What do you do in between cruising to scratch that cruise itch? How do you cope?

[LMaxwell]

Sometimes I Book a Bon Voyage Experience with Princess. You get to board a ship for the afternoon, free photo, priority boarding before suites and elites, lunch in dining room w wine, etc. if you fill out an FCC form you get obc for your next cruise for booking "onboard", but even if you don't book a next cruise it's a fun way to spend an afternoon and only $39

[LMaxwell]

And every few months I go down to Fort Lauderdale beach to watch ships sail away

[Siora7777]

ummm .. I read CC, plan future cruises, watch youtube vids, buy totally unnecessary packing supplies, buy totally unnecessary tropical clothing, and do "practice" bookings of many different ships on several lines!

 

Same

[crooooze]

We regularly visit the websites watching for price drops on the booked cruise and pre-cruise hotel.

 

 

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[sparks1093]

Sometimes I Book a Bon Voyage Experience with Princess. You get to board a ship for the afternoon, free photo, priority boarding before suites and elites, lunch in dining room w wine, etc. if you fill out an FCC form you get obc for your next cruise for booking "onboard", but even if you don't book a next cruise it's a fun way to spend an afternoon and only $39

 

That sounds awesome and makes me wish that I lived near a port.

[CaptainNappin]

We love all inclusive as much or more than cruising. don't get me wrong we love cruising as well, our last 2 cruises were B2B, 21 and 14 day respectively. we are going to Sandals in St.Lucia for 2 weeks in October , before our January Miracle 14 day trans canal. the advantages of A.I., much better food and selections. five or six restaurants all free. Top shelf liquors, even in your room and swim up bars. Lounge chairs are always available by the beach and pool. All activities are included, even Scuba with Sandals. there are Hobi cats, kayaks, stand up paddle boards, and water tubing, to name a few. Is it more expensive, yes, but add up your shore excursions, it's pretty close. we also have a time share and do that once a year in St.Martin.

 

Time share... St Martin... 😠

[CaptainNappin]

Sometimes I Book a Bon Voyage Experience with Princess. You get to board a ship for the afternoon, free photo, priority boarding before suites and elites, lunch in dining room w wine, etc. if you fill out an FCC form you get obc for your next cruise for booking "onboard", but even if you don't book a next cruise it's a fun way to spend an afternoon and only $39

 

How do I not know about this?

[KmomChicago]

Check the school calendar as far in advance as possible, interrogate the family regarding their current most pressing travel bucket list needs, and begin the hunt, promising you're just playing with those "pretend" bookings, because really, what are the chances of finding the perfect: schedule, price, ship, and destination (especially PRICE), when you are locked in to those rotten, very limited, school vacation high seasons and you are too cheap to fly, so you need extra drive days before and after? Completely safe and benign activity. No risk. At all.

 

That's how, just last week, I fell victim to the serpent's temptation and booked an irresistible guarantee inside deal on Oasis of the Seas for March 25, 2018 even before sailing on our January 2, 2018 four-day on Carnival Sensation, which was also an irresistible deal that miraculously fit into the very end of a rather oddly scheduled Christmas Break. D'oh!

[John&LaLa]

How do I not know about this?

Carnival does it occasionally in PC. Organized by a local TA. Seems pricy to me

 

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[croaziera]

I watch other people's cruises at http://www.rcperiscopers.live. I also post the videos from my cruises to my YouTube channel: Cruise Addict. These two things keep me going until the next cruise.

 

 

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[Rudyard]

Real life stuff

[projectorguy1]

four words ...

 

Pool, Margarita, and Hot Tub!!

 

 

Maybe one more thing...Island music out on the lake!

 

...and a Margarita...

[LMaxwell]

Carnival does it occasionally in PC. Organized by a local TA. Seems pricy to me

 

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Princess puts out a schedule for the year. It isn't on all ships or departures, but on many of them. Not arranged by a TA, and you don't have to be associated with any guest on the ship (though if you are they get priority boarding with you). It's a relative bargain for $39, especially if you drop off the future cruise form because you get $39 OBC for that.

[sparks1093]

Princess puts out a schedule for the year. It isn't on all ships or departures, but on many of them. Not arranged by a TA, and you don't have to be associated with any guest on the ship (though if you are they get priority boarding with you). It's a relative bargain for $39, especially if you drop off the future cruise form because you get $39 OBC for that.

 

Do you have a link for the schedule? I could see us combining this with a visit to a port city.

[LMaxwell]

Do you have a link for the schedule? I could see us combining this with a visit to a port city.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=52226794&postcount=18

[sparks1093]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=52226794&postcount=18

 

Awesome, thanks! Looks like they have one out of NYC in mid-October, close enough to DW's birthday for a nice surprise date night and day. Are they booked online as a cruise is or do you call customer service to book it?

[oldguysandgalls]

In between we watch cruise ships videos (see link)

 

It never gets old....unlike us

[PhotoMike]

What do I do between cruises? I go to work...lol

[h_blond2]

Spend way too much time on here and the Facebook groups. I also take as many mini-trips as I can. Gives me more things to look forward to in addition to my big cruise countdown.

[2CatsInFlorida]

go on a diet and imagine then next time we can be gluttons on ship

 

 

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[coevan]

Time share... St Martin... 😠

 

 

 

What is your problem with a time share? St.Martin is one of our favorite islands. We do a week timeshare on the Dutch side and another week either at the same resort or go to the French side. Confused about your response

[CaptainNappin]

What is your problem with a time share? St.Martin is one of our favorite islands. We do a week timeshare on the Dutch side and another week either at the same resort or go to the French side. Confused about your response

 

 

 

Jealous! Envious! We love St. Martin!

[coevan]

We do too. Great food, great friendly people and so much to do.

[evandbob]

We do land vacations. Got to visit Australia, New Zealand and the Cook Islands. Saw way more than if we only had port hours from a ship. Our plan was to be away for February and 1/2 of March returning to NY with sigtns of spring in the air. 2 or 3 days after getting home, we got hit with cold temps and over a foot of snow. So we booked a last minute cruise for April 1.

Next winter we snow bird to Panama for all of February and March. Then we sail the Horizon when it comes to NY in May.

[LMaxwell]

Awesome, thanks! Looks like they have one out of NYC in mid-October, close enough to DW's birthday for a nice surprise date night and day. Are they booked online as a cruise is or do you call customer service to book it?

 

I've always just called and booked direct.

 

When you get to port let everyone you speak to know you are there for BVE, many of the agents don't seem to know the program and you don't want to get lumped with general boarding; a concierge or guest services person comes to the terminal for BVE guests about 30 minutes before the Suite and Elite guests can board. It is very likely you will be guest count number 1 onboard if there are no weddings going on.