Short or Long

[Pickels]

Hello Fellow Cruisers

Putting aside the cost; not considering it for a decision, if you had a choice of a short (ex: 4 nights) or a longer (9 nights) which would you prefer?  With the present cruise industry situation; the reason why I'm asking is, that if you are on a short cruise and something happens, [you have an accident, or medical condition or an outbreak], you're closer to home than if you were on a longer cruise.  What do ya think?  What's your opinion?  Thanks!

[davekathy]

Longer. 

[Turtles06]

Speaking only for myself, I would never go to the trouble of a four-night cruise (especially now), unless perhaps I lived within a short taxi ride of the port.  But also, it would likely be a party/booze cruise, and I have zero interest in that.  Even week-long cruises are too short.  

[C-Dragons]

The longer, the better.

Starting with 14 nights

[Mike981]

 

We have to fly and do some major planning to go on vacation, nothing less than seven days is worth it. Since the cost of air is a certainty, we try to maximize our time away.

[KWW88]

If your only choices are 4 day or 9 day, definitely the 9 days.  I would not take any cruise shorter than 12 days but prefer 14.

[jelayne]

Unless we are burning the FCCs we have nothing less than 12 nights and the  departure or arrival ports needs to be a city where we want to spend 4-6 days in.

[hcat]

Four days is hardly time to explore the ship and settle in.  Many short cruises  have a diff vibe..party atmosphere. As mentioned, we would do it to burn up FCC..in a suite,

[KWW88]

6 minutes ago, jelayne said:

Unless we are burning the FCCs we have nothing less than 12 nights and the  departure or arrival ports needs to be a city where we want to spend 4-6 days in.

needs to be a city where we want to spend 4-6 days in.  Exactly and this is why I selected my April TA to end in Amsterdam. When I was there in 2019, tickets to Van Gogh museum were sold out well in advance, and I hadn't realized you needed to purchase tix on-line and in advance for the Anne Frank house, so never got to visit either and I was there for 4 days.

Edited April 11, 2021 by KWW88

[4774Papa]

57 minutes ago, Pickels said:

Hello Fellow Cruisers

Putting aside the cost; not considering it for a decision, if you had a choice of a short (ex: 4 nights) or a longer (9 nights) which would you prefer?  With the present cruise industry situation; the reason why I'm asking is, that if you are on a short cruise and something happens, [you have an accident, or medical condition or an outbreak], you're closer to home than if you were on a longer cruise.  What do ya think?  What's your opinion?  Thanks!

A short cruise doesn't appeal to us.  We prefer cruises of 14 days, even more if possible.  Also, just the cost and effort of getting to the port is significant.  A 4 night cruise would be next to nothing for us.  Also, it would mean going to a place like Nassau that we have no interest in visiting again.

[Bruin Steve]

When we started cruising, many years ago, when money was tight and we had two small kids at home, we did a few reasonably short cruises...but, even then, if we had to fly anywhere to pick them up, that meant at least 7 nights...We came to realize it simply wasn't worth the transportation expense, the travel time or the pre-cruise hotel expense (since we also learned not to fly in the day of the cruise) to take just a short cruise...

 

Forget the current Pandemic...there has ALWAYS been some chance that you have an accident, a medical condition arises, or there's a breakout of something enough to affect YOU...But if that keeps you from venturing far from home for more than a few days, you will never go anywhere!

 

I've been on around 60 cruises, many long ones, and lots of land trips and long pre-and post cruise trips on top of the long cruises...and neither my wife nor I have EVER had an accident which curtailed a trip (yeah, I twisted an ankle once getting onto a small boat for a shore excursion--but I just limped around the ship for a couple of days).  The only time we EVER had to leave a cruise early was when my father-in-law passed away while we were in the Baltic and we had to leave the cruise 5 days in and fly home for the funeral.  AND THAT'S WHY WE HAD INSURANCE!  Insurance paid for the unused portion of the cruise and a lot of other expenses...and we booked another Baltic for the following year.

 

But, given a choice of a 4 night cruise or a 9 nighter, it is really no tough decision.

I only take short cruises if they leave out of LA and I can drive to port in about an hour...or grab an Uber...

[NCHPcruiser]

Hands down longer.   It is doubtful we would go on a cruise any shorter than a week, even then our preference is 10 or more days.  It takes us the first couple of days to decompress and relax.   

[NMTraveller]

We have never done a cruise shorter than a week.  Unless you are using it to get from Point A to Point B I would go with the longer cruise.

 

On some of the other lines the shorter cruises are known as booze cruises.

[Cruise Raider]

We both prefer cruises that are between 8 and 11 nights ... 9 nights being just perfect!!  2 and 3 night cruises with a bunch of friends is nice but don't really bother if it isn't within a group.  

[FlyerTalker]

Nine nights would be a short cruise.

 

Personal favorites are those in the 15-25 day range with a ton of sea days - Trans-Pacs and long Asian cruises fitting the bill perfectly.

[Fouremco]

I'm not sure that being closer to home has any bearing on the issue if you are talking about a Caribbean cruise. If there's a medical or other issue that requires me to fly home, a flight from the Bahamas or one from St. Lucia will only differ by a couple of hours. We seldom cruise for less than 14 nights, but I might consider the 9 nighter. The 4 night cruise isn't worth considering unless it's an out and back from Montreal and we could drive to the port in a couple of hours on embarkation day.

Edited April 11, 2021 by Fouremco

[Ashland]

In the early 90's we started with a couple of 4 night Mexico cruises out of San Pedro on RCI...but quickly switched to their 7 night Mexican Riviera....Not interested in any 3/4/5 night cruises even though RCI is returning to my home port and hoping they add some 7 night itineraries. 

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Once upon a time I tacked a 4-night cruise onto an existing cruise to make a longer cruise.  Never again!  Drunks roaming the hall at 2:00 a.m. banging on their cabin doors to get admitted, (probably because they were too stupid to carry their cruise cards).  Many teens shoved into inside cabins across the hall from their parents.  Banging doors constantly going from one cabin to another.  And this was on Celebrity.  

[1025cruise]

Its not worth flying to the port for a 4 night cruise to me.

[Homosassa]

Long (seven or more days).

 

The only short cruise we did (five nights) was on a Voyager class ship back when they were the large ships. We wanted to try a big ship without being on it for too long.

 

That cruise answered our question (no to large ships).

[TeaBag]

Sorry pickels (did you get a new profile picture?), you are getting responses from all the long sailors.  We once did a 5 day and we had barely time to unpack before we had to debark.  We don't even like 7 day ones unless they are B2B with another one.  Our next is 40 days.

[Denny01]

I assume the OP looked at the itineraries, but I don’t really think the 4D cruise would be that much closer to the dept port. And unless the ship itself has to return because of a COVID outbreak, having a medical emergency and being flown back isn’t a real consideration for a shorter cruise.

 

id think the only consideration I’d think about if I thought medical  issues would come into play would be rethinking a Euro cruise. Or a TA. 
 

den

[cachouonacruise]

Taking in consideration that the first and last days of a cruise are focused on embarking and disembarking.... A four day cruise leaves little time to enjoy the vacation. 

 

We did a couple of 7 days cruises and every time we left the ship wanting more.

 

So, like most cruisers on this thread, our preference goes to longer cruises. 9 nights, is very nice, although I tend to prefer 10 to 14 nights cruise, with a couple of days pre and post cruise to discover new areas. We tend always choose a new part of the world to explore.

 

I can’t really pick much longer than 14 nights though, my wife begins to miss the children and our new grand-son. 

[Denny01]

22 out of 22 posters say longer is better.....I won’t go any further with that comment, but sounds as if the OP has to pick ‘longer’. 
 

den

[cluso]

The only time we chose a shorter cruise (5 day) was to move up to Elite status.  😎  We drove to and from the port (although it is a LONG drive from the Florida Panhandle to Miami).  But, it was worth it.