Sassafrass

Once again, thanks for suggestions.
Before our first cruise, I never gave a single thought to safety, type or size of ship, cleanliness, food, etc. I just assumed they were safe, there would be decent, if not great food, and things would be reasonably clean. I am not a very picky person. I was mostly interested in the itinerary and the general atmosphere.

We were so lucky to take Caribbean Princess when it was a nearly new ship and was stunning! We fell in love with cruising, and loved days at sea.

Now, I worry about everything, especially safety. I also know now what I like and do not like so much, but can't always tell from reviews what it will actually be like. Do any of you or your spouses have that problem? How do you overcome it?

Eschew

Sass, I am surprised! Don't be so paranoid. Live a little. A little dirt is actually good for you, help you build your immune system!

Don't be the one who wear masks while travelling and take out handi-wipes to wipe down airplane seats and trays before seating down, or put the hotel TV remote in a zip lock bag before using it, or ... well, you got the idea.

When life throws lemons at you, make lemon-cello. Make the best out of the worst situation. I met a fine gentleman by the name of Ed Foreman years ago. I got to know him quite well through the 25+ years since I first met him and he is one of the few people that I took their advise to heart. According to Ed, you can have a good day, every day. Seek him out if you dare to have a life changing adventure.

For travelling, my safety equipment is a simple small pocket size flash light, and that's about it. I used to carry a pocket knife but that's a non starter for air/sea travel.

Speaking of travel reviews: I read reviews and I take it with a grain of salt. I look for specific comments and skip anything that is too general (Oh it was so wonderful! What the heck does that mean?) I look for in the review, specific incidents or examples that highlight the experience.

I also looks for common comments. If everyone commented on the slow elevator, then the elevator is slow. And I skip the everything is great reviews as they might be "paid" reviews.

A few years ago, there was a mini scandal (if you can call it that) that on a certain "cruise board". It was discovered that a certain cruise line's PR staff were writing fake reviews and posting them as reviews from happy customers. Others bragged about receiving "benefits" for writing positive reviews.

One reason why the Fodors Forum here is much better than the other places: It is a true community here. We get to know each other and trusted each other's comments and their experience. We knew who are the regulars and we make new comers felt welcome. And not to beat a dead horse, "trust" is such an intangible thing and it's hard to find "trust" and credible source. We have lost some trusted members of this tiny community here already such as Dogster. I certainly miss his wit and sage trip reports, and I wish Parrot Mom, Percy and Traveller69 etc will visit and post more often.

Does this help?

Rhea58

I am a single traveler & do not worry about such things.
Using common sense, hand sanitizer & have not had any problems in any of my dozen plus cruises.

I agree with the above poster.

trvlgirlmq

I only read reviews to get a general idea about a ship or cruise line. I don't let the media hype about illness or problems concern me. It's usually blown out of proportion anyway. I also don't sweat the small stuff.

jacketwatch

No not really Sass though I know what you mean. We do narrow our searches as we know what we like and maybe are a little more fussy and yes safety is an issue but that means we skip hot spots like cruises that are in pirate waters like near Somalia or that stop in places like Tunis for example.

As for reviews I do go to that "other site" but you need to take some of those with a grain of salt similar to the "hit and run" posters here who slam something and never return. If most of the reviews are positive over all I give more credence to them.

doug_stallings

There's really nothing inherently unsafe about any modern cruise ships. In fact, they are remarkably safe. For that reason, I don't generally give a lot of thought to safety issues. (Now if you are traveling on an overnight ferry in some country, that would be different.) But the staff on major cruise lines are by and large really well trained, and ships include all the latest safety equipment. The unexpected can always happen, but you can't plan your life around that.

In terms of finding what you like and don't like, perhaps you aren't reading the right reviews. But I find it useful to make a list of the things I want and then try to find the ship that meets those needs. I do think that ship selection is really important (big vs. small, new vs. older, etc.). If there are any must-haves, it's almost always possible to find out if a ship has it.

Now whether you're going to like the ship is a different story. It may have everything you like on paper but still not meet your expectations. But you can also get paralyzed reading reader reviews. For me, the aggregate ratings given to a ship are more important than any individual review, even a particularly bad one.

I don't know if that helps, but I think I'm more in line with how jacketwatch feels about safety ... it's more the places you go than the ship itself.

Sassafrass

Thanks all,

While I am getting to be kind of a worry wort, I never let that stop me from doing things (Did my first helicopter ride a couple of weeks ago), just suffer a bit of anxiety before I do it, and have a harder time making decisions before hand. I did book a cruise a few hours ago and I am now happy and so excited.

jacketwatch

Cool. What did you book?

Sassafrass

Thanks, Jacket,

We decided on Majesty. Shorter cruise gets us home for DD's arrival, but also got an outside state room for less than an inside on Princess, wanted the stop in Key West, and wanted to try the smaller ship.

jacketwatch

Cool. A good deal is the icing on the cake. .

Eschew

Key west is a cool place is you have never been there. All those little shops and eating places. Stop worrying and start living!

HappyTrvlr

I thought post might be teferring to pirates in Indian Ocean. A friends cruise recently in that area was limited by those concerns, skipped ports.

jacketwatch

We have never been to Ket West and have some vacation time in may. Hmmm, maybe. Sue wants to go to San Fran but lets see if I can convince her otherwise. Yeah, right.

Eschew

Larry, never been to key west? At the most southern tip of the chain of islands, you can be there and watch the sunrise from the ocean and the sunset from the ocean on the same beach!