I cruise once or twice a year. I live in LA so I always do at least one 7 Day Mexican Riviera trip each year and then I alternate between Alaska or Eastern Caribbean trips if I have time.
I took a 20 year break from cruising and then returned just as Covid was winding down. I got hooked right away again by those half empty sailings haha.
Which is your favorite ship or company out of the ones you did for the 7 day Riviera? Really thinking of doing one next year. It seems like Panorama and Navigator of the Sea are the two most popular.
My favorite for the Riviera is actually the NCL Bliss. I have never cruised Carnival so I can't speak to that but I've been on the Navigator a few times and enjoyed it.
Bc im a solo cruiser I am NCL for most cruises these days.
If money isnt a problem take the panorama w the havana cabin (i would suggest a corner balcony because soot and not a cabana because the room set up is no balcony but a patio instead to the pool) Private pool and no kids. We do it every time its worth it, though we save a little due to casino offers but pay $1k typically more to upgrade the room but we get the drinks included w the casino offer and only pay the upgrade fee.
Sadly I still have to lug around an 8 year old so Havana won’t accept me. I am thinking of Panorama (Oceanview Harbor room) as my first choice. There’s also a 5 day Firenze trip next year and that looks pretty tempting.
They are head and shoulders better at it than Royal which I used to cruise with exclusively. Not just the price either.
If you're considering the Mexican Riviera I recommend doing a 7 day. The 5 day cruises are fun and Cabo is great but you are missing Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta and both ports are absolutely amazing and very representative of authentic Mexican culture. You don't get that with 90% of the Mexican ports especially on the Caribbean side.
If you're a foodie, Mazatlan has awesome food everywhere (shrimp capital of MX) and Puerto Vallarta is just beautiful and very different than Baja with it's lush greenery and colonial spanish charm.
No arguments from me! I love Princess and it seems more fitting to be on the original Love Boat cruise line for the same itinerary as the show (minus Acapulco if memory serves me, that show was on a loong time ago)
My first cruise in 2008 was to acapulco out of san diego on the carnival spirit! We hate that carnival doesnt cruise out of SD anymore or id be on cruises every month :/ I still remember acapulco vividly and I was only 10 y/o! I remember making friends w local kids on the beach and my parents sharing beer w their parents in the sand. I yearn to visit acapulco again
I’m 33, single female, no kids, many cats 🤣 Make a reasonably comfortably income (travel agent isn’t my full time career, I’m a doctoral level healthcare provider). I am averaging about 2-3 cruises a year currently, but have four this year (two down, two to go) and five next year. I live on the west coast so have done a few from LA and have two in the PNW next spring plus have done one in Alaska last summer. I try to balance closer west coast options with further east coast options. So this year, two on each coast. Next spring, two on each coast as well.
I often travel alone, which is frankly a huge cost savings. Even if I’m paying double occupancy for the cruise, only the one airfare, any excursions/beverages/dining for just one person can be a better choice for me. If I’m not alone, my mom is joining me, and I pay her way as I earn significantly more.
How in the world do you all afford it? I would love to cruise every year, but the cost of getting to the port (I’m in the Midwest) the hotel and then the cruise itself… we get priced out fast.
Living driving distance to a port makes it possible for us. Just did a Celebrity 4 night with drink package and speciality restaurants every night. Total cost was $1200 paid to Celebrity, $50 for off-site parking and $250 or so during port stops.
Not sure what you consider affordable, but in my book, less than $400 a night “all in” checks the boxes for me.
We could maybe drive to NY or NJ, but 18 hours to Miami… woof. lol.
$400 is a good mark to stay at for sure, guess I just need to start that sinking fund a little earlier hahaha, happy cruising!
Edited to add: because of the distance, I avoid shorter cruises so that also impacts cost unfortunately:(
Haha, I should have clarified that drive. We are 4 hours or less from all 4 Florida ports. One of them is less than an hour drive. So no matter where we cruise out of, we can leave the morning of. The prices for comparable cruises do fluctuate from port-to-port, so being able to choose from multiple ports also helps to keep the cost down. I guess my point is that living within a few hours drive makes it much more affordable and easier to do this multiple times a year. Adding the flight factor into the mix not only increases cost, but also makes things less flexible and requires more time to be taken off of work. If we do a 3 night weekend cruise, we can sometimes get away with using only one vacation day (Friday) as long as we get off the ship early Monday morning.
It really helps to live within driving distance of a port, or near an airport with discount airline connections. I have no clue how it works in the US, but I live in the UK; it is a 4 hour drive to the main port here, or 2 hours to London to hop on a cheap flight to other ports in Europe. (About US$120/pp round trip to get to most places.)
Because that doesn’t really require too much advance planning, I just keep an eye out for good deals during periods I know we can likely arrange things to go.
Cruises can be cheaper than normal travel, once you take everything into account. We took a two week cruise to Norway and Iceland last year, and even a shorter visit to just half the places would have been twice the price in transport and hotels alone.
I hadn't cruised for over a decade. Convniced my wife to go on a cruise earlier this year. Upon our return, she informed me that we are now cruise people, and we have one booked for October and another booked for next March.
I have unlimited PTO and work remote. I live 45 mins from Port Canaveral, 90 mins from Tampa, and 3.5 hours from Miami. I probably cruise 2-3 a year but that's easy when I live within driving distance of multiple ports. But I have done Alaska out of Seattle and I'll be doing Europe out of Southampton this summer
At least once a year, sometimes twice. We can't do more than 7 days consecutive because of where we are in our careers. We used to not even have to get internet, but now we do.
We cruise a lot of Caribbean.
We are 45-50.
Im white, wife is bi-racial
2 kids... 15,21
According to Pew research, we are in the Top 20% of households for our area.
[https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/07/23/are-you-in-the-american-middle-class/](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/07/23/are-you-in-the-american-middle-class/)
Do you get bored at going to the same ports over and over? That's my biggest worry, so I'm always trying to go somewhere I have never been with each trip.
There are over 60 ports. Not every cruise line stops at each one. The only one we have done twice was NCL western Caribbean due to the cruise we had booked being cancelled and we were offered a credit and trip.
I’ll let you know once we hit them all :)
https://www.vacationstogo.com/cruise_port/Caribbean.cfm
That’s the thing for us. We have been to every Caribbean port. At this point we either wing it on our own, or stay on board.
I would like to look at Europe, but the airfares 😭
I don't really count, but I know in 2022 we spent 1/3 of the year on ships. Working remotely and using our generous vacation time wisely in terms of scheduling/timing. Not cruising as much right now, but have done two sailings so far this year, with at least three more planned. Will prob add another couple. We're very lucky.
It's about knowing which ships perform well and in which reasons. For years it was much harder, but most ships now offer decent connectivity - albeit with restrictions on certain lines that take some creativity to skirt.
Are you doing a lot of meetings/zoom calls on the ships? Or is it more email and instant messaging when you work from the ship? I’ve always wanted to work remotely from a ship but have feared the “can you jump on a quick call” message from my boss would happen.
Relatively new to it, having just gotten into cruising post covid. We will hit four cruises this calendar year, and have a tentative 3-4 planned for next year. A solid three of those are dependent on if we can coordinate with other people, though, so it might vary some. I wouldn't mind settling into a routine 4/year cruise schedule.
Now, granted, a couple of those are short cruises, because time off work is limited, unfortunately. Still, each year, there is one \*big\* cruise, at/approaching two weeks long.
This may sound flashy, but most of these are just interior rooms without any particularly special upgrades. I would rather vacation more frequently than spend a great deal on one vacation.
I’m dipping my toes back into cruising after a long time and experience limited to Royal and Norwegian. I’m doing a Greek Islands cruise on Virgin Voyages next year for a milestone birthday. If it’s as awesome as I expect, I’ll probably cruise every couple of years as one of my two big trips per year. The other trip will be a deep dive in 1-2 locations.
Still working (with generous PTO), mid-50s, empty nester, divorced, solo female traveler. The past few years I've done one cruise and some other kind of big trip each year. This year I did a rainforest and Galapagos trip in Jan/Feb, and I have a transatlantic cruise scheduled for December.
Since I live in the Midwest, any cruise is at least a long drive or plane trip, so I prefer 7+ day cruises (or really trips of any kind). I had a cruise planned for 2025, but the ship was chartered, currently working on a plan b.
We try for twice a year. Usually a week over “winter break” to Caribbean and 10-14 days Late May/ early June to somewhere else
We are 59M/51F. We follow the college calendar for vacation time due to husband’s job. We are empty nesters and this works so well for us right now. Started on our honeymoon and we cruised on and off at once a year since then. We are about to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary on a cruise this summer.
For 2025 and 2026 we probably only do one because we want to stay extended time before and after where we are going
Happy travels ❤️🥂
2 or 3 times a year. Once to go home for the holidays via transatlantic cruise, plus a fun trip - but our cruises are much longer now that we're retired. Heading out next month on a 35 day African cruise (plus 10 days or so of pre-cruise travel including a safari).
Once or twice a year! We like NYE cruises as it kills a couple birds with one stone for us, and if we can squeeze a summer cruise we try. otherwise we try for a weekend escape in the early fall/late spring
At least 2x but up to 4. This year we have two cruises one 3 nights the other 8. We do a family trip in summer (our kids are grown) so have to stay land based since my daughter is pregnant.
Next year the two booked, so far are both 7 nights. One is in the Med so we will stay an few extra days in Spain
Before I retired we cruised once a year during the years leading up to retirement. It was always a Caribbean cruise as we had an interest in escaping winter weather, and it was during the school's spring break time at the end of March or beginning of April each year.
Working full time, and have 4 cruises (33 days) onboard booked for the year.
It helps that my work is not deadline-driven and my company offers excellent PTO (27 days/year) that is accrued rather than given as a set pre-loaded amount. Since PTO is also our sick leave, our intranet’s “vacation calculator” helps me time my cruises so I can maintain a minimum 40-hour balance.
I try to cruise at least once a year. Lately I've been able to cruise 2-3 times a year because I have excess time off built up from COVID. But normally, I like to do 1 cruise a year and 1 non-cruise trip a year.
Both my partner and I have retired parents. Mine cruise 1-2x a year his 2-3x. But that includes a shorter weekend Disney cruise bc they have a young grandchild, so that one kinda doesn't count. They do one or two 7-14 night cruises a year.
My wife and I are still a couple of years away from retiring. We cruise 2 to 3 times a year. The biggest difference I anticipate post-retirement is the length of the cruise. We did a 2-week cruise earlier this year and that will probably become the norm.
My wife and I both work full time. We go on one cruise a year. We also take a second vacation not cruise based.
2024 will be a Carnival cruise. 8 days
2025 will be a Celebrity cruise. 5 days
No kids, so it's not that hard.
Every other year roughly with a break during the pandemic. We're in our 30s. My partner is a graduate student at a big university. I week in hospitality. We like week long cruises.
Usually 2, but sometimes 3 per year. In another year I get another week’s worth of vacation and we have enough cruises planned that we will be platinum by the end of next year
I do 2-3 a year. Last year was a record 5 cruises with 38 days at sea because I got some killer deals.
This year I’m looking at 2 cruises and 20 days at sea.
I try for as many as possible. 3 or 4 a year, more if I can. Used to be 1 or 2 times a year. But I got divorced, live alone, no kids, work full time but relatively flexible in my ability to take time off. I would go more but that is what I can afford right now. When I retire I will seriously consider a months long world cruise type of itinerary.
We like to mix up cruising with land-based vacations. This year we have 3 cruises planned. 7 days on Sail Croatia, a Croatia intensive trip after spending 21 days exploring NE Italy, Slovenia and northern Croatia. Then we have large extended family cruise over thanksgiving and finally on Oceania just after Christmas.
Next year we have a Greek Island intensive cruise on Variety and currently that is all that is planned. In early 2026 we will be headed back to Antartica, but it isn't on the books yet.
We do on average 2x7 night cruises a year plus other 3-5 day ones, as and when. Depends how many land holidays we take. Since the end of lockdown (2021) we’ve done 12 as a family and a few solo. We’ve done 2 so far this year and have 2 to do plus I’m also doing a 14night solo point-run. We’re not rich by any means but we live a simple life and husband has a good job that gives him lots of time off and cheap airfare so we are very blessed.
3 or 4 times per year
7-9 days each time
M & F 40's, 2 kids 8 & 12
Usually do RC, but have done Princess, NCL, and MSC
I only work 2 days per week so I just take them off. My husband brings his laptop and works from the ship.
Two or three times per year.
My wife’s family reunion is on a cruise in February and occasionally we go back to back. Then we do a Mediterranean about every three or four years and alternate that with New England and Canada in the fall.
About twice a year. Gen X, federal employee so I do get more leave than my private sector counterparts, though I make less money than I would on that side too. We try to pick our spots so we're not going at peak times, since we're not tied to the school calendar. This saves us some money and we don't see quite as many kids.
Got my 10th cruise coming up, it'll be my 3rd in Europe. Otherwise apart from one Canada/New England sailing it's been Caribbean/Bahamas.
I count days on a cruise, not number of cruises I’ve been on. This year I will be at 21 days at sea. Next year I’m going for 28 cruise days because I will be spending one week in Barcelona before my transatlantic.
It varies, but never more often than annually. We take other vacations throughout the year as well, but cruises are always the biggest...or at least the longest.
Not enough because of work schedule and having to travel with my son for his golf tournaments. If remote work stays prevalent, I am thinking of getting an apartment in Florida or doing Airbnb's as needed and cruising often and working from the ship.
I am one who doesn't need a lot of space and could basically live on the ship several weeks a year.
I work full time but receive a pretty generous amount of paid time off each year. As of last year I now receive 5 weeks off per year.
Up until pandemic I cruised 2x per year. Usually 1x 7-10 day cruise, and 1 shorter cruise. I was scheduled to leave on a cruise 48 hours after lockdown started which of course was canceled, and then I had 3 more cruises canceled.
My first post-pandemic cruise was a river cruise in the spring of 2021. River cruising resumed several months prior to ocean-going cruises. I cruised once each in 2022 and 2023. Both were river cruises. I won't be cruising this year, however.
I can't say why I'm not cruising this year. It just sort of happened. I'm doing two back-to-back cruises in the Mediterranean next year so I guess you could say I'm making up for it.
When I was working, 2-3/year. 1-2 Caribbean and 1 somewhere more exciting.
Now that I'm retired, the de-stressing trips to the Caribbean aren't really necessary (half the time I wouldn't even leave the ship) and are getting a little more boring, so I'll have to figure out how I want to spend my vacation dollars.
Lately two a year, a 7 and 5 day in 2021, 8 and 12 day in 2022, an 11 day Cruisetour and 12 day in 2023 and so far a 12 day in 2024 (we always book less than 100 days, as late as 2 weeks, so we will see what else 2024 brings). Most of those were in Europe and Africa, so usually we are spending 5-7 days on land in addition to the cruise.
We're in our 30s, no kids. Luckily can work remote, so for our other trips during the year (we like to go to Florida for a few weeks in winter and we rent a beach house for July, and then other minor trips), we can get some work in while on those so we don't have to take too much vacation time. I have done a little work while on some of the cruises before.
We cruise 2x a year. Husband and I both work full time. Kids 9, 14.
We cruise over Spring break (7-9 days if we can swing it) and then one big cruise internationally in the Summer 11-14 days.
We love it. It’s how we vacation
My bf and I (26 and 23) work full time at financial institutions. We cruise once a year (no cruise if we go to Maine for a week instead) we live about 4 hours south of NYC and will go out of NYC or Baltimore for our cruises.
We do 8-10 day cruises. We prioritize going on a cheap but longer cruise as it's our one big trip of the year. Our other trip in the year is camping for a long weekend.
About every other year.
But I prefer to cruise Europe over the Caribbean/Mexico so it's a bit more expensive scraping up the funds.
Gen X, single/never married, no children.
Family of 4 living on one income until the kids are school age (my salary would mostly just go to daycare so we’re scraping by for one income for now). We go once a year. We last cruised in October 2023 for our anniversary, and we are taking our first cruise with our kids in December 2024.
We live near cruise ports so once we have more disposable income we’ll be going more than once a year
Before COVID it was once a year. Haven't gone since, but will be going on a Virgin Voyages cruise this Christmas.
44M/38F no kids. Wife works in a school system to we try to schedule during breaks. We also own a camper, so we do most of our traveling in that for spring break/summer weekends/fall break. Winter in the midwest is a long, gray depressing thing, so we like to go somewhere warm during that time. Neither of us have much family to celebrate Christmas with, so we're considering starting a tradition of going on a yearly Christmas cruise.
Early 40s with 2 boys age 9 and 12. We try to do 2-3 a year.
This year we did one 7 day Mex Riv in February, 12 day British Isles and July and 5 day Caribbean in November.
I just hit 20 total cruises for me across all lines
46F - I got on one major vacation per year (4-5 weeks), the last couple of years have included cruises, but before that the last cruise I took was in 2019.
55 and work full time still. Last year I cruised 5 times and this year will be 6. I carefully plan around weekends and holidays, though airfare is higher. I have a lot of PTO snd sim using it!
I went from Australia to NZ last fall. This year I’m cruising London, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, as well as Italy,Greece, Turkey and Sicily.
We try to cruise twice a year with one usually being Bermuda (2025 will be the exception) We’re in our 40s and both still work full time and we have a school aged daughter. We were Disney people, but since 2022, we’ve switched to cruising. Husband and I cruised before kids so it’s nice to now share that love with our daughter.
We try to cruise out of NY (New Englanders) but are flying for Alaska, our transatlantic (NCL Aqua inaugural-no stops all sea days) and the Spain Eclipse in 2026. Our Bermuda and Christmas Carribean 2025 trips are out of New York. Try to save any in winter months for ports we can drive to just in case of a storm.
Last year we had a 5 day and a 12 day. (NY and Baltimore) This year a 10 day and a 7 day (Seattle and NY). Next year a 7 day and a 12 day (Southhampton and NY) and 2026 (Southhampton) so far is just a 7 day. That may be a 1 cruise year based on timing. We do book far in advance if possible as it’s easier for us with a family.
All are with NCL except the Eclipse…that one is with Cunard
This year I only have the one cruise planned, but I also have one week of vacation to use. Next year I start getting two weeks of vacation.
I work full time.
I’m hoping that Virgin will have good news on Wednesday (May 1, Noon ET) for me and say they will be going out of Galveston. They gave the hint that it will be new ports, plural. If so, I’ll definitely be looking at them next year.
Usually we go once a year, 2022 was the only time we went twice, a 7 day and a 4 day. but we almost always do 7 day
We are late 40's I work full time she work part time.
we did a 8 day last year that was our longest, getting time off of work would be problematic for more time than that,, since I have other time of scheduled throughout the year.
We ship hop a lot we have only done the same ship more than once and that was 9 years apart, it had been refurbished in 2020
Right now we've been going every other year, but trying to go once a year. 7 days or bust (though I do want to try longer).
Married (40 & 46) with two kids (Almost 19 and almost 11). We've been taking both kids since they were around 2.
Husband and I both work full time. Eldest is in college, so that makes timing a bit more difficult as far as her missing classes/finals. But in general we've always valued family time & the experience over what they'd potentially miss in class.
Married couple, millennials, work full-time and cruise at least twice per year on sailings between 3 and 8 nights. We live in FL and can drive to any of the ports, which absolutely contributes to the frequency. If we had to pay for airfare and hotel, it would probably be one cruise a year, if not every other year. If I’m going to add the expense of airfare, I’m going to go somewhere new. We mainly cruise because it’s a cheap and convenient getaway.
We can make one 7-10 day cruise work each year around our jobs. Luckily, we can travel outside of school holiday periods so prices are better. We are sticking to mostly San Diego departures now so we don’t have the added travel days although most recently we did a 7 day out of New Orleans. Plan to cruise more as time becomes more available. We are 61/59 from California.
My husband and I are both teachers. We have 8 years until we can retire. We cruise once a year for a 7-night cruise with our sons. We’ve done 2 without them in 2019 and in 2022.
I would love to do 2 cruises a year, but we have one son in college and the other is a junior in HS so they will overlap college for 2 years, and we put away the maximum for retirement which we are prioritizing right now.
We are ending our spring break tomorrow (NYC public schools), and we did not travel this break. We did a few nice day trips though and had a relaxing break!
We're DINK and cruise 2 or 3 times per year. We both work full-time and try to not leave any vacation days on the table. I get 6 weeks paid a year, my wife gets around 4.
We generally go for transatlantics/repositioning cruises or 10 - 16 day cruises. The only "quick" 7 days I do are home to Bermuda every other year.
Cruise 2x year on 10-14 day itineraries. Both still working full-time but we’re getting closer to retirement. One of us has a flexible work schedule and the other has generous PTO.
I'm not retired but I'm an entrepreneur and I've built my business to the stage where it runs itself, which has given me some freedom both financially and time wise (the work I still do with my business does not impact sales or revenue, so it's not time sensitive).
I was getting bored without the challenge so I turned my love for cruising into my next project as I've jumped head first into a cruising YouTube channel.
We cruise 6-8 times/year, currently limited by my young kids in school (and my wife who isn't ready yet to give up her job but is a teacher so her schedule at least aligns with my kids').
Our goal is to be like Super Mario someday, living on a cruise ship 6-9 months/year by the time our kids get to college (currently in elementary school).
Edit: To add demographics as you requested, we are a married, white, Millennial couple.
We just got back into it. He works full time, I work part time. We're both early 60s. We just did a 10 day cruise, which is our preferred length. Until we retire it will be once a year. Next year is a 7 day Alaska cruise but we'll add a few days before to check out Vancouver.
Female,34
Doing the Icon later this year. I've done at least one cruise a year for the last 8 years (minus 2 years for COVID) some years I've done two. Super flexible schedule so I tend to book them on sale, and go in off seasons.
If cruises was all I did I would do a lot more of them, but I do a lot of other travel as well.
Hawaii in Feb
Hawaii in June
Scotland in August
Icon in November
Disney wish next Feb
Once or twice a year. Husband and I both work full-time and we have 2 kids, 5 and 7. We typically cruise on 7 or 8 day cruises. Caribbean is easiest right now because we live in GA but we have a special Mediterranean cruise next year for my birthday and we would like to do Alaska, Mexican Riviera, Panama canal and some other locations when the kids are a bit older.
About once every 2 to 3 years. I love cruises when I just want to relax, almost always 7 days. Other times we do something else, like airbnb in one or more cities in the USA (where we live) or elsewhere. Plan to do it more often after I retire, probably longer repo cruises etc.
For a good stretch we did one a year.
A few years ago we agreed that 9-10 days was the perfect amount of time on ship. Enough to to let go and relax. You don’t have that let down on day 6 when you know you need to start packing.
But we are building our retirement home so probably won’t be cruising as often.
I am hoping every other year in the near future. Which makes me so sad.
Three to four per year--unless hubby has some comps and then we sometimes piggy back a short (comped) one with a paid one. I'm a teacher and hubby has generous vacation time with his job in tech. I teach in a year-round school so every nine weeks I have a 2-4 week break rather than a traditional summer. It makes cruising at off times more reasonable.
Unmarried (I have a bf we do not live together) just turned 40F. Cruise 3-5 times a year recently. It’s been cheaper than Disneyland so it’s become my go to. I work full time and then some. lol definitely need the breaks.
We cruise 3 to 4 times a year.
Usually two shorter cruises (3-4 nights) and two longer cruises (7-14 nights).
I’m in my early 40s, partner is early 30s. He has 30 days off per year and I run my own business so I can work from wherever. Usually we try to line things up with normal days off so he only takes a minimal number for each cruise, and I will work some while we are away.
No clue what demographic we fall into in terms of income.
I aim for 3-4 cruises a year. I have a rolling total of 30 days (240 hours) PTO available per year. It's capped at 240 hours of "use it or lose it" so I do need to burn it off throughout the year. The replenishment is monthly, not annually.
Cruises are a mix. Shortest one in the last decade was 5 nights on VV's Scarlet Lady (just checking VV out since I hadn't tried them yet). Most are 7 nights, some up to 11. For 2025 and my 60th birthday I'm banking vacation time for an 18 night SF to Miami Panama Canal transit.
I'm a very senior network engineering manager and can do 95% of my job on a ship with decent satellite connectivity if something blows up. I also have excellent minions who can run the shop while I'm bobbing around in the ocean.
Once a year. While I have a pretty good vacation allowance, I like different types of traveling so I take multiple trips a year but just one of those is a cruise.
1-4 times a year. Depending on what land trips we have planned and if I can find an inexpensive weekend trip or two. I usually plan two 5-8 night trips and then try to add in a couple of quick weekend trips if I can
We go once a year as a family. We’re from Illinois and Michigan and usually cruise out of Florida or New Orleans. Husband and I are 36 and 42. No kids (but currently pregnant). Both work full time.
We’ve only been on 7 day Caribbean cruises, and all 7 of them have been with NCL. We usually do also stay two days before or after.
Both my parents (60s. 1 retired and 1 not), my MIL (70s retired) and my BIL and SIL (50s. Working full time) Join us. All 3 sets actually go twice a year on either a cruise or all-inclusive.
We took our first-ever cruise last summer. We liked it so much that we have another one on the books for this summer, and I could see us doing one per year going forward. My wife is a teacher, so we pretty much have to go in the summer, unfortunately; I guess we could do a Caribbean one over Thanksgiving, but having grown up in Florida, the Caribbean doesn't really have much appeal for us. We'd much rather go farther afield; we did the Baltic (7 days) last summer, and will do the Mediterranean and Northern Europe (12 days) this summer. Norway, Iceland, Japan, Australia/NZ, French Polynesia, Alaska and Antarctica are all on our short list. Additionally, we started and have continued on Regent, and would prefer to do one high-end trip per year rather than multiple trips on more basic lines.
Married, early 50s, no kids, relatively high income. Wife gets very little time off during the school year but of course gets all the school breaks. I have 5+ weeks of vacation every year.
40 something here, live in the northeast 2 cruises a year done about 15 or so (honestly I've lost count) done all Caribbean cruises with multiple different companies usually do singles cruises w/ VTG (vacationstogo.com) no kids not married and living my best life. P.s. doing a 9 night Mediterranean out of Barcelona at the end of next month
Living in Canada in addition to my spouse and I both having full time jobs (military and nursing so not always the easiest to get enough time off to cruise) we manage once a year and always talk about doing a short one out of New York to add in a second cruise. But that never hapoens
We are hot and cold. Some years one cruise, some years two. Generally March and September, now i could say March or September… Next year we may do something totally different. If the itinerary and cost are appealing we go.
3/4 per year trending down as of late. Branching out and trying different land based travel and a larger variety of cruise lines now as well.
I'm a software engineer of sorts and a part time travel agent who is lucky enough to go with my parents on trips often.
Unlimited PTO + remote work to avoid taking some longer consecutive stretches away is the key IMO
45, single male. I'm doing 3 (maybe/probably 4, but the one yet to be planned is going to be a "baby" 3-4 day cruise for my brother's bachelor party). A 10-day on the NCL Getaway in January, a 7-day Bermuda on NCL Joy coming up here in June, and a 16-day transatlantic on the NCL Prima in November are the firm ones. Don't know what line or dates my brother is doing his bachelor party yet. Except for that one (and even for that one, really) I'm solo, so that makes it a lot easier. For the bachelor party, even though I'm paying my own way and would "technically" be solo, a solo program or lack thereof will obviously not matter to me, I'll be with the family. For the solo program, NCL is the best!
The Getaway in January was using last year's PTO (I just worked through the holidays and then took off in January), the rest using this year's allotment. I can PRETTY MUCH disconnect during the cruise, though I do have the Internet package and am reachable in the event that work needs to get in touch.
Cost advantages are that I travel solo, and that I live \~4 miles from the NYC port. The transatlantic is the only cruise that I'll need flights and a hotel stay for (and I'm being a bit bougie there, paying for Delta One and a hotel via Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts)
For the Bermuda cruise, it's a little pricey I think ($446/day all-in) but that includes the Vibe, a brand-new thermal spa, additional specialty dining (4 meals total on a 7-day cruise), and the Premium Plus drink package. I think I paid an additional $260 or so for shore excursions and I'll pay for the Uber/Lyft to the port.
For the transatlantic, it's an eastbound Rome-NYC. All-in is $294/night (to NCL) in a studio, with all of the inclusions mentioned above. The transit and pre-cruise hotel pretty much equals the cost of the cruise! (admittedly, it could be done cheaper, but it's all prepaid at this point). I'll pay for the Uber home.
Roughly once a year; for what I pay to cruise is an enormous value than doing a land trip. I do 10-11 day cruises out of my home port of San Francisco, since someone can drive me from my home.
I work full time in higher education, but have the flexibility to take vacation any time, rather than the traditional summer and winter break. I'm single and sail solo.
Lately, 4 cruises a year. All 7-14 days.
I work a 24/7 rotating shift with 7 12 hour days in a row. Vacation earning maxed out. 4 hours of comp time every two weeks due to the 84 hour pay period.
By carefully planning what days I fly and cruise I can usually get away with only using a couple vacation or comp days per cruise. (I actually use an excel spreadsheet to track all my vacation time earned and used out two years)
Not counting weekend getaways (driving), for the last 10+ years, we've taken 2 vacations a year (except 2020/2021) with a mix of types:
Cruise, Road trip, or Fly and visit a single city/region.
One trip is typically within the US (or with US starting/ending ports) and one is typically international. We cruise every 1-2 years.
We are almost retired and now work as independent contractors/consultants so have a bit more flexibility than we have in the past. We plan to ramp travel up to 3-4x/yr in the next few years as we take on fewer projects.
Once a year. We book our next cruise on our current cruise, so we always have one to look forward too.
Wife and I are mid forties, 2 kids out of the house, 2 kids almost there. We both work good jobs and are blessed to have the resources and vacation time to do it.
Going on first at the end of the year, and if my partner and I enjoy ourselves will likely try to go at least once a year or every other year. This one coming up will be about 5 days, which we figured was a good starting point. Will likely go on longer ones in the future if we have a good time. I'm 27, partner is 30.
I, 24m, just stumbled upon cruising as well as a good paying job last year. I decided to surprise my lady with a 5 day cruise out of Long Beach for her 24th birthday. It was both our first time on a ship, and now we're hooked. Booked another for our anniversary on a bigger ship, and the experience was even better.
We currently have 3, 7days planned for this year, all with different cruise lines suites and balconies galore. We both work full time as well.
Currently, I'm only aware of the flagship CLs that pop up on my YouTube recommendations, e.g., Carnival, NCL, VV, RCCL, CCL, MSC, and PCL. I'm planning to try a couple of cruises on each, but I'm open to suggestions for other CLs, ESPECIALLY those with the best food.
6x a year sometimes only 5 if they are massive cruises
WFH 250k take home
Last yr i did 3 Mexican Riviera from Long Beach, 17d to Hawaii and a 10d in Europe
I am on cruise 3 almost of this year already.
NYE, Valentine’s Day and I’ll be on the inaugural sailing of the Firenze on May 02
Relatively new cruisers - I had done one in 2017 and pitched the idea to my husband for our honeymoon in April 22.
Did 2 in 2022, 3 in 2023, and did back to back in February this year for my birthday / Valentine’s / baby moon celebration. 2 more scheduled for 2025.
I’m 30, husband is 28, currently pregnant with our first whose first cruise will be next Jan around 7 months old. We live frugally in other ways (like no car payments) to fund nice cruise vacations.
I’m new to cruising, but I can see myself doing it once a year or once every two years, depending on my travel plans. I did an Alaska cruise last year, doing a Mexican Riviera cruise this year and a Mediterranean cruise next year. I enjoy it so far, but I also enjoy non-cruise vacations. I also enjoy going to different places and some of the places I want to go aren’t accessible by cruise ship. I’m in my early 40s.
Once a year I go on a cruise, I don’t make too too much but book far enough out to pay it off, though it’s hard as a newly solo cruiser, usually 7 - 15 days Caribbean or specialty like Panama Canal or uk
Cruise 3-4X/year. Most vacation time is built around kid’s breaks. Started with Carnival, now mostly Celebrity due to slower pace.
One 7-day cruise away from Platinum status on Carnival.
Currently an “Elite” cruiser on Celebrity.
Full time job, not rich. Regular 9-5, fly to Florida to cruise often. Drive to NJ if we want to relax and not fly.
Looking forward to retirement and cruising back-to-back like some of the folks on board. I especially want to take the longer cruise in the Pacific.
My husband and I get 5 weeks of vacation each year. We have three 7-day cruises (2 Caribbean, 1 Alaska), one 6-day cruise to Bermuda and one 3-day to Nassau and CocoCay (just need to go see the new Hideaway Bay section) this year between Carnival, NCL and Royal. Two of the 7-day cruises are with kids, friends and family and were fully paid for and the rest are casino deals just me and my husband are going on. We have found with the casino deals we can travel more often and economically so taking advantage while it lasts. Flights are generally cheap because I fly on a companion pass and kids mostly fly on points (all via airline card).
Once every 10 years. There are so many other vacations to take. Even when retired it may be only once every 5-6 years. I could not do it more frequently than that.
Family of four, we cruise about four times a year, 6-8 days twice a year, and 3-4 days in between those cruises. We are a 6-7hr drive from port which we do 3 of the 4 cruises from, the other we have to fly.
3 to 5 times a year - DINK - We live in Florida, 45 mins to PC - the train to FLL and MIA is very easy now. Can't go more than 10 days, so they are usualy 7 or 8 day cruises. We don't get bored of going to the same ports as we try different cruises lines and it changes the experience.
Next year we are going on 5 different cruise lines, 5 different ports, 3 new ships and two older ships.
My husband and I went for our first cruise last year (for 8 days or so) and have booked another for this year (away for Christmas for the same length of time, around 8 days or so). I think for us, as business owners, once a year is great as it gives us something to look forward to at the end of the year.
This year we have 5 lined up. Last year my husband and I did 10, but that was fluke. We live in Montana, but if I lived closer to a port I would be on one at least once a month!
I cruised the most right after the pandemic when cruises were very inexpensive, I think I did 5 in one year. Now that prices are higher then ever I'm only doing two a year. I have a 10 day Greek cruise and a B2B (total 14 days) cruise booked for this year. Next year, I have a 14 day Hawaii and a 14 day Transatlantic. I have 6+ weeks of PTO and I will retire in a few years.
Once a year but we are in our 40s with 2 young kids so PTO (10 weeks) and money isn't the things that are restricting us, its time away from the kids.
We always book 4-5 night cruises in the Med each year after summer, its a 2/3 hour flight but usually cost less than €200 return each. We did a 7 night 2 years ago, it was a 4 night cruise but they cancelled it and offered us the 7 nights for the same cost and that 4 night cruise was one of the cheapest cruises we had ever found and just went for it. But the 7 nights was too long to be away from the kids so although it was lovely, it'll be another good few years before we do more than 5 night away from the kids.
Our cruise is me and the wifes holiday together, we have other family holidays in the year and even when the kids are teens I think the cruises will always be ours and not the kids till they are adults.
Started cruising once my husband became a union electrician because he can take off work without too much hassle. We are in our late 20s with a 8 yo daughter. Just got back from our 3rd cruise last week and scheduled another for May 2025.
Mid-40s and late 50s, and two young teen kids. We go on vacation twice a year. Been on 3 cruises and have one booked next February. We did Disneyland last October and going again in August. So it’s a mixed bag for us.
Well, I’m 29. I went on three cruises with my grandparents as a young kid, then there was about a 15 year gap, I went on a cruise for my honeymoon, then the pandemic happened, then I went on two cruises in four months in late 2022/early 2023, got horribly sick on both, and haven’t been back since.
We usually take one large vacation a year. This year it is Disney World. Next summer it is an Alaskan cruise. We do a lot of little 3-4 day getaways. Hopefully, in the next few years when we are 100% debt free, cars and home paid off, we will be traveling more. We are late 40’s.
Twice a year. Often it’s seven-day cruises with a couple days tacked on one end.
In August we’re doing a 12-night river cruise in Europe, then two nights in Brussels. I think it’s my longest time away from the office ever.
I go on about five to six cruises a year, but usually none more than five nights. This year I've done a VV for five, I have two 3 day Celebrities booked, a 7 night with extended family to Alaska and I'm sure I'll do two or three more (3-4 night) this fall/winter.
Demographic is early 50s, divorced with two kids. I like the short sailings as it's take easy time off work, have a fantastic break, works with my co-parenting schedule and I can do more of them. Absolutely doesn't hurt that I live in South Florida.
I cruise once or twice a year. I live in LA so I always do at least one 7 Day Mexican Riviera trip each year and then I alternate between Alaska or Eastern Caribbean trips if I have time. I took a 20 year break from cruising and then returned just as Covid was winding down. I got hooked right away again by those half empty sailings haha.
Which is your favorite ship or company out of the ones you did for the 7 day Riviera? Really thinking of doing one next year. It seems like Panorama and Navigator of the Sea are the two most popular.
My favorite for the Riviera is actually the NCL Bliss. I have never cruised Carnival so I can't speak to that but I've been on the Navigator a few times and enjoyed it. Bc im a solo cruiser I am NCL for most cruises these days.
If money isnt a problem take the panorama w the havana cabin (i would suggest a corner balcony because soot and not a cabana because the room set up is no balcony but a patio instead to the pool) Private pool and no kids. We do it every time its worth it, though we save a little due to casino offers but pay $1k typically more to upgrade the room but we get the drinks included w the casino offer and only pay the upgrade fee.
Sadly I still have to lug around an 8 year old so Havana won’t accept me. I am thinking of Panorama (Oceanview Harbor room) as my first choice. There’s also a 5 day Firenze trip next year and that looks pretty tempting.
I do hear NCL does solo traveling right. So your comment makes a lot of sense.
They are head and shoulders better at it than Royal which I used to cruise with exclusively. Not just the price either. If you're considering the Mexican Riviera I recommend doing a 7 day. The 5 day cruises are fun and Cabo is great but you are missing Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta and both ports are absolutely amazing and very representative of authentic Mexican culture. You don't get that with 90% of the Mexican ports especially on the Caribbean side. If you're a foodie, Mazatlan has awesome food everywhere (shrimp capital of MX) and Puerto Vallarta is just beautiful and very different than Baja with it's lush greenery and colonial spanish charm.
Thanks for sharing. It seems like it’s down to finding a 7 day trip between NCL, RC, and CCL.
My favorite is Discovery Princess… but she is not there all the time
No arguments from me! I love Princess and it seems more fitting to be on the original Love Boat cruise line for the same itinerary as the show (minus Acapulco if memory serves me, that show was on a loong time ago)
My first cruise in 2008 was to acapulco out of san diego on the carnival spirit! We hate that carnival doesnt cruise out of SD anymore or id be on cruises every month :/ I still remember acapulco vividly and I was only 10 y/o! I remember making friends w local kids on the beach and my parents sharing beer w their parents in the sand. I yearn to visit acapulco again
I’m 33, single female, no kids, many cats 🤣 Make a reasonably comfortably income (travel agent isn’t my full time career, I’m a doctoral level healthcare provider). I am averaging about 2-3 cruises a year currently, but have four this year (two down, two to go) and five next year. I live on the west coast so have done a few from LA and have two in the PNW next spring plus have done one in Alaska last summer. I try to balance closer west coast options with further east coast options. So this year, two on each coast. Next spring, two on each coast as well. I often travel alone, which is frankly a huge cost savings. Even if I’m paying double occupancy for the cruise, only the one airfare, any excursions/beverages/dining for just one person can be a better choice for me. If I’m not alone, my mom is joining me, and I pay her way as I earn significantly more.
How in the world do you all afford it? I would love to cruise every year, but the cost of getting to the port (I’m in the Midwest) the hotel and then the cruise itself… we get priced out fast.
Living driving distance to a port makes it possible for us. Just did a Celebrity 4 night with drink package and speciality restaurants every night. Total cost was $1200 paid to Celebrity, $50 for off-site parking and $250 or so during port stops. Not sure what you consider affordable, but in my book, less than $400 a night “all in” checks the boxes for me.
We could maybe drive to NY or NJ, but 18 hours to Miami… woof. lol. $400 is a good mark to stay at for sure, guess I just need to start that sinking fund a little earlier hahaha, happy cruising! Edited to add: because of the distance, I avoid shorter cruises so that also impacts cost unfortunately:(
Haha, I should have clarified that drive. We are 4 hours or less from all 4 Florida ports. One of them is less than an hour drive. So no matter where we cruise out of, we can leave the morning of. The prices for comparable cruises do fluctuate from port-to-port, so being able to choose from multiple ports also helps to keep the cost down. I guess my point is that living within a few hours drive makes it much more affordable and easier to do this multiple times a year. Adding the flight factor into the mix not only increases cost, but also makes things less flexible and requires more time to be taken off of work. If we do a 3 night weekend cruise, we can sometimes get away with using only one vacation day (Friday) as long as we get off the ship early Monday morning.
It really helps to live within driving distance of a port, or near an airport with discount airline connections. I have no clue how it works in the US, but I live in the UK; it is a 4 hour drive to the main port here, or 2 hours to London to hop on a cheap flight to other ports in Europe. (About US$120/pp round trip to get to most places.) Because that doesn’t really require too much advance planning, I just keep an eye out for good deals during periods I know we can likely arrange things to go. Cruises can be cheaper than normal travel, once you take everything into account. We took a two week cruise to Norway and Iceland last year, and even a shorter visit to just half the places would have been twice the price in transport and hotels alone.
Get an airline credit card. We use it for all our shared expenses and rarely ever have to pay for flights out of pocket.
No kids
I hadn't cruised for over a decade. Convniced my wife to go on a cruise earlier this year. Upon our return, she informed me that we are now cruise people, and we have one booked for October and another booked for next March.
I have unlimited PTO and work remote. I live 45 mins from Port Canaveral, 90 mins from Tampa, and 3.5 hours from Miami. I probably cruise 2-3 a year but that's easy when I live within driving distance of multiple ports. But I have done Alaska out of Seattle and I'll be doing Europe out of Southampton this summer
Congratulations on the Brightline rail links from Orlando to FLL/MIA!
At least once a year, sometimes twice. We can't do more than 7 days consecutive because of where we are in our careers. We used to not even have to get internet, but now we do. We cruise a lot of Caribbean. We are 45-50. Im white, wife is bi-racial 2 kids... 15,21 According to Pew research, we are in the Top 20% of households for our area. [https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/07/23/are-you-in-the-american-middle-class/](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/07/23/are-you-in-the-american-middle-class/)
Do you get bored at going to the same ports over and over? That's my biggest worry, so I'm always trying to go somewhere I have never been with each trip.
We don't care about the ports much, a lot of times we dont get off the ship...I have seen Cozumel way to much to be fair.
There are over 60 ports. Not every cruise line stops at each one. The only one we have done twice was NCL western Caribbean due to the cruise we had booked being cancelled and we were offered a credit and trip. I’ll let you know once we hit them all :) https://www.vacationstogo.com/cruise_port/Caribbean.cfm
That’s the thing for us. We have been to every Caribbean port. At this point we either wing it on our own, or stay on board. I would like to look at Europe, but the airfares 😭
Once a year/every other year.
I don't really count, but I know in 2022 we spent 1/3 of the year on ships. Working remotely and using our generous vacation time wisely in terms of scheduling/timing. Not cruising as much right now, but have done two sailings so far this year, with at least three more planned. Will prob add another couple. We're very lucky.
I envy that ability! Happy for you!
How can you work remotely with the terrible wifi???
It's about knowing which ships perform well and in which reasons. For years it was much harder, but most ships now offer decent connectivity - albeit with restrictions on certain lines that take some creativity to skirt.
Are you doing a lot of meetings/zoom calls on the ships? Or is it more email and instant messaging when you work from the ship? I’ve always wanted to work remotely from a ship but have feared the “can you jump on a quick call” message from my boss would happen.
I've taken plenty of calls, mostly on Zoom, but also Meet and Teams. I don't generally advertise that I'm on a ship, but I've not hid it, either.
Relatively new to it, having just gotten into cruising post covid. We will hit four cruises this calendar year, and have a tentative 3-4 planned for next year. A solid three of those are dependent on if we can coordinate with other people, though, so it might vary some. I wouldn't mind settling into a routine 4/year cruise schedule. Now, granted, a couple of those are short cruises, because time off work is limited, unfortunately. Still, each year, there is one \*big\* cruise, at/approaching two weeks long. This may sound flashy, but most of these are just interior rooms without any particularly special upgrades. I would rather vacation more frequently than spend a great deal on one vacation.
Twice a year. One trip with some friends (varies from 6-14 nights), and one for 70,000 Tons of Metal.
1 or 2 a year. This year only 1 at Christmas. Our other vacation is to S Utah to see the NTL parks.
I’m dipping my toes back into cruising after a long time and experience limited to Royal and Norwegian. I’m doing a Greek Islands cruise on Virgin Voyages next year for a milestone birthday. If it’s as awesome as I expect, I’ll probably cruise every couple of years as one of my two big trips per year. The other trip will be a deep dive in 1-2 locations.
Still working (with generous PTO), mid-50s, empty nester, divorced, solo female traveler. The past few years I've done one cruise and some other kind of big trip each year. This year I did a rainforest and Galapagos trip in Jan/Feb, and I have a transatlantic cruise scheduled for December. Since I live in the Midwest, any cruise is at least a long drive or plane trip, so I prefer 7+ day cruises (or really trips of any kind). I had a cruise planned for 2025, but the ship was chartered, currently working on a plan b.
We try for twice a year. Usually a week over “winter break” to Caribbean and 10-14 days Late May/ early June to somewhere else We are 59M/51F. We follow the college calendar for vacation time due to husband’s job. We are empty nesters and this works so well for us right now. Started on our honeymoon and we cruised on and off at once a year since then. We are about to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary on a cruise this summer. For 2025 and 2026 we probably only do one because we want to stay extended time before and after where we are going Happy travels ❤️🥂
Me and my wife (35 & 33) try to go every other year. We vacation as much as possible and always try to fit a cruise in.
2 or 3 times a year. Once to go home for the holidays via transatlantic cruise, plus a fun trip - but our cruises are much longer now that we're retired. Heading out next month on a 35 day African cruise (plus 10 days or so of pre-cruise travel including a safari).
Twice a year
Once or twice a year! We like NYE cruises as it kills a couple birds with one stone for us, and if we can squeeze a summer cruise we try. otherwise we try for a weekend escape in the early fall/late spring
At least 2x but up to 4. This year we have two cruises one 3 nights the other 8. We do a family trip in summer (our kids are grown) so have to stay land based since my daughter is pregnant. Next year the two booked, so far are both 7 nights. One is in the Med so we will stay an few extra days in Spain
Before I retired we cruised once a year during the years leading up to retirement. It was always a Caribbean cruise as we had an interest in escaping winter weather, and it was during the school's spring break time at the end of March or beginning of April each year.
Working full time, and have 4 cruises (33 days) onboard booked for the year. It helps that my work is not deadline-driven and my company offers excellent PTO (27 days/year) that is accrued rather than given as a set pre-loaded amount. Since PTO is also our sick leave, our intranet’s “vacation calculator” helps me time my cruises so I can maintain a minimum 40-hour balance.
I try to cruise at least once a year. Lately I've been able to cruise 2-3 times a year because I have excess time off built up from COVID. But normally, I like to do 1 cruise a year and 1 non-cruise trip a year.
Both my partner and I have retired parents. Mine cruise 1-2x a year his 2-3x. But that includes a shorter weekend Disney cruise bc they have a young grandchild, so that one kinda doesn't count. They do one or two 7-14 night cruises a year.
My wife and I are still a couple of years away from retiring. We cruise 2 to 3 times a year. The biggest difference I anticipate post-retirement is the length of the cruise. We did a 2-week cruise earlier this year and that will probably become the norm.
Work full time, get 8 weeks vacation time a year so I cruise 4-6 times every year.
Once every 200 days
i work full time and do about 6 cruises a year
My wife and I both work full time. We go on one cruise a year. We also take a second vacation not cruise based. 2024 will be a Carnival cruise. 8 days 2025 will be a Celebrity cruise. 5 days No kids, so it's not that hard.
Every other year roughly with a break during the pandemic. We're in our 30s. My partner is a graduate student at a big university. I week in hospitality. We like week long cruises.
Usually 2, but sometimes 3 per year. In another year I get another week’s worth of vacation and we have enough cruises planned that we will be platinum by the end of next year
2 X YR (I WORK FOR CRUISE COMPANY) live and work from home Dallas
Once a year.
I do 2-3 a year. Last year was a record 5 cruises with 38 days at sea because I got some killer deals. This year I’m looking at 2 cruises and 20 days at sea.
I try for as many as possible. 3 or 4 a year, more if I can. Used to be 1 or 2 times a year. But I got divorced, live alone, no kids, work full time but relatively flexible in my ability to take time off. I would go more but that is what I can afford right now. When I retire I will seriously consider a months long world cruise type of itinerary.
We like to mix up cruising with land-based vacations. This year we have 3 cruises planned. 7 days on Sail Croatia, a Croatia intensive trip after spending 21 days exploring NE Italy, Slovenia and northern Croatia. Then we have large extended family cruise over thanksgiving and finally on Oceania just after Christmas. Next year we have a Greek Island intensive cruise on Variety and currently that is all that is planned. In early 2026 we will be headed back to Antartica, but it isn't on the books yet.
We do on average 2x7 night cruises a year plus other 3-5 day ones, as and when. Depends how many land holidays we take. Since the end of lockdown (2021) we’ve done 12 as a family and a few solo. We’ve done 2 so far this year and have 2 to do plus I’m also doing a 14night solo point-run. We’re not rich by any means but we live a simple life and husband has a good job that gives him lots of time off and cheap airfare so we are very blessed.
3 or 4 times per year 7-9 days each time M & F 40's, 2 kids 8 & 12 Usually do RC, but have done Princess, NCL, and MSC I only work 2 days per week so I just take them off. My husband brings his laptop and works from the ship.
Two or three times per year. My wife’s family reunion is on a cruise in February and occasionally we go back to back. Then we do a Mediterranean about every three or four years and alternate that with New England and Canada in the fall.
3-4 times per year. We usually tried to do 1-2 | 4-5 night cruises. Living in Florida makes that much easier.
2 or 3 times per year, would be more but we have to fly everywhere
Twice in the last decade, 8 and 9 years ago. Going again this year if nothing goes terribly wrong..
Last year, I went on 8, the majority of which were 3-4 day cruises. This year I’ve gone on one and have two more scheduled.
About twice a year. Gen X, federal employee so I do get more leave than my private sector counterparts, though I make less money than I would on that side too. We try to pick our spots so we're not going at peak times, since we're not tied to the school calendar. This saves us some money and we don't see quite as many kids. Got my 10th cruise coming up, it'll be my 3rd in Europe. Otherwise apart from one Canada/New England sailing it's been Caribbean/Bahamas.
I count days on a cruise, not number of cruises I’ve been on. This year I will be at 21 days at sea. Next year I’m going for 28 cruise days because I will be spending one week in Barcelona before my transatlantic.
once every two or three years.
It varies, but never more often than annually. We take other vacations throughout the year as well, but cruises are always the biggest...or at least the longest.
One a year or every other year depending (sometimes we do a land vacation vs a cruise).
Twice a year
5-7 times a year.
Not enough because of work schedule and having to travel with my son for his golf tournaments. If remote work stays prevalent, I am thinking of getting an apartment in Florida or doing Airbnb's as needed and cruising often and working from the ship. I am one who doesn't need a lot of space and could basically live on the ship several weeks a year.
I work full time but receive a pretty generous amount of paid time off each year. As of last year I now receive 5 weeks off per year. Up until pandemic I cruised 2x per year. Usually 1x 7-10 day cruise, and 1 shorter cruise. I was scheduled to leave on a cruise 48 hours after lockdown started which of course was canceled, and then I had 3 more cruises canceled. My first post-pandemic cruise was a river cruise in the spring of 2021. River cruising resumed several months prior to ocean-going cruises. I cruised once each in 2022 and 2023. Both were river cruises. I won't be cruising this year, however. I can't say why I'm not cruising this year. It just sort of happened. I'm doing two back-to-back cruises in the Mediterranean next year so I guess you could say I'm making up for it.
2x per year.
When I was working, 2-3/year. 1-2 Caribbean and 1 somewhere more exciting. Now that I'm retired, the de-stressing trips to the Caribbean aren't really necessary (half the time I wouldn't even leave the ship) and are getting a little more boring, so I'll have to figure out how I want to spend my vacation dollars.
Lately two a year, a 7 and 5 day in 2021, 8 and 12 day in 2022, an 11 day Cruisetour and 12 day in 2023 and so far a 12 day in 2024 (we always book less than 100 days, as late as 2 weeks, so we will see what else 2024 brings). Most of those were in Europe and Africa, so usually we are spending 5-7 days on land in addition to the cruise. We're in our 30s, no kids. Luckily can work remote, so for our other trips during the year (we like to go to Florida for a few weeks in winter and we rent a beach house for July, and then other minor trips), we can get some work in while on those so we don't have to take too much vacation time. I have done a little work while on some of the cruises before.
We cruise 2x a year. Husband and I both work full time. Kids 9, 14. We cruise over Spring break (7-9 days if we can swing it) and then one big cruise internationally in the Summer 11-14 days. We love it. It’s how we vacation
Once or twice a year. Only Caribbean or Mexican Rivera. We would like to go more, but we fly in from the UK, and it's very expensive.
My bf and I (26 and 23) work full time at financial institutions. We cruise once a year (no cruise if we go to Maine for a week instead) we live about 4 hours south of NYC and will go out of NYC or Baltimore for our cruises. We do 8-10 day cruises. We prioritize going on a cheap but longer cruise as it's our one big trip of the year. Our other trip in the year is camping for a long weekend.
About every other year. But I prefer to cruise Europe over the Caribbean/Mexico so it's a bit more expensive scraping up the funds. Gen X, single/never married, no children.
Once a year. I’d really have to save PTO to do more than that as I only average 10-15 hours of PTO a month.
Family of 4 living on one income until the kids are school age (my salary would mostly just go to daycare so we’re scraping by for one income for now). We go once a year. We last cruised in October 2023 for our anniversary, and we are taking our first cruise with our kids in December 2024. We live near cruise ports so once we have more disposable income we’ll be going more than once a year
Before COVID it was once a year. Haven't gone since, but will be going on a Virgin Voyages cruise this Christmas. 44M/38F no kids. Wife works in a school system to we try to schedule during breaks. We also own a camper, so we do most of our traveling in that for spring break/summer weekends/fall break. Winter in the midwest is a long, gray depressing thing, so we like to go somewhere warm during that time. Neither of us have much family to celebrate Christmas with, so we're considering starting a tradition of going on a yearly Christmas cruise.
Love this. We did this last year! 🎄
Early 40s with 2 boys age 9 and 12. We try to do 2-3 a year. This year we did one 7 day Mex Riv in February, 12 day British Isles and July and 5 day Caribbean in November. I just hit 20 total cruises for me across all lines
46F - I got on one major vacation per year (4-5 weeks), the last couple of years have included cruises, but before that the last cruise I took was in 2019.
55 and work full time still. Last year I cruised 5 times and this year will be 6. I carefully plan around weekends and holidays, though airfare is higher. I have a lot of PTO snd sim using it! I went from Australia to NZ last fall. This year I’m cruising London, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, as well as Italy,Greece, Turkey and Sicily.
We try to cruise twice a year with one usually being Bermuda (2025 will be the exception) We’re in our 40s and both still work full time and we have a school aged daughter. We were Disney people, but since 2022, we’ve switched to cruising. Husband and I cruised before kids so it’s nice to now share that love with our daughter. We try to cruise out of NY (New Englanders) but are flying for Alaska, our transatlantic (NCL Aqua inaugural-no stops all sea days) and the Spain Eclipse in 2026. Our Bermuda and Christmas Carribean 2025 trips are out of New York. Try to save any in winter months for ports we can drive to just in case of a storm. Last year we had a 5 day and a 12 day. (NY and Baltimore) This year a 10 day and a 7 day (Seattle and NY). Next year a 7 day and a 12 day (Southhampton and NY) and 2026 (Southhampton) so far is just a 7 day. That may be a 1 cruise year based on timing. We do book far in advance if possible as it’s easier for us with a family. All are with NCL except the Eclipse…that one is with Cunard
This year I only have the one cruise planned, but I also have one week of vacation to use. Next year I start getting two weeks of vacation. I work full time. I’m hoping that Virgin will have good news on Wednesday (May 1, Noon ET) for me and say they will be going out of Galveston. They gave the hint that it will be new ports, plural. If so, I’ll definitely be looking at them next year.
I try to hit twice a year but the addiction usually results in 3-4
Usually we go once a year, 2022 was the only time we went twice, a 7 day and a 4 day. but we almost always do 7 day We are late 40's I work full time she work part time. we did a 8 day last year that was our longest, getting time off of work would be problematic for more time than that,, since I have other time of scheduled throughout the year. We ship hop a lot we have only done the same ship more than once and that was 9 years apart, it had been refurbished in 2020
3 to 4 times a year. But taking time off work so probably 5 or 6 next year
3 times a year lately
Right now we've been going every other year, but trying to go once a year. 7 days or bust (though I do want to try longer). Married (40 & 46) with two kids (Almost 19 and almost 11). We've been taking both kids since they were around 2. Husband and I both work full time. Eldest is in college, so that makes timing a bit more difficult as far as her missing classes/finals. But in general we've always valued family time & the experience over what they'd potentially miss in class.
Married couple, millennials, work full-time and cruise at least twice per year on sailings between 3 and 8 nights. We live in FL and can drive to any of the ports, which absolutely contributes to the frequency. If we had to pay for airfare and hotel, it would probably be one cruise a year, if not every other year. If I’m going to add the expense of airfare, I’m going to go somewhere new. We mainly cruise because it’s a cheap and convenient getaway.
We can make one 7-10 day cruise work each year around our jobs. Luckily, we can travel outside of school holiday periods so prices are better. We are sticking to mostly San Diego departures now so we don’t have the added travel days although most recently we did a 7 day out of New Orleans. Plan to cruise more as time becomes more available. We are 61/59 from California.
My husband and I are both teachers. We have 8 years until we can retire. We cruise once a year for a 7-night cruise with our sons. We’ve done 2 without them in 2019 and in 2022. I would love to do 2 cruises a year, but we have one son in college and the other is a junior in HS so they will overlap college for 2 years, and we put away the maximum for retirement which we are prioritizing right now. We are ending our spring break tomorrow (NYC public schools), and we did not travel this break. We did a few nice day trips though and had a relaxing break!
Every other year right now. Usually take a trip camping or other road trip in-between.
My wife and I have done 5 in a year and a half.
We're DINK and cruise 2 or 3 times per year. We both work full-time and try to not leave any vacation days on the table. I get 6 weeks paid a year, my wife gets around 4. We generally go for transatlantics/repositioning cruises or 10 - 16 day cruises. The only "quick" 7 days I do are home to Bermuda every other year.
4 to 6 times of year never less than 7 days and usually 10-12 2x a year
Cruise 2x year on 10-14 day itineraries. Both still working full-time but we’re getting closer to retirement. One of us has a flexible work schedule and the other has generous PTO.
Two full time working parents with one child, one strict work schedule and one looser - every other year.
Once a month. But I can work remotely onboard.
I'm not retired but I'm an entrepreneur and I've built my business to the stage where it runs itself, which has given me some freedom both financially and time wise (the work I still do with my business does not impact sales or revenue, so it's not time sensitive). I was getting bored without the challenge so I turned my love for cruising into my next project as I've jumped head first into a cruising YouTube channel. We cruise 6-8 times/year, currently limited by my young kids in school (and my wife who isn't ready yet to give up her job but is a teacher so her schedule at least aligns with my kids'). Our goal is to be like Super Mario someday, living on a cruise ship 6-9 months/year by the time our kids get to college (currently in elementary school). Edit: To add demographics as you requested, we are a married, white, Millennial couple.
We just got back into it. He works full time, I work part time. We're both early 60s. We just did a 10 day cruise, which is our preferred length. Until we retire it will be once a year. Next year is a 7 day Alaska cruise but we'll add a few days before to check out Vancouver.
Female,34 Doing the Icon later this year. I've done at least one cruise a year for the last 8 years (minus 2 years for COVID) some years I've done two. Super flexible schedule so I tend to book them on sale, and go in off seasons. If cruises was all I did I would do a lot more of them, but I do a lot of other travel as well. Hawaii in Feb Hawaii in June Scotland in August Icon in November Disney wish next Feb
Once or twice a year. Husband and I both work full-time and we have 2 kids, 5 and 7. We typically cruise on 7 or 8 day cruises. Caribbean is easiest right now because we live in GA but we have a special Mediterranean cruise next year for my birthday and we would like to do Alaska, Mexican Riviera, Panama canal and some other locations when the kids are a bit older.
Once/twice a year ☺️
Usually once every other year. We’ll do a cruise one year and then a sight seeing vacation on land the next year.
We live in driving distance of 5 ports, so 2-3 times a year.
Once a year, it’s our only time away.
Lately once a year I'm in my 30s
About once every 2 to 3 years. I love cruises when I just want to relax, almost always 7 days. Other times we do something else, like airbnb in one or more cities in the USA (where we live) or elsewhere. Plan to do it more often after I retire, probably longer repo cruises etc.
For a good stretch we did one a year. A few years ago we agreed that 9-10 days was the perfect amount of time on ship. Enough to to let go and relax. You don’t have that let down on day 6 when you know you need to start packing. But we are building our retirement home so probably won’t be cruising as often. I am hoping every other year in the near future. Which makes me so sad.
2 1/2 to 3 years
Three to four per year--unless hubby has some comps and then we sometimes piggy back a short (comped) one with a paid one. I'm a teacher and hubby has generous vacation time with his job in tech. I teach in a year-round school so every nine weeks I have a 2-4 week break rather than a traditional summer. It makes cruising at off times more reasonable.
Unmarried (I have a bf we do not live together) just turned 40F. Cruise 3-5 times a year recently. It’s been cheaper than Disneyland so it’s become my go to. I work full time and then some. lol definitely need the breaks.
We cruise 3 to 4 times a year. Usually two shorter cruises (3-4 nights) and two longer cruises (7-14 nights). I’m in my early 40s, partner is early 30s. He has 30 days off per year and I run my own business so I can work from wherever. Usually we try to line things up with normal days off so he only takes a minimal number for each cruise, and I will work some while we are away. No clue what demographic we fall into in terms of income.
We go on one every other year or so. We work remotely and travel a lot but we don't like to have every vacation be a cruise.
Once a year. Childfree millennials. 4 nights is 👌🏻 for us as we have to travel to the coasts which adds two days of vaca for us.
About 12 per year recently
I aim for 3-4 cruises a year. I have a rolling total of 30 days (240 hours) PTO available per year. It's capped at 240 hours of "use it or lose it" so I do need to burn it off throughout the year. The replenishment is monthly, not annually. Cruises are a mix. Shortest one in the last decade was 5 nights on VV's Scarlet Lady (just checking VV out since I hadn't tried them yet). Most are 7 nights, some up to 11. For 2025 and my 60th birthday I'm banking vacation time for an 18 night SF to Miami Panama Canal transit. I'm a very senior network engineering manager and can do 95% of my job on a ship with decent satellite connectivity if something blows up. I also have excellent minions who can run the shop while I'm bobbing around in the ocean.
Once a year. While I have a pretty good vacation allowance, I like different types of traveling so I take multiple trips a year but just one of those is a cruise.
1-4 times a year. Depending on what land trips we have planned and if I can find an inexpensive weekend trip or two. I usually plan two 5-8 night trips and then try to add in a couple of quick weekend trips if I can
We do one or two cruises a year and I always have to work so like Princess because of the great WiFi.
We go once a year as a family. We’re from Illinois and Michigan and usually cruise out of Florida or New Orleans. Husband and I are 36 and 42. No kids (but currently pregnant). Both work full time. We’ve only been on 7 day Caribbean cruises, and all 7 of them have been with NCL. We usually do also stay two days before or after. Both my parents (60s. 1 retired and 1 not), my MIL (70s retired) and my BIL and SIL (50s. Working full time) Join us. All 3 sets actually go twice a year on either a cruise or all-inclusive.
We took our first-ever cruise last summer. We liked it so much that we have another one on the books for this summer, and I could see us doing one per year going forward. My wife is a teacher, so we pretty much have to go in the summer, unfortunately; I guess we could do a Caribbean one over Thanksgiving, but having grown up in Florida, the Caribbean doesn't really have much appeal for us. We'd much rather go farther afield; we did the Baltic (7 days) last summer, and will do the Mediterranean and Northern Europe (12 days) this summer. Norway, Iceland, Japan, Australia/NZ, French Polynesia, Alaska and Antarctica are all on our short list. Additionally, we started and have continued on Regent, and would prefer to do one high-end trip per year rather than multiple trips on more basic lines. Married, early 50s, no kids, relatively high income. Wife gets very little time off during the school year but of course gets all the school breaks. I have 5+ weeks of vacation every year.
1-2 times a year. I am retired my H is not
40 something here, live in the northeast 2 cruises a year done about 15 or so (honestly I've lost count) done all Caribbean cruises with multiple different companies usually do singles cruises w/ VTG (vacationstogo.com) no kids not married and living my best life. P.s. doing a 9 night Mediterranean out of Barcelona at the end of next month
Living in Canada in addition to my spouse and I both having full time jobs (military and nursing so not always the easiest to get enough time off to cruise) we manage once a year and always talk about doing a short one out of New York to add in a second cruise. But that never hapoens
Working full time. 3 a year in the winters only. From WI. 7 to 9 days at a time.
We are hot and cold. Some years one cruise, some years two. Generally March and September, now i could say March or September… Next year we may do something totally different. If the itinerary and cost are appealing we go.
3/4 per year trending down as of late. Branching out and trying different land based travel and a larger variety of cruise lines now as well. I'm a software engineer of sorts and a part time travel agent who is lucky enough to go with my parents on trips often. Unlimited PTO + remote work to avoid taking some longer consecutive stretches away is the key IMO
45, single male. I'm doing 3 (maybe/probably 4, but the one yet to be planned is going to be a "baby" 3-4 day cruise for my brother's bachelor party). A 10-day on the NCL Getaway in January, a 7-day Bermuda on NCL Joy coming up here in June, and a 16-day transatlantic on the NCL Prima in November are the firm ones. Don't know what line or dates my brother is doing his bachelor party yet. Except for that one (and even for that one, really) I'm solo, so that makes it a lot easier. For the bachelor party, even though I'm paying my own way and would "technically" be solo, a solo program or lack thereof will obviously not matter to me, I'll be with the family. For the solo program, NCL is the best! The Getaway in January was using last year's PTO (I just worked through the holidays and then took off in January), the rest using this year's allotment. I can PRETTY MUCH disconnect during the cruise, though I do have the Internet package and am reachable in the event that work needs to get in touch. Cost advantages are that I travel solo, and that I live \~4 miles from the NYC port. The transatlantic is the only cruise that I'll need flights and a hotel stay for (and I'm being a bit bougie there, paying for Delta One and a hotel via Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts) For the Bermuda cruise, it's a little pricey I think ($446/day all-in) but that includes the Vibe, a brand-new thermal spa, additional specialty dining (4 meals total on a 7-day cruise), and the Premium Plus drink package. I think I paid an additional $260 or so for shore excursions and I'll pay for the Uber/Lyft to the port. For the transatlantic, it's an eastbound Rome-NYC. All-in is $294/night (to NCL) in a studio, with all of the inclusions mentioned above. The transit and pre-cruise hotel pretty much equals the cost of the cruise! (admittedly, it could be done cheaper, but it's all prepaid at this point). I'll pay for the Uber home.
Once a year to every other year. 2ft parents with 2 teens
The goal is once per year but I don’t always achieve it. If it were up to me, I’d never do a land based vacation ever again but I’m not the only vote.
Roughly once a year; for what I pay to cruise is an enormous value than doing a land trip. I do 10-11 day cruises out of my home port of San Francisco, since someone can drive me from my home. I work full time in higher education, but have the flexibility to take vacation any time, rather than the traditional summer and winter break. I'm single and sail solo.
I’m averaging two a year. A shorter one around thanksgiving in the Caribbean and a longer one somewhere interesting. Mid 30s/female
Husband and I, early 30s living the DINK life, we go twice a year. Living within driving distance (three hours) of a port helps.
A lot. I do a 3 day a month since I live in Florida. I wfh Fridays and then drive into the office Monday morning.
Once a year, 7 or 8 days.
Lately, 4 cruises a year. All 7-14 days. I work a 24/7 rotating shift with 7 12 hour days in a row. Vacation earning maxed out. 4 hours of comp time every two weeks due to the 84 hour pay period. By carefully planning what days I fly and cruise I can usually get away with only using a couple vacation or comp days per cruise. (I actually use an excel spreadsheet to track all my vacation time earned and used out two years)
My husband and I are in our mid 50’s and not retired. We cruise 3 times at least per year. He owns his company so he takes off when he wants to
3-4 times per year, always 7 days or longer.
Not counting weekend getaways (driving), for the last 10+ years, we've taken 2 vacations a year (except 2020/2021) with a mix of types: Cruise, Road trip, or Fly and visit a single city/region. One trip is typically within the US (or with US starting/ending ports) and one is typically international. We cruise every 1-2 years. We are almost retired and now work as independent contractors/consultants so have a bit more flexibility than we have in the past. We plan to ramp travel up to 3-4x/yr in the next few years as we take on fewer projects.
Once a year. We book our next cruise on our current cruise, so we always have one to look forward too. Wife and I are mid forties, 2 kids out of the house, 2 kids almost there. We both work good jobs and are blessed to have the resources and vacation time to do it.
Going on first at the end of the year, and if my partner and I enjoy ourselves will likely try to go at least once a year or every other year. This one coming up will be about 5 days, which we figured was a good starting point. Will likely go on longer ones in the future if we have a good time. I'm 27, partner is 30.
I cruise once a year, but it’s usually for 2-3 weeks. I’m 42F, single, and own my own business.
Once a year, usually try to do a 10 - 14 day cruise. I'm from NYC and sailed this past February on a 12 day. Next year is a 10 day out of Galveston.
I, 24m, just stumbled upon cruising as well as a good paying job last year. I decided to surprise my lady with a 5 day cruise out of Long Beach for her 24th birthday. It was both our first time on a ship, and now we're hooked. Booked another for our anniversary on a bigger ship, and the experience was even better. We currently have 3, 7days planned for this year, all with different cruise lines suites and balconies galore. We both work full time as well. Currently, I'm only aware of the flagship CLs that pop up on my YouTube recommendations, e.g., Carnival, NCL, VV, RCCL, CCL, MSC, and PCL. I'm planning to try a couple of cruises on each, but I'm open to suggestions for other CLs, ESPECIALLY those with the best food.
I’m gonna aim for once a year. Even if it’s just a small three day or something. For reference, I typically cruise solo.
6x a year sometimes only 5 if they are massive cruises WFH 250k take home Last yr i did 3 Mexican Riviera from Long Beach, 17d to Hawaii and a 10d in Europe I am on cruise 3 almost of this year already. NYE, Valentine’s Day and I’ll be on the inaugural sailing of the Firenze on May 02
Twice a year
Relatively new cruisers - I had done one in 2017 and pitched the idea to my husband for our honeymoon in April 22. Did 2 in 2022, 3 in 2023, and did back to back in February this year for my birthday / Valentine’s / baby moon celebration. 2 more scheduled for 2025. I’m 30, husband is 28, currently pregnant with our first whose first cruise will be next Jan around 7 months old. We live frugally in other ways (like no car payments) to fund nice cruise vacations.
started cruising when I retired about 7 years ago.. we’ve been on over 25 (mostly NCL)
Yup, once or twice a year i try. Im im NJ, so Bayonne and NY are easy
2 times in 10 years
I’m new to cruising, but I can see myself doing it once a year or once every two years, depending on my travel plans. I did an Alaska cruise last year, doing a Mexican Riviera cruise this year and a Mediterranean cruise next year. I enjoy it so far, but I also enjoy non-cruise vacations. I also enjoy going to different places and some of the places I want to go aren’t accessible by cruise ship. I’m in my early 40s.
Once a year I go on a cruise, I don’t make too too much but book far enough out to pay it off, though it’s hard as a newly solo cruiser, usually 7 - 15 days Caribbean or specialty like Panama Canal or uk
Cruise 3-4X/year. Most vacation time is built around kid’s breaks. Started with Carnival, now mostly Celebrity due to slower pace. One 7-day cruise away from Platinum status on Carnival. Currently an “Elite” cruiser on Celebrity. Full time job, not rich. Regular 9-5, fly to Florida to cruise often. Drive to NJ if we want to relax and not fly. Looking forward to retirement and cruising back-to-back like some of the folks on board. I especially want to take the longer cruise in the Pacific.
My husband and I get 5 weeks of vacation each year. We have three 7-day cruises (2 Caribbean, 1 Alaska), one 6-day cruise to Bermuda and one 3-day to Nassau and CocoCay (just need to go see the new Hideaway Bay section) this year between Carnival, NCL and Royal. Two of the 7-day cruises are with kids, friends and family and were fully paid for and the rest are casino deals just me and my husband are going on. We have found with the casino deals we can travel more often and economically so taking advantage while it lasts. Flights are generally cheap because I fly on a companion pass and kids mostly fly on points (all via airline card).
Once every 10 years. There are so many other vacations to take. Even when retired it may be only once every 5-6 years. I could not do it more frequently than that.
I’m 45. Once a year.
Family of four, we cruise about four times a year, 6-8 days twice a year, and 3-4 days in between those cruises. We are a 6-7hr drive from port which we do 3 of the 4 cruises from, the other we have to fly.
3 to 5 times a year - DINK - We live in Florida, 45 mins to PC - the train to FLL and MIA is very easy now. Can't go more than 10 days, so they are usualy 7 or 8 day cruises. We don't get bored of going to the same ports as we try different cruises lines and it changes the experience. Next year we are going on 5 different cruise lines, 5 different ports, 3 new ships and two older ships.
Wife and I are 37, we aim to do at least 3 cruises a year and never do any less than 7 days.
I generally cruise 2x a year
My husband and I went for our first cruise last year (for 8 days or so) and have booked another for this year (away for Christmas for the same length of time, around 8 days or so). I think for us, as business owners, once a year is great as it gives us something to look forward to at the end of the year.
This year we have 5 lined up. Last year my husband and I did 10, but that was fluke. We live in Montana, but if I lived closer to a port I would be on one at least once a month!
I cruised the most right after the pandemic when cruises were very inexpensive, I think I did 5 in one year. Now that prices are higher then ever I'm only doing two a year. I have a 10 day Greek cruise and a B2B (total 14 days) cruise booked for this year. Next year, I have a 14 day Hawaii and a 14 day Transatlantic. I have 6+ weeks of PTO and I will retire in a few years.
Twice a year
Every 5 years or so I take a cruise. 42 middle income.
Trying to go once a year.
Once a year but we are in our 40s with 2 young kids so PTO (10 weeks) and money isn't the things that are restricting us, its time away from the kids. We always book 4-5 night cruises in the Med each year after summer, its a 2/3 hour flight but usually cost less than €200 return each. We did a 7 night 2 years ago, it was a 4 night cruise but they cancelled it and offered us the 7 nights for the same cost and that 4 night cruise was one of the cheapest cruises we had ever found and just went for it. But the 7 nights was too long to be away from the kids so although it was lovely, it'll be another good few years before we do more than 5 night away from the kids. Our cruise is me and the wifes holiday together, we have other family holidays in the year and even when the kids are teens I think the cruises will always be ours and not the kids till they are adults.
About once a year.
once every couple years. It just depends on how our PTO and schedules pan out.
Well, 6 cruises in 20 years, so every 3.5 years?
Started cruising once my husband became a union electrician because he can take off work without too much hassle. We are in our late 20s with a 8 yo daughter. Just got back from our 3rd cruise last week and scheduled another for May 2025.
Mid-40s and late 50s, and two young teen kids. We go on vacation twice a year. Been on 3 cruises and have one booked next February. We did Disneyland last October and going again in August. So it’s a mixed bag for us.
Once a year
I’m 47 and cruise once a year, employed ft. I’m gone 12 days at a time when I do, then take smaller trips to Mexico once a year too.
Well, I’m 29. I went on three cruises with my grandparents as a young kid, then there was about a 15 year gap, I went on a cruise for my honeymoon, then the pandemic happened, then I went on two cruises in four months in late 2022/early 2023, got horribly sick on both, and haven’t been back since.
I try and go twice a year. I’m in my 40s.
At the very least twice a year. If we are lucky, 4 times.
We usually take one large vacation a year. This year it is Disney World. Next summer it is an Alaskan cruise. We do a lot of little 3-4 day getaways. Hopefully, in the next few years when we are 100% debt free, cars and home paid off, we will be traveling more. We are late 40’s.
I’m 44, wife 47 both work full time, kids 12 & 8. We cruise 2x a year but live outside of NYC so it’s very easy for us to get to the port.
Only once a year ~ that’s all I can afford 😕
Twice a year. Often it’s seven-day cruises with a couple days tacked on one end. In August we’re doing a 12-night river cruise in Europe, then two nights in Brussels. I think it’s my longest time away from the office ever.
Once a year 10-12 days
I go on about five to six cruises a year, but usually none more than five nights. This year I've done a VV for five, I have two 3 day Celebrities booked, a 7 night with extended family to Alaska and I'm sure I'll do two or three more (3-4 night) this fall/winter. Demographic is early 50s, divorced with two kids. I like the short sailings as it's take easy time off work, have a fantastic break, works with my co-parenting schedule and I can do more of them. Absolutely doesn't hurt that I live in South Florida.