How do you pick a cruise?

[mrp4352]

Hi!

 

I'm starting to get serious for the planning phase of my upcoming Baltic cruise and was remembering the ins and outs of how I got to this cruise (it started as a YOLO book it solo cruise to Norway, then morphed into a European capitals cruise, before turning into a Baltic cruise that was finally replaced by my current cruise - a Baltic with 2 days in St. Petersburg with my Mom).  This was a very different process from how we normally plan. Usually we pick a time, set a budget, then find a cruise that fits.

So - how do you pick a cruise? 

[CruiseHabit Bill]

For us it varies a lot.  Sometimes we are just looking to sail a particular ship and little else matters (though cheaper is of course better).  Other times it's about the itinerary.  When possible, we try and work in holidays - specifically holidays that we have off from work, but that don't greatly increase the cost of sailings.  

There are exceptions of course, like last month on Brilliance, when enjoying my drink at the R Bar I said, "oh, let's go to next cruise" and booked a sailing leaving in a couple weeks.  I don't have impulse control problems.

[karl_nj]

Our kids are middle/high school age, so these days we mostly need to fit trips in according to the school calendar. So we look at dates first, and then see what our possibilities are.

This can limit things more then you would expect. It’s expensive to fly around Easter, so we tend to need to find a cruise from our home port if we want to take a cruise for spring break. So our choices are usually NCL or Royal, as those are the only lines that sail from NY in April. 
 

We prefer traditional dining, especially with the kids, so I’ve been sailing on Royal fairly often recently. 
 

Though when my kids were a bit younger, and I didn’t mind them missing a few days of school, Disney often had a nice one way repo cruise to San Juan that matched up with “Jersey Week” really well. 

[JLMoran]

If it's just my wife and me going, then my starting point is where we want to go; if it's the whole family, then I'm like @karl_nj and limited to times when the kids are out of college and high school, so when we can go becomes the bigger priority, with the choice of where we'll go driven by that. But the ports / itinerary are always the priority for me, at least for now. I'm not a Millennial (turned 50 last month), but I still fall into that group of people who want experiences and memories first and foremost.

Once that's worked out, I find whatever ship will get me there in the cruise lines I prefer to travel with; if none of them have something that works, that's when it's time to look at other lines and see what fits in the rough budget I figure it'll cost.

[KathyC]

We've been cruising since 1992, so at this point it's about either the ship or the destination.  We look for new experiences as part of each sailing. 

We're not sit on the beach all sailing type of people like a lot of our friends are - we prefer to experience the food and culture of each unique island.  We'd rather wander around port all day, find somewhere to eat and drink than do anything else.  There are some ports one trip was enough, and others that we can't get enough of.  So we look for those.  

As for the ship, we look for a class we haven't sailed on before, or a ship with something special.  We don't need rock walls, slides, ziplines, etc. We look for the "extra."  

Lastly, we book by date.  We currently have two in college, so try to work around who needs to be home/moved in or out when.  Plus of course the jobs each have their own specific black out periods.  

[smokey0202]

with me cruising since 1990 seeing all the changes in the cruise industry among cruise lines its truly about new experiences capturing memories meeting more new people, whats the ship offers, destination and those little extras.  one can go over and over to the same destination; however, each ship has its own vibe sailing to sailing and with some of the big ships you honestly cant do nor see it all on just one sailing anyway of what the ship offers.  other times we need that quaint chilling ship just to relax or a group cruise to catch up with friends.  reality is we all have our own favorite ship and prefer cruise line but nice to have other options out there when it comes to cruising even if there might be those few ships we cringe at seeing their exterior rusty conditions in port and go NEVER sailing that ship.  we all have  that favorite cruise line but its nice to venture outside the box to others because in the end other cruise lines also do offer some great prices, perks, speciality dining venues(instead of same venues over and over on one cruise line), status match and loyality programs while still capturing some great memories and experiences.  its nice just to have options to change it up from time to time. 

[mac]

On 2/20/2020 at 5:30 PM, CruiseHabit Bill said:

For us it varies a lot.  Sometimes we are just looking to sail a particular ship and little else matters (though cheaper is of course better).  Other times it's about the itinerary.  When possible, we try and work in holidays - specifically holidays that we have off from work, but that don't greatly increase the cost of sailings.  

There are exceptions of course, like last month on Brilliance, when enjoying my drink at the R Bar I said, "oh, let's go to next cruise" and booked a sailing leaving in a couple weeks.  I don't have impulse control problems.

Oh, the benefits of living in the Sunshine State!

[karl_nj]

On 2/21/2020 at 6:22 PM, JLMoran said:

But the ports / itinerary are always the priority for me, at least for now. I'm not a Millennial (turned 50 last month), but I still fall into that group of people who want experiences and memories first and foremost.

Once that's worked out, I find whatever ship will get me there in the cruise lines I prefer to travel with; if none of them have something that works, that's when it's time to look at other lines and see what fits in the rough budget I figure it'll cost.

 

Yeah, we tend to cruise more than once a year.  If we also go on a cruise in August, that tends to open up our choices more, and I can look to visit new places and/or try new ships and/or cruise lines. Last August we finally tried an Oasis-Class ship (Symphony).  This summer we will fly to Rome and spend a few days there before we go on a Western Med cruise.  In previous years we've done Transatlantic sailings on Cunard's Queen Mary 2, or a cruise that went up the coast of Norway.