I am looking for some help planning my families first cruise?

Question

I am looking to take my family on our first cruise during the spring of 2008. My children are ages 15 and 6. Ideally I would like to depart from Florida, since we have grandparents we could visit on either end of the cruise. I am a blank slate when it comes to cruises. I know absolutely nothing about them, so I guess I’m looking for someplace to start. I am hoping there is a cruise aficionado out there who can point me in the right direction.

Answer 1

There are so many things to decide when planning a cruise vacation, such as budget, activities you and family might be interested, ports of call you would like to visit, is the ship more important then the ports ... The best advise is to find a local travel agent who specializes in cruises.  They are there to help you choose the right ship.  Most people are under the impression it costs to use a Travel Agent, but it does not, they can get you the same (if not better) deal then directly with a cruiseline.  Cruise Agents also are very educated in the cruise industry and represent most all cruiselines.  Check your local phone book or ask friends and family who have cruised and find out who they would recommend.  You can also do a search on the internet for Cruise Specialist agents in your area.   Ask questions, find out if they are knowledable about cruising, if you are not happy with the answers you are receiving, then keep looking.  Remember, a first time cruise can be a great experience or a bad one...it all depends if you are on the correct ship.

If you are planning on going in the spring of 2008, then now is the time to plan and book.  Spring Break is a very popular time to cruise.

Answer 2

Start with this website www.onevacationclub.com. They represent all the major cruise lines and have many tips for first time cruisers. The prices are also very affordable.

Answer 3

check out icruise.com. They'll show you all available cruises and you can see which one you like the best. There's ship pictures and cabin photos as well. I recommend trying to get a room mid ship to the the front of the ship... sometimes the back is a little noisy. Also, the rooms by the elevators get a little bit of traffic, but I never minded because I didn't want to shlup myself all the way down the hall.

Answer 4

I have been on more than 15 cruises with several cruise lines and I offer this advice and suggestions.

The very best cruise lines are the very expensive ones like Radisson, Silverseas, Crystal and Windstar. Cruises on these lines start at around $4,000. to $5,000. The ships are smaller than the next tier of cruise lines but they offer more amenities and better service.

Some people will tell you to go on Carnival because it is the lowest priced cruise line. I say don't go for a basic cruise line when you can get and have a much better cruise by paying just a little more. If you are in the 20 to 35 age group and like to party, party, party then Carnival may be perfect for you.

The cruise lines that I recommend are Royal Caribbean, Princess, Celebrity and Norwegian, pretty much in that order. I have been on many cruises on these lines and know first hand that you will have great accommodations, food services and a great time. Cruises on these lines can be as low as $700 to $800 for an inside cabin for a 7-day cruise. There is generally a good mix of people of all age groups on these cruise lines, particularly to the Caribbean. Cruises to Panama, the Baltic area, the Mediterranean, and cruises that are more than 7 or 8 days generally have more older people. Holland America is a good cruise line but it tends to have THE oldest cruisers.

You can find an inexpensive cruise online if you just take the time to look, and know where to look. I always suggest looking on the cruise line web sites rather than cruise wholesalers and travel agent sites. The cruise lines' web sites have all of the information you will want or need and you can reserve and make payments directly to them online. That's how I have booked my last few cruises.

Many cruise lines offer the same cruise and sometimes a cruise line will have a different price for each time that cruise departs. So the first thing you should do when shopping and planning is be very flexible on your dates. You will get a good deal if you go when the "deal" is available, which may not necessarily be on your anniversary date. Second, book early. Forget all of what you heard about waiting until the last minute to get one of the cabins that has not been sold. there may not be any last minute bargains and what do you do if your dates come and there's no cruise space available.

So shop around. Here's an example of how the same cruise can be a different price on different dates:

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruis...

Scroll down the page. Look at the prices for Sept 07 and then look at how much lower they are for Sept 08.

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruis...

Note the different prices for the same cruise and how some dates are called "Hot ", meaning the prices are the cheapest on those dates.

You may also want to look at some of the other Yahoo Answer's questions and answers in the cruise travel section to see what other information may be helpful to you.

I do recommend taking one of the new Royal Caribbean ships, Freedom of the Seas or Liberty of the Seas.  Both are new ships with all of the latest amenities.  They have activities for your kids, a kids program for your 6 year old and A teen program for your 15 year old.  The ship has fantastic activities, like the rock climbing wall, an ice skating rink, a mini-golf course, a full sized basketball court,and the RC exclusive "Flow Rider" where kids can  surf on a boogie board right on the ship.  There is a poll area just for kids called the H2O Zone that has a small lazy river, a small pool, water cannons and all types of falling water to play in.  

These RC ships leave from Miami weekly pretty much all year around.  So you can go when the price is lowest and get a  good deal.  You can get a cabin that will sleep 4 or get a suite which will give you more room.

Answer 5

The four most family friendly cruise lines are Disney, Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian (NCL).

Disney is expensive.  However, the quality of the Disney cruise is about what you would expect at Disney World or Disneyland.

I don't have any personal experience with the children's program on NCL.  However I understand that it is pretty good.  The NCL Star and the NCL Spirit have the best children's pool area in the NCL fleet:

NCL Star ...

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b103/Z...

The following two are of the NCL Star main pool ...

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b103/Z...

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b103/Z...

This is the NCL Spirit's children's pool ...

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b103/Z...

It is my understanding that none of the other NCL ships have as nice a children's pool area as these two ships.  That includes the newest of the NCL ships.

Carnival has a very good children's program.  All the Carnival ships have a water slide.  Here is some more information on the Camp Carnival ...

http://www.carnival.com/CMS/FAQs/Camp_Ca...

Camp Carnival is a year-round, fleet wide program that provides daily fun-filled and age appropriate activities for children and teenagers between the ages of 2 and 14 years old. In addition, there is supervised "free play" and babysitting service. Scheduled activities are planned for the following age groups:  

Here is some information on Carnival's teen program ...

http://www.carnival.com/CMS/FAQs/Teen_Pr...

15 - 17 year olds have a place all their own as well, it's called Club 0 2. This program, like Camp Carnival, was created for these older teens it was designed and dedicated to our guests in the specific age groups. The older teens get a chance to show off during a Karaoke session, pool parties, late night dances, outdoor sporting events like basketball and ping pong.

This is the water slide on the Carnival Glory (based on Port Canaveral) ...

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b103/Z...

Royal Caribbean's children's program is also very good.  All the Royal Caribbean ships have a rock climbing wall.  The bigger ships (Voyager class) also have ice skating, miniature golf and an inline skating track.  Royal Caribbean's newest ships (the Freedom, Liberty and Independence of the Seas) also have a Flowrider and a miniature water park ...

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b103/Z...

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b103/Z...

Royal Caribbean 6-9 year old age group is referred to as the Explorers ...

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruis...

Our Explorers program is specially designed to blend educational activities with just plain fun. Every cruise is different. But one thing never changes: your child will get to learn about local customs, do cool science experiments, and make great new friends. You can feel confident leaving your children with us because every member of our Adventure Ocean® staff holds a college degree in education, recreation or related field and has experience working with children ages 3 - 17.

The teen program is for 15-17 year olds ...

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruis...

Our teen program isn't some structured set of classes or rules. We know you're almost an adult, and it's your vacation too. So we give you the freedom you deserve. You can join events all day, or come and go as you want. And we have two great places where you can get away from it all. The Living Room is a laid-back place you can just hang with your new friends. And Fuel is the place where the party is. Open 'til 2 a.m., you can dance, listen to music, or just hang out there.

Answer 6

try one of those sites like cruiseaddicts.com or

even better cruisecritic.com

listen to others experiences and ask questions. YOu can then go to other websites and look at prices for an certain cruise and  dates.   good luck,

Answer 7

I'd recommend either Royal Caribbean or the Disney Cruise line.

Royal caribbean ships (the majority of them) have lots of activities onboard. If you are sailing with a more recent ship such as the ones in either the Voyager family or Freedom family, there are plenty of things available for your children to do. They have mini golf, rock walls, pools. The Freedom familiy ships have water parks, onboard wave machine for surfing and an ice rink on top of what the Voyager family ships have. There's always activities going onboard as well such as cooking demonstrations, games on deck, sail away parties etc.

www.royalcaribbean.com (click on "Plan a cruise" and then select ships to see all the ships and the activities on board)

The Disney cruise line is also fantastic for family cruising. The ships all have four different pool areas, including ones exclusive for families and one exclusively for adults. Disney cruise ships have a sort of day care system where you can drop you child off for the day and a whole cast of people are there to keep them occupied. There are also teen areas for your 15 year old. The great thing about the Disney cruises is that the cruise always ends at Castaway Kay, which is a private island. THere are also separate beach areas for families and adults.

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com

For the adults, both ships have great spa amenities, lounges and clubs.

Answer 8

Well vacationstogo.com is the best place to search for cruises...I did a search and got many results, but you can do a search and that will help you big time...you can click on the ship, cruiselines, port, and ports of call to find out lots of helpful information...now cruiseritics.com is an excellent way to read reviews about basically everything you may need to know...if you give a little more information, you cn send me a message and i would be glad to help you...