Has anyone done a winter break caribbean cruise? Where'd you go that was fun? Was it cold at any point?

Also, what makes one cruise line like royal caribbean, two or three times as expensive as carnival or norwegian?

8/18/2010 9:59:55 PM

this thread is relevant to my interests

8/18/2010 10:01:34 PM

Its normally really nice there in the winter time.

and Id go Carnival, I just really like them and have heard bad stories about others.

been on 2 cruises myself.

8/18/2010 10:06:44 PM

been on both Carnival and Royal Caribbean and personally prefer Royal Caribbean. More stuff to do, less kids, more bars, better nightlife, etc. I have heard the same statements for Princess as well, I just have never cruised with them

8/18/2010 10:21:21 PM

i've been on 2 carnival cruises and 1 princess cruise

carnival is more of the "party" cruise ship than princess... princess had a lot of older people

i'm leaving on a 5-day carnival cruise to freeport and nassau (bahamas) on Dec. 27.. the temperature there really doesn't change all year

8/18/2010 10:42:16 PM

Quote :

"been on both Carnival and Royal Caribbean and personally prefer Royal Caribbean. More stuff to do, less kids, more bars, better nightlife, etc. I have heard the same statements for Princess as well, I just have never cruised with them"

8/18/2010 11:17:26 PM

I've been on at least 8 cruises.

Royal Caribbean
+ good food
+/- older crowd
+ nicer ships in general
+ more shopping on board
+ Great benefits/privileges for return (5+) customers
- a little bit more expensive for drinks
- does not put up with partying/being drunk in public
- does not cater to younger cruisers
- not as much late night food

Carnival
+ cheaper
+ food just as good as RC, maybe only slightly less so
+/- younger crowd
+/- more events for younger (18-25) people
+ caters to partying
+ more late night food
- rooms/ships not quite as nice as RC, but still very nice

Princess
+ best food out of the bunch
- probably the most expensive
- much older crowd (a lot of retirees on mine but then again it was a European cruise)
- ships are nice but smaller, older fleet (my ship sucked)
- don't imagine they put up with much partying
- doesn't cater to late night crowd

never been on Norwegian but I heard that the food quality is poor due to the freestyle dining they have

I'm 23 and have been going on cruises since I was about 14 and hands down I've always liked Carnival better. My family went on RC last year (we've done RC a few other times) and we pretty much agreed that we'd exclusively sail Carnival in the future.

If you want to have a good time for a better price, and have the option to go to many clubs/bars/restaurants/buffets/etc. after say 9pm then Carnival is your best bet. The shows are also better IMO

8/18/2010 11:31:11 PM

Unless I'm missremembering ( ), someone on here works for a travel review publication. maybe they'll chime in.

8/18/2010 11:33:25 PM

I took a Christmas cruise in 08 on Royal Caribbean. It was chilly a few of the first days, but only because it was windy and stormy. On Christmas Day it was in the 80's and sunny.

At full price, I'd say Carnival is better because the difference in quality does not differ enough to justify the higher cost of RC. But if you can find an RC cruise for the same price as Carnival, then I'd say go for RC cause the quality is slightly higher (depending on ship of course..the older ones are cheaper but not as nice).

8/18/2010 11:44:56 PM

above and beyond the price listed for the trip, say, for Carnival, how much more should I expect to spend?

8/18/2010 11:51:21 PM

not cold unless you hit places like key west (which can be chilly and windy)

the last winter cruise i did was w/ costa and i really enjoyed it

i'm going on a carnival cruise to the bahamas this winter

8/18/2010 11:54:32 PM

I have been on 5 cruises.

Celebrity which I have had gone with twice has never let me down.

NCL sucks in my opinion. They are like the chevy of the cruise industry. Mass-produced, cheap, and nothing special. Sure it saves you money but the quality of customer service, perks, and cruise experience definitly suffer. They market the "free style cruise experience" which is just an excuse to cut corners and neglect customer service. Plus they have no tolerance for sneaking alcohol in your luggage. Over half a pint, that I merely forgot about having spent the last three nights in South beach, I had to wait in line for 2 hours to wait for my turn to search through my luggage with security. The line was 100 deep including grandmas and dads. One blonde had to wait the line for the sole reason that she was too dumb to buy a travel size mouth wash. The x-ray crew assumed that anyone sneaking on a big bottle of listerine was obviously trying to sneak alcohol.

Carnival been with once but was my first cruise and i did not have any expectations adn was not old enough to enjoy the casinos or bars.

[Edited on August 19, 2010 at 8:17 AM. Reason : a]

[Edited on August 19, 2010 at 8:44 AM. Reason : a]

8/19/2010 8:16:48 AM

Quote :

"above and beyond the price listed for the trip, say, for Carnival, how much more should I expect to spend?"

IIRC, there are port fees/taxes that will take another 100 or so per person. Then after that, it's up to you how much more you spend. There will be excursions at the stops you can purchase that are anywhere from 30-100+ per person. Alcohol isn't included, but isnt terribly expensive... about what you'd pay at medium to high priced bar in raleigh.

For our honeymoon, my wife and I spent about $500 combined on top of our airfare/cruise tickets and we basically went all out and did whatever we felt like without thinking about costs.

8/19/2010 9:01:26 AM

i would do a spring breakish cruise - april/march.

I went on norwegian (left out of charleston sc), it was a blast. Ton of college kids on it.

8/19/2010 9:53:39 AM

My parents do a cruise in the carribean every January and have done so for the past 5 years. At this point they say it's imperative to their survival of the winter to go on a cruise that time of year between their winter cruises and others they've been on they've done three cruise lines, but royal carribean is their favorite. They think it's nicer, staff is friendlier, shows are better, food is great, etc.

They were on their newest ship this past January...they got a room overlooking the interior of the ship and thought it was amazing. Had a great time.

8/19/2010 9:57:55 AM

It's not so much the cruise line, as it is the cruise ship, as the activities will vary greatly by ship. Newer ships tend to have much better activities. RC tends to have newer ships with things like ice skating, rock climbing, surfing and those ships are more expensive. Other than that, I think the food is better on RC than Carnival.

http://www.cruisecritic.com
A great reference site.

8/19/2010 10:15:32 AM

i dont understand cruises.

8/19/2010 11:05:00 AM

Cruises aren't necessarily for me, but I do understand them. It's like staying at a nice resort where you get completely taken care of, but at the same time you get to see a few nice tropical places without having to worry about any of the travel aspects.

It's very relaxing.

8/19/2010 11:18:22 AM

Don't get an inside room. Made that mistake once and never again. It's like being thrown in the hole in prison.

8/19/2010 11:21:43 AM

of the 4 i've been on i prefer RC

8/19/2010 11:54:16 AM

^^ Why were you spending so much time in your room?

8/19/2010 12:03:44 PM

NCL was the worst experience I have ever had. We did a 10 night Southern Caribbean Dec. 6th last year and it was about 75 the whole time. BEAUTIFUL...

Of all my cruise Royal Carribean was by far my favorite. I did get lucky and there were another 33 honeymooning couples on the ship so it was a great place to meet people your own age and the bars and karoke wasn't overrun by older people.

Check out the 90 day ticker:

http://www.vacationstogo.com/login.cfm?deal=11389

It groups all of the deals and most cruise lines honor the prices you find on there. Remember it is like 60 dollars to park at the port and that tips will be another 150-250 pp depending on cruise line. So you def. want to factor that in.

8/19/2010 1:27:47 PM

went on a 5 day 4 night to Freeport and Nassau the first of January and it like 50 degrees and the wind blew about 30-35 mph the whole time... although the locals did say that it was the coldest winter they had experienced in like 15 years

8/19/2010 5:30:16 PM

I've been on two cruises... A Carnival cruise and a Royal Caribbean cruise - Carnival was May and Royal Caribbean was September.

I will never do Royal Caribbean again.

Our captain would get on the radio at the buttcrack of dawn going on and on about this book that he wrote "I will be signing my book on so and so deck in an hour" and if you wanted to sleep in at all he would literally say "If you're still in bed, you're so lazy - I don't even know why you're here"

Also our server at the restaurant complained all the time about how he hates his job and he only gets two months off a year.. blah blah...

AND we booked a private table since it was our honeymoon and they sat us at a table with 10 other people. We literally had to fight to get our private table.

Also my husband and I were gambling in the casino and it had been an hour since someone had come by and asked us for our drink order and so we finally stopped someone and ordered some drinks and the chick tries to run off again so my husband and I say "Well I think the other people at the table want drinks as well" and the whole table orders a ton of drinks... and the bitch put all the drinks (for everyone) on our tab the rest of the night. Luckily that got worked out as well but geez.

And the WORST - I had just bought a $12 mixed drink and was sitting on a lounge chair with my drink beside me. One of the cleaner guys runs up WHILE I AM SITTING there and takes my drink and dumps it in the trashcan - so I yell "Hey! That's my drink" and he says "Who cares?" and runs off.

Carnival is amazing. I love everything about it. My husband thinks Royal Caribbean has better food but I think they are comparable.

8/20/2010 2:49:17 PM

^damn. my experience with RC wasn't like that at all. Sounds like you got stuck with a shitty shitty captain and his incompetence trickled down to the rest of the staff. I don't even remember hearing the captain at all on my boat, much less waking me up in the morning or droning on about something he did.

8/20/2010 3:21:19 PM

I've done two on NCL and they were both pretty awesome. I went both times with a friend of mine, the first time as a group of four. He swears by NCL and has been on about five or six cruises including NCL, RCCL, and Carnival. I did the Western Carribbean out of New Orleans and the Western Mediterranean out of Barcelona. I'll try to expand on what ncsuallday reviewed, with regards to NCL.

+ I have no first hand basis for comparison, but my buddy swears by freestyle dining - which is basically you eat wherever and whenever you want from morning to evening, and then for late evening they have a 24 hour place available. The only downside to this system is that it can get hairy during regular meal times - like right before port of call and standard meal times, but I like to eat at strange hours anyway so never had any real problems. I thought the food was pretty good and my buddy said it was on par, or perhaps slightly inferior, with RCCL and better than Carnival.

- NCL's target demographic, or at least their largest customer base, seems to be those over 35. While that blows for the most part, usually you find at least a few people your age who are looking to party. I've heard Carnival is the party boat and that RCCL is generally more family oriented.

+ NCL doesn't seem to look down upon you stumbling all over the place drunk and giving ironic high fives to older cruisers. In fact they encourage it. One of the activities I did on the Mediterranean cruise was a bar hop in which we basically ran around the ship drinking and yelling. I vaguely remember calling the VP of Guest Activities on the ship's phone and telling him he was fired, in a Nordic accent - mimicking the Captain.

+/- The boats were both the second biggest, and biggest that NCL had to offer, at the time of the cruise. So naturally they were pretty nice ships. From what I've seen and heard, RCCL has the best and biggest ships and Carnival's were slightly inferior to NCL.

Overall, I had a great time on both cruises. I think I'd like to give Royal a try, as they seem to be the better ships, but then again the ship isn't the whole deal. I mean how many times are you going to go ice skating? Honestly, I think the food, cost, itinerary, and company - as in fellow cruisers - are more important. Which sort of makes me want to try Carnival with their reputation as the younger party boat.

Quote :

"Don't get an inside room. Made that mistake once and never again. It's like being thrown in the hole in prison."

In my opinion - complete B.S. The inside room is the greatest thing ever invented. Paying an extra three hundred for a tiny circular window is a scam, especially when the only time you're in your room is to sleep. The inside room goes completely dark with the lights out, and with the boat gently rocking, you can fall asleep in nanoseconds. Best sleep I've ever gotten has been on cruise ships.

[Edited on August 20, 2010 at 3:57 PM. Reason : .]

8/20/2010 3:55:34 PM

Quote :

"I have no first hand basis for comparison, but my buddy swears by freestyle dining "

I think free-styleing is an excuse to slack on the customer/wait service in the name of "letting you choose!!!."
I much preferred the choice of selecting a set dinner time and having a table assignment. This allowed you to get
to know your server and was a lot more individual oriented.

Quote :

"NCL's target demographic, or at least their largest customer base, seems to be those over 35"

I am not so sure about this. I think the demographic depends more on the time of year, length/price of cruise, and destination.
A cruise in march will naturally have more spring breakers, a cruise during the summer will have more kids/families, and
a cruise in the fall/winter more elderly (or kid-less couples). With NCL a May Bermuda cruise had mostly couples and
older people (this blew since i was going with my mom and sister). On the other hand last March I took a bahamas cruise
that was overrun with spring breakers (they got annoying since I was going with just my g/f).

Mostly I dislike NCL because they completely butt fucked us the last day of the cruise. We were supposed to go on a private island. That day
it was a little windy and the captain decided not to let us off the boat. Instead of trucking back to Nassau or having the cruise director
make up some sort of compensation activity/perk we all just got stuck sitting on the boat doing jack shit.

Quote :

".S. The inside room is the greatest thing ever invented. Paying an extra three hundred for a tiny circular window is a scam, especially when the only time you're in your room is to sleep. The inside room goes completely dark with the lights out, and with the boat gently rocking, you can fall asleep in nanoseconds"

true.

[Edited on August 20, 2010 at 4:26 PM. Reason : a]

8/20/2010 4:25:35 PM

Quote :

"I think free-styleing is an excuse to slack on the customer/wait service in the name of "letting you choose!!!." I much preferred the choice of selecting a set dinner time and having a table assignment. This allowed you to get to know your server and was a lot more individual oriented."

Same here. Plus they usually sat us by ourselves. I missed hearing about other people's days and listening to suggestions they had if they had already been to the upcoming ports of call.

8/20/2010 5:19:56 PM

Quote :

"I think free-styleing is an excuse to slack on the customer/wait service in the name of "letting you choose!!!." I much preferred the choice of selecting a set dinner time and having a table assignment. This allowed you to get to know your server and was a lot more individual oriented."

Ehh, they still had a main dining room where you could make a reservation and the servers were by your table every other second, but to each his own I guess. Again, I don't have any first hand experience for comparison so maybe it's vastly inferior to the traditional cruise style, I wouldn't know. All I know is that it wasn't really a hassle for us.

Quote :

"I am not so sure about this. I think the demographic depends more on the time of year, length/price of cruise, and destination."

That would explain the Mediterranean cruise, which was in November of last year - out of Barcelona, but the Caribbean one was during spring break, my senior year, and it was stocked with older people for the most part.

Quote :

"Mostly I dislike NCL because they completely butt fucked us the last day of the cruise. We were supposed to go on a private island. That day it was a little windy and the captain decided not to let us off the boat. Instead of trucking back to Nassau or having the cruise director make up some sort of compensation activity/perk we all just got stuck sitting on the boat doing jack shit."

Yeah, that sucks, but I've heard of similar things happening on other lines so I'm not sure that's completely the fault of NCL. There should be some kind of compensation for things like this, perhaps a free day of drinks.


Like I said though, I want to try another line to see how they all stack up. I get a pretty good discount on cruises, so I'm thinking I might try another one this winter.

8/20/2010 5:23:12 PM

Actually, it's pretty common to go to another port of call if there's a storm or something at the original destination.

8/20/2010 5:32:43 PM

On all 3 cruises I've been on, we always did the dining room for dinner. we did early seating and that was ~5PM or so...

on the one we are going on in december, we aren't going to do the dining room... i just don't like the idea of having to be in the dining room at a certain time every night.. i'd much rather take my time and just grab somethign when i want...

The only fear is that i'm going to miss out on all the good food (crab, lobster, nice steaks, etc...)

The last cruise I went on was about 8 years ago, so I don't know if that type of food is available in other places on the ship or not.. back then it wasn't... if you didn't eat in the dining room, you had to eat the buffet, burger joint, or pizza

8/20/2010 11:14:07 PM

I have zero cruise experience, mainly because it was never my families way of vacationing... however I've had some *possible* notions about cruising that had me believing I wouldn't really enjoy them anyway. I'll list them below and maybe you can let me know if I'm wrong or not. If I am, maybe I'll plan one for the wife and kid in a few years (and some cold winters pass).

1: I'm 6'5". Not as heavy set as I used to be, but a stocky guy nonetheless. I always got the impression that cabins are tiny, and I would feel really uncomfortable/not fit in the bed or even the shower. Probably completely wrong, I just remember someone telling me once they were pretty small.

2: I don't really like swimming/laying out by the pool. This person told me that's what people spend a lot of time doing when there isn't some kind of scheduled thing going on. I always assumed if that's what a lot of the day was, I'd be bored.

These are preconceptions I developed years ago, and I realize now that these two things are probably not the, but if someone with experience can tell me it's not, it's something I'd like to try at least once.

8/21/2010 9:12:32 AM

Quote :

"Royal Caribbean + good food +/- older crowd + nicer ships in general + more shopping on board + Great benefits/privileges for return (5+) customers - a little bit more expensive for drinks - does not put up with partying/being drunk in public - does not cater to younger cruisers - not as much late night food Carnival + cheaper + food just as good as RC, maybe only slightly less so +/- younger crowd +/- more events for younger (18-25) people + caters to partying + more late night food - rooms/ships not quite as nice as RC, but still very nice"

I have to disagree about the late night food. On RC I got Indian food/greek food/ and all other kinds of food at 1:00am in the morning. On Carnival they had a small burger stand open and that was it.

RC>>>Carnival.

8/21/2010 9:52:43 AM

carnival has more than a burger stand at midnight... they had a buffet, pizza, all kinds of chocolate, etc...

also, i've been on 3 cruises and i didn't get in the pool on a single one. there is TONS more to do than lay out and sit in a pool all day. I sat beside the pool and enjoyed food and beverages some, but didn't get in and didn't spend more than an hour out there at a time.

8/21/2010 11:58:03 AM

For the most part, there's enough to do that you don't need to waste time lounging around, unless that's your thing.

One day at sea I spent about six straight hours playing futsal with some kids from Spain, Russia, and Malaysia. The outsoles of my shoes split from the insole. It was awesome.

Yeah, I was probably in the pool a cumulative half hour at most on a seven day cruise.

8/21/2010 8:02:28 PM

Quote :

"Yeah, that sucks, but I've heard of similar things happening on other lines so I'm not sure that's completely the fault of NCL. There should be some kind of compensation for things like this, perhaps a free day of drinks"

If anything it was the opposite. Instead of enjoying $1-$2 local drinks, I was paying for $5.62 (w/ gratuity) bud lights all day.

8/23/2010 3:23:50 PM

Yeah I know, I was saying there should be. Of course there won't be.

8/24/2010 3:56:31 PM

Wife and I did a carnival Christmas cruise a year ago. They did a great job and every time ive cruised with them it's been an outstanding value and the crews are top notch.

8/27/2010 9:44:56 PM

2nd cruisecritic.com - you can even look up individual rooms on individual boats and see if people said it was loud or quiet, good view, etc. just spend about 30 minutes, punch the times you want to go, figure out which one is rated the best in your price range at that time, read the quick review of the ship to make sure it sounds like your style, and you're done. the only reason to go on a cruise is when you are in need of a vacation but want something that requires zero planning - no hotel reservations, finding restaurants, planning travel - so doing a bunch of research into cruise ships is kind of like dividing by zero

8/28/2010 11:14:19 AM