With an inescapable floating location, cruises provide a city's worth of activities all under one roof. Nice if you view scheduling and paying for activities to be a daunting vacay task, but what if your lack of planning also equates a need for freedom? Sadly, cruises may disappoint with scheduled eating times, less flexibility for spontaneity, and limited onshore time but, hey, you'll be too busy to notice.
Choices run the gamut from cheaper cargo cruise options to the world's most expensive cruise ship, the Oasis of the Seas (costing $1.4 billion dollars and five years in the making), that will take its maiden voyage this December and you know what you're paying for from the get-go, like all-inclusive resorts. All you seafarers, tell us why cruises are your type of trip or say why you'd prefer to stick to your landlubber ways!
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Marc by Marc Jacobs
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I have been on two cruises: one along the Mexican riviera and one in the eastern Caribbean. I like them both, but I thought felt like I would have rather stayed in one place in the Caribbean. I wanted more beach time and wanted to experience more of the "island vibe" in a couple of our ports than I was able to do with the short time on shore. In Mexico, however, I was really glad to be on the cruise ship because I knew I was going to have safe water to drink with nicer restaurants, pools, etc and I didn't really have a desire to spend the night on land there.
12 cruises, Mexican Riviera (RC) & Alaska (Princess). Had an awesome time on both. Choose your cruise company carefully because it does effect your trip experience.
24 of them already.
(1) Florida - Caribbean
(2) NY - East Canada
(3) LA - Mexico
(4) Vancouver - Alaska
I love it - I have kids. When they are young, they just stayed with the kids' program, and I have private time with my husband. Now that they are older, I didn't even see them until dinner time. They mostly hang out with their friends.
Also, totally agree with MissChicGeek - you need to choose your cruise company carefully as you will be seeing them a lot for the entire cruise. I was the organizer for the trip and I had 10 families going for the Mexico trip. Worked out very well for us - we did not go for the cruise excursion at all - we negotiate with some local when we get to the port and chartered the whole bus when we land in Mexico.
3I went on the mother of all cruises: 30 days in the Mediterranean with my mom and sister. I don't think that I would usually like cruises because of the boring days at sea but that cruise was perfect because there were so many stops that we only wasted 2 days at sea.
Mostly we would travel at night and in the morning, wake up at a new location, go out and explore. We would usually have to head back to the ship between 6:30-9:30 so we had all day in port. It was fabulous. We hit 9 countries and never had to worry about packing or transportation like you would if you were backpacking.
4Yes, I've been on two cruises - one that went to Florida & the Bahamas, and another in the Mediterranean. I loved the one in the Mediterranean, because it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see such a wide variety of areas. And we love the water!
5I have been on one when I was 18 with my family. The cruise we went on made stops in the Cayman Islands and Jamaica. It was fun from what I remember. The only thing I didn't like was the fact that when the ship pulled into it's destination we would only get to stay for a few hours. It would have been nice to actually spend a whole 24 hours at the different places.
6I've been on one and it's fun. Mine didn't have "scheduled eating times" in fact there was food around 24 hours, and the fact that the food is built in to the price of the cruise, it's really nice not having to worry about "how much have we spent on food already?"
7I did the 4-day Disney Cruise a few years ago. It was a lot of fun but there was too much to do. We would check the daily itinerary and feel so overwhelmed with options. I'd really like to do one again sometime but maybe one of the longer cruises so I feel like I have more time to try the different activities.
8Yes, twice. I wasn't a fan of either as I'm not crazy about all the organized "fun."
9I've been on one long cruise and one day cruise. The day cruise out of Miami was fun - just go out to international waters, gamble and drink, then come in late that night. Our 2 week Mediterranean cruise was good, but... my husband & I are exploratory people, and the limited tours and the unholy crowds bothered us (as did the other tourists). Also, we only had 6 hours in Rome. 6 hours!!! I don't consider I've seen Rome at all with that. If you're the kind of person who likes to really explore, meet the people and eat the food, I don't think that sort of cruise is for you.
10I've been on 1 cruise to Bermuda for my honeymoon.
We didn't do the scheduled activities (boring).Instead we decided to do some exploring on our own since we are both very spontaneous people. I had the best time of my life.
11I've been on a few cruises to Alaska and Mexico. They are great for families or groups since everyone can do what they want to.
12I've been on a cruise to the Bahamas with the family. It was a fun experience and I'd go on another one again. But I do prefer "on land" vacations
13I went on a cruise around Singapore (if you consider it one, it only lasts 4 hours...)
14It was quite good, but I got sea sick which killed off some of the fun...
Two cruises--one to Eastern Caribbean (Princess) and one to Bermuda (Norwegian). The first cruise was by far the better of the two. It was a 7 day cruise and we visited 5 different islands, so we had just enough time on shore and just enough time on the boat. The second cruise was way too much time on a boat that did not have enough to do to during all of that time at sea. We have a child now, and I would love to try a Disney cruise in the future.
15I have no desire too die at the bottom of the ocean with a bunch of overwieght and obnucious babyboomers.
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