Looking for 3-5 week boutique cruises. Which ones are your favorites?

[Ken the cruiser]

We’re in our early 70s and finding Princess is becoming our default cruise line, especially when it comes to 3-5 week cruises. We still like cruising with Celebrity and have an awesome NCL 38 day B2B coming up which takes us from Athens through the Suez Canal and down the east coast of Africa. Right now we’re plotting to book the 28-32 day RT Princess cruise from LA to Hawaii, Tahiti and a variety of Pacific Islands. But were curious as to what other potentially awesome 3-5 week Princess cruises are lingering out there? Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated! 

[Qextor]

Try https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/ and click on 'date and length', choosing 16+ days.  Also, click on 'Destination' because there are 170 cruises that are longer than 16 days. It's easier to look at all the European criuses, then change to the Asia cruises and so forth.

Edited September 30, 2022 by Qextor

[mom says]

We have the 28 day RT LA /Tahiti trip booked for Nov this year. We now have our eye on the transpacific to (or from) NZ for next year, which we would combine with a Kiwi land vacation. There seem to be quite a few longer Med cruises,  some combining a TA; but we really prefer seeing Europe by land.  There are a couple of WC segments that are currently unavailable that I will be watching in hope that they open up.

Edited September 30, 2022 by mom says

[Ken the cruiser]

17 minutes ago, Qextor said:

Try https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/ and click on 'date and length', choosing 16+ days.  Also, click on 'Destination' because there are 170 cruises that are longer than 16 days. It's easier to look at all the European criuses, then change to the Asia cruises and so forth.

Thanks, but with all of the various combinations Princess uses 7 day cruises to create 14-21 day cruises, that’s really not what we’re looking for. In fact we just did a 21 day Med cruise on the Regal this summer which was actually a B3B made up of 3 7-day legs. It was a fun cruise, but definitely targeted towards a more younger 7-14 day summer vacation demographic.
 

OTOH a few years ago we went on a cool 25 day cruise on the Island Princess from Ft Lauderdale through the Panama Canal, then down the west coast of South America to Lime, then over to Easter Island before disembarking back in San Antonio, Chile.

 

Another potential B2B cruise we’re interested in would include a cruise that included Longyearbyen, Norway and maybe Iceland. 

Edited September 30, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[NownZen]

The Princess search function is not very good. I wish you could start with a map and drill your way down.  You also cannot search by itinerary port. You can search for excursions and then which cruises go there but then you get a list that you cannot further sort.  This also showed up on the "deal" offer where there were something like 110 cruises with no further sorting possible.

[NownZen]

Also, Princess does not go to Egypt and India for example. Also does not go to Patmos and (it looks like Israel unless I missed how they sort ports). We had a wonderful Oceania Athens to Dubai cruise with a two day stop in Luxor so we could go on an overnight tour and visit the Valley of the kings. Also got a lecture on what to do if pirates attack the ship but they had loaded some people and equipment on board after the suez canal.  The Dubai to Singapore extension to this looks very interesting and we will be on that. That continues to Tokyo and then to (I think) LA.

[1965]

I'm 75, husband is 78. Princess is the only line for us. I love 4 week cruises from anywhere in Europe with a trans Atlantic return to the states. What is a boutique cruise? 🙂

[katisdale]

Be sure to check cruises from Australia as well. We did 50 days from Sydney to San Francisco by way of China and Alaska. It was part of a 75 day "Circle the Pacific" cruise, where we did the first couple of segments. We enjoyed Borneo very much. Also we have been to Patmos as well as Israel and Egypt on a Princess cruise but you have to look hard for those as they don't schedule them every year. We also did a 49 day FLL to LAX by going around South America. We loved that one as well. You might enjoy a world cruise.

[cruzin4us]

I'd sign up for these 🙂.    They also have roughly the same itinerary in 2024.   (We'll be on the 1/4/24 South America/Antarctica).     

They are on the Sapphire, leaving LA and ending up in Buenos Aires

[Ken the cruiser]

39 minutes ago, 1965 said:

I'm 75, husband is 78. Princess is the only line for us. I love 4 week cruises from anywhere in Europe with a trans Atlantic return to the states. What is a boutique cruise? 🙂

I'm 70 and my DW is just a few years behind and we have found 3-5 weeks the most fun as we can settle in and just enjoy the cruise.

 

A "boutique" cruise from my perspective is one that is truly unique when compared to the more common Baltic, Med and Caribbean cruise itineraries most cruise lines offer. For example, Princess offers a unique 14-day "Voyage of the Glaciers" cruise that you can turn into a 21-day B2B and see even more glaciers and wildlife! They also offer a 16-day Antarctica cruise, with 4 days cruising around the Antarctica Peninsula, you can couple with a 14-day cruise around Cape Horn to make a very unique 30-day cruise where you see bunches of wildlife! There is also a 30-day B2B cruise on the Island Princess that goes RT from Southampton and visits Norway, Longyearbyen, Iceland and Greenland. 

 

We don't mind bundling cruise legs together if they offer a unique "one of a kind" experience. As I mentioned earlier in my opening, we really enjoyed the 25-day Easter Island cruise on the Island that started in Ft Lauderdale and went to a bunch of cool places, to include the Panama Canal and of course Easter Island, before ending up in San Antonio, Chile. In fact, we considered booking the next leg which went to Antarctica, but we had other plans back home. 

 

And of course, an Australia circumnavigation cruise is also a very cool "boutique" cruise that I would highly recommend if you have the time and don't mind the long flights to and from Sydney. 

Edited October 1, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[NownZen]

The Antarctica cruise is wonderful. We did that some years ago and are doing it this year starting from LA. I will not go on short cruises as it is hard enough to get off the ship after 3 weeks. The Island Princess trip to Iceland is great as well.

We are doing the Dubai to Singapore cruise and we get to do 2 of the ten longest nonstop flights in the world. They differ by 5 minutes but at 16 hours that will be a test of these old bones (and we are much older than you).

[Ken the cruiser]

38 minutes ago, cruzin4us said:

I'd sign up for these 🙂.    They also have roughly the same itinerary in 2024.   (We'll be on the 1/4/24 South America/Antarctica).     

They are on the Sapphire, leaving LA and ending up in Buenos Aires

We agree, with one modification! We’re booked on the Jan 20/Feb 5, 2024 B2B RT cruise from San Antonio, Chile. Antarctica is such an awesome place to cruise if you love to see wildlife like we do!! 😁

[NownZen]

7 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We agree, with one modification! We’re booked on the Jan 20/Feb 5, 2024 B2B RT cruise from San Antonio, Chile. Antarctica is such an awesome place to cruise if you love to see wildlife like we do!! 😁

You might check to see where they go in Antarctica. There are some new restrictions coming in and they may not go further south than Elephant Island whereas the current cruises go to the Lemaire channel much further south. We booked to get ahead of this.

[Ken the cruiser]

8 minutes ago, NownZen said:

You might check to see where they go in Antarctica. There are some new restrictions coming in and they may not go further south than Elephant Island whereas the current cruises go to the Lemaire channel much further south. We booked to get ahead of this.

Thanks! I remember a few years back when there were a few CC threads covering the changing Polar Ice Class rules where only certain approved expedition ships would be allowed above or below the 60th parallel starting Jan 1, 2022. But, of course, that date has come and gone and cruise ships keep cruising around the Antarctica Peninsula and up to Longyearbyen.

 

In any event, we’ll definitely keep an eye on the itinerary just in case. But, whatever changes are made, we’ll still see a ton of wildlife on the cruise! 😁
 

[Ken the cruiser]

Here’s another awesome cruise I just found.

 

H

 

https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details/?voyageCode=2309A

[Murray's Pop]

On 9/30/2022 at 4:01 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

Right now we’re plotting to book the 28-32 day RT Princess cruise from LA to Hawaii, Tahiti and a variety of Pacific Islands.

This is one of our bucket list cruises.  We had it booked several years ago then our son decided he was getting married around the same time.  Had to cancel and never re-booked.  The price has gone up considerably! 

[NownZen]

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Here’s another awesome cruise I just found.

 

H

 

https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details/?voyageCode=2309A

We did the first half in may. Great trip. We were very lucky with the weather.  In Akureyri we did a boat ride to a herring station (I know but it was great). The ocean was like a lake. The captain said that the day before there was a big storm with the worst wind and waves in years.  The storm moved on and caused us to miss our scheduled stop in Ireland.  Unfortunately many of the continuing passengers started in quarantine while we were having a great time in London. I would love to do the second half sometime.

[Ken the cruiser]

23 minutes ago, Murray's Pop said:

This is one of our bucket list cruises.  We had it booked several years ago then our son decided he was getting married around the same time.  Had to cancel and never re-booked.  The price has gone up considerably! 

You’re right. This itinerary is definitely a hot one year after year and needs to be booked as soon as it’s released in hopes of getting the best price. 

[capriccio]

Here are two of our favorites:

 

• LA to Rio de Janiero 2016/2017 - 32 days (IIRC)
• Rome to Barcelona to Fort Lauderdale 2017 - a back to back 25 days

 

Two upcoming cruises that we expect to enjoy at least just as much:

 

• Around Australia (Sydney to Sydney) 2023 -28 days
• Tahiti, Pacific and Hawaiian. Islands (LA to LA) 2024 - 32 days

 

We tack a number of days on for pre or post cruise stays.  All of these have been with siblings and spouses of mine.  Thankfully we all travel well and enjoy each other’s company.

[Shelly97060]

Here’s a good one!

[NownZen]

The nicest boutique cruise we did was a cruise on the original Royal Princess from Rome to Manaus which is 1000 miles up the Amazon river. At that point the river is 6-10miles wide. At the mouth it is 175 miles wide. There are river dolphins which are pink. The river was down about 70 feet because of the dry season and we had some trouble getting the gangplank out at one place. Fun ride on the back of motorcycle taxi.  I had a medical issue which threatened to block my breathing just after we left Rome. I was looking at the options for getting medical care on the rest of the trip--Tunisia, Morocco,  Senegal, The Cape Verde Islands or a village up the Amazon.  We had already brought 23 bottles of wine on board (the rest of the trip was not noted for its wines) and I would not have been able to take them with me so we stayed on the ship.

Princess chartered a plane for us to get to Miami afterwards. The stewardess had never opened a bottle of wine before so we had to show her how.

This route is not done now since the Princess ships are too large. Oceania does a Miami or Puerto Rico to Manaus cruise.

[LACruiser88]

We are booked on this 32 day cruise in April of 2024, on the Sapphire.  We have done the 28 day cruise to Tahiti and the Samoa's (from LA) several times, but this one also goes to Fiji.  It will be our first time going to Fiji. 

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

On 9/30/2022 at 9:15 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks! I remember a few years back when there were a few CC threads covering the changing Polar Ice Class rules where only certain approved expedition ships would be allowed above or below the 60th parallel starting Jan 1, 2022. But, of course, that date has come and gone and cruise ships keep cruising around the Antarctica Peninsula and up to Longyearbyen.

 

In any event, we’ll definitely keep an eye on the itinerary just in case. But, whatever changes are made, we’ll still see a ton of wildlife on the cruise! 😁

Talking about Antarctica got me thinking about our 22 day HAL Zaandam “drive by” Antarctica cruise back in Jan 2018. For those of you that haven’t been on a “drive by” cruise there yet, here is a thread that has a bunch of pictures we took (starting at post #22) on that cruise and here’s hoping we’ll see similar views on our upcoming Princess Sapphire cruise there in Jan 2024! 😁

Also included are some pictures from expedition cruises from other folks that contributed to the thread.
 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2825270-antarctica-is-elephant-island-worth-giving-up-4-days-of-cruising-the-peninsula/

Edited October 2, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[LACruiser88]

4 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

For those of you that haven’t been on a “drive by” cruise there yet, here is a thread that has a bunch of pictures we took on that cruise and here’s hoping we’ll see similar views on our upcoming Princess Sapphire cruise there in Jan 2024! 😁

We did that cruise on the Star Princess in January of 2011 as my retirement trip.  It was and still is our most memorable cruise experience!

[Ken the cruiser]

1 minute ago, LACruiser88 said:

We did that cruise on the Star Princess in January of 2011 as my retirement trip.  It was and still is our most memorable cruise experience!

That’s why we had to book both legs of our 30-day B2B when we head back there again in 2024. The wildlife and scenery is just too awesome down in that part of the world!