Honeymoon Cruise. Where to start?

[WeR1stTimers2007]

Hello,

 

I need some help from those who are active cruisers. First off I have never been on a cruise. I will be getting married on Dec 22 2007 in Texas. We are both in our 20's and are looking for a 7 or so day cruise. We will most likely leave out of some port in FL. Price at this point is up in the air. We were looking at a Caribbean cruise. Here are my starter questions. Feel very free to add on whatever you think will be helpful. I will be posting a ton. :)

 

1) Which cruise line/ship? There are a ton and I have no idea which ones are ideal for us.

 

2) How do you pick a room?

 

3) Most rooms are already booked. Is this because travel agents have bought up those "popular" rooms? Do I need to call the cruise line and see if the rooms are really booked or should I do this through a travel agent?

 

4) I guess I really should start with which Cruise line/ship to take. What has been your fav so far and why was it so.

 

Thank you so much. I am very excited to get this moving along. I look forward to reading your advice. I really need it.;)

[melika091900]

1) Which cruise line/ship? There are a ton and I have no idea which ones are ideal for us. depending on what you want on your honeymoon,,if you want pampering, relaxation, go for celebrity

if you are more of a party kinda couple, go for carnival

if you want endless choices on food go NCL ..

weve been on NCL, carnival and celebrity , we are in our late 20's and we prefer the service on celebrity over them all,,

 

 

2) How do you pick a room? well then again depends what you want, if you want a balcony try to get an aft room, on the back of the ship since those rooms tend to have bigger balconies,

if you just want to be comfortable an inside is fine too,

we get balcony rooms so we can smoke

 

3) Most rooms are already booked. Is this because travel agents have bought up those "popular" rooms? Do I need to call the cruise line and see if the rooms are really booked or should I do this through a travel agent?

either way.. i usually book online through the online agencies, or through the cruiseline directly , depending on the price,

 

 

4) I guess I really should start with which Cruise line/ship to take. What has been your fav so far and why was it so.

 

well like i said celebrity was our favorite,, then NCL, then carnival

 

only because there was no better service than what we had on celebrity , they were great,

we also did like the carnival conquest from galveston ( we went from new orleans before they changed it )

that was a nice cruise for us youngins,, but the service was nothing like celebrity

 

celebrity has some great cruises from FL to the caribbean for 10+ days,

 

look at the itenerary 1st and then decide

 

these boards are filled with so much info,,

 

 

hopefully all of this helps, feel free to email me if you have any other questions , weve been on 5 cruises so i will help you as much as i can

 

and congrats on getting married,,

 

take care

melissa

[WELSH WIZARDS]

WeR1stTimers2007 Quote.....We are honeymooners , where do we start.?

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Well my dears....the most important first... and vital step... is to lock your cabin door.

Then put on some mood music, take off some clothes, give each other a long slow kiss, and I do really believe you will need no one to help from there. :)

So sorry OP, when I read your heading for your thread ...I am afraid I just could not resist. !! I am sure other posters will not be so naughty as I , and provide all the info you need. Good luck with your union. Jennie. {51 years blissfully wed.]

[caviargal]

MOst rooms are booked because your dates are amongst the most popular for cruises as well as the most expensive.

 

Personally, I would avoid cruising at holiday time as you will find a large amount of families, therefore kids. Unless this is your idea of a romantic vacation, I would look elsewhere. Being on a ship that holds 2200 where 600-800 are kids is miserable, IME.

 

I would look for a couples only AI and wait to cruise til it is non holiday time.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Christmas and New Year cruises sell out very quickly. Some people book the same ship year after year for those dates.

 

New cruiser -- try to book a cabin low and mid-ship until you know how you will respond to the ocean movement of the ship.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Do come back and let us know what you will be doing.

[Nitemare]

Probably in bed.

[firefly333]

Have you considered the Carnnival Conquest? It leaves every Sunday out of Galveston. and prices will not be that bad.

 

The Royal Caribbean is bringing in a new ship (new to Texas) starting December 23, 2007, so prices will be sky high since this will be the first sailing out of Galveston.

 

Here are the two 7 day ships out of Gaveston (why go to another port when you can go out of Galveston?)

 

Id get a balcony on the Conquest.

 

Conquest current prices:

Our Inside $979

 

Our Oceanview $1,079

 

Our Balcony $1,279

 

Our Suite $1,849

 

______________

 

RCI Voyager current prices"

 

Cheapest Inside $1,349

 

Cheapest Oceanview $1,699

 

Cheapest Balcony $1,839

 

Cheapest Suite $3,349

[firefly333]

btw the Voyager is of the Grand class of ships with both the rock climbing wall and the skating rink, so prices will stay high on this ship out of Galveston, even though if you wait you will probably find a lower price, but dont expect a big price drop, everyone wants to go on this ship who lives in Texas, so the cruises are filling up fast for the Voyager.

 

Being on your honeymoon, you might rather spend more for a better cabin, and go on the Conquest? A nice romantic balcony with the ocean breezes.

[caviargal]

btw the Voyager is of the Grand class of ships with both the rock climbing wall and the skating rink, so prices will stay high on this ship out of Galveston, even though if you wait you will probably find a lower price, but dont expect a big price drop, everyone wants to go on this ship who lives in Texas, so the cruises are filling up fast for the Voyager.

 

Being on your honeymoon, you might rather spend more for a better cabin, and go on the Conquest? A nice romantic balcony with the ocean breezes.

 

I really disliked Conquest class. The ships are overcrowded and have poor traffic flow. Also, Carnival will also have many kids onboard over the holidays and the ship will feel even more crowded than it already does.

 

The Voyager is a "Voyager" class ship. "Grand" class refers to Princess.

[firefly333]

I really disliked Conquest class. The ships are overcrowded and have poor traffic flow. Also, Carnival will also have many kids onboard over the holidays and the ship will feel even more crowded than it already does.

 

The Voyager is a "Voyager" class ship. "Grand" class refers to Princess.

 

Opps. OK I stand corrected, but its a grand ship I hear, even if its not that class lol. sorry, cant resist. At those prices for Voyager for the 3 1/2 months its out of Texas maybe not so many kids?

 

my bad, sorry. The pictures of the ship and the promenade look amazing.

[caviargal]

I am not a big ship fan and that includes Voyager.

 

Over the holidays, cruises are more expensive and RCI is a family line, period, especially with the bigger ships. Yes, there will be lots of kids in late December.

 

IMO, if one enjoys huge ships with tons of people and lots of activity, no one does it better than RCI.

 

Personally, I would have to be knocked out and dragged aboard to spend a week on their monster ships, especially over the holidays.

[WeR1stTimers2007]

Thanks for all the advice. I know FI and I want to go on a cruise, but as some of you pointed out we would be paying sky high prices for our dates, plus we really dont want to be surrounded by thousands of kids. We are also finding that many ships are already booked or atleast their nicer rooms are, again do to the hoildays. I think we will stick to land this time around, but we will go on a cruise soon. Thanks again for all the advice. Its nice to find a board where people know what they are talking about (At least seem too ;) ). I will be back to get much needed help, but for now I will wait. :)

[Bcurley]

I am not a big ship fan and that includes Voyager.

 

Over the holidays, cruises are more expensive and RCI is a family line, period, especially with the bigger ships. Yes, there will be lots of kids in late December.

 

IMO, if one enjoys huge ships with tons of people and lots of activity, no one does it better than RCI.

 

Personally, I would have to be knocked out and dragged aboard to spend a week on their monster ships, especially over the holidays.

 

Funny, I feel the say way about the smallish ships. I figure that i'll save the sedate vacations for when I get my AARP card.;)

[caviargal]

Funny, I feel the say way about the smallish ships. I figure that i'll save the sedate vacations for when I get my AARP card.;)

 

Well, I just got mine and am lovin' those discounts:)! Wait, does that mean I have to start playing bingo? bridge? trivia?

 

Lack of kid and teen pleasing facilities and activities found on the the big ships does impact the onboard ambiance and I am happiest with adult oriented vacations, on land or at sea.

[Janet Foster]

Thanks for all the advice. I know FI and I want to go on a cruise, but as some of you pointed out we would be paying sky high prices for our dates, plus we really dont want to be surrounded by thousands of kids. We are also finding that many ships are already booked or atleast their nicer rooms are, again do to the hoildays. I think we will stick to land this time around, but we will go on a cruise soon. Thanks again for all the advice. Its nice to find a board where people know what they are talking about (At least seem too ;) ). I will be back to get much needed help, but for now I will wait. :)

Do what my daughter did and fly to an all inclusive like in Cancun. She went to "Dreams" and loved it.

[surrocruiser]

Could you honeymoon a week or two after the wedding???

[jerseygirl3]

Given the time of year you are getting married, I think it's smart that you are doing an AI. Just be sure you pick an adults only resort, because you will run into tons of kids at AI around the holidays as well.

 

Perhaps you can plan a cruise for your first anniversary and go a bit later. If you go the mid to latter part of January, you should get great pricing. But don't wait; ships, as you've found, sell out fast, especially if you want one of the better cabins. A friend, who was a TA years ago, told me that the cabins that sell out first are the least expensive and the most expensive.

[WeR1stTimers2007]

We are looking into Canun.

No we can not go a week before or after. We are both graduate students, plus FI has a full time job. This was the only weekend we could get married where we would have a week where he would not have to worry about work or school.

We wil have to plan when we will go on our next vac and look into a cruise. Making sure we are not picking high season.

[caviargal]

We are looking into Canun.

No we can not go a week before or after. We are both graduate students, plus FI has a full time job. This was the only weekend we could get married where we would have a week where he would not have to worry about work or school.

We wil have to plan when we will go on our next vac and look into a cruise. Making sure we are not picking high season.

 

LOok into LeBlanc if you want the best.

[CarrieAndBrian]

We chose our cruise primarily based on dates. We got married in the Orlando area (we live in Michigan, DH's family is in FL) and then wanted to get on the ship within 4 days. We wanted to go on a cruise that was at least 7 days long. So we just simply started there, and then researched all of our options. We ended up on a 10 day Eastern Caribbean cruise on Princess... We are now planning our 5 yr anniversary cruise (yes, its still a while away, but this time we're sharing the fun with family and there's a lot of coordinating to do).

We also booked a room at a nearby hotel- less stress in traveling! We got to the hotel, relaxed, and then the next day we took off on the hotel-sponsored shuttle service direct to the pier. The hotel allowed us to park the car (borrowed from DH's family) for a very low fee, and when we returned from the cruise, we just got a cheap cab to take us back to the hotel to pick up the car.

 

We chose a basic inside room. Some people like to get a fancy room for a cruise. We thought- hey, this is our first cruise. Everything is fun and exciting and new. Lets wait until our next cruise to get a fancier room. We didn't regret this choice as we didn't spend tons of time in our room. (Also, after spending $ on the wedding, and planning to buy a new home in a year or so from that time, we didn't want to totally blow our financial budget on a higher end room.) We found that there were not a lot of young people on our cruise and so this worked in our favor- everyone was on a different schedule than us! We slept in- no lines for breakfast for us! We ate dinner later than most, and so that meant we had many times where we had a private hot tub in the late afternoon/less crowded pool area. We had a lot of fun with doing our own thing!

 

We booked our cruise through a travel agent only after deciding which cruise we wanted and the going rate on most websites. We challenged her to beat the price, and she did. It was great- we got a good price and her advice/assistance to boot. What we did wrong- we waited to book tours until we got on the ship and only did tours on 1/2 of the ports. This time, we'll have tours planned for each port, booked in advance.