Best and worst cruise destinations

[tinlizzy]

Carnival cruise line is just fine. The first thing some people say is don't go on Carnival and the second thing they say is I haven't been on a Carnival cruise. I detest drunks and have never encountered any on a cruise longer than 6 days.

The only ports I haven't enjoyed are the Bahamas. I really like the southern caribbean out of Puerto Rico and Aruba, Curacao and the private islands.

Take the ship excursions on your first cruise and it'll be very easy.

 

[IMATERP]

We’ve been on 8 cruises (2 TransAtlantics) and the sailing which best meets your parameters is a Canada Cruise. Wife and I took a 7 day cruise on NCL in September 2013. We took a cruise out of New York and stopped in Newport, R.I., Boston, Bar Harbor Maine, Halifax and New Brunswick Canada. 5 ports and we kept our expectations minimal. The cruise worked out nicely as we treated our room like a hotel and spent time exploring the ports we sailed to. The food on NCL wasn’t very good and t was 2nd tier in comparison to Celebrity.

By the way, we love cruising. In March, we are sailing out of Baltimore, MD on Royal to the Bahamas. October 2021, we have placed a deposit on a 10 day cruise of Venice to the Greek Islands on Celebrity.

One other suggestion - a short sailing from Baltimore or Newark to Bermuda. I’ve never been to Bermuda but a 5 day cruise will give you the opportunity to see if you like “cruising.”

 

[Souschef]

I have been on 47 cruises on many different lines going to many different places. I have written trip stories about most of these cruises. When you narrow down your choices, PM me with your e-mail address and I will gladly send them to you.

 

[Teacher Terry]

The worst cruise ever was Princess. We are sticking with Royal Caribbean.

 

[catii]

I've been a speaker on cruise ships for about 20 years. Holland is my first choice for big ships, based on the fact that I'm treated as "crew," & get to see behind the scenes. Why not take a cruise to Hawaii?

 

[Scuba]

I think a good way to choose a cruise itinerary is to pick an area you’d like to explore. Cruises are a good opportunity to get an overview of a region and pick somewhere you want to return for a more in-depth visit.

We are cruise snobs - don’t like ships with over 1,000 passengers and prefer 100-300. That cuts out all of the bigger lines. Regent Seven Seas is nice, Windstar was also nice and Sea Dream is one we’d like to take someday.

 

[brett]

We have had excellent cruises on Celebrity, HAL, Princess, Carnival, RCI, Crystal, and NCL.

I believe the experience is based on the ship, the crew, the timing (especially with Carnival), the weather, and your choice of itinerary. So many variables. Our first choices are usually Celebrity and Princess but only because we have been on them more often than the others.

There are sometimes significant differences in ships within each cruise line fleet. Especially HAL and NCL.

 

[Nemo2]

We're Pullmantur fans:

https://www.pullmanturcruises.de/en/booking

 

[NW-Reader]

We like both Celebrity and Holland America. Celebrity skews a bit younger and livelier, but definitely not a party ship experience. Cruise Critic is your friend, there is so much information there you could spend weeks reading it all.

One itinerary I don't see mentioned yet is an East Coast repositioning cruise, Canada/New England to Florida or vice-versa. We loved our October 2018 Montreal to Tampa sailing on Holland America's Rotterdam. We did end up missing a couple of ports due to weather, but that's to be expected that late in the year. There are also some nice Pacific Coastal cruises; Celebrity has one with an overnight onboard in San Francisco, which was fun.

Both Carnival Corporation (which owns Princess and Holland America) and Royal Caribbean give extra onboard credit if you own at least 100 shares of company stock.

Happy cruising!

 

[Gearhead Jim]

20 years ago we did a self-planned two-week Fall trip around the Greek islands. Transportation glitches delayed us a couple of times but overall we had a good time.

This October we did a similar itinerary on a medium-size cruise ship. The islands are still beautiful but the overall experience was awful. Every place was totally jammed with tourists. When two ships dump 1,000 people each into a small town, nobody has any fun. Most of the tourism industry seems to shut down by the end of October, so going later might miss the crowds but you may be scrambling for land/sea/air transportation and amenities on land.

 

[IMATERP]

20 years ago we did a self-planned two-week Fall trip around the Greek islands. Transportation glitches delayed us a couple of times but overall we had a good time.

This October we did a similar itinerary on a medium-size cruise ship. The islands are still beautiful but the overall experience was awful. Every place was totally jammed with tourists. When two ships dump 1,000 people each into a small town, nobody has any fun. Most of the tourism industry seems to shut down by the end of October, so going later might miss the crowds but you may be scrambling for land/sea/air transportation and amenities on land.

Who did you sail with ? We just placed a deposit on a 10 night Greek Island Cruise for October 4, 2021 out of Venice.

 

[LA_Newsboy]

We've done a half-dozen cruises. All the usual suspects--Greek Islands, Fjords, Baltics, Med, Alaska, Danube, Croatia. All interesting, all different. No favs.

A few thoughts:


--Get the smallest boat you can afford. Small-ship cruising is whole other world. We like Silversea. Avoid a boat with kiddie features.

--Get as few sea days as you can and as many port calls as possible. We don't care for sea days, esp 4-6 days in a row. Very boring.

--Try to get a repositioning cruise. Heavily discounted prices, same boat and same food. Check out the website called RepositioningCruises.com. Very searchable as to ports, cruise lines, etc.


Have fun!

 

[Sunset]

....

Both Carnival Corporation (which owns Princess and Holland America) and Royal Caribbean give extra onboard credit if you own at least 100 shares of company stock.
....

It's called "shareholder benefit" , and it's the reason I own 100 shares of the big 3 cruise lines.

The big 3 own a number of other cruise lines, where the benefit applies as well. (Norwegian Cruise Line, owns Oceania Cruises, and Regent Seven Seas Cruises)

 

[Sunset]

We've done a half-dozen cruises. All the usual suspects--Greek Islands, Fjords, Baltics, Med, Alaska, Danube, Croatia. All interesting, all different. No favs.

A few thoughts:

--Get the smallest boat you can afford. Small-ship cruising is whole other world. We like Silversea. Avoid a boat with kiddie features.

--Get as few sea days as you can and as many port calls as possible. We don't care for sea days, esp 4-6 days in a row. Very boring.

--Try to get a repositioning cruise. Heavily discounted prices, same boat and same food. Check out the website called RepositioningCruises.com. Very searchable as to ports, cruise lines, etc.

....

That website referral is simply an ad, the website is for sale...

A big ship can be great especially when repositioning, lots of stuff to do and long cruises are not full of kids as too much time out of school.
Big ships can also have some great shows.

Small ships are wonderful, but on a repositioning I would find them more boring than a big ship.

 

[Bamaman]

Thanks for mentioning the repositioning cruises. We're planning a trip to Spain this May with our daughter to celebrate her graduation. I started thinking about how expensive "better than economy" airfare is...and your post gave me the idea of taking a cruise to Europe instead of flying.

We just placed a hold on a couple of cruises for 48 hours while we decide which dates will work better for us.

One is 16 nights from Ft Lauderdale to London, with a stop in Canada, 3 in Iceland, and 1 in Scotland. It's only $6472 total (including tipping & travel insurance) in a balcony room for the 3 of us.

The other is a 7-night cruise from NY to London on the Queen Mary 2. The total for 3 in a balcony room is $4994.

(edit: One 1st class flight to Madrid from Charlotte is over $7000 )

I've never been on a cruise, so this is sort of exciting.

"Only $6472" for 3 people is a lot more than I'm willing to pay for any cruise. We're used to be paying more like $700-$1000 for a mid line cruise ship.

For those prices, we could go 2-3 times. And we do not fly 1st class either.

See Vacations to Go for info on available cruises: https://www.vacationstogo.com/ticker.cfm?r=26&edged=1

 

[donheff]

We are leaving tomorrow on an Uncruise Sea of Cortez snorkeling and Kayaking trip. We decided to do it on the spur of the moment after reading about them in this thread. I will report back in early February.

 

[Maidensong]

We're dedicated cruisers with experiences on lots of different lines: Costa (never again!), Carnival (ditto), Cunard, Holland America, Norwegian, Princess and a couple of lines that are now defunct. Since retiring early we have one World Cruise under our belt and are booked for another in 2021 (both on Princess--sort of our Goldilocks line.)

The trick to happy cruising is to know what's important to you. Do you like long leisurely sea days like we do, or do you need the constant stimulation of a new port? Are you a dedicated foodie or are you more about plentiful, decent food? Do you like to dress up and strut your stuff on a formal night or is your idea of formal wear putting on socks? Would you rather hear the latest hip hop blasting from every speaker or is Pachelbel's Canon in D more your style?

That said, I think you'll find lots to enjoy on either of the cruises you've put a hold on. If anyone in your party suspects they may suffer from sea sickness, by all means, take the Queen Mary 2. Designed as an ocean liner, not a cruise ship, she's as stable as sitting in your living room. The Princess 16 day sounds like a delightful itinerary and a good value!

Bon voyage!

 

[Nemo2]

We're dedicated cruisers with experiences on lots of different lines: Costa (never again!), Carnival (ditto), Cunard, Holland America, Norwegian, Princess and a couple of lines that are now defunct.

What were the negatives with Costa? (We've never sailed with them, although we've casually checked their itineraries from time to time.)

Sailed Norwegian once...unimpressed. Liked HAL. and some others.

DW & I are big Pullmantur, (and previously CDF), 'groupies', although we realize they're not everyone's cup of whatever beverage.

À chacun son goût.

 

[audreyh1]

We are leaving tomorrow on an Uncruise Sea of Cortez snorkeling and Kayaking trip. We decided to do it on the spur of the moment after reading about them in this thread. I will report back in early February.

Sounds great! I hope you get to see a lot of whales.

 

[grasshopper]

We are leaving tomorrow on an Uncruise Sea of Cortez snorkeling and Kayaking trip. We decided to do it on the spur of the moment after reading about them in this thread. I will report back in early February.

Do you know if the Gray Whales arrived in Bahía Magdalena, or will you be snorkeling with the Whale sharks in La Paz? Either would be a great time Ms G couldn't get over the Whale sharks

 

[LA_Newsboy]

That website referral is simply an ad, the website is for sale...
A big ship can be great especially when repositioning, lots of stuff to do and long cruises are not full of kids as too much time out of school.
Big ships can also have some great shows.

Small ships are wonderful, but on a repositioning I would find them more boring than a big ship.

Nope. The website is not an ad and it's working fine. You might have mis-typed it.



The key for me on any cruise is very few sea days, and that's what I look for with repositioning cruises. We did an 11-day cruise last year on Silversea from Athens to Nice, with stops in the Greek Islands, Italy and the French Rivera. One sea day, 10 days of port calls and lots of pampering the whole time.

 

[LA_Newsboy]

It's called "shareholder benefit" , and it's the reason I own 100 shares of the big 3 cruise lines.

The big 3 own a number of other cruise lines, where the benefit applies as well. (Norwegian Cruise Line, owns Oceania Cruises, and Regent Seven Seas Cruises)

Thanks for the tip. I hadn't heard that before and had my hopes up. But I just checked Royal Caribbean, which owns Silversea (my fav). The stock is selling at $131, near its 52-week high. So 100 shares is $13,000. You can buy a lot of onboard extras with that kind of money. Plus, RCL is paying a puny dividend.

 

[Maidensong]

No Costa for Me

What were the negatives with Costa? (We've never sailed with them, although we've casually checked their itineraries from time to time.)

Sailed Norwegian once...unimpressed. Liked HAL. and some others.

DW & I are big Pullmantur, (and previously CDF), 'groupies', although we realize they're not everyone's cup of whatever beverage.

À chacun son goût.

My very first cruise was a 3 day on Costa with my sister. I was hooked, but I'll still never sail them again. I can't get the image of the Concordia out of my mind. You know the one. It's laying on its side like a beached whale. 32 people died. That disaster was entirely preventable and the negligence of the captain was criminal.

I want my cruise line to put my safety above all else. I don't care if they have to cancel a port because of poor seas. I'm fine with changing an itinerary if political unrest makes a scheduled stop a dangerous prospect. Entertainment, food, amenities are all secondary to safety. I want the ship's navigation crew to be comprised of responsible seamen and women. That way I can have a wonderful adventure and return home in more or less my present configuration.

Like Goofy says, "I'm brave, but I'm careful."

 

[Souschef]

We are Princess junkies because we are Elite and get all kinds of perks, like free laundry. We took a 32 day South American cruise and took a little more than a week's worth of clothes.
We like leaving from Los Angeles-no airports. We are booked on a Hawaii cruise in March, that has a number of sea days.We found plenty to do, or not do, as we felt like. As we reduce our traveling, keeping our budget the same, we have moved from balcony cabins to mini suites and now sail in full suites.
We would rather enjoy our money than leave it to our children. There will be plenty for them too.
There is a cruise line out there for everyone, depending on you desires.

 

[HI Bill]

This is the only cruise I have ever taken. I did reserve a room, rather than raise my tent on the deck. Be aware these are working ferry boats, and they have goals that go beyond entertaining travelers. Our boat got held up for about three hours while they tried to get a truck full of supplies for an island town off the boat. A motorhome was parked a few inches outside its assigned space and was preventing the truck from leaving.

I did the Inside Passage from Bellinham, Washington, up to Juneau on the Alaska Marine Highway System (ferry boats).

https://dot.alaska.gov/amhs/route.shtml


I reserved a cabin, which was tiny and sparse. Lots of folks pitched their tents on the back of the ferry, and some slept in the theater. Food included a cafeteria and a restaurant. Not gourmet, but acceptable. I enjoyed going down to the car deck twice a day when the pet owners could take their dogs out of their vehicles for a walk, meal, and watering. Watching the orcas and humbacks and beautiful scenery at a slow pace was awesome! I set up the tripod on the deck and shot video of some of the narrow passages. Highly recommended. The cabins are few, and go fast, so book far in advance! The only drawback is that some of our 'shore excursions' were less than an hour (45 minutes).