Shorter cruises more often or longer cruises not as often?

[WanderingAlice]

Which would you rather do? I watch an array of vloggers on YouTube who take the shorter, 3-5 days a couple times a year vs. some others who save up to do the 7-14 nights once a year, depending on the itinerary.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Which would you rather do? I watch an array of vloggers on YouTube who take the shorter, 3-5 days a couple times a year vs. some others who save up to do the 7-14 nights once a year, depending on the itinerary.

My preference is longer cruises. The short 3-4 night cruises you don't really get settled in before you have to pack up and leave.

 

[DCLDVC1]

I rather do more, shorter cruises but I'm in the minority and love the 4 nighters.

 

[OKW Lover]

We generally prefer the longer (7 nights or more) cruises. But occasionally we just want to cruise and have to get a 4-night in.

 

[flowsoul]

It's nice to travel often so you do not get burnt out at work very easily. But I think doing an annual long cruise is better than a couple of shorter cruises. You get to enjoy and relax better with a longer cruise.

 

[dclpluto]

Even a 7 night cruise by itself is way too short of a vacation. When we take a short 7 night cruise we like to have something go with it like wdw. We like the Panama Canal cruises the transatlantic cruises, hawaii,med. when we did the short 7 night Alaska cruise we did Disneyland and the repo cruise before it so it wasn’t so short. Next year when we go to Alaska we are going to Disneyland after the cruise. I’m done with the same old same old Caribbean cruises until the new ships come out. We did do the nyc to Quebec cruise last year with nothing with it.

 

[heggy]

Was told of cruisers who book B2B of a 3 and 4 night cruise on the Dream so they can have a 7 night cruise without the price of a 7 night cruise.
Would love to double dip on Castaway Cay.
Need to do the math and see if there is any savings.

 

[Dug720]

Was told of cruisers who book B2B of a 3 and 4 night cruise on the Dream so they can have a 7 night cruise without the price of a 7 night cruise.
Would love to double dip on Castaway Cay.
Need to do the math and see if there is any savings.

TBH whenever I have priced it out, unless it is a specialty 7-night (SWDAS), the 7-night almost always comes out less - or very close to equal. And you don’t lose the hours of turn-around day.

 

[DIS_MIKE]

The longer cruises give you that opportunity to really just unwind and relax. They have become my new favorite and I'm working on choosing my next 7-night cruise. The 3-night was way too short but I still would do it if I needed a quick weekend getaway or had a few more days to burn after a WDW vacation. I think it's also a great opportunity for Floridians looking for a 3-day weekend. It just went so fast and by the time I got my luggage all unpacked I was pulling it out again. I do like the 4-night cruises as they feel a bit more "full" with that sea day.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

We have always enjoyed longer cruises because of the logistics of flying to the port locations from NM. Next year (2020) we will do our first B2B and see how that works out. As others have stated, still loosing a lot of shipboard time with the process of getting off and getting back on. We have the same stateroom, luckily.

 

[HappyontheLake]

Our issue is we have to calculate airfare into the price of cruising, so 7 days it is. I have done a 4 day cruise with WDW tacked on, and a 5 day cruise with WDW tacked on. I think if we lived in Florida I would be doing so many last minute 3 or 4 day cruises it would be insane. I will be waiting to see what GTY deals are available 30 to 60 days out of the cruises out of Galveston or New Orleans since I can drive there easily.

 

[MomOTwins]

Our issue is we have to calculate airfare into the price of cruising, so 7 days it is. I have done a 4 day cruise with WDW tacked on, and a 5 day cruise with WDW tacked on. I think if we lived in Florida I would be doing so many last minute 3 or 4 day cruises it would be insane. I will be waiting to see what GTY deals are available 30 to 60 days out of the cruises out of Galveston or New Orleans since I can drive there easily.

This--when we were on the east coast we did 3-nights, but now we have moved to the Midwest and I will definitely be going less often.

 

[pixiedustedme]

I like both short and long cruises. One or two cruises per year are ample for me, though.

 

[daisyx3]

If I am doing WDW during the year I will do a short cruise (3 night last year, 4 night this month). Next year no WDW, so we are taking a 7 night for the first time in many years. We are empty nesters now but every time we go somewhere we have to have a housesitter for the dog; once my son graduates college if he moves away I am in trouble. Plus as mentioned, we are far enough that airfare is also added in. If we move south at my retirement things may change.

 

[pangyal]

Was told of cruisers who book B2B of a 3 and 4 night cruise on the Dream so they can have a 7 night cruise without the price of a 7 night cruise.
Would love to double dip on Castaway Cay.
Need to do the math and see if there is any savings.

We are trying exactly this for the first time in February and the cost is about $1200 less for the week in total than the 7-day we had originally picked on the Fantasy. And this was before they confirmed the dates for 2020 SWDAS.

 

[MonaMN]

This--when we were on the east coast we did 3-nights, but now we have moved to the Midwest and I will definitely be going less often.

Same. If we were within decent driving distance, it would be a different story, but MN is far away from every single possible cruise port... Galveston looks closest at 19 hours on the road without stops.

Dumb Midwest.

 

[KayKayJS]

I really prefer 5 days or more, but will do 3 days for a cheap Florida resident deal or if we’re going with family as we can only handle so much family time haha

 

[Joe Brig]

There are 3 main dining areas and 3 main shows are on each ship. So if you take multiple cruises on different ships, you would get more variety of entertainment.

 

[cruisehopeful]

For me it's cruise more often on shorter cruises. It's the only way we can do it right now. For most people, longer cruises less often are probably more memorable and more cost effective.

 

[anjuan]

Another Midwesterner here. The only way I'll do a shorter cruise is if we add on time at WDW or Universal.