Cruises - have you been on any and which lines?

[hmsch4me]

I'm wanting to go on one in Feb/Mar. - my first. Is there any lines to stay away from? Any experiences you want to share, or advice?

[Canada_Mom]

We chose Royal Caribbean b/c someone recommended them. It was awesome. I'd definitely go with them again. (sigh) With 4 kids under 6, it'll be a while for us! :p

[momofkhm]

My folks just got back from one on Princess and loved it.

I have friends who went to Alaska with Holland and said the food was good but not great.

Me - I'm waiting until dh can afford to take us on Disney!

[Krista in LA]

We went on a Royal Caribbean Mediterranean cruise for our honeymoon, many years ago, and it was wonderful.

[Tammy]

and I had the best time of my life, LOL! Next time I won't bother getting off in Mexico though....didn't care for it, LOL! I did go to Key West....and I can't wait to go back there!

Food and service were both great!

Tammy

[mommylaw]

We've been on Royal Caribbean. I can't say enough wonderful things about cruising! IMO, it's the best family vacation!

[Cadam]

We absolutely LOVED Royal Caribbean for our Honeymoon. Princess is also owned by RC. It is a great company, I don't think you can go wrong with them.

[chai]

We've cruised on Royal Caribbean and Princess. This February, we will cruise on Celebrity. RC and Princess are very similar. In general, RC's food is supposed to be better, although that may have changed. Celebrity has been considered a slight step up from RC and Princess, but now that they are owned by RC, I've heard that is changing. I'd recommend any of these.

Carnival is considered to be the party ship. Norwegian and Holland have a even larger contingent of elderly people. (Or so we've been told by our travel agents.) Crystal and Oceania are the elite lines.

We have loved our cruises. We have always brought friends with us which has made it very fun. We would do our own thing during the day, then meet for a fabulous dinner.

We have cruised the Western Caribbean twice, the Mexican Riviera and we will cruise the Eastern Caribbean this time. I wouldn't do the Mexican Riviera again--it was too cold. I really liked the Western Caribbean. We swam with stingrays in Grand Cayman, visited the Mayan ruins in Mexico and Belize, and snorkeled several places.

My recommendation is to book your own excursions--the ship's are much more expensive. (The only caveat to this is if you are concerned about getting back to the ship on time. They won't wait for you unless you are on one of their excursions. When we toured the Mayan ruins in Belize, our bus broke down and we were late. They waited for us because it was a cruise excursion.) The best information on different cruise lines and excursion companies can be found at cruisecritic.com.

I also recommend leaving from a port in Florida. We did Galveston once and won't do it again because (don't shoot me!), they had country music on the whole cruise! Of course, if you prefer that sort of thing, that's the port for you!

[Jennifer in MI]

Thanks for posting! We're currently researching too. We're debating between another trip to Disney or a cruise. Dh and I took a Royal Caribbean Cruise on our Honeymoon and LOVED it!! We're currently looking at RC or Carnival (trying to find out if that "party" atmosphere really is that bad! We can afford a much longer trip on Carnival.). My parents took an Alaskan Cruise on Cruise West last summer and loved it too. They're currently planning their next trip with them. But, that's a first class cruise line and VERY pricey.

Have fun planning!!

[Lady Katherine]

Princess Lines was very nice. "The Love Boat" theme song got old, but we had a great time!

[Janna]

We went on one 10 years ago - Royal Carribean. It was a nice ship. The cruise was horrible (weather related-40ft waves and all that, me being 7 months pregnant and couldn't take Dramamine for the seasickness. But that wasn't Royal's fault).

On a side note, my step daughter is currently working on a ship with Holland America. Her grandmother and grandfather have been cruising their entire retirement - for the last 30 years. She (her husband, step-daughter's grandfather, died last year) has literally been around the world 5 times. In fact, she's on a world cruise right now. Anyway, she's cruised them all and will ONLY cruise with Holland America and Princess. She's a veteran that's for sure!

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I'm wanting to go on one in Feb/Mar. - my first. Is there any lines to stay away from? Any experiences you want to share, or advice?

We just did a Hawaiian islands cruise with NCL America. We enjoyed it quite a bit but the Freestyle Cruising that NCL does is quite a bit different from the style on other lines. Cruise Critic had some really good reviews of this line as well as others. My inlaws have cruised a lot and are less pleased with the Freestyle Cruising.

I would agree with the idea of booking your own excursions. If you think getting back will be an issue, then use the cruise line. But for Hawaii, we had no problem with renting cars and doing our own thing. We did need to reserve the cars ahead of time and that was the way to go. We saw several families with no reservations and no cars to rent.

[Sugarfoot]

We leave in 7 days for our 3rd Disney cruise. They really are wonderful. We've done the 4 day once, the 7 day once, and we're doing the 7 day again at the end of the month. The food is wonderful (and VERY plentiful:)), there's a stage show nearly every night, the rooms are the largest I've seen in a "regular" cruise ship size, and everything is immaculate. One thing I really like is that you can always get a snack when you want one, which is a big plus with our kids, who tend to eat small amounts frequently. All of that is included in the price. There's a movie theatre on board, "game show" type games to play, it just goes on and on. My husband and I love it as much as the kids--maybe more! There's always one day spent at Castaway Cay, Disney's island, which is just incredible. The pirate ship from Pirates of the Carribean is "docked" there now. There's also a "Pirates in the Carribean" party one night. We have a great picture of us in eye patches and bandanas. Now I'm starting to get excited. I wish I didn't have to pack...