Topic: Ports more important than sea days

QUOTE:

You are fully entitled to your opinion. Have you cruised much? Sea days grow on one, especially as one gets older.;)

Nail on head, I think this may be down to age rather than enjoyment (no offence). You are right I am new to cruising but not to travel, even though DH and I are in our early 40s we normally do 3 holidays a year of which two are long hauls and we do tend to choose action packed holidays. DH and I are very outdoor types so we do not mind sea days where we can chill by a pool as we did in the Caribbean, however on our Baltic's cruise we did get slightly bored even though we were on the Emerald Princess which is a huge ship.

However as the years go on and crusing takes over from the action packed long hauls I think we will probably start to enjoy sea days more.

There is no right or wrong answer with this question, it's down to personal choice, which people seem to forget.

I don't sunbathe. As much as I like to enjoy a ship with well run activities such as quizes and presentations I don't like a lot of what passes for entertainment on pool decks. This leaves me relaxing on the shade on the balcony or watching a film on a tiny tv in the cabin.

I can happily cope with one sea day in a 7 night holiday but agree with earlier posters that any more than this is a waste. I have a very demanding full time job and also work evenings for my partner's busines but how much relaxing does a person need to do when there is a whole world out there to explore???

And no, I am not in the flush of youth with bags of energy but a middle aged lady with arthritis who can't walk as far as she would like. However the thought of losing a day to idleness is anathema to me.

In response to an earlier post, people do not treat Thomsons as a floating B and B - their ships may not be up to much but their entertainment on ship is great. I've been on lines with higher ratings who do not do this as well.

Maximising ports of call is a big plus point in our choice. Our first couple of cruises with MSC had no days at sea at all, although they now seem to follow the trend of having at least one. Whilst their customer service isn't top notch and the multiple languages makes activities complicated, no days at sea is a big plus in their favour to me.

This latest poll seems to bear out how the cruise industry is diversifying as people now want different things from the cruise lines. It's great to see more choice in the market.

Surely an obvious point is being overlooked here.

Cruise ships don't remain at sea in order to create 'sea days' - they travel from port to port.

Caribbean, Baltic and Mediterranean cruises, for example, have few sea days because ports are close to each other.

Cruises visiting Pacific islands, Australia and New Zealand, the Arctic and Antarctic, and South America inevitably involve a lot of sea days - they're not an option!

Unless we're talking about flying versus cruising to far-flung places (e.g. the Caribbean), I suspect the question is more about where you want to go.

I do like the odd day at sea but much prefer the port days , but as dave sometime it is necessary to be longer at sea .but then you would know this before you book

I like port days better but do enjoy sea days a bit more now as long as the weather is warm. next year we are on Celebritys Eclipse for 16 nights. half at sea and the other half in port but as the weather should be sunny and warm, I hope, I will find somewhere quiet to sunbath and read broken up with eating:D and going to talks etc. I do get bored if there are a lot of sea days together and the weather is not very nice.