"Terminal" overnights - deal or no deal

green_rd · #1 (**permalink**) February 6th, 2012, 03:22 PM

Many cruises start or end with an "overnight" stop (especially popular in Venice.) Do these really offer cruisers a deal? I'm thinking this is a better deal for the cruise line than for the traveler.

In 2010 we did a "12 night" cruise that began with an overnight in Venice. Fare was about $2700/pp for a "verandah" stateroom. That boils down to $225/pp/day. Given the savings we could have spent $300 on hotel and had $150 spending money in port. Even in Venice that is a very doable budget.

I think the overnight worked to the cruise line's advantage. We watched the ship sail in in the early afternoon and we sailed out around 1PM on "day 2"

Marc · #2 (**permalink**) February 6th, 2012, 07:42 PM

They are definitely a great deal. I have had overnights in Venice (both as first night and then for two nights on back to back), Hong Kong (first night), Singapore (last night), and Istanbul (last night). In Singapore we added an extra night on our own. In Hong Kong, we had two more nights pre-cruise. The ship makes a wonderful hotel. We usually ate our meals (except for a couple of lunches) onboard so we had advantage of both hotel and restaurant and bars. One of my favorite itineraries had overnights in Hong Kong, Ha Long Bay (for Hanoi), Saigon, Bangkok, and Singapore. Saw a lot more than I could have with just a twelve hour port stop.

Marc

anniegb · #3 (**permalink**) February 6th, 2012, 08:01 PM

I think it all depends upon the sailing time.

On my last cruise, I had an overnight in Istanbul at the beginning of the cruise and my daily cost was certainly less than the cost of a hotel. Plus meals were provided by the vessel.

Our sailing time was 1800 approx - so we had the advantage of another full day in port.

Annie

aerospace · #4 (**permalink**) February 7th, 2012, 04:10 AM

I wish more cruises offered overnight port days sometimes they only schedule 6-8 hours which limits the tours that you can take. I do wish though they offered more elaborate excursions on those days; dinner/dancing/fireworks, maybe a camping trip for the night.

green_rd · #5 (**permalink**) February 7th, 2012, 08:22 AM

I agree that an overnight "in transit" can be a wonderful thing. I guess pre- or post-cruise it depends on the class of your stateroom and the cost of similar local accommodations.

Haimia · #6 (**permalink**) February 7th, 2012, 11:58 AM

On a DCL transatlantic, we had an overnight the last night in Barcelona. As we paid roughly $50 per person, per night; had our meals and evening entertainment; this was a great savings over a hotel stay (inside stateroom). We were able to tour bits of Barcelona (Gaudi) and did not have to pay extra to get some time in the city. For us, it worked out great and was one of the deciding factors in taking this cruise.

Without the overnight, we would have disembarked in Barcelona and headed to the airport (or paid more for an extra day hotel, meals, etc.). This way, we got to see the city a bit.