Just want to cruise

[jobinseattle]

Curious what others do. It has been about 4 months since our first cruise. It sure does seem like forever. At that time I was thinking about only cruising on one cruise line. Things have sure changed. Now my question: Are you loyal to one brand/ship or cruise on what is available at the port you want leave from? I am now thinking about choosing any brand of ship as long as it does the itinerary I am looking for and make the best of what the ship offers. I just want to go. Seems like there is positives on any ship. Anyone else?

[AKJonesy]

I'm a senior.  There is no way I would get on a party ship like Carnival.  We cruise to relax and not to be overrun by a bunch of kids.  Then, there is the timing of the cruise.  During the holidays and spring break you will find more party goers especially on the 4 and 7 day cruises.  When we have booked a 7 day, which is rare it is outside of the break period for school which seems to reduce the number of kids.  However, that may be what you are looking for...not sure.  The Alaska itineraries have higher port fees pushing the price up for the cruise.  Same for some others...just so you know that.  Fort Lauderdale and San Diego are easy ports to embark and disembark from due to their convenience to hotels and airport.  

[jobinseattle]

1 minute ago, AKJonesy said:

I'm a senior.  There is no way I would get on a party ship like Carnival.  We cruise to relax and not to be overrun by a bunch of kids.  Then, there is the timing of the cruise.  During the holidays and spring break you will find more party goers especially on the 4 and 7 day cruises.  When we have booked a 7 day, which is rare it is outside of the break period for school which seems to reduce the number of kids.  However, that may be what you are looking for...not sure.  The Alaska itineraries have higher port fees pushing the price up for the cruise.  Same for some others...just so you know that.  Fort Lauderdale and San Diego are easy ports to embark and disembark from due to their convenience to hotels and airport.  

We are in our 50's so it would just be the two of us. I agree with you, being around a lot of children and loud people would be a little frustrating. We also want to relax. Galveston is the closest cruise terminal to us. I have also heard that about Carnival being party ships. I guess I need to think about that when looking. I imagine suite areas may reduce the amount of children. Our children are grown and have no interest in cruising. Just excited for our next cruise.

[hallasm]

I go on cruises all over the world and that way I get to experience the world. I have pretty much only sailed with Royal Caribbean.
I see a great advantage in primarily sailing with one company to benefit from the loyalty program Crown & Anchor.
Incidentally, options for cruises close to where I live are severely limited.

[Essiesmom]

I sail whatever line I can afford, going where I want to go.  Loyalty is nice, but not necessary.  I am a super senior, so I prefer to be able to drive to the port.  I do not find Carnival to be a super party line, as long as you avoid the short cruises, and school holidays.  In fact, on the longer cruises of 8+ days, you look around and realize that anyone who does not have gray or white hair (if they have any at all) is dying it.  I sail solo so I am price driven.  EM

[K32682]

Where I am going is less important than whose name is on the boat. When I am going is important because it can effect who else is on the boat. Short cruise to the Caribbean on a discount line is likely to have you surrounded by drunks, a cruise during school holidays is more likely to have you among children and teachers. Itinerary and timing are what matters more.  

[George C]

We used to cruise many cruise lines , have been cruising since 1975 with about 80 cruises. For the last decade we just cruise suites on either rccl oasis  class for great entertainment. Celebrity which has a better suite lounge and suite restaurant plus other great suite perks. Our next cruise is MSc YC which has a fantastic ship within ship concept, yacht club has its own restaurants, pool , bars and a lounge with live music .

[ldubs]

I would choose just about any brand if the itinerary and price were right.   Over the years we have sailed enough to have perks on some lines.  Those are nice to have but won't drive our choice except for maybe a tie-breaker.  

 

We have sailed on ships with a lot of kids and on ships with very few kids.  We have sailed on ships with a vibrant party atmosphere and ships with a more sedate atmosphere.  We don't spend a lot of effort on looking for things to complain about. We have and will continue to enjoy them all.  Just for the record, I'm a geezer, Haha.   

[mammajamma2013]

5 hours ago, jobinseattle said:

I am now thinking about choosing any brand of ship as long as it does the itinerary I am looking for and make the best of what the ship offers. I just want to go.

This is exactly my thinking. 

[John Bull]

4 hours ago, AKJonesy said:

I'm a senior.  There is no way I would get on a party ship like Carnival.  We cruise to relax and not to be overrun by a bunch of kids.  Then, there is the timing of the cruise.  During the holidays and spring break you will find more party goers especially on the 4 and 7 day cruises.  When we have booked a 7 day, which is rare it is outside of the break period for school which seems to reduce the number of kids.  However, that may be what you are looking for...not sure.  The Alaska itineraries have higher port fees pushing the price up for the cruise.  Same for some others...just so you know that.  Fort Lauderdale and San Diego are easy ports to embark and disembark from due to their convenience to hotels and airport.  

 

 

We sailed Carnival despite knowing its reputation, and had no problem - only the pool deck was noisy, and that was easy to avoid. It was a 9-day Norwegian cruise, which may have been the reason.

 

we sail primarily for the destinations and for the value-for-money (which doesn't have to mean cheapest)

 

JB 🙂

[9tee2Sea]

Im retired, but Carnival's reputation does not bother me.  It helps I never cruise during a holiday

( spring break, etc).  It's their vacation as well, so if they want to suffer the consequences of heavy partying, so be it.  I have been on Princess, Carnival NCL, MSC, Cunard.  Princess and Cunard were the most "Party Free" cruises, but I have had fun on all of them.  I was on a tender coming back to the ship from Cabo, and there were a group of young folks just hogging the two bucket ( if you know what I mean).  I just kept thinking to myself, what fools, you have to learn how to pace yourself.  Is a day long hangover worth it? 

[Charles4515]

5 hours ago, jobinseattle said:

Curious what others do. It has been about 4 months since our first cruise. It sure does seem like forever. At that time I was thinking about only cruising on one cruise line. Things have sure changed. Now my question: Are you loyal to one brand/ship or cruise on what is available at the port you want leave from? I am now thinking about choosing any brand of ship as long as it does the itinerary I am looking for and make the best of what the ship offers. I just want to go. Seems like there is positives on any ship. Anyone else?

I have never been loyal to one brand. After over 60 cruises I have developed preferences over the years and those have changed. If I had stuck to the cruise line I did my first cruise on I would not have discovered that I preferred other cruise lines over the one I did my first one on. My advice is to try some of the others before settling on a prefered cruise line. You might decide to be loyal to one or you might decide it doesn't matter. The mainstream cruise lines are pretty similar.

[lenquixote66]

We have been on 6 cruise lines from 1973 to 2019.

[Shmoo here]

7 hours ago, jobinseattle said:

Curious what others do. It has been about 4 months since our first cruise. It sure does seem like forever. At that time I was thinking about only cruising on one cruise line. Things have sure changed. Now my question: Are you loyal to one brand/ship or cruise on what is available at the port you want leave from? I am now thinking about choosing any brand of ship as long as it does the itinerary I am looking for and make the best of what the ship offers. I just want to go. Seems like there is positives on any ship. Anyone else?

We book our cruises based primarily on itinerary.  That means whatever cruise line has an itinerary we like, that's the one we use.

 

Departure port doesn't particularly matter.  

[Hlitner]

Yes, there is an awful lot of brand loyalty in the cruise world.   We have been cruising for about 50 years and have socialized/talked with many other cruisers, the large majority of whom cruise on 1 or 2 lines.  There are many exceptions to the loyalty thing, and with that we identify.   DW tells me we have cruised on 18 cruise lines (#19 is coming up in December) over many decades.  Although some of those lines, such as Regency, Renaissance, Orient Lines, and Sitmar are long gone, most of the lines are still around :).  

 

The cruise industry is very dynamic, so loyalty means accepting whatever a cruise line decides to be.  For example, when we first cruised on RCCL (now known as RCI) it was on the Sun Viking.  That ship was 18,455 tons and had a passenger capacity of over 800!  These days, many RCI ships are more than 10 times that size :).  On the Sun Viking there were waiters and assistant waiters, all wore white gloves and sides were served from silver service platters.  Our favorite waiter would open up our baked potatoes, and scoop in various toppings (he had a silver bowl with more than 6 toppings) according to our specifications.  There was only Fixed Dining and a Lido Buffet, with no such thing as alternative restaurants, add-on costs, etc.  DW and I were somewhat loyal to RCI until they started to change (not for the better IMHO) and then quickly morphed to Celebrity (which also underwent many changes).  

 

I would also suggest that being "loyal" to one particular cruise line means folks do not experience the fantastic variety found in the cruise world.  Perhaps that explains how DW and I can still cruise over 100 days a year (on various lines) and never be bored, not need to deal with same entertainment,  enjoy the completely different cuisine found on the various lines/ships, etc.  Of course the cruise lines do try to build loyalty with their frequent cruiser programs and extra perks, but we see most of that as "small potatoes" given the cost of cruising.  

 

I also agree with the comment about itinerary.  We recently returned from 3 weeks on a small Seabourn vessel (about 600 passengers) that was mostly in Croatia and Greece.  On that ship we went to quite a few ports that will never be visited by the huge mega ships.  On the other hand, those mega ships can be perfect for folks that want all the amenities and could care less about going to a various small ports that do not welcome or accommodate the really big ships.

 

Would we ever go back on RCI?  Perhaps, if we were cruising with our young grandchildren :).

 

Hank

 

 

[olemissreb]

While I have my preferences, I try to sail mostly for intinerary. I do love sailing from San Juan...guaranteed warm temps in Jan-Mar and sailing past El Morro is so cool.

 

For my next cruise in March, my sister is joining me and so I wanted guaranteed warmth since she'll be coming from Wisconsin...so San Juan it was. We originally booked a great itinerary on one of my preferred lines, but it got canceled. So we're going on a new line for me, but one my sister cruised on for her honeymoon 34 years ago. We'll see if this becomes one of my preferred lines.

[SbbquilterUT]

Cruise line depends on who is cruising (family vs us alone).  Once retired we are choosing by itinerary and the ability to link together interesting cruises.  We do look to sail to cruises in Europe rather than fly.  Our most recent couple cruises have been on much smaller ship and we did really enjoy it.

[XBGuy]

23 hours ago, Shmoo here said:

We book our cruises based primarily on itinerary.  That means whatever cruise line has an itinerary we like, that's the one we use.

 

Departure port doesn't particularly matter.  

 

 

We also book primarily based on itinerary.  However, the most important parts of any itinerary are the embarkation and disembarkation ports.

 

😁

 

@jobinseattle, as you can see, there are as many cruise decision-making priorities as there are cruisers.  All are perfectly fine, and none have to be justified.