Shorter cruises more often or longer cruises not as often?

[bcwife76]

I prefer longer, 3 and 4 night just seems so short. Also, if I have to fly to get to the port then I'm not flying across the country just for a 3 night cruise.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

I really like 5-6 nights. But those are not the standard itineraries. A 4-night is good if I can add on a few WDW days on either end. If there were some shorter cruises out of Galveston, I'd be hopping on those as often as possible though!

 

[hnthomps]

I think the flight really figures in here. If I lived near a port we might consider shorter cruises on those random school long weekends that pop up. But flying in takes up too much time and money for that to be practical from where we are.

 

[cedricandsophie]

We never do less than 7 days and prefer longer. We can do a cruise once a year and have done two a year on occasion,

 

[DCLCrazy64622]

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.

We are tired of the Bahamas and Caribbean so we are doing Europe longer and less often.

 

[mevelandry]

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.

It's very personal but I can't wait a whole year without travelling (I can't even wait to every six months: I have to plug getaways in between each cruises) ... Which is the reason why we are sailing on other cruise lines as well.

I try to vary itineraries and ships on every cruise if it's possible, even the short ones so we don't have the impression to always repeat the same trip over and over too.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I think the flight really figures in here. If I lived near a port we might consider shorter cruises on those random school long weekends that pop up. But flying in takes up too much time and money for that to be practical from where we are.

This rings true for us as well. We live fairly close to the NY and NJ cruise ports, however, the cruise lines we prefer (like DCL) typically sail out of NY when my son is in school, so we usually have to fly to cruise and, once you add on flights, pre-cruise nights, etc., it's too expensive to do a lot of little trips. I haven't done a cruise shorter than 7 nights in many years and, even then, the cruise was tacked on to a WDW stay.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

Like others, we vastly prefer 7-night or longer cruises... though we'd like to cruise more often, too! Given that we need to fly and enjoy relaxing and unwinding on the ship, longer cruises less frequently work well for us.

If we lived near a cruise port, I'm sure we'd do some 4- and 5-night cruises, too.

 

[tvguy]

Nothing less than 7 days for me. Cross country flight kind of makes it preferable to maximize the length of the cruise.
We are hoping to take a bargain ($600 a person) West Coast 7 day cruise in October on another line. I'd rather take a cheaper longer cruise rather than a shorter one.

 

[WanderingAlice]

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.

Completely agree with you, and in the same boat as you when it comes to those exact two ports. I live in the South, but even Miami and PC are 12+ hour drives. We’re doing a 5-night this year with flight included but I’ll definitely be checking out the shorter, New Orleans trips since it’s only a 7 hour drive for me there.

 

[xlxo]

For me... it depends on how long I can be away from the office.

Living near two major PNW cruise terminals, I can do long or short cruises throughout the year. Round trips are like a staycation for me.

 

[islandsnoopy]

Our first cruise was a 5-night which was just enough time to discover that cruising is wonderful. We've done mostly 7 night cruises with a few 3 and 4 night ones. The 3 and 4 night were as a B2B and a 4-night in conjunction with a WDW visit. They were fun but seem rushed. You've unpacked then seems you're already packing to leave! We prefer the more relaxing 7-nights.

 

[Quellman]

We prefer longer cruises to really get away. We have other vacations throughout the year to keep us entertained as cruising isn't our only vacation.

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 did this. It was interesting and has its pros and cons. Just be aware, that it isn't always cheaper to do the back to back, even with the cost of parking at the port!

 

[kiford]

It really depends on your goals and your situation. If you have to fly in, that 4 day cruise is preceded and followed by long days travelling - for us, even a 2.5 hour flight means a full day of travel and/or a very early morning. So I have to take more time off work, I have to decide if it's worth the hassle and time of the travel, and whether it means that I'll be rushing out of work to get my flight and then heading back to work the very next day after the cruise. So, previously, we would never have considered doing this without at least a few extra days at WDW.

However, we've just recently bought WDW APs and have been going more frequently for 4-5 long weekend trips and spending a lot more time in the resort and only a couple of hours in the parks. That has actually been really relaxing and really enjoyable. It's still a pain for the flights and the fact that you get essentially 4 days for a 6 day trip but the time spent doing whatever we feel like has been good. I can see a 4-day cruise being similar if that's what the goal is. And we're considering doing this once both DH and I are retired. I may not care about a couple of days of travel if I'm not worrying about getting people prepared at work for my absence for a few days, checking my e-mail when I'm gone in case they need something, coming right back to work when I return.

While we prefer longer cruises, 7 day and shorter cruises will generally be our don't-do-anything cruises. No major plans. Given that they are typically Bahamian/Caribbean cruises, we probably wouldn't spend much time on the islands since we've either been there before or there's not much to do that we're interested in. So we'll spend it relaxing on the ship and doing whatever we feel like (or don't feel like). If I want to see places and do more things off-ship, I'll want a longer cruise.

So for us, it's not an either/or situation. It's going to depend on our goals (relax versus see/do lots of stuff/new things), where it's going, and how it fits into our general overall life schedule. We may do both.

 

[bbn1122]

We do shorter cruises more often. They fit our pocketbook!!

Our first was a 7 night and since then we haven’t been able to afford one again. 3 in college takes up most of our $$$. But we have been able to do 2- 3 nights, one - 2 night, a 4 night and just last year 5 nights to Bermuda. We have a 5 nights for the whole family scheduled for this January.

We are DVC members so in between cruises that how we vacation. We also, tie the DVC and DCL together to make longer vacations.

Hopefully, in a couple of years we college tuitions are done, we will be able to do a 7 night or longer!

 

[barbarossa_hoosier]

From a purely vacation-oriented perspective, I prefer longer cruises - at least 7 nights. We did a 10-night this winter and it was amazing. We have a 13-night booked for 2021. But most of ours are 7 nights.

If we lived within reasonable driving distance of a cruise port, shorter cruises might be more tempting - but even then, I would want to avoid the booze cruises. I'm not about that party lifestyle; I cruise to relax. As it is, as others have said, I have to factor flights and hotel rooms into the overall vacation cost and timing; so that's another consideration in favor of longer cruises.

 

[bobbiwoz]

It has been a long time since we have done a three night cruise, but we have two planned this year. One is on RCCL, because we want to see what their private island with the new pool is like and the other because it means DH will celebrate his 75th birthday on a Merrytime Cruise. Both of these short cruises are paired with other places we will visit.

We do prefer longer cruises, and cannot wait for this year’s DCL WBTA coming up in September.