Long Cruises - What’s Different?

[Waju]

2 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

I believe they should have walking groups or challenges on cruises

 

Some kind of reward/incentive for how many steps people do per day

 

People walk a bit as it  is but I think more could be made of this opportunity on board for all ages and all fitness levels

 

With health and wellness being so en vogue at the moment

 

 

 

I've just remembered Arora does a 'Trek the Deck' walk for their cancer charity on longer cruises.

[TigerB]

38 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

My wife jogs early

 

I go in the gym

 

Are those Spanish words? What's the translation?🤔

[Waju]

Another thing you could do is just sit and spend hours looking for dolphins and think of all us plebs sitting here in the cold winter months 😀

[Clodia]

This is all very helpful to me as a friend and I have just had our booking confirmed on the 2026 World Cruise. I'll be 70 in 2026 and if I don't do it then I never will.

I'm a gym person and usually a walker so will do at least 30 minutes of exercise every day. Normally on a longer cruise I have either breakfast OR lunch, not both, and the smaller dinner portions suit me better. We've asked for a table for 2 (confirmed) to avoid the sharing problem when we want a small meal. I often go for 2 starters and a light dessert.

Mind you, we will do drinks, but try not to have more than we do at home.

[Selbourne]

This was our thinking as well Clodia. We are younger, but my wife’s condition is such that we are unlikely to be able to do this in a few years time. We were just so lucky to get a cancelled accessible balcony cabin, as we couldn’t have gone without it. 
 

Booking a late saver we are having to take pot luck with dining, which isn’t ideal, but a small price to pay for the saving. We can live with second sitting or freedom and will consider sharing, as it would probably enhance the experience on a cruise like that. We wouldn’t like first sitting, but I’m hoping that as that’s usually the most popular choice they might allow us to change if we are allocated it. I suspect that there will be others who are allocated freedom or second sitting and would prefer first sitting. Well that’s my theory anyway 😂 

[zap99]

2 hours ago, Selbourne said:

This was our thinking as well Clodia. We are younger, but my wife’s condition is such that we are unlikely to be able to do this in a few years time. We were just so lucky to get a cancelled accessible balcony cabin, as we couldn’t have gone without it. 
 

Booking a late saver we are having to take pot luck with dining, which isn’t ideal, but a small price to pay for the saving. We can live with second sitting or freedom and will consider sharing, as it would probably enhance the experience on a cruise like that. We wouldn’t like first sitting, but I’m hoping that as that’s usually the most popular choice they might allow us to change if we are allocated it. I suspect that there will be others who are allocated freedom or second sitting and would prefer first sitting. Well that’s my theory anyway 😂 

When you are on your adventure, sailing around South America and experiencing exciting new destinations, I would bet that what time you eat will become less important. You seem a resourceful chap, so when in future years you look back, I doubt what time you and Mrs S ate will figure high in your memories

 Jealous?, Me....you bet.

Edited October 21, 2023 by zap99

[Selbourne]

12 minutes ago, zap99 said:

When you are on your adventure, sailing around South America and experiencing exciting new destinations, I would bet that what time you eat will become less important. You seem a resourceful chap, so when in future years you look back, I doubt what time you and Mrs S ate will figure high in your memories

 Jealous?, Me....you bet.

Our trip is purely focussed on the Caribbean, so as well as plenty of the islands we do Central America and a tiny bit of the top of South America, but not South America proper - I think that’s the following year (and may have been last year as well). Of the 28 ports we’ve only been to Miami and Key West before (but neither by sea) so everywhere else is new. 
 

Funnily enough we tend to eat at around 6.30pm at home, but the reason that we don’t like first sitting on a cruise is because we like to watch all the sail-aways from our balcony, then get ready for dinner (which takes my wife a while) and then have a pre-dinner drink. That’s why we tend to go for dinner at around 8.30pm, so either second sitting or freedom would work for us. Hopefully we will either be lucky and be allocated one of the two, or they will look kindly upon us!

[Megabear2]

6 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Our trip is purely focussed on the Caribbean, so as well as plenty of the islands we do Central America and a tiny bit of the top of South America, but not South America proper - I think that’s the following year (and may have been last year as well). Of the 28 ports we’ve only been to Miami and Key West before (but neither by sea) so everywhere else is new. 
 

Funnily enough we tend to eat at around 6.30pm at home, but the reason that we don’t like first sitting on a cruise is because we like to watch all the sail-aways from our balcony, then get ready for dinner (which takes my wife a while) and then have a pre-dinner drink. That’s why we tend to go for dinner at around 8.30pm, so either second sitting or freedom would work for us. Hopefully we will either be lucky and be allocated one of the two, or they will look kindly upon us!

The sailaways are pretty short for the Caribbean islands.  Very little to look at after about 10-15 minutes for the obvious reason they are mainly small.  You may find some days you get ready to eat much earlier than in Europe. 

[Selbourne]

56 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

The sailaways are pretty short for the Caribbean islands.  Very little to look at after about 10-15 minutes for the obvious reason they are mainly small.  You may find some days you get ready to eat much earlier than in Europe. 

That’s fine. Sad though I am, I like watching the pre departure comings and goings (including late arrivals 😂) and the stevedores doing their bit, as well as looking back on where we’ve been as we leave. All part of the adventure of cruising for me. 

[Megabear2]

5 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

That’s fine. Sad though I am, I like watching the pre departure comings and goings (including late arrivals 😂) and the stevedores doing their bit, as well as looking back on where we’ve been as we leave. All part of the adventure of cruising for me. 

Shame they took St Lucia off as the sailaway past the Pitons is lovely.  

[happy v]

26 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

That’s fine. Sad though I am, I like watching the pre departure comings and goings (including late arrivals 😂) and the stevedores doing their bit, as well as looking back on where we’ve been as we leave. All part of the adventure of cruising for me. 

It is usually quite exciting in the Caribbean as the Americans have no concept of time and they are always waiting for someone

 Once a couple turned up and everything was packed up and waiting for them. They stopped to take photos of themselves with the ship!

[Selbourne]

1 hour ago, Megabear2 said:

Shame they took St Lucia off as the sailaway past the Pitons is lovely.  

We are probably going to be the only people on the cruise who are relived that they did. As well as being a tender port (which means my wife wouldn’t have been able to get off), St Lucia is the only island in the Caribbean that we’ve previously been to. We spent an enjoyable week there around 30 years ago!

[terrierjohn]

1 minute ago, Selbourne said:

We are probably going to be the only people on the cruise who are relived that they did. As well as being a tender port (which means my wife wouldn’t have been able to get off), St Lucia is the only island in the Caribbean that we’ve previously been to. We spent an enjoyable week there around 30 years ago!

St Lucia isn't usually a tender port nowadays, there are 2 berths on either side of the large inlet, which can take up to 4 ships, size dependant. My guess is since Aurora is now on the small side of most cruise ships, she would probably be the one required to tender if the berths were all full.

[Selbourne]

20 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

St Lucia isn't usually a tender port nowadays, there are 2 berths on either side of the large inlet, which can take up to 4 ships, size dependant. My guess is since Aurora is now on the small side of most cruise ships, she would probably be the one required to tender if the berths were all full.

That must be the reason John. It was down as a confirmed tender port. Thankfully, out of 28 ports we have just 2 confirmed tender ports and 4 possibles, where fingers crossed we might get to berth in a few of them. That was another reason why this particular itinerary appealed. We were keen to go to Iceland at some stage but, other than Reykjavik, most other ports seem to be tenders. 

[P&O SUE]

16 hours ago, Waju said:

I've just remembered Arora does a 'Trek the Deck' walk for their cancer charity on longer cruises.

Ventura did one on a 7 night cruise I was on.

[P&O SUE]

This is all very exciting Selbourne, I will look forward to hearing all about it.

[terrierjohn]

I was just looking at the launch offer for the 2026 Aurora 75 nighter in yesterdays paper, their prices don't seem too bad compared with the current prices for your cruise Selbourne. Although I don't know if the quoted ones are select or saver.

[Selbourne]

4 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I was just looking at the launch offer for the 2026 Aurora 75 nighter in yesterdays paper, their prices don't seem too bad compared with the current prices for your cruise Selbourne. Although I don't know if the quoted ones are select or saver.

The (early) Saver fare for the 2026 cruise is currently £22,558 for 2 persons in a balcony cabin (£301 per night) versus the (late) saver fare that we paid for the 2024 cruise of £9,998 (£154 per night). The saver standard balcony cabins have now sold out (so that price lasted less than a week), but you can still get a Deluxe balcony cabin on a late saver for £15,998 (£246 per night). 
 

On a Select basis, the 2026 cruise is £24,478 on an introductory 10% discount offer, less £690 OBC = £23,788 (£317 per night) for a standard balcony cabin. The 2024 cruise is £20,558 less £1,190 OBC = £19.368 (£298 per night). 
 

Not sure I’d be rushing to book 2 years out unless it was a special occasion, I wanted a very specific cabin and I was prepared to pay the Select price. 

[Vampiress88]

Little bit jealous. We are only going Caribbean for 2 weeks 😫

[zap99]

13 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

The sailaways are pretty short for the Caribbean islands.  Very little to look at after about 10-15 minutes for the obvious reason they are mainly small.  You may find some days you get ready to eat much earlier than in Europe. 

If you use binoculars you can see the island receding for a bit longer.

[Clodia]

11 hours ago, Selbourne said:

That must be the reason John. It was down as a confirmed tender port. Thankfully, out of 28 ports we have just 2 confirmed tender ports and 4 possibles, where fingers crossed we might get to berth in a few of them. That was another reason why this particular itinerary appealed. We were keen to go to Iceland at some stage but, other than Reykjavik, most other ports seem to be tenders. 

Unfortunately you are right about Iceland. I went on a round Iceland trip last summer with Silversea, and despite being on the Silver Whisper (298 passengers) she had to tender almost everywhere except for Akureyri where being very small she got a berth; even Aurora wouldn't get in anywhere except Reykjavik.

Edited October 22, 2023 by Clodia
typo

[Selbourne]

29 minutes ago, Vampiress88 said:

Little bit jealous. We are only going Caribbean for 2 weeks 😫

In all honesty, if we were able to fly we would probably prefer that! As that’s not an option for us we had looked at the 24 and 35 nighters, but we are fairly unique in not enjoying long runs of sea days and they occupy a fairly high percentage of the days on those cruises. As whatever duration you choose you cannot avoid the long shlep there and back, and we will almost certainly only go there once, we decided to take the plunge, the two advantages being that we will see a lot more places and the out and back runs are much further apart! 

[Selbourne]

27 minutes ago, Clodia said:

Unfortunately you are right about Iceland. I went on a round Iceland trip last summer with Silversea, and despite being on the Silver Whisper (298 passengers) she had to tender almost everywhere except for Akureyri where being very small she got a berth; even Aurora wouldn't get in anywhere except Reykjavik.

Yes, I thought as much. We were booked on an Iceland cruise that was cancelled due to Covid and I had it in my head that we were berthing at 2 or 3 places, but every Iceland cruise that I’ve looked at since (P&O, Cunard and Saga) seem to be mostly tender ports. 
 

My wife is happy for me to go ashore and leave her on the ship, but when most of the ports are tender or possible tender I think that’s unfair on her. 
 

Thankfully there are only two definite tender ports on our 65 nighter and I’ve booked a tour for myself for one of those (Belize) as it’s a river cruise where you might see Alligators etc. I’ve also booked a tour in Colon, Panama (railroad to Panama City and visit to the Panama Canal centre) as that’s a yellow fever hotspot, and if my wife ends up with an exemption certificate it might be sensible for her to remain on board that day, which she’s happy to do. We do a partial transit of the Panama Canal the day after, so she will at least see some of it. 

Edited October 22, 2023 by Selbourne

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, Clodia said:

Unfortunately you are right about Iceland. I went on a round Iceland trip last summer with Silversea, and despite being on the Silver Whisper (298 passengers) she had to tender almost everywhere except for Akureyri where being very small she got a berth; even Aurora wouldn't get in anywhere except Reykjavik.

We berthed in Akureyri on both Celebrity Eclipse and Ventura.

[Spike11]

4 hours ago, Clodia said:

Unfortunately you are right about Iceland. I went on a round Iceland trip last summer with Silversea, and despite being on the Silver Whisper (298 passengers) she had to tender almost everywhere except for Akureyri where being very small she got a berth; even Aurora wouldn't get in anywhere except Reykjavik.

We docked on Aurora at Akureyri this summer (though another ship did tender). I understand that Isafjördur have recently extended their quay to allow more ships to dock rather than tender. There are no guarantees of course though - depends on who else is in on the day.