I discovered cruising in 2012 (see some of my first blog
entries). Before that I did the traditional
one week trips in which I tried to see two cities in my one week of free time
from work. You know, for example, staying
in Florence for a couple of days followed by a train trip to Rome for the remainder
of the week before flying home. It
required lugging suitcases and traveling at the beginning, middle, and end of
the week’s vacation. That’s a lot of
work for a vacation.
Cruising meant the hotel room went with you when you
explored multiple cities during a week’s vacation. No extra work of moving and lugging luggage
from city to city except at the beginning and end of the week.
Since retirement, I can now do multiple weeks of traveling. It’s
been great on cruises because you unpack and stay unpacked for the multiple
weeks of the trip. The hassle only occurs
at embarkation and disembarkation.
The multiple weeks of cruising I have taken in the past have
been multiple week cruises. This 21-day trip
has been different: it’s actually been 3
one-week cruises linked together. Other
than ports of call, there’s been no attempt to make it vary some with sea day
activities.
That’s okay because you miss things the first week and you
have a chance to repeat them during week two.
But it can get a little old by the third week. There are the same movies, the same jokes by
the captain and cruise director, repeats of the nighttime shows, etc. So, I’ve learned the difference between a
multiple week cruise and a collection of cruises marketed together.
I'm not complaining, but I prefer the longer itinerary cruises rather than a
collection of one-week cruises that are back to back.
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| A "collection" or three "one-week" cruises that have been put together. |
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| An example of a multi-week cruise. I took this 14 day cruise in mid-2016. |
