How to decide?? First time cruisers

Hey all,

So we have been wanting to try a cruise out for a long time and we figure our honeymoon might be a great way to do it. I've been spending some time researching and I feel I don't know enough to make a informed decision

I came across this forum and hopefully the veteran cruisers can help us out. Below is a list of points we are looking for and hopefully you guys can point us to the right cruise line.

-Looking for a warm destination such as the Caribbean or Bermuda as we will probably sail in Jan-March

-Cruise ship that is more favored by couples and young adults/professionals than families. Trying to stay away from screaming kids

-Offers a all inclusive drink package

- Good food

The other thing I noticed too was a lot of the cruise ships had 10 or so restaurants but only 2-3 seemed to be free while the rest you had to pay for. Are we going to be sick of the food/buffet if we go for a 10 day cruise and dont want to pay extra?

Anyways thanks for the help in advance!

Welcome to CC. I am sure many people will want to chime in and that is great. We have taken many cruises, all with our kids but believe it or not the one cruise where we had the the least number of kids intruding on the adults was Disney. They do a great job of keeping the adult areas adults only.

Even on our other trips I haven't seen too many out of control kids.

The other way to keep the number of kids down on a cruise is not to sail when the kids have breaks. Stay away from Spring Break time (March-April) and long holiday weekends. Also, choose a longer sailing (7-10 days) instead of the shorter 3-5 days.

All inclusive drink packages I can not help you with, but if you hop over to the Royal Board there are lots of threads on this subject.

Food is going to be relative. We have always enjoyed the main dinning rooms. We have only done one up-charge restaurant and that was Palo on the Disney ship for our anniversary. It was very nice and had a very upscale feel to it- and of course no kids. We have always been happy in the MDR for dinner/breakfast and the buffett for breakfast/lunch. Many of the ships also have places that you can grab a sandwich/wrap/pizza/cookies during the day/evening for no additional charge.

Have fun planning!

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

To minimize kids, you are better off traveling in January or Early February. Once you get into late February & March, there are spring break families.

There will be one or more main dining rooms (MDR) that are included in the fare. My wife and I have spent over 500 nights on cruise ships and gone to the extra charge restaurants exactly twice. While we occasionally go to the buffet for dinner, the vast majority of the time we are eating dinner in the MDR

It's your honeymoon. Go to Tahiti and sail on Windstar or the Paul Gauguin. It's rare to see children. No fee for any restaurants. Upscale ships, intimate settings.

Hey all,

 

So we have been wanting to try a cruise out for a long time and we figure our honeymoon might be a great way to do it. I've been spending some time researching and I feel I don't know enough to make a informed decision

 

I came across this forum and hopefully the veteran cruisers can help us out. Below is a list of points we are looking for and hopefully you guys can point us to the right cruise line.

 

-Looking for a warm destination such as the Caribbean or Bermuda as we will probably sail in Jan-March

-Cruise ship that is more favored by couples and young adults/professionals than families. Trying to stay away from screaming kids

-Offers a all inclusive drink package

- Good food

 

The other thing I noticed too was a lot of the cruise ships had 10 or so restaurants but only 2-3 seemed to be free while the rest you had to pay for. Are we going to be sick of the food/buffet if we go for a 10 day cruise and dont want to pay extra?

 

Anyways thanks for the help in advance!

Families (with children) tend to stay with 7-day or shorter itineraries. A 10-day cruise, during the school year, will work to significantly reduce the number of children aboard any given cruise.

I assume you are looking for all-inclusive adult beverage drink packages. Cruise lines that offer all-inclusive drink packages can be reviewed at: http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=1470 The value in such packages is meaningful if you know the price of the typical beverage you drink. If a typical martini costs $8, then you must consume at least 7 a day, each and every day, to break even on a $54 daily charge for the AI package. Make sure you read/understand the fine print.

I know of very few (if any) ships that have 10 or more restaurants. The typical ship will have one, two or three "main dining rooms", a buffet, a burger/pizza place and maybe a couple additive cost specialty restaurants. We rarely eat in the specialty restaurants. Food is a very individual, subjective thing. I have never had a meal in the MDR that I didn't think was good. I have had few that I would consider over-the-top gourmet restaurant quality.

I would suggest you shop for your cruise based on what is really important to you. Factors could include ship's ammenities, booze package, ports-o-calls and/or ship-board activities. Royal Caribbean tends to have ship-board activities that appeal to 20-somethings and is starting to offer AI booze packages.

Enjoy!

You won't find any Bermuda itineraries before April - and even then, it will not be reliably warm.

You might want to avoid long weekend cruises generally, and anything around Presidents' week in February and the second half of March generally due to Spring Break crowds.

Do not worry about the specialty restaurants: lines like Holland America (generally older demographic), Celebrity, Princess and Royal Caribbean (usually larger ships) all have good variety of well prepared food in the main dining rooms at no extra charge.

From how you've described your interests, I'd recommend Celebrity first, then Princess.

Norwegian has ships with lots of restaurants, especially Epic and Breakaway. There are probably 10 or more restauants on those ships.

Roz

If you go in January, there will be very few children regardless of cruiseline.

Bermuda is off the coast of the Carolina's & is not all that warm in Jan-Mar.

If you want fewer kids avoid school holidays, & take a longer trip. Princess is the "Love Boat". RCL, Disney & Carnival are the lines that spring to mind when thinking family vacation with lots of kids.

Good food is subjective. All Mass Market cruise lines prepare food in bulk & use warmers. It will all be OK but very few things will be amazing. On NCL the buffet menu is the same every single day but the choices are so varied that it's OK & you shouldn't get bored. There is a standard dinner menu of stuff that is served every night but the specials change daily.

NCL does have a drink package. It's $49 pp per day but the things that are excluded from it are the things we drink so we've never bought it. You know you own habits & tastes. Do the math to see if it works for you.

Check out the departure boards here on Cruise Critic

You are looking at two very different destinations....

Bermuda is absolutely amazing and romantic, with pristine beaches and a lot of great things to see and do. A British holding with none of the below...

The North, South, and Western Caribbean - Steel Drums, Straw Markets, Senor Frogs, a few more wild and crazy shore activities - very colorful & fun!

WE LOVE all of our destinations, but again, I was totally surprised at the vast differences from all of the other Caribbean Ports we have visited when we arrived in Bermuda.

Yes, there are many specialty ($$) restaurants on every ship, and we used dine in them quite often, but now, have found the MDR's on every ship we have sailed have good food, always good service & very nice atmosphere actually very entertaining and lot of fun.

Note: The Breakaway has THREE complimentary main dining rooms - I am so READY!

http://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/review.cfm?ShipID=642&pgtype=dining

Have a GREAT Cruise......

Bermuda in Jan-Mar. could be chilly...it's in the Atlantic....not the Caribbean. Actually, the Bahamas aren't in the Caribbean, either...so whatever weather Florida is experiencing, so will those locations, to a degree.

To guarantee warm weather, you will need to get into the Caribbean Sea....like San Juan, St. Thomas, etc.....

Our honeymoon and also first cruise was a week-long around Hawaii followed by a week on Oahu. Loved it. The cruise line we used (American Hawaiian Cruises) is defunct, but NCL has the Pride of America doing week-long itineraries. I'll let someone whose been on the POA comment on it.

Other cruise lines have itineraries to Hawaii, but they pretty much start on the west coast for 14-15 days with a lot of sea days, which I wouldn't recommend to a first-timer. I think 7 days is good to see if cruising suits you.

Just an alternative to the Caribbean and Bermuda.

Posters are correct that you will not find cruises to Bermuda in Jan - March.

Caribbean/Bahamas itineraries in winter can have chilly conditions -- esp. water temps. By March, not so bad.

Your OP just scratched the surface of aspects of your cruise to take into consideration in planning. An element you did not mention is price. This will include or exclude certain lines.

Itinerary is next -- are there particular ports you want to visit or exclude, particular things you want to do? Do you want more or fewer sea days?

Does it matter to you where the ship sails from? Is ship size important to you?

There are websites which are very useful for comparing cruise lines, ships, ports, itineraries, prices. A Google search of the words "discount cruises" will get you a listing of some. Find one you like and that has the info you need -- so much easier than trying to go from cruise line website to cruise line website, comparing everything.

Norwegian has ships with lots of restaurants, especially Epic and Breakaway. There are probably 10 or more restauants on those ships.

 

Roz

NCL often has many small "main dining rooms" that have different food themes. Epic does have six additive fee dining venues while Breakaway has three.

At any rate, the OP seems to think this is very common practice across cruise lines when it really isn't.

Welcome to Cruise Critic! :)

Whatever else ... you will not want to go to Bermuda January - March because it will not be the warm weather you want!

Please pick a cruise in the Caribbean.

LuLu

~~~~

Hey all,

 

So we have been wanting to try a cruise out for a long time and we figure our honeymoon might be a great way to do it. I've been spending some time researching and I feel I don't know enough to make a informed decision

 

I came across this forum and hopefully the veteran cruisers can help us out. Below is a list of points we are looking for and hopefully you guys can point us to the right cruise line.

 

-Looking for a warm destination such as the Caribbean or Bermuda as we will probably sail in Jan-March

-Cruise ship that is more favored by couples and young adults/professionals than families. Trying to stay away from screaming kids

-Offers a all inclusive drink package

- Good food

 

The other thing I noticed too was a lot of the cruise ships had 10 or so restaurants but only 2-3 seemed to be free while the rest you had to pay for. Are we going to be sick of the food/buffet if we go for a 10 day cruise and dont want to pay extra?

 

Anyways thanks for the help in advance!

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding.

As the other posters have stated - Jan-Mar - too cold for Bermuda and I don't think there are cruises to Bermuda that time of year.

For less kids - stay away from RCCL, Disney, Carnival - they cater to families and stay away from Presidents' Week and spring break.

Celebrity - food is great; less kids. Food in the MDR is very good to excellent (depending on individual tastes of course). Celebrity offers two drink packages (Classic and Premium). Classic is for beer up to $5 and spirits and wines up to $8. Premium is includes wine and spirits to $12 (not sure what the beer is on the premium). No limit as to how much you are allowed to drink per day, but you can only get one drink at a time and both of you will need to purchase the package. Both packages also include non-alcoholic drinks such as bottled water, specialty coffees (lattes, mochas, etc.)...

Princess - food was good (personally, I don't think as good as Celebrity but again -individual tastes). Might have a drink package for purchase, but I do not know anything about it.

All Main Dining Rooms have different menus each night - usually 3-4 entrees, desserts, appetizers, etc., plus 'available every night' selections, vegetarian selection, etc. Therefore eating in the MDR every night will not be boring.

the ships for both Princess and Celebrity are beautiful. Every ship in both fleets have something to offer different from other ships in the fleet (even within class of ship there will be differences between each ship).

Both Celebrity and Princess (as well as RCCL, Carnival, Disney, etc.) have adult only pools so you can get away from kids - screaming or quiet. :D

Enjoy your first cruise and BEWARE - CRUISING IS ADDICTIVE. :eek:

I might be making assumptions here, but when you ask if you will grow tired of the fare it makes me wonder if you are thinking of things in a land-based fashion.

The menus for the MDR and buffet are not the same every day. While there will be some basic choices always available, the bulk changes on a daily basis. There are also some small...I hesitate to call them 'restaurants', more like stations/drop-ins/pubs/nooks/etc. that have a fixed menu. Those tend be strongly themed like the pizza joint, a deli, etc. Some ships do have more traditional fixed menu specialty restaurants ranging from upscale steak joints to chain restaurant offerings. The latter is rare. Between all the possible choices it will be highly unlikely you will grow tired of meals unless you are a particularly unadventurous and/or picky eater.

Also, the Caribbean waters in winter are often lovely, we've sailed several times during that window and snorkeled every one.

You should consider booking a cruise aboard one of the newer Celebrity cruise ships, there are very elegant, streamlined. Try and book a cruise that doesn't coincide with a school vacation and you will cut down on the amount of kids completely.

Since it's your honeymoon why not book a 10 or 11-day voyage. There's no doubt you will be hooked on cruising from the moment you stroll up the gangway.

The Celebrity Equinox one of their newest ships has a great 10-day itinerary on March 14 that sails from Fort Lauderdale, Florida with stops in St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Barbados, Dominica and St. Maarten.

Good Luck and congrats on your upcoming wedding.

Jonathan