Planning a Cruise

Where in the world will you cruise?

Part of the fun of cruising for me is in the planning: looking at travel brochures and cruise companies' websites; talking to others who've been on cruises; checking newspaper advertisements for up-coming voyages.
   Then comes the hard part - which cruise to choose?
   For us, deciding on a cruise comes down initially to three things:

• Itinerary - where do we want to go? Somewhere new or places we've been before? An itinerary with many ports of call or lots of sea days? Will it involve long plane flights to get to or from inital or end ports?
• Time -how long can we be away from 'real life' commitments at home?
• Money - how much will it cost? What will the extra expenses above the actual cruise cost?

   Once we have those questions sorted, we get down to the details.

• The cruise line - should we keep cruising with one or two preferred lines to qualify for increasing 'past passenger' benefits? Or try something new?
• The ship - shall we cruise on a favourite ship or its sister ship? Or go on one we don't know?
• The stateroom - which type and category of cabin? Where do we want to be situated? Which deck would be best?
• When to book the cruise - should we book early on to get the cabin we want and the 'earlybird' special price?  Or should we wait till the last minute to get even more discounted rates and take a chance on the cabin?

   So many decisions! So much fun to plan!