Advice to first time cruisers!

[Iron ranger]

My wife and I went on our first cruise ever on Feb. 27th. Except for almost missing the cruise because of flight delays we had the most wonderful time! I have read hundreds of cruise reviews both before and after our cruise. I also read a lot of reviews on Trip Advisor. The one common denomonator is that when many of the travelers have very negative reviews it is because something has gone wrong early in their vacation such as check in, luggage arriving in their room. etc.... My advice would be that to prepare that something might not go as planned. Deal with it, then move on and enjoy your vacation. My cruise cost about 5K for the two of us. I went into the cruise with the mentality that this was going to be the best vacation ever and it was! I guess the other thing that I notice is that many negative cruise critics complain a lot about the food. I, myself, certainly would not let the food distrupt my vacation. Even as a first time cruiser I didn't expect that I would get the "Best Food Ever". Ultimately, I thought the food was pretty good.

 

Lastly, when my wife and I went to the "Life Saver" drill, only an hour an a half into the cruise ( and still on a high) we sat next to some guy that was a veteran cruiser and he was complaining about everything. I told myself that I would do everything in my power to avoid him and anyone like him

 

"IT WAS THE BEST VACATION EVER"

[APDMOM]

I couldn't agree more! I have told my husband if I ever became a spoilt brat cruiser that he should forbid me from cruising for a while... This is not likely to happen though, since cruising doesn't come easily for us. We work very hard to save by only eating out once a month (fast food!), by not having cable TV and by living in a small home with a very affordable mortgage.

 

So, to us cruising is an amazing experience and privilege that we want to savor and appreciate! ;)

[Bars7816]

Here, Here!! I love the life vest drill. We have some very funny photos of previous drills. Why do people pay money to be miserable? Just stay home and be a crank in your own house, I say. And how about treating the crew with a little respect and kindness? They're all just working people like the rest of us. They are not our personal servants, like some people seem to believe. :cool:

[funat55]

Dear Iron Ranger,

 

THANK YOU for your post but how did you get into my head. I've been on a few cruises, but each one is a thrilling experience and not to be compared to the last. I feel privileged and blessed to have the opportunity to cruise at all. I agree with everything you and the other posters have said.

[tracyanns]

Iron Man I think that is ironic it only took you one cruise to figure it out. First cruise for us we heard a bit of complaining but figured it was real issues, second cruise a bit more and so on and so on...some people are just never happy and think the cruise should be all about them...you have a great attitude and welcome to our wonderful world of cruising...although if we didn't have people complaining about everything who would we all make fun of???:eek:

[JeffersonSea]

You guys are so dead on. I worked at Universal Studios Fl when it first opened, and there were two kinds of people. Those that were there to enjoy their vacation no matter what, and those that were there to complain about every single thing no matter what. Like it was owed to them.

 

Even in the early months, when we had all kinds of problems with the major rides, there were the families that shrugged it off and just asked, "Okay, what else should we do instead?" with smiles on their faces. And you could just tell that they were the happy families all the time...not just vacation time.

 

You can choose to live under a dark cloud, or you can do whatever you can to get out from under it. Personally, I choose not to stand next to the people under the cloud - it's all cold, wet and rainy under there. I prefer the warm sun!

[willysgrandma]

I have never been on a vacation, cruise or land, that didn't have something happen that wasn't "perfect". And you are right - deal with! You'll laugh about it later on down the road.

 

If a little glitch in a vacation is the worst thing that is going on in my life - then I am blessed. Having to deal with many health issues in the last 15 years, any day I am up and walking is a good day - there are no bad cruises!