If not Royal Caribbean....who?

[A2Mich]

None of the mass market lines are "all-inclusive"...not by a long stretch! You'll have to go Silverseas, or Seabourn...something like that to get AI.

 

They didn't say that ANY cruise line was all inclusive. They said that "this may be their last CRUISE before trying an all inclusive." SMH

[zlacruising]

I'm a diamond on RCCL and really like it. Lately I have been doing NCL. They are very similar, but I like NCL because it is laid back and dressing up is not required.

 

Deb

[riclop]

Going on the Oasis in Feb. and this may be our last cruise. Wife wants to try an all inclusive. I am not so sure. If we were to book another cruise I have no loyalty to any brand. I have liked the Royal Caribbean cruises we have done but wonder what else is out there. I think after we get off of the Oasis whatever we go on again would have to be a large ship. It should go out of Florida or pretty close. Have heard rumors of the Carnival Dream being a nice ship but really do not know much about it. If you leave Royal or have left Royal where did you go and why? How did you like it?

 

We enjoy MSC and Princess and have been disappointed in Carnival.

[SPacificbound]

Going on the Oasis in Feb. and this may be our last cruise. Wife wants to try an all inclusive. I am not so sure. If we were to book another cruise I have no loyalty to any brand. I have liked the Royal Caribbean cruises we have done but wonder what else is out there. I think after we get off of the Oasis whatever we go on again would have to be a large ship. It should go out of Florida or pretty close. Have heard rumors of the Carnival Dream being a nice ship but really do not know much about it. If you leave Royal or have left Royal where did you go and why? How did you like it?

 

We haven't "left Royal" but we have done three Celebrity cruises. You might give Celebrity a try. :)

[BaileyandBella]

We are out of NY but airfare is pretty cheap to Florida and we have some family there. I was looking at the new vista ship and it looks pretty nice. Pretty sure there is no sure bet on this one. I am wondering if after we do the Oasis if it will wreck us for other ships?

 

No, it won't. We just got home from Oasis, I liked it, but the Radiance is still my favorite.

[Club Disney Chandler]

Going on the Oasis in Feb. and this may be our last cruise. Wife wants to try an all inclusive. I am not so sure. If we were to book another cruise I have no loyalty to any brand. I have liked the Royal Caribbean cruises we have done but wonder what else is out there. I think after we get off of the Oasis whatever we go on again would have to be a large ship. It should go out of Florida or pretty close. Have heard rumors of the Carnival Dream being a nice ship but really do not know much about it. If you leave Royal or have left Royal where did you go and why? How did you like it?

 

 

Have you considered DCL, specifically the Fantasy? She is an absolutely amazing ship and cleaner than clean, has a 95% satisfaction rating on CC and isn't just for people traveling with kids. There are many adult only couples on board. The service is incredible and the rotational dining concept where your servers go with you through the 3 MDR's is great. The adult only areas are very quiet and quite serene, and there are also adult only lounges for night time things to do. Most people who go to another cruise line from DCL move to RCCL so I think the experience is quite similar. The staterooms are quite large and have incredibly comfortable beds.

 

I wish I could compare the 2 lines for you but we canceled our Allure cruise that we booked for last month and went to Hawaii instead. The whole time we were there I was wishing I was on the Allure! I agree with what others have said about looking at CCL Vista, we're booked on her next June and are looking forward to trying something different, she looks like an amazing ship, especially the Havana Cabanas area.

[KG1924]

I am curious, where did you stay. Maybe Divi? We have cruised to Aruba twice and really liked it. We are looking at Aruba or Antigua in January for an AI. DW doesn't want to cruise 1.5 months prior to another cruise. I give her this look :rolleyes: but you know the expression. :) wife :) life.

Thanks in advance.

 

Sorry it took so long to respond! We stayed at the Occidental Grand-the resort itself was fine...definitely nothing fancy but the location is hard to beat. We walked to a bunch of shops and restaurants and the beach was fantastic. It was one of the less expensive options in the very few all-inclusives that are on Aruba and we basically chose it for location. The Divi isn't too far away but not as convenient if you wanted some night life to walk to. I would reccommend it to others, but it's not a 5 star resort. Clean, decent food, and very friendly staff. Can't go wrong in my book!

 

Just a side note-if you do go, I'd recommend dinner at Flying Fishbone. It's on the opposite side of the island and you can eat dinner with your feet literally in the ocean. Very small but great food. We were a group of 5 couples, but it would be a very romantic dinner...you know, for a :) wife lol!

[SuiteTraveler]

Going on the Oasis in Feb. and this may be our last cruise. Wife wants to try an all inclusive. I am not so sure. If we were to book another cruise I have no loyalty to any brand. I have liked the Royal Caribbean cruises we have done but wonder what else is out there. I think after we get off of the Oasis whatever we go on again would have to be a large ship. It should go out of Florida or pretty close. Have heard rumors of the Carnival Dream being a nice ship but really do not know much about it. If you leave Royal or have left Royal where did you go and why? How did you like it?

 

I'm wondering why you are limiting yourself to ships out of Florida? Part of the fun of cruising is seeing different parts of the world.

 

Carnival's newer ships ARE very nice. I just got off the Magic on Sunday - it was great! Their steakhouse featured prime beef and the Chef's dinner was the best we have ever had onboard a ship and featured molecular gastronomy. There are 2 major water slides onboard, 2 pools and I thought the food in the buffet and in the MDR was also excellent. The shops were nice - still not much to buy however. We are now booked on the Carnival Breeze in October. (I won a free cruise in the casino.) In the casino, I got free drinks by the second day, then the casino sent me chocolate covered strawberries and 2 bottles of wine and finally the free cruise. Very nice!

 

We also love NCL. They are positioned to become the market leader in the Caribbean. Where RCCL's largest ships are organized more like theme parks, NCL's newest ships are more like a Las Vegas Resort Hotel. The Haven is FANTASTIC - especially the spa suites which come with a spa tub in the room and pass to NCL's wonderful spa with water circuit and Thermal suite. The Haven is very exclusive - there is a special restaurant for Haven guests and a private pool and hot tubs and sun deck as well. In terms of sports, NCL has as much as RCCL. Their newest ships also have 5 full scale water slides that are exciting enough for adults as well as kids.

 

We've cruised on Princess - go for the ports, Celebrity - best MDR food of all the major lines, but otherwise a very quiet cruise, HAL - our suite was nice but the rest of the guests were at least 20 -30 years older than us and the food was disappointing, so we have not been back.

 

I think it's important to switch it up and try various cruise lines. NCL and RCCL are the most similar and it is like RCCL is now trying to adopt the way NCL handles dining and the guest experience. RCCL has even added a restaurant and bar specifically for suite guests. Then Carnival would be the next most similar to NCL and RCCL. I have not tried MSC yet, so I can't compare that one for you. I would describe Princess and Celebrity as more of an elegant cruise experience. There's a place for every type of cruise line. It's really all about what you enjoy doing on your vacation.

 

We've also done all-inclusives - we did Sandals in Jamaica and Fiesta Americana (back when it was new) in Cancun. It was a nice experience, too. But on a land based vacation, I found that I don't really want to be tied to my hotel for all dining. I like to go out and experience new restaurants and eat the local cuisine. So for us, all-inclusive didn't wind up being all-inclusive at all. The other thing, the food was not that good at either of these places. Of course, with Jamaica, you have to realize that you are on a little island and that many ingredients are not normally locally available. So, for example, there was an Italian restaurant and most of the food was made from canned products and dried pasta. They tried hard to make something good, but compared to the kind of Italian food we are used to, it was just OK. What I found the AI's did best was room service breakfast. Scrambled eggs and sausage and a big plate of fresh fruit, orange juice and coffee served on our balcony overlooking the ocean. Lunch was a buffet, which was just OK. Then dinner - again, just OK. Of course the prices were considerably higher for Sandals than for a cruise, too. Other types of AI's come with people trying to sell you time shares - that was the case at Fiesta Americana. They would come invite you to a free breakfast not mentioning it was a sales pitch for a timeshare and then, if you went, try to keep you for hours and hours to pressure you into buying a timeshare. Some people we met made the mistake of going and when they said vehemently that they were not interested in the time share at all, they were ejected from the breakfast not having had any food. The couple were really mad about it as this was the first morning of their vacation and they had gone into the "free breakfast" innocently unaware it was not part of the all inclusive. Step outside the hotel and people on the street were stopping to pester you about taking a time share tour almost every 10 feet and some actually would chase you down the street even when you have told them no and that you are not interested. Very annoying on vacation.