Ship vs itinerary

[BLAMBKY]

We absolutely enjoy the BIG ships & all their entertainment but I am ready for different ports. Looking at possibly the Canada/New England routes but they seem to be older/smaller ships. Do you spend more time in ports making the ship less important, more about transporting? I would appreciate hearing others opinions/experiences. Thanks!

[OCSC Mike]

We are also big ship people. We would only sail a smaller ship (below Voyager class) if it was for the ports with plans to spend much of our port days off the ship. As an example, I was fine with Radiance in Alaska b/c we were there to see Alaska for the first time.

 

This is all going to be personal preference, of course.

Edited May 29, 2023 by OCSC Mike

[shof515]

new england has tender ports like Bar Harbor and Newport thus needed smaller ships to get to these ports. big ships usually do not tender

[BLAMBKY]

1 minute ago, shof515 said:

new england has tender ports like Bar Harbor and Newport thus needed smaller ships to get to these ports. big ships usually do not tender

Are weather disruptions likely, meaning missed ports more often?

[orville99]

14 minutes ago, BLAMBKY said:

Are weather disruptions likely, meaning missed ports more often?

Weather disruptions can happen on any cruise, but tender ports are much more likely to be skipped due to weather than ports where ships can tie up to the pier. As for your original question, we have done very RCL ship class except Quantum, and prefer the smaller/mid-sized ships to the mega ships. We usually look for itineraries that take us to new or unique ports, and the mega ships tend to do the same old same old over and over again. Anything larger than Voyager class has gotten too big/too vanilla/too boring for our cruising tastes.

[Tin can]

Itinerary for us, too many new places to experience.

 

We are UK based and rarely sail with Royal out of Southampton as we have been there and seen that. It makes things expensive flying and cruising out of new ports but you can't take it £ $ with you 😀. 

 

We were on Anthem from NY recently and met a couple who didnt disembark at any of the three port stops, for them it was just the ship and good luck to them. We laughed over a drink in Boleros that they couldn't understand why we had flown from the UK and we couldn't understand why they didnt get off the ship.

 

Thats the beauty of cruising I guess, each to their own.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[davekathy]

We always book our cruises only based on the itinerary. We aren't loyal to any one cruise line either. 

Edited May 29, 2023 by davekathy

[Fouremco]

We too cruise for the itinerary, not the ship. The only time that the ship is taken into consideration is when we take our kids and grandchildren on a cruise and then select something like the Allure or, for our next family cruise, the Symphony. 

 

With respect to the Canada-New England cruises, we had a wonderful Boston-Montreal cruise on HAL's Maasdam before she was retired, the smallest cruise ship we've sailed. Also the oldest, but she had been well maintained and was a true pleasure to sail. Of the 7 ports, only Bar Harbor was a tender port, and we enjoyed beautiful mid-September weather throughout, so no difficulty tendering. 

[smokeybandit]

Ship is always the last thing I look at. Price and itinerary are my first two criteria.

If it's an itinerary you like but isn't served by your preferred class of ships, then take a chance on it for the experience of those port stops.

[DukeASUGirl]

Itinerary always for us, with the exception of this past fall when we were supposed to sail on Harmony (but had to cancel due to hurricane). Only reason we chose this ship was because our daughter's skating coach was in the show, but when we couldn't go, Royal gave us FCC.

 

Coach's contract was ending, and we wouldn't be able to make it there before she left, so we decided to just do a different itinerary/ship instead. We ended up picking Navigator because it was easy for us to get to (could drive instead of fly), and we'd never seen any of those Mexican Riviera ports, whereas half of our group had done those exact Eastern Caribbean ports before on Harmony. The entire point of sailing Harmony was to see the coach skate, but if she wasn't going to be there anymore, we did something else.

 

Navigator is technically a "smaller ship" (capacity 4000), and it doesn't have the aqua show or ziplining, but we really enjoyed it. iSkate show on Nav is the best of the entire fleet, and we also enjoyed their other activities and entertainment as well.

[firefly333]

4 hours ago, BLAMBKY said:

We absolutely enjoy the BIG ships & all their entertainment but I am ready for different ports. Looking at possibly the Canada/New England routes but they seem to be older/smaller ships. Do you spend more time in ports making the ship less important, more about transporting? I would appreciate hearing others opinions/experiences. Thanks!

I prefer the big ships but enjoyed radiance that went to Panama. Very good service and food served hot and good. Surprised. 

 

I booked adventure out of PC for the new ports eastern and southern. Still a few ports I'm missing I want to hit. I'll book a smaller ship for the ports if unusual. 

[topnole]

4 hours ago, BLAMBKY said:

We absolutely enjoy the BIG ships & all their entertainment but I am ready for different ports. Looking at possibly the Canada/New England routes but they seem to be older/smaller ships. Do you spend more time in ports making the ship less important, more about transporting? I would appreciate hearing others opinions/experiences. Thanks!

The small ships aren’t really that small.  Only in comparison to the newer mega ships.   Not long ago they were some of the biggest and best around with folks clamoring to go on them.
 

Point being, they aren’t just transportation.  They all have nice things about them.  Now my kids may want a new ship with slides, etc., but for my wife and I, we could have a blast on any ship even if we went to the same old ports.  They all have entertainment, all have pools, all have bars and restaurant,

and most importantly all are on the ocean.  What’s not to love.  Maybe some folks need lots different things to have fun, but if you tend to make your own fun regardless, any ship is a great time.  I still prefer Oasis Class for varying reasons, but I wouldn’t hesitate to do a smaller ship.  

Edited May 29, 2023 by topnole

[loman]

Im in the other camp, we sail on Oasis class exclusively and sail for the ship . Dont care much for the itinerary but favor eastern Caribbean over western. 

Its a nice break and we get entertained and fed in a pretty nice ship.

[davekathy]

All boils down to personal preferences. 

[CynBeth6]

We go by the itinerary and date offered by RC the ship does not matter.

[goldfish65]

On the smaller/older ships, aside from less entertainment, the decor is dated, and wear and imperfections are evident everywhere including cabins, often cited in negative reviews.

[CanadaRob]

Generally itineraries, we have a differing of opinion on ship sizes, so we kind of alternate, but still primarily where we go.

 

 

[smokeybandit]

4 hours ago, goldfish65 said:

On the smaller/older ships, aside from less entertainment, the decor is dated, and wear and imperfections are evident everywhere including cabins, often cited in negative reviews.

 

And people who leave those kind of reviews knowing they're sailing an older ship are like people that go to a steak house and complain that they can't get chicken nuggets.

[sandy toes]

The date comes first, followed by the itinerary, cost, and ship. 

I like the midsized ship the best. But the smaller ones for Canada and New England are perfect too. Too many people think only "Old People" go to Canada but that is not true. There were lots of younger people and even about 60 kids of various ages. Most of those were homeschooled and doing projects. The Panama Canal also uses smaller ships and is a lot like Canadian sailings as to the demographics. 

[sandy toes]

28 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

 

And people who leave those kind of reviews knowing they're sailing an older ship are like people that go to a steak house and complain that they can't get chicken nuggets.

LOVED the comment!

[RobInMN]

Both, depends on the circumstances. That said, I don't think I would ever do a Vision class.

The simplistic answer is:

Caribbean = ship

Most other places, itinerary.

Love the Oasis class, but also interested in exploring the world. We are not content to just do the same handful of ports over & over. We are also branching out into river cruising to see things you simply can't visit from an ocean cruise port.

Happily did Jewel for Arctic Circle and Iceland & Ireland, and had a wonderful time. Specifically chose Jewel out of Amsterdam over the Quantum class ship out of Southampton because the larger Quantum class can not go to the Arctic Circle ports.

After that, did a quick weekend with our daughter and her bf on Navigator out of LA as it was some place we've never gone.

Next one is Allure this fall with them again, A couple ports we've never been, but primarily booked due the awesome price we got on a Star Class (2br aqua suite).

Then we'll do Radiance for Panama canal. (Spring '24)

Fall '24 is Holy Land on Odyssey. I believe it was that or Voyager, and the dates just worked out better for Odyssey.

 

 

[Rogueperson]

The best answer for us is both.  Now that being said, we generally avoid the Oasis class because we feel its too big.  Yeah, its got the best stuff on it, but at the same time, their itinerary is fairly limited to the same ports.  I saw limited Oasis class ships going to ABC Islands I think, but thats not often.  It generally sticks with 7 nights to eastern or western Caribbean.

We try to combine the best, and if we can't, we at least try to go on a ship we haven't been on as oppose to the same ones we do go on.  As a last resort, we try other cruise lines to get different flavors of ships as well as different ports.

[cruiselvr04]

If you’re a new cruiser, have kids, or are able to drive to a port, you may cruise for the ship. At first it doesn’t matter so much where you go. If I was only cruising once or twice a year I’d probably be going with the ship.

 

Prior to retirement we’d book anything to get away and relax.  While we try to mix it up we’ve probably been to Cozumel 15 times.  From now on we’ll be cruising for itinerary with an occasional longer Caribbean thrown in. So for us it’s all about the ports of call. 

[Tree_skier]

For me it is a combination of both. I want to sail Voyager class or higher but different ports and itineraries are big selling features too.  I'll probably do a smaller ship for the Panama Canal cruise since that is the only option but will mostly stick to the mid to large size ships.  

[Cruise a holic]

I also like big- new ships.  Last year we did the Adventure of the Seas and we were very disappointed.  No comparison to the Oasis class ships.  Will not sail on that ship again.  However the Oasis is sailing out of port liberty to florida and the caribbean and we will sail on her this summer.  Some of the celebrity ships have been redone- like the summit and it doesn't have "all the bells and whistles" but is a very good ship.