Best place, best time/month, best cruiseline?

[alikim]

Hi,

I’m preparing 3-4 night Baja Cruise for our family for November and my husband and I were talking about doing cruises on our own once my younger son graduate high school in 2 years.

We did Caribbean cruise 23 years ago (I can’t remember what cruiseline it was but I think it was Carnival Princess?) for our honeymoon and we had such a great time. Ship was big and food was excellent at that time. We enjoyed it so much we took our family to Hawaii hopper cruise 3 years ago. Didn’t like Hawain Hopper cruise much as I though we would. Maybe because we opt for casual dining where when we did the Caribbean cruise, we had sit down dinner with all the newlyweds each dinnert and did the Captain’s dinner. Hawaiin Hopper ship was small and food was okay and there wasn’t much to do on the ship. My husband and I want to have same experience when we did the Caribbean cruise. We are too lazy to travel by land which we would have to book airline, hotels, look for restaurants, and etc so we like “floating hotel/restaurant” convenience. We want to do many cruises as possible once our sons are out of the house, which mean I better start saving now. Of course we want to do many different areas as possible such as Alaska, different areas of Caribbean, different parts of Europe, different parts of Asia, and etc.

What I would like to ask from the “world travelers” are, where, when, what is the best? For example:

Best place to travel:

Best time to travel to (weatherwise, scenery):

Best ship to travel in:

If you can share your answers to these 3 questions for each “cruise/area”, I would really appreciate it.

By the way, my husband is 49 years old and I’m 48 years old so we prefer “adult” setting than children oriented ship.

Thank you so much.

[CALMOM]

Hi,

 

What I would like to ask from the “world travelers” are, where, when, what is the best? For example:

 

Best place to travel: My Favorite cruise has been to Alaska, in fact we are doing our second cruise next month.

 

Best time to travel to (weatherwise, scenery): You can only cruise to Alaska from May to September. May & Sept will be colder and rainy but less chances of kids and cheaper fares. Our first time was in September & it was too much rain for me, so this time we are cruising in July.

 

Best ship to travel in: I personally love to travel on Princess, it is a happy medium. We cruised on Carnival when the kids were younger, not interested in Carnival anymore now that their grown. I don't care for RCL or Celebrity and HAL has an older population usually.

 

If you can share your answers to these 3 questions for each “cruise/area”, I would really appreciate it.

 

By the way, my husband is 49 years old and I’m 48 years old so we prefer “adult” setting than children oriented ship.

 

Thank you so much.

 

Hope this helps.

[geoherb]

I don't think you can go wrong with Celebrity, Princess, and Holland America on a week-long cruise to the Caribbean. We like eastern better than southern or western, but we've done all three and probably will do them again.

 

The best time to travel is early December in terms of usually great weather and cheap prices. We've been in November, December, and March.

[UlvaZell]

Hi,

 

I’m preparing 3-4 night Baja Cruise for our family for November and my husband and I were talking about doing cruises on our own once my younger son graduate high school in 2 years.

 

We did Caribbean cruise 23 years ago (I can’t remember what cruiseline it was but I think it was Carnival Princess?) for our honeymoon and we had such a great time. Ship was big and food was excellent at that time. We enjoyed it so much we took our family to Hawaii hopper cruise 3 years ago. Didn’t like Hawain Hopper cruise much as I though we would. Maybe because we opt for casual dining where when we did the Caribbean cruise, we had sit down dinner with all the newlyweds each dinnert and did the Captain’s dinner. Hawaiin Hopper ship was small and food was okay and there wasn’t much to do on the ship. My husband and I want to have same experience when we did the Caribbean cruise. We are too lazy to travel by land which we would have to book airline, hotels, look for restaurants, and etc so we like “floating hotel/restaurant” convenience. We want to do many cruises as possible once our sons are out of the house, which mean I better start saving now. Of course we want to do many different areas as possible such as Alaska, different areas of Caribbean, different parts of Europe, different parts of Asia, and etc.

 

What I would like to ask from the “world travelers” are, where, when, what is the best? For example:

 

Best place to travel:

Best time to travel to (weatherwise, scenery):

Best ship to travel in:

 

If you can share your answers to these 3 questions for each “cruise/area”, I would really appreciate it.

 

By the way, my husband is 49 years old and I’m 48 years old so we prefer “adult” setting than children oriented ship.

 

Thank you so much.

 

Reminds me of the joke of the test essay question, "Describe the universe in 25 words or less... and cite 3 examples".

 

Seriously, the combination of the ships the lines, the itineraries, and the seasons are probably as varied as the number of people cruising. I have cruised the Eastern and Western Caribbean, the Hawaiian Islands, Alaska and the Eastern Med on different lines. There are things about each trip, line, ship and port I have loved and other things I would have changed. Alaska is very different from the Caribbean or the Med, as you would expect. Different weather, scenery, customs, culture, food, language, currency, etc.

 

Find a destination you have always wanted to visit and then dig in. I mainly pick my cruises based first upon destination, then optimal time of year for that destination, then available lines and then price. Despite what you might infer from my signature I am not "line loyal". I believe all of the mass market lines are more alike than they are different and so far my experience has proven that to be true, despite what some of the line cheerleaders who post on this site would want you believe about their favorite line or the line they would never sail on.

 

So far my favorite cruise has been the Eastern Mediterranean last summer. Favorite ports, Venice, Mykonos, and Santorini...

[clinthi]

Nov-Jan/Caribbean/Carnival

:D