Staying in port overnight?

[shoes99]

We have stayed overnight in St. Petersburg, Russia and Alcapulco, Mexico, on Princess.

 

[Kimberly9701]

Tell that to all the people who spend 1000's of dollars extra to go on a Europe cruise.

Europe is a different animal. I'm looking at a 2017 Med cruise (when dates get released) because I think it is a good intro for my son, and I can see which stops excite him more. But if you really want to experience Europe, a cruise is not the way to go.

 

[CM Dad]

In 2011 on the DCL West Bound Panama Canal cruise we did stay overnight in Aruba. It wasn't scheduled that way. Due to sea conditions, we could not dock at Castaway Cay, so we headed to the next port early. Got there early and docked at Aruba on a Sunday night for a scheduled Monday port day. I thought it pretty worthless for us, but I think the crew enjoyed the extra port time. Being a Sunday night, not much was open. I think a Dunkin Donuts, a casino and a Diamond International.

Last summer we did a schedule overnight in Reykjavik

 

[Kimberly9701]

In 2011 on the DCL West Bound Panama Canal cruise we did stay overnight in Aruba. It wasn't scheduled that way. Due to sea conditions, we could not dock at Castaway Cay, so we headed to the next port early. Got there early and docked at Aruba on a Sunday night for a scheduled Monday port day. I thought it pretty worthless for us, but I think the crew enjoyed the extra port time. Being a Sunday night, not much was open. I think a Dunkin Donuts, a casino and a Diamond International.

Last summer we did a schedule overnight in Reykjavik

On a different note, what did you think of the Iceland cruise? I have been to Keflavik, several years ago, and am interested in the ports on the Norwegian Fjords and Iceland cruise. My son will be 6 next month, do you think that it is better to way a couple of more years before doing that itinerary?

 

[mmouse37]

DCL sometimes stays overnight. We did an overnight in Copenhagen on the TA cruise. We have stayed over in Cozumel once or twice and the crew loved it as they were able to go out and enjoy themselves in port.

MJ

 

[hrhdhd]

Azamara Club Cruises offers overnights on most cruises; upcoming I'll be overnighting in Livorno and Barcelona in August and in St. Thomas in December (to be fair, we leave at 6 a.m. on day 2 in St. Thomas to head for St. John at 9 a.m.; but at least one can stay at a beach all day and/or have dinner ashore). Celebrity has also been experimenting with overnights in the Caribbean.

 

[squirk]

OK, to be fair - I didn't say the ship should dock somewhere for a week. I just said "overnight" so you could enjoy a full day and an evening at a "premier" port.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Wow, we've done 16 cruises (10 on DCL) and the only overnight we've done was between our 2 B2B river cruises last summer.

 

[TrySomethingNew]

On a different note, what did you think of the Iceland cruise? I have been to Keflavik, several years ago, and am interested in the ports on the Norwegian Fjords and Iceland cruise. My son will be 6 next month, do you think that it is better to way a couple of more years before doing that itinerary?

We had our 8 yo with us on last years Iceland Cruise. When we overnighted in Reykjavik, we did a 12 hour Golden Circle tour the first day, then left the kids (8,16) on the ship the second day as our excursion left early the second day (they needed sleep, so I planned it that way). Otherwise, our 8 yo had no problems on any of the excursions (DCL, private), and enjoyed them all. I think a 6 yo could participate in a lot of things on this trip.

 

[Flossbolna]

Cruises sell themselves as the ship being the destination, ports are just a bonus.

Tell that to all the people who spend 1000's of dollars extra to go on a Europe cruise.

I think both of you have a point here: I agree with @Kimberly9701 that this appears to be very much DCL's opinion: Get people back on the ship in time for the first dinner seating and the big show in the evening as those are the perceived highlights of Disney cruisers. They don't want people to miss that because they hang out on an island.

But then there are some itineraries, where they know that they attract a different crowd, where people want to make sure to experience the destination: i.e. Europe, Hawaii etc. So, this is where you get the overnight stops. But they still sometimes cut port time short. On our Norway cruise I was really a bit disappointed how early we were leaving all the time as it was light outside until 11pm and it would have been wonderful to go for an evening stroll. Especially in Alesund. From there to our next port Geiranger it was about 60 miles! On the next evening when we left Geiranger we had to pass Alesund again and it took us about 1.5 hours to get from Geiranger to Alesund. Why the hell did we not get to stay in Alesund until later?

I agree with the OP that it would be nice if they had more extended port times and I not that on the survey at the end every time!

 

[CM Dad]

On a different note, what did you think of the Iceland cruise? I have been to Keflavik, several years ago, and am interested in the ports on the Norwegian Fjords and Iceland cruise. My son will be 6 next month, do you think that it is better to way a couple of more years before doing that itinerary?

It was just my wife and I on this cruise (our youngest son is 28). We really enjoyed it.

 

[truck1]

Theres a Russian ship I think that over nights in Bonaire. The only reason I know is that we were on the island diving for a week, and the ship was there for 2 1/2 days. It was pretty impressive watching the ship get off the pier with no tug help and no thrusters.

 

[Kimberly9701]

We had our 8 yo with us on last years Iceland Cruise. When we overnighted in Reykjavik, we did a 12 hour Golden Circle tour the first day, then left the kids (8,16) on the ship the second day as our excursion left early the second day (they needed sleep, so I planned it that way). Otherwise, our 8 yo had no problems on any of the excursions (DCL, private), and enjoyed them all. I think a 6 yo could participate in a lot of things on this trip.

Thanks for your feedback! My concern is that Disney seems to have very high age limits for so many excursions. 8 year old minimum, when my son has already done quite a few of the listed activities at 5... I.e parasailing etc on our upcoming western Caribbean cruise. I'm planning on sailing out of Barcelona when the summer '17 dates get released, but I'll definitely look at the comparison to the Norwegian cruise.. I know that he would love it.

 

[TrySomethingNew]

Thanks for your feedback! My concern is that Disney seems to have very high age limits for so many excursions. 8 year old minimum, when my son has already done quite a few of the listed activities at 5... I.e parasailing etc on our upcoming western Caribbean cruise. I'm planning on sailing out of Barcelona when the summer '17 dates get released, but I'll definitely look at the comparison to the Norwegian cruise.. I know that he would love it.

I agree that DCL has higher than expected age limits on some things. For example, we booked with a private farm to go horseback riding in Iceland. Since these were new ports for DCL, they took their time releasing Port Adventure options until the day before Platinum could book, and we did not want to wait (we aren't Platinum and might also have been shut out of options as there was something like 40pct or more platinum on this cruise). DCL had some horse riding excursions, but age limit was fairly high (12?). The farm we booked with allowed kids as young as 6 or 7 to ride - not sure if there were any particular restrictions if that young. My 8 yo got to ride her own horse for 3 hours- really a great experience overall, but we had to go private for this.

 

[krisinparis]

We overnighted in St. Petersburg and Copenhagen on our Baltic cruise last summer. I loved having 2 days in those ports!