If there is one thing that most cruise lovers would agree with it is that they wish their cruise ship could spend more time at the various ports of call. Cruise lines regularly get requests for more overnight visits, giving passengers the opportunity to enjoy the nightlife at the various locations.

The CEO of Royal Caribbean, Adam Goldstein, recently had to explain this to passengers on the cruise line’s Why Not blog.

He immediately acknowledged that one day is often insufficient to experience everything there is to see and do in some of the great cities around the world visited by the company’s cruise ships.

From there he went on to add that there was a complicated process underlying the decision regarding how much time should be allocated to each port.

He said that numerous factors had to be taken into account. These included operational considerations such as the distance between one port and the other. If a ship stayed longer in one port it might not be able to reach the next destination in time.

Goldstein continued “Usually, if we spend more time in one port then we will spend less time in another port. Or in the case of an overnight it could mean not including another port on the itinerary.”

It was the job of the deployment team to make sure all these factors were taken into consideration.

According to Goldstein, the company’s ships overnight at as many ports as possible to give passengers more time to explore and experience the local culture. Ports where Royal Caribbean ships regularly overnight include Venice, St. Petersburg, Buenos Aires, Istanbul and Sydney.