Best cruises ever

[lenquixote66]

What were your 2 best cruises and why were they so good .?

 

In 2010 we flew to Ft.Lauderdale and cruised to the Panama Canal ,Curaçao and Aruba. We went with 2 other couples and had a great cruise .We met and became good friends with several people.

 

In 1994 we flew to San Juan,toured the island then cruised to St.Maarten and St. Thomas .We did a great shore excursion in St.Maarten .We went by boat to several beaches and had free beverages on board the boat .There May have been a limit but I cannot recall.

[Ashland]

Over 25+ cruises and to date our favorite's have been:

Northern Europe/Baltics.....Ireland,Iceland & Scotland....Med/Greece.

Sorry I couldn't narrow it down to just two but all of them were for the itinerary.

 

[bonsai3s]

1.  Celebrity Millennium - 2001 - 12 nights, Istanbul, Athens, Limassol, Naples, Civitavecchia, Nice, Monaco,Eleb Barcelona.  Our last cruise with my dad before he passed away.

 

2.  Renaissance R4 - 2001 - 10 nights, Tahiti, Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea, Bora Bora.  Every single port was outstanding...met some wonderful passengers who we still keep in touch to this day...the early morning sail into Bora-Bora was breathtaking.

[calliopecruiser]

Both were transpacifics:  San Diego to Auckland with just 1 port stop (16 sea days), and Tokyo to San Diego (just 12 sea days, but I got to spend 3 days in Tokyo before the cruise).   I love, love, love sea days. 

[John Bull]

SE Asia, manly because of the off-beat ports and the great crowd we hooked up with on a small & elderly (now deceased) cruise ship.

Black Sea. Same ship, more off-beat ports - and now some of them (formerly in Ukraine) off-limits.

Baltic. For the ports.

 

BTW. Free drinks on excursion boats in the Caribbean are the norm. But watered-down.

Went on the Grenada "Rum Runner". Presumed their drinks would also be watered down. They weren't. Got carried back to the ship 

 

JB 

[Bizmark'sMom]

The Canadian High Arctic and Greenland.  We had a charter jet to Kangerlusuaq from Reykjavik, embarked the ship via zodiak and barge, and it was a simply fantastic 3 weeks in an area I had only read and dreamed about.

 

River cruise from Vienna to Nuremberg in early December. The scenery and the markets were purely fantastic.

 

Ok, I need to toss in a third;  the Southern Caribbean on the Sea Cloud II.  It is the poshest experience I have ever had.  

Edited September 5, 2019 by Bizmark'sMom

[bobcat440]

1 hour ago, John Bull said:

SE Asia, manly because of the off-beat ports

Some of those please?

[George C]

Extremely hard to pick two from 65, loved our renaissance cruise in 2001 right before they went under , new ship, nonsmoking, adults only from Athens to Rome , with 4 stops in Greece and 4 in Italy. Then our only Hawaii cruise from Hawaii to Vancouver, on rccl in 2003 , ship passed active volcano about 10 pm , Captain turned ship around so anyone in balcony could see the red river of lava enter ocean and the steam rise. I am leaving out about 50 great Caribbean cruises and some great music cruises.

[Ashland]

5 hours ago, Bizmark'sMom said:

The Canadian High Arctic and Greenland.  We had a charter jet to Kangerlusuaq from Reykjavik, embarked the ship via zodiak and barge, and it was a simply fantastic 3 weeks in an area I had only read and dreamed about.

 

River cruise from Vienna to Nuremberg in early December. The scenery and the markets were purely fantastic.

 

Ok, I need to toss in a third;  the Southern Caribbean on the Sea Cloud II.  It is the poshest experience I have ever had.  

Your river cruise....was this a Christmas Market cruise and what company did you use?

Thanks for a reply.

[John Bull]

8 hours ago, bobcat440 said:

Some of those please?

 

Semarang, Komodo, Padangbai (2 days), Saigon (sailing up the Saigon River & porting in the city 3 nights), Sihanoukville, Nha Trang.

 

JB 

Edited September 5, 2019 by John Bull

[Bookish Angel]

The Galapagos and Antarctica.   We love remote places.

[ontheweb]

Best was Baltic for our 30th wedding anniversary. St. Petersburgh on a private tour arranged through our roll call was fantastic. Talinn, Estonia is a gem. Oslo and Stockholm were also great ports, although more time in Stockholm was really needed. We also spent a day post cruise in Copenhagen.

 

Harder to pick the second best, but I think I will go with British Isles cruise including an overnight it Edinburg and seeing the Scottish Military Tattoo.

[Bizmark'sMom]

8 hours ago, Ashland said:

Your river cruise....was this a Christmas Market cruise and what company did you use?

Thanks for a reply.

It was a Christmas Market cruise with AmaWaterways.  Everything about the cruise was simply fantastic.  Do make sure to get to Chesky Krumlov - wandering the stairways and old streets with fat snowflakes falling all around was fantastic.

[Wayfairers]

HAL Passage to Far East Asia because we saw such a variety....Mediterranean, Middle East, Southeast Asia, sailed the Suez canal twice.  We visited such unusual places (for us) that England felt like home to us Americans when we returned back to Southampton. 

 

HAL Grand South America & Antartica...again variety - Caribbean, circumnavigated South America with stops all along the way.  It was interesting seeing the terrain changes as we sailed south, around the horn then back north again. Antartica is absolutely gorgeous and the South Georgia Island stop was the best port day ever.

[cruisemom42]

It's very hard to narrow it down to two, but I would have to pick:

 

Eastern Mediterranean cruise starting in Egypt (Safaga), through the Suez and then calling on ports in Syria (including an included overnight at the desert site of Palmyra) and Beirut as well as SW Turkey and Cyprus.

 

Western Mediterranean cruise starting in Seville, sailing down the river and then visiting additional ports in southern Spain and northern Morocco, including 2 overnights ashore (Marrakesh and Rabat), and a special after-hours visit to the Alhambra (in the evening).

 

Both of these were on the Aegean Odyssey, a 350 passenger ship. 

[geoherb]

My two favorites would be the British Isles and Alaska.

[MicCanberra]

On 9/5/2019 at 8:53 PM, Bookish Angel said:

The Galapagos and Antarctica.   We love remote places.

Agreed.

[QueensChick]

2010 - Vision of the Seas - Round trip out of Venice to Alexandria, Egypt (overnight); Ashdod, Israel (Jerusalem and Bethlehem); Haifa, Israel (Nazareth and Galilee); Athens, Greece.

Ever since I was a little girl and heard of those Pyramids, I dreamed of seeing them, and this was when the opportunity came. I have a long list of trips I’d like to take, but this one was the only one on my “bucket list”.

 

2001 - Celebrity Zenith - Round trip out of NYC (my hope port) to Hamilton and St. George’s, Bermuda.

I very reluctantly tried this cruising thing and got hooked! 😀

[idraconis]

13 cruise and never had a bad cruise. If I had to choose two, one had to be my first cruise it was on the Spirit. Our group was from NYC meet up with folks from Boston and their group. A lot people, loads of fun. And last year on the Pride, I booked the least expensive cabin I could find ( no cabin mate) At check in they couldn't find the cabin I booked or who I was. After around five or ten minutes later they found it. I was bumped up to deck 7 and right into a balcony. And it didn't cost me a dime. And had a great time.

[lenquixote66]

4 hours ago, idraconis said:

13 cruise and never had a bad cruise. If I had to choose two, one had to be my first cruise it was on the Spirit. Our group was from NYC meet up with folks from Boston and their group. A lot people, loads of fun. And last year on the Pride, I booked the least expensive cabin I could find ( no cabin mate) At check in they couldn't find the cabin I booked or who I was. After around five or ten minutes later they found it. I was bumped up to deck 7 and right into a balcony. And it didn't cost me a dime. And had a great time.

That is wonderful.I hope all your future cruises are great too.

[jocap]

Iceland, on Fred Olsen's Balmoral

Turkey and the Greek Isles, on Louis Perla (now Celestyal Cruises)

[MicCanberra]

Antartica on the Celebrity Infinity, absolutely wonderful scenery and wildlife.

[lynncarol]

Years ago my then 75 year old mother and I went on a Marco Polo cruise that included safaris in Tanzania and Kenya, before boarding the ship to Zanzibar, Madagascar, Comoros and the Seychelles. Fabulous!

Edited September 7, 2019 by lynncarol

[iancal]

Med cruise.  Crystal Symphony.  Everything was perfect.

 

Med cruise.  Celebrity Solstice.  Everything was perfect.

[simplelife]

For me, "best" cruises have less to do with amenities, itineraries, and excursions and more to do with shared experiences with people you love, and interesting people you meet. So my best cruise might be one of the ones where DH and I met and shared activities with people of various ages and backgrounds, or one  we shared with dear friends (a couple we've known since we both were newlyweds, or a couple who raised their children alongside ours)  or with family (particularly the one with my grown  siblings and parents - dad's last, as he died 6 weeks later). Or one of those where we spent most of our time just relaxing together as a couple. Each cruise we have been on is special.