Did You Stick With Your First Cruise Line Or Try Others?

[A2Mich]

After several Carnival cruises, and at the urging of our long time travel agent, we tried RCI, and had a great time. Have our second RCI cruise coming up in April, and are considering booking an NCL when we return. Never sailed NCL, and have read mixed reviews on them, but more positive than not. We’re willing to give them a try.

[cra8zy4crusin777]

Our 1st cruise was 1985 on the Dolphin which became the Dolphin IV. At the time it was the only ship of Dolphin cruise. They later had the SeaBreeze (which sank off our coast after being sold to Premier), The Ocean Breeze and they built the Royal Majesty (which was sold to NCL and sailed as the Majesty).

 

 

 

We LOVED this little ship! It had 800 passengers and the crew was small enough you got to know them. We had the privilege of having dinner with three different captains. Depending on the captain, the ship was a freighter that was built in 1947, '48 or "50! I'm not sure when it became a cruise ship.

 

 

 

Dolphin Cruise Lines died and the Dolphin was bought by Cape Canaveral cruises, their only ship.

 

 

 

We were on her next to last cruise. There were major engine problems and they didn't have the million +++ to fix her so she went to India. This is where all shops go to be scrapped.

 

 

 

We have been on ships of 5 cruise lines that no longer exist! Dolphin, Premier, Regent, Cape Canaveral Cruises, and Commodore.

 

 

 

Now I guess our favorite is Carnival as we are about to go on our 82nd Carnival cruise. We cruised 12 years before our 1st Carnival. Princess is our next favorite, we're platinum on her ships. However we have also been on NCL (don't like her), RCCL, Celebrity and Costa. And we are retired so cruise a lot.

 

 

 

WE also have New Year's Eve booked on Carnival!

 

 

 

Guess we are cruise-a-holics!

 

 

 

You sure are a cruise addict! We love it too. And carnival is our favorite as well we also do not like NCL! We went on the sea breeze in 1998 it was a cruise that an engine went out and we got stuck out at sea. I was 8 months pregnant at the time. Next month we are going on our cross over cruise on carnival splendor becoming platinum I'm excited to take advantage of the priority tender and the other benefits. We feel that carnival gives you the most for your money. And we always have a great time!

[Nebr.cruiser]

Well, our first two lines, back in the 70's , are defunct now.

 

Cruise line doesn't matter that much to us, though we sail more on Princess than any other. Itinerary, dates and price matter most. We are equal opportunity cruisers!

[PROCRUISE]

I am wondering if most people continue to sail with the first cruise line they ever tried or if more people try out several before they find their fit. How did you find your line?

 

Started out with CCL a lot. Then began to look more at itineraries. Added NCL, HAL, Princess, RCCL and X. Like X a lot and am having a run with them, this year and next. Added Windstar for the first time this year, and will give Viking Ocean a try in January. Not really loyal to any one particular line but would probably settle for HAL and Celebrity most of the time, unless I win a lottery and then I'd be very happy with only Windstar and Viking, having already done a riverboat cruise with Viking.

[shadow8800]

We have done X first then CCL and next will be RCCL.Hope to try many more lines 😊

 

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[bob brown]

While sticking with one line, will get you to the higher loyalty program levels faster, and with the perks that come with it; you may miss out on experiencing ships, features, itineraries, etc. that other lines offer....you might even like them better....

 

I have cruised (in order of first cruise): Princess, Holland America, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Norwegian, Cunard, Carnival, and Crystal. I can honestly say that I've enjoyed, and still enjoy, each of them thoroughly. I am still going to eventually try all of the other's, when opportunity presents itself...

I have the most cruises on NCL, simply because they are the only ones that have two ships homeported all year long in my home port....:)

[Floridiana]

We go by itinerary, timing, price in that order - no single cruise line offers what we need, have been on 10 different ocean + 2 different river cruise lines.

[Aquahound]

I am wondering if most people continue to sail with the first cruise line they ever tried or if more people try out several before they find their fit. How did you find your line?

 

My first line was NCL. I thought it was great. Then, on my 4th cruise with them, they went to Freestyle and their whole product went to crap.

 

I then became loyal to RCI. I still love their product but in the past few years, I found that variety is much better than the sameness that goes along with loyalty.

[geoherb]

I choose by price and itinerary first among the three lines I usually look at: Princess, Holland America, and Celebrity. We have sailed on Carnival, Norwegian, and Royal Caribbean as well but prefer the first three. Lately, Celebrity hasn't won any of our business. Princess has been our default line unless there's a big reason to go with HAL instead. This year we did a HAL cruise to the Panama Canal because it was significantly less expensive than the Princess cruise doing a similar itinerary the same time period. (We were in port with the Princess ship several times and were right behind it going through the locks on the way in.)

[Hadacareer]

Nope we started with Costa, which put us off cruising for a few years. Then we booked ncl spirit mostly based on itinerary and ship..we all loved it and have two more ncl cruises coming up, and I did compare other cruises again before booking them!

 

 

 

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[maxandmolly]

Price being my driving factor, I’ve stuck to just one so far but would love to branch out someday.

[iancal]

We always tried others. We still do since we find that the only constant is inconsistency so why stick to one cruise line?

 

We select on the basis of itinerary, ship, price. Cruise line is further down the list for us.

[jollyjones]

I started at the cheap end of the market and worked my way up until I reached a balance of price and quality that worked for me.

 

That's an individual decision which will be different for everyone but I think it's useful to at least try a few varied cruise lines.

 

The value of loyalty rewards may become a consideration also.

 

 

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[no1racefan1]

Since cruise #1 , and now at #76+ , itinerary , price followed by ship features , in that order . Repeater perks will come along but they don't outweigh experiencing the differences .

 

 

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I've only been on three cruises so far on three different lines, and this is the method I follow--itinerary first, price second, ship features third.

 

Our upcoming cruise in Feb. will be the first time repeating a line.

[jennybenny]

We've tried Princess, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Disney, but tend to stick to Princess. We are also open to branching out, which we would do in a heartbeat if we lived in Florida. However, being on the west coast, we are creatures of comfort and that means we mostly sail Princess these days.

[screwsmcernst]

When we started cruising, our children went with us, so we started on Carnival, and it was fine. The kids are grown now, so we moved to Celebrity. We like it a lot. That being said, I always look around for the best price for the itinerary we are interested in. In the future, we will probably sail Celebrity again as well as Princess, HAL, and RCI. We may even go back to Carnival, but it would have to be a huge bargain. We went back to CCL last year for a last minute get away, and while the ship was fine, we just don't want to go back to the "party/family" atmosphere that they provide.

[4x4bob]

Our first two cruises were on RCI. We loved the time we spent. Then we signed up to go to Alaska on a 3rd RCI cruise.

At Vancouver my wife checked in first. No problem, she was checked in and given a cruise card.

I stepped up and laid down my paper work and pass port. The clerk fiddled a few minutes and came back to me said "Sir we are booked and can not sell you a cabin, please step aside". Say what? She said there is not room for you, please step aside.

Long story short, I went through three employees and several phone calls by them before they allowed me to board ship with a generic cruise card.

That card would not open the cabin door, my wife had to use hers. While she unpacked I headed up to a bar to buy a drink. The Bartender told me my cruise card was invalid, he could not sell me a drink.

I go to passenger services and tell my story and I find a security officer standing next to me while my problem is finally fixed. They acted like I was a stow away who had managed to get aboard the ship.

Then after they finally issued me a new cruise card, I found out that on the room TV I had two charge records which made it hard to balance my charges.

We switched to Princess and have been happy ever since.

Bob

[tip]

...Because timing, port, itinerary and cost should all be part of the decision process, it is virtually impossible that any one line would always make the most sense for anyone's booking.

 

I would certainly agree with the above.

 

Speaking of timing, I am typing this in a hotel room in San Francisco while waiting to head out to the cruise terminal!:D

[h_blond2]

I have only cruised with Carnival. That is mostly based on the fact that we have two ports within driving distance of us and the price does seem to be the best (at least to us).

I'm not against trying other lines, but I can say with 100% certainty that I will never cruise on a Disney ship. Too many kids and too expensive.

[iancal]

So far it has been multiples of Princess, Carnival, Celebrity, HAL, NCL,RCI, plus one Crystal.

 

Don't care that much about the cruise line. The ship, itinerary, and price are the deciding factors for us. Most cruise lines have a few 'dogs' in the their fleet, especially the older fleets. Plus the cruise lines all appear to be migrating to the lowest common denominator.

[Aquahound]

At Vancouver my wife checked in first. No problem, she was checked in and given a cruise card.

I stepped up and laid down my paper work and pass port. The clerk fiddled a few minutes and came back to me said "Sir we are booked and can not sell you a cabin, please step aside". Say what? She said there is not room for you, please step aside.

<snip>

 

That's a very odd story. But I have to ask....why were you and your wife checking in separately? It seems odd that you wouldn't just approach the counter and check-in together. :confused:

[sail7seas]

Our first two cruises were on RCI. We loved the time we spent. Then we signed up to go to Alaska on a 3rd RCI cruise.

At Vancouver my wife checked in first. No problem, she was checked in and given a cruise card.

I stepped up and laid down my paper work and pass port. The clerk fiddled a few minutes and came back to me said "Sir we are booked and can not sell you a cabin, please step aside". Say what? She said there is not room for you, please step aside.

Long story short, I went through three employees and several phone calls by them before they allowed me to board ship with a generic cruise card.

That card would not open the cabin door, my wife had to use hers. While she unpacked I headed up to a bar to buy a drink. The Bartender told me my cruise card was invalid, he could not sell me a drink.

I go to passenger services and tell my story and I find a security officer standing next to me while my problem is finally fixed. They acted like I was a stow away who had managed to get aboard the ship.

Then after they finally issued me a new cruise card, I found out that on the room TV I had two charge records which made it hard to balance my charges.

We switched to Princess and have been happy ever since.

Bob

 

 

Oh my word.... what an awful experience. I 'assume' you had boarding pass, print out of your rservation? did they ever explain to you what happened, and try to sufficicently show sincere apology? I can't imagine staaying calm with those conditions. Thank you for sharing this with us.

[CanobieFan]

I have stayed loyal to the first brand that I tried. But that's because, for at least now, they are still offering sailing to destinations I'm interested in with prices that are in my price range. I have found other Cruise Lines offering sailings that interests me but either the dates don't work out or the price is out of my range... So for now, I have been somewhat unintentionally loyal to the same brand.

[4x4bob]

That's a very odd story. But I have to ask....why were you and your wife checking in separately? It seems odd that you wouldn't just approach the counter and check-in together. :confused:

We did check in together. My Wife laid down her paper work/pass port first and was processed. Then I did the same is when the train jumped off the track. I had my printed out RCI paper work, etc. Still took some research on their part to verify that I had paid for the Cruise. I was not listed in their files at the terminal.

Bob

[4x4bob]

Oh my word.... what an awful experience. I 'assume' you had boarding pass, print out of your rservation? did they ever explain to you what happened, and try to sufficicently show sincere apology? I can't imagine staaying calm with those conditions. Thank you for sharing this with us.

Yes, I did have all of the RCI paperwork provided. My name was primary and my Wife as Secondary in the Cabin.

No, no apology. Was finally handed a cruise card and was pointed to the boarding ramp. And, I indicated that cruise card did not work for anything on the ship, it just let me past Security to board the ship.

Bob