What are you most looking forward to about your next Cruise?

Since there is a lot of negativity on here I thought I would post something completely positive. What are you most looking forward to about your next Cruise? If you have not yet cruised what are you most looking forward to about your first cruise? My next Cruise on the escape and I am most looking forward to, as a night owl having somewhere to eat at night and drink. I work constantly so I don't normally have the time to go clubbing or anything like that. I am also looking forward to the shows which will probably be amazing and looking forward to checking out that snow room lol.

In no particular order, what I'm looking foward is:

Eating out al fresco

Swimming

Doing a 1-3 walking tour(s)

Not having to pick up or answer any phones for weeks

Taking photos of places

Not being in NYC for a while and re-loving why its one great cities of all time

Seeing different places that not towering skyscrapers

Watching/hearing live shows for 'free'

Cheese platter and snacks choices from the buffet

Uptown and Flamingo Grill

Noodle Bar (I swear the smoke from casino makes its taste better.[emoji16] )

Christmas gift shopping (makes it super easy to shop for immediate family members - too many nieces and nephews[emoji21] )

Enjoying the sea breeze

Enjoying the sights and sound of the Carbibean

Napping on Seaday(s)

Seeing the art reproductions of Park West in the gallery

Sigh...My trips can't come soon enough....

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My First post

Our Third Cruise

Breakaway Aug. 9, 2015:

Not having to fly or park

Escaping the greater NYC area for a week

Young adult and adult kids with us (mom and dad)... and not

Freestyle cruising and food options

Simply being captive to the boat

Relaxing

Partying/Dancing

The Shows

Trying something(s) new

BERMUDA

Turning off my cell phone!!!!!!

The ocean

Looking forward to trying out the epic

First time I've got my self a dining package [emoji3]

Trying out the water slides

Christmas shopping in the Canary Islands

Show

More shopping in Malaga

Food

Most of all relaxing not having to do the cooking cleaning school runs and hopefully catching some much needed sun [emoji3]

Awesome topic.

In no particular order:

• Having an aft balcony for the first time!
  
• My sister-in-law and her husband are coming with us; it'll be their first time cruising, and my wife and I are excited to see everything again for the first time again through their eyes.
  
• Sailing down the Hudson River
  
• Not having to cook for a week, or even make the bed.
  
• Waking up early to look out at the ocean
  
• Bermuda!!! Too much to list here...
  
• Unplugging for a week
  

I can't wait until we walk up the ramp to the Breakaway and get this cruise under way. I remember when we booked this cruise back in January, and this seemed ages and ages away. I'm so glad that it's almost finally here!

1. Eating in the MDR for dinner. Seriously. Last 2 cruises, I had the UDP and I truly do miss the MDR.
   
2. The water slides on the Breakaway. (The one on the GEM is terrible.)
   
3. Walk the plank on the Breakaway. Didn't get a chance to do it last time.
   
4. See new destinations. I'm looking to do a cruise to Western Caribbean ports like Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands. Almost every cruise out of NY is Bahamas or Bermuda.
   
5. 9 days instead of 7. Hate for the cruise to end and would love an extended stay. Got my wish.
   
6. See Rock of Ages again. Excellent production.
   
7. Find out what's replace Spongebob and Nick characters.
   

I'm not looking forward to the small pools and short port times, but I think I'll be very happy next year.

Taking a break from CruiseCritic for a week.

:)

"maywell" is that back to back to back cruises??

In the spirit of positivity (and the fact that I don't know when my next cruise will be...) I'm going to list my favorite parts of the first cruise my Husband and I ever took back in April. (Breakaway NY to Bermuda) Some things are NCL specific and some are just things I loved about being a first time cruiser. Now that we have experienced the glory of cruising, it will be very hard to ever choose a 'traditional' vacation over another NCL cruise.

- I have done a lot of traveling in my life and most of it has required way too much time and energy just getting to and from my destination. I never realized how much it sucks to take a week long vacation and pretty much lose two days of the seven due to transportation. Our minds were blown when we were standing on the balcony of our cabin overlooking NYC less than 2 hours after we pulled out of our driveway at home and it took even less time getting back home once we left the ship. I can't believe how much longer and more relaxing this vacation felt as compared to past trips like flying down to Mexico and staying at a resort for a week.

- I have lived an hour north of NYC for all of my 35 years and my Husband was born and raised in Brooklyn. I'm in the city quite a bit but I have never been able to experience the beauty of NYC like I did on this ship while entering and exiting the port. It gives you such a good vantage point to see the amazing architecture and iconic buildings up close. Being on the top deck as we sailed underneath the Verrazano Bridge was an experience I won't soon forget. The most beautiful thing we got to experience was waking up just in time to sit out on our balcony as we passed the sunrise behind the Statue of Liberty on our way back to the pier.

- The Ultimate Dining Package. Specifically, Le Bistro. We loved it so much that we wound up eating there 3 times. Their vanilla creme brûlée is what my dreams are made of. There aren't many moments of pure excitement and happiness in life but I definitely had one of those moments when our waitress told us it was perfectly acceptable and even somewhat common to order every dessert on the menu to share between the two of us. Even on the nights we ate at different restaurants, we always stopped at Le Bistro for dessert. If that cruise had been any longer than a week I fear we would have fallen into a sugar coma haha.

- Rock of Ages and Burn the Floor. We are big fans of Broadway and go to a few shows a year in NYC so our expectations were about as low as they could get before we had a chance to see them on the ship. I don't know why but in my head I imagined they would be about on par with a community theater production. I was so happy I was proven wrong here. The talent and energy involved with both of these shows completely impressed me. I would have paid extra to see either of these shows but the fact that they were included as part of the cruise fare was yet another of the many times my mind was blown on the Breakaway.

- The Breakaway staff. Everyone was welcoming, warm, kind and it genuinely felt like they wanted to go above and beyond to make sure everyone had an amazing cruise. There didn't seem to be a bad apple in the bunch which is exceedingly rare in the world today.

- Being able to sleep with the balcony door open while at sea. Who needs a white noise machine when you can fall asleep to the sounds of the ocean outside your door? I definitely got some of the best sleep of my life while we were at sea because the ocean just rocked me to sleep.

- Having 3 days docked at the Royal Naval Dockyard in Bermuda. We chose the Bermuda itinerary mainly because of the dates we could travel and because we wanted to leave from NYC. We knew nothing about Bermuda before the cruise and that made it all the more fun to have 3 days to explore all of the amazingly beautiful island. It was just enough time to really see and experience all Bermuda has to offer.

- Sea days. I never thought I would enjoy sea days as much as I did. I think my favorite thing to do on the sea days was to order room service and have a complimentary continental breakfast in bed.

- Pretzel rolls

- soft serve ice cream all day, every day. It is so funny to watch how many adults walk past you enjoying the unlimited soft serve as much as the 6 year olds haha.

- Going up to the buffet right before bed (already wearing PJs) to grab a bowl of warm cookies and cold milk as a midnight snack.

- Giggling every time we heard the cruise director JC Sanchez say his own name. 'Hi, I'm JC Saaaaaaanchez!'

- Exploring the ship on our own while most people were at the glow party. It was around 11PM so we decided to go check out the sports area since we hadn't been up there yet. We had way too much fun playing air hockey in the arcade and then playing a round of mini golf since we had the course to ourselves.

- Watching the fireworks from the top deck. Mind blown yet again knowing we were watching fireworks out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

There are so many more things we loved about our first NCL cruise but these were definitely the highlights!

Here are a few of our highlights that we captured on film:

Great idea to look for the positive!

Spending time with my mom & sister

Having a few different mojitos :p

Seeing Rock of Ages

Checking out the waterfront

Having a cream horn (lobster tail) from Carlos' bakery

- I have done a lot of traveling in my life and most of it has required way too much time and energy just getting to and from my destination. I never realized how much it sucks to take a week long vacation and pretty much lose two days of the seven due to transportation. Our minds were blown when we were standing on the balcony of our cabin overlooking NYC less than 2 hours after we pulled out of our driveway at home and it took even less time getting back home once we left the ship. I can't believe how much longer and more relaxing this vacation felt as compared to past trips like flying down to Mexico and staying at a resort for a week.

Boy, is that the truth or what? You are right on point with this...we are also 2 hours from NYC, and cruising out of there is wonderful. We can get from our driveway to the port in 2 hours, and after that, we let NCL do the rest of the driving. It's so relaxing, and you get so much more extra time.

Sailing out of Charlotte Amalie harbor at sunset, something I haven't done in way too long

My next Painkiller at Pussers

The brand new Escape.

Ooooo where to start? :)

Drinking wine late at night on the balcony, listening to the sea.

Spending time alone with my DH

No cooking or cleaning!

Meeting new people.

Waking up in a new place every day.

Seeing if the Epic is as good as I remember from the first time!

Seeing The Vatican and the Sistine Chapel...........it was closed last time and that went down a storm with my DH, who thought that, as a good Catholic girl, I should have known that! (I DID.........just didn't dare tell him! :o )

Looking forward to our first aft balcony!!!

Boy, is that the truth or what? You are right on point with this...we are also 2 hours from NYC, and cruising out of there is wonderful. We can get from our driveway to the port in 2 hours, and after that, we let NCL do the rest of the driving. It's so relaxing, and you get so much more extra time.

Now I just feel silly for not thinking of taking a cruise out of NYC much earlier in my life. When my Husband and I got home after the cruise we definitely had a forehead slap moment for not thinking of this option earlier.

When we go the 'traditional' vacation route we don't really reach a relaxed state until about Wednesday because it takes those few days for our mind and bodies to adjust to the fact that we don't have to be at work the next morning. At that point we only have about 2 days to actually enjoy the relaxation.

Just the thought of having to drive 2 hours to get to the airport (that is with no traffic which I have never experienced in my life driving to JFK or LGA), go through the nightmare that is finding parking, checking in, braving the lines to go through security, waiting for at least two hours at the gate, surviving the stampede once boarding starts, sitting on a plane for 3+ hours, then going through Mexican customs and immigration, waiting for (and hoping to find) your luggage, finding a cab, a 30 minute drive to the hotel and however long it takes to check into your hotel is insanity!! (Holy crap! Just typing all of this out made me tired haha)

Compare that to a two hour drive, parking literally right next to the ship and about 30 minutes to get checked in and the choice couldn't be any easier for me lol

Spending time with my sister. My first time in a aft suite. New ports to explore. NO CELL PHONES [emoji2],atleast for me. Hanging out on the balcony watching the wake as I drink my morning coffee. Just cruising in "island time"

"maywell" is that back to back to back cruises??

Yes, it is! All for about $2000 minus airfare and 2 hotel nights (1 night for flying in for embark day and the other for the Saturday disembark to Sunday embark) - Can not wait for that trip, literally starts the Day after Thanksgiving (getting to one of the NYC-area airports is an adventure unto itself, as others describe)

Edit: Oh, my god - That last 3rd week, I am ~so~going to be relaxed.[emoji7]

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Can't wait to return to Bermuda!!

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I like the fact that we leave tomorrow. :)

Great topic!

1. Spending time with my 3 gal pals; who just happen to be my daughter, my sister & my best friend. It's our annual trip together.

2. Boston. Have always wanted to visit; now we get almost 2 pre cruise days there!

3. The Suite Life. It's amazing how much easier it is to afford when you travel with friends & not partners;)

4. Bermuda. Beaches and fish tacos.

5. Sea Days. UBP & UDP in full force!

6. No DH to oversee my support of the Casino.

Cheers & happy sailing everyone....

First time being a in a suite.

Renew our wedding vows.

Sketching landscapes in my

old school pad with a pencil.

Wonderful food and wine.

New ship smell.

Star gazing.

Horseback riding on St. Thomas.

Taking daily naps.

Sarahellin, some of us were just BORN TO CRUISE. Welcome to the club!

My next official (booked) cruise is Feb 2017 on the Jade out of Houston. I cannot imagine not slipping at least one in before that one. But I will pick the "new " things unique to that cruise I am looking forward to:

1. First forward suite. I am an aft girl. But because of my next answer I chose forward.

2. We plan to make this a SPA trip with spa passes and many indulgent treatments. If you have never had the seaweed wrap in the floating bed you have never experienced my favorite treatment.

Since we will spa til we drop we chose forward so we can float home after massages.

3. First UDP. LOVE LE BISTRO. And several ohers.

4. First UBP. Not a huge drinker but will enjoy a few more than usual.

And, finally:

5. Introducing my sister to the NCL suite life and seeing her relax and be pampered. That is what I look most forward too.

It will be me, my sis and her daughter.