When it comes to cruising, there are a few decisions you make before even stepping foot onboard your ship that can really make or break your getaway.

Choosing the right ship, the right line and the right destinations are all apart of creating a dream adventure but something that often gets overlooked is whether you want a port intensive itinerary or enjoy plenty of sea days.

On the one hand, you get to experience lots more on a port intensive cruise but plenty of sea days allows you to relax and enjoy your well-earned break from the stresses of life.

With plusses and minuses to both types of cruises, I am going to go through the different aspects of cruising to discuss the impact choosing between a port intensive cruise and a more relaxed itinerary has on your cruise holiday.

Port Intensive Itineraries vs Plenty of Sea Days

What does the type of cruise have to do with the accommodation onboard your probably wondering, but it can have a big impact.

I prefer port intensive cruises as I love to explore new places and enjoy new experiences, so I tend to sail in inside cabins as not only do I not spend much time in my cabin, but the money I save from the cheaper cabin can be spent on excursions, attractions of traveling around the ports I visit.

On the flip side of that, if you have a lot of sea days, you will likely want a balcony so that you have somewhere to sit, relax and take in those incredible views and depending on the ship you sail on, you can often save some of the extra cost by not having to pay to do things on the ship to keep yourself busy.

Again, this is something that may not instantly comes to mind in regard to the type of cruise but if you love to go to all of the shows on your ship, see all of the guest entertainers and enjoy evening entertainment in bars and lounges, a port intensive cruise can make that tricky.

Not only are you tired from a day of exploring but if you are anything like me, you get back onboard and then want to watch you sail away from your port of call.

By the time you have done that, you barely have time to grab some tea and get ready for the next day, never mind catching a show.

A lot of this is down to the line, the ship and the people you cruise with but something I have found is that there is often more of a community feel to cruises with plenty of sea days as people spend the time onboard meeting their fellow passengers and making new friends.

You also get into a rhythm of what you don each day on your ship and you tend to find that there are people who have the same schedule as you, so you get to know them but on a port intensive cruise, you just don’t really have time for that and tend to stick in your travelling groups much more.

This one is all down to time once again as when you have been on shore all day, you tend to just want a quick bite when you get back onboard, so for those types of cruises I find myself eating in the buffet pretty much exclusively.

If there are lots of sea days, I will go for lunch in the MDR and will often eat evening meals in there or even splash out on a speciality restaurant as you have the time to enjoy it and still take in any shows you want to see.

This whole article is discussing two types of itineraries, so why is it a segment of this article? Well, it can affect the itineraries that are available for you.

Having lots of seadays tend to mean that you will travel further from your starting point and if it is a repositioning cruise, you will often cross continents, whilst a round trip, will often see you spend a couple of days at sea to start and end your journey and then explore somewhere far from there.

On a port intensive cruise, you will likely stay closer to your departure port, well due to constantly stopping and the ports will often be similar as you don’t cruise far between them.

This one comes down to what you deem to be the most important aspect of a cruise, the type of line you are sailing on and what is on your ship.

If you are sailing on a huge mega ship you will likely get more value from having sea days to make the most of what it has to offer whilst if you are sailing on an older ship with little on it, you may get more value from the ports it can visit- often where the bigger ones cannot.

In saying that, a bigger ship can have more variety on it for things such as places to eat and where you can enjoy entertainment so even on a port intensive cruise, there are still more options for when you get onboard and that can often mean you don’t miss out.

With lots of sea days, a smaller ship allows you to get to know your fellow cruisers better, so if you value meeting people and making new friends whilst away, that could be the way to go for you.

Hopefully, if you trying to decide between the two types of cruises, this conversation has been useful to you and even if you are not set to choose between the two, there are still lots of points that can be applied to all part s of choosing cruise holiday, so hopefully it proves useful for that.

I think it’s fair to say that there is no clear winner for me and neither option is better than the other as a whole but by thinking about each point in this article, you can see that for specific regions and specific cruises, there will likely be a better option.