How do you choose?

[dakrewser]

How do you choose your cruises - by boat, by itinerary, by port, by price or by accident?

[ekerr19]

1st by date of sailing...

 

2nd by length of cruise...

 

3rd by price...

 

4th by ship...

[RevNeal]

Region first. I decide WHERE in the world I want to cruise, then I choose the precise itinerary and ship which I wish to cruise on based upon any number of factors: have I visited the ports before, have I cruised on the ship before, what are the dates of embarkation and disembarkation, etc. Money ranks down the list quite a way, though it can always veto a choice by simply making it impossible for me to make a certain trip.

[DFD1]

Time of year.....itinerary....the particular ship.....length of cruise.....price.

[jhannah]

Itinerary generally drives our choice of cruises. Where have we not been, or where would we like to go again. Dates of sailing are also important as my DW teaches in a year-round school and has just a few breaks per year that are condusive to cruising.

[superstein61]

You need a combo - of price and itinerary

[tomc]

(1) Must be HAL or I don't go.

(2) Must be reached by ground trans (bus or train) as I am tired and fed up with the hassle connected with airports -- before and after the attack. Especially after. I also despise the ground from airport to midtown Manhattan at the end of the cruise; it's always clogged.

(3) The window of opportunity for me is rather small. There are many factors that enter into when I can cruise, so 17 NE/C cruises quickly reduce themselves to maybe 2 availabilities.

 

Price is incidental; I book early and steerage, plus my TA keeps an eye on promotions to get discounts along the way. Itinerary is incidental, although I like NE/C cuz it's quiet.

[dougnewmanatsea]

It's a combination of the above factors.

 

First thing we consider is date - what times we can go.

 

Then destination - what area(s) we want to go to at that particular time.

 

Then search the actual cruises, and come up with a short list of possibilities that fit that date and destination.

 

After that, the deciding factor can be anything. Cruise line, ship, the particular itinerary, and of course price are all factors once it's been narrowed down to a short list.

[bombero]

We are lucky in that we can go pretty much anytime we'd like, providing we have enough extra money. So, our preferences would be:

 

1. Pricing :(

 

2. Itinerary (like to visit at least one new port if possible) :cool:

 

3. Cruise line, (we prefer Carnival, HAL, Princess) but would try others. :rolleyes:

 

4. Time of year (we avoid peak travel seasons, ie. Summer & Winter) :eek:

[jazzsea]

We almost always look at itinerary first. Then find a ship and sailing date that works.

However, sometimes we just want to be able to drive to a port and sail away.

 

Those of us that live in FLorida are spoiled with the number of embarkation ports available.

 

Our next cruise leaves from and returns to New York, NY. We hope to see leaves changing colors. We moved to FLorida 15 years ago and have not seen fall colors since we left Illinois. The added bonus is that we are sailing on our "Rotterdam".

 

Thank goodness we have so many choices with Holland America.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Itinerary plays a big part. We try to select cruises that are doing something a little different.

In between we take cruises that we have done many times before - like the Caribbean.

[RuthC]

First off I sail HAL. I don't look at other possible cruises as sailing HAL is like coming home.

 

Second, length of cruise. It's gotta be long enough to make it worth packing and traveling to the embarkation/disembarkation port.

 

Third, it's gotta tickle my fancy. Haven't a clue what makes one cruise do that, either. Somehow, I just know it's a cruise I want to take.

[Randyk47]

Itinerary coupled with timing. We cruised for our honeymoon and now take our "winter" vacation at the same time to celebrate our anniversary. Knowing basically the time, somewhere around the middle to end of March, we look for an itinerary we're interested in. For the longest time we'd only consider HAL but now we've expanded, at least for this next cruise, to Celebrity and may look at other HAL/Celebrity-like lines in the future.

[sail7seas]

First off, I know it will be HAL.

 

Then, by which ship is sailing from what port? For the most part, these days I will only fly non-stop. There are very few places that are worth it to me to get to that I will put up with changing planes. For me, the airlines/airports have made travel so unpleasant that I now only travel on my terms. If it is not available in a way I wish to put up with, I don't go.

[Roz]

For me, it's varied from cruise to cruise. For my upcoming December cruise, it was a combination of a fare too good to pass up, plus a time of the year that's not busy at work.

 

On my first cruise, my girlfriend "made me do it", and I'm forever grateful to her.

 

Roz

[Tatka]

1) Itinerary (I am not sure we want cruise the same itinerary more than once yet)

2) Cruise Line

3) Dates (school vacations mostly for now)

4) Price of cruise/ Price of airfare( if I see a good airfare I can be more flex with a price)

[dst]

I must say I pull out hte map and decide where in the world do we want to go now. The best part is that DH goes whereever I want; he really leaves it up to me. Then I would say a comparison of ships and price.

 

I must start working on our next trip....thanks for the reminder :)

[lknick]

My main criteria for rejecting a cruise is point of departure. Automatically, I reject anything requiring a round trip flight of over 8 hours. A cruise has to be very appealing to attract me to a west coast departure.

 

Criteria for acceptance is very mushy and can include any of the items on the poll, with the order varying.

 

Value [not price] also comes into it. Sometimes I am notified of a trip to a place or time I had not previously considered and if it meets a cost per day criteria, I will then further explore the option.

[divinggirl]

This is the kind of question that makes me think too hard...when I booked our Z sailing I looked for something not too expensive to fly to, and it had to be end of Aug. because of work/school issues. I saw the NCL Sun out of TX going to Roatan, Belize and Coz, which was perfect for diving. Got all excited, and then looked at the ship and it's age, etc. which was OLD. Looked for similar itineraries and found the Z out of FLL, which was actually cheaper to fly to than TX, and direct, too! Newer, nicer ship, better line, although I had second thoughts after reading about vibrations and odors, but I figured that soooo many people mentioned it that they HAD to have fixed it by then.

 

No stop in Roatan, which bummed me out, but I'll get there, and HMC will probably make up for it!! :rolleyes: No stop in Belize, but I've been there.

[TedC]

Itinerary, value.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

well, for us it has to be Date first. I am limited to what time of the month I can go on vacation and for how long as well as the season if we are busy in the car business or not. Next is for us right now it will be HAL, then ship and itinerary are tied, then price. Although if a miracle price appears like our October 2005 cruise then it jumps to primary reason. I am a true bargain shopper how can I pass up a Deal like that:eek:

[Lefty Bob]

WE like reposition cruises (10 days +). WE look at all repo cruises and go with best price for value. So I guess itinerary and price would be equal.

Lefty Bob

[Tatka]

This is the kind of question that makes me think too hard...when I booked our Z sailing I looked for something not too expensive to fly to, and it had to be end of Aug. because of work/school issues. I saw the NCL Sun out of TX going to Roatan, Belize and Coz, which was perfect for diving. Got all excited, and then looked at the ship and it's age, etc. which was OLD.

Hi divinggirl,

I am not questioning your knowledge. and very glad you pick "our" cruise but..

 

just out of curiosity I checked info on NCL Sun:

 

Year Built / Last Refurbished: 2001/ 2001

Length / Tonnage: 853 / 77,104

Number of Cabins / Passengers: 1,001 / 2,002

 

Doesn't look to OLD to me ;)

[Giorgi-one]

We always cruise 2nd or 3rd week in January and one week in summer which is very flexible. After that, we just pick the best value which is a combination of cruise line, ship, price with itinerary being the least important. After 14 cruises, we have been to most ports more than once, and except for the beaches (which are gorgeous) usually stay on the ship.

[Druke I]

Choices perhaps too limited - but "by itinerary" comes closest.

 

Actually, it is a combination of all the factors, with itinerary being the primary.

 

Michael