Are there people who will ONLY travel by cruising?

[clo]

1 hour ago, pacruise804 said:

That looks like a good trip (although I'd want a TA when done for some relaxing sea days 😉 ).  I'm curious about Alaska - what didn't you like?  We plan to take my in-laws for their 50th anniversary (cruise/land tour combo), but I expect with the scenery they will be pleased (especially since they picked it 😉 )

IIRC we were on HAL and there may have been another ship there. The towns were overwhelmed with tourists and the shops catered to them. We know someone who recently did a small ship and they were able to get where the big ones couldn't. But we heard from locals about the Alaska State Ferry and, if we ever returned, it would likely be that way.

[pacruise804]

Thanks, Clo.  We will likely go with Princess and do a combined cruise/land tour and I'm usually good at finding things we all enjoy in our travels, often off the beaten path from most tourists.

[sparks1093]

46 minutes ago, clo said:

IIRC we were on HAL and there may have been another ship there. The towns were overwhelmed with tourists and the shops catered to them. We know someone who recently did a small ship and they were able to get where the big ones couldn't. But we heard from locals about the Alaska State Ferry and, if we ever returned, it would likely be that way.

You might find that in your Warnemunde stop (if I'm remembering your itinerary map correctly). We visited my brother-in-law there and one could tell when the cruise ships were in port because of the mass of humanity walking around. Once they pulled out, peace and quiet.

[cruisemom42]

5 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

In Ireland it is difficult for someone over 70 to rent a car (I suspect it might be part of an employment program - making work for drivers and tour guides.),  Trains work well to see cities - but tough to experience small towns and countryside.

 

Depends on where you're going. Some European countries have excellent train service even to very small towns. Italy and France, that I'm fairly familiar with, but also (IME) England. Spain is also decent.

 

As someone who hates driving on holidays (I commute close to 2 hours a day, 5 days a week), I manage to get around fairly well using the train to a certain point, then local buses or even the occasional taxi ride to a small site or location in the countryside if needed.

 

It seems to me that in many other countries, people do not depend on their cars to get around to the extent that we do in the US. Public transportation is much more comprehensive if you don't mind figuring out the train/bus schedules.

Edited December 3, 2019 by cruisemom42

[navybankerteacher]

3 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Depends on where you're going. Some European countries have excellent train service even to very small towns. Italy and France, that I'm fairly familiar with, but also (IME) England. Spain is also decent.

 

..

Certainly England and Italy can be wonderfully seen by rail -with a bit of care, planning and patience, almost every nook and cranny is accessible.  

 

I have only limited experience (just major city to major city) in France and Spain. -  but Ireland seems to have fewer connections - making the small towns and countryside (perhaps the best of Ireland) much less accessible, except by car.

[clo]

6 hours ago, sparks1093 said:

You might find that in your Warnemunde stop (if I'm remembering your itinerary map correctly). We visited my brother-in-law there and one could tell when the cruise ships were in port because of the mass of humanity walking around. Once they pulled out, peace and quiet.

Unlike some, we wouldn't go back to Dubrovnik if you paid us...for that reason. UNESCO is threatening to revoke their heritage status. Ugh.

[Joebucks]

There are pros and cons to every kind of vacation, and I like them all. Cruising is currently my go-to. Mostly because of the seamless experience. I am not one of those obsessed with a single price, feeling like I've saved so much money by overpaying up front.

 

With that said, I feel cruising addresses some vacationing problems better than others. Traveling during land travel is always a gripe of mine. When you go somewhere, you have to spend a significant amount of time and money securing transportation. Taxis/rideshare, rentals, parking garages. Searching for things to do. The entire group having to agree on times. Can't drink because you're driving. It's nice to just have the freedom to go! But land vacations often do win in the night life.

 

As far as AIs, the food, beach, and drinks are usually tough to beat. Those things are very important too! Where they fall short for me is the huge price and often lack of things to do. All of those "free drinks" do little good when you are out and about and I don't always want to stay at the resort. Plus, 80%+ of my drinks are going to be a whiskey, I would be just fine having my own bottle vs paying hundreds for fruity, sugary, drinks.

[ilikeanswers]

20 hours ago, clo said:

IIRC we were on HAL and there may have been another ship there. The towns were overwhelmed with tourists and the shops catered to them.

 

You might not enjoy Tallinn then🙄. I was there this year part of a road trip round the Baltic countries and it gets really overwhelmed with tourists. It is not just cruise tourists but you also have bus tours and usually by lunch time we found the city chock-a-block full. Because we were staying a few nights one day we got up really early to walk around the city and it was so blissfully empty😇 but by 9am buses were dropping off packs of tourists at the medieval gates😝.

 

Riga was full of tourists too but it didn't feel as crowded. I think maybe it was because the tourist attractions are more spread out so perhaps it spreads out the tour groups. Gdansk wasn't too bad either but we were there when no cruise ship was in port so that might have reduced the numbers.

 

From the comments it seems I am one of the rare people that does enjoy a road trip but that might be because I love going into wilderness areas and a lot of very local attractions that don't tend to have good transport connections. When I do road trips I try to make sure it isn't about commuting to a place so I make sure to find interesting roads, whether they are scenic, historical or challanging to drive. I am probably lucky to be travelling in the era of google maps and street view as it makes it so much easier to plan interesting road trips, without it we never would have found those amazing mountain roads in Mexico or the beautiful historical drive through Czechia. Technology can be so good when it is done right👍😀.

[cruisemom42]

13 hours ago, clo said:

Unlike some, we wouldn't go back to Dubrovnik if you paid us...for that reason. UNESCO is threatening to revoke their heritage status. Ugh.

 

23 minutes ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

You might not enjoy Tallinn then🙄. I was there this year part of a road trip round the Baltic countries and it gets really overwhelmed with tourists. It is not just cruise tourists but you also have bus tours and usually by lunch time we found the city chock-a-block full. Because we were staying a few nights one day we got up really early to walk around the city and it was so blissfully empty😇 but by 9am buses were dropping off packs of tourists at the medieval gates😝.

 

 

Unfortunately it seems that tourism is only going to continue to increase. Those of us who enjoy traveling have to adapt accordingly. It's no use saying "Oh, I remember the days when you could walk right into the Roman Forum without even needing a ticket."  That ship has sailed. 

 

I was in Rome for 10 days recently (just returned on Thanksgiving). This has long been a favorite tactic of mine -- traveling in the off-season to places that are now unbearably crowded in the normal tourism season (e.g., for Europe it's May through September now).  Rome wasn't as empty as it has been some years in the past, but it also wasn't unmanageable, and as a large city, it's never going to be empty of tourists. 

 

I remember visiting Ephesus' ruins for the first time in late November about 15 years ago.  You could look straight down the major street to the library of Celsius at the end with nary a tourist in sight. Now I doubt that's the case, even in November (although Turkey is somewhat off the travel radar at the moment, and it would be a good time to go there... if you want to avoid crowds and aren't a nervous nelly.)

 

The problem with places like Dubrovnik and Tallinn - and also Santorini, the Cinque Terre in Italy, and even Venice -- is that they are all relatively small and have no "space" in which a large crowd of tourists can disperse. Some of them have been "overhyped" as places to visit by the travel press, and then everyone feels impelled to flock there. (e.g., Cinque Terre); and some have become so overcrowded primarily as a result of the increased cruise ship visits (e.g., Tallinn makes a good stop; almost a 'must' on a Baltic itinerary as something different).

 

I try to minimize the chances of encountering large travel hordes, but on the other hand, I think as a traveler you have to develop a certain mindset that places worth visiting are often going to be crowded, and the corollary: just because a place is crowded does not mean that you can't have an enjoyable/meaningful visit there. 

 

On the Ports of Call boards you'll sometimes see people posting that they are going to visit XX city and they want to sightsee but 'avoid the usual tourist traps'.  Well, sure -- but generally those places have a large number of tourists because they really ARE worthwhile.  If I were going to Rome for the first time, I wouldn't want to avoid the Colosseum and St. Peter's in favor of visiting the Capuchin crypt and Santa Maria Maggiore. While the latter are definitely worthwhile destinations, they are not the ancient wonders or masterpieces of the first two...

 

 

[marco]

For us, it depends where.  We take a Caribbean cruise every winter and have for over 30 years, now.  The past few years, i didn't even ever get off the ship.  A 10-12 day Caribbean cruise is WAY less $$$$ than flying to a resort in the Caribbean for that time frame, and we go for the warm weather and the sunshine.  Same with a Bermuda cruise.  It's easy for us to get to the NY/NJ port, we cruised to Bermuda a number of times and 3 or 4 days there is fine for us.  Again, a 7 day cruise to Bermuda is a lot less $$$$ than flying to and staying there.  Other places, like Europe, other than a river cruise we won't cruise (we've done it once).  You only see port cities, you usually don't spend any night time in any city, some ports you're docked over an hour from the city the itinerary says you're going to be at, and you don't have anywhere near enough time to see/do and explore.  So in a nut shell, there are some places we will ONLY take a cruise to and some places we will NOT cruise to.

[clo]

18 minutes ago, marco said:

some places we will NOT cruise to

So are you saying that those are the places where you'll do land trips, escorted or DIY?

[navybankerteacher]

8 minutes ago, clo said:

So are you saying that those are the places where you'll do land trips, escorted or DIY?

I would say that any place I REALLY  wanted to see, I would visit on a land trip.  An exception might be a small ship sailing almost off-season to an area I’ve not yet visited - but at this point I see ships as a way to get across an ocean, or for a brief escape from winter weather - and, sadly, 99% of winter sailings from my home area are on ships I have no interest in sailing.

[clo]

1 minute ago, navybankerteacher said:

a brief escape from winter weather

I SO prefer winter to summer so a cruise for a change in weather holds no appeal for me. At least for now.

[pacruise804]

1 hour ago, clo said:

I SO prefer winter to summer so a cruise for a change in weather holds no appeal for me. At least for now.

I could be wrong, but I suspect winter in Reno, NV is very different than winter in the Northeast 😉 I enjoy all 4 seasons, but am usually ready for winter to be over by early February - and we often have snow into March.

[ldubs]

On 12/3/2019 at 2:33 PM, cruisemom42 said:

 

Depends on where you're going. Some European countries have excellent train service even to very small towns. Italy and France, that I'm fairly familiar with, but also (IME) England. Spain is also decent.

 

 

20 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

Certainly England and Italy can be wonderfully seen by rail -with a bit of care, planning and patience, almost every nook and cranny is accessible.  

 

I have only limited experience (just major city to major city) in France and Spain. -  but Ireland seems to have fewer connections - making the small towns and countryside (perhaps the best of Ireland) much less accessible, except by car.

 

Just wanted to add that Switzerland is a terrific place to see by train.  Get the Swiss Pass then go, go, go.    

[ilikeanswers]

7 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

Unfortunately it seems that tourism is only going to continue to increase. Those of us who enjoy traveling have to adapt accordingly. It's no use saying "Oh, I remember the days when you could walk right into the Roman Forum without even needing a ticket."  That ship has sailed. 

 

I have started travelling internationally pretty recent compared to most of the well travelled people here so I don't know any different to over tourism (I don't know if that makes me lucky or unlucky🤣). It certainly would not make me reconsider destinations like Tallinn. The city is beautiful🤗 and worth visiting even if you have to battle the crowds. It is probably another reason why I gravitate towards road trips since after battling the crowds I can easily visit a quiet village for some recuperation🧘‍♀️. It gives me balance in a trip. I can't imagine travelling to only crowded destinations, I think it would drive me quite mad in the end 🤪. 

[clo]

4 hours ago, pacruise804 said:

I could be wrong, but I suspect winter in Reno, NV is very different than winter in the Northeast 😉 I enjoy all 4 seasons, but am usually ready for winter to be over by early February - and we often have snow into March.

Until a year and a half ago we had lived at Lake Tahoe for the last approx. 15 years. The last two or three years the ski resorts were open through 4th of July! Squaw Valley got 50 FEET of snow last winter. I'd rather it be zero than 90 🙂

[navybankerteacher]

 

2 hours ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

...

  It is probably another reason why I gravitate towards road trips since after battling the crowds I can easily visit a quiet village for some recuperation🧘‍♀️. It gives me balance in a trip. I can't imagine travelling to only crowded destinations, I think it would drive me quite mad in the end 🤪. 

This is the point - road (or rail) trips let you stay in places you want to see - for as long as you want - and see them the way that they are - and not awash with short-term visitors.

 

The cruise industry provides thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of short term visitors to places whose value is slightly diminished by every extra body crowding in.

Ultimately, they will destroy their own reason for being. 

 

Yes, it is easy to accuse people who lament the destruction of much of the wonder of places worth seeing of “elitism” — but the sad fact is that over-use of anything can destroy that thing. And too many people anywhere can change any place.  I am not suggesting a solution - but somehow, if what makes a place worth going to see is destroyed by too many people going there— the cruise industry, and mass travel generally, are gradually killing off the reason for their existence.

 

Truly special places should start taking steps to protect what makes them special - in stead of exploiting it to death.