is 17days to long for a cruise?

[DMH15]

there is a very good chance im going on the jewel 4/28/12 its a 17day repositioning through the panama canal. is that a bit much traveling solo? will it be all weelchairs and walkers or a younger group of cruisers? how do you pack for a 17day cruise? what will 17days of drinking and gambling do to your shipboard acct.?:eek: so much to consider. i have taken plenty of 7 night, and one 10 night cruise in the past, is it much different? any help will be great. thank you

 

Dave, I am sure you are a sweet guy, but your "walkers and wheelchairs" comment just rubbed me a little the wrong way. I am only a young 50-something and still doing 5K's so I don't think I am taking it personally. But I travel with my mom, who is 76. She is still ambulatory, but slow.

 

Most young people adore my mother. In fact, she won the group trivia game for our team, since she knew some of the things before other's time. She and I are both very outgoing. She was a hit at the HOT WHITE PARTY and made the video.

 

But in answer to your question, you will find more people who can afford the time off and the cost for a longer than average cruise. I have taken 2 fourteen day cruises and I loved them.

 

Happy cruising!

[Davechipp74]

Dave, I am sure you are a sweet guy, but your "walkers and wheelchairs" comment just rubbed me a little the wrong way. I am only a young 50-something and still doing 5K's so I don't think I am taking it personally. But I travel with my mom, who is 76. She is still ambulatory, but slow.

 

Most young people adore my mother. In fact, she won the group trivia game for our team, since she knew some of the things before other's time. She and I are both very outgoing. She was a hit at the HOT WHITE PARTY and made the video.

 

But in answer to your question, you will find more people who can afford the time off and the cost for a longer than average cruise. I have taken 2 fourteen day cruises and I loved them.

 

Happy cruising!

i did not mean anything by my comment.i also have a mom in a weelchair whom i love very much,in fact as a christmas gift im sending her and dad on a cruise to alaska this july.it was just comment nothing more :o

thank you everyone i got great advice and insight on this thread

notice my new countdown clock :D(even though it has a long way to go)

i just have to be mindfull of that dam casino

[travelnap]

there is a very good chance im going on the jewel 4/28/12 its a 17day repositioning through the panama canal. is that a bit much traveling solo? will it be all weelchairs and walkers or a younger group of cruisers? how do you pack for a 17day cruise? what will 17days of drinking and gambling do to your shipboard acct.?:eek: so much to consider. i have taken plenty of 7 night, and one 10 night cruise in the past, is it much different? any help will be great. thank you

Davechipp,

I recently did a 15 day Panama Canal trip solo on the Star and it was very enjoyable. As far as packing, I took a few extra shirts along, as I am kind of klutz, always spilling something somewhere, but that was about all the extra clothes I packed. You have more sea days and that trip is broke up well, sea day, port, sea day, port, etc. You do hit a couple of ports in a row and a couple of seadays in a row, but nothing too bad that way. I once did a 16 day transalantic solo, and we had 6 days at sea in a row, so the casino did get visited more often. I read a lot, so that helped keep me out of the casinos but when you have 6 days in a row you get tired of the reading and look for other activities. The panama canal trip was not that way, yes I still made it to the casino but not near as much as I did on the Transatlantic trip. The crowd will be older, but we had quite a few younger passengers as well. A good mix. I think you will enoy the trip. If it were not for that bothersome thing called a job, I would take all the long cruises I could get, as you really relax on the longer trips. Good Luck on the trip.

[NMLady]

there is a very good chance im going on the jewel 4/28/12 its a 17day repositioning through the panama canal. is that a bit much traveling solo? will it be all weelchairs and walkers or a younger group of cruisers? how do you pack for a 17day cruise? what will 17days of drinking and gambling do to your shipboard acct.?:eek: so much to consider. i have taken plenty of 7 night, and one 10 night cruise in the past, is it much different? any help will be great. thank you

 

We've done a 16 day Panama Canal cruise, a 15 day to/from Hawaii cruise, and most recently did 33 day cruise (actually it was b2b2b cruise). We haven't yet found our limit of days.

Even though there are two of us, if you chat with other passengers I don't think you'll find the time too long as a solo. There will definitely be

some folks in their 30s and 40s as well as the ACTIVE retired folks.

 

For packing, think of it as two 10-day cruises since you've been on those.

Actually I think of it as three 7-night cruises, wearing the same outfits several times, mixing/matching tops & bottoms. Take advantage of the

'bag special' for laundry which will be offered, probably at the end of the first week.

 

We limited ourselves to cheaper drinks (beer, soda, house wine) so our onboard account wasn't too badly dented. We also budgeted a set amount each day for gambling so that we didn't break our bank.

We also, on the 33 day cruise, prepaid the DSC ('gratuity') so that it wasn't billed to our onboard account but had already been paid at the same time that we made our final payment. That was a different billing period for our credit card. So, even though we have a high limit on our card, we didn't have that chunk to pay on our onboard account. That helped the total.

 

I think you'll find that 17 days isn't too much different than 10 days, especially since you'll have several ports to see. And the Canal day is awesome. Get up to an observation point early. Wear lots of sunscreen, a shade hat, and have a liter bottle of water. That sun is HOT.

[DMH15]

i did not mean anything by my comment.i also have a mom in a weelchair whom i love very much,in fact as a christmas gift im sending her and dad on a cruise to alaska this july.it was just comment nothing more :o

thank you everyone i got great advice and insight on this thread

notice my new countdown clock :D(even though it has a long way to go)

i just have to be mindfull of that dam casino

 

Thanks for the reply, Dave. Good of you to do so... one of us might be in a wheelchair and the other using a walker someday??? Who knows??? But I hope to cruise as long as I possibly can.

 

Enjoy your cruise!!!

[marelind]

I can't add much more than all the other posters. We did the 14 day Panama Canal last April and it was the best of both worlds in that you have a traveling/sightseeing cruise and a vacation/relax and do nothing cruise wrapped up in one. The longer cruise is more relaxed and slow paced. Yes, the passengers tend to be older, but then you don't have all the twenty-somethings rowdy and drunk with their buckets of beer (sorry if that's you :o ) like one cruise I took.

 

We are seriously thinking of the same cruise you are. It looks fantastic! Someone said they have crappy ports, but I didn't think so. I took the city tour of Cartagena and found it very interesting. I'd recommend the Magnificent Cartagena tour to see the monastery and walled city (though it has a couple of touristy stops to buy souvenirs). We loved the Canal (you have enough time between now and then to read Path Between the Seas by David McCullough - it highly enhanced our transit)! I liked Costa Rica and took the rain forest tram tour. We had a great young man for our guide. On your cruise you won't stop in Guatemala like we did; instead you'll get Puerto Chiapas in Mexico. My guess is that it will be like Huatulco, Mexico which looked like a great beach port, very undeveloped compared with Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas. Can you tell I had a great cruise? I call it my fairy tale cruise.

 

Here is the link to my review for that cruise: http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=66582

[Goldryder]

17 days isn't long enough IMHO :o

 

I always sail solo and my last cruise in 2010 was 34 days & the next one is a total of 25 days in length.

 

The longer, the better....and the age mix is usually around the same as on shorter cruises, you just get to know people better (crew & passengers alike)....long cruises are excellent ways to relax and recharge the batteries. Shorter cruises seem to end before they have truly begun...a case of packing the case too soon after unpacking it :o

[marelind]

Okay, now you're going to laugh at me. After posting my response above, I booked that cruise. We had already been seriously discussing it, and I thought why not? :D