Which cruise line will you Never, Always and Try to cruise with and why?

[lkj1301]

Always - Celebrity and NCL in the haven.

Never - Carnival, Costa

Try - Would like to try Oceania, Regent and MSC.  We have been on several Princess cruises but haven't been able to find an itinerary in the last few years that would pull us away from Celebrity & NCL (haven only).  We also were on Silversea for a cruise in Alaska.  Wonderful cruise since it was a small ship (under 400).  DH told me a couple years later that there was too much Italian food in the main dining room so it kind of turned him off to Silversea.  But depending on itinerary I could probably convince him.

[naturelovergirl]

ALWAYS for us would absolutely include Cunard and Royal Caribbean for different reasons

 

We love Royal Caribbean because we always have a super great time on their ships... Coco Cay is just fantastic (We got to go and see all of the new things there before the pandemic)...we also honeymooned on a Royal Caribbean cruise! So Royal is very special to us.

 

We adore Cunard because it is very special... We don't mind the dress code in the least- it is part of the experience of Cunard. Their itineraries are fabulous, and their speakers are just great. (And... FYI... we are in our mid 40s) I think their product is quite lovely and unique. Cunard is different... and that makes it great. 

 

We will be trying Celebrity for an Alaska cruise we have booked for 2022... excited to say the least!!!! Cannot wait. Think we are going to love it.

 

I would also try Disney if I could go with my delightful nieces. I really would prefer to do that one with our extended family and not just as a couple.

 

I won't go on another Carnival cruise... not because I think the company and product is bad... fact is, for many people the price point and the experience is just right... I have been on Carnival before- but I'm just not interested on taking another, because, frankly, I would rather be on Royal.

Loyal to Royal.

[cgolf1]

Always - Celebrity and RCCL and Disney (at a lower price point for Disney though)

Never - Carnival

Try - Cunard and NCL and Viking and Princess come to mind right now.

 

The always is that we have had good luck on all three of these lines and have enjoyed the product. Disney however has ramped up prices way faster than the industry since 2016, so we won't be back there anytime soon, and their prices are likely similar to some of the luxury lines.

 

As far as Carnival we are basing our decision on experiences from other family members and close friends to say that is not the type of cruise experience that we want. I have heard some of the newer ships are better, but we won't chance our vacation money on that specific line.

 

The four to try our there because we do look at them when we book out our cruises, but for whatever reasons we have stuck to the 3 lines so far.

[Tudorcruisers]

Never - RCCL - cruised a lot with them in the past and last time things had gone downhill so much we were quite shocked.  

 

Always.   Crystal - excellent. 

 

Try - would love to try Seabourn.

[PhillyTravelBug]

Never - Carnival and Disney (not a fan of children)

 

Always- NCL

 

Try- Celebrity, MSC

[iancal]

We are not in the least bit loyal to any cruise line.  

 

Willing to try anything.  No preconceived notions.

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

Celebrity is now for those who do not care about the cost of a cruise. We sailed with Celebrity several times but no longer. Do not like paying for things we do not do, use or eat or drink. I will not pay double the price of other cruise lines. Disney is another way over priced ship. At lease Celebrity give you something for your money. We will miss cruising with Celebrity. 

[mtnesterz]

15 hours ago, cachouonacruise said:

I found this topic interesting, mainly for the following reason:

Having read quite a bit about incidents at sea, and how a cruise line respond to situations, when they do not go quite as planned, my choices would be taking these elements in consideration:

There was a small fire in the crew laundry on Celebrity. It didn't even make the news, but they handled it so well, I must commend them to you and all here how impressed I was with how they handled it and reassured passengers.

We have cruised enough on Princess that things have gone awry, as will happen on vacation. A man overboard, vandalism by a drunk teen that caused the ship to retrace its course, damaged luggage. Princess will make things right for the passengers.

Both lines get high marks from us on handling safety and the unexpected.

Edited April 7, 2021 by mtnesterz

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

7 minutes ago, PhillyTravelBug said:

Never - Carnival and Disney (not a fan of children)

 

Always- NCL

 

Try- Celebrity, MSC

Disney I can understand. You are partially correct about carnival. Go when the children are in school. We do. You almost never see the children. Maybe once and a while when they are with there parents and not in camp Carnival. never a problem. Basically the same as any other cruise line including NCL. MSC the same. Princess has fewer. Not much for the children to do on a Princess ship.

[Tatka]

Sailed with 8: Celebrity, RCI, Princess, Holland, Norwegian, Cunard, MSC, Carnival

 

Never: Carnival ...tried 3 times. Completely different ambience than we like

 

Less likely: MSC . We liked many aspects and European feel, but on smaller 90K ton ships. Large ships in our opinion are hugely overcrowded. We do not see any reasons to drive to Florida to try them again

 

Always: we seem to sail more with Royal lately. Overall it fits our preferences

 

Try: we want to re-try Holland on newer ships as we only tried it twice. Once it was on new ship (Zuiderdam), but it was a time they just started offering large sgip experience and service was OFF. Second time on Veendam experience was really nice, but ship was really old and not very well maintained.

 

Celebrity and Princess used to be our favorites, but as we try to fly as less as possibly we rarely meet. Also we had somewhat disappointing experience with Princess last time we sailed with them. Our last cruise with Celebrity on updated Summit to Bermuda was amazing in all departments except for entertainment.

Edited April 7, 2021 by Tatka

[AstoriaPreppy]

We notice we've started choosing based on how a line integrates in the region.

 

For example, we've discovered that in Alaska and more exotic itineraries, Princess and Holland America excel at doing regional-specific cruises. They bring cultural reps and regional entertainment onboard, offer food and beverages from the region through the sailings, have naturalists on the ship 24/7, etc.

 

When we sailed NCL in Alaska we were shocked that they didn't even have a naturalist on board to point out and identify wildlife (even Carnival has that!) In the Caribbean or Europe, it's not really a big deal, but in some places it makes a difference. 

 

We sailed on the Millennium in Japan in 2019, and while the cruise was great, the only regional enrichment was a guy from NY who moved to Thailand to become a monk, who gave lectures on Buddhism and meditation. Other than that, our only option for any sort of Japanese culture was Sushi on 5. 

[TeaBag]

1 hour ago, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

 We sailed with Celebrity several times but no longer. Do not like paying for things we do not do, use or eat or drink. I will not pay double the price of other cruise lines. Disney is another way over priced ship. At lease Celebrity give you something for your money. We will miss cruising with Celebrity. 

I agree with you.  We think Celebrity is making a mistake in not giving an option to the AI for the reasons you have stated.

Always: Celebrity  Sailed them exclusively for 20 years, but this may change.

Never:  Carnival , Costa, NCL

Try: HAL, Cunard, Azamara

This is a great thread OP.  I also like the idea of posting on other boards to see the different responses.

Edited April 7, 2021 by TeaBag

[PTC DAWG]

1 hour ago, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

Celebrity is now for those who do not care about the cost of a cruise. We sailed with Celebrity several times but no longer. Do not like paying for things we do not do, use or eat or drink. I will not pay double the price of other cruise lines. Disney is another way over priced ship. At lease Celebrity give you something for your money. We will miss cruising with Celebrity. 

LOL, double...after pricing the cruises out of St Martin on Celebrity, and the Gem out of DR on NCL...Celebrity actually came out less for comparable cabins.  

[hvbaskey]

Never:  Carnival (our first cruise, never to go back - not for us)
Always:  Celebrity (second cruise onwards - we have tried nothing else)

To Try:  Would like to try Cunard, HAL, and Princess.  Cunard for the experience.  HAL/Princess for comparison.

[FlyerTalker]

Lines that I would always be willing to sail on:  Crystal, Regent, Silversea, Seabourn

 

For the right itinerary and pricing:  Oceania, Azamara, Celebrity, SeaDream

 

For a very unique itinerary:  Windstar and HAL

 

Pretty much they would have to give me the cruise gratis:  About all the rest.

 

For me, it's not about a huge suite or a thousand games and activities onboard.   It's about the quality of product, the refined service and the interesting people you get to meet.

[AllureOfVacation]

Never: TUI and AIDA - I can not imagine flying abroad, e. g. to an embarkation board somewhere in the Caribbean or in Asia, just to board a ship with 2000+ other Germans. No, Thank you. By the way, I have no doubt that the service is excellent, there are many great reviews. 

Always: HAL, Princess, RC, X, NCL - this is all we cruised with yet. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, so we would always cruise with those again. 

 

Try: Oceania. I see that I am not the only one who'd like to try. They currently have very tempting prices. I am not quite sure about cruising with smaller sized ships, but I would give it a try. Once I was ironing our laundry on a Princess ship in the laundry room and there was another guest telling me many good things about Oceania, it was like a Oceania-laundry-sales-promotion - I was willing to book afterwards.

[TeeRick]

Never:  Any cruise line that does not require 100% vaccinated passengers and crew including no children unless they are vaccinated too.  For the present time anyway.

Never:  Carnival (I like a quiet atmosphere). 

Never:  Costa (still have not got past the Concordia incident).

Never:  Princess (still have not got past the Diamond Princess and how they treated the crew).

Never:  HAL (unless they change their smoking policy).

Always: Celebrity and Royal Caribbean.  My Go To cruise lines for years.  

Would like to try:  Viking, Silversea, Cunard, Crystal, Regent

 

[Denny01]

1 hour ago, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

Disney I can understand. You are partially correct about carnival. Go when the children are in school. We do. You almost never see the children. Maybe once and a while when they are with there parents and not in camp Carnival. never a problem. Basically the same as any other cruise line including NCL. MSC the same. Princess has fewer. Not much for the children to do on a Princess ship.

My issues with Carnival isn’t the number of kids, but what I’d call the Frat Boy approach for adults. Cannonball and hairy chest contests (hair doesn’t grow on steel chests!) and Conga Lines and other ‘forced fun’! And drinking till you’re sick. Of course for me know that’s 2 drinks!
 

one question about Celebrity. I understand people’s concern over All Included and they don’t use the WiFi and don’t drink, but you said you were paying for food you don’t eat.....not sure what that entails.
 

I guess you can find some similar Line and SR that is 1/2 the X price, but it’s a hard press. One poster showed much cheaper balcony SRs on RCL but they were ‘balconies’ overlooking the internal ship deck below....the true balcony SRs were cheaper but not nearly 1/2. personally, you could get good non-alcoholic drinks, special coffees and gratuities on Celebrity covered but understand. 
 

den
 

den

 

[davekathy]

2 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

Never:  Any cruise line that does not require 100% vaccinated passengers and crew including no children unless they are vaccinated too.  For the present time anyway.

Never:  Carnival (I like a quiet atmosphere). 

Never:  Costa (still have not got past the Concordia incident).

Never:  Princess (still have not got past the Diamond Princess and how they treated the crew).

Never:  HAL (unless they change their smoking policy).

Always: Celebrity and Royal Caribbean.  My Go To cruise lines for years.  

Would like to try:  Viking, Silversea, Cunard, Crystal, Regent

 

Your first "never" would be the deal breaker for us. No matter the cruise line we choose. 

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

8 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

Never:  Any cruise line that does not require 100% vaccinated passengers and crew including no children unless they are vaccinated too.  For the present time anyway.

Never:  Carnival (I like a quiet atmosphere). 

Never:  Costa (still have not got past the Concordia incident).

Never:  Princess (still have not got past the Diamond Princess and how they treated the crew).

Never:  HAL (unless they change their smoking policy).

Always: Celebrity and Royal Caribbean.  My Go To cruise lines for years.  

Would like to try:  Viking, Silversea, Cunard, Crystal, Regent

 

We totally agree tot he first one. Better to be as safe as possible.

[cookiersmom]

Always : Celebrity, (Princess ok too)

Never : HAL : went once and was 50 years too young for the crowd and for the entertainment aimed at that crowd and the shore ex, etc.   Also, on our one experience, the customer service was abysmal. There was leaking sewage and no air conditions and the front desk really didn't seem to care (In the hallways, not just in the room) and told us it was because the ship had just come from Alaska that the AC didn't work.  I will say that they had the best speakers on the topic of the cruise (the Panama canal).      Probably not Carnival again - obvious reasons

Maybe: want to try Viking Ocean, Azamara, Disney when we have grandkids.  We started on RCL and will sail them but prefer X.   

 

Agree with the 

Never : huge ships with carnivals. 

 

[m8zenblue]

On our first cruise out of Fort Lauderdale on embarkation day we were docked next to a Carnival ship, we were on the Holland America Eurodam.

We are not that old, 60ish, lol.

But, the noise, loud music and drunks that we saw on that ship was ridiculous, and it was still hours from departing.

At that moment I swore I would never ever cruise with Carnival.

We would love to cruise on Disney one day with grandsons !

[TrulyBlonde]

5 minutes ago, m8zenblue said:

 

We would love to cruise on Disney one day with grandsons !

Yes, grandchildren make the difference. I took my Grandson at 5 years old on Disney. I do not like children on our cruises. Thought once was enough. However, he loved it so much and they really do a superb job. He has since been on 4 other Disney cruises and only missed this year and last due to Covid 😞. 

I even took my whole family once, including my 80 year old Dad. That was the best one.

[drew69]

3 hours ago, PhillyTravelBug said:

Never - Carnival and Disney (not a fan of children)

 

Always- NCL

 

Try- Celebrity, MSC

Tried Carnival, believe me, it is not the children that are a problem on Carnival ships, it is the adults!  

[retired dude]

never again, carnival for the obvious reasons, ncl poor food , service and entertainment...disney we have no kids and dont want to put up with them or their narcissistic parents.

always: rccl, but would like the belly flop and similar activities to be ceased. 

Maybe again: HAL if they have the BBKING club onboard, that club made up for the horrible shows with canned music. food and service on hal is good. Love celebrity but the new AI program will make it cost prohibitive for us to continue sailing with them even though we are elite with them..