Do a ship tied to the dock cruise???

[RUBBER DUCK]

If the ship was tied to the dock somewhere for a week (say a private island with limited shopping, but a nice selection of activities) and you could come and go as you pleased, essentially using it as a hotel, would you do it?

[Caliterp07]

No. I cruise in order to see a lot of new places in a short period of time. To go to a beach and just stop is not my idea of a good vacation.

[MikeNJ1109]

Sounds like our recent Bermuda cruise on the NCL Dawn. And yes, we loved it very much, and would do that sort of a cruise again in a minute. (Our preference would have been RCL, but they offered only a 5 night cruise ... which was more expensive per person then NCL's Dawn out of NYC, and we had two extra nights).

 

Michael and Silke

[amybeth4]

lol, I was JUST about to type, "Yeah, it's called a cruise to Bermuda." :)

[cb at sea]

You can get a much nicer, larger room in a hotel (and a MUCH fancier bathroom!)than on a ship, for less money! If I was going to do that, I'd just book a hotel in the place I wanted to go!

[amybeth4]

Absolutely. If I was gonna fly to FL and then cruise to an island and not move for a week, I'd just do an all-inclusive and have a nicer room. And I LOVE being on a ship. But it seems like a waste. Besides, half the fun of a cruise is feeling the motion of the ocean.

[MikeNJ1109]

You can get a much nicer, larger room in a hotel (and a MUCH fancier bathroom!)than on a ship, for less money! If I was going to do that, I'd just book a hotel in the place I wanted to go!

 

You're probably right. In our case, however, we subscribe to the notion that "Getting There Is Half The Fun", hence the cruise 'n stay seemed like fun.

 

Michael and Silke

[goneclear]

The problem with this is shops and the casino have to be closed while in Port in most cases.

[Able Seaman H]

I think it would have a certain appeal depending on location. I'm never that fussed about shopping on a holiday but the one thing a Cruise ship would offer would be land based transport to the place, so if you didn't want to fly or the destination didn't have good landing facilities a ship would offer a potential solution.

 

The other thing it would do is offer al the comforts of home. I've always felt ships are very traveller friendly in terms of cleanliness, hygiene, safe food and so on. They are fully self sufficient, don't suffer power shortages or lack of water.

 

The big issue would be size of ship. 3,000 people getting off a ship swamps an island or location and so you'd probably be looking at smaller vessels. One of the big drawbacks of cruising is the fact you see nothing in the way of nightlife from your various ports of call and often that's when a place comes alive.

 

Thailand, one of our favourite haunts is a book of 2 chapters. By day tranquil and relaxed, by night vibrant and alive. Cruise passengers arriving at 8.00am and leaving at 4.00pm would miss out on a whole chapter.

 

H. :)

[MikeNJ1109]

The problem with this is shops and the casino have to be closed while in Port in most cases.

 

We have found that cruise chip casinos are generally black holes for our money ... and we do like a gamble from time to time. So no issue in that regard. As for shopping, since the shops on board are closed when in port, we improvise and find all the shops we need on land. Again, no big loss for us.

 

Different strokes for different folks ...

 

Michael and Silke

[luvscruising2007]

No.

We like being at sea. That is why we cruise. If we wanted a hotel experience that is what we would book.

[FLACRUISER99]

When I first read this I though no way the OP must must be nuts. When I read the thread I thought, I went to Bermuda, stayed on the ship for 5 days and sailed back and loved it. I also like to overnight on longer cruises in ports like Venice. So sometimes using the ship like a hotel is great and this is coming from someone that loves sea days!!

[MikeNJ1109]

We've had 5 "conventional" cruises i.e new port or sea day every day. We've had 2 Bermuda cruises, using the ship as our hotel & for meals. Each has been terrific in its own way and we would do both again in a heartbeat.

 

Michael & Silke

[goneclear]

We have found that cruise chip casinos are generally black holes for our money ... and we do like a gamble from time to time. So no issue in that regard. As for shopping, since the shops on board are closed when in port, we improvise and find all the shops we need on land. Again, no big loss for us.

 

Different strokes for different folks ...

 

Michael and Silke

 

The OP was talking about a cruise ship tied up to a pier for a week. I dont think any cruise line will do this as it will affect their shop and casino revenue.

I believe the OP's question was a hypothetical one and I was just stating what I think the problems with that would be. Sorry for not making myself clear on the first attempt.

[lady_cruiser]

If the ship was tied to the dock somewhere for a week (say a private island with limited shopping, but a nice selection of activities) and you could come and go as you pleased, essentially using it as a hotel, would you do it?

 

No I wouldn't. Part of the reason why I love cruising is that I get to go to different ports-of-call instead of staying in one place for several day like I would if I was on a land-base vacation.

[FLACRUISER99]

The OP was talking about a cruise ship tied up to a pier for a week. I dont think any cruise line will do this as it will affect their shop and casino revenue.

I believe the OP's question was a hypothetical one and I was just stating what I think the problems with that would be. Sorry for not making myself clear on the first attempt.

There are ports that allow the shops & Casino to open though. A believe this is allowed in the Bahamas if my memory is working today.

[ehfl]

They already have such cruises (The World ship for example). They're very expensive. It's not a market I see any of the mainstream cruise lines getting into, so I'm not sure why it's relevenat to the RCL discussion.

[RUBBER DUCK]

I was just curious. Seems like a lot of the ports we have been to aren't as exciting anymore or there's just not enough time to do what we'd really want to do.

 

A lot of why we go cruising is for the atmosphere. I don't mind the staterooms, really we're not in it for much mroe than sleep or showering.

 

I would consider The World, but I don't quite make the income level.