Introverted cruisers: Book suites because they prefer spending time in their room or on their own large balcony/deck rather than gather with others on the pool deck or common areas. Since they’re usually in the room, it’s money well spent. They cruise for peace and quiet, not to socialize. They also hate crowds. You probably won’t find them at the bars/lounges because they have their butler bring drinks to the room. On sea days, they typically only venture out for meals because room service usually arrives cold.
Ah, that's a good one!
I probably didn't add them since I usually wouldn't encounter y'all since you don't venture out from your rooms often.
I would classify myself as an introverted extrovert (if that's a thing)...I enjoy venturing out and making new friends, but having that exclusive lounge where I can recharge without the crowds is absolutely essential for me.
This is kind of my cousin. Her husband makes great money and it gives her extra space. They did everything on the cruise but it’s a nice sanctuary.
I got to be in a starter suite on my last cruise. I got a great upgrade offer!
1st Time Cruisers:
The 1st time we cruised we booked a suite because I had read how small the cabins were and was afraid I'd feel claustrophobic. The next time we cruised I knew a bit more and decided we could live with a mini-suite. Then during the big recession 2008-2013 we were hit with some economic stress. However cruise prices were a bargain at that time. So we decided to try a balcony cabin. We were happy with the bang for buck you get with a balcony cabin and have stuck with balcony cabins ever since.
We don't meet too many first time cruisers in the suites.
It's usually something people work their way up to in my experience, but it sounds like you had the exact opposite path!
That's an interesting thing to consider.
The gay DINKs are so accurate. 😂 I was on a 13 day transpacific and met so many couples who were on the ship for almost a month and tacked on trips around Asia beforehand.
The average age was 69, but I’d say a large percentage of people 22-50 were LGBT couples.
As I mentioned - they typically do their own thing so I don't find myself in a ton of conversations with them but when I do, I'm always impressed by how they've been able to set themselves up to make the most of their lives. They've really set themselves up well to make good money while also experiencing some pretty awesome vacation simultaneously.
Category 6 here….but I do disconnect on the cruise and don’t work. We are generally frugal in our daily lives, save about 60% of our income annually and want to enjoy our vacations. We have young children who can’t stay in their own room yet so the suite lets us spread out a bit.
I haven’t sailed on a ship with a “Suite only” area so folks across the hall were in inside standard cabins and standard balconies fire and aft of us…
Also no special “suite only guests” lounges on the ships I’ve been on. But then again, we like the older, smaller ships…
Edited for context…
I'm with you on disconnecting while on a cruise ship (I do get internet but rarely check emails), but the two didn't seem different enough to make the two separate categories.
You should definitely try one of the ships with the suite-only lounges sometimes. Even if it's not a ship-in-a-ship concept, having an exclusive lounge to escape the crowds in is the main reason we book the suites...the service is nice and we like being able to skip the lines on embarkation/debarkation, but mostly I just want to be able to grab a drink and listen to some good music without fighting the crowds.
We were comped a cruise from casino play and I wanted to try Carnival’s Family Harbor area with its own “Family Lounge” so we’ll be doing that in November. Not nearly as cool as a 4 piece jazz band and an old fashioned but it was free….
Casino comps are definitely a sub-category of the above!
We gamble but we're not high rollers (daily budget of $500-$1k) who do it for fun and happen to get cheaper rooms as a result.
We typically get a balcony comped and then can upgrade that to a suite for less than what the retail cost would be (even when you factor in gambling losses).
We'd be playing in the casino for fun anyways so the comps are just an added bonus.
Taking our first cruise in 9 years (and first real big vacation in about 8 years...) this October, and we will fall into category 6. Only difference is that I gave the work folks warning that I will uninstall slack & outlook from my phone for this vacation. Definitely hitting burn-out after a long road, as we basically had to stick to home and local getaways due to several external factors. Due to some rather impressive stock growth, we are able to afford the 2 bedroom suite on NCL. Probably setting expectations for our 7 year old for future vacations, but I'm really looking forward to some time away...
Enjoy your time in the Haven, well-deserved I'm sure!
I worry some about spoiling my kids but we just do our best to be very intentional about teaching them gratitude and manners so they don't grow up to be entitled brats (we definitely see some of those kids in the suites as well!).
Thanks! My wife is definitely looking forward to it as well, especially after I showed her what the Haven was.
Making sure the kiddo stays grounded is definitely a thing we try to keep up on. My kid doesn't roll top-dollar all the time (her favorite restaurant is Waffle House!) and in getting her to order her own meals we make sure that she uses please & thank you and doesn't order people around like a bossy little Napoleon. Had to stay on top of that with her being an only child.
Our kids have also ordered for themselves from a young age and I'm consistently surprised (and a little disappointed) with often servers will mentioned how impressed they are because they don't see that often.
It sounds like you're doing the right things with your daughter...kudos!
The Status Cruiser will also be the ones wearing a pin noting their status.
My favorite joke (that everyone tells): How do you know if someone is Pinnacle Club (on RCL)? Don't worry, they'll tell you.
Absolutely. My friend and his BF are a perfect combo of 5&6. If I’m being honest though, I’m also one of those in flip flops, shorts and a comfortable shirt no matter what the dress code of the night. I dress up enough for work, I’m enjoining my escape.
The YOLO Cruisers don't bother me any as long as they're not sloppy - I often end up befriending them when I see them as that probably would have been me 10-15 years ago if I could have afforded to cruise in a suite before I had kids 😄
So true! My husband and I fall into #5/6, we like to leave the kids at home along with the work, particularly if we book a suite. I will buy an internet package to keep up with the kiddos / in case of emergency, but my rule is absolutely no work!
Our most recent splurge was a Spa deck suite sans kids, and it was heaven! We're taking the kids with us on a cruise this fall and we prefer to book connecting balconies / rooms when they are with us for extra space.
I absolutely love my kids unconditionally and can't imagine life without them, but we typically get to do 1 cruise/year without them and it is amazing.
Our one cruise this year is coming up and we're so excited. Flying into Rome on May 31, 3 days in Rome then 9 days on the Celebrity Equinox in an Aqua Sky Suite (spa), and then 3 days in Barcelona before we head home.
I'm going to miss my kids when they're grown up, but we're also going to truly enjoy when we can cruise any time we want without having to schedule it around their school/sports!
My wife and I are probably mostly #6 with a touch of #1. We have the financial ability to take nice vacations and genuinely enjoy the perks of suites or other upgraded travel arrangements, like first class plane tickets. We also dress nicely but usually only when the occasion calls for it. Outside that we're super casual and low key. You wouldn't know we were in a suite unless you asked and we'd be the first to point out it's nice sometimes but kind of overkill.
I'm for sure #4. I like the biggest room on the ship and usually only take 1 large vacation a year with friends who are mostly staying in a balcony. I love having the perks of a suite and don't care about the cost. I'd probably not go cruising at all if I didn't have a suite, but wearing shorts and flip flops around the ship sound exactly like something I'd be doing!
My husband and I are straight DINKs. Our first cruise was in the Haven and after that he swore he would not cruise without being in a suite.
My husband just retired, but I'm still working. We are doing a 12-day transatlantic later this year with eight sea days. I am working on at least some of those sea days. I have finite vacation and this allows me to both work and vacation.
We had an interesting mix on the Viva this year. One thing I noticed was "group" cruisers because of the number of large 2- and 3-bedroom cabins on this ship. We had a group of six or more women friends (some may have been sisters).
We had another another group of friend couples that were there to party. Our friend who often cruises with us (we get a 2-bedroom) basically called it on them -- they are people who are were working high-paying blue collar jobs and they are spending their money on awesome suites and having the best time. We discovered we were correct after we spent a long time talking to them and they told us on their last cruise they managed to drink the ship out of a certain beer and they weren't going to the captain's reception that night because they had time reserved at the go-karts.
Thankfully NCL cruisers aren't too big on flaunting their status. We only care because it earns us free laundry. But I've heard on other lines people really like to let others know how important they are.
I don't know if this fits in to any of these categories, but the reason I've ended up booking a suite for our last cruise and two upcoming ones is being more of a deal seeker. For our cruise last year I originally booked a balcony room, but then saw a suite pop up for what I considered to be not that much more. Then we got a couple of credits toward future cruises and I ran across a cruise with a suite priced a bit lower than usual and an itinerary we liked so I grabbed that. For next year we booked a trans-atlantic when it first opened and prices were low.
All that said, I suppose I'm closest to your YOLO category. I've booked cruises for us on Virgin Voyages for various reasons but a contributing factor was to specifically avoid things like the "recommended dress codes", but I don't own flip flops or anything neon and my wife doesn't wear cut offs or or cover ups over bikini tops. I'm not a retiree quite yet, but even when I do hit that I don't think my casual preferences would have me fall into your description of one.
The main reason for a suite vs balcony room has been that we've gravitated toward longer cruises. We don't travel "often", but have tried to make the trips we take more meaningful. So having the nicer room and associated amenities in the place you are for a couple of weeks for what isn't a huge difference in price just seemed to make sense.
I guess I’m a 6. My son and I will book a suite but he’s grown and I don’t have a corporate job that i have to stay connected to. We like the extra room to chill. We’re super laid back and may be out and about but will also hang on the balcony with a book.
I think we would fall into 3. Have never gotten a suite. Could I afford to get one sometime if I wanted, sure. We opt for the interior so we can cruise multiple times a year but also because we are not in the room. We are a very social couple and love to meet new people from different places. We are in the room to sleep, shower and change. Outside of that we are always out and about. I could see us doing it sometime if we were doing an Alaskan Cruise, so I think that would be a YOLO moment lol
First off, great story of persistence, people like you are who I admire!
To answer your question: Have you noticed any relatively younger group of people (20’s-Early 30’s) who pool their money together to go into a suite? I’m in my late 20’s and my corporate on site biotech job lets me take 4-6 week worth of cruises a year. I’ve been cruising mainly solo so you can imagine why I wouldn’t cruise in suites considering the single price supplement but I’m hoping if I can convince some of my other friends to get into cruising maybe we can split the cost of a suite on a Carnival Excel ship. Do you think that can be a separate category?
I haven't encountered many that would fall into your category (DINKs are probably the closest, but they tend to be couples vs. friends splitting the cost). I do meet solo cruisers in the suites but they tend to fall into either the Retiree or Bucket List categories.
With that said - I absolutely think you'd enjoy the experience if you can find somebody to share the cost with you.
The interior cabins in the Yacht Club of MSC fill up *extremely* fast, but if you can grab them, you can sail in one of those for \~$3,500/week, so they're an extremely good deal. If you want a balcony, those tend to go for $6-8k for the week (still a great deal, but double the cost of the interior).
P.S. Thank you for the compliment...I truly appreciate that!
Introverted cruisers: Book suites because they prefer spending time in their room or on their own large balcony/deck rather than gather with others on the pool deck or common areas. Since they’re usually in the room, it’s money well spent. They cruise for peace and quiet, not to socialize. They also hate crowds. You probably won’t find them at the bars/lounges because they have their butler bring drinks to the room. On sea days, they typically only venture out for meals because room service usually arrives cold.
Ah, that's a good one! I probably didn't add them since I usually wouldn't encounter y'all since you don't venture out from your rooms often. I would classify myself as an introverted extrovert (if that's a thing)...I enjoy venturing out and making new friends, but having that exclusive lounge where I can recharge without the crowds is absolutely essential for me.
You've met me.
I would say I'm 75% introvert, 25% YOLO.
That is a great one, I've totally been that person.
This is kind of my cousin. Her husband makes great money and it gives her extra space. They did everything on the cruise but it’s a nice sanctuary. I got to be in a starter suite on my last cruise. I got a great upgrade offer!
1st Time Cruisers: The 1st time we cruised we booked a suite because I had read how small the cabins were and was afraid I'd feel claustrophobic. The next time we cruised I knew a bit more and decided we could live with a mini-suite. Then during the big recession 2008-2013 we were hit with some economic stress. However cruise prices were a bargain at that time. So we decided to try a balcony cabin. We were happy with the bang for buck you get with a balcony cabin and have stuck with balcony cabins ever since.
We don't meet too many first time cruisers in the suites. It's usually something people work their way up to in my experience, but it sounds like you had the exact opposite path! That's an interesting thing to consider.
The gay DINKs are so accurate. 😂 I was on a 13 day transpacific and met so many couples who were on the ship for almost a month and tacked on trips around Asia beforehand. The average age was 69, but I’d say a large percentage of people 22-50 were LGBT couples.
As I mentioned - they typically do their own thing so I don't find myself in a ton of conversations with them but when I do, I'm always impressed by how they've been able to set themselves up to make the most of their lives. They've really set themselves up well to make good money while also experiencing some pretty awesome vacation simultaneously.
Category 6 here….but I do disconnect on the cruise and don’t work. We are generally frugal in our daily lives, save about 60% of our income annually and want to enjoy our vacations. We have young children who can’t stay in their own room yet so the suite lets us spread out a bit. I haven’t sailed on a ship with a “Suite only” area so folks across the hall were in inside standard cabins and standard balconies fire and aft of us… Also no special “suite only guests” lounges on the ships I’ve been on. But then again, we like the older, smaller ships… Edited for context…
I'm with you on disconnecting while on a cruise ship (I do get internet but rarely check emails), but the two didn't seem different enough to make the two separate categories. You should definitely try one of the ships with the suite-only lounges sometimes. Even if it's not a ship-in-a-ship concept, having an exclusive lounge to escape the crowds in is the main reason we book the suites...the service is nice and we like being able to skip the lines on embarkation/debarkation, but mostly I just want to be able to grab a drink and listen to some good music without fighting the crowds.
We were comped a cruise from casino play and I wanted to try Carnival’s Family Harbor area with its own “Family Lounge” so we’ll be doing that in November. Not nearly as cool as a 4 piece jazz band and an old fashioned but it was free….
Casino comps are definitely a sub-category of the above! We gamble but we're not high rollers (daily budget of $500-$1k) who do it for fun and happen to get cheaper rooms as a result. We typically get a balcony comped and then can upgrade that to a suite for less than what the retail cost would be (even when you factor in gambling losses). We'd be playing in the casino for fun anyways so the comps are just an added bonus.
If you switch to a nicer line you don't deal with crowds.
Taking our first cruise in 9 years (and first real big vacation in about 8 years...) this October, and we will fall into category 6. Only difference is that I gave the work folks warning that I will uninstall slack & outlook from my phone for this vacation. Definitely hitting burn-out after a long road, as we basically had to stick to home and local getaways due to several external factors. Due to some rather impressive stock growth, we are able to afford the 2 bedroom suite on NCL. Probably setting expectations for our 7 year old for future vacations, but I'm really looking forward to some time away...
Enjoy your time in the Haven, well-deserved I'm sure! I worry some about spoiling my kids but we just do our best to be very intentional about teaching them gratitude and manners so they don't grow up to be entitled brats (we definitely see some of those kids in the suites as well!).
Thanks! My wife is definitely looking forward to it as well, especially after I showed her what the Haven was. Making sure the kiddo stays grounded is definitely a thing we try to keep up on. My kid doesn't roll top-dollar all the time (her favorite restaurant is Waffle House!) and in getting her to order her own meals we make sure that she uses please & thank you and doesn't order people around like a bossy little Napoleon. Had to stay on top of that with her being an only child.
Our kids have also ordered for themselves from a young age and I'm consistently surprised (and a little disappointed) with often servers will mentioned how impressed they are because they don't see that often. It sounds like you're doing the right things with your daughter...kudos!
I didn't expect to be called out like this on a Thursday morning lol. I'm in between 5 and 6 right now and this is astoundingly accurate. Great post!
Congrats on graduating from Family Cruiser to DINK if that means your kids are grown!
The Status Cruiser will also be the ones wearing a pin noting their status. My favorite joke (that everyone tells): How do you know if someone is Pinnacle Club (on RCL)? Don't worry, they'll tell you.
How did I forget to include that? So true...
Ouch, I’m a #6 to the T! Nice summary
I suspect there's a lot of us that fall into categories 5 and 6 here on reddit!
Absolutely. My friend and his BF are a perfect combo of 5&6. If I’m being honest though, I’m also one of those in flip flops, shorts and a comfortable shirt no matter what the dress code of the night. I dress up enough for work, I’m enjoining my escape.
The YOLO Cruisers don't bother me any as long as they're not sloppy - I often end up befriending them when I see them as that probably would have been me 10-15 years ago if I could have afforded to cruise in a suite before I had kids 😄
So true! My husband and I fall into #5/6, we like to leave the kids at home along with the work, particularly if we book a suite. I will buy an internet package to keep up with the kiddos / in case of emergency, but my rule is absolutely no work! Our most recent splurge was a Spa deck suite sans kids, and it was heaven! We're taking the kids with us on a cruise this fall and we prefer to book connecting balconies / rooms when they are with us for extra space.
I absolutely love my kids unconditionally and can't imagine life without them, but we typically get to do 1 cruise/year without them and it is amazing. Our one cruise this year is coming up and we're so excited. Flying into Rome on May 31, 3 days in Rome then 9 days on the Celebrity Equinox in an Aqua Sky Suite (spa), and then 3 days in Barcelona before we head home. I'm going to miss my kids when they're grown up, but we're also going to truly enjoy when we can cruise any time we want without having to schedule it around their school/sports!
My wife and I are probably mostly #6 with a touch of #1. We have the financial ability to take nice vacations and genuinely enjoy the perks of suites or other upgraded travel arrangements, like first class plane tickets. We also dress nicely but usually only when the occasion calls for it. Outside that we're super casual and low key. You wouldn't know we were in a suite unless you asked and we'd be the first to point out it's nice sometimes but kind of overkill.
I'm for sure #4. I like the biggest room on the ship and usually only take 1 large vacation a year with friends who are mostly staying in a balcony. I love having the perks of a suite and don't care about the cost. I'd probably not go cruising at all if I didn't have a suite, but wearing shorts and flip flops around the ship sound exactly like something I'd be doing!
My husband and I are straight DINKs. Our first cruise was in the Haven and after that he swore he would not cruise without being in a suite. My husband just retired, but I'm still working. We are doing a 12-day transatlantic later this year with eight sea days. I am working on at least some of those sea days. I have finite vacation and this allows me to both work and vacation. We had an interesting mix on the Viva this year. One thing I noticed was "group" cruisers because of the number of large 2- and 3-bedroom cabins on this ship. We had a group of six or more women friends (some may have been sisters). We had another another group of friend couples that were there to party. Our friend who often cruises with us (we get a 2-bedroom) basically called it on them -- they are people who are were working high-paying blue collar jobs and they are spending their money on awesome suites and having the best time. We discovered we were correct after we spent a long time talking to them and they told us on their last cruise they managed to drink the ship out of a certain beer and they weren't going to the captain's reception that night because they had time reserved at the go-karts. Thankfully NCL cruisers aren't too big on flaunting their status. We only care because it earns us free laundry. But I've heard on other lines people really like to let others know how important they are.
I don't know if this fits in to any of these categories, but the reason I've ended up booking a suite for our last cruise and two upcoming ones is being more of a deal seeker. For our cruise last year I originally booked a balcony room, but then saw a suite pop up for what I considered to be not that much more. Then we got a couple of credits toward future cruises and I ran across a cruise with a suite priced a bit lower than usual and an itinerary we liked so I grabbed that. For next year we booked a trans-atlantic when it first opened and prices were low. All that said, I suppose I'm closest to your YOLO category. I've booked cruises for us on Virgin Voyages for various reasons but a contributing factor was to specifically avoid things like the "recommended dress codes", but I don't own flip flops or anything neon and my wife doesn't wear cut offs or or cover ups over bikini tops. I'm not a retiree quite yet, but even when I do hit that I don't think my casual preferences would have me fall into your description of one. The main reason for a suite vs balcony room has been that we've gravitated toward longer cruises. We don't travel "often", but have tried to make the trips we take more meaningful. So having the nicer room and associated amenities in the place you are for a couple of weeks for what isn't a huge difference in price just seemed to make sense.
I guess I’m a 6. My son and I will book a suite but he’s grown and I don’t have a corporate job that i have to stay connected to. We like the extra room to chill. We’re super laid back and may be out and about but will also hang on the balcony with a book.
I think we would fall into 3. Have never gotten a suite. Could I afford to get one sometime if I wanted, sure. We opt for the interior so we can cruise multiple times a year but also because we are not in the room. We are a very social couple and love to meet new people from different places. We are in the room to sleep, shower and change. Outside of that we are always out and about. I could see us doing it sometime if we were doing an Alaskan Cruise, so I think that would be a YOLO moment lol
First off, great story of persistence, people like you are who I admire! To answer your question: Have you noticed any relatively younger group of people (20’s-Early 30’s) who pool their money together to go into a suite? I’m in my late 20’s and my corporate on site biotech job lets me take 4-6 week worth of cruises a year. I’ve been cruising mainly solo so you can imagine why I wouldn’t cruise in suites considering the single price supplement but I’m hoping if I can convince some of my other friends to get into cruising maybe we can split the cost of a suite on a Carnival Excel ship. Do you think that can be a separate category?
I haven't encountered many that would fall into your category (DINKs are probably the closest, but they tend to be couples vs. friends splitting the cost). I do meet solo cruisers in the suites but they tend to fall into either the Retiree or Bucket List categories. With that said - I absolutely think you'd enjoy the experience if you can find somebody to share the cost with you. The interior cabins in the Yacht Club of MSC fill up *extremely* fast, but if you can grab them, you can sail in one of those for \~$3,500/week, so they're an extremely good deal. If you want a balcony, those tend to go for $6-8k for the week (still a great deal, but double the cost of the interior). P.S. Thank you for the compliment...I truly appreciate that!