IS THIS HOW YOU DECIDE WHICH CRUISE TO BOOK?
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- čas přidán 20. 04. 2024
- I asked a question and got answers I wasn't expecting.
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I live in the midwest, so I have to travel no matter what. For me, it is the itinerary first, and the ship second.
My next cruise im looking for a particular ship, ports and embarkation port. I look at all of these when i choose
Same! Being in stl have to travel. I love Caribbean so go out of ft lauderdale.
At first, it was cost of cruising and closer is better. But once you visit the same ports a couple of times, you start looking for more exotic locations to visit and have to fly farther.
It's the port for me. Then, I will check to see what ships are cruising from that port.
An hour from Galveston, it’s pretty hard to deny the convenience of just driving in the morning of embarkation days, parking and getting on board. That being said our next two will be out of Florida so we can sail to some far eastern Caribbean destinations. It’s not practical out of Galveston unless you take 14 days or a reposition cruise maybe. But still I prefer the closest port I can drive to in general.
I'm 15 minutes from Bayonne port. I have a fear of flying, so that is my go-to.
I live 3-4 hours from Galveston, so we only sail from there. From my experience, most of the Galveston cruisers are Texans or people in neighboring states that make the drive. Both Houston airports are quite the distance with expensive transportation costs. Before I moved to TX, we always had to fly and I would rather sail from FLL or MIA as embarkation ports, as are both very close to the cruise ports and usually have the newest and greatest ships. Sailing from TX does have its drawbacks, namely the same ports over and over again. I dream of taking an Alaska cruise, but for the cost of the cruise/airfare for the whole family/hotels for additional days/excursions/etc., I could probably take 2 Caribbean cruises.
I hear you! We are in Houston and our main complaint is the lack of destinatons available. After a couple of cruises, we are done with it. But I would certainly recommend Alaska. We went last year and can't wait to go again. Yeah, we spent almost $5k for the two of us for everything, but it was well worth it IMO, even with the long flights.
our choice of cruise port is based on me having altitude sickness. so do not fly or travel high elevations. we live in california so ports we choose are in california. we pick la/long beach/san diego...different ships to spice it up and different stops...booked on carnival panorama this year, carnival firenze next year, and rccl quantum of the seas the following year...love cruising and love watching you tubers share ideas/tips/and places we know we will never see. thank you
We look at the places it cruises to but also look at the options for excursions.
Living in Southern California, with the sailing experience being what I love, I would say that the ease of sailing from my home port, or those on the west coast, is what I prefer. Beaches days are not my thing so sailing out of Florida is not very appealing…except for the possible repositioning cruise to/from Europe, or the Panama Canal. I love sea days so a Hawaii roundtrip is one of my favorites. Alaska is also a favorite, and a 10 day Mexico is is a great getaway where I don’t even need to get off the ship. The ship is somewhat important but not if it is an itinerary I want to do with no choice of ship. Lois
We live in Europe, far inland.
Whenever we want to take a cruise we either have to fly or take a long train ride.
So we always look for low cruise prices since getting to any port, even a European one, costs quite a bit.
Usually, we book a cruise first. Then search as early as possible for flights. Sometimes we add some days prior to the cruise (well, always a day earlier as the actual cruise for safety reason !), sometimes a few days after the cruise.
Or, if the hotel prices have gone wild for that destination, we book a b2b cruise.
We are retired and try to cruise 3-4 times a year.
We are Diamond plus at RCL, but are open to any good offer from other lines.
Thanks for your comment!!!
The ship and itinerary are the major factors for us. We enjoy traveling, so flying to the embarkation port is actually a new experience!
Ours is mainly the ship, not really so much the port. We have to fly anywhere we go, except for California, and destinations are slim. The #1 ❤on top of the list, is the folks we will be cruising with!!! Love my cruise family❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
I go by the ports, but yes, I factor in the embarkation port too.
Being I live an hour and 1/2 from Galveston I always cruise from there.
My wife loves new destinations from different ports. I love the ease of driving to our closest port Galveston. By the way our next cruise in May this year if from Miami....so we know who was in charge. The one in October is from Galveston.
Exact same thing for us. Wife likes new destinations, I live close to Galveston and like the easy drive the morning of embarkation. Next one is out of Orlando area and the next one after that is planned out of Ft Lauderdale. So, yeah she wins lol. We do need to get over to the eastern Caribbean and ABC islands more. So that pretty much blocks out Galveston except for the 14 days cruises.
I moved to Florida about 15 years ago, so I could cruise out of any of its five cruise ports. I used to fly in from North Dakota which was not ideal. Now that I'm here in Florida, I must admit that it takes a very special ship and/or itinerary to make me drive anywhere other than Port Canaveral, which is 15 minutes away! Hell...I usually Uber over to the port so I don’t have to pay for parking. 😊
My "home port" is New Orleans, which is about 6 hours drive for me. It is the only "driveable" port for us. However, New Orleans seems to get a lot of the older ships. So, we like to mix it up. On a case by case basis. Based on the overall deal when factoring in flights.
Here’s how I pick a cruise my husband, and I first of all do not cruise frequently but we have found that we can use it as a great way to visit a lot of unique places and having to fly from one city to another. So - I just look at different cruises and their itineraries And I go from there and when I find an itinerary I like and pick that one - I do check the departing and return ports secondly to make sure it’s a reasonable port from where we live to fly - since we are in a western state I try to stay away from east coast or exotic ports like Australia.
I really try to only cruise from Galveston since i live in N TX. It's about a 6 hr drive. I despise flying. Lol
Living just a few hours from any of the Florida ports for us means for the most part we will choose a cruise from one of those ports. However, we did have some bucket list cruises like Alaska and Canada/New England which meant we needed to fly to Seattle and Boston. But even transatlantic we can leave and return to Florida so we have a wide selection of ships and itineraries close to home. And being in our mid 70's that a blessing.
Hi Jaime,
We love your channel! We live in So Cal so we book Long Beach, however we are getting married and are going to book Regent out of South Africa! That will be a long flight, but worth it!
Sadly it depends on our house/pet sitters availabilty :)
We would like to cruise from Baltimore or Norfolk which would make for a much easier travel situation as we live in Richmond Virginia. However, the better itineraries are usually out of Florida - which is really not too difficult to travel to from our home. We will also travel longer if the itinerary requires - such as Alaska that we have booked this August. The time of the year is also a big factor for us when we select a cruise. Our wedding anniversary is Valentine’s Day and we like to cruise or our anniversary. Our very first cruise was on our honeymoon so I guess it nostalgic for us. We prefer Princess Cruise line so that is also a factor. However, we also travel with other lines if the itinerary and dates are preferable. Thanks for all of the helpful information.
Depends on cost of cruise to drive vs cost of cruise to fly, that’s how we pick the port.
I usually cruise from the west coast. I can drive to the Seattle port in an hour, and fly to Los Angeles quickly, same day. I would love to cruise from Florida more often, but much more expensive. Ship doesn't matter, itinerary matters. Though price is a huge factor.
We are from Kansas City MO area. We always fly so the port does not matter to us.
We live in the DFW Metroplex. Galveston is our home port and its a 4.5hr drive there. So the majority of our cruises are out of there. $60 in gas ⛽️ is better than $300-$400 pp for flights. We drove to Long Beach for our cruise last spring and just recently flew to sail out of Miami. Primarily because we had not been to Puerto and so we chose that.
I will cruise from anywhere, I believe Gina agrees. We typically arrive a day or two early and enjoy the local sites and food.
You hit a home-run on this.
Since I cruise the same itineraries often, I book based on dates and embarkation port convenient for me.
I don’t know if this answers that question? I hope I read it right since we started cruising like in 97 I love Bermuda and (we do leave at a New York for this port )that’s the first place we went and at least we take one every year to go back there. I love getting off the ship, it’s there like three days, I can come and go as I please and I just love the atmosphere and I never get tired of it my husband feels the same way. On other cruises we’ve taken I do like different ports like grand Turk. I never been to before I’ve went once and I gotta go again. Carrico I love that port. We went there once in the same thing I have to go again Jamaica I loved, Bimini Porta Plata Cozumel I can go on and on, but I love them all. I just love being on the ship. I should say we love being on the ship and going to different places and just being on the ship. as I said before I love leaving in New York, but if we get a good deal and go to places that we never been before, I don’t mind to fly into Florida, but I did California and I did San Fran, but I really at this time. I don’t want to travel that far because I have hip problems . Thanks for your video. It was very informative. Always enjoy it. Thank you.❤❤️🛳️🦩⚓️
Thanks for your awesome comment, Deborah!!!
We cruise based on the ship. We try to hit the New Carnival ships or at least new to Carnival Ships. In the last three years we have cruised the Panorama out of LA, the Jubilee out of Galveston, the Celebration out of Miami, the Luminosa out of Seattle and will be on the Firenze out of LA next month. When we started cruising it was always out of LA for convenience now it’s about the Ship.
Jamie, We live in New Hampshire and always pick the cruise by itineraries. We have cruise out of Boston to Bermuda a couple of times which was very easy, but mostly we don't care where we have to fly to. Our last cruise was the southern Caribbean and we flew to the Dominican. Our next cruise is out of Athens to the greek island and Turkey.
I live in the middle of the country, so it doesn't matter too much travel-wise where I embark a cruise from.
I live in PA and right now we choose more based on the ship. We usually book the newer ships, just got off Icon yesterday. May try Carnivals' new ships next, would be first experience on Carnival. As we travel more and repeat ports, we are talking about starting to choose based on destination ports. Embarkation port is not really a factor for us.
We based our next 2 cruises on Galvaston because that eliminates air fare.
I cruise out of Galveston since I'm just south of Dallas which for me is a 3 hour drive. I always drive down the the day before and book a room about 25 miles away to save some money. I've only been on 3 cruises and all have been on Carnival which I like. All 3 have also been with a group of people so that makes it more fun. To me Carnival offers more for less money than Royal which allows me to spend my money on other items.
We choose our port since Galveston is an hour away. Cruising out of their saves us money not having to pay for flight and that equalls more cruises for us. Enjoy your videos.
Living in Florida, it is much easier for us to travel from the ports nearby. We had to cancel a west coast cruise because the expenses of flying plus other expenses made the trip out of our budget. So for now, we will stay on the east coast.
I choose based on the cruise ports that are closer to me in Florida and the ships I definitely don't wanna fly anywhere unless I get an opportunity to fly to Alaska or the Mediterranean
We are still waiting for a cruise port in Kansas too. lol
Being landlocked in the middle of the country does open up options for us, which after your video I find to be a benefit. We COULD drive to Galveston(long drive but doable,) but the ships there sail to the same old Western Caribbean ports over and over. We want to go to new places and see new things. The ship and home port is not as important to us as the itinerary.
Take AMTRAK over to St. Louis and then do a river cruise from there. Up, down, or east. Not many going west.
I am land locked, so I decide with the ports I want to visit
I live in Los Angeles so I base it on my port but I’m looking to venture out in the future as we don’t get a lot of ship options on our end.
I choose the destination when choosing a cruise. I have to travel to all the ports.
For to travel to a cruise port outside of NYC will cost an extra $300 to $600 (airfare) and that’s not including hotel if I pre cruise or shuttle/taxi.
We always base our cruise decisions on the ships & the ports they visit.
Wish carnival would come back to Boston. Boston has NCL but the older ships. We often fly to Florida to cruise. Typically pick the ship first and also depends on vacation week since my son is in high school. Miami is my favorite port to sail out of. Aruba is my favorite port to visit so far.
We live in Northwest Pennsylvania, so even driving to the Baltimore port or the New York City port is anywhere from 4 to 6 hours so we don’t usually actually choose those. We can fly to Florida in a shorter time leave our cold winter environment in January February, or March and go enjoy some Florida weather and then some Caribbean weather! So for us, that’s always been the basis of our decision in the past we recently cruised on the carnival magic, which is now become our favorite ship in the carnival fleet, because of its amazing thelossal pool in their spa. We are old, but we’re not young anymore either and at the end of every day that thing made it so that we can go on the next day and enjoy our day! As soon as we got back, we started researching which ships had the same thing, and we were shocked to find out many have different set ups. For us for now we are going to stick with dream class and possibly stick with the magic depending on the itinerary. We don’t necessarily want to go on the exact same itinerary, but we don’t mind if one or two ports are repeats. At the end of the day for us a Cruise is about getting away from winter weather and relaxing we’re not big party people but we do enjoy a good time and want to be able to relax.
We have to fly or drive 8 hours or more to a cruise port. We choose by destination. Last year our daughter needed a vacation so was looking at cruises. Her coworker actually found one that fit in her time frame. It was a 10 night with 2 overnights each pre - and post cruise. She only used a weeks vacation time.
I live in the Dallas, Tx area, and if we just want to get on an Cruise, we'll just book out of Galveston and Drive down. While it does get a little monotonous, its more about the ship than the destination on those cruises (now that Oasis class ships are there).
However, This November, I am jumping on a Southern Caribbean cruise out of San Juan as I've always wanted to see those islands. (it will be on Rhapsody of the Seas which happens to the same ship i sailed on my first cruise 20 yrs ago)
We love San Juan..hope you can spend an extra day or 2 before or after the cruise!!! Thanks aggieguy93!!!
For Topher and I (we live in the Central Valley of California- about 340 miles from San Pedro and about 100 miles from San Francisco), the embarkation port doesn't matter to us. We will fly long distances to be able to see lands we haven't seen before...or even revisit some favorites.
I cruise for the itinerary, I love going to new places. The port never factored into my decision. I’ve flown for all of my previous cruises. Although I’m looking at one for next year leaving from my city.
Given it's our first ocean-going cruise, traveling to and from where we begin and end up, the different ports and the size of the ship definitely helped us choose our MS Volendam Boston to Montreal this June. The fact that our adventure begins on our 39th anniversary is an added bonus.
Itinerary definitely is high up on my list but so is the cruise ship I would say it’s probably 60/40. I live in southern Ohio so it really doesn’t matter much to me the cruise port however I have no desire to sell out of any northern cruise ports. To me, cruising is for warm weather!
We live in Michigan so we always have to fly to the embarkation port. As a result, we don't care where that port is, so we always select our cruise by the itinerary. We also don't care what ship we cruise on. We are Elite on Princess and that is our preferred cruise line - as long as they are cruising where we want to go. Our last cruise and our next cruise are on HAL, because Princess wasn't sailing where we wanted to go. Our last cruise left out of Ft. Lauderdale and our next one leaves out of Auckland, New Zealand.
New Zealand sounds amazing!!!
We live in Colorado so like you, we are agnostic about departure port. Ship and destinations sway us, as long as it's Royal.
We always choose based upon itinerary as we are in Ohio so any cruise port is going to be a trip for us. I also feel as we are getting older that I want to knock out the bucket list trips to new places particularly places like Europe while we are still active and able to navigate well.
1. destination 2. port of departure 3. cruise line
Jamie
First, thanks so much for all. You guys do and for the wonderful videos and the great commentary. Secondly, we are from Ohio, and we have to travel to get to where the port we want to go out from. Yes, the departure port is a big deal as we have to fly to most ports. Hope this helps😊
Thanks so much!!!
We usually sail out of New Orleans because we live in Louisiana. However we are taking a cruise out of Los Angeles in February of next year and are pretty excited about it. Going on the Carnival Freinze
Fun topic!
First I choose the date range. If that range is in the winter (I’m in Midwest) then I choose a warm embarkation port such as Miami or Fort Lauderdale. If the date is during milder weather I’ll expand the ports of departure to Galveston NOLA, Port canaveral or Tampa. Once my port of departure is chosen I’ll look at the ship and itinerary. Most of the time I just choose the ship and don’t care where I go. After so many cruises I don’t get off the ship often.
That said I am starting to look at South America cruises as well as TAs now that I can take more time to sail. Just my 2 cents.
We have based on the cruise port. Except for going to Alaska
We live near Dallas so we choose Galveston
45 minutes from Baltimore but now the port is closed. We are close to Cape Liberty and NY ports but to get to the Caribbean requires at least 4 days at sea which I hate. So for me, it is the destination first then the logistics to the port. If the flights will cost the same as the cruise, then we likely have to pass.
We live an hour away from Galveston. Quite frankly, we are tried of the western Caribbean. Three of out four of our last cruises had embarkation ports which required flights. Next year, we are taking a British Isles cruise out of South Hampton.
When you live in Florida the port makes a big difference.
I'd like to cruise from my closest port all the time to save airfare, but almost every cruise only goes to Mexico and the surrounding area. We want to go to other places like the eastern Caribbean and we did go to Alaska last year. Hope to go again soon, but didn't enjoy the 4-5 hr flights!
Happy Sunday 🎉
Jamie, we live in NY. We hardly ever cruise out of NY or NJ because of the itineraries. We usually cruise out of Florida. It’s definitely adds to the expense of the cruise with air fare and hotel. There are certain cruise ports that we’re just tired of sailing to.
It takes a whole lot of research and planning to cruise nowadays.
We actually moved to Florida, one of the reasons being the numerous cruise port options. We’re nearer to Tampa, but Port Canaveral, Port Everglades, and Miami are all just a few hours drive. So since the commute to embarkation issues have been solved, now we can base our choices on ship/itinerary/fare value. 😎🚢
Good one. We split. My husband cruises for the destination. I'm 50/50.
Lately, we're doing what our new-to-cruisung family members want to do.
Hey Jamie, I'm from the East Coast it doesn't matter where I cruise from. For me, I guess it depends on the price for at least 7 days. I've been basically to every port, so that doesn't matter.
I live in denmark so when im booking a cruise in the caribbean the embarkation port doesnt really matter because i have to fly anyway. But if im booking a european cruise i often choose the nordic countries so i can drive to the cruise port
I do some quick escapes from my local (LGB) port. But you can only sail west coast mexico so many times before it gets old. So, also living in AZ, I tend to fly anywhere too.
Embarkation point doesn’t matter to us as we are in the middle of the country. But we go for both ship and ports. Just depends on the day. Maybe we will hit icon or star OTS when the price comes back to earth
Always book our cruises with the destinations in mind
Interesting. We are new to cruising and live 30 minutes from Port Canaveral, but our first two cruises are booked out of Seattle and Southampton! It was destination and then ship for us.
Ship and ports for us love going to different destinations.
I've never cruised from the closest port to me. I also tend to cross itineraries with more than one Mexican port and/or less than 5 days off my list of choices immediately.
Departure port that we can drive to.
I cruise for the itinerary-the ports I am interested in. I live at least7- 8 hours driving time from a port.
We also live in Phoenix so we to have to travel to every port so we mix it up sometimes we go for ship and sometimes for ports
Our yearly music cruise is out of Miami or occasionally Tampa.
Otherwise, it’s the destination and the ship combined (no mega ships, please)
I dont fly so I chose the nearest port to me for my first cruise. That happens to be Galveston at just over 900 miles away. Being retired makes it easier for me to take the time to drive down there. After i decided that then i started looking at cruise lines to see which one i wanted to try first. I also plan on an Alaska cruise and hopefully Hawaii and I will plan on driving to whatever ports I take those out of as well.
We Cruise about 50% locally to make it more affordable and also it requires less days off of work. It allows us to cruise more!
Being in Atlantic Canada we are in the same boat in that we basically have to fly to all our cruises. That means that the itinerary is what we look at most importantly. That said the eastern US ports, especially in Florida, offer the best selection and are generally easiest to get to for us. Despite that we have sailed from many different ports to get to the itinerary we wanted, Baltimore, Charleston, Fort Lauderdale, Miami. Tampa, New Orleans, San Juan, Long Beach, Seattle, Vancouver and most recently Sydney, Australia. PS Kind of wish some of the North American cruise operators doing the Canada / New England cruises would take a page from MSC and Costa operating in the Med and allow embarking and disembarking at each port (must start and finish at the same port). We only live 60 miles from Saint John, NB and 200ish miles from Halifax, NS.
I prefer to cruise from the closet port usually to have to drive less. But in September I'm going to venture out so I can cruise on the mardi gras and go to ports I havent been yet.
Hey Jamie. We live in PHX area like you and Sharon. Any which way is an extra travel day so it’s all about the ports of call we would be visiting on an itinerary. I prefer the Caribbean but yeah that flight to FL….$$$$
Going on our 4th Mexican riviera from LA in the Fall because well the price is right and travel there is so much easier, but it will be a new experience/ship FUN Italian Style Firenze so that’ll make up for no “new” ports. 😎 🌵 🎉
We will be on the Firenze in early May!!! Thanks Cindy!!!
Itinerary and price. A ship with a retractable roof over the pool is a plus.
I live in Tucson and for me it is first about the ship and then the destination
I live in Louisiana and I cruise out NOLA and next year I cruising out Texas its only 4 hours away
You get the 2 close cruise port deal!!! Nice!!!
We live in Vancouver BC and can only book Alaska cruises from our closest Port and both Alaska cruises we have done have been from Seattle WA.
Lol, your first mistake was assuming people on Facebook have decent reading comprehension skills.
Don't drive yourself nuts. Your question was clear. People just don't read well.
Ouch!! LOL..thanks Charlie!!!
We are from MN so it really doesn’t matter too much for us because we have to fly to any port. Lately I have been factoring in the cost of flights since we are a family of 4. Cheaper flights and potentially cheaper cruises, gives us the option to cruise more.
I tried to book a cruise to places where we haven't been also try to do a ship that we have not been on. Going on our 11th cruise and first time on a ship that we already have sailed on. Never looked at the port as we have to travel to all ports.
Embarkation port is #1 for me
Embarkation is one consideration. Depending on our finances, it is sometimes a bigger factor. Others are ship, destinations, and dates.😊
I live in Kentucky and we prefer to cruise out of Florida, I can’t really see cruising out of the west coast unless I’m doing an Alaskan cruise. I would fly to Europe for a cruise but the west coast would be pretty low on my list. When I really think about it the cruise port embarkation is pretty important in decision making. Right now we are trying to decide our next cruise and it’s based on the ship which I love but the ports themselves are just “been there, done that”. I’m curious if Sharon ever lived in Oregon?
I live about 90 minutes from Chicago so I have access to two major airports (ORD & MDW) and about 2 hours from Indianapolis. So I have to travel (fly) no matter where I cruise from. So to me, I don't really look at the ports too much (although I can't say I would be excited if I had a cruise out of New York). So far I have most of my cruises out of Florida (MIA/FLL/TPA/Port Canaveral) and one out of San Pedro. I am hoping to do an Alaskan Cruise and Hawaiian Cruise. So, yeah, I fly...I am not stoked about a long car ride either. So I book the cruise, then flights and hotel.
We are coming from the greater Toronto area. We we choose our cruises based on the cost of the cruise _plus_ airfare. The caveat being that the farther it is, the more likely we are going to fly premium economy.
Ship first then Itineray but if I have to travel far from the airport to the terminal I might think twice about that cruise. luckily my cruise out of Galveston a couple of years ago I was able to uber with a few fellow passengers for that cruise which cut down the cost of getting to the terminal from the airport