Do you tend to choose cruise based more on itinerary or ship.

[basictek]

Being new to cruising, living in FL, currently the prime factors are...

 

Port (Canaveral and Tampa are the closest) so currently all cruises I look at are out of them, eventually when we get board of the same ones we'll maybe venture to Ft Lauderdale and Miami...

 

Cruise line / Ship (since the options are limited by above RCI - Harmony is currently #1 but strongly considering Carnival Mardi Gras next fall) 

 

Price / time of year / season / weather (next I'm avoiding cruising in summer when it's too hot & busy with kids, etc, we're avoiding hurricane season, & mid winter is too cool in Late Dec - Feb) So mostly looking from March - May or November - early December... 

 

Itinerary - Finally after all of the above are figured out I try to pick either a different itinerary or go to ports we already like. 

 

I saw many post how things changed from when the 1st started cruising, so I'd bet this changes as we cruise more...or don't... Who knows...

Edited July 2, 2019 by basictek

[Mary&Jim]

Price then itinerary.

[mcatmcat]

no nassau

miami/fort lauderdale

price

oasis class/ freedom class

call of ports

[motheroftwocats814]

On 6/26/2019 at 4:19 PM, Heatherco said:

We just booked a cruise for next February and wound up choosing based more on the itinerary for the first time (but also taking the ship into consideration as well).  In the past, it has primarily been based on price and ship...particularly when bringing all three kids with us.  This time it is just my husband and I so we opted for a longer itinerary on a ship we know we both like.

 

Booked the 9 night Explorer of the Seas for February 7.  Would love to try an Oasis class or larger, but this time we wanted more days with long times in ports to escape some of the winter weather here in Massachusetts.

 

Do you tend  to book based on ship or itinerary more?

Massachusetts girl here too. We tend to go for the ship..and they can be a destination themselves. We are sailing the Allure in October and we are sailing because it is an Oasis class ship. We probably will get off the ship in San Juan..but that is it. Have a great cruise. 

[Sobro]

My last three bookings were based on itinerary. The one prior to those three was based on ship first (wanted to try Voyager Class) and then itinerary. The rest were itinerary based. 

[princesstori]

Itinerary, though price is right up there as well. Ship has been second in most of the cruises, though when we booked Oasis it was solely for the ship.  

[Oceansaway17]

I chose Ovation for Alaska on May 13 because of the ship.

But the itinerary was unique and special too.

 

Ship went slower and in 11 days we got to visit  two ports that won't be repeated. Lots of time for Northstar and also walk on easy. 

 

So ship and itinerary were equal in choice for the special Alaska trip. Last year did B2B on Serenade for Norway and Baltics.

 

When picking for ship I suggest going for longest itinerary as possible and/or B2B.

I am doing B2B on Symphony next Spring to get quality time on ship and see lots of ports.

 

Waiting for Odyssey of the Seas to open up soon.

[dani negreanu]

Itinerary.

BUT, if the ship doing it doesn't appeal to me -- then no.

For example, there is an amazing itinerary to Madagascar, Mauritius, etc. with Costa.

Costa it's a definitely NO for me.