Western Caribbean cruises are great for scuba. Dive Roatan, Belize and Cozumel in a week.

Never been on one.

The idea of a cruise ship full of people doesn't sound okay to me.

evestor1 said:

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Never been on one.

The idea of a cruise ship full of people doesn't sound okay to me.

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Do you go to resorts? Same thing. The ships are huge and it's fairly easy to avoid big crowds.

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Western Caribbean cruises are great for scuba. Dive Roatan, Belize and Cozumel in a week.

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I'm doing that cruise in April.

Only cruises I'd be remotely interested in is an Alaskan Cruise, and a river cruise in Europe down the Rhine. If I want to enjoy the Caribbean, I'd rather fly and maximize my time on land and the beach.

wangus12 said:

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JobSecurity said:

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if you're a fan of people watching a cruise is basically your super bowl

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False. Go to an EDM festival. Way more ass and people tripping out of their minds

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Pay the extra to get a room with a balcony. Well worth the extra expense for the experience. We will not do a cruise unless we can get a balcony room.

I have a strong aversion to crowds AND I don't drink any alcohol so I don't see the point.

Now is a pretty good time to go. A Galapagos cruise recently had only 43 people on a boat that holds 150.
Great destination, great food, outdoor activity and few crowds.

Bonzer103 said:

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Only cruises I'd be remotely interested in is an Alaskan Cruise, and a river cruise in Europe down the Rhine. If I want to enjoy the Caribbean, I'd rather fly and maximize my time on land and the beach.

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We've done Alaska and the Rhine and two Caribbean cruises. One was the eastern Caribbean out of San Juan, and we did an island a day. Very enjoyable. The other was western Caribbean out of Miami. Not quite as much fun as the eastern Caribbean, but still a good time. As noted elsewhere, in both Caribbean cruises, the time on board wasn't much different than being in a resort, except we got to see something different every day. We cruised at night, of course, and the excursions usually included options to spend the day on the beach.

We also did a New Zealand cruise, Auckland to Sidney. We spent a few days in Australia before flying to Auckland. We drove around the north island before getting on board the ship, and only saw the south island via excursions, and one day sailing into sounds. I would have preferred to drive the south island also but we were traveling with friends, and they wanted to do the cruise. It was a good experience, and I have no complaints, but still wonder what I missed by not driving. On the other hand, sailing into the sounds was awesome, so overall it was probably a coin flip.

On the Rhine cruise, we drove Switzerland a few days before getting on the boat, and then spent some time in Amsterdam after the cruise was over. It was a great couple of weeks. Once things return to normal, we would love to do the Danube. We would do it the same way as the Rhinesome time to drive around, or take trains around, on either end of the trip.

In sum, our experiences have ranged from really good to great. What we haven't done, and will never do, is one of the booze fests out of Galveston or other ports. Like nearly everything, whether you enjoy cruises or not is a "to each his own" decision. I think it also depends on what kind of cruise you do. As noted, the ones we have done allowed us to cover lots of ground (or water, as the case may be) and to see lots of places we hadn't seen. We sailed at night and were on shore during the day, so weren't around big crowds that much. We have done a week at an all-inclusive Mexican resort (Caribbean side) and it was fun, but the cruises we've done were more fun for us.

They're floating Walmarts…
Did it once - never again…..

PoohAh97 said:

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Worse than on the Bonhomme Richard?

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Yeah, I'm a little late to this as I never went back to this thread after my initial posting.

Let me just stop you right there and say you don't know what you are talking about. The Richard was being overhauled with all the crew living off the ship while extensive cutting, welding, etc. was taking place. Their firemain was offline while this act of arson was happening, and since the crew was not on the ship, there was no way to to leverage damage control parties quickly.

So, I'll just say this, did you serve in the Navy? If not, you don't have a clue about how this would be fought at sea with a fully staffed crew.

Go look at the Achille Lauro sinking: Achille Lauro

Yep, it caught fire and the crew couldn't put it out. In fact, it's two sister ships both sunk due to fires.

ChemEAg08 said:

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I didn't get the fauci ouchie so I can't go on cruises.

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I laughed harder at this than I thought I would

River Cruise = Yay!
Uniworld European River cruises are awesome.
They typically have about 120 passengers.
Lots of great places to visit.

Ocean Cruise = Nay!
No interest in cruising with 2,000 - 6,000 yahoos.

I've been on a couple of cruises, both arranged by the retirement community where I live. Both on relatively small cruise ships (less than 3,000 capacity). One to Canadian destinations, and the other to Bermuda. The Canadian cruise was on Holland America, which gets some flack for being a "a boring, old people's cruise line". There is virtually nothing on Holland America ships that is designed to attract a younger crowd or families. That is exactly why I enjoyed the cruise. Most of the passengers were retired folks from New England. No signs of the Walmart refugees who populate some of the larger cruise ships that go to warmer destinations. The food was excellent. (The buffet was not self serve, and several levels above the buffet on the other cruise I went on). The assigned seating in the main dining room provided a nice way to meet people. The service was personalized and attentive. The entertainment in the smaller venues was very good (including one of the best jazz pianists I ever heard). The entertainment in the larger theater was laughably bad, so bad it was great. All in all, a very nice experience.

Norwegian has a cruise that goes from Boston to Bermuda every Friday, returning the following Friday. Not quite the same passenger mix as the larger cruise ships leaving out of warmer ports, but certainly a different crowd than our Holland America experience. Norwegian has a lot more premium dining options, but their buffet was self serve and not as good as that of Holland America. Large theater entertainment was much better than Holland America, small venue entertainment was much worse. Service was nowhere near as personalized as HA. It was an okay experience.

I would go on another cruise, perhaps even a repeat of the Holland America Canada cruise, especially now that I have something to compare it to.

I'd rather feed my scrotum thru a meat grinder…

If they were only one way cruises leaving the paaengers out there… then yeah.

Southlake said:

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I'd rather feed my scrotum thru a meat grinder…

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Whatever floats your boat...

We just did Disney cruise concierge level.
We had a private line and entrance on embarkation and debarkation day. We had a private lounge with 5 hours of free drinks everyday and much higher quality breakfast, apps and bites throughout the day. We had a private sun deck with hot tub. (If it had a pool that would have been a huge plus)
We got priority seating at every show; they brought us down on a service elevator into the theater 5 min before the doors opened, with free popcorn and ability to go back to our lounge for a fresh drink right before show started.
We got priority pick of a cabana on castaway cay. We got a spot at an adults only dinner at palo with just a few hours notice.
We had our own 3 person concierge team to take of anything we wanted and not deal with the constant line at regular customer service.

For reference, the Disney ship has 1250 state rooms on it. Concierge is only about 40. So that gives you an idea of how isolated you could be if you stayed in private areas.
When you popped outside near our door, it was the adults only area as well, so you weren't bombarded With kids.

And of course Disney kids club is probably second to none. They have 3 clubs for ages 5-12, 10-14, and 14-18. The teenagers even had their own private pool.

"When you popped outside near our door, it was the adults only area as well, so you weren't bombarded"

When I read this, I thought you said, pooped.


But that doesn't sound too bad .

CowtownAg06 said:

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If you have little kids, Disney Cruises are hard to beat. They get a Disney experience and you can relax.

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We had fun, but not really relaxing.

We did a rock n roll cruise a few years ago and really enjoyed it.

Did the Alaska inside passage a few years back. Flew into Fairbanks, stayed two nights, then a train down to Denali for another two days, then down to Whittier to get on the ship for ten days down to Canada. Best place we stopped was Haines. Wouldn't mind doing that cruise again.

Go single, there are lots of women with their desire motors running, lot's of FUN!!!!