How Long to Sail

After you choose the type of ship and cruise experience you prefer, you must decide on how long to sail: Do you want a two-day cruise to nowhere or a 100-day journey around the world? Two key factors to consider are cost and your accumulated cruising experience---it probably is not a good idea to circumnavigate the globe your first time at sea.


Short cruises are ideal for first-time cruisers and families with children. In just two to five days you can get a quick taste of cruising. Short itineraries may include stops at one or two ports of call, or none at all. The most popular short cruises are three- and four-day sailings to the Bahamas or Key West and Cozumel out of Miami. From Los Angeles, three- and four-day cruises set sail for southern California and the Mexican Baja.

After you have experienced a long weekend at sea, you may want to try a weeklong cruise. With seven days aboard ship, you get twice as much sailing time and a wider choice of destinations---as many as four to six ports, depending on whether you choose a loop or one-way itinerary. Since cruises are often calculated by multiplying a per-diem rate by the number of days aboard ship, a weeklong cruise will probably cost twice as much as a short cruise.

For some people, seven days is still too short---just when you learn your way around the ship, it's time to go home. On 10- or 11-day sailings, you get more ports as well as more time at sea, but you won't pay as much as on two-week sailings. Many experienced cruisers feel it's just not worth the effort to board a ship for anything less than 14 days, so they opt for either a single 14-day itinerary or sign up for two seven-day trips back-to-back, combining sailings to the eastern and western Caribbean or Mediterranean ports of call, for example---and taking advantage of the discounts offered by some lines for consecutive sailings.