mikkelzzz3

9 minutes ago, ericfromri said:

look at the cruise planner every week and watch your emails because the packages go on sale and if your not paying attention, you will miss it.

Will do! I was also told if you find an even better sale later, you can buy that, and then cancel the first. 

16 minutes ago, ericfromri said:

see you on board...

See you there. Just paid the deposit ! 

Thank you everyone. My wife got very hooked on doing a transatlantic, because she would enjoy not having a long flight at the end of our vacation, and the jetlag wouldn't impact us as much. 

I spoke with our travel agent about option 2 and 3.

15 hours ago, mikkelzzz3 said:

The contestants therefore are:
1: 21-day cruise discussed in this thread
2: Allure of the Seas back-to-back. 8 Days Caribbean, and then straight onto a transatlantic 14-day cruise to Barcelona. 
3: Symphony of the seas back-to-back. 7 Days Caribbean, then one day break in Miami, and then the Allure of the Seas translantic to Barcelona. 

She recommended me option 2. She told me as first time cruisers she didn't think we would get bored at all. Also option two is $570 cheaper, and it visits 4 ports on the first cruise. Option three vists 3 ports, and is more expensive. 

She told me Allure of the Seas were supposed to be renovated but it got delayed, so for example it dosn't have the long slide at the back of the ship that transitions decks (Part of the reason for the lower price). Otherwise she told as they are in the same class, they pretty much have the same activities. Some features are different, and some restaurants are different and that's it. She did say we would likely see the main shows twice, but other entertainment would differ. If she was in our shoes, she'd do option 2.

And we've taken your guys advice, we are gonna spend the extra on getting Balcony on both cruises. 🙂 

1 hour ago, graphicguy said:

Congrats on your upcoming nuptials.  Encore is a wonderful ship and one of the newest sailing from any cruise line.

 

I agree that to some 21 days is a long time.  For a honeymoon?  Not so much.  Yes, the large shows will repeat.  But, musicians, comedians, etc in the smaller venues tend to change relatively frequently.  So, that entertainment is likely to change while you're on board.

 

Obviously, the ports will change, too.

 

But, more importantly, the relationships you make with fellow cruisers is what will make it special.  I've made some life long friends on cruise ships.

 

the one caveat, as others have mentioned, being in an inside cabin for 3 weeks.  That would make me a little crazy.  At least get a balcony cabin, where you can sit and watch the water go by when you need a little break, vs staying in a small, dark cabin.

 

The idea of doing a back-to-back-to-back cruise would also be fantastic.  Meeting new people on every leg of the journey.  Changing cabins, even changing ships, would not be as difficult as you think, and would probably be exciting.

 

Would love to hear more about your plans, regardless of what you decide.

Thank you for your input! I've spent the whole day researching, And I think i've gotten a few more itineraries that I need to think about. My wife has also told me she wouldn't mind doing a translantic, as it would reduce the jetlag, and we wouldn't have a 13-15 hours flight after our vacation. (She hates flying this long)

The contestants therefore are:
1: 21-day cruise discussed in this thread
2: Allure of the Seas back-to-back. 8 Days Caribbean, and then straight onto a transatlantic 14-day cruise to Barcelona. 
3: Symphony of the seas back-to-back. 7 Days Caribbean, then one day break in Miami, and then the Allure of the Seas translantic to Barcelona. 

We really love big shows, so we like the opportunity in option 3 to see four of Royal Caribbeans broadway shows. We don't like so much in option 3 that we have to transfer ship, or that 7 days on Symphony costs the same as the 14 days on Allure 😕 

However, all three options have the same final price. (Except option 2 and 3 dosn't include a drink package) We don't really drink anything besides sodas and mock-tails. I typically start feeling drunk after two glasses... So buying as we go might be cheaper than the package. 


Well I've put everything together in Microsoft Word, and made our own leaflets of each trip. That makes it easier to quickly look at, and hopefully we can decide! 😄 

Thank you for the offer! I just pitched the Caribbean > Transatlantic > Med. 

Are you doing those three as well? Maybe we should continue this on email? mikkelzzz3@gmail.com 🙂 

Ohh yeah, I'll have something to talk with the misses about now. Thank you for the help! 🙂 

13 minutes ago, ericfromri said:

the allure was the last ship i was cruising on when we were disembarked in barcelona. i had bought the next trip but was cancelled due to the Rona.  it is easily 1 of the best ships at sea.  i will be on the transatlantic going the other way and 5 b2bs as well on it.  i am looking for some pictures of that journey.   the age can play a part but on this class of ships, in the year of production dollars comes out to 1.5B US. they definitely invest constantly to keep the ships modern. i can attest on any of the oasis class ships, you will have ample entertainment, food choice, and relaxation. i suggest an ocean view balcony on deck 12 or lower as far back as possible. 

What do you think of these as back to back? 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruises/itinerary/7-night-eastern-caribbean-perfect-day-from-miami-on-symphony/SY07E253?sail-date=2022-04-16&currency=DKK&country=DNK&dates_maxDate=04%2F30%2F2022&dates_minDate=04%2F01%2F2022

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruises/itinerary/14-night-transatlantic-from-barcelona-on-allure/AL14T196?sail-date=2022-04-24&currency=DKK&country=DNK&dates_maxDate=04%2F30%2F2022&dates_minDate=04%2F01%2F2022

16th - 23rd caribbean. 24th 14-day to Barcelona

Wow, you sure are a very seasoned cruiser! 

I'm just now looking on royal caribbean as well. I can see it would be possible to do a transatlantic and then right after carribean on the same ship "Allure of the seas". It is not as new of a ship as Norwegian Encore, what do you think? Does the age of the ship take priority? 

Thank you everyone for your replies! I was surprised to see so much engagement in this post! 😄 

Regarding the length, I am actually not too worried that it would be too long for us specifically as first time cruisers. What I am concerned about is a 7-day cruise doing a 21-day cruise, compared to other cruises designed and planned to do a 21-day cruise. I would be concerned if after the 7 days you start to feel like the ship was not meant to do 21-days. 

I'm 27, and my wife 25. We are very open to the type of excursions. Though "looking excursions" are not so much us. Think museums, sightseeing bus tours etc. Though hop-on hop-off tours busses we would find exciting. Active excursions like zip-lining through a jungle (I've seen that excursion in the caribbean), riding on horse-back, snorkeling, hiking to a volcano, kayak through a jungle river all seem interesting to us. 

Originally, we had booked a 12-day Caribbean cruise on Celebrity Reflection in a Balcony Cabin last year which got cancelled. I've since seen a lot a videos, and I'm thinking that Celebrity might be lacking in some of the activities I think are just awesome. Like Broadway shows, laser tag and things like that. 

I now have the mindset of "getting most out of the plane tickets", but also thinking about future kids. Now we can go on a long cruise out of season which we can afford. But going on a 21-day cruise with kids in the school holiday I can imagine being too expensive. In that scenario I would think a 7-14 day caribbean cruise would be perfect. 

But for right now, when we can go outside of summer holiday, and it is just us, I think this is the perfect opportunity we will have in a long time to go 21 days. And we don't want to miss out on that! 

Our budget is 3300usd pr. person for cabin fare. So I researched, and this NCL cruise in an inside cabin, seems to be the longest we can do, without it being transatlantic. Meaning it has a decent amount of ports. We plan to do excursions in each port. 

For this cruise we would use the free at sea upgrade. Drinking package, and excursion discount perk. Additionally we would purchase a 14-meal specialty dinking package (So hopefully we won't feel the menus repeating themselves), the thermal spa pass, and the arcade pass. 

On the Celebrity cruise we has also bought excursions. The ones I remember were, zip-lines in a jungle, 4x4 jeep tour, horseback rinding on the beach, sailing on those small sailboats I can't remember the name of, and snorkeling with turtles. These excursions seemed very nice. I hope NCL with have something similar.

@Rob_H Did just make me realise back to back cruises could be an option. Like transatlantic from Europe to Florida. And then a cruise in the Caribbean? hmmm. Though cruising for the first time and having to change ship seems a little scary. Though if I could find the same ship doing a transatlantic cruise and then caribbean right after, that would be perfect. 

@TashaB Thank you for the offer 😄 

Hi all, 

My wife and I are looking to go on a honeymoon, and we've never been on a cruise before. We live in Denmark, and would like the cruise to be on the longer side, as there is a big cost in the plane tickets themselves. 

I've found this 21 day cruise with Norwegian Encore. I can see it is relocating from doing 7-day cruises carribbean cruises to 7-day alaska cruises. 

https://www.ncl.com/fr/en/cruises/21-day-panama-canal-mexico-and-costa-rica-to-seattle-ENCORE21MIACTGPCTPCLSJSPRQPVRCSLLAXSFOVICSEA?numberOfGuests=4294953449&sortBy=duration_high_low&autoPopulate=f&from=resultpage&itineraryCode=ENCORE21MIACTGPCTPCLSJSPRQPVRCSLLAXSFOVICSEA  

Seeing it is the Norwegian Encore which is a rather new ship, I think it is a unique opportunity to go 21 days on it. What concerns me is the following:

When it normally does 7-day cruises (Designed only for 7 day cruises?), how will a 21-day cruise go? Will we run out of things to do, will we have watched all the entertainment in just the first 7 days? 

Also, I don't know if the ports are visited often, as this cruise trip is not regular. So. Are the ports good? Do they have good excursions, or would excursions on popular ports like the ones in the Carribbean be considerably better? 

Thank you for your input :)