A Snow Bird Cruise Ship????

[nukesubsailor]

When we have taken our annual "get out of the cold" February back to back Caribbean cruises I have noticed on turn around day that there are hundreds of people doing back to back cruises. Last month there were over 500 on the Royal. If there are that many on just one ship on one date, then there have to be thousands who want to spend weeks aboard ship and have the time and money to do this.

That makes me think that there might be enough such cruisers to justify having a cruise ship that makes long cruises of say 4 weeks and visits most if not all the Caribbean cruise ship ports. If I wanted to spend 28 days cruising the Caribbean in the winter I would rather do it on a ship whose itinerary doesn't have it returning to Ft. Lauderdale every 7 or 14 days.

It would save the cruise line a lot of hassle with the reduction of turn around days.

Princess-----if you read this, please run a cost/benefit analysis of this and see if it would be feasible.

[avcruz]

Yep, I like that idea! I'm less than 2 years from retirement and my husband and I are looking at various options for spending Jan - March each year. This is one I can definitely get into!

[Coral]

You live in Texas? How cold does it get there in the winter? We have people who go to Texas in the winter to warm up :)

[paul929207]

We spent 24 days on the Caribbean Princess earlier this year. It was a 14 day circle the Caribbean cruise followed by 10 day partial transit thru the new Panama locks.

 

There are also a number of South America cruises that go up to 49 days.

[WisCruiser2]

If you haven't read Pescado Amarillo's blog, she writes about spending several months on cruise ships. They see the turnaround day as a chance to stock up on needed supplies and take advantage of high speed wifi.

 

Sent from my SM-G930R6 using Forums mobile app

[nukesubsailor]

You live in Texas? How cold does it get there in the winter? We have people who go to Texas in the winter to warm up :)

 

We live in south central Texas and it can get below freezing over night a few times. We have had snow and ice storms on occasion. I grew up in Indiana and have spent winters in Idaho and Connecticut so I know our Texas winters are milder than in most of the country but they still aren't as comfortable as winters in the Caribbean.

My wife says the biggest difference between winter at home and winter on a cruise is that at home we have no cabin steward to do the cleaning and no chef to do the cooking and no one to do the laundry for us and no one to entertain us.

[Coral]

My wife says the biggest difference between winter at home and winter on a cruise is that at home we have no cabin steward to do the cleaning and no chef to do the cooking and no one to do the laundry for us and no one to entertain us.

 

Sorry - just had to tease you!

[floridalover5623]

28 days might sound nice but I doubt if they could fill a complete ship for that amount of time in the Caribbean. Anyhow Princess makes more money on a change of passengers doing shorter trips.

[Lucky TGO]

I’ll go sign me up. I hate the snow and cold weather in Boston. I have booked 2B2 cruises and going back to Florida. Most of the time the weather is terrible.

Tony

[JEH]

DW and Ì definitely would be interested in any Winter cruise more than 14 days. Being from Chicago the longer we're gone in the Caribbean the better. This Winter we added some days in Fort Lauderdale after our but the weather was cool and windy.

[diane.in.ny]

Add me to the list. When we go away for the winter, it is minimum 3 weeks ... typically 1 to 2 months. So I'm interested.

[skynight]

Princess and other cruise lines do this. World Cruise & World Cruise segments. Princess also has been offering a 28 day South Pacific RT L.A. as well as a bunch of longer repo cruises

In the Caribbean and most other itineraries the cruise line will make more on board revenue/day from those that board for a shorter cruise then they do from long term cruisers. I don't see Princess changing their itineraries to what you propose.

[nukesubsailor]

Princess and other cruise lines do this. World Cruise & World Cruise segments. Princess also has been offering a 28 day South Pacific RT L.A. as well as a bunch of longer repo cruises

In the Caribbean and most other itineraries the cruise line will make more on board revenue/day from those that board for a shorter cruise then they do from long term cruisers. I don't see Princess changing their itineraries to what you propose.

 

We have taken the 28 day South Pacific cruise twice. It is popular but is done in the fall and spring, not during the winter. It also has 18 sea days which are too many for a lot of people. 8 of those sea days are consecutive and that bothers some people who normally don't mind sea day.

We hate air travel so we prefer round trip cruises so we can buy round trip air tickets which usually are cheaper than buying two one-way tickets from different cities. Repositioning cruises also occur in the spring and fall rather than the winter. The entire World Cruise is longer that I can be gone from home for and is on a ship we have no desire to cruise on.

You have a point about the daily per person onboard spending. I can believe that it is greater on shorter cruises.

[floridalover5623]

The cruise industry loves fresh pockets. :D

[voljeep]

which I am kind of surprised that Princess is mostly doing away with the 4-5 day East Coast Getaways...maybe only 1 that I see now for May 2019 - 4 day Cozumel...

 

may have to book that later if the price drops... no FCD's in hand for now :(

[zahav1]

We just came back from doing B2B on the Regal, and going back to Ft. Lauderdale was OK, we took advantage of visiting the area which we've never done before. But, I think if we had done a 3rd week we would have stayed on the ship.

 

I think Princess makes a ton of money on these short 7 or even 10 days cruises, I've never seen so much alcohol consumed and spa lines like I've seen on these two 7 day cruises. You do get some regulars who may not party as much, don't buy the photos, etc. but Princess relies on those newbies which would jump on the 7 day cruise.

 

For them to do a long Caribbean cruise, like 30 days without going back to Ft. Lauderdale they would have to do on a small ship and they only have one small one. I would do if it was offered and if the price was right

[paul929207]

I wish Princess would put back on some of the cruises they did in days gone by. We did a b2b from Fort Lauderdale to Manaus, Brazil to FLL. Each leg was 14 days. They did it most of the winter.

[Go-Bucks!]

I wish Princess would put back on some of the cruises they did in days gone by. We did a b2b from Fort Lauderdale to Manaus, Brazil to FLL. Each leg was 14 days. They did it most of the winter.

I would like that itinerary too. I'm hoping they'll do the 60 day South America circumnavigation again in 2-3 years.

[Go-Bucks!]

Add me to the list. When we go away for the winter, it is minimum 3 weeks ... typically 1 to 2 months. So I'm interested.

Many cruiselines have Grand Voyages and World Cruises of different lengths. If Princess' doesn't "float your boat", then check out other lines. I'm sure there's something for everyone.

[OCruisers]

We love the idea of longer roundtrip cruises out of FLL. :)

[Crzn-Life]

I wish Princess would put back on some of the cruises they did in days gone by. We did a b2b from Fort Lauderdale to Manaus, Brazil to FLL. Each leg was 14 days. They did it most of the winter.

 

We did that a few times with the first time on the old Regal and the others on the Pacific. It is a wonderful itinerary, but look at the big ships Princess has now. Most are too large for the river. It has to be a small ship to sail on the Amazon and Princess has only the Pacific. I believe the Coral might be too large for the Amazon, but if they'd do that itinerary again, we'd be among the first to sign on.

 

I also don't remember them doing it more than one time/season. The last time we did the cruise, we decided to go at the last minute and got the last available cabin on the Pacific and it turned out to be the cheapest 28 day cruise we've ever been on.

[Hlitner]

While we agree with the OP about long cruises (we often take cruises more than a month in length) we do understand why Princess (and other lines) do not generally do longer Caribbean cruises. In fact, Celebrity, who for years has done a 14 day Caribbean itinerary is now ending that tradition. Princess used to do 14 day Caribbean itineraries on the Grand...but ended it years ago. Why?

 

Think about it. Offering 7, 10, and 11 day itineraries fits more cruisers needs. And if anyone wants a longer cruise they can simply do back to backs (or more). Many cruise lines alternative itineraries so that a back to back does not repeat ports (or perhaps only repeats one port). We did the 14 day Grand Princess Caribbean cruises when they existed. After Princess ended the cruise we switched to the Celebrity Eclipse 14 day itinerary which is now ending. We recently decided to do 21 day Caribbean cruises (right after Thanksgiving) and recently did the Celebrity Reflection (12 + 11). This year we are doing the same thing (10 + 11) on the MSC Divina.

 

Trying to fill a ship for a 21 day Caribbean cruise would be difficult. The only cruisers that can do that are generally retirees (that includes me). But retiree cruises are not very good for cruise lines because we "older folk" tend to spend less money onboard...and cruise lines really want to maximize onboard revenue (its a major part of their business plan).

 

Hank

[paul929207]

Princess is offering 14 day cruises to the Caribbean on the Caribbean Princess. They cannot be bought as 2 seven day cruises . We took it in January. I think they also offered it in December and March.

[myfuzzy]

I would love a few trips out of NY to the Caribbean. Right now they only offer one, at the end of October a repositioning . A NY to Bermuda...Eastern islands and back....We did that on NCL once....that was a nice trip.

Edited March 30, 2018 by myfuzzy

[paradiselivin1]

I would like that itinerary too. I'm hoping they'll do the 60 day South America circumnavigation again in 2-3 years.

 

I wanted to do that, too. Could kick myself for not taking it this year with the two nights in Rio for Carnival. I was told by a Future Cruise person onboard the Royal that it wouldn't be offered again because people complained about having to get visas. Find that so hard to believe.