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Best stress-free cruiseline

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Hlitner Excellent Advice! Rare

Hlitner

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To totally escape the mobs the best thing is to splurge on the ultra luxury lines like Seabourn, Sea Dream, Silverseas, Regent etc. Imagine no annoying announcements, dining when you please with no long queues, no screaming kids, etc. But the price for this escape will usually cost you $600 - $1400 per passenger day :).

 

Hank

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PORT ROYAL

PORT ROYAL

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I have cruised on Carnival before and always end up paying for a suite or balcony just to get away from the crowds. Is there a cruise line out there that does not have the sardine in a can feel to it?

 

Try Curnard or Oceana :D

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rvsullivan

rvsullivan

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As a general rule, the amount of space allocated and the staffing levels to customer levels are directly related to the cost per person per day. For a mainstream cruise line (Carnival is one of many) you will have fewer staff and less space. For a cruise line like Cunard or Seastream, you will have far fewer guests and many more staff per passenger. This is one area where you sort of get what you pay for. For $6-700 per person for 7 days, you will get much less than if you pay for a cruise at $1,500 per person per day.

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ducklite

ducklite

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We felt like of all the cruises we've been on, we got the best value from Windstar. Value being a combination of tangible and intangible items, which includes crew to passenger ratio, passenger space ratio, quality of linens and bedding, food, over all service, open bridge policy, quality of shore excursions, and so much more.

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nolatravelgirl

nolatravelgirl

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To totally escape the mobs the best thing is to splurge on the ultra luxury lines like Seabourn, Sea Dream, Silverseas, Regent etc. Imagine no annoying announcements, dining when you please with no long queues, no screaming kids, etc. But the price for this escape will usually cost you $600 - $1400 per passenger day :).

 

Hank

It isn't that expensive. If you wait for the sales you can get some Seabourn cruises down to $300-$400 per passenger per day, but realize that all the rooms are suites with large bathrooms, walk in closets, dining table, sofa. All meals, drinks and tips are included. If you are a drinker and prefer better food then you may want to look at the all in costs of your previous cruises.
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Mary Ellen

Mary Ellen

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I can't recommend Oceania for a stress free cruise. We've been cruising for over three decades and Oceania holds the distinction of the only cruise line where we haven't been able to get a decent breakfast. They also have the only server that we've felt the need to request NOT to be seated in their section.

 

We're very low maintenance and found the servers as a whole very underwhelming. I was actually elbowed by one as she demanded she be allowed to assist DH. Can't say I've ever been body-checked by a crew member before. Sad thing was that she couldn't help anyway. I had show her how to collapse DH's rollator.

 

While some of the crew was very good and the cabins are wonderful, overall we found Oceania fell well short of the hype.

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AKman2495

AKman2495

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We find Princess is very low stress. You can go to your cabin as soon as you board. The cabin layouts are virtually the same from ship to ship-which means you can up pack and it feels like "home"-a place that is familiar.

 

Princess also had good space to passenger ratios, which means there are plenty of little spaces and lounges to be free from crowds.

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LHT28 Holiday Sharing Rare

LHT28

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I can't recommend Oceania for a stress free cruise. We've been cruising for over three decades and Oceania holds the distinction of the only cruise line where we haven't been able to get a decent breakfast. They also have the only server that we've felt the need to request NOT to be seated in their section.

 

 

Wow that is painting with a very broad brush

:eek:

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ducklite

ducklite

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No matter which cruiseline you use, if EVERYONE on the ship wants to do the same thing at the same time (shows, eating, pool, etc...) it's gonna get crowded for a while!

 

 

Nope. When you only have a few hundred (or less) passengers, even if they are all at the same show there is still plenty if seating for all, and it never feels crowded.

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CoffeeHound

CoffeeHound

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I like Celebrity and find them to be overall stress free for me, but it is not just too many people that stresses me out. I do not like loud and frenetic as a general rule even if it is not crowded. I find that Celebrity generally offers a lower key experience on the sip as a whole so I do not feel I must spend the entire cruise in my cabin to get the rest and relaxation I am looking for on a cruise. What I am trying to say here is that every cruise line has a slightly different personality, and going on a different line may or may not offer you more of what you want. Some people really feel that Celebrity lacks in night life, so if that is important to you, you may not like Celebrity as much as I do. I mean if I told you Celebrity has twice as much space (it doesn't BTW) but doesn't allow smoking in any inside area or on the balconies would you still be interested? There are differences to the main stream bigger ship cruise lines, but I really don't think space per passenger is really one of them.

 

All I can say is that I agree with the other posters that to get more space you need to opt for the small ship cruising experience and I am not particularly interested in that myself because I enjoy the extra amenities that a larger ship can offer.

 

There are a ton of options out there. Just think of all the cruises you will get to go on trying them out!

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DonnaK

DonnaK

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In my experience with mainstream lines, Celebrity and Princess provided stress free cruises. (The Caribbean Princess did feel very crowded and bottlenecked, so I'd suggest trying a Princess ship that is smaller with less passengers)

 

I know that Royal Caribbean is known for it's huge ships, but they do a fabulous job of spreading the people around so that the ship doesn't feel so crowded. Their Voyager class and Radiance class ships have a very favorable public space to passenger ratio

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celebrity

celebrity

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We like Celebrity. We've never found lines for anything (other than leaving with the mob at the end of a show in the theatre). We can always find some quiet spaces to be. No announcements either.

 

Same here. No annoying announcements yet plenty to do. I found Princess a step down from Celebrity.

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KirkNC

KirkNC

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Luxury lines are going to have the most space to passenger ratios and have far fewer passengers.

 

Take a look at smaller cruise ships on some of the premium/mass market lines as well.

 

Keith

 

Quite true, Carnival is the mother of mass cruise lines. You have to pay more but there are lines with more serenity.

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OCruisers

OCruisers

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The OP has been cruising on Carnival so is highly unlikely to consider a true luxury cruise line. Probably wants suggestions for a less stressful mass market cruise line.

 

Princess is our favorite so is never stressful to us because we've cruised on Princess so many times. We always feel completely "at home".

The OP would be surprised at how very much less noise and confusion there is on Princess than there is on Carnival.

 

HAL is a very low-key and very nice cruise line. Sometimes, we sail on HAL for port intensive cruises when we want to come back from tours to quiet relaxing ship.

 

Celebrity is also very nice and could be considered as well.

 

LuLu

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