Cruise Question of the Day

[KeithnRita]

The dates available for us to cruise, the embarkation port, the ship, and last: the itinerary.

[hazelson]

Itinerary - the rest just falls into place because we usually have to fly anyway.

[mercedes]

For us it is the itinerary.

[Joanandjoe]

With us, it's time frame first, in view of my limited vacation windows. Then we look at the itineraries that are available on acceptable cruise lines: Regent, Windstar, Oceania, HAL, X, etc. Itineraries may be slightly more important than cruise line, but only slightly. We tend to do a matrix of cruises, including date, length, price, ship, and itinerary, then make our choice. The matrix also includes non-cruise vacations such as car trips, Hawaii and the Grand Canyon.

Our currently planned cruise, Alaska on the Regent Seven Seas Mariner, narrowly beat out a HAL cruise tour to Alaska, a "land" trip to Hawaii, a car trip to Williamsburg, and a guided tour that included two days at the Grand Canyon. Most likely our fall vacation will be one of the last three, rather than a cruise.

[rogue]

Next question:

Have you ever been upgraded at the dock?

[cruisetarp]

No, we have never been upgraded at the dock. In fact, we were given a bill for over $300 at the dock because our TA booked us using a rate we were not entitled to and which we knew nothing about. We paid it at the dock and then fought with the TA til they reimbursed us.

We have only received one pre-sailing upgrade and that was on our first NCL cruise. We booked an Oceanview and were upgraded at booking to a mini-suite.

[TheSkipper]

NO, we have never upgraded or been upgraded at the dock. Tried once, but were presented the full fare price to upgrade and said "Thanks but no thanks."

[Joanandjoe]

We had one upgrade, which we found out about when we got our cruise docs. On our first cruise, we booked more than a year in advance, and requested early dinner seating. HAL messed that up, gave us late dinner seating (even though some folks who booked way after us got the early dinner), then upgraded our cabin several categories (I believe from an H to a D).

Incidentally, that experience convinced us that we should never get a very cheap cabin or late dinner seating. We walked past our original cabin, and the engine noise was so great that we would have had difficulty sleeping. As for dinner, we ended up filling ourselves with bar food or room service food when we got hungry around 6 p.m., then didn't do justice to our late sitting dinners. We definitely are not night people, and we've never again had a late dinner sitting.

We've tried to upgrade at the dock, but the cost has always been too high.

[KeithnRita]

The only upgrade we've ever received was on our Caribbean Princess cruise. About two weeks from embarkation they upgraded us from an outside to a balcony stateroom. That's been our one and only balcony and we seldom used it.

[rogue]

We had one upgrade that we found out about when we checked in at the dock. This was on our first cruise together. we were sailing on the Nordic Empress, and chose an oceanview cabin in the center of the ship near the waterline. Everybody told us that this was the most stable since we both have a bad history of motion illness. When we got to the dock, we were upgraded to a balcony all the ay at the top of the ship. When we heard this, we both got a bit worried, but as soon as we saw the cabin and the balcony, we forgot all about our fears.

This "free" upgrade ended up costing us lots of money through the years because Cindy will never sail again without a balcony (to tell the truth, neither will I).