New Itinerary - changes in onboard atmosphere?

[Kmkub]

We're doing our first non Caribbean cruise next year. Can we expect any changes on board? (TA from FLL to Europe)

 

At a minimum, I'm hoping for less steel drum music on the Lido Deck!

[-Lew-]

Congrats on your first TA...

 

You don't mention your itinerary, but I suggest you relax on the way over because European itineraries can be quite port intensive. Be sure to plan to stay in your port of disembarkation for at least a few days in order to make the most of your vacation. You may even want to do some land touring after your cruise.

 

Be sure to join the roll call for your cruise where you'll find others on your cruise. If TA roll calls I have been part of are any indication, there will be plenty of private tours for you to join if you wish.

 

Enjoy your cruise...

 

Lew

[Anniesails]

For the most part "destinational" cruises are very port-intensive. Much less party focused. So much fun though. Agree with Lew to add a few days to do some land touring wherever you wind up. Have fun.

[Colo Cruiser]

On the TA lots of sea days so as noted above relax and enjoy the outside decks and pool.

[skynight]

We're doing our first non Caribbean cruise next year. Can we expect any changes on board? (TA from FLL to Europe)

 

At a minimum, I'm hoping for less steel drum music on the Lido Deck!

 

Yes, very different than a Caribbean cruise. The first few days may be warm enough to lounge around the Lido Deck. After that it gets too cool, for all day lounging. If they have a deck party it will be during those first few sea days. Plan on participating in the indoor activities. While I feel the steel pan bands in the Caribbean are quite enjoyable, apparently you don't like them. Anyway, it is normal for the deck band to disembark at the end of the Caribbean season. There is no need for them in Europe. The demographic will be older, and there will be more very seasoned cruisers on board. Many of the ports will be sight seeing intensive, not like the ports in the Caribbean with their beaches, water activities and shopping. Join up on your roll call for lots of additional information. We love the TA's and the 6 to 8 days to cross the Atlantic. It's a little let down when we ultimately reach land after enjoying the rhythm of the sea days so much. We are hooked on these longer cruises.

[Kmkub]

Unfortunately, neither of our jobs give us the luxury of being gone so long, so we'll have to treat the 17 cruise days as a sampler-platter of Europe. Neither of us have ever been.

 

We'll have 6 days of the first week as sea days, so plenty of time to unwind before hitting France, Germany, The Netherlands & Denmark. We'll likely have to fly home from Denmark the day we disembark.

 

We don't usually spend much time on the Lido deck because we both are sick of steel drum music; it's all you get on the Caribbean itineraries. What do they do on the TA's?

[Colo Cruiser]

Yes, very different than a Caribbean cruise. The first few days may be warm enough to lounge around the Lido Deck. After that it gets too cool, for all day lounging. If they have a deck party it will be during those first few sea days. Plan on participating in the indoor activities.

 

 

I have to say that we have had many pleasant outside days throughout our TA's.

Its not always too cool.

[Kmkub]

Thanks, Snight - We were hoping so! (We live in South Florida and get plenty of steel drum music, year round!)

 

We are looking forward to the cooler weather outside! We get tired of heat the way some get tired of cold! (We hibernate in summer and go outside in the winter down here.)

 

So, cooler nights will be AWESOME!

 

I suspect we'll be longer cruise addicts after this. Our favorite days since our first cruise in 2008 have been the sea days.

[caribill]

The TAs will have lecturers on board on various topics.

 

There may also be port talks which are not sales pitches, but which actually tell about the ports and the history of the areas visited.

 

There will also be additional daytime activities which are not usually held on shorter cruises or cruises that are port intensive.

[shredie]

Last summer on a TA from Southampton to New York, I kept telling myself I was not stuck in a teeny little seat in a crowded airplane for several grueling hours. We now have more leisure time than we did before we retired, so I told DH I see no reason why we ever have to fly to Europe and back ever again! The TA is about the most fun you can have on a cruise, IMO!

[Colo Cruiser]

Last summer on a TA from Southampton to New York, I kept telling myself I was not stuck in a teeny little seat in a crowded airplane for several grueling hours. We now have more leisure time than we did before we retired, so I told DH I see no reason why we ever have to fly to Europe and back ever again! The TA is about the most fun you can have on a cruise, IMO!

 

You just have to book cruises in between the wait for the TA's. :D

[Pam in CA]

The TAs will have lecturers on board on various topics.

There may also be port talks which are not sales pitches, but which actually tell about the ports and the history of the areas visited.

There will also be additional daytime activities which are not usually held on shorter cruises or cruises that are port intensive.

There are far more activities such as lectures, educational talks, affinity group get-togethers, movies, etc. The demographic is usually quite a bit older than in the Caribbean. Join your roll call because almost always, the roll call members organize activities such as multiple meet & greets, group luncheons, afternoon tea, cabin crawls, slot pulls, etc. plus private tours.

[Kmkub]

Thanks everyone! Our biggest attraction to this itinerary was the number of sea days. We have at least one sea day between all ports except France/Netherlands. (Second biggest was that it's not the Crown nor Ruby, our only ships in 5 cruises!)

 

We did join the roll call, and I love meeting people I've met online. There was never enough time on those 7-day cruises!

 

I'm only having small luck over on the Northern Europe board-our tastes are a little off the beaten path; planning on Heide Park in Germany for roller coasters, and some sort of dam tour in The Netherlands. My husband would love to hear more about those clever engineers. (He's a storm surge nerd) Haven't quite figured out France, yet, maybe Monet's house - Disney is TOTALLY out of the question, but if there was the smallest window, I'd do it! (Feel the same about Paris - why bother for such a short time?)

 

It will be nice having some non-sales lectures. I'm laughing at Pia's "live" comments about the skin toning and teeth whitening. We did seem to get an overwhelming amount of "mail" on our 4-day a couple weeks ago.

 

I love hearing there will be more activities to choose from; and sitting on the Lido deck without steel drums? Priceless.:D

 

(sorry about the multiple edits... brain fart)

Edited April 3, 2014 by Kmkub

[skynight]

 

I'm only having small luck over on the Northern Europe board-our tastes are a little off the beaten path; planning on Heide Park in Germany for roller coasters, and some sort of dam tour in The Netherlands. My husband would love to hear more about those clever engineers. (He's a storm surge nerd) Haven't quite figured out France, yet, maybe Monet's house - Disney is TOTALLY out of the question, but if there was the smallest window, I'd do it! (Feel the same about Paris - why bother for such a short time?)

 

 

In planning your shore activities, take note that some ports are quite a distance from the sites. Le Harve is three hours each way from Paris and a few hours to Normandy. Rotterdam is probably 90 mins from Amsterdam.

[FritzG]

We took 4 Caribbean cruises this winter after having taken 5 ta's and two Hawaiian cruises in the past. It had been 30 years since we were in the Caribbean. There was a tremendous difference in the onboard atmosphere between the itineraries--we can't wait to get back to the ta's in the fall on the Ruby.

 

For us, the biggest difference was the focus of the cruise in general. The Caribbean cruises were focused on shopping alone as far as we could tell.

 

On a ta there are lots of lectures about the ports and the interesting/historical sites to see. There are also lectures about other topics of interest geared to the more experienced traveler. There are few, if any, port shopping lectures. I don't even remember a shopping director on any of the ta's. On the Caribbean cruises I was so disappointed that there was no info on the historical or natural sites on any of the islands. Certainly there are things to see other than Diamonds International, but no one ever mentioned them. They could be found in the shorex brochures, but they definitely weren't the focus of the cruise.

 

We love sea days, and on a TA there are many activities every day if that is what you prefer, but we love them for the relaxation and time together.

We liked the Caribbean cruises for the weather--getting out of NE Ohio this winter was wonderful. We loved the Emerald and the Ruby, but we much prefer TA's for the ports and the sea days.