A lot of people ask me what cruise to book. My response is to ask when you want to go, where you want to go and for how long. That will help narrow down your options. For example, if you wanted to go on a cruise to Canada in the first half of October for a week, there will a small number of options available. If you wanted to go to the Caribbean for any length of time in the Spring, then that would leave you with a lot more options. Regardless of how many options you have, this is all very subjective of course so I’ll try to go through some of the deciding factors.
Budget, Price and Value
For some people, price is the deciding factor. If you want to go somewhere during a specific time and one cruise is $300 and all the others are $600 and you are on a budget, the you probably don’t have much thinking to do. If on the other hand 3 night cruises are $400 and there’s one 7 night cruise for $485 and anything else more than 3 days is higher than $600, well that 7 night cruise is providing a ton of value. Another way to look at is there is 7 night Carnival Cruise for $500 and a 7 night Celebrity cruise for $530. You might decide that the Celebrity cruise is a better value over the slightly cheaper Carnival cruise. So while we all want to save money, sometimes the cheapest option isn’t always the smartest option. Getting good value is very important.
Dates
For some people, this isn’t really a deciding factor, it is the factor. They get a certain vacation time and that’s it. They have to go during that time. The more narrow that time is, the less options you’ll have. The more time you have, the more options you’ll have.
But besides availability, the dates you look at should also dictate where you are going to go. You can go on a cruise to the Bahamas in January. Is that the smartest idea? Probably not. The Bahamas are near Florida so just like Florida can get a little cold, the Bahamas can get cold too. Even if the air temp is find, the water might be too cold to go swimming. That might spoil your beach time. Don’t assume that the weather is going to be great just because the cruise is scheduled. After all, there are plenty of cruises scheduled for hurricane season and that might not be the smartest time to go. Not saying you’ll get stuck in hurricane, but ports may be closed down and beaches might be too rough for swimming.
Originating port
Where are you going to get on the ship? This can have a huge impact on the cruises you’ll have available to you. For most people, they are flying in so it really doesn’t matter. You just know you’re leaving out of Florida, you don’t really care where in Florida. But for some people, it does matter. I live in the Tampa area a lot of locals like to go out of Tampa because driving to the other side of the state is too much for them. I get it, no one like I-4. However, the port of Tampa can only accommodate small cruise ships which are almost always some of the oldest ships due to a low bridge. The port itself is also small. As a result, you’re gonna pay higher prices for older ships going to limited places. If you were to drive about 2 hours on the other side of the state, you then have access to a ton of options at Port Canaveral.
Itinerary
For us, this is the major factor. We want to go to some amazing places that we haven’t been to yet. It’s important for you to really understand what’s at each port and not just assume that all ports are great or that similar itineraries are the same. Take an Alaska cruise for example. You may find someone that left out of Seattle and stopped at Icy Straight Point, Sitka and Ketchikan and they think they went to Alaska. However, that person missed Juneau and more importantly, Glacier Bay. Glacier Bay (IMO) is the highlight of any Alaskan cruise but if you didn’t know that, you might just assume that a cruise isa cruise as long as you’re in Alaska. We did an 11 night cruise in Norway with 10 ports. Had 2 specific ports been taken away, the cruise would have been completely different.
Now for your average Caribbean cruise this may not matter since so many of them stop at the same places anyway but if you have the time, you may want to research the different ports so you can pick the best itinerary.
Cruise line
You may have a preference of one cruise line over another. I personally don’t recommend MSC at this time especially for first time cruisers but their prices are very tempting for many as they are often very low. Some people might not want the party vibe of Carnival or maybe they want to check out Disney because of the kids. Holland America attracts an older crowd so that might sway you one way or another. Each line has it’s own unique vibe and features. You might have to try a few before you settle on your favorite.
Cruise ship
As discussed in another post, each ship is different. Some have all the bells and whistles, some have….a pool. If you’re new to cruising, you might not know what to even look for so I usually suggest people leave this for last once you are trying to decide between a few different cruises. Unless of course you want to go on a specific ship. So if you’re the type that wants to go on Wonder of the Seas because you saw the commercial and were wowed by all the new things on there, then this is going to be the big deciding factor.
On the other hand, if you are trying to decide between 2 or 3 different cruises and one is a really old, small ship and the other is one that’s about 10 years old so it has some of the newer stuff on it, then that might be a deciding factor for you. Of course, some people like the older ships and would prefer less crowds.
While everyone will have their own criteria for what is a better cruise, it’s important to understand that no two cruises are alike. I don’t want you to get overwhelmed but once you get more into cruising this will become a lot easier. If you’re just starting out, I’d go for a newer ship on the best line that you can afford. If all you can afford is MSC then so be it but if you are choosing between NCL and Celebrity and they are both about the same price, I’d personally suggest Celebrity because you’ll probably have better food. If you are comparing two cruises that are similar but one visits 5 ports and the other only 3, I’d choose the one with the 5 unless you want a lot of sea days.
Regardless of what cruise you choose and why, you’ll hopefully have a great time.