Anyone have any advice on cruises? Which ones to take, where to go, etc?
This entry was posted
on Sunday, March 30th, 2008 at 11:28 am and is filed under Uncategorized.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
My husband and I took a Mexican Riviera cruise on Royal Caribbean about 8 years ago. The food was phenomenal. I love food. The cruise was nice too. We hit three ports: Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas. We went horseback riding and parasailing in Cabo, whale watching in Puerto Vallarta, and walked the downtown streets of Mazatlan giving away money to kids. My inlaws took a Carnival Cruise to the Bahamas. It sounded even better than ours. They got to swim with Stingrays and there was a midnight chocolate bar. MMMMMMMM.
We did a Carnival cruise last summer. We LOVED it. 24-hour pizza and ice cream, lots of activity options on the boat, interesting (and inexpensive) excursions. We booked through a travel agent and got a room upgrade, too. We went to Canada - too cold even in mid-August. This year we’re hoping to do Norweigan Cruise Lines. No “captain’s night,” which means no fighting to wear good clothes and have to take nice portraits. Excursions are little more expensive, but seem more engaging for the “non-athletic.”
I’ll give the cranky counterpoint. I hate the very idea of cruises and would never sign up for one. They’re horribly expensive, ecologically damaging (those cruise ships dump sewage in fragile island ecologies) and sound dreadfully boring. My family traveled a lot when I was a child, and I LOVED it, but we could not imagine being on a package where you had to engage in certain activities and were forced to be around all these other people for the entire duration. The point of traveling is to go to new places and meet new people and not be on a timetable.
There’s tons of travel research on the web… try getting a good guidebook and planning your own family trip. You can always change your mind about anything once you get there. It will probably be a lot cheaper too!
Once great, beautiful, cheap place to go is the South Pacific coast of Mexico. Belize is more expensive but I’ve always wanted to go there.
I haven’t been south, but have done the Alaska Cruise, and we are returning with children this year. It depends on what you want from it — where to go, and what cruise line to take. If you’re thinking honeymoon, my kids and others recommend the all-inclusive packages (Mexico? Carribean?) - but they are not cruises, just destinations.
AH! Yes, there is this cute little bed and breakfast in Galveston TX called the Pink Villa. Call the lady that runs it and she’ll tell you all about their cruise stuff in Galveston.
Love cruises. Who’s going–adults, or kids too? Different cruise lines are better for different demographics. If you have time you might check out the boards at cruisecritics.com ( http://boards.cruisecritic.com/index.php) but keep in mind that people who make time for this (including me!) are die-hard cruise fans, very passionate about their likes/dislikes; in reality, nothing is as “set in stone” as these folks would lead you to believe. But you’ll pick up lots of tips that you can figure out if it works/doesn’t work for you. Personally, I’ve found cruises to be a good travel bargain allowing us to see a lot of places we wouldn’t have seen otherwise–some we’ve liked enough to go back later on our own for a more traditional vacation. We never have enough time on the ship to do everything we’d hoped to do, never bored or over-regulated or driven crazy by other passengers. But you need to pick a cruise line that’s compatible with what you want to make that happen, I think.
My sister in law just took one and she said that she really hated not having the ability to “get off the boat” - she felt cooped up!
They don’t appeal to me (most of the reason mentioned by Atlasien…by the way, a large cruise ship can generate over 15,000 gallons per DAY of blackwater material…sorry..had to mention it!LOL)but a friend did and she loved it…said it was very relaxing.
I’m more the road trip kinda of gal…although I have to admit that if I had to do it all over again I’m not sure we’d drive through all that pine forrest in Canada’s Yukon Valley just to get to Alaska!LOL
Went on a Norwegian cruise four years ago for the honeymoon. LOVED IT!!! Norwegian has freestyle crusing, so you don’t have to go to dinner at a certain time, or eat with the same people each night. My one word of advice is to check out the size of the ship. The bigger the ship, the more activities there are. We were on a pretty small ship, so there wasn’t much to do, but that wasn’t a problems for us because like I said, we were on our honeymoon *wink wink*. We went to Bermuda, and if you like laying on the beach, Bermuda would be great. But I’m not a beach person, and the three attempts I made at parasailing were thwarted by either weather or a huge tear in the sail. So no parasailing for me. And the I-can’t-plan-ahead-more-than-two-minutes husband didn’t make reservations for anyother activities. Oh, so word of advice #2, book activities ahead of time otherwise they will be full.
You can get really good deals on cruises if you can book them within 90 days of sailing… at that point the ships are trying to fill up empty rooms and they often have big discounts. Last fall my husband and I got a 10 day Hawaii cruise for $300, which was awesome! My favorite website for finding cheap cruises is “vacations to go”. That’s where we found the Hawaii one. We try to go on one cruise a year, and we just look for really cheap ones to come up. They’ve all be great so far!
Depends what you want. Different cruise lines are known for different things. Royal Caribbean is generally expensive, but a great experience; Carnival is cheaper and has lots of activities; Norwegian has dining whenever and with whomever you want and more flexibility once you are on the ship.
We have only gone on rfamily cruises on NCL. If you have kids, I highly recommend it. Rosie brings her Broadway friends on to do the entertainment. Two years ago, we had breakfast with Audra McDonald and her family, totally by chance, on an Alaska cruise. Last year they did an abbreviated version of Annie with ANDREA MCARDLE. It was amazing. You could tell that she was thrilled to do it and having the time of her life. They’ve had stars from Wicked and Ave Q, Evita, and others I can’t remember. They always have extra activities and special entertainers for the kids. Probably half of the guests are gay, but you mostly notice how accepting EVERYONE is. You will see many families of mixed race and lots of people involved in foster care and adoption. We are going to Canada and New England this year and next summer we go to Alaska again.
March 30th, 2008 at 11:59 am
My husband and I took a Mexican Riviera cruise on Royal Caribbean about 8 years ago. The food was phenomenal. I love food. The cruise was nice too. We hit three ports: Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas. We went horseback riding and parasailing in Cabo, whale watching in Puerto Vallarta, and walked the downtown streets of Mazatlan giving away money to kids. My inlaws took a Carnival Cruise to the Bahamas. It sounded even better than ours. They got to swim with Stingrays and there was a midnight chocolate bar. MMMMMMMM.
March 30th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
An Alaskan cruise is phenomenal.
My brother and his family always do the Disney cruises and love it. Something for everyone.
March 30th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
We did a Carnival cruise last summer. We LOVED it. 24-hour pizza and ice cream, lots of activity options on the boat, interesting (and inexpensive) excursions. We booked through a travel agent and got a room upgrade, too. We went to Canada - too cold even in mid-August. This year we’re hoping to do Norweigan Cruise Lines. No “captain’s night,” which means no fighting to wear good clothes and have to take nice portraits. Excursions are little more expensive, but seem more engaging for the “non-athletic.”
March 30th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Lots of advice over at:
http://www.cruisecritic.com
March 30th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
I’ll give the cranky counterpoint. I hate the very idea of cruises and would never sign up for one. They’re horribly expensive, ecologically damaging (those cruise ships dump sewage in fragile island ecologies) and sound dreadfully boring. My family traveled a lot when I was a child, and I LOVED it, but we could not imagine being on a package where you had to engage in certain activities and were forced to be around all these other people for the entire duration. The point of traveling is to go to new places and meet new people and not be on a timetable.
There’s tons of travel research on the web… try getting a good guidebook and planning your own family trip. You can always change your mind about anything once you get there. It will probably be a lot cheaper too!
Once great, beautiful, cheap place to go is the South Pacific coast of Mexico. Belize is more expensive but I’ve always wanted to go there.
March 30th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
I haven’t been south, but have done the Alaska Cruise, and we are returning with children this year. It depends on what you want from it — where to go, and what cruise line to take. If you’re thinking honeymoon, my kids and others recommend the all-inclusive packages (Mexico? Carribean?) - but they are not cruises, just destinations.
March 30th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
AH! Yes, there is this cute little bed and breakfast in Galveston TX called the Pink Villa. Call the lady that runs it and she’ll tell you all about their cruise stuff in Galveston.
Best trip we ever took. Kid friendly too.
March 30th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Love cruising. If you are taking the kids, come go with us on the RFamily cruise - lots of kid amenities. Loved Alaska and New England cruises.
March 30th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Love cruises. Who’s going–adults, or kids too? Different cruise lines are better for different demographics. If you have time you might check out the boards at cruisecritics.com ( http://boards.cruisecritic.com/index.php) but keep in mind that people who make time for this (including me!) are die-hard cruise fans, very passionate about their likes/dislikes; in reality, nothing is as “set in stone” as these folks would lead you to believe. But you’ll pick up lots of tips that you can figure out if it works/doesn’t work for you. Personally, I’ve found cruises to be a good travel bargain allowing us to see a lot of places we wouldn’t have seen otherwise–some we’ve liked enough to go back later on our own for a more traditional vacation. We never have enough time on the ship to do everything we’d hoped to do, never bored or over-regulated or driven crazy by other passengers. But you need to pick a cruise line that’s compatible with what you want to make that happen, I think.
March 31st, 2008 at 12:13 am
My sister in law just took one and she said that she really hated not having the ability to “get off the boat” - she felt cooped up!
They don’t appeal to me (most of the reason mentioned by Atlasien…by the way, a large cruise ship can generate over 15,000 gallons per DAY of blackwater material…sorry..had to mention it!LOL)but a friend did and she loved it…said it was very relaxing.
I’m more the road trip kinda of gal…although I have to admit that if I had to do it all over again I’m not sure we’d drive through all that pine forrest in Canada’s Yukon Valley just to get to Alaska!LOL
March 31st, 2008 at 7:58 am
I have to say Carnival! It was the best. I went on a couple lines (Royal Carribean, and Carnival) and I just loved Carnival.
March 31st, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Went on a Norwegian cruise four years ago for the honeymoon. LOVED IT!!! Norwegian has freestyle crusing, so you don’t have to go to dinner at a certain time, or eat with the same people each night. My one word of advice is to check out the size of the ship. The bigger the ship, the more activities there are. We were on a pretty small ship, so there wasn’t much to do, but that wasn’t a problems for us because like I said, we were on our honeymoon *wink wink*. We went to Bermuda, and if you like laying on the beach, Bermuda would be great. But I’m not a beach person, and the three attempts I made at parasailing were thwarted by either weather or a huge tear in the sail. So no parasailing for me. And the I-can’t-plan-ahead-more-than-two-minutes husband didn’t make reservations for anyother activities. Oh, so word of advice #2, book activities ahead of time otherwise they will be full.
March 31st, 2008 at 6:56 pm
You can get really good deals on cruises if you can book them within 90 days of sailing… at that point the ships are trying to fill up empty rooms and they often have big discounts. Last fall my husband and I got a 10 day Hawaii cruise for $300, which was awesome! My favorite website for finding cheap cruises is “vacations to go”. That’s where we found the Hawaii one. We try to go on one cruise a year, and we just look for really cheap ones to come up. They’ve all be great so far!
March 31st, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Depends what you want. Different cruise lines are known for different things. Royal Caribbean is generally expensive, but a great experience; Carnival is cheaper and has lots of activities; Norwegian has dining whenever and with whomever you want and more flexibility once you are on the ship.
We have only gone on rfamily cruises on NCL. If you have kids, I highly recommend it. Rosie brings her Broadway friends on to do the entertainment. Two years ago, we had breakfast with Audra McDonald and her family, totally by chance, on an Alaska cruise. Last year they did an abbreviated version of Annie with ANDREA MCARDLE. It was amazing. You could tell that she was thrilled to do it and having the time of her life. They’ve had stars from Wicked and Ave Q, Evita, and others I can’t remember. They always have extra activities and special entertainers for the kids. Probably half of the guests are gay, but you mostly notice how accepting EVERYONE is. You will see many families of mixed race and lots of people involved in foster care and adoption. We are going to Canada and New England this year and next summer we go to Alaska again.
August 5th, 2008 at 7:47 am
sk8A8e re re re
GAV GAV