Thread: When looking for a cruise what is the fIrst thing you look at?

When looking for a cruise what is the fIrst thing you look at?

We usually look at the cruiseline first. There are some very beneficial perks on some lines for past cruisers (RCI is our first choice with Celebrity a close second). Then we look at prices, since the destination isn't too important anymore. The more sea days the better!

Itinerary is very important to us.

Originally Posted by wayoverhere

When looking for a cruise what is the fIrst thing you look at?

Good question. It really depends. I didn't know what to choose!

In the winter, we choose a warm destination. We also choose a longer cruise (the longer the better!). So far we have chosen Celebrity and for an inside cabin, we have found the cost to be very low. This way, we have sailed to the Caribbean (east, west and south), Mexican Riviera, Panama Canal and Hawaii.

We are planning our second summer cruise. The last was 14 nights, British Isles and fjords. The next will be the fjords and Arctic Circle (12 nights). Both on Celebrity and even the inside cabins are costly. So in these cases, we chose the itinerary first, the cruiseline second and the cost only factors in our choice of inside cabin.

Hope you get good answers. I would have chosen all three!

We look at the cruiseline first. Like Char, partial to RC.

We talk about where we want to go first. Then check out the cruises Princess has to our destination. Then we look at the prices. The difference in cost hasn't been that great to get us on another line.
We did chose Celebrity once as it was the only line that we could cruise one way and fly one way to Hawaii. Love sea days but didn't want to spend 10 vacation days at sea. It was a nice cruiseline but it didn't hold a candle to Princess!

After giving it some thought, I realized that we really look at the Celebrity itineraries, so we obviously choose the cruiseline first.

I am curious, Houch. Why do you think Princess is so much better?

Hmmmm. The last two cruises have been itinerary, but we picked Princess. We did consider also Holland for the Alaskan cruise (can't remember why), but hubby was excited about the new ships (Diamond and Sapphire Princess) at the time. The last cruise was definitely going to be Princess (the RT from LA to Hawaii -- relatively new ship and the cruise all three of us wanted).

Before that, we got a great deal (employee's discount) on our first Princess cruise.

Before that, we just kept going on Carnival, but usually a variety of factors (Carnival and RC were doing the same cruises) played out. Those two lines seemed to always have the same price.

Line first (Celebrity, HAL have priority) followed by price and location. Actually, make that location and price. Note, on third thought price had priority on our next cruise primarily because it was such a great deal.

For us it's destination first then cost...we will sail any cruise line that floats as long as it's going in the right direction!!

Since we were just able to renew our passion for cruising in 2004 after a 9 year (EEEKKKKK) absence from cruising there are a lot of specific areas we want to get to before we are to old or infirm to cruise anymore.

Still need to get to Alaska, Tahiti, Med, a river cruise down the Rhine so we will decide where our next cruise will be heading and then check all the cruise lines to see which one fits our needs (dates, embarkation port etc.) first, then we look at price of the cruise in relation to the total cost with our pre and post stay and flights.

We are not loyal to any cruise line....they all provide somethings we love and somethings that we do not care for. So as long as it gets us to our final destination the line we sail on does not matter.