JAMA80

It's a bit price dependent but my vote is the 7 night Bermuda in the escape. With one of the 7 night Florida/Bahamas cruise as second. Agree 4/5 nights is a waste from New York. A bulk of your time will be sailing.

 

Escape and anthem are both newer ships with all the bells and whistles. While the adventure and gem are a bit older and more basic so expect the price to reflect that.

 

The most cost effective way to book 6 people is in 2 cabins; but yes, you can certainly book 2 each in 3 cabins on paper to avoid single supplements. Just get extra keys when you board so the kids can sleep with you. If you do this you may want to get rooms close to each other. Someone else on here booked that way without realizing it meant that they and their children would be assigned to different muster stations in the event of an emergency. But rooms in the same area of the ship all have the same muster station. So a consideration if that's important to you.

 

 

Also, when looking at the prices, Norwegian includes their 'free at sea' perks. Most bookings have the option of choosing the drinks package, a specialty dining package, internet, or shore excursion credit. So just something to keep in mind when doing a price comparison.

Thank you for the information on the room location/muster stations! My children are young so I would definitely want them to be with us in an emergency.

I'm fairly certain we are going to do one of the Bahamas itineraries this time. The 7-night Bermuda is a bit too pricey for the dates we could go, and the dates for the 5-night Bermuda don't work out as well either. (You actually get nearly 2 full days in Bermuda on that one; it arrives at 9:00am on day 3 and departs at 5:00pm on day 4.) We'll save Bermuda for next time. :)

How are you getting to the port? If you are driving, thus your choice of NY ports, I would choose ships that sail from Cape Liberty in NJ, since they will be easier and less expensive to access and park. So my choices would be Royal or Celebrity. And I would always choose the longer cruise. More bang for your bucks. EM

We actually live in Brooklyn, so it would be cheaper/easier for us to get to Manhattan than NJ. We'll probably just take Uber or Lyft to the port.

Thank you all for the feedback! It sounds like all of the 7-nighters are potentially good choices. The Bermuda options are slightly more expensive (with the 5-night Bermuda on RC being similar in price to the 7-night Bahamas) because they are on newer ships. I think I'm going to rule out Celebrity this time since it's not as kid-focused. I guess next step is to research the ports and see which we'd like more - a few days in Bermuda, or a day each in 3 different ports.

I also have a question about staterooms - what is the most cost-effective way to sleep 4 adults & 2 children? Ideally, me, my wife & kids would have one room and my mom and mother-in-law would each have their own room, but I'd like to avoid expensive single supplements if possible. Can I book 3 rooms with 2 people in each room, but choose at least one room that sleeps 4 so the kids can actually sleep with us? Have no idea how this works on a cruise.

Hi everyone! I am looking into booking my family's first cruise and would love some feedback on which line/ship would be the best choice for us.

Our group is: me & my wife, our two girls (will be 5 & 9 when we cruise), my mom, and possibly my wife's mom as well. (My mom has cruised once before on RCI and enjoyed it; none of the rest of us have ever cruised before.)

We want to sail out of NY or NJ to the Bahamas or Bermuda next summer. Based on this criteria I've narrowed it down to these options:

Thoughts? Opinions? I'm leaning toward one of the Florida/Bahamas itineraries because I like the idea of multiple ports, but if the ship experience will be better on one of the Bermuda ones, I'm open to that. I think for this trip the on board experience is more important to us than the destination.