TravelinGert

I'm going to answer without reading the other replies in hopes some small thing I say will prove helpful to OP or to others reading. 1. Excursions: does anyone have first-hand recommendations for Puerto Plata, St. Thomas and Tortola? In St Thomas we did a tour bus the first time, and just winged it the other two times we were there. We went to all the trouble of booking one in advance and paying a $10 deposit only to be completely unable to find anyone from the company. Ended up there were half a dozen tour buses just collecting anyone who want to be driven up to the scenic overlook for a very reasonable flat fare so we just joined one of those. Not the best option for an excursion in St Thomas I don't doubt, but we had plans to meet friends at a beach for the greater part of our time there. The tour operator agreed to drop us at the beach for no extra so it worked well for our plans, particularly considering the tour itself was only barely more than the taxi fare we'd been told by a couple of taxi drivers at the port just to go directly to the beach. If you decide to visit the beach be aware Magens Bay Beach is gorgeous, but gets a bit crowded in the afternoon unless you head for the edges of the beach. There is a fun bar on the beach if that's your pleasure. Emerald Beach isn't as nice but is usually less crowded. If you'd like to visit Coral World, then Coki Beach is just there by the parking lot. Saw some gorgeous little colorful fish there after being recommended to visit by someone who grew up in St Thomas. Take a few dog biscuits or some fish food or crackers and you'll soon see more than you can imagine swirling about. If you decide to take the ferry to St Johns taxi to the far side of the island and grab the Red Hook Ferry which is faster and offers a smoother ride. Trunk Bay is beyond gorgeous but can be logistically a pain to visit due to taxis and ferries. Has a great snorkeling trail, too. I'd say it was well worth it. You can swim with turtles at Maho & Linduist or Salt Pond Bay has great snorkeling though I would say book an excursion for that. 2. Dinners/formal attire: I did not realize NCL was a "freestyle" cruise line and didn't do formal nights. I'm a bit disappointed as I love getting dressed up. If we wear suits/cocktail dresses to dinner, will we be totally out of place? Every cruise I've been on both before and after pandemic I've seen everything from people in high end tuxes and formals to people in much more casual attire, and this has been especially the case on Caribbean cruises. Everyone else wears whatever they like so you might just as well enjoy that privilege as well. 3. Planning: I'm such a planner, and I find NCL's website and app to be completely non-user friendly. The UX is awful and I can't find much info. Do we really not have to plan anything in advance besides excursions? I'm also a planner and always plan a lot in advance. Truth be told, you really don't even have to plan excursions in advance, though. At every stop there will likely be a booth on or near where your ship unloads selling all the same tours you can book in advance. There will also be individual tour operators looking to fill up the last few empty seats. Sometimes these can be less expensive than booking in advance, but most times they're roughly the same price. Sometimes if you've mastered the art of haggling you may score a deal. If you're like me, the planner in you will be thankful you at least read up on the options in advance.

I hate to say this, but just because one person has a good experience on a very large ship like that does nothing to negate another person's negative experience. These ships are huge and they may just never deal with the same staff or eat in the same section of the dining room. I've definitely both experienced and seen others experience far less than good service on occasion on ships, and sometimes I've had service and food that was far above reasonable expectation on that same ship. Maybe his room steward just isn't a very good one, and maybe the servers he dealt with in the dining room just happened to not be very good ones. Sorry. I know that's not what everyone wants to hear, but not every staff member on every ship is doing a great job. Equally it could well be this other cruiser happened to get in a cabin with a really great, experienced room steward and dines with the best in the fleet. Some cruises you just get lucky.

Thank you will do! 🙂

That does sound great right about now. So difficult to compare.

I was trying to be polite about his spare tire, essentially. Like a lot of us he's put on a few pounds over the years. Mostly because I'm not exactly as trim as I once was, either. 😉

Oh my stars and little fishes this did give me a chuckle! Husband was not as amused. Some people just don't have a sense of humor. 😁

Hopefully CoolBlueGreenSeas won't mind me tagging onto their post here. Please elaborate on size a bit. My husband is six foot six and dad-bod, so he takes up a certain amount of space just by necessity. I found videos of a six foot six fellow not quite so dad-bod who demonstrated he fits in the showers even in the Ocean View cabins on several different Oceania ships. This is going to be a big anniversary cruise for us so I really think at least a concierge veranda room, but that nice space in the bathroom in the PH cabins really looks nice.

I haven't even peeked at what Viking is offering yet. I'll take a look. Do you have a favorite Viking ship, Don?

I did see the cabins aren't as large on Windstar, but I love some of their cruise options. If it were just myself size would not matter. My husband is a 6'6" dad-bod sort, so he at least needs a bit of extra space in the shower and bathroom areas. As much as I love those Windstar options, I may have to opt for something with at least better bathroom options for my husband's sake. I've been looking at some of the 20-26 day cruises on Oceania and I really think we'd love the 22 day Istanbul to Barcelona on Marina although there is a 20 day on Sirena which also looks really nice over the period of our actual anniversary. They are a bit more than we had thought we would like to spend, but I think we could swing a concierge veranda on either cruise. I want to love Azamara but the bathrooms are a concern. We could step up to the suites with larger bathrooms, but if we instead pick Oceania I found a video of a fellow my husband's size demonstrating he fits in even the Ocean View showers. My mother-in-law has now suggested we look at Regents Seven Seas. They do look very nice, but the pricing is a bit higher.

Thank you for the reply. I have not yet looked at Silversea. I do have a TA I can talk to, but I don't really have good talking points yet regarding what I'm looking for. Hard to express looking for that certain je ne sais quoi and expect someone to just magically discern what is meant I think. I look forward to hearing how you like your Silversea cruise. Friends just did a Celebrity cruise they really enjoyed and felt was a step up from their previous Royal cruises, so I had been looking at them. We did some river cruises in the US recently and I really loved the smaller boat experience. Then I saw a video on a Windstar Med cruise where the Tips for Travelers fellow talked about how the focus for people on those cruises definitely seemed toward time on shore with the ship being completely emptied early and everyone out all day doing. Having more and longer port days was something we both loved about our smaller river boat experiences. However, I have concerns about the size of the ship at that time of year in the Med, though I am in the process of researching how justified that is. Tips for Travelers mentioned experiencing the rolling of the ocean more on that ship verse recent Azamara or Oceania cruises which are slightly larger ships. I've been looking at those two as well, and they do seem to have some interesting itineraries offered in that time frame.

We are celebrating a very special anniversary in October of 2025. I'm hopeful someone can help with recommendations. My parameters: Mediterranean Cruise - Ports in Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Montenegro, Sicily, France, and Spain of especial interest Cruise Start Date between September and November 2025 Room must be reasonably large with decent bathroom size, prefer at least 250 square feet, can be smaller if bathroom is generous Ideally include at least some drinks, wifi, thermal spa, and special restaurant if on a larger ship At least 8 day cruise, prefer 10 or more Prefer a cruise heavy with port days Would like to keep the price around $14,000-$17,000 just for the cruise specifically I've been looking at a Magic Carpet Sky Suite on Celebrity Ascent, a Concierge Level Veranda on Oceania Marina, a Club Spa Suite on Azamara Onward, and several options on Windstar ships. I haven't been on any of these before so I'm uncertain how to choose. Hopeful some of you will weigh in with suggestions and helpful comparisons.