Cruising

[gayl]

I seem to be cruising more and more as I settle into retirement. It was only twice last year, but so far it's going to be three times this year. The all inclusive price tag is quite appealing. Especially for single cruisers. Right now I'm getting up to $35 of onboard credit for whatever I want, free internet, free laundry, free specialty coffee (I like the long black which is a version of a triple expresso), preferred embarkation and disembarkation. In addition on my next cruise I'm getting air to and from Singapore for $300 as well as they're covering my tips. I do give them extra tips, especially my waiter and the person who gives me my specialty coffee.

Now onto planning what to do for 12 hours in both Penang, Kuala Lumpur, and Pkuhet

[97guns]

I love to cruise too, I think it’s actually one of the cheaper ways to travel since everything is all inclusive, to me it really feels high class. It’s a great way to see many places as in your case you’ll see several SE Asia big cities, not so good for the traveler that wants to spend time in a city a to explore

[Souschef]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 97guns I love to cruise too, I think it’s actually one of the cheaper ways to travel since everything is all inclusive, to me it really feels high class. It’s a great way to see many places as in your case you’ll see several SE Asia big cities, not so good for the traveler that wants to spend time in a city a to explore

It depends on the cruise line. The higher end (more expensive) cruise lines are all inclusive. But for those of us who cannot afford them, the mainstream lines are not all inclusive. Some extra charges are, service charges, shore excursions, drinks, specialty restaurants, to name a few.

[97guns]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Souschef It depends on the cruise line. The higher end (more expensive) cruise lines are all inclusive. But for those of us who cannot afford them, the mainstream lines are not all inclusive. Some extra charges are, service charges, shore excursions, drinks, specialty restaurants, to name a few.

I usually don’t do anything that requires extra costs, I might drink a foo foo coffee but that’s about it, we don’t drink and we eat at the inclusive restaurants, my mom likes to do the excursions but I could take it or leave it, exploring around the port of call is good for me. On our last cruise we did not have scheduled dining so we had different waiters every night and didn’t leave a tip like we would with a personal waiter.

[athena53]

I don't know if I'll ever enjoy a MegaShip cruise. I've spent enough time on the CruiseCritic boards to see a lot of things I wouldn't like.

Having said that- I just booked my fifth trip with UnCruise, which is typically under 100 passengers, very down-to-earth and nature-focused and all-inclusive. (Have been to Alaska twice, Panama Canal/Costa Rica last year, Baja/Sea of Cortes in March of next year, Hawaii in November). Even though I'm a pro at rambling around Europe by myself I have to admit that I love getting on the ship and realizing that if anything that, the'll take care of it. Sadly, the Single cost is getting out of hand. I'll be taking Overseas Adventure travel or another operator to the Galapagos in 2020, God willing.

[gayl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by athena53 I don't know if I'll ever enjoy a MegaShip cruise. I've spent enough time on the CruiseCritic boards to see a lot of things I wouldn't like. Having said that- I just booked my fifth trip with UnCruise, which is typically under 100 passengers, very down-to-earth and nature-focused and all-inclusive. (Have been to Alaska twice, Panama Canal/Costa Rica last year, Baja/Sea of Cortes in March of next year, Hawaii in November). Even though I'm a pro at rambling around Europe by myself I have to admit that I love getting on the ship and realizing that if anything that, the'll take care of it. Sadly, the Single cost is getting out of hand. I'll be taking Overseas Adventure travel or another operator to the Galapagos in 2020, God willing.

I go on Princess but omit the shore excursions. Yes, I can do it on my own. FWIW: George Town, Jetties, & Kek Loc Si with ship = $49, with city bus (1 stop) = RM4 rt = $1

Prefer the midsized ships (under 2000 passengers) but planning on trying the smaller ones (up to 600)

[Dash man]

We’re regular cruisers. Our last was a Celebrity Cruise to the Baltic countries. It was memorable. Next month we’re doing a short cruise out of New Jersey to Bermuda. In February a cruise to the Panama Canal. On Caribbean cruises I enjoy the sea days more than the ports, since we’ve seen most of the islands.
We tend to get lots of perks on the cruise lines we frequent the most.

[gayl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dash man We’re regular cruisers. Our last was a Celebrity Cruise to the Baltic countries. It was memorable. Next month we’re doing a short cruise out of New Jersey to Bermuda. In February a cruise to the Panama Canal. On Caribbean cruises I enjoy the sea days more than the ports, since we’ve seen most of the islands. We tend to get lots of perks on the cruise lines we frequent the most.

Gotta love those loyalty perks!

[YVRRocketSurgery]

We love cruising. Normally, we do the mainstream lines and prefer the larger ships. We kind of try to do enough research pre-cruise to get a jump on where the crowds will be.

Pricing of cruising versus land trips is kind of debatable IMO. We find that the cruise trips we take typically cost $100+CDN/couple/night more than our land trips. But of course, the amenities, activities, services, etc on the cruise is typically better and expansive than what we'd normally do on a land trip.

[braumeister]

I have a friend who lives in Florida and takes at least 4-5 cruises a year. It's convenient for him, since he can just drive to the embarkation port.

He watches the pricing, and has a personal policy of only going when the cost per per person per day is under $100, so that makes it very cost effective.

Personally, I went on a big (2,000 pax) ship once, and I'll never do it again.

I love small ship cruising, but it does get expensive.

[Dash man]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gayl Gotta love those loyalty perks!

Best perks we ever got was when RC made an error in our booking that we couldn’t get resolved, so I wrote the CEO. On top of getting the issue resolved, we had two free specialty restaurant meals, champagne in our cabin, and two bottles of wine comped. We also noticed extra attention by a few crew members during the trip. It helped that it was our anniversary too.

[cbo111]

We just made reservations for a Viking River Cruise, the romantic Danube tour. We had several friends that highly recommended this tour. Big bucks, but you get what you pay for.

[Souschef]

We will be cruising to Hawaii for our anniversary this year. We have done enough cruises on this line to get a bunch of perks. One of the most important is free laundry. This came in handy a few years ago when we took a 32 day cruise.

[Souschef]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbo111 We just made reservations for a Viking River Cruise, the romantic Danube tour. We had several friends that highly recommended this tour. Big bucks, but you get what you pay for.

I have attached the story of our Danube cruise

[Bamaman]

Compare this to your Viking River Cruise: 12 days from NYC to Southampton with stops in Ireland, England, France and again in Southampton. $635 each on NCL.

We visited London for the weekend before driving around Ireland for a week. The flight back to New York was $158 on Norwegian Air Shuttle.

I know river cruises are very nice. But I have already been to most of the popular river cities.

Budget travel is our hobby. It allows us to travel twice or three times versus one luxury trip.

[Nemo2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dash man Our last was a Celebrity Cruise to the Baltic countries..

Booked on RC, Ft. Lauderdale to Copenhagen next April....(listed price up 285% since we booked)....plan is to then do the Baltics by train...or whatever we can find.

[sengsational]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbo111 We just made reservations for a Viking River Cruise, the romantic Danube tour. We had several friends that highly recommended this tour. Big bucks, but you get what you pay for.

Hopefully the rivers won't be too high or too low or you've just bought the most expensive bus tour on the planet!

[Dogman]

Leaving for Rome in October of 2018. 4 days in Rome then on to the cruise ship Celebrity back to Ft. Lauderdale for 14 days. First trans-Atlantic since retiring two years ago. Total cruises 2-Princess, 13-Royal Carb, 6-Celebrity, 1-Holland (18 days from San Diego RT Hawaii) nice and slow great time. You should try it, the price is good too.
We have found that cruising is the least expensive way to travel, like the bus tours also depending on the route. I should say no more Mexico cruise for us, or Central America. Maybe a Panama cruise with Holland. I would like to plan a Miami to San Diego then onto Hawaii and back to San Diego. 38 to 40 days. i would be fat, sassy, well read, and relaxed by then.

[Cobra9777]

We've only done 2 cruises, both on Celebrity. But they were both quite long... 16 days from Miami to Rome, and 15 days from Miami to San Diego via the Panama Canal. Both were absolutely amazing experiences. We stayed 4 days in Rome and 4 days in San Diego at the end of each.

We do excursions at about half the ports, which can get pricey. But the cost (per person per day) is still incredibly reasonable compared to other forms of travel.

[Souschef]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cobra9777 We've only done 2 cruises, both on Celebrity. But they were both quite long... 16 days from Miami to Rome, and 15 days from Miami to San Diego via the Panama Canal. Both were absolutely amazing experiences. We stayed 4 days in Rome and 4 days in San Diego at the end of each. We do excursions at about half the ports, which can get pricey. But the cost (per person per day) is still incredibly reasonable compared to other forms of travel.

What we have done on some cruises, is go to the cruise critic website, look for our exact cruise, and see if anyone is putting together private excursions. These can run from 2 to 10 people, and you can see a lot more.

I put together an all day culinary tour in Lima that was fantastic, We also took a charter flight over the Nazca lines in Peru.
On the other end of the spectrum, we hired a taxi to take us from Le Havre to Giverney to visit Monet's house and gardens.and the cathedral at Rouen. It was 400 Euros, but it was worth every cent to do things at our own pace and not have to fight the crowds.