Anyone gone on a Cruise?

[dodge_guy]

Ok, So my wife is wanting to do a cruise. probably a western Caribbean, maybe Eastern... were not sure as we have never taken a cruise before.

Has anyone gone on a cruise in the off season? (of RVing). we are planning on February 2021. If so what is best? (I know this is an open ended question) we just don't know. we are wanting to do a 7 night cruise.

What is everyone`s opinion? I`m looking for all the info we can get!

thanks!

[rhagfo]

Tvov wrote:
We got a balcony room for our Disney / Alaska cruise, mostly because it was our first cruise and I figured we'd splurge.

It was great! We were out on the balcony every day for awhile.

Having said that... I can understand, after going on a few cruises, why people would want to save money by getting an inside cabin.

Some feel that they don't spend enough time in the room to get a balcony.
Personally rather than having to deal with getting a chair on deck, just much easier to just sit on the balcony.

[Tvov]

We got a balcony room for our Disney / Alaska cruise, mostly because it was our first cruise and I figured we'd splurge.

It was great! We were out on the balcony every day for awhile.

Having said that... I can understand, after going on a few cruises, why people would want to save money by getting an inside cabin.

[dodge_guy]

Thanks again everyone. Lots to do. We are looking forward to a cruise. We've been to Jamaica and that was OK. We went in November but the weather was chilly and I didn't really enjoy it that much, my wife didn't care and loved it! So more research and we found out December-April is the time to go. I'm leaving this up to my wife. She is liking planning these kinds of trips and I love planning RV trips.

[TxGearhead]

I might could do an Alaska cruise. I have no interest in visiting 3rd world countries. I tried to get the wife interested in aEuropean River cruise. She wasn't too motivated.
I've done cruises in the Pacific. Had to salute a lot.

[happy2rv]

Tvov wrote:

rhagfo wrote:
....
Something else that many don't include in planing, as I see your are in Illinois plan to arrive at the cruise port location at least one day before your departure. This will protect you from delayed flights. ...

... Ask in advance about transportation to the dock... I can almost guarantee you they will have some sort of bus / taxi arrangements. On return, we also had a hotel room... not really sure that was needed, but it was nice to decompress a little before jumping on a flight.

And give yourself time for "boarding".... there will be a LOT of people at the dock. ...

Good advice. Also, consider travel insurance. It's available through the cruise line or third parties like Travel Guard. We don't always get it, but on "big" trips we do. If you book your flights and cruise separately, you will probably want a third party. Coverage is available and varies in price based on "covered" cancellation reasons. Only thing worse than getting sick and missing your trip is missing your trip and losing everything you paid for it. It can also cover some hopefully less likely situations like transportation to catch up to the ship or return home if you are left behind in a port.

There's also traveler's health insurance. Many health insurance providers, including Medicare, have reduced or no coverage outside the US. Most of these also provide some coverage if you have to be air lifted from the ship or a foreign port due to health reasons. I believe some insurers offer combined trip and health insurance. You're relatively young and hopefully healthy, but you just never know what can happen. Our son, around 7 or 8 at the time, had a relatively bad rapid onset upper respiratory problem on an Alaska cruise. It didn't require evacuation, but even at trip to the ship's doctor was expensive. The travel insurance for all 3 of us was less than what we paid for that trip to the ship's doctor even after our insurance paid "out of network". The travel insurance repaid us for those expenses.

With regards to the hotel transportation. We've done the hotel bus transportation before in Miami and looked into it in Port Canaveral. It's been our experience that almost none of them offer free shuttles. It's also been our experience with 3 of us it's usually cheaper or almost the same expense to take an Uber or taxi from the hotel to the port and FAR more convenient. Others may have different experiences, but ours has been the shuttles are usually chaos. Everyone sitting around with their luggage trying to coordinate which bus they are going to put you on waiting while the bus leaves without you, but you'll be on the next bus...

Ed Gee wrote:
Original Poster - suggest you find and spend some time reading posts on the forum, " Cruise Critic ". It is a wealth of inside information from those who cruise frequently.
https://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/

Agree cruise critic is a great resource. Spend some time on their boards: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/. There's a wealth of information regarding every aspect of cruising.

schlep1967 wrote:
We book the lowest price room, inside lower level. You will use the room for two purposes, sleeping and getting changed to go to dinner. Other than sleeping, we spend less than an hour a day in the room. Save the money for excursions!

This is not our experience. Many people share schlep's point of view, but we spend far more time in our room than this. Possibly because we never get the lowest rate inside room. We have had almost every other category of room except the "extreme" suites (owner's suite, family suite, etc). Room sizes vary by ship and category. Older ships tend to have smaller rooms compared to equivalent categories of rooms on newer ships. As one might expect, room sizes increase with category increases. I don't think I could take a week in an inside cabin, but some people do view their room as only a place to sleep/change and that might be fine for them. We probably spend a couple of hours a day in our room on Caribbean cruises. We're there to relax and get away from it all. We're not the pool party type and while the solarium can be nice, it's often difficult to find a free chair, especially on sea days. We often lounge in our room or balcony. There are amenities to suite categories that make it worthwhile to some. In addition to the larger/nicer room, they usually come with concierge service, many times reserved seating at shows, and a suite lounge.

What constitutes concierge service varies by cruise line, itinerary, and length of cruise. However, it almost always includes separate priority check in in at the port. It may provide priority access to tenders for any ports this applies to. For those that may not know, tenders are small boats that ferry passengers from the ship to the pier and back in ports that aren't deep enough for the cruise ship to dock at. Yes there are still tender ports even in the Caribbean. Amazingly enough, many of the cruise line's "private" islands are tender ports and as you might imagine, it can take a while to ferry passengers to shore when everyone wants off at the same time. The lounge usually provides pre-dinner hors d'ouvres and drinks at no extra charge whether you have an all inclusive drinks package or not. The lounge is usually always available for a quiet get away, but the
"free" food and drinks are usually only offered a few hours around dinner time(s). They also often have breakfast pastries and juice in the morning. I certainly don't consider myself a snob and I don't think most who know me would either. I had to go lookup how to spell hors d'ouvres ;). We rarely take full advantage of the concierge services, but sometimes the services are nice and sometimes I think they are worth the cost, especially on a special occasion. The buffet can be extremely crowded, especially for breakfast. Sometimes its nice to be able to go to the lounge and get away.


One thing to consider when choosing a cruise line is dinner service. A lot of cruise lines have moved to flex seating where you don't have an assigned table or dinner time, but a lot haven't or they have a mix. Many cruise lines still have an early and late seating with an assigned table. This used to be one of our favorite things about cruising but it rarely is anymore, especially in the Caribbean. When we started cruising, it was pretty much standard for all cruise lines to have assigned seating at large tables. We've met some really nice people over the years. Fifteen plus years later, we still communicate with some of our table mates from our first cruise, an Alaska cruise. We've never had that kind of a connection with table mates from a Caribbean cruise, but we have met some very interesting people and shared many enjoyable evenings with our table mates. Eating with the same group of people every night for a week gives you a chance to get to know the group. Sometimes that's a good thing and sometimes not... For cruise lines that do assigned seating, early seating is usually around 6:00pm and late is usually around 8:00. Early seating usually fills up relatively quickly. So, if you have a preference, make your reservations as soon as possible and request early seating when you make the reservation. If only late seating is available, you may be able to request a change on board if you seek out the maitre d (had to look that one up too) early in the day on your first day. This is another of those suite amenities. If you're staying in a suite, they will almost always accommodate your requested dinner seating working through the reservation system or your travel agent.

[rhagfo]

DW and I full time currently doing volunteering as Park Host in Oregon. We take at least one month off each year. That said going somewhere else is nice, but we are still cooking and eating in the “house”, on a cruise all you do is have fun, others make the bed, cook the meals, only unpack once.

[azdryheat]

Cruises are a huge waste of money, but then, so are RV's.

[DutchmenSport]

we've done 2 cruises (Carnival). Both 7 days. First was Eastern Caribbean, second was Western Caribbean. We enjoyed them both.

It took me a couple days to realize how much FOODS there was on that first cruise. I had no clue that you can get food from somewhere, literally 24x7. Once I discovered the self-serve ice-cream station at the back of the boat, I practically lived there! I think I got my money's worth for the trip in ice-cream alone!

[tomman58]

RAllison wrote:
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

We use Carnival in January to avoid the kids. We are 70 so after spending a couple of months in our RV park 55++ crowd it is refreshing to have younger adults around. We use a larger ship often as its options are larger from entertainment to the nightlife. We also do the balcony as I like o read in the sea breeze and it is pleasant at night. Don't think you can just leave the door open as they are heavy and lock up tight to be weather tight. Also bear in mind (I have a cpap) there is but one plug in the stateroom so bring an extension cord.

[Merrykalia]

I've been on 26 cruises so far with #27 scheduled for February 2020. Eastern or Western Caribbean is negligible in difference other than the Atlantic is a bit rougher than the Caribbean UNLESS you hit a storm, which are common in the late winter in the Caribbean.

We've been on most all of the "regular" cruise lines. Not Oceana, Silversea, Seabourn or some other of those. If you want to know which ones they are, google: upscale cruise lines. With that being said, here is MY rankings. Also to consider, I am 55+, retired, but do have teenage kids.

1. NCL
2. MSC
3. Princess
with Carnival, Celebrity, Holland America and Royal Caribbean being pretty equal, but with VERY different price tags.

NCL is my all-time favorite because of their service, cleanliness, food quality (all have food quantity) and price for what you get.

MSC is very European and there are lots of Europeans on the cruise. It is one of the top-ranked cruise lines in and about Europe, so it is familiar with Europeans wanting to see the Caribbean.

Carnival is full of kids.. young kids, middle kids, older kids and usually lots of college age kids that are of the age to drink. They utilize that function extremely well. I explain it as the Walmart of cruise lines....it's for everybody and everybody is on board. Entertainment is kinda cheesy and again, it's for the masses.

Royal Caribbean is about the same as Carnival. They have lots of gadgets on their ships, but I'm not going to go try to climb a wall; I'm not going to play mini-golf, nor try a Wave Rider. I don't want to pay for stuff I'm not going to use. These also attract younger cruisers.

I want peace and quiet, good food, good service, clean areas to lounge around in, some spa time (Extra $$) and a good show occasionally.

My best advice is to get on Trip Advisor and look at the available tours that would be in the locality you might want to go to. This will help you decide on East vs West. They are both good, but some are better for some people. Our crew (6 couples each have favorite ports and they are NOT the same one.)

Now, since you are in Illinois, unless you are going to fly, New Orleans is your closest cruise port. They have some wonderful cruises out of there. The last 3 years, we have gone out of NOLA. It goes smoothly, but not as smooth as in Miami. The other ports, Ft Lauderdale, Tampa and Port Canaveral go as well as NOLA, but not as well as Miami. We have not been out of Mobile, nor Galveston. They have the smaller to medium ships. I like the medium size ships, but the last few have been on the larger ships. They have more people, a few more amenities and usually newer ships.

Any cruise line will be good the first trip, but try out others to see which one fits YOU. Also, if you are going in February, do not go out of NOLA if it is the week of Mardi Gras. LA schools are usually out of school during that week and the ship will be full of young kids. (Ask me how I know!!)

Don't overpack when you go. You will not need lots of outfits. One pair of khaki pants with a couple of golf shirts will work for dinner at night, no matter which line you choose. Change right before and then after dinner and those two will last for a week. I take a black jersey skirt and a couple of tops along with a sundresses that can also be used as a swimsuit coverup. A dressy pair of sandals and I wear a good pair of walking shoes and flip flops to wear around the ship on sea days. I have done this so much that I can pack 8 days of clothing in a backpack that will fit under my seat on the airplane. I then have a large pocketbook for meds, travel papers, passport, etc.

If you have specific questions, you are welcome to PM me.

[goducks10]

Been on 8 cruises. Our last was by far our most luxurious. We went on the Norwegian Breakaway. We got an upgrade to a Haven Suite. Butler, concierge, private haven pool, huge suite with huge wrap around rear balcony. Ports were mediocre at best. The ship more than made up for that. We also had the unlimited drink and specialty restaurant package. This was 3 years ago.
More than likely our last cruise. Being on the west coast we only have the Mexico or Alaska cruises available. Hate flying across the country and we've done Mexico 3-4 times and have no interest in doing the Alaska cruise so we're probably done cruising.

Our all time fav cruise was on Carnival to Mexico. Cabo, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan. We were in our late 50's when we did the cruise. We were concerned about the Carnival party reputation but found it to be really over hyped. Yeah there were lots of party type activities but it wasn't like there were drunk people running all over.
It was a good mix of just regular people of all ages. What was really nice is the dress code was really casual with out the need to have a dress up formal night.
I know people that have gone on 30-40 cruises and people that have gone on one and won't do another. It can be addictive and I would imagine if I lived on the east coast I'd definitely do more.

I would also add that throwing in a couple excursions is a must.
We've done the zip line, Americas Cup sailing, trips to secluded private beaches, Salas Salsa, etc.

[Ed_Gee]

Original Poster - suggest you find and spend some time reading posts on the forum, " Cruise Critic ". It is a wealth of inside information from those who cruise frequently.
https://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/

[schlep1967]

bgum wrote:
Princess has a 15 day cruise to Hawaii. 4 over 4 back and 1 at Ensenada. 5 islands. Great excursions. 4 over and back is very relaxing. We went in December.

We did this one. At 51 years old and married for 30 years ..... we were practically the newlyweds on the cruise. Had a great time and met some wonderful people.
If cruising to Hawaii look up Roberts Hawaii for excursions. They guarantee you will get back to the ship on time or they will fly you to the next port. They also do the ship sponsored tours but it is a lot cheaper to book it through Roberts.

[bgum]

Princess has a 15 day cruise to Hawaii. 4 over 4 back and 1 at Ensenada. 5 islands. Great excursions. 4 over and back is very relaxing. We went in December.

[sayoung]

Lots of cruises but only Carnival, Norwegian, & Holland. Carnival is not bad but NCL/Holland just better in every way.
Our favorite is the NCL cruise around the Hawaiian islands. We've taken it twice .. Alaska on Holland is #2.
If doing eastern Carribean go from either Florida or Puerto Rico and do Western from Galveston. One other thing, you will need a passport if you don't have one and I just had to renew my DL so it had the gold star on it for security purpose.