But we got into a fun conversation with some new friends at breakfast and by the time we walked off the ship we missed the fast ferry to Procida.  So I noticed that there was soon a ferry to Ischia (another island) and quickly bought tickets.  We soon found ourselves on Ischia without any plans and it turned out to be a fantastic day :).

 

We do this crazy stuff not just on cruises.  We once grabbed a terrific last minute airfare deal to Paris and decided we would stay a month.  But we had no plans, no reservations.  I did book our first 2 nights before we left home but for the next month we would simply look at the European weather reports and head in the direction of good weather (we had a rental car).  We eventually ended up in the Swiss Alps...which was funny because when we left home we had not even thought about going to the Alps..but that is where the weather was good :).  

 

When I look back on a lifetime of extensive cruising and land travel I still think the most fun has been when we did little advance planning.  Next year we are planning a 6 week trip to Japan (including a 28 day cruise) but will likely not make many plans prior to departure.  When in Japan we will likely get a JR Rail Pass and just go to what sounds good at the time :).  Sometimes we might just ask a hotel desk clerk for suggestions and head off in that direction (this often works quite well).  On cruises we tend to make friends with some of the senior crew and they will often give us suggestions where to go at future ports.  Our first visit (over 30 years ago) to St Paul de Vence was prompted by a French singer on a cruise who told us it was a nice place to spend a Sunday (it is now a favorite place of ours).  

 

One advantage of NOT taking excursions/tours is that since we are out and about on our own we often meet locals.  We are always prompting the locals to tell us their favorite places, restaurants, etc.  It is all so much fun and I guess that is why DW and I consider travel a passion and lifelong hobby.  We have the same adventurous attitude when it comes to cruise lines and ships. V We now have our 16th cruise line booked (for next Dec) and have been on approximately 65 ships (we really do not keep records so that is approximate),  Our 16th cruise line will be Oceania since so many tell us we should finally give them a try and we booked a 18 day to see if we like the line.  We have yet to try Viking Ocean (we have been on their River boats) so that will likely be in our future since so many like that line.  Constant variety makes it all so much fun and every trip is a true adventure.

 

Hank

 

Hank

 

 

 

 

[Smokeyham]

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

What a fun topic (gets the mind off of COVID).  DW and I have been on more then 100 cruises (ranging from 7 days to over 60 days) all over the world...........

 

Hank

Hank,

Thanks for sharing your perspective and your wonderful journeys.   Great to hear that you have had such good times while being spontaneous.

[iancal]

We have had some wonderful last minute cruises and have been doing extended spontaneous land travels for the past eight years.  So many great, unexpected experiences.  This depends very much I think on how much time one has.  You can do an awful lot of research on a days notice.

 

A day before leaving Phu Quok in Thailand we decided to take a chance and reserve a home stay in the Mekong Delta.  Turned out to be a wonderful experiece.  Did something similar in Saigon.  The day before leaving I shopped the airlines and found a $25 fare to DaLat.  We had not thought about going but we went.  So glad that we did. Had a wonderful time-especially meeting a elderly gentleman in a remote village and speaking to him in my poor French.  He was thrilled to be speaking the language that he learned so long ago but had not spoken to anyone for years.

 

Or just walking around, doing nothing on Naxos and then being invited into the home of a Greek couple because it started to rain.  Had a wonderful conversation about both our life experiences.

 

On the other side of the coin we flew to Cebu and Palawan in the Philippines from Singapore.  We had planned to tour for 3 weeks.  Fortunately we do not reservations far  far advance.  After a few days we decided it was not for us and flew back to Krabi, Thailand and then to Ko Lanta.  Had a great time....it could have turned our a little differently if we had planned that three week trip down to the day.hour.

 

We did plan our South American cruise-including private excursions.  But we left our two weeks pre cruise and four weeks post cruise very open and very flexible.  Found ourselves taking a bus from David, Panama to San Jose, Costa Rica.  An experience in in itself that we had not planned or even envisaged prior to leaving home.

Edited December 16, 2020 by iancal

[ontheweb]

And then there is the serendipity factor, things happen. We, probably DW, had planned what we would see in Santorini. Then we got totally lost. We stumbled upon a museum in a cave about early life on the island. We went with the tour guide. There was one more couple doing the tour so the guide gave his presentation in English for us and Greek for the other couple. When the tour was finished, we showed him our map from HAL and asked where we were. He laughed, and said we were totally off the map. After unsuccessfully trying to get us a taxi back towards the mapped part, he showed us a shortcut.

 

When I think back to that experience, I am always reminded of a quotation from Rick Steves, "Be a traveler, not a tourist".

[Zach1213]

Not a cruise, but I have done a trip where I dropped myself in Frankfurt and spent two weeks picking a new place to go every other day. For example, from Frankfurt I went to the train station and picked a destination. Spent a day or two there, went back to the station, picked another destination. So on and so forth. So I basically ended up in towns or cities without any research. Sometimes tiny towns, sometimes large cities, but in all cases I had no idea what city I would sleep in when I woke up that morning. 

 

Planning is great, but it's also fun just to wing it. Sometimes, that's when you see the best and most unexpected things. 

[cb at sea]

Some folks just want to get away, so they "play it by ear"....we like the planning, to a degree!  I like to KNOW what's what!  But, we don't schedule every minute or even, every port!

[clo]

6 hours ago, ontheweb said:

"Be a traveler, not a tourist".

I'd not seen that before. Thanks. We're really 'off the beaten track' kinda travelers.

[firefly333]

On 12/12/2020 at 12:04 PM, Smokeyham said:

Hello,

 

I realize that most of us are on CruiseCritic because we enjoying planning for, and dreaming about, cruises. 

 

I'm wondering there is a time when you (or perhaps friends) have ever taken a cruise with little to no planning, beyond choosing your cabin?   If that is the case, how did you handle port calls and on board activities?  Did you find that you enjoyed the cruise as much as when you did plan extensively?

 

Lol extensive planning, me? Never

 

I did one I booked the day of the cruise and almost missed the ship, that's cutting it too close, I'm about 5 hours away and took a while to get confirmed so I could leave for the ship.

 

What's to plan , you can buy excursions onboard easily or upscale dining. I dont drink enough to get the pkg. I have my suitcase half packed now with the necessary things except for clothes, sundries. And a stack of paper backs. I keep getting cancelled, so keep it out lol. Sooner or later cruises will resume. I usually book last minute but I guess I'm bored so I've booked 9 cruises, last two are maybes and I can cancel without penalty. But usually  I decide to cruise, book and go. I hate to wait, (lol like now). Next up end of april 2021, which I keep being told is iffy. I booked a nice balcony in case I'm quarantined...that's my idea of planning ahead. Heck if they keep us on the ship for quarantine extra days of loyalty pts. Bring it on. Any ports, I've seen them all and done most of the excursions.

[dreamercruise]

The more planning (research about the place and top things to do), the more I enjoy and remember my trip.

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, clo said:

I'd not seen that before. Thanks. We're really 'off the beaten track' kinda travelers.

I'm not positive, but I believe I heard him say that on his tv show which are basically videos that he also sells. They play early in the morning ((I forget which week day) here on PBS channel 13 from NY City.

[George C]

Since we have done over 50 Caribbean cruises we plan nothing, if we are doing Europe we will plan most ports. 

[getting older slowly]

13 hours ago, ontheweb said:

I am always reminded of a quotation from Rick Steves, "Be a traveler, not a tourist".

 

Came across a term similar used in outback Australia 20+ years ago

To classify visitors in to three groups travelers, tourists and terrorists

 

example of terrorists.. people who drive into small outback town (pop 50)... drive around taking photo from the car and continued on down the road. without get out of the car   ( we actually saw this )

 

Tourists...... same as about but stops and get out of car.... may go into general store

 

Back to Planning

 

There are some you Plan everything and those who wing it

and not just holidays...

 

Remember as a child would go for sunday drives....  where dad would say what it down that road ?

and that is where we went..... sometime to a dead end....lol

 

The only real time planning come in it, if one is visiting somewhere and there is something one really wants to do, there..... and plan to arrived at a suitable time and day  to do whatever....

 

Don

 

 

 

[Hlitner]

I should have mentioned a few other points in my earlier post.  Why do we even do last minute cruises?  Most of the time it is because we see a terrific last minute (inside the final payment period) deal.  We are on the e-mail lists of multiple discount cruise agencies (some we have used for over 25 years) who sometimes get access to amazing last minute rates.  Cruise lines do not like empty berths (it is opportunity lost revenue) and look for ways to sell unsold cabins/berths in a quiet way so as to not upset those already booked (at higher prices).  When we see a really good deal and it is something that looks like fun we will often book within minutes.  Of course this means you need to have the ability to be flexible and go away on short notice.  

 

A last minute cruise booking often means booking a guarantee (which often gets us very good cabins) and having an open mind regarding itineraries, length of cruise, cabin category, etc.  About 3 years ago while DW was in the kitchen cooking dinner I spotted a good HAL deal on a cruise from Copenhagen.  I looked at the air options and Air Canada had a terrific last minute business class deal through the HAL's own cruise air online site.  I yelled up to DW (still working in the kitchen), "do you want to go on a cruise next week" and DW quickly yelled back, "or course."  I booked it within a minute.  When DW came to the table for dinner she said, "where are we going?"  That sounds crazy but it is really a lot of fun if you can pull it off.   Bottom line is that if you do stumble on a great deal you often need to make a decision and book within minutes of that deal might be gone.

 

Hank

 

 

 

 

[ontheweb]

8 hours ago, Hlitner said:

I should have mentioned a few other points in my earlier post.  Why do we even do last minute cruises?  Most of the time it is because we see a terrific last minute (inside the final payment period) deal.  We are on the e-mail lists of multiple discount cruise agencies (some we have used for over 25 years) who sometimes get access to amazing last minute rates.  Cruise lines do not like empty berths (it is opportunity lost revenue) and look for ways to sell unsold cabins/berths in a quiet way so as to not upset those already booked (at higher prices).  When we see a really good deal and it is something that looks like fun we will often book within minutes.  Of course this means you need to have the ability to be flexible and go away on short notice.  

 

A last minute cruise booking often means booking a guarantee (which often gets us very good cabins) and having an open mind regarding itineraries, length of cruise, cabin category, etc.  About 3 years ago while DW was in the kitchen cooking dinner I spotted a good HAL deal on a cruise from Copenhagen.  I looked at the air options and Air Canada had a terrific last minute business class deal through the HAL's own cruise air online site.  I yelled up to DW (still working in the kitchen), "do you want to go on a cruise next week" and DW quickly yelled back, "or course."  I booked it within a minute.  When DW came to the table for dinner she said, "where are we going?"  That sounds crazy but it is really a lot of fun if you can pull it off.   Bottom line is that if you do stumble on a great deal you often need to make a decision and book within minutes of that deal might be gone.

 

Hank

 

 

 

 

You have to realize that not many people are in a position to do things like that.

[Hlitner]

13 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

You have to realize that not many people are in a position to do things like that.

Yes, I am aware but simply responding to the OP's topic.  We have met quite a few other folks who take similar and even more daring/adventurous trips.  With one exception they are all relatively healthy retirees that have both the time and the means.  We have also met one fascinating younger couple (early 40s) who always take these kind of last minute trips.  In their case they are both self-employed and can maintain most of their business anywhere in the world as long as they Internet access.  

 

For retirees with the time and means the biggest problem we keep hearing are dogs.  When our dog was still with us (she lived until 17) it certainly crimped our style.  Once the dog was gone we decided not to get another pet so that we would have the easy ability to just get up and go.  Pets and travel do not go well together for most folks.  For some folks travel becomes a passion and a very important part of their lives.  That can mean revamping one's home life to better enable the travel passion and often sacrificing certain things to allow for more travel.  When I was a much younger working guy I actually turned down some excellent job opportunities because it would have interfered with our travel passion.  Towards the end of my career when I was somewhat more valuable I would tell prospective bosses that if they wanted me to work for them they had to allow me to take an entire month off during the summer months (at the time DW was a teacher).   A big problem in America is that many folks with decent jobs can never get away for more then a few days at a time.  If one wants to truly do a lot of travel they have to keep that in mind when choosing careers and specific jobs.

 

We have had some amusing discussions about this topic.  At one time we had the best mailman on earth (Jack) who would hold our mail for months if we asked and even tossed out most of our 3rd and 4th class stuff (with our blessing) because he needed more storage space near his cubby area at the post office.  One day he stopped by and told us he was retiring the following week while he was still pretty young (mid 50s).  The reason was that he wanted to be like us and another couple on his route who spent a lot of time traveling :).  The last I heard he was traveling over 9 months a year (we have never been away more then 7 months).

 

Hank

 

Hank

[Markanddonna]

I love this topic and it shows how different we all are. I have to inject that travel experiences give us the ability to be more spontaneous in our travel.  I'd be perfectly okay with just a week or two notice for travel to cities and regions that are somewhat familiar. This especially applies to the Caribbean which is just to get away from winter cold.

 

My desire to plan is that I am not as well traveled as some of you (but much more than others.) I look at each major trip as perhaps my last one, and I don't want to leave it to chance without planning. I live my life in a somewhat structured manner and that leaves me flexibility to be spontaneous at times. 

 

Traveling on a limited budget requires more planning as I don't just book at the first hotel highly ranked by my fellow cruisers. I think of the little hotel we stayed at in Copenhagen right on the canal, a seaman's hostel turned into a very reasonably priced hotel. It tends to get booked up almost a year ahead of time. If I had unlimited funds, this wouldn't be a problem and I could have stayed at the pricier places on the canal, but my ability to travel well is limited by a budget. In Sydney, we found a delightful hotel in Potts Point, just a $6 taxi drive or 25 min walk to the port. Most cruisers would insist upon staying near the Rocks but this suited us just fine at 1/3 the cost. 

 

Just my humble opinion.

[richstowe]

9 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Why do we even do last minute cruises? 

How do you get to your cruises Hank ? Your profile says New Cumberland,PA which ain't Fl . Having to fly from the North , I usually pay as much for air as for the cruise . Therefore I always think about the total cost of a cruise vacation , not just the cruise deal . What about you ?