Land travel Before or After the cruise?

[navybankerteacher]

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

When the cruise is embarking/disembarking outside the US we like to do land travel both before and after.  In fact we often seek out itineraries that begin and end at different ports/countries do that we can take advantage of the land travel opportunity.  On some trips we will spend over a month on land before/after the cruise.

 

Hank

This approach makes sense - if you are going to fly both to and from, of course you should take advantage of the areas around both embarkation and debarkation ports. But because seeing places while on a cruise is so limited by short port calls, most of our travel is now land based - and the “cruising” part of it is largely limited to getting to or from the area we want to see.

[iancal]

We do both.  It is not unusual for us to have 3-6 weeks on one side or the other depending on what comes up.

 

We often buy inside the final payment window-sometimes when we are in the middle of a land trip.

 

 We have cruised before, during, and after land based travel. It is more a function of where we happen to be, where we are going, and whether we score any attractive cruise pricing on a preferred ship/itinerary.

Edited April 1, 2021 by iancal

[Hlitner]

1 minute ago, navybankerteacher said:

This approach makes sense - if you are going to fly both to and from, of course you should take advantage of the areas around both embarkation and debarkation ports. But because seeing places while on a cruise is so limited by short port calls, most of our travel is now land based - and the “cruising” part of it is largely limited to getting to or from the area we want to see.

We are of one mind on this issue :).  We have already cruised just about everywhere in the world that one an cruise with the exception of Antarctica.  While we love to cruise and especially enjoy the relaxing sea days, when we want to see and experience a place there is no way that cruises come close to what one can do on land.   Perhaps COVID will have done us a favor as it has already pushed us into thinking (and planning) numerous land trips.  I am convinced that land opportunities will open up long before cruises return to any degree of normalcy.  I also had to laugh at the new Celebrity cruises out of Southampton and Athens which are currently priced at a ridiculous range (for a mass market line).  DW and I can easily travel to those places and "live large" for less then the cost of a cruise.  And as DW constantly reminds me, the food/wine options on land are far superior to the best we get on any cruise line.  

 

I also agree with the last part of your post as we have always favored repositioning cruises that get us to and/or from Europe, Asia, NZ, or Australia where we can then spend a few weeks (or longer) doing our own thing on land.   But we are now in a situation where repo cruises are "iffy" at best.  Just jumping on a plane as soon as travel reopens in an area makes more sense then waiting around for a repo cruise that may or may not happen.

 

Hank

[iancal]

We treat cruises and AI's the same.  Not unusual for us to buy either close to departure on a land trip and during a land trip. 

 

Last winter trip prior to covid was Mexico for 8 weeks..  While traveling we picked up a last minute five day AI resort  stay in Playa, and another in PV. 

[clo]

14 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

Like dogs4fun, my best scenario is spending time in two different places pre- and post-cruise.

 

100% with you on that. And it's unlikely I'd book any cruise, or even land travel, if that weren't the case.

[iancal]

We used to book land travel around cruise.

 

Post retirement we book cruises around land travel.

[George C]

We almost always go before, only time we did both was on a New York City cruise since that combined our two favorite vacations nyc and cruising. 

[ilikeanswers]

All my cruises start overseas usually in places I have never visited so I tend to do land travel before and at the end. From Australia nearly everywhere is far to reach so if I'm making that effort I want to get as much out of my trip. It does baffle me that people say they are tired from their land trips😳. For me my work is draining and my travels are my recharge no matter the method. I never felt like I needed a rest from travelling 😂. 

[kaymoz]

On 3/31/2021 at 11:00 PM, Joebucks said:

Waking up and being within a handful of miles from the port is a stress-free and relaxing way to start that day.

We've booked pre-cruise lodging within walking distance of the port a few times.  Southampton for one.  What a thrilling way to begin any cruise!

[George C]

32 minutes ago, kaymoz said:

We've booked pre-cruise lodging within walking distance of the port a few times.  Southampton for one.  What a thrilling way to begin any cruise!

The best is when you can get a hotel with balcony and see the ship from balcony in the morning we do that in Miami.

[getting older slowly]

Land travel Before or After the cruise?

 

First question is the cruise to go cruising or to get somewhere, something included in a bigger holiday......

 

There does seem that some on CC,  simply cruise for being at sea on a ship, at the other end is those how cruise to bucket list, and out of the way places...

 

Both are good.... it is up to the person    before,after, or neither ?

 

Agreed travelling a long way for a cruise, train trip, or other, arrived at least the day before.

Also time restriction people have......

 

 

 

[sanger727]

We do land travel before. Simply because our land portion can then also include the pre-cruise arrival buffer. I think people say they are ready to head home after a cruise, because that is the end of their vacation. I've done a couple post cruise/pre flight home one night stops and hated them. I had just finished a great cruise, packed up all my stuff, and mentally prepared myself to head home, and headed to the airport - only to have another afternoon/evening to kill before a flight home in the morning. If I was heading out to begin an extra several days in a location I was excited to be in, I imagine I would feel differently. 

[LynnTTT]

We always travel before. In late September (fingers crossed) we'll fly to Paris and go to Normandy, then fly to Genoa and visit Cinque Terra then train to Bologna, then to Sorrento and then Rome to board a Transatlantic cruise arriving back in the USA in mid-November. We'll be really tired after all that travel and when sailing back to the US you gain back those hours and arrive refreshed .

[navybankerteacher]

5 hours ago, sanger727 said:

...

 

I  had just finished a great cruise, packed up all my stuff, and mentally prepared myself to head home, and headed to the airport - only to have another afternoon/evening to kill before a flight home in the morning. If I was heading out to begin an extra several days in a location I was excited to be in, I imagine I would feel differently. 

Sort of what we did after a T/A from Harwich to Miami.  We dropped off our large bags at UPS before driving down to Key West for a couple of days, then back to Miami for a night before boarding Amtrak's Silver Meteor to NY (we were determined not to have a flight at the end - usually we come home on QM2 from Southampton).

[cruisemom42]

4 hours ago, LynnTTT said:

We always travel before. In late September (fingers crossed) we'll fly to Paris and go to Normandy, then fly to Genoa and visit Cinque Terra then train to Bologna, then to Sorrento and then Rome to board a Transatlantic cruise arriving back in the USA in mid-November. We'll be really tired after all that travel and when sailing back to the US you gain back those hours and arrive refreshed .

 

That sounds like a lovely trip -- I hope you'll be able to do it!!  

 

I'm currently watching the situation and hoping that by fall a trip to Europe may be possible. Not sure about cruises yet...

 

[marco]

Regarding the OP's question, Yes, it depends...it depends on where the cruise is sailing from.  Usually, if it's a Caribbean cruise out of Fla, we fly in the day prior and  stay afterwards.    Europe, we stay both pre and post.  Regarding NYC and "the city".  Since Brooklyn is a borough, you're kind of already in "the city".  We're in Westchester and we all say "we're going into the city" and that means Manhattan.

[ldubs]

2 hours ago, marco said:

Regarding the OP's question, Yes, it depends...it depends on where the cruise is sailing from.  Usually, if it's a Caribbean cruise out of Fla, we fly in the day prior and  stay afterwards.    Europe, we stay both pre and post. 

 

I agree, it depends.   All things being equal, if I had to choose, I would opt to tack on days the end rather the beginning of a cruise.   In reality, flights, flight routings, embarkation port, disembark port, transportation options, etc, etc, etc, will all come into play.   

[iancal]

I would say that our most enjoyable cruise/land travel cruises were those taken in the middle of an extended land  trip and those taken at the end.

 

The one exception was a TA.  We discovered that TA’s were not for us.  Too many sea days for our liking.