Cruising Seasons: When to Go Where

Cruising Seasons: When to Go Where
Whether you’re cruising the entire world or just a little part of it during a weeklong vacation, the weather will play a key role in your happiness. It can also make a difference in how much your trip costs.
In general, the best time to visit the Caribbean is the winter, starting in December. The temperatures in that part of the world are lovely during the fall, as well, but that’s also hurricane season, and you could lose your entire vacation to rain if you happen to catch the wrong week. The high season in the Mediterranean is the summertime, from late May until early September (though it sometimes gets a bit chilly there in September). Alaska is also a summertime destination, for obvious reasons, and the South Pacific and Australia are good wintertime options, since their seasons are the reverse of whatever is happening in North America. The Galapagos Islands, which straddle the Equator, are a good year-round destination. Just be aware of the rainy seasons in such places. Galapagos, for instance, gets most of its showers between December and May.

These peak weather windows are, of course, the most sought- after times for cruise-ship bookings-which means that if you go when the weather is at its best, you are likely to pay top dollar. If you can live with a shoulder season, right before or after the peak times,

you can sometimes save a little bit on your fares. And what you will give up in less-than-perfect temperatures, you will more than make up for with less-than-moblike crowds.

If you have your heart set on cruising to a destination during its peak season, you can still sometimes save a few bucks by booking your trip during a “weaker week” within the rush period. For example, weather in the Caribbean is about the same during the entire month of December, but the week before the Christmas holiday typically generates far fewer bookings than the celebration week itself. As such, you might be able to find a good deal if you’re willing to disembark and be on your way back home in time to collect any loot that Santa Claus brings.

The same holds true for weeks before and after collegiate Spring Break in February, elementary-school break in March, the Fourth of July, and Thanksgiving. Ask your travel agent or your cruise ship company which weeks tend to be the slowest, and then look online for Web specials being promoted for those dates.

**

Budget-Conscious Cruises

Budget-Conscious Cruises
There are two schools of thought about how to get the most budget-conscious cruise fares. One is that you should comb last-minute Web site deals. The other is that you should book as much as a year in advance to take advantage of the cruise companies’ early-bird discounts.

A good rule to remember is this: If you don’t care what kind of cabin you get on which itinerary, you may save a few extra dollars by waiting for a last-minute deal. But if your goal is to be aboard a specific boat in a particular level of cabin on the itinerary of your choice, you are much more likely to get the best deal with the companies’ early-booking programs.

In general, if you want to try out cruising without busting your budget, you should look for short, two- to four-day itineraries in non- exotic ports of call. Simply choosing a three-day cruise, say, round-trip to New York that is all scenic cruising with no ports of calls will save you at least several hundred dollars because you will have no extra
fees for excursions. If you can find a ship leaving from a city near your home-someplace like Fort Lauderdale, Florida, or San Francisco, California-you also will be able to put your limited budget to more use aboard your ship, as you will have no airfare expenses.

Booking an inside cabin (without a view) is another way to stretch your vacation dollars, and in some cases, you really won’t be sacrificing all that much. If, for example, you’re the kind of person who likes to be out and about constantly, who only goes back to your cabin to shower and sleep, then paying for a balcony or an ocean- view suite really makes no sense for you. You might as well save your limited funds for excursions instead.

Sometimes, you can find longer itineraries that are good deals. Norwegian Cruise Line, for example, promotes its repositioning cruises as excellent bargains. Repositioning means the company needs to move its ship-for example, from the Caribbean at the end of the winter to the Mediterranean at the beginning of the summer. These cruises are bargains, if you don’t mind sometimes skipping favorite ports of call or cruising during shoulder seasons (just before or after the summer rush, for example). Norwegian knows it cannot get top dollar for its cabins during a shoulder season going across the Atlantic Ocean with limited chances for you to get off the boat, so it lowers its rates to get at least some income during the trip. For you, this can sometimes mean cruising aboard for more than a week at less than $100 per day.

**

VACATION…. IS THERE any sweeter word?

VACATION…. IS THERE any sweeter word?
It conjures the smell of salt air, the warmth of summer’s rays, the sight of water so sparkling blue it’s blinding. While it’s true that you can bathe all five of your senses in such pleasures at a vacation resort on land, there is simply no better way to enjoy changing views and multiple destinations than a vacation at sea. You can select from dozens of ships based in hundreds of ports around the world. Welcome to the wide, wide world of cruising.

Why Choose a Cruise?
You worked hard to save your vacation money. If you’re like most people these days, you only have a week or two to relax before you have to get back to the grind. Your goal is to make the most of your time at a price that won’t break your budget and in a way that will give your family enough memories to last until well after your vacation ends.
Luckily, cruise-ship vacations are available at all different prices, in all different places, and with facilities and services designed to satisfy all kinds of families. Those qualities alone don’t set cruise ships apart from land-based resort vacations, of course. What does set them apart is the fact that they move from place to place throughoutyour vacation-giving you and your family a chance to see and do far more than you likely would if you booked a hotel room ashore.

Another thing that sets cruise ships apart is that, in many cases, they are specifically designed to appeal to families. You can find cruise lines that offer everything from adult cigar bars to teen hangouts to children’s activity areas to infant babysitting, all aboard the same ship. Excursions ashore range from historical tours to vineyard wine tastings to swimming with dolphins. Dining areas include everything from elegant sit-down halls to family-style buffets to Johnny Rockets burger joints. Even if you’re traveling with a family that spans three or more generations, there are ships that have something aboard for everyone to enjoy. You will also find plenty of things for your family to enjoy together as a group.

Financially, cruise ships can make a great deal of sense, too. Cruise companies that compete for family bookings want you to be able to afford their vacations, and you can often find bargains that will cost you far less than you would pay for a resort vacation on land. In many cases, you can even work with your cruise-ship company or travel agent to combine a land vacation with your time at sea, still for a lower price than you would pay if you tried to do both kinds of vacation travel on your own.

Last but not least, there’s the food. The word “smorgasbord” does not do justice to the caloric cacophony offered aboard cruise ships these days, and on some of the more luxurious lines, you’ll be eating recipes created by chefs from institutions as famous as Le Cordon Bleu. The dining can be so tantalizing that some people simply for the food. Where else can you eat all you want of whatever you want at multiple restaurants within walking distance of your bed?

If all of this sounds good to you, it’s time for you to set about choosing the best cruise vacation for your family. With so many options out there, you may feel daunted at first, but this website will help you pare them down to a manageable number. The world of cruise ships quickly becomes much easier to navigate if you first figure out a few things about your family. You’ll be able to use your preferences to weed out cruise companies that don’t offer the kinds of services and facilities you might need, and you’ll be able to concentrate on comparing prices and cabins aboard the ships that complement your vision of an ideal trip.

Start by asking yourself some basic questions:
What is your budget?
How old are your family members?
Are you planning a family reunion with teenagers or older family members, or are you traveling with three or more children younger than ten?

Is it important to you that your ship visit specific places, or
will any itinerary in, say, the Caribbean be fine with you?
Do you want to spend all your time aboard together as a family, or would you prefer that there be an extensive kids’ club so the adults in your group can have some time alone?

These are just some of the questions you will need to answer as you try to find the cruise vacation that is right for you. As you read through the pages that follow, consider taking notes in the margins about cruise ships, facilities, services, or itineraries that sound like they would best suit your needs.

For now, you’ll want to start with an overview of the companies, ships, and itineraries that are designed specifically with families in mind and that tend to get high marks from families who have cruised them in the past.

**

Smaller, More Personalized Ships

Smaller, More Personalized Ships
If you aren’t fond of crowds, or if you prefer to focus on your destination for entertainment instead of your ship, you might consider booking your vacation with a cruise line that carries far fewer people aboard at once. Smaller ships force you to give up some public spaces-you’ll have, say, a theater but not an additional movie cinema-but rarely do they force you to give up anything in the way of accommodations. These ships are considered more of a premium experience, and as such have high standards when it comes to cabin sizes and outfitting.
Radisson Seven Seas Navigator. The Navigator is one of Radisson Seven Seas’ smaller ships, at 560 feet long and 81 feet wide. She carries 490 guests in addition to her 340 crew members, and she has twelve decks with cabins spread out among seven of them. Only two of her decks are entirely dedicated to guest cabins; the other accommodations are forward on the ship’s other decks, with public spaces amidships (in the middle) and aft (toward the back) on the same decks.

All of the Navigator’s cabins have ocean views, and 90 percent of them also have balconies. The smallest is 301 square feet, and the largest, the master suite, is 1,173 square feet with a living and dining room and, in some cases, a full wrap-around balcony. Public spaces aboard the Navigator include a two-deck theater, a casino, spa and fitness center, separate beauty salon, swimming pool, boutiques, and various restaurants and bars.

**

Mid-Range Vessels

Mid-Range Vessels
Though gigantic in the grand scope of all man-made objects in the universe, most cruise ships in the family-value price category are considered mid-range, or average in size. You may find it hard to believe, but ships that carry a thousand or two thousand people at a time are the norm nowadays. You may also find it hard to believe that some ships carry so many people when others of similar length carry far fewer people-sometimes several hundred fewer. That’s
something to pay attention to if you are considering two ships of the same length but are particularly sensitive to crowds.

Size aside, each cruise company tries to give its ships facilities that distinguish one fleet from another. Interior designs and ambience are also different from fleet to fleet (and often, from ship to ship within each fleet). Here’s a look at a few examples in the mid-range category.

**

Ocean Liners

Ocean Liners
By definition, an ocean liner is simply a large, oceangoing ship that carries passengers regularly. In terms of cruising, however, the term “ocean liner” often refers to the biggest, best-outfitted, most beautiful ships at sea. Ocean liner becomes almost interchangeable with luxury liner, a term that used to refer only to super-ships like the ill- fated Titanic that were built to carry the world’s wealthiest people on transoceanic voyages in the utmost of style. When you ask about cruising aboard ocean liners today, you are likely to receive information about flagships-vessels that, in many ways, are destinations unto themselves. Some of these flagships are true ocean liners, while others are not.

There is perhaps no better place to begin learning about flagships than with the mother of them all, the biggest cruise ship/ocean liner/luxury liner in the world: the Queen Mary 2.

Cunard launched the Queen Mary 2 in January 2004 to worldwide fanfare. The $800 million vessel is a staggering 1,132 feet long and 135 feet wide-about the width of a thirteen-story building toppled onto its side. She carries 2,620 passengers and 1,253 crew members, a relatively small number of total people given the ship’s size. The idea behind her construction was to create spacious elegance, not to pack people aboard like sardines.
The Queen Mary 2’s top deck (she has fourteen of them) is reserved almost exclusively for sun-worshippers. Facilities on other decks include a library and separate bookstore, a beauty salon, gym with separate weight room, spa with indoor therapy pool, children’s play area, royal theater with stage, college-at-sea area with stage- size movie screen, a Main Street-like array of shops and boutiques, a video arcade, casino, multiple bars and restaurants, and, oh yes, the only planetarium at sea.

Nearly 80 percent of the cabins aboard the Queen Mary 2 have ocean views, and all but a handful also have balconies. The penthouse on this ship is a full 758 square feet and includes a living and dining room-and it isn’t even the nicest accommodations aboard. That distinction goes to the Balmoral and Sandringham Duplex, a staggering 2,249- square-foot home at sea with two marble bathtubs and a private outdoor balcony that’s bigger than most you would find aboard any other cruise ship. The upstairs, indoor balcony overlooks the living room below, and of course, a wall of windows facing the sea.

**

Web Site Specials

Web Site Specials
When the cruise-ship companies have trouble filling up their boats, they keep the discounts coming-sometimes right up until the day of embarkation. Last-minute deals were more prevalent in the past than they are today, mostly because demand for cabins has increased in recent years and the companies have no reason to lower their prices when every cabin is full. Still, if you’re not set on a specific ship or a specific itinerary, you can save a ton by booking a last-minute deal on a cruise company’s Web site.

Sometimes, the discounts even apply to cruises far enough in the future to allow you some planning time. For instance, in the middle of March 2005, Carnival was promoting an eight-day itinerary aboard the Carnival Legend in the southern Caribbean that went round-trip from Fort Lauderdale, Florida with ports of call in St. Maarten, Barbados, and Martinique. The brochure fare for an ocean-view cabin was $2,099, or $829 with the Super Saver early- booking discount. The special Web fare for the same exact cabin was $749for dates as far in the future as December 2005 and December 2006. The upshot: You could have booked a cabin online for nearly $100 less than the Super Saver early-booking rate and still had at least nine months before you had to cruise.

Other Web discounts are good all year round, such as the Value Collection Sailing program that Crystal Cruises offers. Some of its ships have a limited number of cabins reserved at rates as much as 63 percent off the regular brochure fares-often aboard ships cruising during slower vacation times, such as the week before Christmas, the week before Spring Break, or the weeks before popular travel seasons officially begin in some destinations. These morethan-half-off rates remain published on the Crystal Cruises Web site until all the set-aside cabins are booked, so you can instantly find out whether you are still able to enjoy the savings on the itinerary of

BEYOND THE BASICS
your choice. (You could also call, but that takes longer, and these cabins go quickly!)

**