Jewel 5 day ex: Miami or Gem 7 day ex: NYC in March?

[Sandyrella]

What would you book? :confused:

 

I want to pulverize my DH.:mad: After convincing him that we need another cruise next year ;) and in order to do that without breaking the budget we should sail from NYC so that we could drive... he agreed:rolleyes: . Having done a NYC departure once before and being quite uninspired by the itinerary, he then decided that we should look into other "options". Well, our only other option, in our minds would be to drive to Miami for the 5 day western on the NCL Jewel. I personally love a road trip and was much more enthused by the Grand Cayman/Cozumel stops vs Port Canaveral and Bahamas...where the weather could also be quite iffy that time of year.

 

Well, after getting worked up about taking the Jewel cruise, DH has suddenly changed his mind again....aaarrrggghh!

 

Paying for airfare next year is most likely not an option so wherever we cruise from, we will have to drive there...so again, I ask you, what would you book? Either way we will likely have at best 5 days of decent weather...

 

FYI, we are a family of 5 including 2 teenagers and a tween....

[foursum]

For me the 5 day is too short to justify the effort to get there and back. Last Oct we did 14 days on the Pearl--a 9+5 back-to-back. This year it's 12 days on the Jewel out of NYC and ending in Miami. I actually asked about adding the 5 day to the end but it was full price. Last year, adding 5 to the 9 day was only $200 or so.

 

I'd take the 7 days out of NYC( but really want for more).

[Grandpaul]

Hi Sandy

How about another option; the Explorer of the Seas does 9 day cruises out of New Jersey next March? Same distance as New York City. Florida is a long drive from Canada. As an aside, I have everyone here watching Just For Laughs.

[Sandyrella]

Thanks Foursum...would love to do longer but time and budget restraints restrict us from doing more than a week...first week of March. Maybe one day, when I can ditch the kids, we'll go for more :p

 

Paul...as always, nice to hear from you.:) The Explorer sounded great to us until we found out that the timing is all off. Still trying not to keep the kids out of school of any length of time and their sailing is the week after the one we are looking at.

 

Glad you are still enjoying Just for Laughs. You really should try to come to Montreal for a few days during the festival! www dot hahaha dot com will give you the schedule. Have a great time on your Alaskan cruise. Are you flying out west or driving? Your European cruise sounds amazing...I feel your pain about that flight but the cruise will be well worth it!

[garycarla]

Eliminate that long drive and ride on a cruise ship instead. That would be my choice.

[Grandpaul]

Glad you are still enjoying Just for Laughs. You really should try to come to Montreal for a few days during the festival! www dot hahaha dot com will give you the schedule. Have a great time on your Alaskan cruise. Are you flying out west or driving? Your European cruise sounds amazing...I feel your pain about that flight but the cruise will be well worth it!

 

We're flying to Salt Lake City before the cruise from Seattle and driving around out West for some time visiting the National Parks on our way to Seattle. Should take at least a week. Good opportunity to take care of two things on one trip. We will get to Montreal sometime. We used to go there a lot in the 70's. As far as your trip, I would rather be on a ship then in a car no matter where it went.

[Sandyrella]

Ok..now taking the drive out of the equation, what would be your preference?

 

DH has now decided that we will figure it out ($$) and fly to Miami if we have to....with a 5 day cruise we have time to drive to Burlington Vt or Albany for much cheaper airfares. 3 hours to Albany + 3 hours to Miami = 6 hour drive to NYC.

 

Paul, have you tried out the Gem yet? I know you are a big NCL fan so maybe you've got an opinion about the ships.

[Grandpaul]

No Sandy, I haven't been on the Gem yet but there are plenty of people on here that have. The writeups seem generally positive and if she's anything like the Jewel, she'll be fine. If you decide on Albany, we'll buy you lunch.

[familyof4cruising]

I dislike the 7 night itinerary out of NYC. I would never do it again unless it was dirt cheap and that is never going to happen the times of the year that I travel. That is why NCL will lose my business everytime when it comes to traveling out of NYC ( unless it is the summer Bermuda cruise or a 10 day happens during a school break).

 

I bet you can get on a Carnival 7 night for the same price as a 5 night NCL. In years past I would have never gone Carnival, but lately all my experiences have been great. Just stay to the newer ships.

 

Good Luck with your decision.