If you went on a cruise just a few years ago, your choices were rather limited. A week or a weekend was about it.
Today, with dozens of new ships entering service and vacation modes loosening up, cruise lines have expanded passenger choices. Along with such heretofore unheard-of amenities as rock-climbing walls and specialty restaurants, passengers are now finding their seagoing fun can last for just a day or almost as long as they want.
“Nowadays, consumers prefer the flexibility and convenience of taking several shorter vacations over the course of a year,” said Bob Dickinson, president of Carnival Cruise Lines. “Cruise getaways…offering a diversity of cruise lengths, departure days and embarkation ports, fit in perfectly with today’s lifestyles.”
If your time or money are limited, a cruise less than a week in length may work well for you–anything from a day trip to one that goes to sea for two, three, four, five or six nights.
Want a longer sea voyage? Cruises now come in almost any duration–even such odd lengths as 8, 11 and 13 days–and well beyond. Some voyages last for several weeks, and a world cruise may go for more than 100 days.
What’s the best for you?
That’s strictly a personal decision, but what follows is a sampling of what’s available out there for those of you who can’t wait to count your days at sea. No attempt is made here to list every possible cruise.
One night
Day trips are offered in many ports. Some are simply gambling cruises on small vessels; a few are out-in-the-morning, back-in-the-evening sailings on large ships. But such trips usually aren’t considered to represent a true cruise experience. For that, most people feel one must spend at least one night aboard.
A few cruise ships offer overnight cruises to nowhere–essentially trips out to sea for a day and a night. One of them is Regal Cruises’ Regal Empress, based in New York City in summer and Port Manatee on Florida’s Gulf coast in winter.
Among a variety of cruise options, the Regal Empress makes what it calls Sunspree Party Cruises of one, two or three nights’ duration. All amenities one experiences on longer cruises are offered on the one-nighters, except, of course, that the ship stays at sea and does not visit any ports.
During the day, many guests take the sun in a deck chair or go for a swim in the pool. Some pamper themselves in the spa or relax in one of the six lounges. Guests can take dinner in the main dining room or go casual at La Trattoria, an Italian-style bistro. Evening choices include watching a Vegas-style show, trying their luck in the casino and dancing in the disco.
Two nights
It isn’t a great deal of time, but two nights on board a ship provides enough time to experience shipboard life as well as a chance to visit a foreign country from a Florida port, in this case the Bahamas.
Departing from Port Everglades in late afternoon, Imperial Majesty Cruise Line’s OceanBreeze reaches Nassau at 9 a.m. the next morning and stays there for the day. Visitors can walk into the heart of Nassau right from the dock, browse through shops offering duty-free goods, tour the city, go parasailing or snorkeling with sting rays on a shore excursion, sample the island’s fresh fish and take in the sights. The remarkable Atlantis resort, with its incredible waterscapes, is a tourist attraction in itself, and historic Fort Charlotte conjures up the days of Caribbean pirates. The ship leaves Nassau in late afternoon, returning to Port Everglades the morning after.
From Port Canaveral, Canaveral Cruise Line’s Dolphin IV runs similar sailings, docking at Freeport instead of Nassau. One of Freeport’s main attractions is its International Bazaar, a 10-acre shopping complex where passengers can spend hours sampling goods in theme areas like the French or Mideast sections. Golfing, diving and deep-sea fishing also are popular options. Fares begin at $149 for both ships. Two-night trips are also offered occasionally on Delta Queen’s sternwheelers on the Mississippi River as well as by other cruise lines.
Three nights
Three-night weekenders are a big draw because guests don’t have to miss a day of work. In Miami, for example, passengers board the Royal Caribbean’s Majesty of the Seas late Friday afternoon, reaching Nassau the next morning. Because the ship does not depart until 3 a.m., passengers can sample Nassau’s lively night life as well as enjoy a full day in town.
While guests are sleeping, the ship sails to CocoCay, the cruise line’s private island. Guests are ferried ashore to swim in protected waters, snorkel or sail, play beach games or simply lounge on the sand. Crew members bring ashore all the fixings for a picnic lunch–hot dogs and hamburgers, salads and coleslaw, corn on the cob and the like. Passengers re-board in late afternoon to sail back to Miami, arriving early Monday morning.
Carnival’s Ecstasy stays in Nassau overnight on its three-day runs but skips the beach party bit on Sundays, preferring to give its passengers a full day at sea to enjoy the cruise experience. NCL’s Norwegian Majesty and Norwegian Sea visit Nassau and Great Stirrup Cay, its private island, on their limited three-day sailings this winter.
From Miami, three lines offer weekend cruises: Royal Caribbean, Carnival and for a few weekends in fall and winter, Norwegian. Fares of around $100 a day per person are almost always available.
Three-night cruises also are offered out of Port Canaveral by the Disney Wonder, Carnival’s Fantasy and Royal Caribbean’s Sovereign of the Seas. Disney’s liner goes to Nassau and its island, Castaway Cay; Royal Caribbean docks at Nassau and its island, CocoCay; and Carnival goes to Nassau and spends a full day at sea. The three- and four-night cruises are often packaged with stays at Orlando theme parks.
Four nights
The flip side of the three-day weekend cruise is the four-night weekday cruise, beginning on Monday and ending on Friday. The longer duration allows the ships to reach more distant ports and gives passenger a broader cruise experience.
Carnival’s Ecstasy, for example, calls at Key West and Playa del Carmen/Cozumel, Mexico, two widely different destinations. Historical sites and funky bars and shops, of course, are the reason to stop at the Southernmost Point. The Mexican ports allow guests to visit Mayan ruins or Cancun on the mainland and go diving off Cozumel.
On its four-night trips, Royal Caribbean’s Majesty adds Key West to its Nassau and CocoCay stops.
Five nights
Four-night cruises are also made once every other week by ships that run five-night cruises, such as the Imagination out of Miami and the Tropicale out of Tampa. Both call at Key West and Playa del Carmen/Cozumel.
While a few ships have operated five- and two-night cruise sequences, Carnival last year came up with a five-, five- and four-night arrangement that repeats every two weeks. The idea was to accommodate passengers who wanted something longer than the traditional three- and four-night cruises but less than a full week.
Passengers on its Tropicale in Tampa liked the plan, and so Carnival initiated cruises in the same pattern for its Miami-based Imagination and the Carnival Destiny and Carnival Victory out of New York. This fall, Carnival will offer the sequence on the Celebration out of Galveston this fall.
The Imagination calls at Grand Cayman and Calica (Cancun) on its Monday five-day sailings and at Grand Cayman and Ocho Rios on its Saturday departures. The Tropicale calls at Grand Cayman and Playa del Carmen/Cozumel.
Grand Cayman possesses one of the Caribbean finest beaches, a seven-mile strand, as well as excellent diving sites. Miles of modern hotels line touristy Cancun, which is also the jumping-off point for excursions to the Mayan ruins of Tulum and the pristine lagoon of Xel-ha an hour to the south.
Six nights
Six-night cruises are not a common pattern, but most of Windjammer Barefoot Cruises run that length, as it is the only line whose crew takes a day off every week.
Four of Windjammer’s sailing ships make six-night voyages in the Caribbean. Most call at smaller ports that the major cruise lines don’t reach, such as the isles of St. Eustatius, Saba, Tintamar, Buck Island, Jost Van Dyke, Vieques and Culebra.
Going under sail is a much different experience than being on a cruise ship. Since these are small-ish ships accommodating only 100 or so passengers, public rooms are compact and cabins may be rather small. On the other hand, the atmosphere is very casual, and there’s a camaraderie aboard that one doesn’t always find on regular cruise ships.
Six-night cruises are occasionally featured on other lines. The Radisson Diamond runs several six-night cruises out of San Juan, for example, and Delta Queen schedules some six-nighters on its Mississippi River sailings.
Seven nights
By far the most popular cruise is the seven-night trip, because it fits in neatly with work weeks and vacation periods. A week on a ship also gives guests enough time to fully enjoy the cruise experience. So it’s not surprising that they are offered from many ports, and destination options vary widely.
From Miami, Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian offer regular one-week cruises this fall and winter on nine ships, and because of the competition, prices can be as low as $100 a day per person–sometimes less. Among the vessels sailing out of Miami are the 3,100-passenger Voyager of the Seas and Explorer of the Seas, the biggest in the world; the Carnival Triumph and Carnival Victory, also more than 100,000 tons, and the classic Norway, once a great transatlantic liner. On large ships such as these, passengers have multiple amenities that smaller vessels can’t match. Voyager, for instance, has an ice-skating rink, a rock-climbing wall and a stunning 400-yard-long interior arcade lined with shops and cafes.
In winter, dozens of ships make Broward’s Port Everglades their base, many of them making seven-night cruises to diverse destinations in the Caribbean. Holland America alone will have eight ships operating out of Port Everglades, Celebrity four.
One-week itineraries are usually split between eastern Caribbean and western Caribbean ports, with some ships running eastern one week and western the next.
On eastern itineraries, the standard run calls at San Juan, St. Thomas and St. Maarten, with two days at sea. But this being an age of fierce competition among cruise lines, all sorts of variations exist. Some ships, like Holland America’s Westerdam, add a call at a private island in the Bahamas. Others may substitute another port, like St. Croix, for St. Maarten.
Cruises to the western Caribbean generally call at Ocho Rios, Playa del Carmen/Cozumel plus another port–often Grand Cayman, but sometimes Key West, Nassau or a private island. Celebrity’s new Millennium, for example, goes to Key West, Calica, Cozumel and Grand Cayman, while Royal Caribbean ships stop at Labadee (Haiti), its private island, and Norwegian’s vessels often call at Great Stirrup Cay, its Bahamian private island.
Beginning this winter, Princess will base a ship, the Grand Princess, year-round in Port Everglades for the first time. It will make alternating seven-night cruises to the Caribbean.
From Tampa, Carnival’s Sensation makes year-round cruises to Grand Cayman, Playa del Carmen/Cozumel and New Orleans, while in Port Canaveral, the Disney Magic has just shifted year-round to seven-night sailings to St. Maarten, St. Thomas and Castaway Cay.
One-week cruises are also popular out of San Juan, where all the major lines base ships in winter. Making San Juan their home port enables their vessels to explore more islands on one-week runs. Holland America’s Veendam, for instance, touches at five ports in seven days: Santo Domingo, Barbados, Martinique, St. Maarten and St. Thomas.
In fall, some ships run week-long trips out of New York, New England or eastern Canada.
Eight nights
No line has ever run eight-night cruises on a continuing basis because that duration doesn’t fit nicely into one- or two-week segments, but Carnival will begin such cruises when its new Carnival Spirit starts Caribbean voyages out of Miami Nov. 3, 2001. The extra day of sailing will enable the ship to reach ports that Miami-based ships have been unable to visit.
On its eastern Caribbean trips, for example, the Carnival Spirit will range as far south as Martinique and Barbados. On western Caribbean runs, it will reach Puerto Limon, Costa Rica, and Colon, Panama.
Meanwhile, a number of other lines run eight-night sailings on an occasional basis. Among them are Costa, whose CostaVictoria has an eight-night New Year’s sailing out of Port Everglades that touches at San Juan, St. Thomas, Catalina Island, Tortola and Nassau; and Regal’s Regal Empress, which calls at New Orleans and Key West on an eight-night Mardi Gras cruise in February.
Nine nights
Nine is an odd number for cruises, figuratively and literally. Longer than a week, less than a week and a half.
Several lines schedule nine-night cruises, generally to reposition the ship from a summer home port to a winter one or vice versa, sometimes to dovetail with other odd-length sailings.
The Nantucket Clipper, for example, has a nine-night sailing from Jacksonville in December to reposition the ship in Antigua. Another nine-night repositioning cruise will bring the Radisson Diamond across the Atlantic Ocean this fall from Europe to San Juan. And its sister ship, the Radisson Seven Seas Navigator, has scheduled a nine-night Panama Canal cruise this season from Puerto Caldera in Costa Rica to Port Everglades.
Ten nights
For many who want something more than a one-week cruise, a 10-night voyage is just the right length. Which undoubtedly explains why many cruise lines operate such schedules.
Many Panama Canal cruises take 10 or 11 nights. Princess Cruises’ Sun Princess, for example, makes alternating 10-night voyages between San Juan and Puerto Caldera (Costa Rica) in the winter, calling at four Caribbean ports–St. Thomas, Dominica, Barbados and Cartagena–before passing through the canal, which is one of cruising’s most fascinating experiences.
But 10-night cruises also are popular in other cruising regions. In Alaska, 10-night passengers travel one way between Vancouver and Anchorage, enabling them to glimpse the mighty glaciers in Yakutat Bay and Prince William Sound that aren’t seen on one-week itineraries. In the Caribbean, 10 nights allows for an itinerary with an interesting mix of island heritages–French, Spanish, English, Dutch, Swedish or Danish.
Eleven nights
The same logic that applies to 10-night cruises applies to the 11-nighters, which they usually precede or follow so that the cruise line can run a three-week repeating sequence.
Obviously, the more nights aboard ship, the more ports one is likely to visit. So, on its 10- and 11-night San Juan-Acapulco canal cruises, Royal Caribbean makes an additional Caribbean stop in the 11-night direction.
Eleven-nighters are also scheduled in the Mediterranean and Alaska. Celebrity’s new Infinity, which debuts in February, for instance, will make a couple of 11-night voyages from Ensenada, Mexico (close to San Diego) to Honolulu and four other Hawaiian ports.
Twelve nights
As cruises get longer, they get more expensive, so the clientele on longer cruises tends to be more affluent. But the difference is more than money. People who take cruises of 12 nights or more have to feel comfortable being on a ship for extended periods. That means they may opt for upscale ships because those offer a higher comfort rating.
So you’ll find 12-night cruises on such ships as Cunard’s Caronia, sailing from Ft. Lauderdale on a leisurely swing around the Caribbean, or ranging as far away as South America’s Orinoco River on a December roundtrip for Ft. Lauderdale on the Olympic Voyager. Silversea Cruises’ Silver Shadow also makes a 12-night voyage from New York in October, calling at such cities as Philadelphia, Yorktown, Baltimore and Charleston as it wends its way down America’s East Coast en route to Nassau, Ft. Lauderdale and its winter sailing grounds in the Caribbean.
In Europe, cruises of this length are popular with Americans because such trips permit visits to many different cultures without packing and unpacking. Two examples: Princess’ summer/fall sailings from Barcelona to Istanbul visit five countries, calling at Monte Carlo, Florence, Naples, Venice, Athens and Kusadesi (for Ephesus). Crystal’s Crystal Symphony has runs from Rome to Athens that stop at Taormina, Venice, Corfu, Kusadesi, Santorini and Mykonos.
Thirteen nights
Passengers on the Seabourn Sun’s Nov. 24 cruise should feel quite content sailing for 13 nights from Ft. Lauderdale to Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman, Belize, Cozumel, New Orleans and Key West. A more exotic experience awaits those fortunate enough to sail around South America’s Cape Horn on the Crystal Harmony in February, with stops in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay.
Fourteen nights
Fourteen nights, two weeks: It’s not the ultimate in cruising, because you can cruise for much longer that that. But neither is it an uncommon length of cruise, again because it fits in with work and vacation schedules.
On the Seabourn Sun, two weeks allows wide-ranging exploration of the Caribbean, touching at nine different islands on a roundtrip from Ft. Lauderdale in December.
More common two-week trips are the one-way, coast-to-coast sailings through the Panama Canal, offered by several cruise lines in the winter season. Celebrity’s Mercury, for example, embarks on 14-nighters from Ft. Lauderdale to San Diego this fall, as does Royal Olympic’s Stella Solaris and Royal Caribbean’s Vision of the Seas. And a bounty of ports–11, all told–are reached on the Seabourn Legend’s 14-night January sailing from West Palm Beach to Acapulco via Cozumel, Belize, Providencia Island, Puerto Limon, Puerto Quetzal, Huatulco, Acapulco, Zihuatanejo, Puerto Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas and San Diego.
In late winter and early spring, many ships reposition to Europe or Alaska, taking a leisurely two weeks to reach their destinations. The Norwegian Sky, for example, moves its base from Miami to the West Coast with a 14-night trans-canal cruise to San Diego. An added bonus: Because they’re one of a kind, many such cruises are offered at very attractive fares.
If you have time and money, your cruise possibilities are virtually unlimited. You can board ships that sail for 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 nights–or much longer. The Stella Solaris has a 58-day cruise around South America, the Queen Elizabeth 2 embarks on a 104-day around-the-world saga in January, both departing from Ft. Lauderdale.
If your sights are set on a cruise, look beyond the near horizon.
