Cruises

[DubaiSis]

Gusteau mentioned something important. When you pay more you get a VERY different cruise experience. When you're ready to make a real leap, try SilverSea. They are 100% all inclusive on board. If you're big drinkers, their more expensive initial cost can end up being a bargain. There are other cruise lines (generally river cruises) where all of your shore exclusions are included. It's hard to calculate the value of that if you haven't cruised before but once you know your traveler style you can judge if that's a good deal for you.

Starting with a Carnival or Royal Caribbean is fine - they're a nice vacation. But after a couple or you've added a couple years to your driver's license, you might upgrade your line. Then if you really want a great experience, look at Seabourn or Windstar cruises. They're not anywhere near the most expensive cruise lines at sea but their on-board experience and access to much smaller ports make them a hot ticket for 40 somethings who are financially comfortable.

The nickel and diming thing is definitely new since I started cruising and it bugs the hell out of me. But the specialty restaurants are generally $20 per person, so it's not the worst ever. You DEFINITELY want to know about your ship's tipping procedure. A lot of them have gone to pre-set tipping. You can change that at the purser's desk to increase or decrease your tip, even down to zero if you're so inclined, although I don't think you can eliminate your drinks tips. If you're angry enough at the service, however, I'd go and bitch.

Regarding the days at sea versus days in port, the cruise lines don't have a whole lot of control over that because the ports are where they are and the ship can only go so fast. However, if you're going on a really intensive tour (my cruise going from Rome to Alexandria/Cairo, Kos, Athens, Ephesus, Istanbul and Naples for example), you definitely have to pace yourself. And yes, it would have been nice to have a break between Ephesus and Istanbul, but you're never going to get that. They're just too close together to justify. But more experienced cruisers want fewer days in port, so once you look a step up, you will have more days at sea, particularly in the Caribbean.

[AOIIalum]

I'm really enjoying this thread as we've always wanted to take a cruise and never been able to yet. We definitely wouldn't want the party atmosphere but with two in college and one almost there certainly aren't able to consider something such as SilverSea. I actually would love to go on a Disney cruise, even if we have to wait to be empty-nesters to do so!

DubaiSis and the other experienced cruisers, what are your thoughts on an Alaskan cruise? I'm not really interested in ports as much, would just love to see the coastline as we float on by. What would you tell a cruise newbie about planning such a cruise, knowing we don't want a party boat?

[IUHoosiergirl88]

I've cruised twice on Holland America, both times leaving the day after Christmas. I honestly love them, definitely higher end (so more senior citizens...) but there were more kids and younger couples on the second than the first. We've eaten in all the specialty restaurants on there, and if you could manage to snag the private chef's dinner, do it. It's amazing. 14 courses wine paired...*died again*

I've had friends who have done Carnival and only do it for the party atmosphere, and friends who have done RCL and liked that. It really depends what atmosphere you're looking for.

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

Regarding the days at sea versus days in port, the cruise lines don't have a whole lot of control over that because the ports are where they are and the ship can only go so fast. However, if you're going on a really intensive tour (my cruise going from Rome to Alexandria/Cairo, Kos, Athens, Ephesus, Istanbul and Naples for example), you definitely have to pace yourself. And yes, it would have been nice to have a break between Ephesus and Istanbul, but you're never going to get that. They're just too close together to justify. But more experienced cruisers want fewer days in port, so once you look a step up, you will have more days at sea, particularly in the Caribbean.

Yes, I know they don't have much control over that because of where the ports are. I would probably reconsider which ports I'd visit based on that though, in the future. So far, when I've cruised, it wasn't because my heart was set on seeing any one particular place.

I haven't been on an Alaskan cruise but one of the couples who went on the spring break cruise with us are frequent cruisers (2-3 a year!) and they did Alaska with Royal Caribbean. They absolutely loved it. They saw a whale jump out of the water right in front of them while they were eating breakfast one morning. They said it was beautiful.

What I think is great about cruises is that you can do as little or as much as you feel like doing on any given day. Lay at the pool all day? No problem. Shop, go to shows, gamble, rock wall climb, ice skate, work out, play mini-golf.. no problem. It's totally up to you!

[AGDLynn]

How sunburned did y 'all get?

I'd hate to get burned the first couple of days and miserable the rest of the time.

[kddani]

I've been on Carnival, NCL, RCL and Holland so far. We'd like to do a Disney once the girls are older (currently a 2 year old and a 17 day old- so we have a few years).

Carnival is the lowest price point. I went with some friends during spring break in law school. It is a party atmosphere, and does tend to attract the "rowdy NASCAR fans" types. I also found it annoying because they were constantly trying to sell extra stuff all of the time, including making a ton of announcements over the loudspeaker. The food was decent, but this was about 7 or 8 years ago and I think the quality has decreased since.

I went on NCL with my husband when we were engaged. I was not a fan of the freestyle dining. The flexibility was fine, but I prefer to sit at the same table every night and get to know our waitstaff. I thought it was classier than Carnival. I am ehhh on NCL. The food was pretty good.

We did a Royal Caribbean cruise to Alaska. This was my favorite. The food and service were excellent. Ships were in better shape and just overall better experience. If we don't do Disney we will do Royal Caribbean again.

We took a Holland cruise with my parents and our older daughter when she was 1. Holland caters to a much older clientele. There were only 12 kids on board the entire ship. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing, but that indicates the average age. My parents, who at the time were in their late 50's, were some of the younger people on the ship. We did not see many people in their 20-30-40's. The food was okay. I thought it was pretty bland. The service in the dining rooms was excellent. My parents had some big issues with their room (flooding, having to move rooms to a different floor when the point was to be a cabin near us). All of the staff treated our daughter like gold.

Cruising is something that people either like or don't - there's not too many people that are middling. Have fun!

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by AGDLynn

How sunburned did y 'all get?

I'd hate to get burned the first couple of days and miserable the rest of the time.

I had about 1/4" strip near the strap of my bathing suit that burned because I clearly missed that spot with the sunscreen. I don't generally burn easily in Michigan sun but I know Southern/Caribbean sun will burn me so I made sure I used at least an 8 SPF to avoid any ouchies.

[Sciencewoman]

Originally Posted by kddani

We took a Holland cruise with my parents and our older daughter when she was 1. Holland caters to a much older clientele. There were only 12 kids on board the entire ship. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing, but that indicates the average age. My parents, who at the time were in their late 50's, were some of the younger people on the ship. We did not see many people in their 20-30-40's. The food was okay. I thought it was pretty bland. The service in the dining rooms was excellent. My parents had some big issues with their room (flooding, having to move rooms to a different floor when the point was to be a cabin near us). All of the staff treated our daughter like gold.

We wondered about ages on Holland America, but we found the crowd on our Norwegian Fjords Princess cruise to be waaaayyy older...I believe I am now acquainted with every possible mobility assistance device. But, I swim laps and I had the pools all to myself no matter which one I went in! When we were disembarking, a young guy in front of us quietly said, "Bye, old people!" I think it can depend on your destination and port city, not just the line.

There were a lot of 3 generation families on our Alaska Holland America trip, so there was actually quite a mix of ages. Most people seemed to be pretty active, no matter what the age, and most of the excursions are more active/nature-oriented. We went on a whale-watching excursion in Juneau that was absolutely one of the highlights of my life...we saw the bubble-net feeding pod, which I've since seen twice the PBS Nature show; we watched them feeding for about a half hour and they kept getting closer and closer, and then they came up RIGHT NEXT TO THE BOAT...that's when the Coast Guard told our Captain he had to get out of there NOW! Sciencewoman loved that trip!!!

Both of these trips were on my "bucket list", and I do have to say that I thought Alaska was prettier than most of Norway. The inland passage through British Columbia is very pretty, with all the trees.

[PeppyGPhiB]

Husband and I went on an 11-night Southern Caribbean NCL cruise over this past Christmas. We chose that cruise for a couple reasons:

- Ports of call (Dominican Republic; Tortola, BVI; St. Maarten/St. Martin; Antigua; Dominica; Barbados; St. Kitts, W.I.)
- NCL's Freestyle Cruising

This cruise was a great way for us to see several parts of the Caribbean, plus we had a few At Sea days to just relax on the ship. It was the first cruise for both of us, and though we wouldn't be the type to go on many cruises, for places like the Caribbean (where it is expensive to fly in/out of, hotels can be pricey, and I'd likely get bored on one island for a whole week) it made a lot of sense for us.

We really liked the Freestyle Cruising. We both work hard at stressful jobs, and the last thing I wanted to stress about on vacation was packing a formal gown for every night in addition to all of the other clothes I knew I would need. As it was I had two suitcases. NCL still has one formal night (optional), and we found that many people dressed up to go to dinner, anyway. Maybe not as many people in tuxes and evening gowns as on other lines, but we saw many suits and cocktail dresses. We liked the flexibility of being able to go to dinner anytime we wanted, in whichever restaurant we wanted (main dining room or one of the specialty restaurants - I recommend the French restaurant...we ate there twice). The food in the main dining rooms were fine, even really good on a couple of occasions. For some people, the food on the cruise is the thing they care most about; for us, it wasn't a big deal. We have great restaurants at home, and I'm not expecting anyplace that makes 2,500-5,000 meals a night to be amazing. We were able to have some meals just the two of us (which was nice and romantic), and we had some meals with others we met on the ship and during excursions.

I will tell you our observations of cruise passengers while we were in ports with various cruise lines: We could always tell which people in port were with Carnival...they just stuck out a little more, a little louder and rowdier, and maybe a little rude; the NCL and Celebrity passengers blended in together; the Costa passengers were very rude when we ran into them; and the P&O european cruisers dressed and acted a little more sophisticated than the rest.

[cheerfulgreek]

This past week was my first time on a cruise. Royal Caribbean -Voyager of the Seas. It was so much fun. I know that cruises aren't for everyone, but I'll never be able to see how. It's like a floating city. There was even a library on the boat. I didn't get motion sickness or anything. I mean, I didn't feel the boat move, at all. I heard some people say they could feel it occasionally, but I couldn't feel it. Honestly, there is so much to do on the boat, that I could do that alone without the excursions, and tours of the islands. Oh, and I went rock climbing on the boat, too. I was also still able to get my daily running done on the track that's on deck. It was quite an experience, and I'd love to go again.

[TonyB06]

I did a Carnival (honeymoon) cruise earlier this month, which was also my first cruising experience. It was a great experience, primarily because you could do/not do what you wanted.

Only drawback was the food. I'd been told by in-laws (frequent cruisers) and others that the food, the food, the food was all of that ....well, it wasn't. While it was plentiful, and there was a 24 hour buffet, and they mixed up the offerings a lot, I found myself defaulting to the cheeseburger/hamburger area far too much for my taste.

also the frigging elevators had minds of their own, and seldom seemed want to go to our floor when we wanted to.

If I have to pose for one more picture..actually, that wasn't bad at all and we bought probably more than that we should have, but, hey, it was a cruise.

fun times.