Hello all!
Some background: my first cruise was a 2 week Mediterranean cruise on the Grand Princess in 1999. My most recent cruise was a HAL cruise in 2012, where my husband and I were the youngest adults by at least a couple decades. I've been on 3 Princess cruises (generally solid experiences, although I wasn't a fan of the food), 2 Carnival cruises (sorry, both awful experiences all around other than very nice cabin staff), one HAL cruise, one Chinese cruise (down the Yangtze! A very interesting experience), and a small island hopping cruise in Fiji with only 30 passengers. Generally, we are not cruisers, preferring to spend more time at any destination than a port day. But, after we had kids, we started looking at cruising as an easier way to vacation. Also, my 7 year old son has been obsessed with the Titanic and similar great passenger ships, so we figured we should take him on a cruise (although on one that WON'T bump into an iceberg!).
I've been watching CC, reading all the live reviews, and I'm feeling a little apprehensive. I belong to the FB group for the 7/20-7/23 and 7/23-7/30 Seaside cruisers, and the 7/20 cruisers are giving pretty mixed reviews. Granted, 3 day cruises seem to be rougher (and I've been on a couple 3 day cruises, and I agree with that assessment). I'm hoping that those people were negative Nellies, and that we have fun!
We have done all inclusive resorts in Mexico, so I'm guessing this experience will be somewhat similar, only with more destinations and smaller rooms!
Originally, we had planned on doing RCCL or NCL, but when I read about MSC, I couldn't resist. I prefer Italian food to most "standard American" food. And being able to do YC for a fraction of the price of a Haven suite or RCCL suite obviously appealed as well. I hope this gamble was correct.
Anyway, I will try to report back daily, although I might be doing it from my phone, so that might limit things. I'm GenX and still prefer to write up reviews on my computer. But I also want time away from my computer, so I'm traveling with small devices only.