What's your perfect balance of port / at sea days?

[Peggy Sue]

S7S's has posted a lot of great questions today. Here's another..

When booking a cruise, do you seek out port intensive with limited at sea days, or more at sea days and fewer ports of call?

How many day's "at sea" have you spent on a cruise? was it enjoyable, or were you anxious to see land and get off the ship at the next port of call?

Peggy Sue

[Orcrone]

[font=Comic Sans MS][size=3][color=blue]Good question Peggy Sue!!![/color][/size][/font]
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[font=Comic Sans MS][size=3][color=blue]Personally, I like them to be about even, or perhaps slightly more shore days than sea days. I enjoy visiting the ports and doing the shore excursions, but I need the sea days to relax. However, I would consider RCI's Labadee a sea day since it was so relaxing. I'm hoping that HMC is the same.[/color][/size][/font]

[Joanne G.]

Love those sea days. We look carefully at the ratio of sea days to port days; half-and-half is good. A day or 2 of sea time at the beginning of the cruise is a wonderful way to relax after the hustle of packing and finishing up everything at work. A sea day or 2 at the end is a wonderful way to relax before returning to work. A sea day in the middle is a wonderful way to relax between ports. We even look at what time the ship arrives and departs from a port; a short port day is a half-sea day to us. :)

We had 3 sea days in a row once - on the Rotterdam from New York with the first stop in Barbados. It was heavenly. We enjoy our time in the ports, but if we had to choose between a port stop every day or a sea day every day, we'd choose all-sea all-the-time.

[RevNeal]

50/50 if possible ... if not, then more sea days than port days, please. :)
That's one of the reason why I love the Hawaii Round Trip cruise: 15 days, 5 days going to the Islands, 5 days in the Islands, then 5 days returning to San Diego. Lovely.

[viennacruiser]

We did an 11 day in 2002 and thought we would not like all the sea days, as it turned out we loved sea days :D and wished we had more :) .
My perfect cruise would be 2 sea days to start :) and than alternate port and sea day, port, sea day,port sea day,port and finish with 2 sea days:D
Nancy

[seaventurer]

The last day of a cruise really should (IMO) be a sea day. It helps one take a last look at the voyage, spend time with new found friends, and prepare for the end of what we all keep coming back to...My August 14th cruise on the ZUI, a repeat of my cruise on her this May doesn't offer this...

To answer the question, more sea days than not. A ten day cruise with 4 ports and 6 sea days is perfect - don't like overnights in port unless it is a significant destination...why some cruise lines spend an entire night in Key West, for example, is truly beyond me.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Speaking for both DH and myself "Give Me Sea Days" I would be happy with one port maybe two and as many Sea Days as possible. On our next cruise to the Sea of Cortez we have only 3 ports the rest are Sea Days. Maybe I can finally catch up on my reading.:D

[Jemima]

We prefer very port intensive cruises, but do prefer a sea day at the beginning and one at the end of a cruise. Our last cruise we had nine ports with six of them in a row. That was fine with us.

[Aussie Gal]

I adore sea days and my DH loves days in port so we usually find a cruise that has plenty of both. We always take cruises of at least 14 days so we are assured of at least 3 sea days.

I agree with Jemima, if possible a sea day at the beginning and end of a cruise would be perfect but that isn't always possible.

Jennie

[stillfrantic]

I find sea days so much more relaxing. I won't go so far as to say I'd want a cruise to nowhere, but I want a cruise to be pure relaxation, and for me, port days are not. I feel much more scheduled those days and am forever worried we won't make it back to the ship on time.

[tommy]

I must be in the minority,I prefer ports,If you want to relax simply stay on the ship,its less crowded,plenty of space by the pool.Sea days everywhere is crowded.Pool ,food lines,just everything.I do prefer the last day to be at sea makes it easy to pack an prepare for disembarkment. TOM

[Krazy Kruizers]

:)

[font=Comic Sans MS][color=red]We like to pick itineraries where there is about 75% ports and 25% sea days.[/color][/font]
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:)

[grannynurse]

We had 15 days at sea on this summer's 34 day Rotterdam trip.
8 eastbound and 7 westbound. The balance was perfect going east and the time changes (losing an hour a night) weren't as noticeable.
2 days between NY and Newfoundland, 2 days to iceland, 2 days to Norway, 1 recrossing the Arctic circle between Northcape and Trondheim, and 1 between Stavanger and hamburg.

The delay in Amsterdam due to weather added another day westbound, but then it got port intensive, Dublin, Isle of man, Shetlands, Faroes, a sea day, the Akureyri Iceland, 3 days at sea, 2 days in canada, then NY.

All in all, it was more restful than last summer's 17 day eastbound, as once we got to Europe it was 6 ports in a row, then fly home.

That's why we like crossings. New Years on the Zaandam (11 days) will have 3 days at sea and HMC. Not too bad.
GN

[Sierrachik]

For our upcoming first cruise I chose an itinerary/vessel based specifically on this very question. I specifically need more "down" time if you will this time, rather than total stimulation. The cruise we selected was the Eastern Caribbean on the Zuiderdam, four port calls, one being HMC, and two at sea days. Our choice, given the limited dates we could sail were this or another cruise that had stops every day. I thought I'd feel like we had to get off in every port if we were there so as not to miss anything. Selecting the cruise we did will give me more of a chance to relax. Perhaps on our next cruise we'll do more ports. (See, already thinking about the next one and haven't even gone on the first one yet!) :)

[lipoppop]

We prefer 60/40, sea/shore mix. However there are exceptions. Alaska is more shore and we really enjoyed the ports.

[thulewx]

If a small ship like Radisson Gauguin, ALL port days.
If a large ship like Zuiderdam or QM2, 2 port days - the first and last. The rest should be sea days ;)

[RevNeal]

An "ideal" port/sea mix:

embarkation
HMC
Sea
St. Thomas
St. Johns
Sea
HMC
disembarkation

:D

For HMC lovers, this gives us 2 days there. For sea day lovers, they've got 4 days "at sea." For port lovers they've got a shopping port and 3 beach/play ports. :D

[elmorejj]

Definitely at sea days. After doing the Carib. dozens of times, you have seen all of the Cruise accessible Islands many times and I just love to relax and laze about.....jean :cool:

[BCEagle78]

We stopped doing 7 day cruises and went to 10 starting last year and a key difference is that there is often more at-sea days on 10 day or longer cruise. It gives us time to do what we came for... relax... (although we have great fun in most of the ports!).