Cruise Newbie question... How many nights is too much?

[Sha-Sha221]

Hi,

 

My friend and I are talking about doing a cruise on Celebrity, but also looking at one on Disney. My friend is a cruise veteran and I've never cruised before. We are looking at an 11 night Boston, Maine and Canada cruise out of Boston. I live maybe 30 minutes from the cruise port. My friend would have to fly in from North Carolina. We intend to stay at a hotel close to where I live because it's less expensive than a Boston hotel the night before and then  take a car service into the cruise port. The Disney cruise is a 6 night cruise with only 3 ports and sails out of New York City. It would be easier for me to cruise out of Boston than NYC and we'd get to go to PEI and Quebec.  My friend is interested in the latter and says she's never been there and I would love to see Charlottetown. As a first time cruiser do you think an 11 night cruise would be too much? My friend and I get along extremely well and will be doing different things on the cruise and my friend will be doing excursions. To keep costs down I will be walking around the port just looking and shopping. I have knee issues so any excursion that would involve a lot of walking would not be good for me. I need help in deciding if 11 nights is too much or a good amount to get my cruise juices flowing. I would love to here what veteran cruisers think. I also would love to hear from anyone who did a longer cruise their first cruise. I'm a very outgoing person so I wouldn't be afraid to talk to crew member or a cruiser if I get the chance. I'm also not adverse to eating alone if my friend is on an excursion or doing an activity when I want to eat. So please I need help with this. Any help would be appreciated. TIA.  🛳️

 

Shauna from Massachusetts 🙂

[anniedave]

We did our first cruise -11 nights- 2 years ago and absolutely loved it. We are back for our 2nd one next month. Hope you have a great time whatever you choose 

[the penguins]

1 hour ago, Sha-Sha221 said:

Hi,

 

My friend and I are talking about doing a cruise on Celebrity, but also looking at one on Disney. My friend is a cruise veteran and I've never cruised before. We are looking at an 11 night Boston, Maine and Canada cruise out of Boston. I live maybe 30 minutes from the cruise port. My friend would have to fly in from North Carolina. We intend to stay at a hotel close to where I live because it's less expensive than a Boston hotel the night before and then  take a car service into the cruise port. The Disney cruise is a 6 night cruise with only 3 ports and sails out of New York City. It would be easier for me to cruise out of Boston than NYC and we'd get to go to PEI and Quebec.  My friend is interested in the latter and says she's never been there and I would love to see Charlottetown. As a first time cruiser do you think an 11 night cruise would be too much? My friend and I get along extremely well and will be doing different things on the cruise and my friend will be doing excursions. To keep costs down I will be walking around the port just looking and shopping. I have knee issues so any excursion that would involve a lot of walking would not be good for me. I need help in deciding if 11 nights is too much or a good amount to get my cruise juices flowing. I would love to here what veteran cruisers think. I also would love to hear from anyone who did a longer cruise their first cruise. I'm a very outgoing person so I wouldn't be afraid to talk to crew member or a cruiser if I get the chance. I'm also not adverse to eating alone if my friend is on an excursion or doing an activity when I want to eat. So please I need help with this. Any help would be appreciated. TIA.  🛳️

 

Shauna from Massachusetts 🙂

Go for the longer cruise, you need time to adjust to the delights of cruising. If you would like a copy of our hints and tips for first time cruisers please email me. It answers many of the questions that regular cruisers take for granted. Email is: geoffanita at hotmail dot com. Geoff and the boss (Anita).

[chemmo]

We find cruises less than seven nights too short. You have just unpacked and got into a cruise routine when you are packing up and getting off. We generally try to book cruises of at least 10 nights and have enjoyed a Trans Pacific that was much longer, had lots of sea days and we still found there were things we hadn’t done, bars we hadn’t visited…

 

Re your bad knees and excursions. If you look at the descriptions on Celebrity excursions they clearly explain how much walking, how many steps…each trip involves. We have found the descriptions reliable. I do have reduced mobility and still invariably find a trip of some sort I can enjoy. Whilst you may be happy in most ports having a short walk don’t dismiss excursions without investigating.

 

Each evening a ‘Today’ paper will appear in your room. It lists all activities and events for the next day. Worth perusing each evening to see activities you may want to try the next day.

 

Hope you have a fantastic time.

[TeeRick]

7 hours ago, Sha-Sha221 said:

Hi,

 

My friend and I are talking about doing a cruise on Celebrity, but also looking at one on Disney. My friend is a cruise veteran and I've never cruised before. We are looking at an 11 night Boston, Maine and Canada cruise out of Boston. I live maybe 30 minutes from the cruise port. My friend would have to fly in from North Carolina. We intend to stay at a hotel close to where I live because it's less expensive than a Boston hotel the night before and then  take a car service into the cruise port. The Disney cruise is a 6 night cruise with only 3 ports and sails out of New York City. It would be easier for me to cruise out of Boston than NYC and we'd get to go to PEI and Quebec.  My friend is interested in the latter and says she's never been there and I would love to see Charlottetown. As a first time cruiser do you think an 11 night cruise would be too much? My friend and I get along extremely well and will be doing different things on the cruise and my friend will be doing excursions. To keep costs down I will be walking around the port just looking and shopping. I have knee issues so any excursion that would involve a lot of walking would not be good for me. I need help in deciding if 11 nights is too much or a good amount to get my cruise juices flowing. I would love to here what veteran cruisers think. I also would love to hear from anyone who did a longer cruise their first cruise. I'm a very outgoing person so I wouldn't be afraid to talk to crew member or a cruiser if I get the chance. I'm also not adverse to eating alone if my friend is on an excursion or doing an activity when I want to eat. So please I need help with this. Any help would be appreciated. TIA.  🛳️

 

Shauna from Massachusetts 🙂

Shauna this is so hard to answer or advise without really knowing you and what is important to you.  If you have never cruised before, what are your concerns?  Do you get seasick?  Retired or working?  Kids? Are you worried about what you are leaving behind for that amount of time?  There are a lot of factors in the length of the perfect cruise for all of us.  What is your number one concern related to length of the cruise?  The 7 day cruise is standard but mostly because of ship schedules.  Many people look for longer especially if they are retired.  There are some short 2 or 3 night trial cruises if you want to get your feet wet before a longer cruise too.

[Jim_Iain]

Most people start out with short cruises of 7 days or less.   Once they take a 11-14 day or a B2B they have a hard time going back to a "short" cruise.  

 

Near the half way point of your 11 night cruise you will be saying can you imagine if we had to get off tomorrow.

[Hawkstar33]

Quite simply.  Cruising is awesome no matter how many days you choose.  We started with 7 day, but after a few, we went to 10-14.  And now 16.  This March we do a 9 night Equinox, get off that ship, and get on Edge which will be in port,  and go for 7 days with Capt Kate.  There is a bit of walking whether on the ship, or on land. On the ship, you just walk around looking at everything. So much to see on many decks of the ship.  When you get off the ship in port,  there is often a small shuttle cart to assist those that have walking issues.  Sometimes it could be a pretty good walk just to get to the cruise port shopping area.. Excursions like others have said, normally explain what physical activity will be necessary to participate on that particular trip.  If you and your friend are not always together, that's ok too.  Plenty to do.  Relaxing and enjoying are most important. You will meet many nice folks if you are outgoing..   Have fun with whatever you decide

[markeb]

Kind of hard to give you much useful input. You're on an enthusiast board for cruise addicts! If you asked on a Porsche board whether to get an S or a GTS, the answer is always going to be GTS, because they're enthusiasts, and that's the enthusiast car. Ditto here. A longer cruise is going to be "better" from an enthusiast perspective, but that may or may not be true for you.

 

Unless they live in Florida near a cruise port, most people on this board will have started with a 7 or 8 day cruise, because most cruises out of Florida are 7 or 8 days. There are some short cruises, and locals (mostly) do those. 11 days on that itinerary probably isn't as "long" as 7 days in the Caribbean; there's a lot to see (don't know the complete itinerary of either cruise, but going to Quebec and up the Saint Lawrence Seaway is a great first cruise!) and it will change every day. If you were doing a long cruise in the Caribbean for a first cruise, I'd probably caution you, but NE and Canada is a different experience.

 

Not knowing either of you, it's also hard to judge whether you're more likely to be at each other's throats the last five days, or if that would have happened by the sixth day anyway! 🙂

 

Like everyone else says, have fun either way!

[Arizona Wildcat]

Find your notation of Disney as favorite cruiseline interesting .  If you are 50+ you would find the passengers on Celebrity .uch closer to your age.  Celebrity is relaxed and adult oriented.   Also the cruise out of Boston has both wonderful and easy ports, but will have few to no children aboard. 

As to the length . . . a 7 day cruise is actually 5.  Day 1 you unpack and start to settle in.  Day 7 you disembark early am.  11 days allows you to relax and enjoy both ports and sea days

[sanger727]

I'll be the voice of dissention. 11 nights is a lot of cruising if you end up not loving it and don't plan on doing many shore excursions. Most people start with 7 nights or less. It really comes down to how you like to spend your vacation. Do you like to do a lot of doing or more relaxing. We enjoy cruises as a vacation for a number of reason. But alot of the "activities" are not our cup of tea (like trivia, bingo, gambling, art auctions, sales pitches); and on some cruises those can end up being alot of the daytime activities. Our favorite thing is the shore excursions. 11 nights would be too long for me if I didn't plan on doing shore excursions. Also, we get a little bit antsy on board to get off. 2 reasons, first is I get seasick, I can control it with meds but still feel better when we get off in port. second, I am very active, I love to take long walks and get outdoors; While you can walk a bit getting from place to place on a ship, it's a bit like comparing mall walking to trail walking. It's just not the same.

Edited January 27, 2022 by sanger727

[pl281]

@Sha-Sha221

Without looking at the length for the moment. A Disney Cruise is going to be VERY different from a Celebrity cruise in terms of the onboard experience. 

 

Disney is going to be much more family oriented and be a bit more of an immersive experience like going to the parks - where as Celebrity will have some families, but the on board experience is more akin to being in luxury resort.

 

I would also say that a New England / Canada cruise is typically more about the destination than the ship - meaning most people are going to explore / sight see - and while there are some things near the port - often times the sights are 15-20 minutes + away. 

 

You mentioned that you have knee issues - regardless of which you decide you will want to be careful with cabin selection as you could end up doing more walking just around the ship vs what you would do in port.

 

My last comment is price - whenever I've looked at Disney - I have found that there is a premium since you are paying for the "Disney" of it all - You may find that you can actually get more for your $$ on Celebrity (and perhaps go on an excursion) then you would on the shorter trip with Disney

[davekathy]

10 hours ago, Sha-Sha221 said:

We are looking at an 11 night Boston, Maine and Canada cruise out of Boston.

What month and year? 

[cruise kitty]

1 hour ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

Find your notation of Disney as favorite cruiseline interesting .  If you are 50+ you would find the passengers on Celebrity .uch closer to your age.  Celebrity is relaxed and adult oriented.   Also the cruise out of Boston has both wonderful and easy ports, but will have few to no children aboard. 

As to the length . . . a 7 day cruise is actually 5.  Day 1 you unpack and start to settle in.  Day 7 you disembark early am.  11 days allows you to relax and enjoy both ports and sea days

Not trying to be argumentative, but you actually disembark on day 8...  which is also day 1 for next group

 

To the OP:  the 11 day itinerary looks much more interesting to me...  but of course that's subjective 

[TeaBag]

I am in the camp where 7 days is way too short.  You will be surprised by how fast the cruise will be over.  I would go with the 11 days.  Canada/New England is a wonderful itinerary. Do join the roll call for your cruise when you select it.  Often there are people organizing private excursions and those are much cheaper than the ship sponsored ones.

I predict you will love cruising and hopefully this will be the first of many.

Our first was a 14 day London (Southampton) to Athens and we have never looked back.

Please let us know what you decide.

[Honolulu Blue]

I'll post my personal experiences and opinions, because the OP's question seems to be answered about as well as it can be without intimate knowledge.

 

My first cruise was 7 days.  My longest cruise so far has been 14 days.  My shortest has been 5 days - too short, IMHO, with all the travel I have to do to and from the port.  The sweet spot for me is actually around 10 or 11 days - long enough to enjoy myself, but not so long that I start to miss the comforts of home.  YMMV, of course.

[finny2]

If you have limited mobility due to your knee problems, you should check out accessible excursions  https://www.celebritycruises.com/special-needs/accessible-shore-excursions

you can also email shorexaccess@celebrity.com for help finding excursions you can handle. I have mobility issues myself, but I can usually find an excursion that I can do and enjoy.

[Lastdance]

I am sure your friend is a wealth of information about cruising, but you are doing a great job with your homework.  For me, I would never do another 7 day cruise unless it was a b2b, making it 14 days.  Cruising has a lot to offer, but 6 days is very short IMHO.  I have never experienced a bad cruise; both the ship and the ports are very important to me, but sometimes relaxing takes precedence over sightseeing.  It takes time just to experience all of the things one can do onboard, not to mention getting ready and the anticipation.  Both of you need to be happy with whatever choice you make, so with your newly acquired background in cruising, the choice should be something you will enjoy.  You can always do the other cruise, at another point in time.  Make sure you return and share your decision.  You will have a great time on either cruise because it is your first!

Edited January 27, 2022 by Lastdance

[Turtles06]

15 hours ago, Sha-Sha221 said:

We are looking at an 11 night Boston, Maine and Canada cruise out of Boston.

 

I think pretty much everything has been said above about cruise length.  I just wanted to give you a link to my extensive review (with photos) of the New England/Canada cruise we did on the Celebrity Summit in September 2019.  Back then, Celebrity was leaving out of Bayonne for those cruises, so ours was 14 nights (much better than 11 for us!).   You might want to give that review a look as it might help you get a "feel" for a cruise like that.  It was a wonderful cruise; I'd be happy to do it again (but I wish the current Celebrity itinerary were longer 🙂 ).   I can't imagine doing a cruise as short as six nights, but I also can't speak for anyone else, and especially for folks doing their first cruise.

 

 

Edited January 27, 2022 by Turtles06

[Denny01]

One thing I’ll mention is we did the NYC to Quebec City and back, and I think Quebec City was a true experience not to be missed. I tell friends if they want to experience ‘France’, save a few bucks on airlines and a lot more on hotels and go to Quebec! I love France, but Quebec City was fantastic, especially overnight.

 

And the 11N Celebrity itinerary is full of ports of call, so few at sea days that some say would make cruising less desirable. 

 

with that said, I’d also mention that Disney is not an inexpensive Line in comparison to Celebrity. I didn’t go check pricing, but I have a feeling the 6N Disney is close to the pricing of the 11N Celebrity, obviously depending on types of SRs, so that is something to think about. 

 

Den

[Ken the cruiser]

OK, something that has not been touched on. Your cabin selection. This is key. If at all possible if your budget can afford it, book at least a veranda, preferably an aft-facing one. Their balconies are bigger and the views are awesome, especially when leaving a port! But, if you think there would be too much walking involved to get to an elevator, pick a balcony where there will be shade in the afternoon most of the cruise, probably on the starboard (right) side if you're cruising to Canada.  

[kwokpot]

First thought is why Disney? If you have no particular interest in Disney there's no point in paying the Disney premium. The Celebrity itinerary is vastly better than the Disney one. 

[Denny01]

To answer the general question instead of the specific choice the OP has, I tried to think of “how many nights would be too much”. Kind of fun to think about while I sit here, even in Florida (the Panhandle) with temps at 28deg (yeah I know…..). I’m not into trying one of the ‘World Cruises’ of months and months. Something that I think would overwhelm me, and kind of make so many fantastic ports numbing. I’d split them up and go with one section and then come home and try another ‘section’. 

 

Yup, family, friends, local commitments. And of course anything That long would have to wait until the cat croaks!! 

 

So how long?? Done the TA’s of 12-14N’s and loved it and didn’t find myself getting tired of it. Did a 7N stay in Cornwall UK on our own, and then a 12N TA out of Southampton and loved it, so I think that may be what I’d look to, about 21N as a limit…….for me.

 

Sorry to kind of steal the thread, but thought the general title got me thinking. And thanks to the OP for getting me to dream away. 

 

Den

[RICCruisers]

I will preface my comment admitting that I have not read the entire post or all of the responses. 
 

Reading the poster’s headline only, my answer is - There Is No Such Thing As Too Many Nights! 
 

 

[Covepointcruiser]

The number of days you will enjoy will depend on how well you get along with your friend.   I have been on longer cruises with my spouse and it was fine.   Sharing a stateroom and a bathroom with a friend could get trying after a number of days.

[LB_NJ]

Go really short for your first cruise.

 

If you love cruising, you can go again.  If you hate cruising 3 days would be too long, you will dread every minute.  I know people who went on a cruise and will NEVER go again.

 

Remember these boards really only include the people who love cruising, so you are getting biased answers.

 

Also, not sure how you will walk around the ports if you have knee problems.