Anyone gone on a Cruise?

More importantly in my opinion, you should also be asking what is the best cruise line for you two. ....some are pretty wild.....some with lots of kids.....some more staid for an older crowd. Food can be excellent or lousy depending on cruiseline. Size of the ship is important too. Some of these floating cities are like living in a crowded city. My wife and I like outstanding service outstanding food, nice clean room, good entertainment,a moderate size ship and not a lot of children running about. Celebrity Cruise lines are at the top of our list.

PS: I'd vote for the eastern Caribbean cruise. Over the western route.

My wife and me have been on 10 cruises,going on our 11th this Feb. Been on Carnival,Royal Caribbean,Princess,and Norwegian. Don't know what age you are but Carnival is the younger crowd, while the other three are more my age 55-70. We cruise Jan.-Mar. cheaper less kids. We love the entertainment and of course the food. The specialty dining on Norwg. is really good, probably our most enjoyable cruiseline. We always get a balcony room,little more expensive but more room and enjoy sitting out there in the mornings and evenings.Most relaxing vacations I have ever had. If you have any questions just let me know. Rich

I just got off a Cruise a few weeks ago( 7 Day Mexico on Princess), this was my first Cruise in over 25 years. My wife continued to Cruise during my 25 year hiatus and racked up those Sea Days. Anyways, I had a Great time...the ships have become much larger (25,000 Ton to 146,000 ton nowadays) almost too large really. Just the same there is so many things to do and see while on board. I wouldn't be too concerned about motion sickness...its hard to tell your out in the water.

OK..I won't be long winded here but GO...its Fun!!!

On Edit....if you can go at a Moments notice, check out "Vacations to Go" (vacationstogo.com)...great prices!

If you like eating well prepared exotic foods in large quanities and being waited on while living in luxury in a warm friendly sunny climate and visiting new places cruising is for you. We have gone several times. Our favorite cruise line is Holland America which caters to older people. Going in the off season means fewer kids on board. The size of these ships will blow your mind. I suggest price shopping. Last minute deals are often really good. Yes go

Thanks everyone. I'll be 49 when we go and my wife will be younger than me! LOL.
I'm not a huge food person, but do like good food, not exotic. Same with my wife. We would like some fun excursins. I personally love to people watch and sit around the pool. Kids aren't an issue, but it would be nice to have a bit less of them around.
I was thinking Eastern Caribbean and my wife was thinking western. We are still looking and learning. We are leaning towards Royal Caribbean, but are open to others if they are just as good. Lots of learning. I can plan a 2-3 week RV trip with my eyes closed, but trying to plan a cruise is a learning curve.

We love cruising. We've been on multiple Royal Caribbean, multiple Disney, MSC, Carnival, and Celebrity. I can't say I've ever had a bad cruise.

We prefer more scenic destinations. Our favorite is by far Alaska followed by Canada/New England. However, those are only available at specific times of the year. Alaska runs from mid to late May through September and Canada is usually only available in the fall. We've cruised Alaska, Canada, Caribbean, Bahamas, and Bermuda. For us, our least favorite has been Bermuda. Our favorite stops for Caribbean cruises have been Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. We haven't been to Puerto Rico since the hurricane hit though.

Caribbean cruises tend to be lots of open sea followed by ports that look and feel exactly the same as each other. All of the Caribbean ports have the same shops operated by the cruise lines. Del Sol, Diamonds International, Cariloha, etc...

We've been on many RCI cruises. That was our first cruise experience and we tend to return to them. They have a decent distribution of age and family dynamics. Not all kids, not all tales of the crypt. We really like Disney as well. Its not as kid centered as most people think and I didn't feel like we were swarmed with kids. The service was terrific and food was great, but Disney is considerably more expensive.

Carnival has a reputation for being a much younger and crowd with an extreme party atmosphere. I've only been on one Carnival cruise about 8 years ago. It wasn't as bad as I expected. Overall, it was a good cruise. The whole ship did seem to take on a Disco party theme around 10:00 PM, but you could get away from it. I would still much prefer most of the other cruise lines I've mentioned though.

The one exception was Celebrity. Again, We've only done one Celebrity cruise. It might have been that particular cruise, but the atmosphere was enough to keep us from seeking out another one. It was a significantly older average age and some might suggest significantly more sophisticated crowd, but I would say just plain snooty was our impression. I'd still take it over a day at work, but given the array of other options, I would pick any of the alternatives first.

Ed_Gee wrote:
More importantly in my opinion, you should also be asking what is the best cruise line for you two. ....some are pretty wild.....some with lots of kids.....some more staid for an older crowd. Food can be excellent or lousy depending on cruise line. Size of the ship is important too. Some of these floating cities are like living in a crowded city. My wife and I like outstanding service outstanding food, nice clean room, good entertainment,a moderate size ship and not a lot of children running about. Celebrity Cruise lines are at the top of our list.

PS: I'd vote for the eastern Caribbean cruise. Over the western route.

DW and I try to take one cruise a year, we are Royal Caribbean fateful. We have cruised on their smallest and their largest, and will say I really enjoyed the larger ship. They have more activity's and the crowds are dispersed so the only time we felt the large number of people were during the "BIG Sales" on the main promenade deck. Large ship for eastern or western Caribbean. Now if you choose to go to Alaska take a smaller ship, as they can get closer to the glaciers.
The safest time to Cruise in the Caribbean is December to May, you will avoid the storm season.

You should experience it once. Just avoid the hurricane season in the Caribbean, otherwise, it's sunny all year round.

And you can food binge.

For us who love the outdoors, don't get an inside cabin. We had no choice as its the one left but on the 8th day, I had bouts of claustrophobia. Not good! I have to watch series of movies under the stars so I can just go back to cabin straight to sleep.

Cruise is also not for immersive tourist who want to have an in depth cultural experience of the cities or the country.

I've been on a few cruises but only on Carnival. Yes it is a younger crowd and I usually call it a booze cruise. But it's not by any means out of control drunk. There are a lot of families, but I like it because it's got a good mix of all ages just like any city. I did a 7 day western Caribbean (Jamaica, Cozumel and Grand Cayman) and I had a lot of fun. then again I was only 29 at the time and had an $800 bar bill by the time the cruise was back in port, be careful it can add up fast. If the line offers an unlimited drink option on something you normally drink it's probably a good idea to buy it. On my last cruise they had an unlimited soda pop card for $25 that I bought and gave to my kids to share. If they had an alcohol card I would have bought that one as well.

I've dine both the assigned table and times for meals option and the no assigned table or times option. The assigned table is nice in that you always have the same people at the table so you get to make some new friends. The no time or table is nice because it's just like walking into a restaurant and sitting at a private table. I now prefer the open seating arrangement.
I know more than you asked, but I love cruising.

We haven't done a caribean in several years...make sure to find out what the ship caters to and make sure to look at the cost of extras (drinks, upgraded eating option, excursions, etc...)...When you see a dirt cheap cruise, it's really easy to burn thru more than the cost of the cruise on extras because they will be hammering them hard.

Also, the stops are usually just enough to get the tiniest taste of the destination. Plus many of the ports are overrun with cruisers. It's not unusual for ships to dump 5,000-10,000 people off for the day at a single port and most Caribbean ports are fairly small cities.

Also, most Caribbean cruises won't have anything remotely "exotic" about the food. Quality can vary quite a bit...higher quality (and cost) the older the crowd and the fewer the kids but also the less the night life.

More recently had the opportunity to do a couple European river cruises (work related...life's good). Drastically different experience. Higher up front cost but a lot less pressure to buy extras. Meals are all sit down and very high quality. Wine is included with dinner. Each port there is an included excursion (decent quality). You can burn thru some extra cash if you spend a lot of time at the bar and sign up for the upgraded excursions but again, not the pressure. The really nice thing is, with only around 150 passengers per ship, even if there are a few ships in port, it doesn't overrun the place...plus you are typically dropped off right in the heart of the city so you can usually just get off and walk if you don't want to take an excursion. (while they do stop in the dead of winter, they continue usually thru Christmas and start up again by March)