Advice Please: Caribbean cruise for early 30's couple

Hi there,

My boyfriend in I (in our early 30's) are planning a Caribbean cruise for January and wanted to seek some advice regarding which cruise to book. Last year we took the Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas to St. Thomas, St. Maarten, and Nassau and absolutely loved it. Our hope was that we could do it again with a different itinerary but aren't a huge fan of the Western Caribbean itinerary (Haiti, Cozumel, and Jamaica) as their only other route at that time of year. Mainly, what we look for in a cruise is lots of entertainment and late night drink/mingling options, good food, and having at least some other people in our age bracket. We are purposely not going during winter holidays or spring break to avoid being surrounded by children. We are considering Norwegian's Epic or Getaway but were curious about other people's opinions. Any advice about what would be a comparable cruise ship to the Oasis of the Seas (in terms of size, entertainment, food, age groups etc.) would be greatly appreciated!

You're not going to get much that is comparable in size to the Oasis, unless you're doing the Allure or the Harmony, her sister ships, but I don't know where they are sailing from right now. No other cruise line has ships of this size yet.

You might look into Royal's Anthem of the seas, it's not as big as Oasis but is a newer, bigger ship with lots of amenities.

In avoiding the summer and winter breaks, you are avoiding most of the people in your age range because that is a prime age group for having small children. Off-season cruising has great deals money wise; lots of older people, not to say older people aren't fun too though, cause lots of them are, but not in your age range.

You are also limiting yourself by wanting the big ships, because they go to the same tired old places all the time. Those islands are great, once, but they are by no means the nicest Caribbean islands, they're just the islands those ships can dock in because of their size.

I would suggest trying the Freedom of the Seas (out of Florida), or the Adventure of the Seas (out of Puerto Rico). They're both large enough, but nowhere near the size of oasis. the Freedom may go to similar islands to the Oasis with a couple additional islands they may go to, but the Adventure is by far my ultimate favorite because of all the beautiful exotic islands it visits (St Lucia, Barbados, Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Antigua, Martinique, Dominica etc. you'll never get to any of those islands on Oasis, and probably not Anthem either (Anthem currently sails from New York and goes to Bermuda).

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

If you choose the Epic, you may be disappointed in the "wave" balcony cabin

Sent from my SM-T807V using Forums mobile app

If you choose the Epic, you may be disappointed in the "wave" balcony cabin

 

Sent from my SM-T807V using Forums mobile app

What's a "wave" balcony?

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Hi there,

 

My boyfriend in I (in our early 30's) are planning a Caribbean cruise for January and wanted to seek some advice regarding which cruise to book. Last year we took the Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas to St. Thomas, St. Maarten, and Nassau and absolutely loved it. Our hope was that we could do it again with a different itinerary but aren't a huge fan of the Western Caribbean itinerary (Haiti, Cozumel, and Jamaica) as their only other route at that time of year. Mainly, what we look for in a cruise is lots of entertainment and late night drink/mingling options, good food, and having at least some other people in our age bracket. We are purposely not going during winter holidays or spring break to avoid being surrounded by children. We are considering Norwegian's Epic or Getaway but were curious about other people's opinions. Any advice about what would be a comparable cruise ship to the Oasis of the Seas (in terms of size, entertainment, food, age groups etc.) would be greatly appreciated!

From reading your post you seem to be well educated, somewhat well off, sophisticated and appreciate elegant and vibrant atmospheres. Therefore, you only have one choice: Celebrity

Join my wife and I on the Equionix sailing January 20, ten days, from Ft. Lauderdale. Read my post I posted a few days ago:

About us: We're 69 and 70, retired and somewhat well off, well maybe "comfortable". We live in the NY area. Majority of passengers are in the 30 to 60 range. They are worldly, sophisticated, friendly and like to eat, drink, dance and have fun. There always lots of families with well behaved children (for the most part). A nice mix of young to old who prefers gazing at the ocean versus shot contests. Does not appeal to rednecks. They don't have hairy chest or belly flop contests.

A Celebrity cruise is a lot of things:

Elegant

Chic

Casual

Sophisticated

Friendly

Warm

Vibrant

A perfect blend of stylish luxury and informality.

When returning to the ship on hot days they serve iced towels & cold drinks right on the pier. On cold days it's warm towels and hot chicken soup.

Food is excellent in all venues while remembering they are serving thousands of meals a day.

They truly do take care of their passengers. This is shown everyday in large and small ways. We are their guests not an ATM machine that they can pull money out at every turn.

Officers are friendly and visible every day. There are officer and passenger dance contests, trivial pursuit games, sporting events. They are approachable and easy to talk to.

Last but not least, they make the best bread pudding and waffles on the high seas.

Please do give them a try. You won't be disappointed.

Don't dwell on ages... folks older than you can STILL have fun...and probably more fun than you're used to...we've had PRACTICE!

Aside from that...pick the ship, and itinerary you want. It's all good. You will have plenty of fun. If you want ALL 30 year olds...then go to a travel agent and book some sort of "theme" vacation...You could call it "Thirty is flirty" or something like that....

You are way to focused on ages and/or food, venues, etc...

A cruise is a freaking vacation...take it or not. Any VACATION is good.

My go to recommendation would be Celebrity as an earlier poster said. Very adult, intelligent people around, etc, etc.. All ages, multiple nationalities. Our first cruise was with them when we were 30 something DINKS. Loved every minute of it and have been back multiple times.

However it is a very different experience than Oasis I think. I've avoided that class of ships because they just seem to be too much for me. Too big, too crazy. But that's me.

I'd also say maybe Princess, but as with Celebrity, if you're looking for Miami nightlife at sea, probably not the best choice.

Maybe check into one of the Oasis sister ships? MSC is trying to capture your demo, they roped me in, but I'm ancient in comparison. Still their ships look amazing, and they only do the Caribbean in the US.

Wow am I not helpful.