Best cruise ever

[gmjc2]

Can't choose just one!

 

Sailing out of Venice at dusk with the lights coming on in St. Marks Square

Australia-Great Barrier reef--then crossing the Pacific to Hawaii then San Diego. 40 days total.

Norwegian Fjords!

New Zealand -Milford sound etc!

May 2020 was supposed to be our first Alaska --maybe next year!!

Edited July 26, 2020 by gmjc2

[Cruise Raider]

There were many that are on the top of my list but, one stands out as being my absolute favorite.  Note, it wasn't on Princess.  

We cruised from Seattle roundtrip on a 10 night itinerary in mid to late Sept a few years back with a couple of great friends.  We had an inside cabin, which happened to be right across from the opening to the large glass enclosed elevator lobby.  At first I thought I made a huge mistake but, it ended up being an excellent stateroom choice.  There was a little reading area in that elevator vestibule but, with only two large comfy chairs.  They allowed us to abduct two more chairs from another deck and we brought our coffee table out from our room, with further permission.  We dubbed it 'the lounge' as we hung out there for a great majority of the cruise.  We even ordered room service there one day and upon seeing this, the hotel director sent us a couple of bottles of champagne.  We weren't loud or obnoxious, just a great place to hang out with a beautiful view and we could even hear the music from a couple of decks below.  There was nice airflow when anybody used the elevator.  It stands out as being one of my all time favorite cruises.  

With that being said, we had never been up to Alaska before or since when the weather had been that stormy.  We hit 100 mile an hour winds in the inside passage and the sleet was pelting us the day we visited the glacier.  Nobody was allowed out on the open decks and the captain even urged women to wear flat shoes so they didn't have any broken ankles.  Seems like half the staff was sea sick ... but, we must have all had our sea legs on during that cruise as nobody in our party felt sick in the very least.  Now, as a treat after such a rough sailing, the captain arranged for us to sail back down to Seattle between the mainland and Vancouver Island instead of being at sea.  That was honestly the most gorgeous scenery we've ever encountered.  What a spectacular day!!  

 

[BigGuy25]

With 30+ cruises behind us, friends always ask which was our favorite.  It's always a difficult question because we've had such amazing adventures all over the world.  But, one we really enjoyed was on the Island Princess in French Polynesia.  Loved the breathtaking beauty and simplicity of the islands. We then took off for 5 days at sea (stopping for a few hours in Kirabati) and ended touring the Hawaiian islands.  Great voyage!!

[MISTER 67]

12 hours ago, Lucky TGO said:

I think it was my first cruise on the Costa Riviera. That’s it for me a was hooked and have been on over 50 cruises since then.

Tony

Costa Riviera was a great ship and a favorite of ours.

[donaldsc]

Four cruises - 

 

1) Alaska on the Alaskan Dream - 50 passengers

 

2) Antarctica on the Nordkapp - ~250 passengers

 

3) Maine coast on the Lewis R French which is a 150 year old gaff-rigged topsail schooner - 22 passengers

 

4) South Georgia on the Ocean Adventurer with Quark - 100 passengers

 

There are a couple of common denominators to all these cruses - they are all adventure cruises and they biggest of the ships held about 300 people.  

 

DON

[BabySarge]

I can honestly say that every cruise we have done has been wonderful but two fairly recent ones do stand out. 

First is our 2016 cruise onboard Emerald Princess originating in Southampton and ending in Sydney then staying on for a cruise round New Zealand.   A total of 61 awesome days.  Great ports, terrific tablemates (so much laughter and fun!!), awesome service. 

 

The second is our 60 day Circle North Pacific/Asia onboard the Coral Princess in 2018.  So many wonderful ports from Alaska to Viet Name to China and Japan.  Definitely a cruise I would do again.

[geoherb]

My favorite was our transatlantic cruise on the Royal a couple of years ago. The ship had to change itinerary due to storms in the northern Atlantic. We had unexpected stops in Vigo and Ponta Delgada instead of Bergen and Belfast. But the ship treated us well, giving us both OBC credit and future cruise credit (25 percent of our fare). The biggest positive was having Matt O' as cruise director for all those wonderful days at sea. 

 

Last year's transatlantic on the Crown was a close second. We had unexpected changes on that one, skipping two ports but no compensation for it. But we had a great Cruise Critic group. I particularly enjoyed the books someone chose for us to read and discuss (Dan Brown's Origin and Where the Crawdads Sing). I also loved our British Isles cruise. And I would love to go back to Alaska every year if possible. Last year's back-to-back cruises--my first time traveling solo--were great.

[Rassa]

The best cruise was our last cruise on the Emerald for 29 nights from Barcelona to LA through the new locks and before the misery of the pandemic.

1.  Because we had a table of 10 in the dining room and we enjoyed the company of all of them every night.

2.  It was our first balcony and there is no way I am going back to just window (please note husband).

3.  Because it was a move over offer and it was free.

[trbarton]

My best cruise will always be #1 since it can never be repeated. It was the 50th Anniversary Cruise of Princess, 14 days to Mexico, on the original Love Boat, the Pacific Princess. All of the Love Boat Cast was on that cruise. 

 

Tom😀
 

 

 

[john_galt]

Five day cruise from Ft. Lauderdale in 2014 on the Celebrity Constellation in the port side Penthouse (2,530 sq.ft). Pre-cruise night at the Ritz. We didn't go ashore at either port call and rarely left the suite. The butler served every meal in the room. Wonderful decompression getaway. This was back before the pricing went to $3,000 per day for this suite. 

 

[Reader0108598]

6 hours ago, trbarton said:

My best cruise will always be #1 since it can never be repeated. It was the 50th Anniversary Cruise of Princess, 14 days to Mexico, on the original Love Boat, the Pacific Princess. All of the Love Boat Cast was on that cruise. 

 

Tom😀
 

 

 

I agree first few cruises were awesome! But then I had to peek behind the curtain lol Still love it!

🙂 It is what you make of it! Dawn princess our first cruise!

 

 

Edited July 27, 2020 by Reader0108598

[BarbinMich]

Having done 51 cruises, it's hard to pick the best one.  But one of particular note was our repositioning cruise on the "old" Regal P, from Rome to Copenhagen in 2003.  It was our first European cruise but we'd done some land tours within Europe before that.  I thought it was a "magical" itinerary:  Rome, Cannes, Barcelona, Lisbon, Vigo (Sp), Le Havre, Dover, Antwerp, and Amsterdam.  We revisited all those ports, except the last two, on subsequent TA's.  We did get back to Amsterdam when we did a river cruise from/to there.

[jondfk]

We booked a 14 day Med cruise out of Southampton on Crown for our 25th anniversary.  I booked an MA mini (in those days long before Club Class), didn't tell DW, she expected the usual OV cabin we'd sailed in a dozen times before, but it was a great time for a splurge.

 

About 60 days prior to sailing the phone rang, someone at Princess offering me an upgrade to a full suite on Rivera deck (R404 to be exact).  Still I told DW nothing.

 

A few CC members met for dinner the evening before in Southampton, one sailing alone in a suite said "come with me at checkin and I'll get you on first as an anniversary gift", although we were entitled to suite boarding, her offer allowed me to hide the upgrade until we actually stepped on board.  

 

The cabin, occasion, weather and ports were all perfect.  We met the best friends playing trivia and enjoyed every moment over those two weeks.

 

We've had many enjoyable cruises with Princess before and since, but that one will always be special.  

[pris993]

What comes to mind:

1. l980s cruise from Venice to LaHavre, through Mediterranean, stops at Athens, Rome, Barcelona, Lisbon ... going thru the straits of Gilbralter, seeing lights from Europe on one side and lights from north Africa on other.    Was on Royal Odessey, nice ship, first cruise for us in Mediterranean.

2.  Royal Princess in l998, Dover RT to Baltics, great ports, great ship.

3.  First cruise, forget which ship we did going to Egypt, we did three times on different lines, Princess, HAL and NCL... not sure which Princess ship... visiting Egypt was the highlight.  Had tried to do so and civil unrest forced me to wait 10 years between my first attempt and finally getting there. 

[molly1riv]

June 2019 British Isles. So many ports = so many great memories. Crown Princess was a bit beat down mechanically but other than that it was wonderful!

[Tak8]

British Isles cruise on Csribbean Princess May '17.  Great to get a taste of Ireland, Scotland and France.  Especially Ireland since my mother's side is from there and it was a college graduation present for my son.  

 

Honorable mention:

First cruise on Princess was on Golden.  Upgraded to a suite.

 

Christmas cruise on Crown.  More fun than I thought and Gingerbread souffle.

[lorri111]

Antarctica this year, just before  the world went mad. Got home just in time!

[Lido deck main]

I remember it was 2008, it was my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary, they took all four of their kids, the spouses and the grandchildren.  It was a two night cruise a Vancouver to Seattle with no port stops, and then taking Private bus back to Vancouver.  I remember thinking, what do people do on cruises, it’s for two days, will it be fun.  Anyhow fast forward to today and my husband and I have about 320 cruise days behind us.  We both work full time.  We try to take two cruises per year, all of our vacation is set aside for cruising.  Our longest was 37 days.  All of them we have enjoyed, but I really liked the South Pacific French Polynesia.  We snorkeled quite a bit.  That was in 2014.   A 33 day cruise.  

[Fletch1]

Mmmmmmmm.....an interesting question. As with others, I think the first cruise is always a special one. So, I will go with that (it was a 12 day Christmas cruise in 2002 with the family around the South Pacific islands.....fond memories. My first time out of Australia). 

 

Honorable mention.......a 14 day Northern Lights cruise to Norway with friends in 2018. Just spectacular! Lot's of ice, snow and coldness (-25 celcius) and we did see the Northern Lights!

 

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, Fletch1 said:

Mmmmmmmm.....an interesting question. As with others, I think the first cruise is always a special one. So, I will go with that (it was a 12 day Christmas cruise in 2002 with the family around the South Pacific islands.....fond memories. My first time out of Australia). 

 

Honorable mention.......a 14 day Northern Lights cruise to Norway with friends in 2018. Just spectacular! Lot's of ice, snow and coldness (-25 celcius) and we did see the Northern Lights!

 

Thanks for the spectacular Northern Lights picture.

 

We did get to see the Northern Lights on a land trip in Iceland, but not as spectacular as those pictured.

[CRUISEWITHH]

Love all the cruises that we have taken, but the one that stands out was on the Ocean Princess in May 2010 from Capetown up the western coast of Africa and including Spain, Portugal, France and ending in Dover, England. An unforgettable 31 day journey.

 

We met so many wonderful people on board this small ship and did so many interesting excursions in all the ports.

 

Our cruise critic group each took a port to arrange private tours and they all turned out to be exceptional.

[drsel]

Costa Riviera was a great ship and a favorite of ours.

Yes I sailed on its very last voyage November and December 2018, before it was sold /transferred to AIDA

[MISTER 67]

1 hour ago, drsel said:

On 7/26/2020 at 1:16 PM, MISTER 67 said:

Costa Riviera was a great ship and a favorite of ours.

Yes I sailed on its very last voyage November and December 2018, before it was sold /transferred to AIDA

I'm talking about the original Costa Riviera which was built in the 1950s as the Marconi for the old Italian Line. This was when Costa was family owned before being sold to Carnival. Our first cruise with Costa was on the old Carla Costa which was another great old ocean liner built as the Flandre for the French Line before Costa bought her and turned her into a cruise ship. 

Edited August 9, 2020 by MISTER 67

[Ken the cruiser]

I can think of at least 3. Our 10 day Celebrity Galapagos cruise in 2015, our 22 day HAL Antarctica cruise in 2018 and our 30 day HAL Australia circumnavigation cruise in 2019. Reason being we love animals and these 3 areas have the most by far unique set of animals we have ever seen. 

[KruzPrincess]

My first was in 1974 on the Costa Carla C. I was so young and it was the first time I took a trip outside the US. It was just a whim for my girlfriends and I. We had no idea what  to expect. There was no internet or anything to do research.  The ship was terribly old and very industrial looking. We had nothing to compare it to and I absolutely loved it. I literally cried when they made me get off. I was hooked forever. 

 

In 1996, I did a transpacific on the original Love Boat, The Pacific Princess, sailing from Honolulu to Mexico. We couldn’t sail to CA then. We had to take a bus across the border and up to San Diego. It all seemed so exotic at the time. Haha. I loved having the experience of sailing on the Love Boat especially since I’ve grown to enjoy Princess so much. 

 

My favorite cruise for experience was in 2016 when I sailed on the Emerald Princess for a summer solstice cruise from Southampton RT to Norway. Truly lovely. 

 

Finally, I’ve loved all my cruises, but I’m especially fond of my time in Alaska. I never get tired of going there.