Do you pick a cruise for itinerary or ship?

[ltlslick1]

Price is probably the most important factor for me. The ship vs itinerary question is harder to answer. If I am cruising in the Caribbean, the itinerary is not all that important - I am there for the warm weather. With that said, I'd much rather be on a newer ship in the Caribbean with all the bells and whistles. Cruising in other parts of the world would be more about the itinerary as it would be more about the destinations versus the warm weather resort type feel of a ship.

[Ms Jo UK]

Itinerary, Ship then price in that order

[bigque]

I like the itineraries because we like to do tours to see the islands and hear about the history. We are not really beach people but will hang out if a beach stop is part of the tours we take. We just love look and feel of the islands with their beautiful blue water beaches. I use to say it did not matter about the ship until my last cruise on Enchantment. I know a lot of people say they like Enchantment but I was not really impressed with that ship. I had a good time on the ship but I just wasn't impressed overall with it after the other ships I have been on including Sovereign which was an older ship than Enchantment. So from now on I think I will stick with Radiance class and above! :cool:

[dcgrumpy]

Both. First I decide where I want to go, then I compare ships and prices.

[srlafleur]

Itinerary, price, and timing.

 

We don't care about the ship, and only marginally even care about which cruise line. We have very little interest in the Caribbean anymore, unless an itinerary comes out that goes off the beaten path, to ports we haven't been.

[erby2283]

Price, itinerary, ship.....(except when I booked the Anthem b/c I have never been on a new ship with all the bells and whistles and seeing pictures of Quantum made me want to go on a new ship. So I found the cheapest date for an interior room on the Anthem in 2016....and I hate interiors). :D

[John&LaLa]

Cruise line, price, departure port

 

Itinerary may come into play once retired

[impatientlywaiting]

Itinerary only on Radiance or Vision class Royal ships. However, when our last cruising buddy makes Diamond, we'll probably switch over to Celebrity. Yep, staying with the Royal family.

[Lady Hudson]

Mostly price. I don't really care where the ship goes anymore. Now that I have retired and can travel "whenever", I look for ships out of New York, New Jersey, or Baltimore that have reasonable rates. Katherine

[Mnamom1105]

BOAT. We look at:

 

1. who is based here (we are 30 minutes from Port Canaveral) in terms of Royal (sorry, we are Royal snobs and only cruise on them)

2. when do we want to go. Our next trip is with our 9 year old and it is on Freedom, which we have done before, and same itinerary we did 2 years ago. That's no biggie to us.

 

We look at boat, then price. We originally were looking beginning of Dec, but found good deal a different time, so took it for our fall cruise. Same as we have been before? no biggie - we can skip shore excursions an dsave money if nothing else!

[Paulette3028]

Since we don't have enormous flexibility, we both work and have to fit in our cruising around other things....we need to look at time of year.

 

As much as we may want to do Alaska, if we are able to cruise in February -- that won't happen.

 

So we need to first look at time of year and how many days we can both be away from work, what ships are available out of Miami or FLL (we can drive to those ports most easily), then cost (if we can avoid airfare -- all the better, which is why we prefer Miami or FLL).

 

It is never as easy as Ship or Itinerary.....maybe when we retire. Yet we always find a cruise to go on, when we want to cruise.

[susancruzs]

Being retired, I sail for itinerary with either RCI or Princess, ship not a concern really, although I would not want to sail on RCI's biggest ships.

[cincicruisers]

Sometimes we book for ship, sometimes for itinerary, but mostly for price.

 

I agree with this poster

[Midwestgal]

The only reason we booked with Royal is to cruise on the Allure, seriously doubt we'll sail with Royal after this....so it's the ship.

[riclop]

The ship is our destination.

[Nado44]

The answer is always, "it depends".

 

We sail for the RCL experience. We like what is familiar, true and tried (and despite all of the recent changes). We also like our elite status that gets us free drinks and other perks. Sometimes its for the ship (Oasis or Quantum class). Other times, it's for the destination or simply for the sake of getting away and being on any ship.

 

With that said, we keep saying we'll try Celebrity...

[CanadaRob]

It's tough, want to do Panama Canal and some more newer ships Royal and otherwise. Look at itinerary and price and ship lastish....

AgAin not always Royal but with some of the departure times they fit better into what I can do

[Illyria]

We're still figuring out which cruise line is our favorite. So we think of an approximate itinerary first (region/time of year), and then look to see which ships are sailing those itineraries. From there, the determination is made based on ship and price (about 60/40, I guess).

[sr4mjc]

We sail for itinerary, the ship gets us there.

 

Although we did do Oasis and Allure, mainly to join a group of friends. And after that, we said itinerary wins.

Edited May 1, 2015 by sr4mjc

[Hotel CA]

First we decide where we want to go then we decide How we want to travel so we generally decide on an itin and then price the various lines/ships that generally go there -- Once we know when and where it largely becomes price with some caveats -- we prefer Royal and Celebrity over Princess and Carnival and we are not fans of the giant magaships so we try and stay in the 3000 passengers and down but no less than 500 (as we tried small luxury once and were very unhappy with the limitations).

[tidygirl]

Mostly itinerary!

[Nebr.cruiser]

We've got many different reasons to book.

 

In winter, warm destinations are important to us, but so is price. Since we've been to the Caribbean multiple times, itinerary is less important--we've been to most islands several times before.

 

Itinerary is sometimes important if we are wanting to go somewhere new--for instance, we'd love to do the South Pacific or Australia/New Zealand.

 

Length of the cruise has become more and more important to us; we don't really want to go through the hassle and expense of flying for just 7 days anymore--like at least two weeks.

 

The ship is probably the least important point for us most of the time; I'd like to try the Oasis or similar, but the ports and length of cruises for the Behemoths aren't attractive to us.

 

So, Price, length, itinerary, lastly ship.

[cruisemom42]

My standard response to these kinds of questions used to be that I cared more about the ship than the itinerary in the Caribbean, but for anywhere else I am a destination cruiser.

 

However, the cruise market has changed so much over the past decade that this isn't strictly true anymore. Unlike a lot of the other posters on this topic, I want to avoid the "mega" ships -- just not interested in that experience at all. Nothing wrong with it, it's just not what I cruise for. I still look for a traditional cruise experience on smaller ships. I find a lot of things disappointing on the large vessels -- everything from service to food to fellow passengers is just less personalized.

 

So I would have to say that even where itinerary is the first consideration, the ship is also important and I wouldn't do a good itinerary on a ship I didn't like (unless it was a really singular opportunity).

[tweetypie_67]

We usually book a cruise for where it is going. Where we went on our last cruise is also a consideration. Next on our list is price, then ship. On 30+ cruises I have only booked for the ship twice. The Oasis and Quantium . We lucked out because the Quantium had an awesome itinerary!

[gubby]

We book for itinerary and price. Never have booked for ship. Sailed on NCL, RCL, X, Princess and HAL. Each line and each ship has been more than acceptable and we have enjoyed every one of our more than 30 cruises. We have cruised the Caribbean, Mexican Riviera, Hawaii, Bermuda, the Med, TA's, Alaska. Like many have commented, we especially enjoy the smaller ships, but will likely try a larger one for the experience. So far, the largest has been Adventure and of course, we enjoyed it! Most important to us is the price per day. Also I love our perks on Princess as that has been the most travelled company.