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You don't have to worry about actually being endangered due to a hurricane. Due to my work schedule, hurricane season is the only time I can cruise. I have cruised from Tampa with a hurricane actually in the gulf, and cruised from Port Canaveral in the wake of a storm. The bad thing about hurricane season is that a hurricane could change your ports of call, or cancel some shore excursions. (We had two ports switched this summer after a hurricane, but then Carnival gave each of us a $50 gift certificate to make up for it.)

(Remember, it's not like the boat will be hit by a storm. The boat can move. Wink )

-o-

If you can get at least one senior citizen in your group, and then all make your reservations together, you can drastically reduce your cost. We were lucky enough to discover that, once. Smile

You can also save a lot of money by cruising when K-12 kids are in school. Right now (after X-mas break, that is) cruising is extremely cheap. (By comparison, of course.)

-o-

I don't know if you can afford to take shore excursions. When we started cruising, we could not, and I completely grok that. But if you can, there are some awesome shore excursions. There was a time when I maybe could afford them, but I had this snotty sense that taking a planned excursion somehow lacked the legitimacy of getting out and discovering the country myself. Well, if you go by yourself, you'll either be shopping or hitting the beach--or paying someone not affiliated with your cruise line to take you on the exact same shore excursion. Possibly for less money, but without any guarantees that the company is reputable or that you won't get ripped off. Shopping in foreign ports or swimming in foreign beaches starts to feel the same after a while, so that experience is nowhere near as "authentic" as I thought it was. Some of the cooler shore excursions I have done include: driving jeeps through the interior of the Mexican mainland to a set of underground caverns, where we swam (with bats) in an underground lake, and then drove to a non-touristy beach; rapelling through trees in Jamaica; horseback riding on the beach in Jamaica; and driving dune buggies on the beaches of Cozumel. Some we have wanted to do but not gotten to yet include rafting (not whitewater rafting, which I have done, but more like gondola type, steered by one of the organizers) in Jamaica and snorkeling the stingray sandbar in Grand Cayman. Perhaps not terribly authentic, but a lot more fun than walking through yet another hot straw market, being accosted by a million vendors, and then chosing a restaurant pretty mnuch at random to eat in. How pathetic were we before? Once we decided we were so sick of the crap we were eating that we ate in a Hard Rock Cafe. In Mexico! Thank God we didn't eat in McDonald's, or I might have had to kill myself.

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Cor and I have cruised on Disney twice, once with out kids, and once before we had kids. Disney Cruise Line has the most opulent ships I have ever seen. Every room is beautiful and comfortable. The live shows blow any other cruise line's live shows out of the water. Fireworks at sea is unbelievably cool--even when they nearly set the deck on fire, as happened on one of my cruises. The way they rotate you through different dining rooms, and the special things they do in these dining rooms--including performing waiters, and one dining room that changes slowly during your meal from black and white walls and decor to full color--is really neat. I don't think anybody else's "normal" dining options--i.e., seatings in the dining hall--can hold a candle to Disney's. Palo (same name on both boats) is the best upgrade restaurant I have been on at sea, and that actually is saying a lot. Disney's gym is also ubelievably well-located: it overlooks the bridge, loft-style (except glassed in), and you can look down into the bridge in addition to looking forward through the bridge's own windows. Their gym is not especially well-stocked, but on a three or four night cruise, their guests must not be terribly interested in working out, because I never had to wait to get a treadmill. Their children's programs have unbelievable facilities, that will make you wish you were allowed to sign yourself in and do them. Even for teenagers, who you would think would be too cool for Disney, they have fantastic programs. Teenagers probably have more fun on DCL than anybody else does. Castaway Cay is the best place I can think of for a day at the beach, a wide variety of activities, and a beach where no kids are allowed. Castaway Cay is a highlight of any Disney Cruise, and people always complain that they want more time there.

DCL is also horribly, horribly, expensive. You could take a cruise that was twice as long with any other cruise line for the cost of a Disney Cruise. They also have serious, serious, serious problems with their activity planning. They are amateurs, and they need to take some cruises on some other lines. All day long they have virtually nothing going on (except for the kids' programs), imagining that all you really want to do during the day is sun yourself by the pool. At night, they start to have some activities scheduled . . . at the same time as the dinner seatings and the shows. So if you wanna do them, you have to miss one or both of the other two. (I would not recommend missing dinner or the shows!) Lousy, lousy planning. They also have this way cool "Adults Only" district, kind of like a floating Pleasure Island, with four or five clubs . . . which are all empty, all the time. Disney is a family-oriented cruise line. All these people with their kids go to sleep after the last show, it seems, and nobody single can afford to take a Disney cruise. So all these adult clubs they have are completely dead. When you go into the main grown-up dance club, the entertainment people working there are so desperate to make something happen that they really start to creep me out. They'll drag you out to the dance floor. They'll try to get you to make a fool out of yourself. They will not want to let go. They're like the clingiest ex you ever had. They're like frat boys desperately insisting that they're having a blast as they clean the last of the vomit off their chin. On our first Disney cruise, the one club we had fun in was the comedy club, so, naturally, they took that out. As for the kids' program, they spent all this money desgning these amazing facilities and these amazing activities, so God damn it, you will do this all. You're not here to have fun kid, you're here to do a lot of neat things so your parents can feel like they're getting their money's worth. If you like that, wonderful. If your kids have special needs and want a little more independence, and a little more freedom to choose what seems like fun to them, Disney is not prepared to accomodate that.

Oh, and have I mentioned there is no casino on board?

EDIT: We're taking our third Disney cruise in December, but we got it for free. I would not be terribly inclined to pay to take a Disney cruise again.

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Cor and I have taken one Norwegian cruise. Norwegian is also pretty pricey. Their rooms are also very nice. Not quite as much as Disney, but still very nicely appointed, large, and comfortable. Their common areas are also very nice. Norwegian's strength is in its dining. Not its dining room, which we only ate in one night on our seven night cruise, and found to be thoroughly ordinary. But in their "upgrade" dining. While upgrading does involce an extra charge, it is not much, since you have, after all, already paid for your meals. Back when we went, it would be from $5 to $10 a person to eat in one of their ten or so restaurants instead of in the main dining room. They had a French restaurant, an asian restaurant, a vegetarian restaurant, a tapas restaurant, and I don't remember what all. Rather than being treated like cattle, which, ultimately is what happens when you eat in any ship's main dining halls (though some cattle are, admittedly, treated better than others) you get to eat a restaurant quality meal. (And I'm not talking Sizzler, either.) Based on my experience, I would say that Norwegian has the best food at sea.

Hope you really like to eat, because that's about all they have going for them.

Their service is the worst I have seen at sea. The average Norwegian crewmember, in my experience, does not speak English and does not know his or her way around the ship. They also do not know what may be going on elsewhere on the ship. If you ask for directions to the nearest bathroom, you may find yourself getting walked up and down the ship by a crewmember stopping to ask other crewmembers if they know where to find a bathroom. If you ask about a showtime, or an activity time, they will not know. They also don't care. I walked into a buffet, saw that there were no trays, and mentioned it to a server, who said, "Oh. Sorry." I don't want you to be sorry! I want you to solve the freaking problem! Their shows are cheesefests where they throw together every cabaret cliché they can think of, and figure you'll conclude that you've had a typical cruiseship show. The staterooms, and the common areas, are not kept particularly clean. Our kids, who were pretty little at the time, found a previous guest's slipper under our bed. >_< Their kids' program has none of the whiz-bang facilities of Disney, but all of the rigidity and more. They have a schedule, and every kid is going to do what they have scheduled at any given moment. If we say you're going to play duck duck goose, then, damn it, that's what you will do. Everybody has to participate. If we're playing a game where you have to be able to read to play, and you don't know how, well, then I guess you will simply lose, then, won't you? Norwegian's solution for our kids most of the time was to page us and tell them to take them out of kids' camp. Well, that's useful.

We had some odd ports of call, but that may simply have been the itinerary we took. The ecotourism thing was just beginning to take hold, and so we ended up in several ports that were really underdeveloped. I'm sure they had great adventure tours, but we had our little kids with us, and that's not really possible with little kids. We just wanted to do the step off the boat and shop thing with them. In some of our ports, that was just scary. One was Belize, where we had to take about an hour-long tender to get ashore. Once we got there, we were dropped off in a slum. Imagine us walking around with out two little kids--three or four years old, at this time--in a slum. We could not relax--we never felt safe. I'm sure it was a wonderful port of call for others. Just not for us. Our next stop after Belize was Roatan. In Roatan you take a short tender to a dock that is basically in the wilderness. If there is any shopping district or any restaurants or anything else, we could not see it from the boat. After the funfest that was Belize, we decided to stay on the boat and skip Roatan. If we had not had kids and wanted to spend $50 a person to take a three hour busride to see some pyramids, I'm sure we would have had a lovely time.

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Cor and I have taken five [EDIT: six, now] Carnival cruises. (She also took another one before she met me.)

Most of the time, when we cruise, we begin by comparison shopping for prices. Carnival is consistently the most affordable major cruise line.

Carnival ships are often a little older than those of NCL or DCL. Their staterooms tend to be smaller, and not as well appointed. On-board TV programming will have less variety, and the TVs are generally older, and don't come have as good a picture. The bathroom on a Carnival ship is typically smaller than on a DCL or NCL ship. Carnival ships often don't have an upgrade restaurant. On the one ship we went on that did, the upgrade restaurant was pricier than on Disney or NCL, and was not very good. Carnival's main dining rooms are middle of the road fare, not as good as Disney's, better than NCL's, not bad, but not great. Carnival is better, though, than any I have seen when it comes to accomodating special dietary needs. Also, every meal has one or more healthy choices in each course, with extensive nutritional information provided. Carnival ships also tend to have large gyms. (But more of their passengers use the gym, so you may still have to wait for equipment. And, as far as I can recall, they don't enforce any kind of a time limit on gym equipment--Disney has like a thirty minute rule if anybody is waiting.)

Carnival does have "party party party," but there's more than that. On any given night, they have several clubs that are filled with people having a good time. Wanna dance? You can do it every night, and you won't be alone on the dance floor. Wanna karaoke? You can do that every night too, and you can expect a more polite MC and crowd than you have probably seen anywhere else. There are 21 and older clubs, and there are all ages clubs/parties. There are also frequent opportunities to get free alcohol, which is not generally possible on other cruise lines I have been on. Being more affordable, Carnival attracts younger passengers, including singles and those without children. So there are plenty of other people around to party with.

But I don't really consider myself a party animal, and I was never bored on Carnival. I don't think it's possible. There are activities going on from 8 in the morning until 2 am or so. During the day there are a lot of games and stuff. Of course, you can sun yourself by the pool, but I prefer to have a choice.

I have a gut feeling, based on the many cruises I have been on, that Carnival's casino is looser than most other casinos are. (If you've ever been to Vegas, AC, or Biloxi, you know that casinos can control how loose they are.)

Carnival's shows are not the best, but they're pretty decent--certainly better than NCL. You get a good variety. You can expect a cabaret-style show one night, a stand-up comic another night, and a talent show on one of the last nights. (I love performing in those!) Carnival also has adult-oriented shows (18 and older only, and they are pretty good about enforcing it) after midnight, usually including a raunchier stand-up act. There will probably be late night shows on at least a couple of nights.

Their kids' program is unambitiously wonderful. They know your kids aren't there to have a floating montessori experience. They are on vacation too! They don't have a lot of fancy stuff or programs they are committed to putting on. Just lots of toys, counselors interested in playing, and freedom to do whatever feels like fun. Our kids had by far their most positive experience on Carnival. (The worst, if you're curious, was NCL.)

Carnival's service is every bit as good as Disney's legendary service. Everybody will jump to please you. Everybody knows how to answer any question you may have, or will quickly find out for you. Very few people on any cruise ship are American, but everybody on a Carnival ship can speek understandable English, from the cabin stewards to the waiters, and everyone else. The waiters are extremely attentive and knowledgable about what they serve. The bartenders are excellent at what they do, and very friendly as well, as is the casino staff. If you don't know how to play a game, they will walk you through it, and it is completely nonthreatening to a gambling newbie.

Carnival generally picks ports of call where you can have a good time whether you do a shore excursion or not, and whether you are a decathlete or not.

Carnival is very free with giveaways. They must figure they got their money from you up front, and if they are generous with you afterward, you will come back. I don't think we have ever taken a cruise where we did not win something substantial, from $100 in Bingo to a pearl necklace at shop talk to $500 in a slot tournament, $100 in free scratch-off tickets at balloon Bingo, and several bottles of champagne--both for participating in the talent show and as consolation prizes they draw at each event from losing scratch-off cards. (And as I mentioned previously, they are also more generous than most with free alcohol.) But even if you win nothing else, if you win an afternoon game of trivial pursuit or win lose or draw, or the knobby knees contest or the hairy chest contest (which I won), you get a solid gold plastic trophy. It's not much, but it's fun. Try getting something for free from anybody else.

If you can afford a more expensive cruise line, consider taking Carnival anyway, and upgrading your cabin category. We have done this the last two times, staying in a balcony room one time and a VIP suite the other. It sounds like a big deal, but it's still no more than we would pay for a Disney cruise.

Anyway, to sum it all up, they're not kidding when they call themselves the Fun Ships. I don't think you will have more fun anywhere else.

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I have never sailed Princess--when I've comparison shopped, it has never quite worked out. But the boats I have seen at the same port as mine, in Florida and the Bahamas, would belie the claim that they are upscale. The boats I have seen have always been shabby and small, at least from the outside. Maybe it's different out west.

Royal Carribean has also never quite worked out for me, but I've heard good things about them. I hope one day it does work out. (I've generally found them to be in a different price class than Carnival and Princess. But you never know. After all, I did manage to get on Norwegian once, even though they are generally expensive.

Brand loyalty is really easy to develop in cruising, because once you have sailed with a line repeat cruiser benefits start to crop up, and so pretty much no cruise can compete with the fares Carnival will give me.

-o-

I don't think I know you from off of this site, Rickee--you don't frequent Hatrack, do you? (Or do you use a name I don't recognize?) In any case, I don't know if you know this about me, so I'll point it out. If you see me ever recommending something over Disney, it really means a lot. I am a bigger Disney fanatic than anybody you will ever know. So when I recommend Carnival to you, weigh that in. Smile

-o-

Carnival is pretty liberal with their definition of "senior citizen." I think over fifty is enough to count. So your parents likely count. It really saved us a ton of money when we brought my father along, and we got him his own room (inside, of course, since we were paying.)

-o-

When you start thinking about what level of room you want, if you have the funds to have a choice, you need to think about what kind of cruiser you will likely be. If you're about wanting to relax a lot, you may want to splurge for a room with a balcony. I personally pretty much need one, anymore. I like to sit on the balcony and read, but I wouldn't enjoy sitting on the upper deck and reading while wet children run back and forth all over the place. If you don't see yourself spending a lot of time in the balcony, though, you wouldn't want one. If you don't see yourself spending a lot of time in the room at all--which is very realistic, when you consider how much activity there is on a Carnival ship; you might realistically only go to your room to sleep--then don't bother with an outside room at all. There's a huge difference in price between an inside room and an outside room, and it seems a waste to spend extra on a room you will never much see.

Cruise lines consider rooms that are higher in the ship to be better rooms, and charge more for them. I guess the thinking is that you have a better view, or perhaps that you are closer to many of the top deck activities. Whatever, I personally disagree. If you have any tendency toward motion sickness at all (I do not, but just the same) you will want to be in a lower room, since they sway less. Cor tends to have slight motion sickness, and I consider it a great deal that they charge less for the rooms that are better anyway (motionwise, at least) (certainly I can think of no reason that matters to me to prefer a higher stateroom).

You don't need to worry much about motion sickness on a cruise ship. They are huge, and have great stabilizers, and even people prone to motion sickness tend to do okay. That being said . . . the larger the boat is, the more stable it is. Consider this carefully if you consider sailing on some tiny ship. Also, different ships seem to have different qualities of stabilizers. At least, I found that on the Disney boats I could sense motion much much less than on any other ship. On our last Disney cruise, we went through a storm on our last night, and if you were indoors, you would have no idea, even though the swells were large--and even though we were hanging out on the top deck. (Maybe it's because their ships are so new.) Even if you think you are not remotely prone to motion sickness, though, I personally recommend taking a Dramamine or a Bonine before sailing on the very first day (and then not again if you don't need it). I think this is a good idea because, even if the motion doesn't bother you, after a few hours, the fact that the ground is always *vibrating* and nothing is ever perfectly still might start to. After a day, though, you adjust and you don't notice it anymore. (On the contrary, you will find in your ports of call that dry land feels like it is moving.)

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Long story short: take a Carnival cruise.

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On a side note, we had asked for a queen sized bed in our room. When we arrived there were two twins. We mentioned this problem to the woman who was cleaning rooms in our hall. We then went up to a dining area for a pre-sail reception/snack. After stuffing ourselves we decided to take a quick nap in our room. When we arrived, they had traded out the bed already.

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Will it ruin the surprise for you if I tell you that they just pushed the twins together and put a cushy mattress cover over it? I think it's standard now for all cabins to have beds that can be separated to sleep together or separately.

Posts: 1006 | Registered: Jun 2006  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by pH:
Now I wanna go on another cruise.

I did wish our ship had a movie theatre.

-pH

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The last cruise they went on was through the Panama Canal and back again, which they thought was infinetely cool.

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