Cruise Help.Please?

Question

My boyfriend and I want to take a vacation May 2009. I need some advice as of what ship to take, I thinking about carnival or royal but what ship I dont know. We want one that has a night club, casino, rockclimbing, minuature golf and other fun activities. I really want this to be a fun activity because we will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary. Thank you, Oh yea we haven't decided on a destination, so im open to all suggestions

Answer 1

Firstly, Royal Caribbean is 100% better than Carnival. The Explorer of the Seas is an amazing ship. I've taken carnival, royal caribbean, princess and disney and royal caribbean is by far the best. you wont regret it! have fun!

Answer 2

Looking at what you have listed, I would suggest one of the Voyager class ships with Royal Caribbean.  They offer the rock climbinb, inline skating, ice skating, and the Freedom, Liberty, & Freedom have boxing and the surf simulator on board as well.  They all have a casino and nightclub for dancing along with various other bars.  In May of 2009, the Freedom is moving to Port Canaveral and will be sailing alternating eastern(Bahamas, St Thomas, St Maarten) and western(Grand Cayman, Labadee, Jamaica, Cozumel) itineraries.  With that you can sneak in a day or two at the Orlando theme parks if you have the time!  When looking for things to do in each port of call, you can review the excursions on the cruise line web site or go to shoretrips.com.  I have sailed both itineraries and loved both.  Grand Cayman - snorkeling/sting ray city/beaches/shopping/black coral.  Jamaica - Dunn's River Falls.  Cozumel - Tulum or the day trip to Xcaret.  St Thomas - day trip over to St John to snorkel.  St Maarten - take a tour to the French side of the island and then do some shopping.  I think looking at the available excursions would be helpful to you.

Answer 3

There's a very large ship called Carnival Triump which has a whole lot to do, going to the western Caribbean to Cozomel, Cayman Islands, and Ocho Rio's for a seven night cruise on May 17th 2009.. I know cuz me and my wife are going on it..We just got back from one to the Bahamas on the Carnival Imagination which was great, but a smaller ship with much less to do and see.

Answer 4

I have been on about 20 cruises on 4 different cruise lines and so here's what I say based on my experiences.

First you should know that all of the cruise lines give the best price for early bookings that are a year or more in advance. So its good that you are starting your cruise search process now. Cruise lines also list specials on their web sites so do look for those. The specials can many times save you a couple hundred per person over the price for the exact same cruise on a different date.

Second you should know that all cruise cabins are sold based on double occupancy and the prices listed will be per person and based on at least two people going on the cruise. The price you pay will depend mostly on the type accommodations that you choose. There are 4 basic types of cabins on ships;

- inside (no window),

- outside (a window or porthole),

- balcony/veranda, and

- suites.

The "FROM" prices you see will always be for an inside cabin. There are also some subcategories within each category with cabins on a higher deck, and/or a better location on ship (like midship), and/or that are slightly larger costing more. So as you browse, pay attention to the square footage of the cabins. You may not want to pay more for the same sized cabin on a higher floor; or vice versa do pay less for the same cabin on a lower deck.

I have listed below the web sites for the medium priced cruise lines which operate from US ports. These are the cruise lines that most people use. The lines that I have listed below will have cruises starting in the range of $800 to $1,000 per person for a 7 day cruise, again depending upon the date and type cabin you select.

HOLLAND AMERICA

http://www.hollandamerica.com/

CELEBRITY:

http://www.celebritycruises.com/home .

ROYAL CARIBBEAN:

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/gohome.d.....

NORWEGIAN:

http://www.ncl.com/

PRINCESS:

http://www.princess.com/index.html

CARNIVAL:

http://www.carnivalcruiselines.com/

I have been on Princess, Celebrity, Norwegian, and Royal Caribbean ships and can vouch that they are good cruise lines. However, there are some differences.

- Princess, Celebrity and Holland America have great ships are more classy and reserved. Holland America has more senior citizens cruising on its ships.

-Carnival has more first time cruiser and young people who want to party, party, party. If that is what you are looking for then Carnival is the cruise line for you.

-Norwegian cruise line is good and I have been on many of their cruises. Its the line that you want to go on if you want to be informal for pretty much your whole cruise. They have formal nights like other cruise lines but they do not stress dressing up; the call it "dress up if you want to" night.

-Royal Caribbean caters most to families and has the most and best on-board activities. Many Royal Caribbean ships have things like ice skating, roller blade track, rock climbing wall, surfing on ship on the "Flowrider", mini-golf course, pool tables. full sized basketball courts, and adults only pool and hot tub area called 'Solarium".

In my opinion Royal Caribbean and Celebrity have the easiest web sites to use to find cruises and specials.  My recommendation would be to go on a Royal Caribbean cruise, but pick one of the cruises that goes on a Freedom Class ship,   ( http://www.royalcaribbean.com/multimedia...

  )or a Voyager Class  ( http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruis...

)  ship.  These are RC's newer ships which have the most on-board activities.  Many of these ships, like the Freedom of the Seas, Liberty of the Seas, Mariner of the Seas, and Adventure of the Seas depart from Florida or Puerto Rico ports and do Caribbean cruises.

Regardless of which cruise line you select, the things that are included are pretty much the same. The price of your cruise includes your cabin, all meals (including breakfast, lunch dinner, snacks and free room service)(you do pay to eat in the specialty restaurants), all shows and entertainment, and free use of all facilities on ship. The major  things that you will have to pay for are:

GRATUITIES: They will amount to about $10 per person in your cabin per day; about $70 each for a 7 day cruise.

ALCOHOLIC DRINKS AND SOFT DRINKS: Coffee, tea, milk, juice, and lemonade and punch will be provided free but you must pay for drinks (alcoholic beverages) and they will add a 15% gratuity to each drink of soft drink order.

PHOTOGRAPHS: These will cost a lot, like $15 to $20 for most if you want them.

TOURS/EXCURSIONS: You are not required to book any tours and can get off and on in the ports as much as you want. But the cruise line will offer a lot of tours and these are expensive.

SOUVENIRS: Anything you buy on ship from a gift shop or duty free shop goes on your on board account. Things that you buy on shore you pay cash or credit card for.

CASINO: If you plan to gamble on ship you will need cash for that.

OTHER: most cruise lines have what they call "specialty" restaurants where there is a gratuity/service charge. If you want/need to have your hair done, get a massage or wrap, or any services from the spa, you will have to pay for them. You can use the gym free but the spa stuff cost big bucks.  Ships now have internet cafe and some have WiFi but the there is a fee for internet access and it is very expensive (like about $50 to $60 an hour).   You cabin will likely have a minibar with soft drinks and munchies; you have to pay for them .

BEST DEALS

I have found that the best deals can be had by going directly to the cruise line web sites and looking for their specials. Most will have their specials prominently displayed on their home page but I have found that Royal Caribbean and Carnival have the best web sites for this.

The following is some information to help you decide where to cruise  to; Bermuda, Alaska, Bahamas, Caribbean, Mexico, or Europe. In general the shorter cruises of 3 to 6 days go to Bermuda or the Bahamas. Cruises going to Alaska, the Caribbean, the Mexican Riviera and Europe are 7 days or more. If you think you want to go to the Caribbean there are really three basic types of itineraries.

- Western Caribbean cruises typically go to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Jamaica and a private cruise line island.

-Eastern Caribbean typically go to St Thomas, St Maarten, a private cruise line island and maybe another island like Tortola or Puerto Rico. If you want to do a lot of shopping then pick a cruise with St Thomas as one of the port stops. St Maarten is also mainly a beach and shopping stop.

- Southern Caribbean cruise itineraries typically start in Puerto Rico and go either to Aruba, Curacao, and St Thomas and St Maarten, OR they go to the southern Caribbean islands like Barbados, Grenada, Antigua, St Lucia and maybe St Thomas and/or St Maarten. The main difference between these two itineraries, aside from the different islands, is the Aruba cruise has 2 "at sea" days with no port stops, while the other has a port stop about each day.

If you want to cruise to Alaska you need to do some research on what exactly you want to do on your cruise because there are a lot of options on an Alaska cruise in terms of the departure port, ports stop, the order of the itinerary. Some Alaska cruises for example begin in Anchorage or Seward and cruise South while others start in Seattle or Vancouver, Canada and cruise North. Some cruises are longer than 7 days if you want to do a land tour, which you can do either before or after the ocean voyage.  Several cruise lines do Alaska cruises and cruise tours and in my book the best would be Celebrity, Princess, Holland America, and Royal Caribbean, and maybe Norwegian. So you do have a lot of choices for good cruise lines. But that means that you have more options to sort through.

Answer 5

I would take a Freedom class ship on Royal Caribeean.  They have a ton of activities, many bars, a casino, ice skating, rock climbing, surfing, boxing ring, a few pools.

Answer 6

If you want rock climbing on a ship, then your only choice is Royal Caribbean.  Carnival is less-expensive and better quality, although the ship decor is sometimes atrocious.

There are also minimum ages for cruising, so you'd want to check that out.

I'd suggest going to the library or bookstore and getting a book on cruising, to get a general idea of what's involved.  There are many decisions to make:  type of cabin, itinerary, size of ship, time in port vs days at sea, cost, etc, etc.  Once you have a better idea of what the different cruise lines offer, you can see a travel agent, who can help you plan your trip.

Two things I'd strongly suggest:  Get to the departure port the day before your cruise, especially if you can't fly non-stop; and buy cruise insurance that covers having to cancel your trip [you never know when an emergency will pop up].

For lots of great advice from experienced cruisers, go to CruiseCritic.com.  Click on "Reviews" [and especially "Member Reviews"] to see what the different ships offer.  Also click on "Boards" then whatever topic interests you.  I'd suggest "Ports of Call", "First Time Cruisers", "Money Saving Tips", as well as the boards for the different cruise lines.  You'll find packing lists, ideas for excursions, advice on which cabins are "better" and "worse" [you judge that by what your needs are], etc.

I'd suggest Carnival for a first cruise [a seven-day cruise, not a 3-or-4-day cruise], but every line has its fans and detractors.  Carnival has lots of activities, relatively large and very comfortable cabins, pretty good food and service.

Good luck and have fun researching your trip!

Answer 7

I would go on Carnival. We have taken Royal and Carnival and find Carnival to be the best. Royal does have lots of activites, but not well organized, and not as much fun. Check out carnival's website, there is something for everybody. Have a great time.