Anyone else wish larger ships did longer itineraries from Florida?

[Drock20J]

Then again, who knows what will happen when the ICON Class comes out.

[Billy Baltic]

I’d love if there was longer cruises on the bigger ships in Europe too. 

[EmilyJay]

40 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

 

Take a transatlantic ... plenty of sea days to explore the ship.

Definitely an option for one day in the future. Unfortunately the transatlantic cruises don't fit well at all with my work schedule and being able to get the time off at that time of year. One day hopefully! 

[bgoff60]

So, all of you who are seasoned cruises and HAVE done the ABC or southern Caribbean islands...

would it be possible to make like a bandit out of what ever port an "Oasis class' ships sails out of and bee-line for southern Caribbean area and then sail around to the islands down there for a few days and then zip back? (Skip Labadee and Coco Cay)

How many nights would that be?  Maybe they only offer that itinerary once ever month or every other month...

 

[Clarea]

6 minutes ago, bgoff60 said:

So, all of you who are seasoned cruises and HAVE done the ABC or southern Caribbean islands...

would it be possible to make like a bandit out of what ever port an "Oasis class' ships sails out of and bee-line for southern Caribbean area and then sail around to the islands down there for a few days and then zip back? (Skip Labadee and Coco Cay)

How many nights would that be?  Maybe they only offer that itinerary once ever month or every other month...

 

 

Serenade used to do that route in 10 or 11 days from Port Everglades.

[John&LaLa]

1 hour ago, bgoff60 said:

So, all of you who are seasoned cruises and HAVE done the ABC or southern Caribbean islands...

would it be possible to make like a bandit out of what ever port an "Oasis class' ships sails out of and bee-line for southern Caribbean area and then sail around to the islands down there for a few days and then zip back? (Skip Labadee and Coco Cay)

How many nights would that be?  Maybe they only offer that itinerary once ever month or every other month...

 

 

Adventure is doing that run in 8 days out of Ft Lauderdale. They go twice a month with the 6 day being a cruise to Mexico

[Ourusualbeach]

Odyssey is doing an 8 night Aruba, Curaco and Grand Cayman itinerary.  

[mugtech]

If you really want to do the ship, then do b2b eastern and western, 14 nights.

[molly361]

If they did longer trips they could have 3 maybe even 4 Perfect days at Coco Cay😇

[Ourusualbeach]

12 minutes ago, molly361 said:

If they did longer trips they could have 3 maybe even 4 Perfect days at Coco Cay😇

Coming soon...The Perfect  Week at CocoCay

[Iamcruzin]

I think the Oasis class is great for families with all of the activity and entertainment. It wouldn't be my choice for a longer cruise as the sea and itinerary is why I cruise and the Oasis class doesn't provide those goals.  I don't need a 9 to 12 day shopping /restaurant experience. There is plenty of that at home.

[The Fun Researcher]

Short answer, yes.  Reason being, with our work and our kid's school schedules the summer is a prime cruising season for us now.  I would love ANY Royal Caribbean ship to leave from the US and do a true southern itinerary in the summer.  It's not just limited to the Oasis class.

 

I'm bored of the cookie cutter 7 day itineraries on the Oasis class ship.  Even though I'm not a big fan of Oasis class I would jump on them in a heartbeat for a southern itinerary.

Dan

 

 

Edited January 17, 2020 by The Fun Researcher

[boscobeans]

We love the longer cruises from 10-14 days. Granted the bean counters are the deciding factor in determining the where's and the when's of cruise ship deployment BUT???

 

Imagine a cruise like this one... 14 DAYS (FOURTEEN DAYS)..."FROM (GUESS)---TO--; Royal Naval Dockyard (Bermuda); Bridgetown (Barbados); Castries (St. Lucia); Kralendijk (Bonaire); Willemstad (Curaçao); Oranjestad (Aruba); Puerto Plata (Dominican Republic); Disembark RETURN TO (GUESS) .

We did this and were wowed by the itinerary which at the time included Martinique and 2 other ports without the Bermuda stop.. 

 

It was from NEW YORK, yes NEW YORK and it is a cruise along with a dozen others very similar in length and destination that run year round from the Northeast???

 

The ship was full as are most of all the others leaving from NY.

 

This was NCL and the Itinerary was stupendous especially from a port in the Northeast.  Like I said the ITINERARY was great..

 

If NCL can do it YEAR ROUND FROM THE SAME PORT why can't RC or X do it a few times a year from Cape Liberty or Fort Lauderdale or other ports.

 

We would plunk down the full price right now for 2 weeks out of the NJ port during any period in the first three months of any year in the future, without regards to the ship. 

 

Sorry but just my personal rant remembering back to the longer cruises on X and RC from Jersey years ago..  LOL

Edited January 17, 2020 by boscobeans

[HBE4]

Yes, I also would love to see longer cruises with Oasis-class.   But, as others have said, their bread-and-butter are families  that have to work around school schedules and may have limited vacation time.  Those that need to fly into port will also need to account for travel days so the standard 7 day vacation will end up being 8 or 9 days.

 

Also, there is the "leave them wanting more" aspect of Oasis. Since it's impossible to do everything on one 7-day cruise, have people book a 2nd cruise. Royal makes more money on two 7-day cruises than they would on one 10/11 day cruise.

[The Fun Researcher]

3 hours ago, HBE4 said:

Royal makes more money on two 7-day cruises than they would on one 10/11 day cruise.

 

I hear ya, but it's not one 10/11 day cruise.  It would be a 10 or 11 night cruise followed by a 3 or 4 nighter.  Still two cruises in two weeks.

 

Dan

[HBE4]

1 hour ago, The Fun Researcher said:

 

I hear ya, but it's not one 10/11 day cruise.  It would be a 10 or 11 night cruise followed by a 3 or 4 nighter.  Still two cruises in two weeks.

 

Dan

 

Good point. Perhaps the marketing guys figured out the demographics of the various cruise lengths (short, long, etc) and figured that they best chance at keeping ships at 100% capacity was 7 days vs a 9/5 or 10/4 schedule. 

 

If it's one thing Royal has figured out, it's how to maximize profit.  That's not a criticism. It's better than going bankrupt. 

[rimmit]

Almost assuredly a 10/11 night cruise is just dominated by diamonds and the retired crowd.  That’s just the reality.   This is not exactly the “high spender” market.

 

Yes,  there are outliers that chime in every time that this is brought up.  “I’m a pinnacle and buy ALL the things.”  However,  that is the exception and not the rule.   The average cruise newbie just doesn’t know the tricks of the trade to reduce their onboard spend.  Nor do they have the loyalty perks to also help reduce that onboard spend.   7 day oasis cruise attracts tons of new or relatively new to cruising cruisers.   This is the crowd RCI wants the most and the ones they market too the hardest.  I really don’t think the current marketing campaign is designed to attract retired pinnacles.  It’s designed to attract families that will buy all the dining, beverage packages.  The family that buys $200 dollars in photos.  The ones that book all the excursions and buy candy and spend in the arcade.

 

While a 4 night cruise would get a some

newbies,  the longer 10 nighter would get very few newbies.  Thus lowering there revenue.

[The Fun Researcher]

 Even an eight night cruise out of Florida can get down to the ABC’s and back just fine. I would be super happy with an 8/6 schedule on an oasis ship.   It seems to me that it would still allow plenty of families and the right demographic. Maybe they can’t dock in the ABC’s with the ship that large? Of all of our cruises the ABC’s stand out as far superior to many other cookie cutter ports. 

 

Dan

[Heatherco]

On 1/16/2020 at 8:49 PM, bgoff60 said:

So, all of you who are seasoned cruises and HAVE done the ABC or southern Caribbean islands...

would it be possible to make like a bandit out of what ever port an "Oasis class' ships sails out of and bee-line for southern Caribbean area and then sail around to the islands down there for a few days and then zip back? (Skip Labadee and Coco Cay)

How many nights would that be?  Maybe they only offer that itinerary once ever month or every other month...

 

We are pretty much doing this next month on the Explorer.  It is 9 nights with long port days in all three ABC islands and a day in Labadee.  Cannot wait!

[The Fun Researcher]

2 minutes ago, Heatherco said:

We are pretty much doing this next month on the Explorer.  It is 9 nights with long port days in all three ABC islands and a day in Labadee.  Cannot wait!

 

 You will love it. We did that same 9 night itinerary on the navigator this past March and it was by far the best yet. Just amazing.

 

Dan

[Oceansaway17]

On 1/16/2020 at 10:00 PM, Ourusualbeach said:

Odyssey is doing an 8 night Aruba, Curaco and Grand Cayman itinerary.  

 

 

which in itself is a different cruise.  think about it combining two southern ports and then sailing over to a Western Caribbean port.  Very unique.  Kind of like the 11 day trip Ovation did last May.  for the time being, Ovation won't return to icy Point or Sitka.  I was on that cruise and I will be on this special 8 day with odyssey.

 

yea me again.  Now if RCI would only do 17 days to newfoundland and Greenland in like HAL will start doing in 2021. 

[fredflint]

I 

On 1/16/2020 at 6:28 AM, retired dude said:

i wish the same thing, we live near tampa and due to the bridge, the only ships that can get under it are the smaller ships. How many times do  folks want to go  to our "friend" mexico?????Celebrity is bringing the constellation to tampa in nov of 2020 for 10 and 11 day cruises and they are already booking up nicely ..They will go into the canal, the abc's and eastern islands. Leave it up to celebrity to come up with that brilliant plan and i have no clue  why rccl did not try it first..

We are on the Rhapsody TA in the fall that ends in Tampa join our cruise if you can find a cabin.