Help my pick a birthday cruise!

[no1racefan1]

Anybody want to help me pick a 40th birthday destination? I want to take a cruise for my 40th birthday (in 2022, maybe by then I'll have made up my mind) and I have no idea where to go. There are so many places on my bucket list that it's hard to decide! Based off your experiences, what type of cruise do you think would meet our needs, based on the following information:

 

-It would be myself and DH. Budget is $3-4K, excluding airfare. Prefer a balcony cabin. We are both in average physical shape and enjoy being active.

-We have been on 4 cruises/3 cruise lines. Princess--Alaska; NCL--Hawaii; Carnival--Mexican Riviera & Key West/Cozumel. Our favorite line so far has been Carnival but we are not loyal to anybody at this point. We like great food, eat in the MDR for most meals, enjoy going to the production shows, and occasionally participate in trivia or other onboard activities. We are not into all the super new features on the megaships and would rather avoid giant ships altogether.

-We are not big drinkers--me not at all, and DH just a few drinks per cruise. So beverage packages are lost on us.

-We like to indulge in spa treatments and loved the spa access on Carnival Splendor. Looking for a similar experience.

-Preferably 5-7 nights, as that's all the vacation time we would have available. We have passports so we are not limited in where we could travel to.

-We like to book active excursions such as hiking, kayaking, etc. We typically book ship excursions but have been known to DIY on occasion. We are also interested in history, cool architecture, ruins, wildlife, etc.

-Travel would be sometime around my birthday (May 20th)

[George C]

You should be able to get a grand suite on one of the older rccl or ,maybe Liberty of the seas , suite is great way to celebrate. Love the size and perks with suites. 

[OCruisers]

46 minutes ago, no1racefan1 said:

-Preferably 5-7 nights, as that's all the vacation time we would have available. We have passports so we are not limited in where we could travel to.

 

Actually 5-7 nights does put somewhat of a limit on where you can cruise.

You have liked Carnival best in the past so seems a Carnival cruise would be your best choice.  

[no1racefan1]

1 hour ago, George C said:

You should be able to get a grand suite on one of the older rccl or ,maybe Liberty of the seas , suite is great way to celebrate. Love the size and perks with suites. 

Thanks, I'll check it out!

[no1racefan1]

1 hour ago, OCruisers said:

 

Actually 5-7 nights does put somewhat of a limit on where you can cruise.

You have liked Carnival best in the past so seems a Carnival cruise would be your best choice.  

Well...yes. I meant we aren't restricting where we would like to go, however the time constriction should help narrow down choices.

[mom says]

With only 5-7 days total, and that time of year, you're pretty much stuck with the Caribbean or a West coast cruise. Since you haven't done an Eastern Caribbean cruise yet, maybe try that.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Don't know where you live -- that makes a big difference if you have to allow time to fly to and from a port.

 

Eastern Caribbean

Canada/New England.

[jocap]

Can you add on your weekend days to your 5-7 day's cruise?

I'm just remembering when we were  short of days, but managed to go straight from work on a Friday, flew from the UK via San Fran to Hawaii- must have been around 20 hours plus- had 6 or 7 days driving round Big Island and flew back to return to work the next day... we were much younger then... but we managed it all by working it around our weekend days as well as our vacation days.

I was thinking that if you flew overnight from the US to Heathrow on the night after work, you could pick up a short cruise, then return the night after- this year, for instance, RCI's Independence OTS is doing a short 7 night-er out of Southampton on May 18t this year, which goes to Germany, Norway and Belgium. 

Would that work for you in your birthday year? I don't know where you're from, but it's probably no more than 6 hours overnight from NY.

Enjoy choosing!  🙂

[no1racefan1]

6 minutes ago, jocap said:

Can you add on your weekend days to your 5-7 day's cruise?

I'm just remembering when we were  short of days, but managed to go straight from work on a Friday, flew from the UK via San Fran to Hawaii- must have been around 20 hours plus- had 6 or 7 days driving round Big Island and flew back to return to work the next day... we were much younger then... but we managed it all by working it around our weekend days as well as our vacation days.

I was thinking that if you flew overnight from the US to Heathrow on the night after work, you could pick up a short cruise, then return the night after- this year, for instance, RCI's Independence OTS is doing a short 7 night-er out of Southampton on May 18t this year, which goes to Germany, Norway and Belgium. 

Would that work for you in your birthday year? I don't know where you're from, but it's probably no more than 6 hours overnight from NY.

Enjoy choosing!  🙂

Yes! I was meaning a 5-7 day cruise, not counting the travel days :)

I live in Wyoming so I have to drive to fly no matter what.

[no1racefan1]

21 hours ago, fyree39 said:

I'd suggest you try Royal Caribbean just to see how they stack up against the other three.  I've been on 24 Carnival cruises and finally tried Royal.  I like that line better. I've been on the Jewel of the Seas and Anthem of the Seas.  I liked both ships but honestly felt the Jewel was nicer.

Thank you! I've been thinking about trying RCCL, I think that might be where I narrow down my search!

[George C]

Rccl has several classes of ships I perfer something in the middle like navigator which is a voyager class , love the ice show which is on every ship this class or bigger. 

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

Do NOT rule out a mega ship at all. 70 cruises now so please listen up. My wife and I always enjoyed the average size to smaller ships. We saw the Royal Caribbean Harmony advertised so much we had to try it. Usually does a Mexican riviera cruise but can change. It will be moving from Miami to Port Canaveral Florida. Now it is one of our most favorite ships. I will just go over a few reasons. Number of about 6200 guests. Holy cow. So many people. yes, but the ship is so very big you never see that many more than you would on a much smaller ship. It is not crowded as you would think. First run broadway mega shows. Awesome. Ice Skating shows that are totally unbelievable. Water shows that will take your breath away. So many places to eat. Zip line, wave flowrider. The complementary food was awesome, the best we ever had. There is one deck you will love, either during the day and especially at night. Called Central Park. Many restaurants. It IS like a walk in the park and in the evening someone is always playing super beautiful music. Trees, flowers, benches. An awesome experience unlike any other ship but the Oasis class ships. If you do book. As soon as you have time. Once you board the ship. Book all the shows so you can enter before those that do not book. They're all included in your cruise. We will not be goin on the Harmony any time soon. Do not want to see the same shows. So our next oasis class ship is on the Allure. Basically the same but an older ship. You will bo so very happy you weren't on the Harmony. One cruise we will never forget. Disliked NOTHING about the cruise. That is totally unusual for us.