First cruise in 20 years help!

[Jo_London_Mum]

Hello all

I am turning 50 this year and want to do a cruise early next year to celebrate. 

I have done over 25 cruises on Celebrity, Disney, Princess & mainly Royal Caribbean and am a diamond crown & anchor member. 

However, I have not even thought about a cruise since then due to various circumstances, including a new husband that gets seasick! However, he is more keen to cruise than I am right now. 

We want to do Caribbean and quite like the idea of cruising from Barbados on P&O or San Juan with Norweigan as thre Southern caribbean ports are my favourite. Also really open to all the Florida ports. 

When I was last cruising, it was a pretty level playing field, you had your main dining slot with a few speciality restaurants, you paid for drinks and you paid all your tips at the end. 

Now however, there are a variety of "All inclusive" some including tips, and I must admit this does appeal. 

So my question is, what are the main changes for me to get to grips with, what cruise lines or ships or itineraries are the most cost effective and a better deal? 

I would only want to go on these lines: 

Princess

RCL

P&O 

Celebrity 

Norwegian 

MCO maybe

 

TIA x

 

 

 

[ziggyuk]

I can comment on Norwegian as it's my line of choice.

I love it for the as they now have Freestyle Cruising. You eat whenever you like, just turn up to the MDR whenever you want and they accommodate you with hardly ever a wait. You are normally offered a table to fit your party size, a two top for two people. If you would rather share you can but that is not common.

They also have no formal nights which I love, dress up in a gown and tux for photos but there are no nights it's required.

They are accused of nickel and dimeing passengers but I don't think they do.

I love NCL.

[Harters]

We've also sailed with Norwegian - 4 days out of Miami. Thought it was fine. And certainly the flexibility and "smart casual" dining arrangements, as detailed by ziggy, appealed. 

 

It was actually that cruise trip that brought us back to cruising after many years (we'd become disenchanted with the formality of the likes of P & O). Since then, we've done  a couple of cruises with Oceania, Norwegian's more upmarket sister line, and have another upcoming this year.  

[lebreos]

I can only comment on P&O. the larger ships are a different beast to the small ships, all freedom dining on the 2 newest, 2 formal nights on a 2 week cruise, 4 on the rest of the fleet. They maintain some dress standards in MDR on an evening and the pay extra dining is quite good if you fancy a change. Tips are now included in price so only tip if you want to, i usually tip cabin steward if they have been good, they have been so far. The cabin steward you will only see in the morning as no night time turndown on P&O any more. No longer silver service and only a 3 course meal.You can ask for desert and cheese though and they will happily bring it. Unless you want to drink all day just do pay as you go as the inclusive packages do cost a bit. The staff are still great and the entertainment pretty good depending on your taste. Britannia is a nice compromise between the older Ventura and azura, and the massive and newer Iona and arvia. They all have advantages and disadvantages. I hope you take your cruise without dwelling on the differences from your previous experiences and enjoy it very much.

[babs135]

We did a week's cruise out of Miami on Royal Caribbean's Symphony of the Seas which at the time was the biggest ship afloat. Because of the layout, which they call areas, we never felt crowded. Shows were fabulous. Dining is what is known as Open Dining and we never had a problem getting a table.  Only grumble would be that the buffet closed by 9pm but you could still get (free) pizza.