Anyone else fancy the idea of more 2 night stays in port?

[kruzseeka]

We loved our overnights in Quebec, New York and New Orleans.  It depends entirely I think on what the destination has to offer - for me a one night or even more so, a two night stop would only be attractive if there was plenty of variety and interest in the port or it's environs. 

Being able to experience a destination in the evening is one thing but three days in one port may be overkill.  As others have said, that might be more appropriate for a city break. 

On balance, I'd favour just an one night rather than two and only then at carefully selected ports.  We enjoy seeing different places which is the beauty of a cruise for us.  Too many sea days wouldn't appeal to us although we don't mind some - but it's horses for courses. I think they'd do well to try a mix to try to appeal to difference passenger preferences; some more port intensive, some more sea days and some offering overnights.  

[emam]

6 hours ago, daiB said:

Yes can’t compare with St.P. I don’t know but I suspect that there is some sort of rule/law which says ships must stay overnight. I have never seen any cruise by any cruise line which was only one night in St.P.s 

Quite like an overnight but I do like a few extra sea days to compensate.

 

We stayed one night at St. P with Celebrity. 

[P&O SUE]

I would like P&O to do more late nights, had a few times when we’ve had to be back onboard by 4pm, made it such a rush.

Loved our overnight in Amsterdam and on Princess this year we stayed on Copenhagen til 10pm which made it so much more relaxing.

[oxygenbanditnot]

Did overnight in Venice Oriana May 2016, it was lovely strolling around.

[Selbourne]

22 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

Rather like St Petersburg, where 2 night stays are the norm, there are quite a few other places where an extra night would provide more opportunities for proper exploration.

 

I’d be pretty keen on that - fewer ports but more time in each. I’m thinking cities such as Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki for example, but there are plenty of others.

 

Any thoughts?

 

In short, no I wouldn’t want to do 2 nights in the same port. That’s more a city break than a cruise in my book. If I’m paying for a cruise then I want to be moving between lots of different places - that’s the attraction for us. 

 

Both yourself and DaiB refer to cruises being in St Petersburg for 2 nights. We have been there twice and I am pretty certain that we were only overnight for one night i.e. arrive early day 1, full day and overnight in St Petersburg, 2nd full day in St Petersburg departing in the evening of 2nd day - so one night in port. I think that’s the norm but I am prepared to be corrected.

 

For the reason given in my first paragraph, I’m not even that keen on one overnight in port, but there are one or two exceptions. Last year we did a USA & Canada cruise and the first stop was New York. We arrived at lunchtime day 1 and left early evening of day 2. In less than 2 days (with just one overnight) we visited the 9/11 Memorial and museum, did a Harbour Lights (Manhattan by night) City Line river cruise, walked around 42nd St, Broadway, Time Square (at night), Grand Central Station, Empire State Building (nighttime visit - stunning), dinner in Manhattan, Top of the Rock (Rockefeller building - daytime visit, great contrast to the Empire State nighttime visit the previous night), Rockefeller Plaza, 5th Avenue (including a costly stop in Tiffany’s ;)), Trump Tower (the President was in so we watched the comings and goings), Central Park, Strawberry Fields & Dakota Building (John Lennon), long walk from there to lower Manhattan for the Highline (elevated park walk converted from railroad) which we walked the full length of in both directions and then from there back to the ship. All of that we did in one and a half days with just one overnight, almost all of it on foot - and I was pushing my wife in her wheelchair throughout! On the basis that I can think of few places where there is more to see and do than New York, if we can do all of that in a day and a half with just one overnight then hopefully you can see why I wouldn’t want 2 night stops. 

 

A lot of passengers have said to us over the years that one of the things that they like about cruises where you have no overnights is that you get a good taste of a place and if you find somewhere that you really love you can consider a city break there at another time. The cynic in me, however, suggests that overnights in port will become more common. It will be sold as ‘due to passenger requests’ but will be because it’s cheaper for the cruise operator to sit in port than to be burning fuel at sea and paying for more ports. 

[DamianG]

We have had the pleasure of overnights in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Funchal and Hamburg. We've also enjoyed late sailings out of several places such as Barcelona and Santa Cruz, Tenerife. The main thing for us is not having to rush back to the ship (overnights and late sailings) or trying to cram several activities into one day (overnights).

It wouldn't work everywhere but for me there are plenty of places where it does work.

[AchileLauro]

We've been fortunate enough to have enjoyed several overnight stays or very late departures over the years. Definitely something that should be done more often in some ports.

[terrierjohn]

Would not be of any interest to us, as wheelchair users finding a suitably accessible cafe for a coffee or beer is difficult enough, so we much prefer to dine on board, as a consequence we try to avoid any cruise with overnight stays, especially those wasteful ones that dock at midday and leave the following lunchtime.

More ports and less sea days is my preference.