Need help planning next cruise

[Bocadude85]

We have a cruise credit that we need to use and are having a hard time making a decision on what cruise to take. We are looking for something different... we have been to Alaska,Hawaii,Europe and all over the Caribbean. Can anyone suggest a itinerary thats a little different? Maybe an itinerary that NCL sails only a few times a year?

[dow cruiser]

How about the New England and Canada cruise? It would be pretty in the fall.

[fiftyguy]

You didn't mention Bermuda specifically so I would throw that out as a suggestion. The trips sail from NYC and Boston. It's a nice trip, since you have 2 1/2 days on the island. It really gives you a chance to explore the island at your own pace.

Good luck

[gra2172]

Have you done all the europe cruises? Weve done western Mediterranean, but were planning on doing the Baltic capitals cruise next year. And if the area calms down, we want to do the Egypt and holy lands tour the year after that.

 

One that particularly interests us but is too expensive is the cruise that goes to iceland, scotland and ireland from Copenhagen.

 

OR how about the panama canal cruise? That looks kind of cool.

[time2cruise1]

You want something dfferent then look at the Dawn repo from Quebec City to Tampa Fl in october. 16 days with once in a lifetime itinerary. With stops in Maine, Boston, NYC, Baltimore, Norfolk, Chareston, Miami, Key West. Not exotic but ports we normally can't visit on a cruise.

[InTheCruisingYearsOfLife]

... We are looking for something different...

 

It is such a pity that the reality of cruise line economics is that they are driven to hunker down and offer only the mainstream. You can have vanilla, or you can have french vanilla, or you can have slow-churned vanilla, or you can have low-fat vanilla, but you had better like vanilla. Gone are NCL's South American cruises, their Mexican Riviera cruise is but a shadow of the nice 11-day out-of-San Francisco 5-port-o'-call offering of a few years ago, and they show no signs of ever adding Australia or New Zealand to their destinations (suggesting it is covered by their sister company Star Cruises, but not offering any sisterly crossover loyalty program).

 

Ultimately, I guess you have to just accept another scoop of vanilla, and realize that it's the toppings you put on it that make it such a good sundae.

 

InTheCruisingYearsOfLife

[time2cruise1]

It is such a pity that the reality of cruise line economics is that they are driven to hunker down and offer only the mainstream. You can have vanilla, or you can have french vanilla, or you can have slow-churned vanilla, or you can have low-fat vanilla, but you had better like vanilla. Gone are NCL's South American cruises, their Mexican Riviera cruise is but a shadow of the nice 11-day out-of-San Francisco 5-port-o'-call offering of a few years ago, and they show no signs of ever adding Australia or New Zealand to their destinations (suggesting it is covered by their sister company Star Cruises, but not offering any sisterly crossover loyalty program).

 

Ultimately, I guess you have to just accept another scoop of vanilla, and realize that it's the toppings you put on it that make it such a good sundae.

 

InTheCruisingYearsOfLife

 

I think they are adding a little hot fudge to vanilla. Not enought yet but I expect more once the 2 new ships come online. I have found some new things to book. The Quebec Tampa this year and the Star from Copenhagen to Norway, Sweden, and Iceland next year. The Star soon doing several panama canal cruises in winter.

 

Once the new ships are online I hope they will return to South America. With the limited size of the Norwegian fleet I don't see them going to the south pacific.

[Bocadude85]

It is such a pity that the reality of cruise line economics is that they are driven to hunker down and offer only the mainstream. You can have vanilla, or you can have french vanilla, or you can have slow-churned vanilla, or you can have low-fat vanilla, but you had better like vanilla. Gone are NCL's South American cruises, their Mexican Riviera cruise is but a shadow of the nice 11-day out-of-San Francisco 5-port-o'-call offering of a few years ago, and they show no signs of ever adding Australia or New Zealand to their destinations (suggesting it is covered by their sister company Star Cruises, but not offering any sisterly crossover loyalty program).

 

Ultimately, I guess you have to just accept another scoop of vanilla, and realize that it's the toppings you put on it that make it such a good sundae.

 

InTheCruisingYearsOfLife

 

I could not agree with you more. We love NCL and hate the thought of cruising on a different line but they just do not offer enough exotic destinations. We have booked a 14 day Asia cruise next year with Holland America and are very excited about the trip. Unless NCL comes out with some new itinerarys this next cruise with them may very well be our last.

[youngestof9]

How about Breakaway January 5 or 19, 2014? It's a 12 day caribbean with different stops than NCL usually does.

[gra2172]

It is such a pity that the reality of cruise line economics is that they are driven to hunker down and offer only the mainstream. You can have vanilla, or you can have french vanilla, or you can have slow-churned vanilla, or you can have low-fat vanilla, but you had better like vanilla. Gone are NCL's South American cruises, their Mexican Riviera cruise is but a shadow of the nice 11-day out-of-San Francisco 5-port-o'-call offering of a few years ago, and they show no signs of ever adding Australia or New Zealand to their destinations (suggesting it is covered by their sister company Star Cruises, but not offering any sisterly crossover loyalty program).

 

Ultimately, I guess you have to just accept another scoop of vanilla, and realize that it's the toppings you put on it that make it such a good sundae.

 

InTheCruisingYearsOfLife

 

 

Yeah thats one thing I dont like about NCL. They oversaturate the Bahamas, but have nothing in Asia or the southern hemisphere. One of our dream cruises is to Vietnam. RCCL has a really nice itinerary from Hong Kong to Thailand, but its RCCL, sooo..

 

I keep suggesting it to my cruise consultant, but they are just getting around to thinking about a referral program..

 

I know about the whole Star Cruises agreement thing, but NCL just looks bigger and better. You would think it would benefit both of them to be in Asia.:confused:

[time2cruise1]

Yeah thats one thing I dont like about NCL. They oversaturate the Bahamas, but have nothing in Asia or the southern hemisphere. One of our dream cruises is to Vietnam. RCCL has a really nice itinerary from Hong Kong to Thailand, but its RCCL, sooo..

 

I keep suggesting it to my cruise consultant, but they are just getting around to thinking about a referral program..

 

I know about the whole Star Cruises agreement thing, but NCL just looks bigger and better. You would think it would benefit both of them to be in Asia.:confused:

 

There is a very simple reason for this. NCL has only 11 ships and they are going to place them where they can fill them every week the easiest. RCL has 40 and Carnival has 90. They have to spread them out. We want exotic we have to look at other lines.

 

 

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