Verrry Interesting but Weird

[hermang]

I don't know how many of you have noticed that with Celebrity's new ships as well as RCCL - many of the 7 night cruises feature 3 days or more at Sea.

 

At first blush what comes to mind is a captive audience that will out of necessity spend more in the shops, bars and restaurants. On the other hand

the new ships might be a destination unto itself.

 

I suppose cruising at 6 knots is a way to save fuel and port charges.

 

Any comments?

[flashdog_1]

I have noticed it, too. and I think you are right on both accounts: fuel saver, as well as more time for spending on massages, drinks, casino etc. But no one HAS to spend money on a sea day!

[bubbie617]

Just put me on a ship going anywhere, anytime. If the ship is going to the Caribbean, I don't care if it goes out and never touches land until it comes back. Other itineraries interest me more, but on the very port intensive cruises like Europe or the Baltics, I'm just as happy to have an extra day to relax after running around in the ports.

[giles33]

I think the sea days are a great break between tours. Took an W. Med cruise on RCCL and had 8-10 hour tours 5 days in a row. We ended up skipping the last port and just laying around by the pool.

 

One down side is the pools get crowded on the sea days ... may be a problem with the size of the pools/decks on the Solstice Class.

[katpt]

For me, cruises should be:

Take me out, spin me in circles, bring me home.:)

 

I don't care if I ever touch land! I just want all the pampering I get...

 

Kathy

[BalconyBumz]

For me, cruises should be:

Take me out, spin me in circles, bring me home.:)

 

I don't care if I ever touch land! I just want all the pampering I get...

 

Kathy

Me too. A few hours off the ship just to walk around is enough for me. I cruise for being on a ship not for the ports.

[Cruise Arizona]

I just love cruises that are less port intensive. While I'm sure the cruise lines might have their motives, I am perfectly happy with my days at sea. I enjoy my fellow passengers and the ship board activities, and probably spend less on board than I would in port.

 

But we know the ships also make plenty of money selling excursions. I wonder what works out best for them?

[jakedoc]

I also love the sea days but I havea question. Why do 3 port itineraries have higher or equal prices as 4 or 5 port intensive itineraries? Is it because of the size of the ships?

[Denny01]

I agree with the posts about Sea Days, especially in the Caribbean. We go into port, and someone asks about a good restaurant - I point back at the ship and mention it's not only the best restaurant in town, it's also the cheapest! We live on the Florida Panhandle, so I haven't seen a beach that beats ours, except one with great cliffs dropping into the sea, so I'm not big on the beach-time. I'll wander around a bit to see something different that what we have, then back to the ship and enjoy the reason I signed on.

 

As for Europe, and S America, I'll make every effort to enjoy the sites, but my mind is always thinking about being back aboard.

 

It's crazy, I spent 20 years in the Navy and swore I'd never go back to Sea, and here I am - I love that knife-sharp horizon. And of course, laying there and having some fine person put a funny drink with umbrellas into my hand - that's Life at its best!

 

Denny

[chessbriar]

I'm booked on Solstice with 2 days at sea.

[Schplinky]

If it's a new ship, I want to stay on and explore. That said, we love when a new ship goes to Jamaica because we will never get off there. The result is that we have the ship practically to ourselves, which we like.

[Druke I]

I like sea days, so fine by me.

[mmp13]

We actually pick cruises that have the most sea days! As long as we have a balcony we can relax on there is nothing better. I'm sure the cruise line has their motives but so do we! We love to just relax.

[chessbriar]

Keep in mind, they are building new ships to be a destination unto themselves. Why go to the expense of building these beautiful ships if you don't give people time to see what they have to offer.

 

Carnival has been doing the same thing for years. 3port, 3 sea days.

[gkm]

I'm happy to see this trend. I love the sea days which is one reason my DH and I do transatlantic cruises. If we stay close to home, we look for cruises that have a lot of sea days.:D :D :D

 

Garry

[Conrycol]

Three sea days is perfect. Had 5 ports on the Summit in February and we're kind of tired after the vacation:) .

[Sky Sweet]

I think the sea days are a great break between tours. Took an W. Med cruise on RCCL and had 8-10 hour tours 5 days in a row. We ended up skipping the last port and just laying around by the pool.

 

One down side is the pools get crowded on the sea days ... may be a problem with the size of the pools/decks on the Solstice Class.

 

Hi giles :)

 

I feel the same way. One of the main reasons why we took our Baltic Cruise on Celebrity's Constellation was because it had four sea days while most of Holland America's itineraries had less. Even with four sea days, the day we had access to Berlin we decided to simply explore the port town of Rostock, Germany so we could have a better balance of intensive port days and more relaxing ones.

 

We did the same thing for our Mediterranean Cruise on RCCL's Brilliance of the Seas. That cruise had three sea days which was more than some of the other itineraries that we looked at. Again, we decided which ports we would spend ten hours touring and which ones we would relax in. Since we had been to Rome before and are more likely to go back to Rome than Greece or Turkey, we decided to take a very short tour the day we were in Civitavecchia (gateway to Rome).

 

For us Caribbean Cruises are simply a relaxing escape from cold winters and the ports are just an extra. Therefore, as long as we have a nice cabin on a nice ship nothing else really matters.

 

I personally wish that Celebrity had more options for relaxing cruises during late spring and summer. If we lived on the west coast I would take another Alaskan cruise during the summer, but since we already took that cruise it is not worth the long flight from the Northeast to do it again.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Bring on the sea days! I LOVE sea days! R&R.

[cal516]

One more vote for all the sea days they can fit in a cruise. We focus on the repo and xlant cruises for that very reason!

 

... Cal

[Seahorse44]

I agree with Schplinky - ports that we don't care about are great because you have the ship to yourself! And the deck chairs are more available at the pool, too. We always look for sea days too.

[dmk]

If it's a new ship, I want to stay on and explore. That said, we love when a new ship goes to Jamaica because we will never get off there. The result is that we have the ship practically to ourselves, which we like.

 

I'm with you on that. We never get off in the Cayman Islands anymore. Once you've been, you've seen it...too small, too crowded and tendering is such a hassle.

LOVE those sea days.

[hermang]

Just put me on a ship going anywhere, anytime. If the ship is going to the Caribbean, I don't care if it goes out and never touches land until it comes back. Other itineraries interest me more, but on the very port intensive cruises like Europe or the Baltics, I'm just as happy to have an extra day to relax after running around in the ports.

 

But if you look at Solstice cruise for Feb 22 2009

 

Day 1 Fort Lauderdale, Florida Depart 4:30 PM

Day 2 At Sea

Day 3 San Juan, Puerto Rico Docked Arrive 2:00 PM Depart 10:00 PM

Day 4 Philipsburg, St. Maarten Docked Arrive 9:00 AM Depart 11:00 PM

Day 5 Basseterre, St. Kitts Docked Arrive 8:00 AM Depart 5:00 PM

Day 6 At Sea

Day 7 At Sea

Day 8 Fort Lauderdale, Florida Arrive 7:00 AM

 

Sounds to me like they are just cruising slowly. Hard to believe it takes almost 2 days to go from FLL to San Juan and 2 days plus to go from St.Kitts to FLL

[DeepWaterMariner]

If it's a trend then it's a good trend as far as we are concerned. We love sea days and don't spend that much time ashore in the Caribbean anyway. For the cruise line I'm sure it is a balancing act between providing enough ports to satisfy the passengers who want to stop every day and maximizing onboard revenue. My guess is that they drop ports that generate the fewest dollars from tours.

[wolfganghowell]

I don't see it as much of a change. We have cruised 12 times in 8 years and only 3 of those cruises had 4 port days. We love 3 ports/3 sea. In fact, our Voyager 2009 cruise just dropped a port and I was happy about it. It wasn't a great port to start with, we were going to treat it as a sea day anyway and now we have the added benefit of everything being open. I do think it will be more prevalent considering how many more ships there will be out there and the rising costs of fuel. It doesn't bother us in the least.

[hermang]

I don't see it as much of a change. We have cruised 12 times in 8 years and only 3 of those cruises had 4 port days. We love 3 ports/3 sea. In fact, our Voyager 2009 cruise just dropped a port and I was happy about it. It wasn't a great port to start with, we were going to treat it as a sea day anyway and now we have the added benefit of everything being open. I do think it will be more prevalent considering how many more ships there will be out there and the rising costs of fuel. It doesn't bother us in the least.

 

Most if not all of our 7 day cruises have been at least 4 and many 5 ports.

With the exception of Belieze, Roatan and Bahamas ( keep that one) we've been to all of the others many times. I am not saying I don't like the idea and our Solstice cruise will be fun to see all of the venues and restaurants offered but my comment was that the older ships seem to be still doing 5 and the newer ships for both RCCL an X are doing 3 and I wondered why.