Choose the cruise by the ship?

[JolleyRoger]

I know, through all the reviews I've read, people can become very attached to certain ships.

 

Do people go back and redo the same cruise because of the ship? Is this common at all?

 

Just curious...

[Genessa]

we haven't done identical ships and itineraries yet, but have gone back on the same ship/class several times.

 

We cruised Western on the "old" Sea, then took a 17 day Panama Canal/Mexican Riviera on the Dawn, then took a 10 day southern Carribean on the Dawn, and are booked on another 10 day, easternish on the Sun.

 

We also took an Alaskan cruise on the Coral, but her class would not be our first pick for any future cruises. We greatly prefer the Sun class.

[Charliesmom]

We, too, prefer the Sun class ships. We have done the same itinerary many times on different ships.

 

To us, it is not the itinerary, but the ship which attracts us. We like to be warm in the winter, but do not care much whether we go ashore or not.

 

Roberta

[cunarder]

We pick the itinerary we want and then see what ships are available on Cunard, Princess, and Royal Caribbean. We don't necessarily stay with one line. It's nice to experience all types of different ships and lines.

 

We have sailed on the same ship before but the itinerary was different. The only ships that we would sail because of the ship would be the QE2 and QM2.

 

Ed

[chelledun]

pick the cruise by the ship. I am a big port person, and try to pick a port-intensive itinerary. If I found an itinerary I like enough, I would sail on any line, any ship. I'm just excited that the itineraries I picked for my next couple adventures happen to be on very nice-looking ships! We do hope to try all the different lines in the future.

[spongerob]

We've been on Grand Princess so often, yet none of those cruises were selected because of the ship. Grand Princess has been based in Galveston for at least some of the time during the past three years, so that has resulted in us taking some cruises that we might not have considered otherwise. That's why we're going again in a couple months.

 

Normally we choose by itinerary and length of cruise, and eve the day of departure comes into play so we can fit a cruise into vacation schedules.

[willysgrandma]

We usually choose a cruise by itinerary, then ship.

[WCAB]

Do not pick the ship first but there are a few ships that I will avoid and choose another ship over these.

 

Carol

[Druke I]

We look at itinerary first, then ship & price.

[gooch47]

Itinerary first. But we have ruled out cruises because we didn't like the ship. Usually because it was too small. We really wanted to take a specific Mediterranean one next year but didn't want to go on the new Royal Princess. (Is that right ... Royal ... doesn't sound right.)

[Pam in CA]

We look at itinerary first, then ship & price.

We do too. If the same or similar itinerary is available on two different ships, we'll take the smaller ship regardless of price. If the itinerary is done only once a year, we'll look at the ship and if we don't want that ship, we'll look at other cruiselines.

[Tom O.]

My first consideration would have to be price. Then I consider itinerary, and cruise Line about equal in importance. Then it is class of ship.

I don't really give any consideration for a particular ship within its class.

[barbarah33]

When cruising the Caribbean I will pick by cruise line and ship first and ports second. (When I cruise other destinations like Australia or Europe the itinerary is the most important thing as I have not visited over there nearly as much.) I have done my fair share of cruising and hence been to most of the Caribbean islands and done what I want to on them. That being said the ship becomes more important to me. Yes, I have sailed on the same ship on the same itinerary more than once. I prefer a smaller ship or a brand new ship and will pick those first.

[Spikesgirl]

I'm going to buck the norm here and say that if we have an option between a small and larger ship, we will pick the smaller one always. We are also repeating our Tahiti cruise because we enjoyed the ship so much - yeah, okay, Tahiti was pretty incredible too, but we like the Tahitian so much that we booked a cruise on the Pacific because she was of the same class and yes, we loved that cruise as well.

 

However, that being said and done, we usually look at the itinerary first and then pick out the ship. We will always go with the smallest one available though.

 

Charlie

[JolleyRoger]

We also took an Alaskan cruise on the Coral, but her class would not be our first pick for any future cruises. We greatly prefer the Sun class.

 

We're taking our first ever cruise. The ship is the Coral to the Panama Canal.

 

Why do you prefer the Sun class ships? Did you not like the Coral because of size?

[karen2cruz]

JR- I wouldnt worry about the Coral. It's a tad bigger than the Sea Princess or the Sun but not as big as the Grand Class. I think you'll have a wonderful cruise!!

 

You can go to Cruisestateroom.com and compare ships

[jff50]

We're taking our first ever cruise. The ship is the Coral to the Panama Canal.

 

Why do you prefer the Sun class ships? Did you not like the Coral because of size?

Personally I think you are picking a great itinerary and a great ship. I like the Coral and Island best of all the Princess ships. It has many of the features of the newer/larger ships, but is in between the Sun and the Grand Class ships.

 

I wouldn't base my decision on two people that say they favor the Sun Class. The Coral is the largest size ship that will go through the Panama Canal. It is larger than the Sun Class by a pretty good margin, with the same number of passengers. My recollection of the comments/surveys I've seen on these boards is that the Coral/Island come out at least as well as the Sun Class. I've been on each of the Sun Class ships at least once, and prefer the Coral/Island.

[bdjam]

I know, through all the reviews I've read, people can become very attached to certain ships.

 

Do people go back and redo the same cruise because of the ship? Is this common at all?

 

Just curious...

On a cruise, the ship is the main destination (if I wasn't interested in the ship, but only interested in the ports, I'd not cruise but would pick a land vacation) so I always pick the ship first. I don’t really care where it goes, just as long as I’m on board.

[mortysmama]

Bdjam....

That's exactly how I feel. The ship IS my destination...the ports are just a little extra bonus....except of course if I were visiting some exotic places like China.

I cruise because of the convenience of the room being close at all times and the fact that you only unpack and repack once!

 

We've taken some wonderful land vacations, my favorite being Disneyworld. But when you need to rest the room is not close at hand. When you think about dinner, there are so many decisions to make...what kind of food...where...when...how to get there...etc. I much prefer an uncomplicated vacation and cruising give me just that. Just mho.

 

Happy cruising!

[JolleyRoger]

Personally I think you are picking a great itinerary and a great ship. I like the Coral and Island best of all the Princess ships. It has many of the features of the newer/larger ships, but is in between the Sun and the Grand Class ships.

 

One of the thousands of bits of info I have been gathering since we decided to take a cruise... is a ships weight to passenger number. The Coral has a very high number of 45. Meaning more elbow room... less crowding.

 

The iten. does look great. Seems like nice mixture of island and rainforest.

 

I wouldn't base my decision on two people that say they favor the Sun Class. The Coral is the largest size ship that will go through the Panama Canal. It is larger than the Sun Class by a pretty good margin, with the same number of passengers. My recollection of the comments/surveys I've seen on these boards is that the Coral/Island come out at least as well as the Sun Class. I've been on each of the Sun Class ships at least once, and prefer the Coral/Island.

 

I for sure wouldn't base a decision on just a couple of opinions... but it's great to hear/read all types of opinions. Good or bad.

 

I agree with you that the Coral does get rave reviews here and on other boards. Genessa was the first I had read who suggested they might not do the ship again.

 

I can't wait to experience life on a cruise ship... even if it is for only ten days.

[SaylorGirl]

We always pick the ports and then the ship, I have enjoyed certain ships and/or cruise lines over another but I never cruise just to be on a particular ship. In fact the ports are so important to us that we even cruised on "Easy cruise one" this summer in the Med and had a fabulous time, and that is not a ship that one would just pick! But being one that does like smaller ships it worked perfect for us.

[runner1909]

We choose first by port, then itinerary.

[caviargal]

When cruising the Caribbean I will pick by cruise line and ship first and ports second. (When I cruise other destinations like Australia or Europe the itinerary is the most important thing as I have not visited over there nearly as much.) I have done my fair share of cruising and hence been to most of the Caribbean islands and done what I want to on them. That being said the ship becomes more important to me. Yes, I have sailed on the same ship on the same itinerary more than once. I prefer a smaller ship or a brand new ship and will pick those first.

.

Ditto to your post.

 

For exotic itineraries, ports are important but I would never choose certain ships/lines even if they were the only ones offering my dream itinerary. The ship has to compliment the itinerary.

[Genessa]

We're taking our first ever cruise. The ship is the Coral to the Panama Canal.

 

Why do you prefer the Sun class ships? Did you not like the Coral because of size?

 

it wasn't the size, it was the design. We love balconies and we stayed in a balcony on the Caribe deck of the Coral. These balconies are large and half covered, but we missed the privacy. It's not that we're doing anything except relaxing or drinking coffee, but the balconies on the Sun class are "cut out" of the hull. So, instead of "protruding" they are inset and very private feeling. For us, it means that we sit out there and look out at the ocean and can imagine that we are on our own private boat. If we stand at the railing and look down, on the Sun class, you see the water. On the Caribe deck of the Coral, we looked down and saw other people's balconies. Not that we were peeping Toms, or felt that other people were, it's just that the feeling of being alone on the sea wasn't there.

 

We had an absolutely fantastic cruise anyway...I don't want you to think that we didn't...but we definitely prefer the Sun class.

 

And, while we are on the Sun class, we miss the Lido deck pizza on the Coral...best pizza we've had at sea ;). And we miss the covered pool, too.

 

each ship has good things about it and what one person is looking for isn't necessarily what the other one is looking for.

 

Enjoy the Coral.

The Panama Canal was fascinating and despite our having a balcony, dh spent all his time out on one of the upper decks and I spent the day on Promenade Deck, under the deep shade.

[geoherb]

We used to say the ship was our destination. But it's really the sea that's our destination on Caribbean cruises. We don't really care which ship or ports. (We've narrowed down our cruise lines of choice to Princess, Celebrity, and HAL. I wouldn't take another cruise on Carnival or NCL.) If we stop at somewhere we've been and don't care to visit again, we just stay on the ship and enjoy the peace and quiet.

 

Our last couple of cruises have been on older, smaller ships (Celebrity's Century and HAL's Maasdam). Itinerary matters more when we've been on cruises away from the Caribbean--Alaska and New England/Canada.