Goin on a cruise

[ivy2dw7]

I figured this would be a good place to talk about this. My mom is wanting to take a family vacation (first ever) at the beginning of the summer since I'll be graduating high school and my brother will be graduating from college a week later. I was wondering if anyone has any experiences on cruises, where you went and maybe where are some good hot spots for snorkelling in reefs. We're thinking the caribbean but I'm not ruling out Bermuda since I know they have the most northern reefs.

 

[pwnag3!!]

go on an alaskan cruise.... it was beautiful. you can even snorkel in the cold alaskan waters.

 

[masala4080]

take a cruise to the hawaiian islands. The cruise travels to all of them. Never been on it but have been too hawaii 3 times and heard lots of good thing. Also I think a cruise to the bahamas would be awsome. Any cruise would be a blast though!

 

[who dey]

don't cheap out on the cruise line(get whaccha pay for) Regency cruise lines have a great trip out of montego by jamaica, half way through the panama canal turn around, then to aruba, snorkeling in curracao, cartagena than back to montego. best ever.

 

[pas13]

I have been on 2 cruises, Carnival's Southern Caribbean and Carnival's Western Caribbean. A lot of people do not like Carnival. However, I have never understood this. But then we were not looking for a luxury room since pretty much all we did was sleep there and spent all day at every port city. I think that Carnival is great as long as you choose an itinerary with one of their newer boats. The rooms are a lot bigger on the newer boats. I highly recommend the Southern Caribbean itinerary for snorkeling and diving. It is a common itinerary for several cruise lines. Check out cruisecritic.com. It gives some helpful reviews and information. I have a Royal Caribbean cruise through the Panama Canal booked for December so I will see how it compares to Carnival.
Have Fun!

 

[caillou]

We went on one in the begining of December. Royal Carribean Seranade of the Sea's. We took a suite to make it easier with the kids. Had a huge balcony and a big bathroom.
It was amazing. I'm a 36 Y.O. male with a wife and 2 kids 4 & 2 and it was the bomb! We went to the southern carribean including St. John, Antigua, Barbados, St. Thomas and some others. Get your shopping done in the first port and than hit the beaches at the rest. They have stuff to do for people of all ages. 18 and older at the regular bar/disco , a special place for just teenagers called "fuel" and the younger kids have there own things to do. You won't run out of things to do.

 

[rubberduck]

sounds awsome

 

[ivy2dw7]

Yeah, there's a Royal Caribbean cruise (explorer of the seas) that goes to San Juan, Puerto Rico, Philipsburg, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, and Nassau. I'd really LOVE to go on this one, but my mom is iffy because of the price with airfare, live in Ohio, have to fly to Miami plus the cost of the cruise. This ship has an aquarium bar, something like 56 tons of saltwater in the room. I saw a picture of one area in the bar, it looks amazing. I know where I'd be hanging out at night or when I need a break from the sun! I'd also like to hit Nassau for at least a day simply so I could go check out Atlantis. If you don't know what it is, turn on the travel channel or just check out the site, atlantis.com

 

[masala4080]

you could always drive to miami. Its a pain but saves you some $.
And yes, the atlantis is AMAZING!. I have never been but thats my #1 on my places that I want to go list.

 

[denny80688]

Hey Ivy I took that exact cruise last march. Left maimi stop in san juan, then st marteen, then st thomas, last stop in nassau and it was on the explorer of the Seas. In fact I was married on St. Thomas during the cruise Anyway the service, food, and room (balcony suite) were awesome. The Islands were cool but the snorkeling was pretty crappy in st marteen. The snorkeling in Nassau was a little better but I wasnt real impressed. I did a cruise the year before to nassau and the trip they had that year for snorkeling was spectacular. No matter what you end up doing youll have a great time on acruise.

 

[ivy2dw7]

Were they snorkeling excursions that the ship offered? Or was it just on your own? I'm not sure how they do excursions, maybe you could explain it to me
Oh, and about the dress code stuff on Royal Caribbean. Maybe someone to explain that to me too, they only say so much on the website.

 

[caillou]

Dress Code: pretty much what ever you want to wear. We had 2 formal nights at dinner on the 7 day cruise. I wore a tux because I have one (from my wedding and want to get my money out of it) others wore suits, some with just nice shirts and pants. Either way I don't think anyone felt out of place except maybe the guy in shorts and a t shirt. The rest of the time I just wore a decent shirt and nice shorts. You could eat at the cafe on the formal nights if you don't feel like getting dressed up. I'd say the cruise as a whole was beach casual attire. shorts, t shirts or whatever.
I don't know about other cruise lines but Royal Carribean had a ton of excursions you could do. In the beginning they handed out an itinerary of the offered excursions and than every day when the daily newspaper came out they reiterated the excursions for the port of call for the day. They had everything you could want to do and prices were not that bad. I was with my 2 kids 4 & 2 so we didn't do any excursions but they looked like a lot of fun.
I never pictured myself as a "cruise" person but after going on one I've changed my outlook and attitude. My next vacation will be a Royal Carribean cruise. I don't think any commercials for any product sum it up better than the R.C. commercials. We never ran out of things to do.

 

[ivy2dw7]

Yeah, that's why I'm trying to really push Royal Caribbean as opposed to other cruise lines. I looked at a lot of the ships from other lines and R.C. just seems like you'd never run out of things to do.

 

[caillou]

Just pay attention to what ship you're looking at. R.C. does have some older ships. But they also have some bad as@ newer ones like the one we were on. there's a pretty decent cruise related board cruisecritic(dot)com that gave us a lot of good info

 

[ivy2dw7]

Yeah, the cruise I'm wanting to go on is on the Explorer of the Seas. It's newer, 14-15 decks, rock-climbing wall, ice rink, basketball court, tons of stuff.

 

[judyk]

I'm going on my 6th cruise next month. I've never had a bad time on any. No cooking, cleaning, phones. Being waited on hand and foot. What could be better. Grand Caymans are nice for snorkeling. I wasn't empressed with Nassau, but the time of year makes a difference, I'm sure. I'm planning to snorkel in Tortola this time. Hope it's good. Now you've got me daydreaming again.

 

[mwaraxa]

I took my cruise with Royal Caribbean and had the time of my life. It was the 7-day eastern caribbean that departs from Miami. All i've heard is how -- is the cruise line to take and after i did i would have to agree. I haven't been on anything else but i couldn't imagine it being any better. The ship i sailed on was the voyager of the seas and it's BAD ASS! All i know is, from now on all my major vacations will be a cruise. Umm. Any specific questions, lemme know.
Matt

 

[denny80688]

Ivy basicly at each port the cruise line offers different short trips. line snorkeling and jeep rides etc... We did an all day excursion in st marteen which included a bus/harbor tour of both the french and dutch side of the island. THen you had like an hour for lunch on the french side. Followed by a bus ride to a boat the took you out for snorkeling which was terrible. In the Bahamas we did one of the beach break snorkle tours where you can hunt for conch shells which you keep and they have fresh prepaired conch for everyone. the conch was good but the snorkeling was kind of cloudy and had a lot of current.