Things to Consider When Choosing a Cruise

ITINERARY (or where is the ship going!)

Before you start thinking of where you want to go, I want to give you some guidelines as to what makes up a cruise itinerary and why that is important to you.

There are three basic types of itinerary offered by the cruise lines:

• Port Intensive Itinerary
• Sea Intensive Itinerary
• Balanced Itinerary

Port Intensive Itinerary

A port intensive itinerary is one where the ship is generally in a new port of call almost each day of the cruise. That means you sail at night, arrive at your destination early in the morning and stay at that port until early evening or sometimes late into the night.

The advantage to this type of itinerary is that you get loads of time to visit interesting sites, take multiple shore excursions and do your “mandatory” shopping for souvenirs for the folks back home.

The disadvantage is that this can be quite tiring. Here are some examples of “port intensive” itineraries:

More Port Intensive Illustrations

Note that in each case you are spending 1 full sea day away from land.

When considering a “port intensive” itinerary, you want to ask yourself these questions:

• How much do I really want to do and see here?
• Could I do and see some of it next time?
• Would I actually bother coming here if the ship wasn't bringing me anyway?

Many times, the answer is that I'm just not going to bother to get off the ship. I've paid to be on board, and many calls fall either into the category of "could come here any time" or "wouldn't bother coming anyway".

On the other hand, if you have an exploring nature and a desire to see many different points of interest and experience the culture of the various ports – the “port intensive” cruise is the right one!

If you have an attitude of “We may never get back here, so let's see as much as we can in one day”; this kind of an itinerary becomes a sampler of the geographic areas you visit and you get a taste for what you may even like to come back to and spend some time!

Pros - Lots to see and do
Cons - Requires a lot of energy with little relaxation

My advice for a port intensive cruise…

Take Band-Aids for your feet and a bottle of water and go!

Sea Intensive Itinerary

A “sea intensive” itinerary is just what the name implies – little or no time spent in a port of call from embarkation (getting on the ship) to debarkation (getting off the ship).

Sea intensive cruises generally involve Trans-Atlantic sailings, from the US to England for example, or a long cross Pacific journey say from Vancouver, Canada to Honolulu, Hawaii and vice versa.

You don’t have to worry about making it back to the ship from a shore excursion as there aren’t any!! Just relaxing days at sea exploring your floating resort!

Sea Intensive Itineraries

Balanced Itinerary

By now you have figured out that a “balanced itinerary” gives you some “breathing room” between ports. You may visit a port of call every other day and be at sea on the alternate day letting you enjoy both the ship and shore activities without strain.

You may have dreams of far away exotic places like Tahiti, The Seychelles, The Caribbean or Alaska, The Mediterranean, South America, The Baltic’s or a lush Canada/New England fall cruise.

Next: WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO?

This Guide to Cruising is being updated regularly - Please bookmark this page and come back again for the next 'chapter'

1. Introduction to this Cruising Guide ...

2. How much more you can enjoy a cruise compared to a 'land' based holiday ...

3. How to research a cruise holiday

4. Types of Cruise Ship Accommodation

5. What Part of the Ship Should You Choose For Your Cabin?

6. How to choose your cruise cabin

7. Choosing and Booking your Cruise Part 1 and Part 2

8. Should I book my Cruise through a Travel Agent?

9. Cruises - FAQs ... Answers to frequently asked questions on Cruise Holidays

10. Your Cruise Checklist ... Things to consider when choosing your cruise ...

11. So what do all those sailing terms mean?

12. How to Choose a Cruising Holiday - What different Itineraries mean ...

13. Cruise Destinations - Caribbean Cruises

14. Cruise Destinations - Alaska Cruises

15. Cruise Destinations - Hawaii Cruises

16. Cruise Destinations - Mexican Riviera Cruises

17. Choosing the right kind of cruise ship for your kind of holiday

18. What kind of cruise traveler are you?

19. Next ...Singles Cruising