Do you book for ship or itinerary?

[FL Naturelover]

We've been so several of the islands, with the exception of Belize, Roaton and Costa Maya. Can't decide if we should book for the ship we want or the islands we want. What do you all do? I have the Liberty in mind, possibly the Valor or Dream...

 

 

I book for both. First it is all about the itinerary and then about the ship. I like to sail on the bigger ships.

[freddy penguin]

I generally pick the week I want to cruise, then look at itinerary and departure port. As of yet, I have not considered the cruise line much less the ship when booking :eek:

[aidansaunt2004]

We start with the itinerary and then we narrow it down to the ship we like the best.

 

For instance, for our last cruise we know we wanted to go to the Eastern Caribbean. We then looked at the ships that were offered, the prices & the dates. I did a lot of research, read a lot of reviews, looked at photos etc. before I chose the ship. We ended up choosing the Dream and we were VERY happy. It's a beautiful ship.

[mousey]

Never book for the ship, always the itinerary. I do my best to avoid sea days like they are a disease.

 

This is how we used to feel about Sea Days, but recently we've come to enjoy them. We don't like more than 2 Sea Days on a 7-day cruise though. We usually cruise during our DS's spring break and we like to go to new places. We've only repeated sailing on the same ship one time. We took the NCL Star twice. Once to the Caribbean and once to Alaska, but in general, we like to try new ships and new itineraries whenever we can. We've cruised for years so except for South America there aren't too many places we haven't been yet. We love cruising!:D

[SkyMaster]

The ship is the destination for us, as we've been to the great majority of the Caribbean ports time, and time again. We rarely leave the ship anymore, so for me, it's absolutely the ship.

 

"SKY"

[WindsorFred]

Itinerary,than ship.We cruise the same time, January, each year to get away from the cold. So far we have never visited a port twice or been on the same ship. We have embarked from Ft Lauderdale twice now and are scheduled to do so next year, also will be a repeat on the Freedom (but she will have the 2.0 upgrades by then)

[Banditswife]

Wow! Love all the replies!! Thank you!! We've been on the Victory twice and a Disney cruise. Really don't want to go on the Victory again but we do like the i islands that go there. I'm sure we could visit an island several times and do something different each time. This next cruise I want to swim with dolphins, so thinking Coz, Belize concerns me from what I've read...the rest will be a bonus I guess!!

Judge Belize for yourself, we've been there & loved it. I just would recommend having an excursion booked for Belize. When you get away from the tendering port, Belize is a beautiful country.

[Banditswife]

For us, we have a date range in mind, then look to see what's available & with the lowest fares. We love sea days, we love port days. We also prefer Conquest class or Spirit class ships so far. That said, we'll be trying the Dream this fall. We are doing a very similar iten as last year, but this time the ship was our deciding factor.

 

As always, it depends on whatever is important to you. (price, ports,ship)

[Warm Breezes]

Deciding factors for us include: ship, cost, itinerary, and embarkation port. What ranks highest depends on what we want out of that particular vacation and all factors have been #1 on at least one of our vacations.

[zqvol]

Itinerary first.

 

If ship was important, unfortunately Carnival would slip down my list - fun line with great crew, but I like other lines' ship designs better.

 

 

Ditto, if it were for the ship I would never be on Carnival.

[19cruiser59]

For this, my 1st cruise i choose the ship 1st, then the itinerary.

I wanted to try out the 2.0 upgrades to Liberty, then decided on eastern caribbean.

 

next trip it will likely, be based on itinerary first and then embarkation point.

 

Ideally i would like to cruise from Baltimore but don't like the choices in ports right now.

 

if they can do more caribbean from NY why not Baltimore?

[kparc]

Do you book for ship or itinerary?

 

 

 

"Itinerary":)

[CharmedMom]

We book based on port of embarkation first (west coast so we can drive to port), ship second, and ports of call third.

 

We book out of embarkation port first as well, then itinerary.

[EquatorialRapture]

Definitely itinerary. We like to visit at least one new port each cruise. There are also some we try to avoid since we have been there several times (i.e. Grand Cayman).

[april47]

Itinerary definately is 1st.

[laumicmah]

For us it's a very calculated selection. We have to put in many parameters to get just the right cruise. We now know that we aren't fans of the Conquest Class ships, 3 day cruises or of Nassau and Freeport. DH is not a fan of many sea days and he insists that we drive to the port. It's been a process of elimination...we drove to Port Canaveral for 2 cruises including one 3 day cruise (that was too short). It's a long drive and I hate it (I can do 8-10 hours, but anything longer gets to me. And it bothers me more and more as I get older). We've been to Nassau 3 times and Freeport once (I'm about to go a second time and could really do w/out it). We did the Glory (Conquest class) and did not like all the lines and crowds and waits...we loved the Fascination and Sensation and so we realize we like smaller less crowded ships. DH goes crazy on sea days and is grumpy which makes me grumpy and then we are all having a bad time.

We are thinking of doing a cruise in August of 2013...we will be going to Disney for a few days and may tack on a cruise afterwards (DH and I will be turning 40 around that time). I'm pushing for flying to Disney and then renting a car to drive to port for a cruise (willing to drive to any port in FL) and then we could fly home after the cruise (from whatever port we cruise out of...Miami, Tampa....). We go on a certain cruise TA website that has a search function and we can put in all the specifics to get the right cruise...but there really isn't THE perfect one for us (and 8/13 cruises aren't all out yet...grrr). I think we will have to give up 1 or 2 of our preferences. I guess we'd select itin over ship then.

[SMSACE6]

I choose a cruise first based on price! ( 7 days or more ).

I really dont care which class of ship, as long as the price works for me. I also give serious thought to the port of departure, and how easily I can get there by air, with consideration to distance from airport to port, and cost of said transportation.

My last three cruises have been western Caribbean itineraries, so I think it was time for a change back to eastern side. I will cruise in October, so I also must be prepared in the case of a hurricane or tropical storm, that I will back on the western side. Chance I take by cruising that time of year, with good prices, and still love the western Caribbean, eastern, southern, any place in the Caribbean!

[maldenmusic]

Neither-just the whole experience and for us it's usually going to be from NOLA because that's our closest port.

[MochaZen]

[quote name='Warm Breezes']Deciding factors for us include: ship, cost, itinerary, and embarkation port. What ranks highest depends on what we want out of that particular vacation and all factors have been #1 on at least one of our vacations.[/quote]


We choose our cruise vacations similarly. We also prefer to travel during the time period after Thanksgiving and before Christmas or mid February to mid March.

[MamaParrotHead]

Price first, then itinerary, then ship.

[woodsy64]

I book for dates I am available to cruise. My vacation times are fixed by my employer. I look to see what is available during those dates with a one to two day cushion on either side of the cruise to travel to and from the port.

[skittl1321]

In general, we cruise for ports.

However, our upcoming cruise was picked due to timing. It was the only option out of Galveston on our available date. We didn't really care where it was going or what ship we were on- we just wanted a cruise.

[sail2sea]

Ship and itinerary, in that order. Now I have seen Royal ships, I will cruise with Royal more. But I will be back for Breeze.

If I really want to see a place, I would take a land trip. Itineraries matter a bit, not much.

[readytotravel44]

[quote name='jschafer6161']We've been so several of the islands, with the exception of Belize, Roaton and Costa Maya. Can't decide if we should book for the ship we want or the islands we want. What do you all do? I have the Liberty in mind, possibly the Valor or Dream...[/QUOTE]

We ALWAYS book itinerary. Our last cruise was the one you are describing. Loved the ports . . . well, love Belize and Roatan - Costa Maya was O.K.

Strangely enough ...booking the itineraries has landed us on the Freedom 3 times with our 4th on the Freedom this summer! Lol! Good thing we do like that ship!

[arby70]

Usually it's the itinerary. Last time we booked the RCI Allure and that one I booked purely for the ship. It was absolutely incredible!