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When booking a cruise do you go for the ship or the ports?

NOSaints1

By NOSaints1,
in Ask a Cruise Question

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gracie65

gracie65

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Both. Last time I sailed on The Royal Princess just for the ship. She was amazing!! The next cruise we are sailing for the ports. Carnival Valor. Almost didn't as we have sailed the Valor before. Wish she had the upgrades. What I really wish is Carnival would add more ports going to some besides the typical Nassau, St. Thomas, St. Martin, Cozumel, Grand Cayman etc. How about the British Virgin Islands, Antigua, Barbados to some itineraries of ships leaving Florida ports.

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pungo3

pungo3

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I guess I'm kind of weird. I cruise for the ship. In fact, my last 5 or 6 cruises, I never got off the ship. I love having a stress free vacation and I'm never stressed on the ship.:D:D

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mikefast

mikefast

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My destination is the ship. As far as the ports are concerned, I couldn't care less, unless it is some more exotic place like Hawaii. My wife and I have a running joke. She goes for the shopping, I go to eat. When we stop at a port, we'll just get off for a short time, just so she can get her shopping fix. Then we go back to the ship and enjoy the lack of crowds for a while.

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rednose83

rednose83

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Ports. In fact, we've decided that we will only sail ships that have the 2.0 upgrades from now on.

 

We are just so over the Fantasy class ships. Though, I might consider another 5-day with a stop in HMC if the price was right.

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A2Mich

A2Mich

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We generally book for the ports, but the ship has to be decent as well. For our upcoming cruise we booked on RCI for the ship, but wanted decent ports. We were going to book the Carnival Sunshine out of PC for April 2015 to Aruba, Curacao, and Grand Turk, and may still book that for the next cruise. In the Caribbean there is so much competition generally going to the same ports, that it can be a tough decision. However, I would love to cruise AU/NZ, and there is not a lot of "relatively" affordable choices in that part of the world, and would likely book with whomever I could get the best value through, whether it be RCI, Carnival AU, P & O, etc.

 

I for one, would not care to cruise another Carnival Fantasy class ship again, but would do so if the itinerary was too irresistible to pass up.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that are many ports where the monster ships simply can't go. If wanting to book a cruise on Oasis/Allure of the Seas, the ports will be limited, but most other ships can dock at most any port, I realize that this is the Carnival board, I was just using those two ships as an example, as they are the most limited (other than the QM2) as to deep water ports, length of pier, turning basins, etc. The smaller ships simply have more options as to where they can berth.

 

If new to cruising and "need" constant entertainment, I would suggest booking for the ship and following up with acceptable ports. If more of the laid back, and can always find something to do, or would prefer nothing to do at all, than by all means book based on itinerary alone.

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lostdart1

lostdart1

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Ports. In fact, we've decided that we will only sail ships that have the 2.0 upgrades from now on.

 

We are just so over the Fantasy class ships. Though, I might consider another 5-day with a stop in HMC if the price was right.

 

 

 

So it is the ship then and not the ports?

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mommiemudd

mommiemudd

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We first have to go by date since we are tied to a school schedule. We usually cruise during our fall break. So first its date, then ports. We prefer southern and eastern routes. And there are a few ports we like to repeat but like to have new ones as well. Then I look at the cruises available, research the ship and then make a decision. 5 more years till my DD is out of school then we will look more at choosing a cruise based on the ship.

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anastasia3939

anastasia3939

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I've always been a book for the ports kind of person, until I decided to buy a week long spa pass on my last NCL cruise. It was awesome!!! When planning our next cruise I told my husband we would have to be on one of Carnival's ships which had the cloud 9 spa....hence we're booked on the Dream :-)

 

Sent from my KFTT using Forums mobile app

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sfpen66

sfpen66

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We choose the port first, then the cruise ship.

 

On our last cruise we decided we wanted to visit St. Kitts, so we choose the 10-day cruise on Emerald Princess. Our favorite port on that cruise was St. Lucia. That was totally unexpected, so you never know.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

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