Jump to content

Who plans the cruise?


FManke

Recommended Posts

Just curious who plans the cruises in your family?

One of you? Both of you? Do you split up the task?

If you have each booked a cruise at different times, have you noticed any differences in the process?

The first one I did everything because it was a surprise anniversary cruise. I did all the planning of the cruise, air flights, meals, excursions. Everything. It was fun and exhausting.

Although this next one is also a surprise, for our 30th,  I'm going to wait, as much as it will kill me, to book excursions and get her input. It's not that I didn't want her input the first time, I just wanted everything and every day to be a surprise.

Happy Cruising Everyone!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my family, my wife planned our first cruise with her mother (who was living with us and had prior cruise experience).  She selected everything, but I knew enough in advance to request vacation time from work.  Since then, it has been a family project, including our son, who has grown up from 5 to 21 on cruising.  We also sit down with a travel agent to consider such things as air fare, best trip insurance, etc.  Regarding excursions, my experience is that the "sales" repeat periodically, so you can probably get a decent pre-cruise price and wait until you are a couple months out (or less).  Picking dinner time is important (like early or late seating vs. My Time Dining) if kids are involved.   Best of luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, ChessE4 said:

In my family, my wife planned our first cruise with her mother (who was living with us and had prior cruise experience).  She selected everything, but I knew enough in advance to request vacation time from work.  Since then, it has been a family project, including our son, who has grown up from 5 to 21 on cruising.  We also sit down with a travel agent to consider such things as air fare, best trip insurance, etc.  Regarding excursions, my experience is that the "sales" repeat periodically, so you can probably get a decent pre-cruise price and wait until you are a couple months out (or less).  Picking dinner time is important (like early or late seating vs. My Time Dining) if kids are involved.   Best of luck!

Everything besides excursions and airfares are done.  Too early for airfare, Oct 2020. If it wasn't, it would already be done. I'm an over planner. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I am the only cruise planner in our family.  Half the time Dan has no idea where we are going or what ship we're sailing on.  He wouldn't have a clue about how to find, price or book a cruise !  He's a great cruisin' buddy but for planning....not so much....

Same here in my family!!  I'm the (over) planner and I just let them know the dates and where we are going.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do all entertainment planning including vacations, traveling, etc. I have friends whose wives do all the planning and I'm soooo jealous. I actually don't mind planning the cruises/hotels, but I hate researching and arranging the air flights.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I am the only cruise planner in our family.  Half the time Dan has no idea where we are going or what ship we're sailing on.  He wouldn't have a clue about how to find, price or book a cruise !  He's a great cruisin' buddy but for planning....not so much....

Well, by looking at your list of past cruises, you must be doing something right. he hasn't stopped you yet! ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My wife and I make the initial decision together (when, which ship, what itinerary). Once I book the cruise, I traditionally continue to monitor the RC website and this forum ?. We discuss the planning along the way (Cruise Planner stuff). However, my wife is still on the cruise high since last month and has been obsessively researching our next one! Love it! ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do all of the research for us and our friends we go cruising with.  I research cruises and come up with 3 or 4 (usually 18 months out) then we all decide which cruise (well really me and my friend's husband).  After we decide on the cruise I research shore excursions and set up a spreadsheet with 3 or 4 excursions at each port and we "all" decide on the excursions and book them together.  I research their airfare and our airfare (we live in 2 different cities now) and I also research hotels and again we "all" decide on which one to stay in the night(s) before.  They all call me the travel agent and always ask me what is scheduled each day and when.  LOL

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We currently have 2 cruises booked for the rest of this year. The first was my idea....a birthday cruise for her which happens to also be a Christmas cruise. I'm doing all the planning for it and so far everything is working out. She is aware of details but hasn't jumped in.

The second.....a bucket list thing.....came about out of the clear blue one day when we were talking about planning a trip to Vegas. She said, "I sure would like to see Hawaii". I told her it looked to me like the best way to see the most of Hawaii was to fly out there and take a cruise ship that went to multiple Islands. (We had planned a Hawaii trip in the past but had to scrub it when the stock market crashed). I had been to Oahu three times thanks to Uncle Sam but all I saw was Pearl Harbor and Oahu. So it went from there and she has been very involved in the details and planning. 

So.....I guess we have both assumed the lead in a cruise each and so far it is working out good.

We are in the early stages of planning a group cruise in 2020 to "Scandinavia or Mediterranean" and it looks like a friend is going to be the planner-organizer-lead person. That's fine with me after seeing the kind of details just me and my wife got into on these cruises this year. Whew!
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do all the vacation detail planning. I used to travel all the time for business and the travel agencies and secretaries could never make what I considered good decisions. If I said I wanted to leave early morning, next thing I know I'd have a mid afternoon flight. I could easily check to see if going though Atlanta was better than going though DC and what fit my time schedule better. Someone else would inevitably choose something contrary to what I wanted to accomplish and I would end up doing it myself anyway.

So these days, I can calculate travel times by car. I know about what time we get on the road and how long we want to drive each day. I know what kinds of hotels are suitable and  when we want to splurge a bit or wing it. By the time I can detail out what, when, how and where, I can usually do it myself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We normally pick the cruise together, from that point on I monitor the cruise planner and website for any deals and cruise price drops. Anita plans all the port activities, accommodation,  local transport and flights as she really enjoys this part. Sometimes she does this for our friends as well.

I just get the odd question regarding which flight I may prefer and sometimes a choice in activity in port. My usual answer is "I don't mind, whichever you prefer".

The trip is then loaded into Tripit so I know what is happening when.

At the moment she is finalising for trip to the U.K in September for our cruise on Independence.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I am the only cruise planner in our family.  Half the time Dan has no idea where we are going or what ship we're sailing on.  He wouldn't have a clue about how to find, price or book a cruise !  He's a great cruisin' buddy but for planning....not so much....

That it my husband to a tee!!  For me some of the fun is the planning, him not at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Definitely me as I'm cruised obsessed (or Disney obsessed if planning that kind of holiday).  But at least since our Mariner cruise last summer, DH caught the cruise bug too.

It's almost funny as he'll come home from work and ask "What's new in the cruise world?" as he knows I'm on here and researching something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

our first cruise was for my parents 50th anny...so my brother (the veteran cruiser) planned everything...we just went along for the trip...

Since, then I plan everything.  We look at the dates we can go and try to find something we'd enjoy doing in that time frame...I give him the options, but we usually just choose whatever...I do all the planning...he just doesn't really care what we do...as long as it's away from home.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We generally decide on the itineraries together as a family, although I'm usually the one doing all the initial research on what itineraries work with our available dates and I present the list for discussion. I find it makes it easier to get everyone excited because we all agree they're ports we want to see and a ship that we'll enjoy. Same with excursions, although in that case it's as much about working out timing and budget as getting buy-in on doing the things. My wife will more actively look up excursions than itineraries, especially now that she knows we're free to book them on our own and not purely through the cruise line.

Exception so far was our first cruise to Bermuda, which I researched and booked on my own as a surprise after my wife had indicated she really wanted to go there some day.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...