What do you actually do on the boat?

[ldubs]

9 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

Totally agree.  My ideal cruise would have no sea days.  I regard the ship as a big bus that gets me to interesting places and nobody could ever say that the bus ride to get to the place was interesting.  Did I say that I hate sea days.

 

DON

 

Agree - best cruise is port stop every day.  I don't know that I hate sea days but I would strongly prefer the option to leave the ship.  We try hard to avoid itineraries with a lot of sea days.  Back to back sea days are the least desirable.  

 

We also enjoy land vacations.  Best are those we plan on our own (as opposed to the canned tours).  

[gymbomb]

I read books, watch a movie on a big outside screen if the ship has one, nap, talk to the person I'm sailing with, eat, watch shows, occasionally hit the gym, take a walk around the promenade deck (several times), etc. If I'm on a ship with a climbing wall, ropes course, etc. I might do that a time or two also.

[donaldsc]

4 hours ago, pacruise804 said:

I think a lot of the cruises from San Juan, PR don't have sea days.

 

As someone who cruises for the sea as much as the destinations, your perspective is interesting to me.  I'm curious why you cruise (instead of land vacations) if you don't enjoy the sea and view the ship as transportation and not a traveling resort.  I agree that land transportation is rarely interesting, although I do enjoy the scenery at times.

 

There's nothing wrong with not enjoying sea days.  I love cruising, but don't participate in many of the activities that seem to be associated with ships like pools, spas, casinos, contests (although I do like trivia), parties, or comedians.  One of the perks of cruising is there are different options for different tastes 🙂 

 

Got to be honest here - mainly because my wife does not like to do long (>30 days) driving trips so I do my best to make the cruises work.  As an example, we recently did a trip to New Zealand.  I wanted to do about 35 days driving.  DW wanted to do a cruise.  We ended up combining the two - a cruise of about 14 days plus 25 days on land.  The problem was that trying to combine the 2 was a virtually impossible task and guess who does all the planning and we also wasted 1 day getting back from New Zealand to Sydney.  I will admit that we did go to places on the cruise that would have been difficult if not impossible to do on land.  

 

I will also admit that in some cases doing a cruise makes sense.  Last summer we did a Norway cruise that went up the entire Norwegian coast and then went to Spitsbergen.  Now you obviously can not drive to Spitsbergenn but in hindsight we should have flown there and spent a few days there as opposed to spending on sea day getting to Spitsbergen, one sea day getting back from Spitsbergen so that we could 8 hours at Spitsbergen.  I tried to figure out how to drive all the way from southern Norway to Nordkapp and we could have done it but it would have been a bad trip.

 

The problem basically with cruises is that because ships travel slowly and cars travel fast, it takes far longer for a ship to get from place A to B than for a car to get from place A to B.  This was a major problem on our New Zealand cruise - the time it took to get from place A to place B.

 

As I said, my ideal cruise would be one with zero sea days and those are few and far between.

 

DON

[Hlitner]

Don,  Just to express a contrarian view, our ideal cruise (DW and Me) would be a 30 day cruise without any ports :).  We have never found such a trip, but have managed to do a cruise where 12 of the first 14 days was at sea.  The two port days were in Honolulu and we did not even get off the ship except for a short walk.   We have an upcoming 21 day Caribbean cruise and are thinking about not getting off the ship at all...except in the turn around port where it is required.

 

There are folks that cruise primarily for a ferry service to get them between ports.  There are folks who cruise because they enjoy both sea days and the ports.  And there are those who cruise because they love to be on a ship and the ports become a minor inconvenience albeit some  can be be fun.

 

Hank

[pacruise804]

Thanks for your explanation, Don.  It's very sweet that you put your spouse first - what we all should do in marriage.  Hopefully you'll get a great land trip soon 🙂 

 

My husband and I are probably in between you and Hank.  We love the sea days, but also enjoy snorkeling and some other activities that we can't do from the ship.  

[RocketMan275]

3 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Don,  Just to express a contrarian view, our ideal cruise (DW and Me) would be a 30 day cruise without any ports :).  We have never found such a trip, but have managed to do a cruise where 12 of the first 14 days was at sea.  The two port days were in Honolulu and we did not even get off the ship except for a short walk.   We have an upcoming 21 day Caribbean cruise and are thinking about not getting off the ship at all...except in the turn around port where it is required.

 

Hank

We rarely leave the ship but we learned to love port days because they ship is far less crowded. 

[donaldsc]

5 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Don,  Just to express a contrarian view, our ideal cruise (DW and Me) would be a 30 day cruise without any ports :).  We have never found such a trip, but have managed to do a cruise where 12 of the first 14 days was at sea.  The two port days were in Honolulu and we did not even get off the ship except for a short walk.   We have an upcoming 21 day Caribbean cruise and are thinking about not getting off the ship at all...except in the turn around port where it is required.

 

There are folks that cruise primarily for a ferry service to get them between ports.  There are folks who cruise because they enjoy both sea days and the ports.  And there are those who cruise because they love to be on a ship and the ports become a minor inconvenience albeit some  can be be fun.

 

Hank

 

As I have said in other posts - different strokes for different folks.  As long as everyone enjoys themselves.

 

DON

[calliopecruiser]

I've also seen many Mediterranean cruises without sea days.

 

Personally, I'm a sea day cruiser - I've happily done 15 out of a 17 days cruise at sea, and would have loved more. 

[SPacificbound]

I used to think I wouldn't want to go on a cruise, I would be claustrophobic. Well that one didn't happen. 

 

First cruise which was a Transpacific, 18 nights. I figured we would either really like, or really not. I was hooked before we were out of the Sydney harbour. 

 

We don't do the pool thing either, have a pool at home and know way to much about pool sanitation to enter a public pool.

 

I love watching the water, finding a spot to read, walking around a bit, just taking it easy. There are organized things to do, who knows you may see something to do. We usually go to the shows or at least listen to music. 

 

And yes, it is a ship. 🙂

[mulewagon]

I bring a waterproof pouch for my phone and sit in the hot tub and read books. Bonus if it's one overlooking the ocean! It also makes for interesting pictures. Sometimes I hang out in the pool between floating and reading.

Sure, there's kids jumping in and out but I enjoy watching them have fun.