Same. Half the fun of a trip is planning it. The idea of hopping from one place to the next and only spending a short amount of time in each place doesn’t hold any interest for me.
I can underdstand that if you only have a limited amount of time, and you don’t think you’ll ever come back(say a Mediterranean cruise)then maybe taking a cruise is the best way to see as much as you can.
My mother lovers cruises because she doesn’t have to worry about making any decisions. For example, when she visited us in the U.K. she mentioned how she has never travelled on her own. It was always a friend asking her to join them on this or that cruise, and that her coming to the U.K. from canada was a very frightening experience because she was alone. The day she was to leave my husband had to unexpectedly leave the country for work so he was unavailable to take her to the airport. Instead I went with her to London on the train the night before, and made sure she made it to the airport safely. Which was fine, obviously, but still it wasn’t like the directions were in a different language.
It all comes down to what a person likes, doesn’t it? My brother and one of my sisters have never cruised and have no desire to cruise. My other 2 sisters and I really enjoy it.
I like getting the little sample of different places - in fact, I enjoyed my stops in Iceland so much, my husband and I are hoping to drive the Ring Road there before we die. Had I not stopped there on a cruise, I’d have never considered such a trip.
And if it weren’t for her grandkids and great-grandkids, I’m pretty sure my mom would live on a cruise ship. She wants to do a round-the-world trek, but none of her friends are willing to be gone that long. The best she can manage is about 4 weeks, but she’s done a bunch of those. In fact, she’s doing a cruise to and down the Amazon in November. Go Mom!
Kind of an old thread, but, yeah, staying under $2500 for a couple on a 7-day cruise is not at all difficult. A cabin for two can be in the $1500-$2000 price range…maybe a bit more if you want a balcony on a higher deck. Being a member of the “frequent cruiser” club for a cruise line usually gets you a two-level upgrade or something similar. Leave from a decent location with good air service, fly in the morning you embark, and don’t drink too much. Last cruise my wife and I took cost almost exactly $3200 for EVERYTHING (airfare, transfers, tips, liquor, shore excursions, etc.)
I agree with you except this. If you fly in the morning you embark, then any hiccup in your air travel will cause you to miss your cruise. The conventional wisdom is to fly the day before. Leave enough time for something to go wrong.
I’ve never paid $10,000 for a cruise, and I’ve been on some pretty nice ones. There are plenty of reputable cruise discounters, and many of the lines send special offers to people on their mailing lists. Our very first cruise was a 2-for-1 with Olivia (women’s cruise company) round-trip from Athens to Cairo, Jerusalem, Haifa, Kusadasi (Ephesus), and Patmos.
Hearing what people like in vacation travel structure is interesting. However, it can devolve into “Buffets are best!” “No! A sit-down meal is best!” “No! I never eat out!” For myself, I enjoy both in-depth travel and taste-of travel, whether on a cruise or on land. In general, we get bored staying in one place for more than a couple of days because we like the comparisons and contrasts. We also identify places we want to return to for a deeper experience. However, you’d be surprised what you can do in one day on a cruise (or progressive land vacation). We often arrange birdwatching tours, and while we don’t get to sit on a beach and drink, neither of which attracts us, we do get to hear a great deal about, say, an island’s community, politics, educational system, health care system, and ecology in a pretty unvarnished way as we scout for birds at estuaries, hotels with water features, garbage tips, and bluffs. For example, we recently arranged a tour in Antigua (facilitated by the cruise line). A man picked us up in a van at the pier and drove us about 45 minutes while we conversed with him. He dropped us on a dirt road where a scruffy guy with a machete waited with a pickup truck. We sat on the bench seat in the back (i.e., clung to a board tied to the truck frame) and headed down another dirt road. Our guide, who had a bachelor’s in ornithology, took us birding in mixed preserve/agricultural land at Mt. Obama. We then returned to his home and toured his flower/agricultural gardens, and ate mangoes from his trees. We reversed our journey back to the pier, and went in search of lunch while birding along the port.
As another example, I lived in Switzerland for a year as a young child, but don’t remember it. We are now planning a train-based vacation for a couple of years from now that will include 4 days traveling through Switzerland, with an overnight in or near the community where I lived and a visit to my parents’ school.
The bumping of this thread as inspired me to search for our 8th cruise…I have some ideas…we’ve used the vacations-to-go site with great success (not an endorsement or advertisement, just a statement of our experience), so I’ll probably use that again…thinking Southern Caribbean this time, we’ve done the western and eastern a couple of times, Bermuda and the Bahamas…
FariyChatMom, my sister, her husband and my Mom did a Panama Canal cruise last year - they loved it…
I have no desire to take a cruise, except maybe for an Alaskan one someday, but I have a friend who does it with her spouses (don’t ask) because they enjoy it. She’s on disability, but she always waits until the very last minute and gets the cheapest air fare and seats.
Vacations to Go is very useful, their agents have always been professional and helpful, and they also have a partner site for river cruises.
Our next cruise (which we wouldn’t have taken, but a family member asked us to) is not very expensive. The one after that (for which we are saving for years) is more expensive (though under $10K), all-inclusive, small, and specialized.
That works, and it’s also surprising how many people spend what I spend on a cruise on beer, soda, video games, sports, movies, eating out, and Disney. One of my neighbors comments about how expensive cruises are and how they could never afford it, but they have a new car every other year, a pool, a truck, lots of shop equipment, and a passel of grandkids and dogs. They probably spend a lot more than we do (in general and for recreation), but everyone’s own needs seem more like necessities. I’m happy with a 10-year-old car and a cruise, and will never, ever go to any Disney. My neighbor finds this bizarre.
Absolutely. We flew from Oakland to Vancouver for an Alaskan cruise. We went early for excursions. Bad weather delayed the flight for hours. No problem for us - but the people who were leaving that evening were not looking too good.
Lots of hotels near cruise ports have shuttles, which makes life easier even before Lyft existed.
Yeah. We decided that a small taste of Rome and Athens was enough. But we definitely want to go back to Stockholm some day and stay for a while. Cruises to interesting ports are great ways of filtering possible destinations.
Nice to see this bumped. Since last I posted I took a ladyfriend - you know who you are if you’re reading this - on a 5 day cruise to the Bahamas where I got some of the best rum I’ve ever had. It’s not importable into the states, cuss the luck, so I’ll have to go back.
In October, I’ll be doing Tampa, Key West, Havana and Cozumel. I figure I better get to Cuba before things go south again. It’s someplace I’d like to see. Figuring out which tour to do will be difficult, though. Sadly, while you can tour around Havana in old cars they don’t let you drive them.
One time on a trip to Cuba (a long time ago) I wanted to bring back some of the rum they sell from the corner store. It’s not as strong as what you’d buy in a liquor store here, but it’s wonderfully smooth.
It was really cheap, but I had to bring my own bottle (they dispense it from a plastic tub with a spigot). I came back through Tijuana, but I didn’t declare it because there was no way they would believe it was from Mexico.
It can be, but given the number of stabilizers, bow design advances and the type of engines used, you hardly feel it on the newer and bigger ships. Plus, our doctor was more than willing to give my wife a script for a motion sickness med…I think Dramamine is an OTC drug anyway…
It only affected my wife once when we were on a smaller boat, most of the time, you barely can feel the boat moving…I think they cruise slower during the day and make up time at night when most people are asleep…the last ship we were on, Independence of the Sea, is pretty big and the only time I had any sensation of movement when I woke up around 3 a.m. to hit the head, looked out on the balcony and realized we were flat-out moving…other than that, not at all…
The only times ship motion was an issue for me was due to storms. Once we had a cabin on the 14th deck, and I was nearly thrown from my bunk as the remnants of a hurricane passed by. I didn’t get sick, but it sure woke me up!
Another time when it was rough and our cabin was on the lowest passenger deck, as I was coming thru the door, a lurch sent me against the doorframe and I ended up with a purple shoulder.
But other than those times, I was rarely even aware of ship movement if I wasn’t looking at the horizon, and I was also on smaller cruise ships - closer to 2000 passenger than 6000+ passenger vessels.
I’ve tended to enjoy most cruises I’ve been on. Sure, they’ve hurt my boyfriend and I’s bank account, but worth it, in my opinion.
I love the staff waiting on me, but I don’t really go to the casino. My boyfriend plays around there.
I like the modern experience, but then again, I don’t. It takes away from the joy of being at sea.
As for the last one, there’s a lot more opportunities for sex at sea, that’s for sure. Just don’t have it during a
storm. My boyfriend had the brilliant idea of this when our ship hit really rough waters in the Atlantic.
I threw up a lot on my last cruise, but it was in the Antarctic Convergence, so that’s not representative. I have pretty bad motion sickness, but rarely throw up more than once on a cruise ship of any size.