Favorite Itineraries/Segments?

Question for all the well-traveled here: What cruise journeys have you enjoyed most? New itineraries for 2020 are emerging now and plans are being made by many of us. Looking for great ideas!

I'll start. The South Pacific from Honolulu to Auckland, NZ was one of the greats for us. As was Northern Europe with St. Petersburg, Russia.

What are your favorites?

HAL used to offer the Atlantic Adventurer. It was 6 or 7 weeks from FLL to The Med and back. Lots of great ports. Lots of sea days. I read books, I met new people. I enjoyed myself. Too bad that it doesn't exist anymore, not enough cruisers wanted to go there in November/December.

Jim

HAL: Iberian Peninsula.... Dover to Brugges, A Coruna, Porto, Lisbon, Cadiz (for Seville), Gibraltar, Motril (for Granada), and Barcelona

Any cruise line: Holy Land.... Rome to Athens, Santorini, Haifa (4 nights), Naples, Rome

1.Norwegian Cruise To the North Cape, Honningsvag especially on the Prinsendam due to its ability to sail from one fjord to the next.

2. Around Australia

3. Hawaii-Tahiti

4. Around Africa

5. Around South America, including Antarctica and the Falkland Islands.

6. Amsterdam to Svalbard and the Arctic Circle (this year and next maybe the last chance due to the Prinsendam’s possible sale. I believe Pacific Princess goes to Longyearbyen, but not sure about Ny Alesund and Arctic Circle. All the other options are extremely expensive!

7. Around Ireland

8.Singapore to Vancouver, including China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan

9. Any Mediterranean cruise

The longer ones on the smaller R and S class ships:

London to Singapore via Suez and Indonesia

Voyage of the Vikings

Grand Asia

Australian-New Zealnd + Ile de Pins

South America - San Diego to Buenos Aries

St Lawrence Seaway and New England

Northern Strongholds - Scandinavia-Poland

Norway and White Sea - Prinsendam

Black Sea -Prinsendam

Transatlantics

Anything that starts and/or ends in San Diego like Tales of the South Pacific

The favorite shorter ones: any ship if we have to go up in size, I'll take the Neiuw Amsterdam or the larger verandah suite on a Vista

Mexican Riviera, esp if it includes Sea of Cortez

Cuba

Southern Caribbean

Alasks - 14 day option

Every cruise is wonderful, and I am sure I have accidentally omitted some but here are the ones that stand out.

My most recent cruise - TA with France & Ireland, British Isles & Belgium and Netherlands.

the Black Sea cruise where we went to Croatia, and other not visited ports and Turkey

Kiel Canal with a TA and the Baltics

South America

Australia, New Zealand

Hawaii, Tahiti Marquesas (more for the on board activities as much as for the ports)

Agree totally with OlsSalt. Longer on R or S class. Any itinerary.

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Favorites:

An Asia/Pacific itinerary, i.e. to what is being sailed on the Amsterdam most years

Re-positioning voyages, i.e. my favorite: Auckland-Sydney-Vancouver

The world cruise segment that sailed into the Black Sea and the Adriatic

Any itinerary that includes both Hong Kong and Singapore

An itinerary that includes a few days in Antarctic waters

A North Cape Cruise

A Caribbean cruise that includes visits to St. Lucia, Dominica, Martinique, St. Barts, St. Thomas

Bermuda

We have enjoyed our full Panama Canal cruises, the Baltic cruises (several different versions), cruises out of Istanbul that included Egypt.

Many different Med cruises. South American cruises.

I'm getting some very good ammo here to pitch some things to DH. We've been too many places, I fear, and now we're having a more difficult time agreeing on, "What's next?"

One that I don't see mentioned is Panama Canal. Our trip through the canal from Florida to San Diego was pretty thrilling. Yes, some of the port stops are sketchy, but the run through the canal is a fascinating must-do, I think, especially if one reads up beforehand on its history. I have very fond memories of getting up at the crack of dawn to enter the canal.

Edit: I see the canal was just mentioned. Nice!

I'm getting some very good ammo here to pitch some things to DH. We've been too many places, I fear, and now we're having a more difficult time agreeing on, "What's next?"

 

One that I don't see mentioned is Panama Canal. Our trip through the canal from Florida to San Diego was pretty thrilling. Yes, some of the port stops are sketchy, but the run through the canal is a fascinating must-do, I think, especially if one reads up beforehand on its history. I have very fond memories of getting up at the crack of dawn to enter the canal.

 

Edit: I see the canal was just mentioned. Nice!

I debated on the Panama Canal when making my own list but we have done it now so many times that it has faded now into becoming merely a bus stop on the way to somewhere else. Which is a real insult to the drama and as you rightly point out the history of the place, when it is a concentrated trip for its own value. My first canal passage was in the 1970's but that was just part of going around the world for me at that time - everything was a wow then which also included going through the Suez Canal.

We have enjoyed our full Panama Canal cruises, the Baltic cruises (several different versions), cruises out of Istanbul that included Egypt.

Many different Med cruises. South American cruises.

LOVED the Panama Canal.Surprised to find out there were quite a few repeat cruisers-it's a solid 2 weeks(a very quick 2 weeks I thought-same with my Mediterranean cruise last year.)

Any itinerary!!! We just live cruising in Holland America! But our favorite so far is Mediterranean Romance. [emoji483]

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I debated on the Panama Canal when making my own list but we have done it now so many times that it has faded now into becoming merely a bus stop on the way to somewhere else. Which is a real insult to the drama and as you rightly point out the history of the place, when it is a concentrated trip for its own value. My first canal passage was in the 1970's but that was just part of going around the world for me at that time - everything was a wow then which also included going through the Suez Canal.

I am a bit embarrassed to agree with your comment that a Panama Canal cruise is "becoming a bus stop on the way to somewhere else". I will never forget my first journey through the Canal; it was special. After having read The Path Between the Seas made me more appreciative of what I was experiencing.

If I book an itinerary that includes a Panama Canal experience, even after a few such experiences, you will find me "out and about" before, during, and shortly after the ship's Canal cruising journey. Each transit can provide new sights. I have learned that I don't need to fight for an observation spot in a forward open deck area as the transit begins. Such spots will soon become available, if I want one. Better observation areas are on the aft open decks or on an outside promenade-type deck to experience the change in the water levels as the ship goes through the locks. A transit of the Canal is still "special", but it is "special" in a different sense, if one understands what I am trying to say.

A Panama Canal cruise in the future that would include the ship sailing via the new locks would be of particular interest to me. But, I am not aware of any cruise that would guarantee that the ship would be able to use those new locks.

:)Our favorite is the Grand South America/Antarctica on Prinsendam. We like it so much that we are booked for Jan 2019. This will be our 3rd time

:)Our favorite is the Grand South America/Antarctica on Prinsendam. We like it so much that we are booked for Jan 2019. This will be our 3rd time

Glad you posted up on this one, Frankiednyc. We've done San Diego to Buenos Aires, and enjoyed it very much, but it came up just short for me. This is under discussion in our house right now. So great to hear the positive feedback!

Antarctica. It is an otherworldly place; unlike any other place I have ever been.

A close second was the cruise up the coast of Norway, all the way to the most northern point, then continue going north to Longyearbyen, then even further north until the front of the ship was in the polar ice cap---500 miles from the North Pole. What a thrill!

For a spectacular cruise that's easier to get to, Norway is the best of the rest.

But the Voyage of the Vikings, and the Viking Passage cruises are pretty special, too.

My favorite have been the Canada/New England itineraries that went out to St. Pierre et Miquelon and Newfoundland. I really wish they would do those again, And keep the ships there! They have advertised similar itineraries for the past couple of years, but moved the ship to Bermuda and cancelled the beautiful routes including Newfoundland. So while I would book them in a heartbeat for 2020, I'm a bit gun-shy about them given the cancellations on the recently advertised itineraries.

Curious--it took a while for PanCan to get mentioned and then that got lots of cheers. No love for Alaska though?

Curious--it took a while for PanCan to get mentioned and then that got lots of cheers. No love for Alaska though?

14 Day Alaska made my list. I also think the 7 day Inside Passage is a perfect way to get introduced to cruising.

A couple of elements have shaped our present ideas about future itineraries: the devaluation of the on board experience on HAL makes the ship less of an attraction, and the fact that we have been to so many of the places which can be enjoyed on port calls combine to change opinions. Most places we look forward to visiting really are best experienced on land travel when you are not limited to just a few hours - shared with thousands of others trying to take advantage of those same few hours — in a place which is not at its best when crowded.

This leaves transportation as the primary remaining attraction. Last year we sailed Zuiderdam back to New York after a stay in Quebec. We continue to prefer T/A repositionings, or QM2 over flying to or from Europe. We may take a Panama Canal sailing from San Diego to Fort Lauderdale to get back to the east coast after attending a wedding in California —— but without the transportation element, we have pretty much lost interest in cruising: the “success” of the business has largely removed the value we saw in it.

Any long cruise is a favorite. The Voyage of the Vikings is great, taking you to Greenland and Iceland. The Grand Med is super and I hope to see its return to the schedule, Tales of the South Pacific...the ultimate beach vacation, the southern cone of South America with Antarctica and the Falklands. Shorter cruise winners for me are the North Cape, the Baltic, and the Med in the spring or the fall. And don't ignore building your own itinerary with back to back unique itineraries.

And the ultimate...a World Cruise!

We loved the circumnavigation of Australia back to back with the same of New Zealand. The trip from Rio to Fort Lauderdale including the Amazon was fantastic. The northern Europe cruise that includes Norwegian fjords as well as Sweden and Finland, with Baltic Capitals. The Amsterdam from Seattle to Singapore, with stops in Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong and Vietnam. (All except the long flight home). The trip from San Diego to San Diago, with a shore excursion to Machu Pichu. And, not on Holland America, the river cruise from Bucharest to Nurenburg on the Danube. Many others, but these are some highlights for us.

As one who sails for the ships, not the stops, I love sea days, so ocean crossings are what I've come to love.

My favorite has been my 1st Holland cruise roundtrip from Auckland to Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, French Polynesia, Niue on Maasdam November 2017