liltravlr

Can anyone help? I want to go on a cruise to the Caribbean this December. I have narrowed it down to 2- back to back 7 day cruises, with Caribbean Princess or RCI’s Serenade of the Seas, both out of San Juan, or a 14 day cruise on the Sea Princess out of Barbados. All the brochures list activities which “may” be offered on the ships. I know there is a “daily activity sheet” which is slipped under stateroom doors (because my mom went on a cruise with Celebrity), but when I asked the cruise lines for examples of these, they acted all mysterious, like it was a big secret or impossible to get. I tried Customer Service for both and even emailed the cruise director on RCI, with no response. I emailed one and called two Automobile Association cruise travel “specialists” and neither got back to me. I have tried 2 other live travel agents and emailed 3 online consolidators whose mailing lists I am on, all with no luck. Are these things secret or what?

I want to know the type of activities offered because I am going by myself and have never cruised before. For example, if Royal Caribbean offered origami and bridge, and Princess offered salsa lessons and Jeopardy, I would go with Princess. Other things (ie price, date, departure, ports) being equal, the activities offered will determine which cruise I go on. They all refer me to the brochure, but the brochure says “ice rink skating offered”, but, for example, there is no rink on Serenade, and I want to know what is available on my ship. Most offer drinking, gambling, shopping, art, basketball, golf or rock climbing but I am not into any of those. I am SWF, 42, and I like socializing and dancing of all types, comedy and musical shows and will use the fitness centre, but what else is there? I cannot see why they would refuse to give me examples of what has obviously already been offered. I’m not asking for a guarantee, just samples. Anyone have any ideas?

Also, I would love to go on a cruise with a singles group, but I have tried singlescruise.com, allsinglestravel.com, cruisemates.com, vacations to go, singlestravelinternational.com, and a few others and the only singles cruises I have found are either too short (ie 5 days out of Ft Lauderdale, so you only hit 3 ports), have places I have already been (ie Mexico) or have dates that don’t work for me if I want to combine trips to be away 14-18 days. I picked the above Caribbean Princess and Serenade departures because they have the most ports which are new to me (10), a number I can’t seem to match in the same amount of time if I go on one of the singles cruises out of Florida, and I think San Juan would be cool because I hope to do some salsa dancing. I have also heard that Carnival may be more for singles, so I might do one cruise with one line and the 2nd week with Carnival.

If anyone has any suggestions, I welcome comments and suggestions from travel agents, past travelers or people in the know!
thanks

gail

In my opinion they will not give you these because there is no certainty what is offered one cruise one year will be there the next. I have cruised Caribbean on Celebrity, NCL and RCCL - with lengths of 3-6 days. Also to Bermuda on NCL.

I have not found a great difference in what is offered on any of these as a general rule. The things you mention are available on all cruises. A certain percentage of the activity sheet is something designed to sell you something, either directly or indirectly - "port talks" steering you to certain shops by offering coupons, wine tastings to sell you wine - that sort of thing. Another good portion indicates what food is available as a one-time thing (chocolate buffet, ice cream on the deck). The actual "real" activities are few and far between and often repetitive each day - like "library open for browsing" type thing. A handful of things like "pool deck tango contest" will be specific to day. The cruise sheet more tells you the times of what you already know is available. Also some classes/mini-courses - like napkin folding - but these vary from cruise to cruise solely by who is on board to teach them. For example, an NCL cruise I went on this spring had some photo classes - but the guy giving them said he had signed on to do these for 4 cruises because they gave him a cruise deal if he offered these classes. I have never found that one could fill their sea days with activities from the daily listing.

So even if you had access to one of these "secret" sheets - they don't really say all that much. Try cruisecritic and see if someone on a specific cruise can tell you about what there was offered.

GBelle

I recall on the cruisecritic.com boards that some people photograph their daily sheets and will post them. Try asking for someone who just returned to post it for your ship. Of course, since you will be sailiing in December, the activities may be geared more to the holiday season but at least you'll have an idea of what to expect on board for now.