4 or 5 day Cruise

[Kukiz]

A group of us would like to go on a 4 or 5 day cruise this October. Want to depart from Ft. Lauderdale, Miami or Orlando and would like a newer ship but finding most of the short cruises are older ships. Any suggestions from those who have cruised on a 4 to 5 day would be helpful. Our age ranges are from 30 to 60.

[Essiesmom]

Have you cruised before? Each ship is individual, they are refurbished regularly. A 'small' 70,000 ton ship is HUGE if you have never cruised before. If you are only going for four or five days, you will barely have time to explore and sample everything before it is time to get off. Start 'small' and move up. And go for the five day. Often you will find the five less expensive than the four, because fours are usually over weekends and more in demand. EM

[cruiserking]

A group of us would like to go on a 4 or 5 day cruise this October. Want to depart from Ft. Lauderdale, Miami or Orlando and would like a newer ship but finding most of the short cruises are older ships. Any suggestions from those who have cruised on a 4 to 5 day would be helpful. Our age ranges are from 30 to 60.

 

If you can change your cruising plans to this July instead, the Queen Mary 2 sails a 5-day cruise to Canada/New England for the Fourth of July holiday. You can't beat the QM2 for a first cruise, she's a true ocean liner and second to none on the high seas.

 

Agree with Essiesmom. You should definitely book a 5 day cruise it will give you a much better opportunity to experience the cruise lifestyle and give you four full days aboard ship.

 

Jonathan

[UlvaZell]

A group of us would like to go on a 4 or 5 day cruise this October. Want to depart from Ft. Lauderdale, Miami or Orlando and would like a newer ship but finding most of the short cruises are older ships. Any suggestions from those who have cruised on a 4 to 5 day would be helpful. Our age ranges are from 30 to 60.

 

As far as I'm concerned, the longer the better...:D

[PennyAgain]

I agree about 5 days being better than 4. Cruise lines count days in a rather funny way.

 

You arrive on Day One. The day is half over already.

[printingchick]

Agree that 5 day is the shortests I'd want to do. I have taken a 4-day before. I did so because I had credit card points I had to use or lose. I insisted to the travel agent that the ship had to stop at TWO ports of call. I didn't want to cruise out and cruise back and visit only ONE place.

 

You will see the smaller, older ships doing the shorter itineraries. It's that way with most cruise lines. I believe in 2012, many of Royal Caribbean's large, newer ships will be doing shorter itineraries to push more people to their brand new mega ships. However, for now, you can't have NEW for only 4-5 days.

 

I have cruised Carnival and Royal Caribbean. RCL maintains their fleet FAR better than Carnival. I know many of the Fantasy class ships were recently updated, so my experience could be outdated. I'm sure others will chime in. In my experience on shorter cruises on Carnival ships, the ships were in pretty poor condition. (Torn up carpeting on the mini-golf greens, flooding showers, sewage smells on lower decks, the need to carry a separate key and Sail & Sign card because the doors had not been retrofitted to open with the magnetic cards, etc.)

 

There are a few itineraries which include both Key West and Cozumel which go out of Fort Lauderdale/Miami. If you're willing to go out of Tampa, the Radiance does 4 and 5 day cruises from there. That's an older, but lovely ship.

 

Good luck!!

[Shifra]

Another vote for the Radiance out of tampa. If you can do it that would be a good ship for you.