Port intensive cruises - hate seadays

[Frwinkley]

I realize some sea days are a necessity, but it's the reason we don't like cruising much. Regardless of what's available on the ship, we find ourselves bored. We've only been on a few cruises (only the Caribbean), but are willing to try it again. We had an Alaskan cruise booked during 2020 that had to be cancelled because of Covid, and we haven't rescheduled it.

We live in the eastern US, very active, early 60s, and love exploring, seeing new sights, beautiful scenery and are avid photographers.

Any suggestions for 7-10 days?

 

[sk!mom]

Maybe a European River cruise

 

[tvguy]

Just search for cruises with lots of ports. Nothing wrong with not liking sea days. That's why there are so many cruises.

 

[luv2cheer92]

We did an 11 day Mediterranean cruise that had one day at sea.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Mediterranean cruises will often be port intensive. Our cruise beginning next Sunday is 7 days with no sea days it starts in Venice, goes to Croatia, Montenegro then several stops in Greece. And it's just a sliver of what you could explore in that region.

Other parts of Europe will be like that too unless you're doing northern Europe for fjords and such where you may have a farther distance between ports necessitating sea days even with a shorter cruise.

 

[kymom99]

I’ve been eyeing a pacific coast cruise. Not many sea days on some itineraries. San Diego to San Francisco round trip looks like a good one.

 

[disney4us2002]

Sea days are actually my favorite and I look for cruises with more than 2 or 3. However, there are def cruises with ports every day. NCL offers cruises around Hawaii that have stops every day and there are also cruises from Puerto Rico to the southern Caribbean that stops at a different port every day.

I would also suggest you rebook the Alaska cruise as there are no better sights anywhere. It was so unbelievably beautiful that it was almost spiritual.

 

[georgina]

I realize some sea days are a necessity, but it's the reason we don't like cruising much. Regardless of what's available on the ship, we find ourselves bored. We've only been on a few cruises (only the Caribbean), but are willing to try it again. We had an Alaskan cruise booked during 2020 that had to be cancelled because of Covid, and we haven't rescheduled it.

We live in the eastern US, very active, early 60s, and love exploring, seeing new sights, beautiful scenery and are avid photographers.

Any suggestions for 7-10 days?

There are some Mississippi River cruises also with lots of ports.

 

[tvguy]

Our last cruise was 7 days, 2 sea days, Pacific Coast Vancouver to Los Angeles. Stopped in Victoria, an overnight in San Francisco and Santa Barbara.
We ALMOST took a HAL cruise instead, Vancouver to Honolulu, 7 days, all sea days, NO ports!

 

[CynBeth]

I am currently on a Med cruise. It is a 7 day which began in Barcelona and ends at the port city an hour or so outside of Rome. We flew in a few days early. The day after we boarded was a day at sea but there were a lot of activities offered at different times. We went to Marseille, Villefranche (Nice/Monaco), Genoa, Portofino, and Livorno (Florence/Pisa). After the cruise we are spending 2 nights in Venice and 3 nights in Rome.

 

[Karin1984]

Celestyal does Greek Isles cruises, hardly any sea days and sometimes 2 ports a day.

 

[Travel60]

Mediterranean or Norway - almost too exhausting. Or as mentioned, river cruises. We did our first last year and I'm hooked. Currently researching French barge cruises.

 

[ronandannette]

If you don't want to leave the continent, try a Southern Caribbean itinerary. We embarked for 7 days in San Juan (on Carnival) and went to St. Thomas, St. Maartan, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Barbados, leaving only one sea day. It was lovely.

 

[Gracedis1]

If you don't want to leave the continent, try a Southern Caribbean itinerary. We embarked for 7 days in San Juan (on Carnival) and went to St. Thomas, St. Maartan, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Barbados, leaving only one sea day. It was lovely.

My sister just did a similar one with Norwegian. She loved it. It was 10 days leaving from Miami.

 

[kdonnel]

I have never been more tired on vacation than on Mediterranean Cruises.

Between the time change and associated jet lag I am already starting out tired. Then you add in the desire to take in as much as possible at each port and I find myself up before 7am and not back in bed until after midnight, every day, after day, after day.

When doing a Med cruise I tend to add a few post cruise days near the debarkation port so I can rest and relax from my vacation.

 

[ronandannette]

I have never been more tired on vacation than on Mediterranean Cruises.

Between the time change and associated jet lag I am already starting out tired. Then you add in the desire to take in as much as possible at each port and I find myself up before 7am and not back in bed until after midnight, every day, after day, after day.

When doing a Med cruise I tend to add a few post cruise days near the debarkation port so I can rest and relax from my vacation.

Truth! A longer itinerary with sea days built in would be a blessing. And it's really not the same as port-heavy Caribbean cruises where there are several ports that can be visited for just a few hours, at your own leisure.

 

[Frwinkley]

OP here: Thank you for all the great replies. I hadn't considered how exhausted we might be.

I am retiring next year (teacher-yay!) and we are just now thinking of our next big trip. Can't decide yet if we'll do northern Europe or Mediterranean. Plan is to eventually do both.

There's so much of the world that we want to see and figure cruising would give us just a taste of everything.

We haven't been to Europe since the mid 80s.

Any particular cruise line you favor? We've only cruised Disney and Royal.

 

[DCLMP]

OP here: Thank you for all the great replies. I hadn't considered how exhausted we might be.

I am retiring next year (teacher-yay!) and we are just now thinking of our next big trip. Can't decide yet if we'll do northern Europe or Mediterranean. Plan is to eventually do both.

There's so much of the world that we want to see and figure cruising would give us just a taste of everything.

We haven't been to Europe since the mid 80s.

Any particular cruise line you favor? We've only cruised Disney and Royal.

You would probably get a lot more responses over on the cruise forum. There are a lot of posters over there that have done it all and not just on Disney. I've done both multiple times. If you plan on eventually doing both then flip a coin or pick the one with the dates that work for you or has the best price.

I've done the Med on Carnival and Royal and the Northern on Disney. All were fantastic cruises. I don't think you can go wrong with either. We just sailed on Odyssey of the Seas and it turned out to be my favorite ship. We did a 12-day Holy Land cruise that turned into a Greek Isles cruise, but it was still a pretty fantastic albeit somewhat disappointing cruise because of the itinerary change.

A lot of people over on the cruise forum like Celebrity a lot. I have not tried them, but I would give them a look.

I prefer port intensive too. A sea day here of there to rest up is good though.

 

[Frwinkley]

Thanks so much. Not sure why I didn’t post my question on the cruise forum.

 

[CynBeth]

We have been on 4 cruises with Royal including our current Med one we are unfortunately disembarking from today and really like them.