Do any others find RCCL's itineraries repetative and boring?

[Ocean Dancer]

Work schedules make it so that we can only do 7 day cruises to the Caribbean. Flight costs make it so that we fly out of florida.

 

We are generally restricted to 7 day East or 7 day west. Would love to do a southern and see some different ports.

 

But at the end of the day, we don't cruise for the ports, we cruise for the ship and what she offers. Most ports, we don't even get off the ship anymore.

 

 

saw some nice 10 day holiday itineraries, but sadly could not make it work out with our schedule

 

Have you thought of flying to San Juan for a 7 day Southern? Just for a change of ports, a thought and well worth it .

 

I think most cruises out of San Juan leave on the weekend allowing you to fly in the night before.

 

We had Royal do our flight ONCE........the ship was scheduled to leave at 10 pm. Our flight left Philly at 2pm, did not get on the ship until 8pm, missing the MDR and a whole day of our cruise. I'll never let them book my flights again.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

Have you thought of flying to San Juan for a 7 day Southern? Just for a change of ports, a thought and well worth it .

 

I think most cruises out of San Juan leave on the weekend allowing you to fly in the night before.

 

We had Royal do our flight ONCE........the ship was scheduled to leave at 10 pm. Our flight left Philly at 2pm, did not get on the ship until 8pm, missing the MDR and a whole day of our cruise. I'll never let them book my flights again.

We've done the San Juan port cruises 3 times now...and are anything but boring.

 

The Southern Caribbean itineraries are among the best offerings...and they "mix" around the specific islands with different destination routes.

 

So if you have favorite place you enjoy...you can book those...if you want to try new places...you can book those.

 

Never found a shortage of places to cruise.

[Lady Hudson]

If I wanted to fly to get to a cruise I certainly would have more choice of intineraries. But I choose not to do so. I do also sail Cunard and Celebrity - with Cunard I can get back and forth to Europe without flying. Long story short -- at this point in my cruising career the ship is my destination. I really don't care where the ship goes. I sail for the "getaway factor" -- wherever that may be. Katherine

[TC1957]

Skimmed the thread...sorry if this has been said.

 

We have cruised a lot less, but I can understand the frustration of being limited in ports of call.

 

I saw lots of people recommend 12-14 night cruises. OK...not feasible to most people in the US. While I get less vacation than my wife, because of my job I cannot take more than a week at a time...may be able to push it to 6 workdays...and cannot be away from work the first and last week of each month. There are only so many ports of origin within driving distance making it more difficult. From where we live, to take more than 7 nights we need Galveston, Houston or NOLA...only so many ports a ship can reach from them, regardless of the line. For use, the ship will NEVER be the destination. We enjoy a cruise...but not nearly that much.

 

I saw in the thread posters recommending Med and Europe (and people we know have said similar) showing a fare of a few hundred dollars. Sounds great...oh, forgot the $2,500 to fly the two of you there and two nights in a hotel before departure (can't risk a flight delay making you miss the ship) and the food. OK, that $550 fare shown is now a $4,500 vacation and you haven't spend a thin dime on anything except food and lodging...not nearly as affordable. It is also harder to justify using almost all of the vacation time when there are things we would enjoy doing (and have not done to date) much closer and costing much less.

 

Face it, for most people in the US any cruise longer than 7 nights is not really an option while they are working. That is why we have a couple of cruises we will consider when we retire.

 

The repetition and boredom result from our personal limits (preferences) or the limitations on time placed on you by outside forces.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

If someone limits their cruise ports, obviously, they limit their choices.

 

That holds true for other travel as well.

[TigerLady]

I LOVE to cruise, but I frankly cannot find an itinerary on RCCL that appeals to me anymore. Caveats: don't want to fly to Australia, and we prefer warm weather itineraries, so no Alaska, Boston, New England. Also, I am going to Europe with my bff next year, so I'm not interested in that long flight again for a while.

 

I looked this morning, because we got a gift certificate from our son for Christmas, and I could not find a single cruise that interested me. I finally called to make sure I could use the certificate on Celebrity. They seem to have more variety.

 

We just got back from Princess to Hawaii and Mexico b2b, and it was fabulous! RCCL seems to only want to do Bermuda, Bahamas, and cookie-cutter Caribbean.

 

We love RCCL, and we love the Caribbean, but they only go to the same 6 ports for the Eastern itinerary, and 6 Western, give or take a few.

 

We are itinerary cruisers, but love RCCL ships and loyalty perks. But, we don't love it enough to repeat the same itinerary year after year after year.

 

I'll keep looking, but right now my future bookings are with Celebrity and NCL. Am I being fussy, or do others feel this way, too?

 

We always find something new to see or do, so going to the same places, doesn't seem repetitious..

[KansasK]

Royal's website used to have a page where you could click on ports and then select "Show me cruises that visit this port". I have trouble finding this anymore.

 

Now if you click on Plan a Cruise on the home page, then on Destinations, it shows the destinations they sail to, rather than ports. If you select one of them, it shows the ships that sail to that area on the right side of the screen. There is an option to use the "Find a Cruise" boxes, and also an option to click on See Cruises by each of the different areas of the region you selected.

 

I remember what you are talking about, though, and thought it was a good screen to use.

[bigque]

It seems to me that this is more of limiting ones self to cruises that only sail in a specific region. Royal has built bigger ships that cannot go a lot of places and unless they make other ports to accommodate the ships they are always going to be going to the same ports. If you take multiple cruises a year to the same itineraries I guess it will get boring and repetitive a before long.

 

We love to cruise and do so for the itineraries also but we only do so about every other year on average and usually take land vacations in between. By doing this it has not become boring to us and the only place we have been to more than once is the Bahamas on the 3 day cruise twice. That is now no longer an option as twice to Nassau is enough for us. Next year will be the first time we will have done the same itinerary on a 7 day cruise (Western) but it will be on Oasis for the first time and will be the first time we are actually cruising for the ship rather than the itinerary. We will get off and spend the day on the beach at Labadee but will only get off and walk around the shopping area in Falmouth and Cozumel and then back on the ship. After that cruise we plan on doing European cruises next so that it does not become boring or repetitive! :cool:

[ckfred]

The problem with the Caribbean is that is seems to be focused on jewelry and duty-free shopping, snorkeling, or going to a beach. You don't find a lot of excursions that involve hiking in some sort of nature area or visiting some sort of historical site.

 

What I miss is the 7-night cruise around the British Isles. RC used to have that cruise out of Copenhagen. Now, it's a 12-night cruise out of Amsterdam. We really hate to burn through that many vacation days for one cruise.

 

Also, RC has gotten rid of its cruises to the Arctic Circle.