In a few days, it'll be Friday afternoon again. You could battle the freeway traffic and head home for another weekend of backyard barbecues, lawn mowing, laundry and grocery shopping.
Or, you could throw a swimsuit and some shorts into a bag, slip on your sunglasses and your vacation attitude, and stroll up the gangplank of a cruise liner. Destination: the high seas, for three or four days of sun and swimming and sleeping late and shows and gourmet meals.Now, tell me, is it hard to choose between those two scenarios?
Not for a growing number of people, say cruise industry professionals. More than 1.6 million people took two- to five-day cruises in 1994, nearly four times more than in 1980, according to the Cruise Lines International Association.
"It's the fastest-growing segment of the cruise market," said Bernadette Harding, CLIA spokeswoman.
More people are opting for short cruises as a weekend getaway.
"People want to go away and forget about the world," said Jill Oren, spokeswoman for Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, whose Viking Serenade specializes in short Los Angeles-to-Mexico cruises. "They disappear midday Friday and are back at work Monday morning and they feel like they've been on a real vacation. It's incredibly relaxing."
On the East Coast, short cruises generally head to the Caribbean. On the West Coast, the most popular destination is Mexico, but two cruise lines also offer Northern California inland river cruises.
Royal Caribbean pioneered short cruises, first offering them in the Caribbean less than a decade ago, said Oren.
"It was an instant success," she said. "The short-cruise market exploded after that."
Passenger demand now has prompted several cruise lines to focus on the short-term cruise market, said Bea Rosen, a North Hollywood travel consultant who's both sailed on and booked others on getaway cruises.
"Short cruises are absolutely wonderful," Rosen said. "And it's a good value for the money. If you go to a bed-and-breakfast, that's expensive, plus you've got to find something to do. If you can spend $100 to $150 a day on a cruise, you've got your meals and your activities and shows, too - and going to a show on land can be incredibly expensive. People love it."
In the glory days of cruising, the fun was in getting all dressed up and doing nothing much for a week or longer, or even cruising around the world.
But today's cruise passengers simply don't have time for traditional cruises, said Jennifer de la Cruz, spokeswoman for Carnival Cruises, which in 1995 began offering short cruises from Los Angeles to Mexico.
"People are opting for shorter, more frequent vacations because they just can't get time away from work," de la Cruz said. "Long weekends are getting more popular."
Money can also be a factor, said Gordon Thorne, spokesman for Alaska Sightseeing, which offers cruises of the Sacramento Delta and river cruises of the Napa and Sonoma valleys.
"A lot of people will take a short cruise because it doesn't cost an arm and a leg," Thorne said. "Longer cruises are definitely more expensive."
But not everybody is looking for a cheap weekend, said Todd McCormack, spokesman for Seabourn Cruise Lines, which offers luxury getaways. The line's cruises in the San Francisco Bay area and up and down the California coast can cost nearly $1,000 a day; most cruises cost $100 to $150 a day. Despite the high cost, its San Francisco cruises sell out nearly as soon as they are offered.
"We really try to cater to personal service," he said. "We're really talking about a cruise experience. To spend $2,000 for three days is a lot of money. We want people to come aboard and see if cruising's for them before they commit to a longer cruise."
About half the passengers on each cruise have sailed with Seabourn before, also on short cruises, he said.
Like Seabourn's passengers, many cruisers take short trips before venturing on a longer sail, said Harding.
"You get a taste of places and you know whether you want to go back there," she said. "In the Caribbean, for instance, you can try out five ports and plan a land vacation next time."
"We find that a lot of people who take three- or four-day cruises will come back and take a seven-day cruise next time," she said. "The short trip's just enough to whet their appetite."
Travelers contemplating a cruise of any length should investigate various cruise lines before booking a trip, travel professionals say.
"If you end up on the wrong cruise line, you're going to be real unhappy," de la Cruz said.
Some cruise ships tend to be casual, others more formal; some ships cater to specific age groups, single people, couples or families with children. On Carnival's family-oriented Holiday, for instance, a new electronic entertainment center has been installed for kids, with 60 video and virtual reality games, a pizzeria and an ice cream parlor.
"If you go on the weekends, you get a lot of party people," said Lisa Martin, owner of TNT Travel in Chatsworth.
"Three-day cruises are more popular than four-day ones," she said. "So the ships are less full for four-day cruises and you can sometimes do the same cruise for four days for the price of a three-day cruise if you check your cruise lines."