Which cruise line should I look at?

[abmom]

My fiance and I are planning on booking a cruise for our honeymoon in March. We have been on three cruises together. The first was on Royal Caribbean (Navigator), which we loved. The second was on Carnival (Triumph), and we swore we'd never do that again. The third really doesn't even count. It was Celebration's two-night trip to the Bahamas, and if you want to know my feelings on that, you can look up the review I wrote!

 

We're still figuring out our "cruise style" but we've agreed that we prefer more ports and very few days at sea. We're adventure people and the joy of cruising for us is getting to see new places and try new things (scuba, jetskis, parasailing, ziplining, etc).

 

As far as the time we spend on the ship itself, probably the most important thing for us is the food. We did not like the food on Carnival at all, but we thought Royal Caribbean's food was fantastic. We also thought Royal Caribbean was much more elegant and relaxing, while Carnival's ship felt more like a, well, carnival. :)

 

We're not tied down to any one cruise line right now, since we've only experienced the two, so my fiance suggested looking at some of the smaller lines. That's fine by me, but I want to make sure that the line we choose is something compatible with us, especially since it's our honeymoon.

 

Specifically we have been looking at Princess, Celebrity, and Holland America. Would anyone be willing to rank these lines (along with RCI & Carnival) so that I can get some opinions on which one to choose. I know that it's all opinion and you might like something that I hate, but I'd still like to hear your opinion. :)

[olemissreb]

I'd choose Celebrity! Princess was our first cruise, but Celebrity far out shined her! The food and service were wonderful on both. Our Princess cruise had an older crowd - we were 28 & 29 so anyone over 40 was old to us! - maybe in their 50's & 60's. There was not a lot to do on the ship, but then again we were looking for not a lot to do! All we wanted was to relax! We were on the original Crown Princess (in 1991) and now there is a bigger better Crown Princess, so this point is probably no longer valid.

 

The thing that put Celebrity over the top was that DH and I splurged and got a suite - complete with Butler service! There was a lot more to do on the Celebrity ship also.

 

We didn't know about CC back in 1991(I don't even know if the internet was around then!). I found them 4 years ago and so I signed up on the Roll Call for our Celebrity cruise and thru that we met a bunch of folks. I think that also helped make our cruise on Celebrity better.

 

Even though DH and I have been on 3 cruises (4th coming up in April) we don't have our cruise style yet either. We're more itinerary type people. If the itinerary is where we want to go and the price is right, we book. Well maybe not so simple - we also consider the time of year and the age range of the passengers. Read the CC reviews of the ships as well as the reviews from CC members. Between the 2 you should be able to narrow down your choices - that's what I did before our Celebrity cruise.

 

Whichever cruise line you choose - have a wonderful honeymoon and Congratulations!

[paul929207]

If you want lots of ports and few sea days, look at the Med cruises. We took one on Princess that was 12 days with only one sea day.

[98Charlie]

For port intensive cruises, I'd suggest the Med or a Southern Caribbean out of San Juan.

 

Dianne

[Taxguy77]

We like sea days as well as ports, so will only comment on the other questions.

Have been on Celebrity and HAL. Both with a few goood ports and 7 or 8 sea days.

Food. Celebrity was fixed seating, excellent food and fantastic service. Hal was assigned open seating which was noisy, food was good, service not as complete as Celeb. We ate most of the time in the Lido, same food as dining room, The bar server got to know us and gave excellent service, but would have preferred some elegance a few nights.

Ship. Both ships were well kept up, but HAL (Rotterdam) was far more elegant, and stateroom was larger with MUCH more comfortable beds and larger bath.

Lines. Never had lines on HAL, which carried about 800 fewer pax. Celebrity lines were short most of the time.

Hope you have many memorable cruises.:)

 

[martinchem]

Check out going out of San Juan, on a 7 day cruise they usually hit about 5-6 islands and they are southern ports like Barbados, Aruba and St. Lucia, really awesome! I'd give Carnival another try, although Royal does have great food.

[michmike]

I would avoid HAL. We love it, but we are in our 60s and less active than you folks and enjoy sea days. I think you'd be bored.

 

Our very first cruise 10 yrs ago was on Celebrity. We did one of those where you fly into San Juan and then do a very intensive port itinerary. Quite honestly, we came back exhausted after doing 5 ports in 7 days and felt like we needed another vacation. Celebrity at that time was very nice and the food was a notch up from HAL. A more ambitious menu and nicer presentation. Not that HAL food is bad by any means.

 

I continue to hear good things from HAL cruisers who have tried Celebrity. I'd take a look at them for your trip.

[JanineM]

I was going to suggest Celebrity also! There is a great port-intensive 7-nighter on Summit out of San Juan. Five ports in seven days. There are also 10-nighters on Celebrity as well (Southern Caribbean), but the demographic skews older on longer sailings, and there are more sea days as well.

 

If you liked Royal Caribbean's food then you'd definitely like Celebrity's ... it's a step up. Prices on Celebrity are very good right now.

 

BTW - we saw a Celebration ship in Nassau last month and I had to find out more about them so I read your review. All I can say is "amazing", and thanks for posting your review because it certainly stopped me from ever considering one of their cruises! :eek:

[printingchick]

You're going to get a hundred different answers from a hundred different people who all have their own taste.

 

If you're active people, I would tend to recommend you sticking with Royal Caribbean (especially since you admit enjoying that line), but that happens to be my favorite, so I have to admit to being biased.

 

I would recommend you look up, here or on other websites, articles comparing the personalities of different cruise lines.

 

FOR EXAMPLE:

Carnival markets itself to a young, party crowd, specifically referring to itself as the FUN ship. They tend to be a little more lax about rules and, until recently, even boasted a topless sun deck! They tend to have the lowest prices, so they also draw a lot of families with young children, who may not be able to afford the higher-cost Disney cruises. The decor, as you know, tends to be loud and gaudy-Vegas style.

 

Royal Caribbean markets itself to a young, active crowd, as evidenced by their former slogan "Get Out There". They share some of the more low-brow Fun Ship activities such as the Hairy Chest/Sexy Legs contest, but tend to be a step above Carnival in terms of sophisticated decor and service. They also draw a lot of families with children, however they seem to keep the young ones more separated into their own areas with kids water-parks versus the adults-only solarium. (During school vacation times, I suspect you'll still be crawling with kids on just about any cruise line.)

 

Celebrity markets itself to those seeking the sort of luxury they can't normally afford. Remember their old television ads? Their ships are typically smaller than RCL or CCL and they strive to be upscale and classy. I have never cruised on Celebrity, but I tend to think something like a sexy-legs contest would be out of place. (I have to admit, I get a real hoot out of those contests!) A friend and fellow cruise addict recently booked a Celebrity cruise, then changed to RCL on the advise of her travel agent who told her she'd feel out of place on Celebrity. She suggested that Celebrity drew an older more sedate crowd and there was very little night life on board.

 

I know very little about Holland, although my TA advises her clients to avoid all but their Hawaiian itineraries. She said the line gets a lot of complaints.

 

Norwegian markets itself to people who want to do their own thing in favor of scheduled events. They find traditional dining and dress codes to be restrictive. I have heard that the MDR food is mediocre, encouraging folks to venture out to the specialty restaurants, which increases the cost of their cruise. While we've recently begun to opt for MyTime (flexible) dining in the main dining room, we enjoy all the scheduled events, parties, parades, etc. We also look forward to dressing up for formal night to get good photos taken for a lot less than it would cost to do at home.

 

Sorry, you probably were looking for just a one sentence answer, right?

 

ANY cruise is better than NO cruise! ENJOY!

 

 

PS: The southern Caribbean itineraries on either Adventure or Serenade are very port intensive. The weather in the southern Caribbean is great in March. The winter months are their dry time, so you can pretty much count on sunshine!

[Ninjachyck]

We did the 7 day Southern Caribbean out of San Juan, and it only had 1 sea day. Great itinerary, lots of great ports with no shortage of adventurous things to do!

 

Now I haven't sailed Celebrity, but I know several people my age that have (we're the 30ish crowd) and didn't care for the lack of nightlife and the emptiness of the ship come 9:30. :p They also said that Celebrity didn't have cheaper "drinks of the day" - but this may have changed since they sailed 2 years ago. Again, I have never sailed with Celebrity so I can't say for sure.

 

I know on Princess we had a blast! Lots to do, good nightlife (and actually at night!), great food, drinks of the day and it had an upscale feel - the interior decor isn't overdone.

 

Now we're sailing our first time with Carnival in Oct, so we'll see how it compares!

 

Good luck!:)

[April-in-NC]

For port intensive cruises, I'd suggest the Med or a Southern Caribbean out of San Juan.

 

RCI has several good itineraries out of San Juan. They usually only have one or two sea days and the ports on the southern routes tend to have more adventerous excursions available. I'm saving up my money to do a cruise on the Seranade (hopefully next summer) on the Barbados route.

[abmom]

Thanks for the replies!

 

We're not terribly worried about the lack of night life. Honestly, we're in our 30s & 40s and we'd rather go to bed early (11ish) and get up early (5ish) to watch the sunrise. Also, neither one of us are really into the Broadway type shows on the ships. We enjoy the comedians, but other than that have found most of the nightly entertainment on the ships to be kinda repetitive and boring. Plus, we'll be on our honeymoon, so you know, we'll have other stuff to do. ;)

 

We're definitely looking at something out of San Juan, because we'd like to spend a few extra days in Puerto Rico. Our first vacation together we went there and loved it.

[Charlene]

HI

I think its a hard question to answer, and it all depends on what you want out of a cruise.

We love Princess and RCCL, and if you thought Princess was an older crowd then I think you should stay away from Hal as the youngest is around 60 years old. And also stay away from Alaska as the older crowd do that cruise.

 

But there again it all depends on you, and it sounds like you want a lot of action with a younger crowd and Princess, RCCL, Celebrity offer that! The only thing about Celebrity is its more fancy more formal than the other lines.

 

We think the food is very good on Princess and RCCL as well Celebrity.

 

Charlene

[Shorex]

Before you book, take a look at Windstar Cruises. More upscale than the other cruises you have experienced, but very romantic, fine cuisine, port intensive itineraries, and perfect for active cruisers. Notice the sports platform that opens at the back of the ship. Highly recommended for honeymooners -- we loved it.

 

 

And the restaurant - intimate and excellent.

 

[FlyerTalker]

Do you want to spend your honeymoon with 2000 of your "newest friends"? I would highly echo Shorex. Windstar has a casual onboard atmosphere with ships under 300 guests (1 larger than the other 2 - all under 300). Younger crowd, "active" itineraries often into smaller ports that won't handle a mega-ship. Greek isles itineraries go to the little islands, Costa Rica itineraries to small ports and coves, and Caribbean to islands that the big ships just sail by.

 

Also, it is definitely not a Late-night, party-hearty line. Open dining. I think you will like it if your original postings are accurate about your interests.

[morecruise4me]

I have been on RCC, CCL and NCL and are currently booked for a Celebrity 11 night southern caribbean in Feb. We really liked RCC, didn't like CCL, and found NCL to be another experience all together. For port intensive, I like the itinerary we've chosen on X...11 nights and only 2 sea days. We also like to be active...hike, snorkel, etc. (although we are a bit older than you :)). I would definitely say that the food on CCL and NCL was not near as good as RCC. I'm looking forward to Celebrity. Hope you find just what you're looking for. And congratulations!!

[AZjohn]

Before you book, take a look at Windstar Cruises. .

 

That was exactly my first thought after reading OP's first post;)