Have not been on a cruise in 5 years.. help!

[ralmyers]

I am ashamed to admit it, but I have not been on a cruise in 5 years! I have been on 3 cruises on Carnival. Last year we went to the Outer Banks, and this year we had thought we would go to Hawaii. After checking prices, a cruise (as usual) is the best deal! Here are my questions:

 

1.) Not quite sure I understand this new dining/ fees. All that I have been on everything was included in the cruise price.

 

2.) I am investigating HAL, NCL, and Royal Caribbean -- how similar/ different from

Carnival?

 

3.) No offense to anyone... but I would prefer a cruise with less of a family/ child atmosphere, I need some peace and quiet this time!

 

Your suggestions/ opinions are greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks,

Leah

[MSUSigmaK]

You should give Celebrity a try. Not a real young crowd, like Carnival, not a real old crowd, like HAL.

The specialty restaurants on Celebrity do charge to dine in that restaurant. The "M" class ships each have a specialty restaurant. A different menu, a private table, a different menu. You do not pay extra to dine in the main restaurant.

 

Till Constellation Southern Caribbean 11/27/04

[ralmyers]

Thanks for the info , I will check into that. So... it appears that now with the "separate" dining areas that you only pay for that, not to dine in the main areas. Interesting! I am also interested in the freestyle dining, sounds more like my style. Thanks!

[MSUSigmaK]

Find a good travel agent who is knowledgeable about cruises. Shop around, you don't have to book with the first agent you meet. Find out what they have to offer and let them know what you are looking for. And, do lots of research on the boards and at the book store. My family made the mistake of going on 2 Carnival cruises. We also enjoyed 3 Celebrity cruises and have another Celebrity cruise coming up in November. We have yet to try RCL or Princess but, would love to in the future.

 

Till Constellation Southern Caribbean 11/27/04

[Eliz]

Hi Leah! I think you should add Princess and Celebrity to your research list. You didn't mention the time of year you were interested in sailing...that has a lot to do with the family/child atmosphere. I would highly recommend Princess if you are interested in the personal choice dining. Celebrity does not have that option. Both lines have some beautiful ships and terrific itineraries. If you have more specific questions, fire away. This board is loaded with very informed and chatty people.

[Shirley and Les]

Leah,

Don't forget, most of the ships have a casual dining venue as well as the main dining room and alternative dining. If you are not into observing ship dress codes, casual dining or cabin service fits the bill for your evening meal. They do recommend a minimal ($2 per person) tip for the casual dining room on the Celebrity Horizon. If you were satisfied with the main dining room on your cruises five years ago, they will still be the same. The cruise lines are offering more dining choices to attract more clients.

I think you will find less kids on Celebrity but us old farts (65ish) are also hard to deal with. After you learn the rules, you should be OK. The rules are,

1. Don't stand between me and food.

2. Don't stand between my wife and anything on sale.

3. Don't mind when I step in front of you in line if I look older than you. That is my privilege.

WELCOME BACK!!!!

Les

[marco]

For a "less child/family atmosphere" I would NOT go on Disney, and if you take a longer cruise and not during any school vacation periods, it is less likely there will be a lot of children onboard. Check out Celebrity's "Adult Only" cruises, too. As for dining, just about every line has some alternative for a charge dining venue. A steak house, an up-scale something or other, a more elegant experience, a fancy-schmancy chef, etc etc. Most also have a casual alternative (with no charge) as well, but ALL still have the main dining room with no additional charge.

[cruisead]

NCL is a very family friendly cruise line and you will find tons of kids. Also, with the Freestyle Dining, the service is not great at all and the food generally on NCL is not what it is on other ships. The main problem with personal choice on Princess is, if you chose the PC dining option where you can eat whenever and with whomever, there can be a wait for as long as 2 hours to get a table on some ships. But you can still chose the regular dining option of dining at assigned times. We've found Celebrity gives us everything we want in a cruise---not as many kids, fantastic dining and the best service for a mass market line, beautiful ships and great activities. If you cruise during the summer or on school holidays, you will find every ship loaded with kids so if you want to avoid families, stay away from those times.

 

Tracie

[geoherb]

We've only had Personal Choice on one of our Princess cruises. We never had to wait two hours. The only long wait we had was 45 minutes on the first night of the cruise. And that was caused by passengers assigned to the first seating traditional who decided to eat in the PC dining rooms (because the ship sailed late and they did not want to miss the views of NYC).

 

Celebrity and Princess would be my suggestions. Both are great. Kids have not been a problem on our cruises except when we sailed the week of Thanksgiving. Never again.

[wwinfl91]

I would think you would want to check Celebrity, HAL and Princess as options with fewer kids. Princess's PC choice dining turned out to be a great option on our cruise last summer. We found if you went to dinner between 7 and 7:30 PM we never had to wait at all for a table whether it was a table for two or a shared table. If you went after or around 8 PM there seemed to always be people waiting.

 

Another thing to check is prices. A good place to check for comparisons on prices is:

 

www.*****.com

 

We have used this agency for our last 5 as well as our next cruise and have been very satisfied with them. The only problem is that the only air travel they can do is with the cruise line.

 

Have a good cruise.

 

HAL Noordam 3/97 West Carib

Hal Westerdam 12/97 East Carib

HAL Veendam 11/98 East Carib

Hal Zaandam 12/00 South Carib

HAL Veendam 10/01 Panama Canal

RCCL Enchantment 09/02 W.Carib

Costa Atlantica 12/02 E.Carib

HAL Noordam 03/03 S.Carib

Golden Princess 07/03 Med

Celebrity Zenith 12/03 W.Carib

HAL Maasdam 05/04 Canada

[Trevoli]

Shirley and Les:

 

3. Don't mind when I step in front of you in line if I look older than you. That is my privilege.

 

WHAT??

 

T

[eandjracquet]

I realize this is just my opinion-however-only 6 cruises later-there will be kids not matter what time of year you go-I went on Carnival 7 nights the first week in Feburary and encountered an extrodinary number of children-as an educator I couldn't believe the parents would pull them out of school at that time-all in the library the last day of the cruise making up their work-LOL. The only option for you if you truely want limited kids is probably the Celebrity cruises that eliminate all under 18 cruisers.

 

EMH

[eandjracquet]

Also, I have been on RCL, Carnival and NCL. I found the food on NCL to be the WORST I have ever encountered on a cruise-it was the first time I did not get up in the morning for breakfast-just not worth it-my favorite meal on board ship is normally breakfast-now maybe it was just this particular ship-the Norway (which I loved as a ship) but I thought overall the food was horrible-making me think I would never even try them again.

 

EMH

[Trevoli]

I have to agree about the food on NCL. Did the Windward several years ago (I believe it's called the Norweigan Wind now), and while I have never found food be my focus while cruising, whenever I looked at the menu, I thought the choices to be totally unimaginative, unappetizing, uninspired and the finished product to be barely passable.

 

I remember finding it remarkable, towards the end of the cruise, that someone had put some capers on something.

 

T