Ship vs Itinerary

[GeezeLouise]

Booking of my family's cruise has been delayed again! (Nothing serious but ....) I'm wondering what people think of choosing based on ships vs. itinerary.

I really wanted to do the Magic, this seems to coincide with several sailings I'm interested in. But I really want to sail on the Wonder too. Do you aim to "complete the fleet"?

 

[AquaDame]

Itinerary trumped the ship for us! We started with the Dream on a four night as we weren't sure we'd like it, then wanted longer so we chose a 7-night on the Fantasy. Then we wanted to sail to Alaska and so we naturally were on the Wonder and sailed the Magic finally for the same dates when the Wonder cruise we had booked was cancelled. We'd have been fine if it took longer to hit all four but it was very easy in the end!

 

[dad of 3 addicted to DCL]

Itinerary for us. The ships are all wonderful in their own ways, so we pick the itinerary

 

[CamColt]

For me it's maybe a little of both those factors, but more so the dates that work for us.

Itinerary wise, I have no interest in Alaska or Europe, but I want to be someplace warm. Relating to the ship, it doesn't really matter however I did make it a point to sail on the Dream when it was new, and then the same with the Fantasy. This wasn't specifically to accomplish a grand slam, but just wanting to see the new ships.

My biggest deciding factor really comes down to the dates we can sail. Then we see what is offered and go from there. For example, I was looking at these recently released cruises, thinking I would like something for Christmas 2020. I checked all the options and the dates I liked the best were 12/24, 6 night (it covers Christmas and my birthday), which happens to be on the Wonder. Unfortunately we did decide against doing it, but had we done a Christmas 2020 cruise that is how we would have chosen.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Booking of my family's cruise has been delayed again! (Nothing serious but ....) I'm wondering what people think of choosing based on ships vs. itinerary.

I really wanted to do the Magic, this seems to coincide with several sailings I'm interested in. But I really want to sail on the Wonder too. Do you aim to "complete the fleet"?

Typically itinerary will win over ship for us.

Then comes cost.

THEN comes ship.

We've already completed one Grand Slam, but I wouldn't mind doing another (need another Dream cruise). That would require me to do a short cruise, which I'm not fond of, but scheduling it with another ship's cruise works (did that with a B2B Fantasy trip in the past).

 

[TikiThunderPirates]

We've always booked on Itinerary. Period. Ok so really price is also a factor. We prefer the more "exotic" (read non-caribbean) destinations so that currently limits us to the Magic and Wonder. I do have a preference, but it's minor. We end up on the Magic the most due to where it goes and where we like to travel as well.

Completely the fleet feels like something people like to say they've done, and it's great to hear comparisons, but for me, it's more about what I enjoy, and the Caribbean doesn't hold a strong appeal.

 

[tlprice]

We did our Grand Slam in 5 cruises, but we weren't really trying for that. The itineraries we wanted to do or the right deals came up that enabled that to happen. Itinerary and price are definitely more important. We will have 2 Grand Slams after we sail our 7th and 8th cruises (that are booked).

 

[MonaMN]

Itinerary trumped the ship for us! We started with the Dream on a four night as we weren't sure we'd like it, then wanted longer so we chose a 7-night on the Fantasy. Then we wanted to sail to Alaska and so we naturally were on the Wonder and sailed the Magic finally for the same dates when the Wonder cruise we had booked was cancelled. We'd have been fine if it took longer to hit all four but it was very easy in the end!

Our story starts the same - did a four night in 2018 to see if we liked it, and have a seven night booked for January on the Fantasy (really wanted to do a SWDAS).

We shall see how it plays out after that. I am interested in Alaska but doubt I will be able to justify the upcharge versus other cruise lines. Would maybe like to do Europe... but again, it may come down to price.

 

[darnheather]

Right now I'm trying to do three things: complete the fleet (grand slam), get to gold status, and have a Merry Time cruise. I want to accomplish these before the new ships start arriving. Before now I've only been on Magic (twice) and Wonder (once) and I love those two ships so much. I don't know how I'm going to feel on the larger ships but I want to at least try them.

 

[Tasmen]

I was aiming to get my grand slam adding a small Dream cruise to the tail end of a WDW trip. Then itineraries and other trips happened. We are now doing another Wonder cruise to hit gold and a family reunion cruise on RCCL (I could not get them to Disney *Vader screams*).

 

[Pens Fan]

Itinerary always wins with us, especially on Disney. I don't find enough difference between their ships to sway us to one vs. the other. Yes, there are differences, but nothing that would significantly impact our onboard experience. We've pretty much reached the point that unless a cruise is going somewhere we actually want to go, we aren't interested.

 

[ajo]

Another vote for itinerary, combined with the time of year. We like different things about all the ships, so we’re happy on any of them!

 

[elena_n2o]

I'd love to see all ships, but so far we've always chosen the itinerary first (except for the next cruise where we were looking for the cruises available for our dates), which means that in our case we've only done the old ships: Norway and the Med in the Magic (plus a Merrytime cruise in December!) and Alaska on the Wonder.

 

[kiford]

Depends on our vacation goals and our schedule. So, sometimes it's itinerary and others it's ship. Our last cruise was on the Fantasy and that was selected because we wanted to do all four ships before they brought the new ones online and the Fantasy was the only one we hadn't sailed on. We then had a choice between Eastern or Western Caribbean. We'd done Eastern once and Western twice but the Western one had better dates for our schedule so we did it a third time (one port was different however than the previous two times).

When we sailed the Dream, we selected that because we wanted to try one of the new Dream class ships just to see what it was like since we'd sailed once on the Wonder and all of the other times on the Magic. It just worked out with our schedule that the Dream Bahamian cruise dates worked best if we did a 3/4 B2B and we simply decided to make that a very relaxed, do-nothing cruise where we barely left the ship.

 

[Dug720]

Itinerary in that I need one to fit into school breaks (teacher - only 3 personal business days allowed a year, so no cruising in that).

Then ship...and/or things on it. Ex: I love the Fantasy but hate Star Wars, so that takes her out of Feb break. The Wonder’s schedule does not line up with break, but a) out of New Orleans and b) will be solidly themed to New Orleans and I am not a fan, so the Wonder is now completely out of consideration for anything with me.

 

[cedricandsophie]

We’ve done most of the itineraries on all ships. We like the magic but also like the fantasy, we have done the member cruise on the Dream and like that ship but we won’t do any cruise less than 9 or 10 days so that leaves the Dream out. If we do the fantasy in the Caribbean again, because we have been on all those islands, we would probably just stay on the ship and use it as a floating resort. My husband is hoping one or more of the new ships is stationed in Asia so we would definitely sign up for a new ship if it has a new interesting itinerary that would include the Asian parks.

 

[cdoc29]

we prefer 7+ night cruises from Florida so we'll be on the Fantasy for a third time in 2020

 

[Chirple]

Itinerary first. Out of our 13 already completed cruises, 11 have been on the Magic and have only repeated one itinerary on her (NYC-Bahamas twice). We are completing the ship grand slam later this year when we are on the Fantasy, but we are also going to a port we've not been to in the past.

 

[GPaLarry]

For us, we look at who is going, first, and when they are available? Next, we vote on where we are going, cost (stateroom size, kind, etc.) and maybe, what ship to take (usually not a major concern). After nine DCL cruises we are not into a "Grand Slam." The Dream's itinerary is too short for us, no matter where they go. Our first DCL cruise was a 14-day EBPC, which probably spoiled us for at least 7 days (we snuck a 5-night Mexican one in recently because of certain family celebrations and convenience of San Diego.) Next up is a 9-nighter to the Caribbean next summer because our daughter teaches French, and her daughter takes French and Martinique is on the itinerary and they want to see if their French matches that spoken on that island...quirky reason to book the cruise, but it doesn't take much. The introduction of the new ships in 21, 22, and 23 while shake up (for good) cruise choices for all.

 

[DietCokeMommy]

We cruise based on itinerary. We chose our first cruise because I wanted to try a shorter one (4 day) and liked the fact that it hit St. Thomas and Puerto Rico. We now have our 2nd and 3rd booked. Our 2nd is a Southern Caribbean that we're really excited for. I would have liked to have our next cruise after that be on the Dream or Fantasy, but we spur of the moment decided to book one of the cruises out of NYC in 2020. We live in Boston so NYC is an easy train ride away for us. I'm not sure I ever really thought much about going to Bermuda, but I am excited to not have to fly with my two kids and for the fact that it's a HOTHS cruise. And my fingers are crossed that the weather will work out and we'll get some beach time in Bermuda (which is almost the only reason I ever vacation, lol).