bbelluzzo

I am hoping for some advice regarding cruises in the Caribbean.

I have been on two cruises previously, both through Carnival. Currently, I am planning a trip with three girlfriends (ages 25-30) for a 4-5 day trip to the Caribbean at the end of May, and we are starting to lean towards a cruise. Reasons are many and varied, but mostly b/c we are looking for something fairly cheap and all-inclusive (we know drinks/shore excursions are not included). Two of the ladies have never been on a boat, so we are hoping for a larger ship to combat some sea-sickness fears. Been focusing mostly on Carnival again (for price, age group, etc.) but there are SO many different reactions to their ships, it is hard to know what kind of quality to expect.

Any suggestions regarding cruises or other possibilities that may fit our needs?

diann

There are different pools of thoughts. If you have been happy with Carnival then you know what to expect. There won't be any suprises. You also know your friends best, and what they would be happy with. Many years ago I was on Carnival and I enjoyed myself. I have since been on RCCL twice and Celebrity once. I prefer RCCL. I think in your age group there maybe more younger people on Carnival. That maybe a deciding factor, however on RCCL there are many fun activities for all ages if one wishes to participate. As for prices RCCL run specials, as does Carnival. The older the ship usually the least expensive regardless of the line. I think the end of May is a great time frame to go on vacation. You more than likely will miss the summer vacationers. I would also consider the ports you will be visiting and how many days at sea you would like to determine my choice of cruise. Good luck and most of all have fun. Wish I were going again.

itravel2

I've done two cruises, one on RCCL and one on Carnival. I preferred RCCL because of the service, food and a bit more upscale atmosphere and passengers.

A friend of mine just returned from a 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruise on Celebrity and said it was fantastic. Great destinations, great food and he said the ship was more refined than Carnival and even RCCL (I think RCCL owns Celebrity, or the other way around).

He recommended a Caribbean travel site called tripsavercaribbean.com. It seems to have great cruise deals, plus it has expert and customer reviews of every cruise line and ship. That's a good place to start.

Hope this helps.

jacketwatch

We have had a good time on Carnival before and the food IMHO was alot better than RCCL though the latter had better entertainment. You should be fine regardless of the line you choose. Maybe its time for a different look just to compare. Good luck with your decision.

kfusto

I have been on 102 cruises in my lifetime. I have experienced the good, the bad and the ugly.

I would not recommend Celebrity to you. They are one of my favorite lines but they are not known for attracting singles or for having a lot of nightlife. My 4 cruises on X were excellent,but low key. Mostly couples.

I have sailed Carnival twice and do not care for their ships or style. However, if you enjoyed them they are obviously a good choice for you.

I would recommend RCI's Voyager class as being a great option for you but they do not do short cruises. You are going to be limited to the older ships on all lines.


Enchantment does 5 night sailings out of FTL and this is a nice RCI ship that might just meet your needs. They offer some great rates depending on how flexible you are.

kfusto

check out the boards at www.cruisecritic.com and you will learn a lot about the lines and the pax they attract.

bbelluzzo

Thank you all for your feedback, and keep it comin'!

I keep hearing about tripsavercaribbean.com, is it really that different from the other sites that are out there? I seem to get basically the same results (same ships, same itineraries) on any search site I have visited.

diann

Try cruisecompete.com from what I hear they offer different rates and compete for your business.

katybird

I have tried cruisecompete.com for quotes and have found the quotes the same or even higher than the quotes I found on my own on the internet. I'm not going to give up on them but so far nobody has ofered anything great.

JJ5

The cruise I returned from last month seemed cheaper online at several different sites. But I did end up booking with a travel cruise expert in my neighborhood.

I sure am glad I did, because there were shipboard $$ added credits to our stateroom account, free photos, free bottle of wine and other complementary perks gotten through her booking that far exceeded the $15 difference from her booking and the cheaper specific online "special" price.

But I did do investigation online in depth re cabin availabilty etc. and knew exactly what I wanted. If you do this and get a good cruise agent, chances are you will get a better deal than online. It has been the case with me twice now. One was Carnival and one was Princess. With all we got as perks through the agent, Princess would have been at least $110 more per person in the long run than online booking.

Just my two cents, but I think your group would like Carnival, RCCL or Princess. My Princess cruise actually had many more under 40 than over 40. But I have heard this is not really typical, but for 4-5 day, I think it might be more so. Princess has some LARGE ships. Star has casino and disco.

jcasale

We have also liked NCL, especially for their freestyle dining which allows you to stay in the hot tub or the casino if you want and go to dinner whenever you are ready. You might want to check in with them. I also want to echo the recommendation to check with a travel agent who specializes in cruises. We have done three times now and have always gotten great deals, the ability to discuss the various locations on the ship with an expert and also some wonderful perks such as the onboard credit, bottles of champagne when it was an annnivesary cruise, and a free Alaska guide book.

toontown

Out of the the three cruiselines that I have been on, RCCL, NCL and Princess, my favourite was RCCL. It had the most on board activities (including a rock climbing wall!), the best food and it was the nicest ship. It was also a new ship at that time and given I cruised on older ships with NCL and Princess, that likely influenced my choice. When I talked with several other passengers on my last cruise (Princess), most of them leaned toward RCCL, especially the younger crowd.

I am in my thirties and I did find that Princess attracted an older crowd out of the three cruiselines. I must admit that most of these older passengers are very young at heart and were out on the dance floor shaking their booty with the best of them. Extremely friendly as well.

Norwegian cruiseline surprisingly had the best entertainment in my eyes. A hilarious and cute comedy juggler from the UK named Pete was the highlight of the entertainment on the cruise for me.

I would recommend looking into a 7 day cruise. I got an excellent deal last year booking on www.travelocity.ca. The US site is .com instead of .ca. We booked an outside cabin in March for $699 and received a $100 credit. By booking a longer cruise, as another poster has mentioned, you can cruise on a newer ship.

This year I booked a 10 day cruise on www.vacationstogo.com and got a very good deal along with a $200 credit to our cabin.

You can also save a significant amount of money by not booking shore excursions through the cruiseline (you may already know this since you have cruised before). We took taxi tours in most places. We made friends quickly and hooked up with people who had the same interests as us when we took these tours. If you don't know other people to hop in a cab with, don't worry, your cab driver will find some. Just be sure that you are back to the ship in plenty of time since the cruise ships will only wait for cruiseline organized tours.

Have a great trip!

edpeeks

The best advice I can give you is to do an exhaustive search of all web sites and TA's. We have three cruises booked this year and on each one of them I looked all over for the best price. I investigated each web site if I had not done business with them in the past and asked plenty of questions.
A cruise is going to be what you make it. Expect a perfect week, you are going to be disappointed. Recogize that with several thousand people one one ship there are going to be "bumps", you'll have a good time.
Cruising is my family's primary venue for vacationtime. It is convenient, diverse, affordable and you only have to unpack once. Plus isn't it nice, especially at dinner, to sit around with your family or friends, enjoy a meal,and sit there longer than 20 mintues? It is delightful. Enjoy cruising!!

snorkelman

I have been on 15 cruises and my wife and I are young (31) and we like both RCL and Carnival.

Personally we believe that both offer the best options for young people, but RCL is a tad better when it comes to sme options (such as ice rink, roller blade, and rock wall & Johnny rockets). However, Carnival's food is a tad better.

In general these are fairly equal cruise lines. The bigger the ship, the less likelihood of seasickness and both lines have large ships.

This june we will be on a Carnival ship because the price was SOOO much cheaper.

Sometimes in May the prices are almost equal, but in June, the RCL ships we were looking at were almost twice the price of the Carnival ships.

Almost always Carnival is cheaper. If the prices are close (within $150) I would go on RCL, but if they are more than that, stick with carnival, because the differences are not worth that much (think how many more drinks you can get for the saved cash).