Jen

We have never cruised before and are planning a cruise for our 25th anniversary. We are 45-50, fairly active, interested in good food, activities if we choose to be active......any suggestions for the cruise line/ship to choose someone in our age category? I know it is all a matter of opinion, but some opinion is helpful. We are not looking to spend our 25th annversary with spring breakers.....no offense guys!

linda

Jen,<BR> I am 40's too and I really like RCCL.The entertainment always seems perfect for our age group, plus the ships are beautiful and they have great activities- as well as giving you a good deal for the money, IMO. Try to narrow your search to where and when you'd like to go first.Then I suggest you plan a 7 day cruise on a newer ship, rather than the 3 or 4 day. They are disappointing. Before Paul jumps on here and tells you to get a travel agent, please go to cruisecritic.com and read reviews of different ships. I would not cruise during Spring Break- my husband has and it was not enjoyable for him. Summer there will be more children. Some adults think they should do a more upscale cruise line to avoid parties, etc then are disappointed because they couldn't let their hair down! It really depends on your lifestyle.

John

Jen - we are in our early fifties and I would strongly recommend a Mediteranean cruise for your anniversary. We did that last year and it definitely lends itself to a romantic cruise. I mean, Florence, Rome, Capri, Monte Carlo - great places for a silver celebration. I don't know when you are planning this but right now you can get some really inexpensive prices on either the Spledour or the Constellation for May and early June. The last I saw for the Splendour was $649 apiece for an inside. The airfare to Europe is a little pricier than usual but you should be able to get from the midwest to Barcelona for around $600 apiece. If you decide to do this, do yourself another favor and do your own excursions. The cruise line excursions are so very, very expensive and there is no reason you can't do them yourself and save a bunch of money. If you need help, email me - we did all our own. And I agree with Linda, when Paul jumps in and recommends a TA, and then the cruise line transfers and the cruise line excursions - ignore him and "do it yourself" - we all do and save enough for a second cruise! Bon voyage.

Cheryl

Hi Jen,<BR><BR>We will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary aboard RCCL's Radiance of the Sea. We sail from Vancouver to Hawaii October 20th. There will be five days at sea and then 6 ports. We are in our 40's and this will be our first cruise. No offense to anyone, but I hope there are not alot of children on board.<BR><BR>Cheryl

jen

Great advice - I was afraid RCCL would be a younger crowd, from I read on this forum. I hadn't thought of a Mediterranean cruise, but I will certaily research it now. We are on the east coast - right now you can fly to Europe cheaper than is costs to fly domestically!! We are looking at 7-10 day cruise at this point. Thanks for the suggestions!

lyn

We celebrated our 25th on the Grand Princess in the Med and it was perfect! Two years ago we went on the Baltic/Scandinavia cruise, and this year we are doing the Golden Princess Med again. A cruise is a great combination of seeing the sights and being pampered, and the Med is such a romantic place to toast your marriage. We have been very happy with Princess -- suggest you look at all the different cruiselines available and make your choice based on the itinerary.<BR><BR>By the way - we used the ship's excursions and were pleased. We found 90% of them well run and an efficient use of time, with knowledgeable guides. This time around we will do more on our own, but for the first time it is a good way to go. <BR><BR>Have fun!!<BR><BR>

Jeanette

L

Jeanette

I'd suggest you consider HAL, Princess and Celebrity (not in any particular order). HAL will be sedate, elegant and definatly an older crowd, but active. Princess will be a mix, but they do a good job of making everyone happy (although their new Personal Choice dining policy seems to be putting off a lot of people). Celebrity has always been a good choice for cuisine and beautiful ships. Their shows may not be as good as some of the other lines.<BR><BR>RCCL and Carnival will cater to the family and twenty-something crowd. (Sorry, but rock climbing, in-line skating and beer buckets are not marketed to the 45-50 year olds. I enjoyed them before, but no more, thank you.)<BR><BR>Also, I think the itinerary you chose will make a huge difference in your experience. The Caribbean cruises will be a mixed crowd. The Med and Panama Canal will be older people, often will traveled. Alaska will be families and older couples. <BR><BR>Have a look at cruisecritic.com. I think you will get a better idea of the personality of each cruise line.<BR><BR>Enjoy.

elaine

I agree with the other cruise lines previously mentioned. And will add Windstar cruises to the mix. My husband and I sailed RCI, Princess and Windstar - will soon sail HAL/Alaksa.<BR>If you live on the east coast, you may want to take a look at Celebrity/Galaxy. The ship sails from Baltimore!

jen

I appreciate the input from everyone. I still have research to do, but this helps me to narow it down some. I don't mind poeple watching on some of the crazier stuff, but I don't want that to be my entire cruise experience. Thanks again for your thoughts!

Sue

My husband and I are trying the Radisson Paul Gaughin to Tahiti for our 15th anniversary. Many people have told me this is the most romantic, wonderful cruise they've ever taken. Check it out!

jb

Jen,<BR><BR>If you can afford it, check out Silversea cruises. Someday I would like to be treated to the luxuries that they provide! They are all-inclusive - tips, drinks, etc. <BR><BR>My husband and I went on Windstar for our honeymoon (2 years ago) and loved it (we were some of the younger folks there. we are in our late 30s). Expensive also - but little lower key. We agree with the folks who said to go to the mediterranean are GENIUSES! We went from Rome to Elba, Corsica, San Tropez, Monaco, Portofino and ended in Nice. It was a dream come true!

jen

the mediteranean sounds better and better....is there a particular carribeanroute that anyone out there truly enjoyed??

Kris

Jen, we've done 5 cruises and the Caribbean one is the only one I wouldn't repeat and wouldn't recommend. After several days at sea, it seemed like they were just "driving" to another side of the same island. Personlly, if I were to take a warm weather vacation, I'd pick a spot and just enjoy it.<BR><BR>I really enjoyed the European cruises. Lots of different countries with enough time to get a flavor to know whether it'd be a good place to return someday. The Baltic itineraries are excellent, some of the Med. itineraries are excellent and Greece/Turkey was excellent (Turkey has been withdrawn from most cruises though).<BR><BR>I don't think you will find a lot of younger people on cruises in Europe, no matter which line you sail. We've sailed with Orient Lines twice because we liked their itineraries the best and with RCCL once, again because of the itinerary. Orient is a little more casual, only one semi formal night which was great for us (more room in the suitcase for souvenirs!) and has a smaller capacity, the Marco Polo only holds about 800 people.

John

Jen - I'm going to email you a summary of our Western Med cruise that explains where we went and what we did. We fashioned our excursions to what we like to do and you could do the same. Like I mentioned above in my first posting - you can get excellent deals for late May and early June cruises on the RCCL Splendour or Celebrity's new ship the Constellation. They both do almost the same itinerary - Barcelona round trip thru Villefranche, Livorno (Corsica for Celebrity), Civitaveechia, Naples and Malta. I trust the email address you're showing is a real one - many on this board don't use a real one.

John

Jen - it appears your email address isn't a real one - AOL couldn't deliver and the message says its not a good member address. If you want some good info on the Western Med Cruise, email me (mines good).

Rel

I'll go with those people who suggested the Med - fantastic holiday and on Crown Odyssey (Orient Lines) we had no children and lots of wonderful adults! Itinerary from Barcelona to Istanbul was the stuff dreams are made of!

Fred

Go with Celebrity! See comments I made above for selection of a cruiseline.

jb

One more thought. If you go with a smaller boat cruise line you can get into ports that the bigger cruise ships cannot.<BR><BR>I said we went on Windstar for our cruise - and most of the ports were either walk off and right into the town or a short boat ride (5 min) to the pier.<BR><BR>That made it really special.

jen

Try this email address - [email protected]<BR> <BR>I've had probelms with the aol one off and on.....but since it doen't contain my full name, I prefer to use it online...<BR><BR>Thanks so much for your help - I really want this trip to be memorable - as I said before, I know it is all relative -opinions vary - but opinions are helpful!! I look dforward to seeing the itinerary!