Going on a Cruise

2China2009

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 26, 2007
I have cruised many times on Carnival as a young adult and also as a family on the Disney Dream. I am on a tight budget these days but am looking at planning a cruise for spring break in 2020. We will not be able to afford a Disney boat, but that is ok as my girls are older. I am open to almost any cruise line and it will have to be in April 2020 as my girls would be out of school. I plan on adding the cost into my monthly budget and work some extra days to pay for it. I would love to know what cruise lines everyone has liked and not liked and if you were on an older boat or newer boat and did that make or break your cruise? It will be 2 adults and 1 child. We live smack in the midwest so we can essentially fly anywhere. Thanks.
 
I have been in 2 royal Caribbean cruises to the Bahamas. RCCL gets good reviews. The first time the boat was smaller but brand new. The second time an older boat that was expanded. The only thing I would want you to be aware of is that during school breaks there are LOTS of kids on the shorter, less expensive cruises.
 
I love NCL and their freestyle dining! (Although I'm not sure, other cruises might do that too). But I've tried Carnival (was my first cruise), and since then the next 3 have been on NCL.
 


I have been on both Norwegian and Royal Caribbean. I find them pretty comparable. I like Norwegian for the freestyle dining (you just show up when you want to eat) as the pp said. But I like the food better on Royal. Even though I have not been on Anthem of the Seas by Royal Caribbean, that is definitely a ship I want to check out. They have the iFly indoor skydiving, big glass observation ball that you go up into, bumper cars and trapeze school. We've been on Freedom of the Seas by Royal Caribbean and they had the surf machine, Flowrider. They also had an ice skating rink and rock climbing wall.
 
I love NCL and their freestyle dining! (Although I'm not sure, other cruises might do that too). But I've tried Carnival (was my first cruise), and since then the next 3 have been on NCL.
This really brings up an important point.
What do you LIKE about the cruises you took in the past, and what did you NOT like? What ports did you like and not like? Make a list and then match a ship, a route and a price you want.
I quoted this post because for "mrudman" for example, freestyle dining was a plus. For us, it was a HUGE minus. Mind you, we have cruised NCL 3 times, twice before freestyle, and once after. The dining experience with freestyle was a bit stressful, because, at least at the time, IF you wanted to eat in the main (read that as no extra cost) dining rooms, there was often a wait of an hour or more if you did not have a reservation, and you couldn't make a reservation more than 24 hours in advance in the main dining rooms. The extra cost dining rooms you could make a reservation as far in advance as you wanted. But according to the boards on the ship, there never seemed to be a wait for walk up diners at the extra cost dining rooms.
So for us, we would avoid a freestyle cruise in the future. We did make it work, by not only making the reservation for the next day each night as we went to dinner, and we requested the same server team each night.
 
It's been a LONG time since I've cruised but I remember that if you go NCL go with a newer boat. It was a decade ago but we were on an NCL "freestyle" cruise on an old boat & it was miserable. The boat wasn't designed to handle freestyle cruising. By nature almost the whole ship tried to eat dinner at the same time (ship was designed to handle dining via a schedule) which resulted in women in formal wear sitting on the ground outside the restaurants waiting! Idk if they still have old boats in service (gosh I hope not!) from pre-freestyle days but if you go NCL make sure the boat entered service within the last decade. Those are designed for freestyle cruising so it should (I haven't tried it!) work there.

I say stay flexible op! 2020 is a long way off so 1) do your saving 2)sign up for info from the cruise lines so you start seeing prices and learn what's good & bad.
 


We’ve been on a NCL four times, the last time in May. Our family of seven has never waited for a table, has never been given a beeper. The specialty restaurants need reservations, because they give away dinners for free as a perk (beverage package too, nice).
 
RCCL has flexible seating where you show up whenever but only to a certain number. Last cruise we could only get late seating since we booked kind of late. Next cruise we have early seating
 
OUr favorite is NCL. We have sailed on all lines and are platinum cruisers on most. Our least favorite is RCCL. Disney was great when the kids were young but teens prefer NCl or HAl. We like longer cruises on smaller ships. We did enjoy he Carnival Breeze. Remember every cruise is fun, just different than the last. Just enjoy it and compare when you get home.
 
We love cruising! Just got married on a cruise ship in August :goodvibes We are looking at a 8 day for Fall 2018.

I know Carnival gets a bad rap, but honestly we really enjoy their ships. I've been on about every class and have had a blast on all of them. I think it really depends on the time of year and length of cruise. Short 3-4 day cruises, especially around spring break, will probably yield a lot of college kids, young adults, party atmosphere, etc. Longer cruises tend to bring out the families and older crowd. Always had great experiences with food, drinks, entertainment, ports, etc. No experience with kids clubs, but have always heard good things. Newer ships have water parks, mini golf courses, huge outdoor movie screens, kids/teens only areas, etc.

I've cruised RCL once before and would be more than willing to give them another try. I hear such mixed reviews on their mega ships. I think you love them or hate them. To some, they are completely overwhelming and fact you have to make reservations for dining, shows, etc. turns a lot of people off. (Makes me think of Disney & FP!) But if you had kids, having a newer ship with SOOO many things to do would be a plus I would think.

NCL has never interested me and I can't think of a rational reason why. I'd like to try all cruise lines and NCL seems comparable to Carnival in terms of price.

I'd LOVE to do Disney, but good lord the price just scares the heck out of me. We don't have kids and it's just hard to justify. It would definitely be a cruise we'd budget for a few years in advance and just do it. I'd love to do the British Isles itinerary if they keep that one around.

Whatever cruise line you decide to go with, I would probably recommend a newer ship for a family. There's just more to do and you can decide what you like/dislike. If you go on an older, smaller ship, you might feel like you're missing out. Spring break time is peak and will come with higher prices. It might be fun for you to look at the dates you can go, see what's available in your price range, then go through them with your family and see what they think. I like VacationstoGo.com when I first start researching. You can search by ship, cruiseline, dates, departure port, etc.
 
It's been a LONG time since I've cruised but I remember that if you go NCL go with a newer boat. It was a decade ago but we were on an NCL "freestyle" cruise on an old boat & it was miserable. The boat wasn't designed to handle freestyle cruising. By nature almost the whole ship tried to eat dinner at the same time (ship was designed to handle dining via a schedule) which resulted in women in formal wear sitting on the ground outside the restaurants waiting! Idk if they still have old boats in service (gosh I hope not!) from pre-freestyle days but if you go NCL make sure the boat entered service within the last decade. Those are designed for freestyle cruising so it should (I haven't tried it!) work there.

I say stay flexible op! 2020 is a long way off so 1) do your saving 2)sign up for info from the cruise lines so you start seeing prices and learn what's good & bad.

We were on Pride of America which began cruising in 2005, so not sure it was old. However the staff did say the NCL underestimated how many people would choose the main (no extra cost) restaurants, and overestimated how many people would eat in the extra cost restaurants and vastly overestimated how many people would eat in port. That's because several (two) of the nights the ship overnights in ports in Hawaii and NCL REALLY REALLY pushes their Luaus and on shore restaurants on those nights.

Now, I have never been on a bad cruise, there are just things we liked less than other cruises. On Disney, as late seating diners, we disliked the show being BEFORE dinner. We like that 6pm time frame to recover from excursions and get cleaned up for dinner. But it clearly is popular with Disney cruisers. It left us with few organized options after dinner. However, we did discover it's pretty neat to be out on the sports deck of the Magic, in front of the wind screen at sea at 11 pm at night. Our kids just loved feeling the brisk Caribbean winds, seeing the lights on nearby islands, and enjoying the peace.
 
Choose the ship with the price, ports, and activities you like...
I've learned I like to drive to port, so I never stress about airports and delays (and price of airline tickets - huge for a family of 6)...it limits me a little, but makes my whole experience more fun and relaxing...I also like a ship to have good free kid activities, lots of free onboard stuff (especially trivia, games, comedy, shows), and decent free food. I also like trying to not go where I've been before, or where if I've been, we didn't see all that I wanted (my next cruise being Bermuda and Boston is to hit Bermuda when it's not 60 degrees and raining and finally seeing pink sands, and Boston is to do the other 100 things we wanted to do on our only trip!)

Price is my main determining factor...then departure port...then ship amenities...then timing...and finally destination ports (my last cruise missed almost all the planned ports - thanks hurricane - so I am now very flexible on itinerary)...

I've done Disney, Carnival, and RCCL...and am heading back to RCCL over Carnival next year due to price and ship amenities (and the itinerary and timing were nice)...RCCL was $500 less than Carnival for a nicer, newer ship for next year...so I'm there...before that, Carnival was lower than RCCL last cruise...so you never know who's gonna be seeking your dollar with the best deal:)...
 
diffenitly check out cruise critic. they will have the answers to all your questions and they are a nice group too.
i've been on 4 lines, lower end of all of them. holland america, carnival, disney, royal caribean they were all great, (altho disney was the best & most expensive). pick where you want to go and check which kid programs you like best. i'd start there. no kids for me so that would be a big factor in keeping them entertained and giving you a little free time.
 
I would talk to the kids and see what activities that they would actually do on board... and what activities that they want to do for shore excursions. Sometime something looks cool or fun does not necessarily mean that the kids would do it.

What activities do the kids/teen area have and are they supervised... and will your kids want to attend and participate. If they really aren't into that, or they are... then all this needs to be taken into consideration..

Also what you want... maybe some me time... like a massage at sea or just time to sit in the sun and relax....

Depending on what kind of family you are... in the terms of dinning... My family loves to get dressed up for dinner a bit every evening... We have a good friends that just go the buffets, burgers and room service route and are super happy with that way of cruising.. so for them they like to pick cruises with lots of causal eating options.

Do you have triple AAA?, also sign up for the cruise line letters you will get notices of special cruises price are available.
 
We went on a cheap 3 night cruise when my son was 13/14 and he loved the teen club. It was nothing fancy but that didn't matter. He met some really nice kids. They had scavenger hunts and things like that. Then the kids got together on their own and did the rock wall and things like that. We ran into them on the private island too and they took off together. So my husband and I felt like the cruise was ok but my son said it was his favorite vacation ever.
 
I would talk to the kids and see what activities that they would actually do on board... and what activities that they want to do for shore excursions. Sometime something looks cool or fun does not necessarily mean that the kids would do it.

What activities do the kids/teen area have and are they supervised... and will your kids want to attend and participate. If they really aren't into that, or they are... then all this needs to be taken into consideration..

Also what you want... maybe some me time... like a massage at sea or just time to sit in the sun and relax....

Depending on what kind of family you are... in the terms of dinning... My family loves to get dressed up for dinner a bit every evening... We have a good friends that just go the buffets, burgers and room service route and are super happy with that way of cruising.. so for them they like to pick cruises with lots of causal eating options.

Do you have triple AAA?, also sign up for the cruise line letters you will get notices of special cruises price are available.
Keep in mind mainstream cruising is getting more casual. On NCL, you can wear shorts in most MDR’s and specialty restaurants, the most restrictive just require pants or jeans. No need to stick with the buffet.
 
Going on my 12th cruise over New Years. This will be the kids 6th cruise. We have cruised RCCL (Anthem of the Seas) and Carnival (many different ships). RCCL has more bells and whistles - especially on their newer ships. But we found that we did not use most of them and the ship was so big that we couldn't see the ocean half the time. So, we always go back to Carnival and it is the kids favorite cruise line also. They are now 18 and 16 but have been cruising since they were 8 and 6.

We have mostly cruised during spring break also and never had any issues. For us Carnival has always had the best prices. (But you need to compare as each sailing can be different). I don't think you can go wrong with either RCCL, Carnival or NCL. Figure out what is most important (Ship or Itinerary) and start there. We like the Southern Routes the best. (Aruba, Curacao, Etc). Just depends on what your family likes to do. We like to relax and are beach people so don't do a lot of excursions.

With both kids in different schools now - no more spring break trips. So, was happy to find a reasonable price over Christmas Break - although booked it about a year ago. I think the earlier you can book the better.
 

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