where, why and how often

[Hawaiidan]

It would seem that in choosing a trip many relate only to those by ship.

 

So do you tend to think in terms of the majority or even all your trips to be by ocean? Do you tend to exclude those trips and excursions not reached by ship or lingered at through them?

In short do you consider a whole different range of trups and options when considering.

Our CH poster remarked that one cruise and one hotel a year was enough.

 

What do you consider enough or too much cruising? Is there a point when the pleasure diminishes through over familiarity? Such as too much of a good thing/

 

I Myself am now after many years of ship and ocean travel going to space things out by several years between experienced.

 

I understand places like London and Vienna and returning time and again to seek things out.... ( Personally I have been to London to visit an work in more times than I can count....used to show British friends around Windsor and Westminster ...as I knew it better than they)

To Paulmco.... rather than reading a book in the park did you ponder poking around the Tennengeberg Or zipping down to Postonia in Slovinia to see karst country? There is more dimension if one looks beyond

 

Too I AM somewhat bias in favor of more natural history and non mertropolitan areas So when going to London I make a bee line for Wales and the Brecon region. In France...head for the Ardeche and Vecour over Paris and the Louvre.

[jertom]

In short do you consider a whole different range of trups and options when considering.

 

Ooh you are broadening the question considerably !

Yes we certainly do consider a whole range of trips and options. You have described very well a lot of the considerations.

Another of the options is staying at home and exploring your local area with day trips. :D

[Silver Sweethearts]

It would seem that in choosing a trip many relate only to those by ship.

 

So do you tend to think in terms of the majority or even all your trips to be by ocean? Do you tend to exclude those trips and excursions not reached by ship or lingered at through them?

 

What we like to exclude as much as possible are airports and flights. What was once a decent experience has obviously declined, to put it mildly. We want to get away from zoos and cattle calls. Cruising may not be perfect, but it is the closest thing we have found to the calm we prefer while still taking us places in style.

[Mura]

We do like cruising for the ease of unpacking once you're on the ship. (Getting there is another issue as has been said.)

 

But we've always done independent land trips. We're now getting to the age where we MIGHT consider group tours, but so far that isn't happening.

 

In 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013 (do you see a pattern?) we did land trips with our Danish friends, showing them our national parks. These trips have been 2-3 weeks in duration. In September 2015 we are planning on doing a road trip with them through northern Portugal. Howard and I did two trips in 1984 and 1985 in the area and would love to show them the Portugal we love.

 

So, yes, in recent years we've done more cruises than land trips but there are differences that we appreciate. You rent a car, book a place for several days and drive hither and yon. We did that in Tuscany 8-9 years ago -- we had 4 days in Florence, and several days in three other locations where we spent 3 days or so in each place.

 

With a land trip you can spend time in an area and see it more in depth. With a cruise, it's convenient but you don't really see an area in depth. Sometimes you don't need to! Puerto Chacobuco, Chile, only needs one day! But Lisbon or Paris or London needs are more.

 

(Actually, that's not really true. Puerto Chacobuco itself is pretty small, but there are interesting areas in and around the port city so you could certainly spend a few very enjoyable days there.)

 

That doesn't mean you can't enjoy a day in a big port as long as you realize you are only going to get a glimpse.

 

So we like both options.

 

And we have COME to love lots of sea days ...

 

Mura

[no fuss travel]

We have been combining a cruise with a land trip for the last few. The next cruise is the only one where we will not do a land tour either before or after the cruise. In 2016 we are doing a land tour in Africa. We fell in love with the continent when we were there this past December/January and wish to see more.

[Hawaiidan]

What we like to exclude as much as possible are airports and flights. .

 

That living in Hawaii...anywhere in Hawaii, requires 5-9 hours air travel..one way to leave town....and even going from one city/island to another requires over an hour of airport time plus 30 min to an hour to travel from Maui to Honolulu... under 100 miles! Even going to see the doctor requires hours of air travel

After a decade of constant airports...I like you have had it and why I moved back to normalcy.

[terry&mike]

Vacation-wise we like all sorts of trips, and tend to select a cruise when it is suitable for the itinerary we want to visit.

We usually take 4-6 trips a year, as we enjoy always having something on the horizon, but generally only take a cruise every year or two.

We tend to favor land trips that allow us to explore a region for 12-16 days, spending 3-4 nights in different locales.

Another big winner for us is home exchange vacations, as they allow us to stay in an area that probably wouldn't have been on our radar. We love the experience of staying in an Italian family's vacation home in Zoagli, Italy, or a Scottish family's vacation home at the beach in Embo, near The Highlands. We would have never ended up staying in the hip area of Sillery, outside Old Quebec City, had it not been for home exchange, and many other interesting places. We have a beach house in a small fishing village in Mexico as a 2nd home, and it has proven to be very popular with exchanges, so we try to do at least one trip of this sort per year, and they have been some of our favorites.

[NMLady]

I read the post about sailing 20-40 even 60 times on Oceaina.... and one must assume other lines as well.

, Since there are only so many places in the world you can take a ship to and only so many ports and regions...

To me it seems that sailing several months a year year after year on the same ships you would have to take the same cruises over and over.....

 

I am thus curious as to how many times people repeat the same route...there is only so many times you can sail the Greek islands, travel the Panama canal or sail the Baltic.... got to Tahiti or Hong Kong?

 

Not a criticism if you do, but doesn't it get rather mundane seeing the same stuff over and over? I find I have to take a year or more break between cruises to keep it interesting.

 

Even when we've gone to the same port several times there is always something new to see or a different excursion to take. Sometimes we just get a beer at a sidewalk table and talk to some of the locals.

A few times when at a repeat port we have stayed aboard the ship and enjoyed the peace and quiet of having the ship almost to ourselves. Chatted with some of the crew and with other guests who also stayed aboard.

 

We've done independent land trips, have done bus tours of countries, have done all-inclusive hotel stays but have found we enjoy cruising much more than anything else.

Edited September 1, 2014 by NMLady

[Jancruz]

It would seem that in choosing a trip many relate only to those by ship.

 

So do you tend to think in terms of the majority or even all your trips to be by ocean? Do you tend to exclude those trips and excursions not reached by ship or lingered at through them?

In short do you consider a whole different range of trups and options when considering.

Our CH poster remarked that one cruise and one hotel a year was enough.

 

What do you consider enough or too much cruising? Is there a point when the pleasure diminishes through over familiarity? Such as too much of a good thing/

 

I Myself am now after many years of ship and ocean travel going to space things out by several years between experienced.

 

I understand places like London and Vienna and returning time and again to seek things out.... ( Personally I have been to London to visit an work in more times than I can count....used to show British friends around Windsor and Westminster ...as I knew it better than they)

To Paulmco.... rather than reading a book in the park did you ponder poking around the Tennengeberg Or zipping down to Postonia in Slovinia to see karst country? There is more dimension if one looks beyond

 

Too I AM somewhat bias in favor of more natural history and non mertropolitan areas So when going to London I make a bee line for Wales and the Brecon region. In France...head for the Ardeche and Vecour over Paris and the Louvre.

 

 

 

I am going to take a stab at this Dan..I am adventurous (much more than Stu) In my younger days I did hot-air ballooning in France and Kenya, Snowmobiling through Finland, flying in a 5 seater to Milford sound in New Zealand..so you get the idea..I think in my last life I was a gypsy..Now as the years tick on tho I still have an adventurous spirit..the body not so much...so I fulfill my dreams by cruising..truthfully at this point I have been everywhere many times, as some others I use the ship as the destination and rarely tour..visiting favorite shops and restaurants in each port satisfy's my needs..Stu and I are going on our 4th cruise this year..we have been on three different ships to 4 different places..Hawaii, California Coastal, TA and now Caribbean..I usually book late now because Stu never knows how he will feel and I hate to push him..We have decided no more really long flights for us so we have limited our destinations but not our choice of ships and each cruise line is a different experience..our favorite is of course Oceania but we love meeting different kinds of people and crowds don't bother us..so our second choice is Celebrity and tho we have been on Azamara their far away destinations limit us..

My motto has always been "life without travel is like reading a book without opening the cover"

Jancruz1

[jertom]

What we like to exclude as much as possible are airports and flights.

 

We are thinking the same way ! Seems like more and more we are doing things solely to avoid long flights to get to and from cruise ports: transatlantic cruises, roundabout flight combinations, ... Next may be trains !

[traveler916]

What do you consider enough or too much cruising? Is there a point when the pleasure diminishes through over familiarity? Such as too much of a good thing/

 

Dan

 

This November will be our 3rd westbound TA on Marina. We have done Rome to Rio, Barcelona to Rio and this year, Lisbon to Rio. Next year we hope to do Lisbon to Rio by way of Cape Town - 39 days.

 

For us, the ship is the destination.

 

We don't have to think about where we are going. What we're going to eat. Going to the store to procure food. It's all there for us.

 

Too much of a good thing? Maybe. I will let you know next May after we do a back to back - Tahiti to Lima to New York for 36 days. I don't think we will get bored with life on the ship, although going home is ALWAYS an adjustment. Spelled r e a l i t y c h e c k!!!

 

It's not the ports. We rarely get off the ship. It's simply fun for us to cruise. Doesn't matter where.

 

Having said that...since I still work, and don't plan on retiring, there are only certain times of the year we can travel. November is a good time. I like sea days.

 

Hope this helps you understand another person's motivation