Curious about travel preferences of passengers from the UK

[MSBerliner]

On our recent cruise from Los Angeles to Hawaii we were pleased to meet a couple from England. Their itinerary was - England to Las Vegas, Las Vegas to Los Angeles for the roundtrip cruise, then back to England. Somehow I got the impression that many from the UK select the same itinerary. What do you say fellow cruisers from UK? We are from Arizona by the way and certainly concur with their selection. Just curious. :)

[jackieo]

UK travel agents try to make a 'Package holiday' in order to make the long flight worth while. A lot of UK cruisers will take this option.

 

We however like to book independently so we control all elements of our holiday - so on our last Hawaii cruise we chose to stay in SFO for three days before the cruise. To relax and get our jet lag sorted!

Edited March 30, 2015 by jackieo

[Esprit]

We would happily go to Vegas again and Hawaii is on my bucket list. I wouldn't necessarily go to both at the same time though unless the price was too good to miss

[Feebarn]

The time difference for the west coast is so much greater that its always worth while stopping over somewhere to let jetlag catch up.

 

We had a few days in Seattle before driving up to Vancouver for our Alaska cruise and for our Hawaii cruise had 5 days in LA just doing touristy stuff prior to boarding.

 

This next trip we are arriving on Thursday for a Saturday transatlantic cruise, but figuring we are heading back to the UK so jet lag will catch us up somewhere about Bermuda!

 

:D

[Smokeyham]

On my last California Coastal Cruise there were a number of British people whose travel agent had set them up with an itinerary which included Las Vegas either before or after the cruise. They seemed happy with that choice.

[newport dave]

We did one a few years ago. It was 3 nights Las Vegas, 3 nights San Fran, 2 nights LA then a weeks cruise down to Mexico and back. We could have had it arranged in any order as long as we did the cruise on the set date, and that we stayed in LA immediately before or after the cruise. It cost approx £1000pp for all the flights, hotels & the cruise.

[The CRuIseLLS]

We intend to do something similar for my hubby's 60th in 2016.

We'll book independently though - we're definitely going to Las Vegas (we love that city) we're just not sure if we'll cruise to the islands or fly & island hop.

We love the idea of cruising there but just 4 days around the islands seems too little - with so much of the world still to see, it could well be our only visit to Hawaii and we want to see as much as we can.

 

With our last cruise, we combined a 2 night stay in San Francisco before embarkation with a 2 night stay in Fort Lauderdale after disembarkation.

 

Our first cruise was to Alaska - we stayed in Vancouver for 2 nights beforehand but did a lot of travelling afterwards. 4 nights in Seattle, 4 nights in Las Vegas and 5 nights in Washington DC........all booked independently

Apart from getting bumped off a flight from Philadelphia to DC and then, during our homeward journey, having to spend the night in a Chicago motel courtesy of American Airlines (the pilots went on strike as we sat on the plane waiting for other passengers to board!), everything went to plan :D

[dbeckett]

We book whatever takes out fancy (still waiting for the Amazon to come up so we can get on it before Princess no longer has ships small enough to cruise it). We book direct and just head there a couple of days before to get over the jetlag (Fort Lauderdale in about a week). Vegas doesn't appeal to us so it would have to be something really special to make us go there.

[john watson]

UK Travel Agents have developed a number of "Inclusive Package Holidays" built around Hawaii cruises from the West Coast of America. The fights are very long and jet lag can be an issue as well as the number of sea days before arriving. Typically they add a package and call it a "Cruise and Stay", stopover in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver or Seattle. They also have options like the Las Vegas visit sometimes with a "free" helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon or a stay on the Queen Mary at Long Beach. Transfers all included usually.

 

It makes the holiday more attractive and appear to be substantially better value for money.

 

Regards John

[wowzz]

I think that the issue of jet-lag is one of the key reasons why so many Brits want to start their holiday in a hotel prior to the cruise itself.. If you go straight on to a cruise in California after arriving from the UK, the 8 hour time difference will mean that most of the first week will pass in a befuddled haze!

I know that Americans flying to the West Coast from the East Coast will obviously have a three hour 'lag' to make up, but this is a mere 'bagatelle' compared to an 8 hour time difference.

[OCruisers]

Our Brit friends took an interesting Spring one they called "A Colonial America Holiday Package".

They flew to Boston where they stayed for a few days. Then, they were put on a tour bus for about two weeks stopping at various places to tour and spend the night on their way to Ft. Lauderdale. From Ft. Lauderdale they took a TA back home.

They were gone about a month! They were retired so had the time!

LuLu

[mrsgoggins]

We are doing an Alaska cruise tour in May and like to make our own arrangements as we would not travel across the Atlantic in economy/coach but still want to be able to get the best price possible. As others have said, jet lag played a large part in our decisions.

 

We are also doing 5 nights in Las Vegas hiring a car (been 5 or 6 times previously), then flying to Vancouver and staying one night close to the cruise terminal (also toured this area before). Our return is Anchorage to Orlando (via MSP) for 3 reasons: 1) to change from a 9-hour time difference to a 5-hour one, 2) to get a Virgin Atlantic direct flight back to Manchester, our closest airport and 3) some guaranteed warmth! I have been to central Florida enough times to know that we could also have non-stop rain for the 4 days we are spending there too, so fingers crossed for that :)

 

Not a cheap way to do it, but it makes the cruise the centre vacation with another either side. Retirement is a wonderful thing ;)

[EnglandHolidayGirl]

When we did our Alaska cruise in 2010, we flew into Seattle and then spend 4 days touring the Olympic National Park in Washington State. Then the cruise from Seattle round trip followed by 4 days in a cabin on Mount Rainier exploring that part of Washington State. it was a great trip, all booked independently.