First time??..................I would dip your toe in with a four or five night cruise out of Orlando to see if you like it. Couple days at sea and a couple ports.

We went on the Norway also. Still my favorite ship. So beautiful.

We have been on two 28+ day cruises on Princess and enjoyed them very much. One was to New Zealand/Australia and the South Pacific and the other The British Isles and Transatlantic.

New Zealand is spectacular and so much fun. We saw Hobbiton and, as Lord of the Rings fans, that was awesome, so I would say that was our favorite cruise.

The entertainment on both ships, Regal and Majestic, was top notch, and the cruise director’s staffs were superb. Met lots of lovely, friendly people and had wonderful, mostly private, excursions at the ports.

7-14 day cruises are nice also and the Southern Caribbean is a favorite including the ABC islands. I would start with one of these.

The Pacific Coastal cruises are quite beautiful and the 15 night round trip to Hawaii from either LA (San Pedro) or San Diego is quite nice.

We loved the Mediterranean cruise and have stopped in Barcelona many times. What a magnificent city! Definitely do a Med cruise.

I agree with other posters that the Baltic is a wonderful cruise. Unfortunately, St. Petersburg is off the table right now and the two days we spent there were the nightlight of the trip.

Cruising in general is just fun. A great vacation. We prefer the smaller ships, but we have been on several of Royal Caribbean’s large ships as well as NCL, Celebrity and Princess.

For cruising out of Florida, our favorite itinerary is the ABC - Aruban, Curacao, Bonaire. There are usually a couple of other ports included, but these three are beautiful and have a lot of different opportunities. This is usually a longer, 9 day, itinerary and gives you a few sea days to explore the ship. We love the larger, Oasis ships of Royal Caribbean, mainly for the many different activities and shows - a diving show, ice skating, adult ( not too blue) comedy show, a Broadway type - Momma Mia on the Allure - and other diverse main theater shows. We’ve cruised on Royal Caribbean and Celebrity on over 100 cruises and have never been disappointed. Good luck and happy cruising.

Good input in these posts! We've cruised a fair amount (kinda late getting into it but are making up for lost time) and the advice from the more veteran cruisers was much appreciated.

A couple of quick points...cruise lines (and certain cruises) become known for various things that you may or may not especially enjoy. For instance we enjoy cruises that have few or no young children, so we don't cruise with Disney. Carnival rightly or wrongly has the reputation of offering cruises on the cheap to twenty- and thirty-somethings (i.e. "booze cruises"), with the accompanying party atmosphere and noisy atmosphere, so if that isn't your cup of tea it is something that you might also want to consider. In fairness both of these points are hearsay so if you consider either of these two cruise lines you'd probably want to talk to someone who has cruised with them.

Along those lines you might want to avoid the four- and five-day cruises. As another poster has already mentioned, the first and last day of any cruise is very much hassle and very little cruising: you leave port at 5:00 PM or so the first day, and arrive at dawn the last day. Also these short cruises are usually on older (and smaller) ships with service and amenities not up to the quality of the larger ships that have the longer cruises, and are favored by the "party" crowd.

I agree with others who state that an eight- or nine-day cruise is about right to get a good feel for cruising. RCCL offers a nine-day cruise to the "ABC" (Aruba-Bonaire-Curacao) islands of the coast of Venezuela, with a couple of other stops along the way that was a fun, relaxing cruise. I don't know if they still offer it or not, but you might want to check it out.

Enjoy!

Ports or call will drive number of days on board. Australia, Antarctica, South Pacific, all need over 30 days. Caribbean good for 7 days, maybe 14 to unwind.

four or five night cruise out of Orlando

???

Do your homework
 

Time is important, but what is also important is that you research what you want and where you want to go. I assuming you are either retired or close to that, so you might want a cruise line that caters to adults. The first cruise I took was on Carnival, it was like being on a floating circus the crowds, the kids. I spent 3 years on a carrier and when I look back that was more pleasurable. My second cruise was a European cruise which compared to the first was day and night.

Cruising
 

As a seasoned cruiser (over 30), this may be a hard one. Short cruises are going to be loud and full of party goers. Doesn’t matter the itinerary. Someone new to cruising may only want to take a short one but have a bad experience due to short cruise clientele. Week long cruises are better. If you are new to cruising choose a heavy itinerary. For me the stops didn’t matter much with exception of Nassau, won’t go on cruise if it stops there. Loved virgin islands.
I have sailed on Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian, Celebrity, and Costa.

Any place in the Caribbean; 7 days is perfect and in a different life I should have been a pirate! lol

Are you really confused??

Many cruise sites show:
Cruise from
Orlando (Port Canaveral), Florida

If you need more information, send me a PM and I'll educate.

chilout

Cape Canaveral = Orlando

Good advice. If you can avoid paying for airfare, you can save a lot of money!!

I strongly support this advice.

In my experience, the longest cruise I've been on was 8 days, with 7 days being the average. Personally, I start missing home and my pets by day 5. Port Canaveral is one of the easiest ports for us Villagers to drive to, especially with a weekend embarkation. There's low traffic compared to a weekday.

In my opinion, any Caribbean cruise offers a similar experience. As previously advised, start with a 4-5-day cruise on a newer ship, if possible, for the best experience.

Decide on what you want, first
 

First off, decide what interests you in cruising: The sites you will see, relaxation, onboard activities. This will lead you to a decision on whether you want an ocean or river cruise, a destination cruise, or a mega ship (much more unique activities on board).

We have cruised many, many times in Asia, Europe, and the South Pacific. Our cruises are mostly ocean cruises, but 3-4 have also been on rivers. When we go, I am interested in seeing the great sites of the world and trying to immerse myself, and understand, local culture. That said….

We have yet to do a transatlantic cruise. For someone who wants to relax, it should be perfect. We sailed around Cape Horn, through the Straits of Magellan and up through the Chilean Fjords. That was “too much” at sea for me, even though there were majestic vistas all around us. I am looking to try an ocean crossing, but think I want to sail from Buenos Aires or Rio, crossing through the doldrums to Africa and ending someplace in Western Europe. This should be smoother seas and less days at sea.

We have done one Caribbean cruise and that was enough. There are some, but few great historic sites, and the departure locations lead to more families. Large cruise ships abound here with plenty of on-board activities if you want them, but I don’t. Safety on some of the islands seems to be becoming a bigger issue.

The Mediterranean is wonderful. Fall asleep after seeing the pyramids one day and awake next to Roman ruins the next. There is a cultural experience everywhere, and that includes dinners with local delicacies. If we have an overnight, I search out a local restaurant with great food and a view. OK, the horse carpaccio that we had in Japan wasn’t great, but it was different, and not offered at a single Villages country club.

We’ve done a few cruises in Asia and the South Pacific – Australia to New Zealand, Perth to Singapore, circle Japan, and Singapore to Thailand to Viet Nam to Hong Kong to China to Japan to the Philippines. We loved them all. I found Viet Nam fascinating with great food and a delicate dealing with “The American War.”

So, to your specific questions:

• Best Itinerary - Our best itinerary was the 26 days around SE Asia.
  
• How long is enough - We started out enjoying a week, traveling further away, we now want 3-4 weeks, with fewer, but some, days at sea. Medium sized ships only – the small ones sometimes seem to go to ports where I can’t see something great and can’t cover as much turf at night. Super big ships offer all sorts of things I don’t want. Oh, and if you fly a long distance, allow at least one extra day to get time zone acclimated and avoid late flight risk. Friends with a close flight connection missed their departure, but fortunately could take a bus/train to catch up with their ship.
  
• How long is too long – after 37 days in South America, we were ready to go home.
  
• Why do you cruise – As mentioned, I go to see the great (and some almost great) sites of the world. But don’t go too long too soon - build up to it - you may hit your sweet spot earlier than we did. Also, we love having a deck – especially for days at sea, or what they sometimes call scenic cruising.

Whatever cruise you want to take, just don't take it when the high school or college kids are on vacation ........ Christmas, February or Easter vacation time. The kids are loud and annoying.