What was your best/almost worst cruise?

[Mr. Click]

Mine was three years ago. Scheduled to be on the Celebrity Constellation to go from Amsterdam to the Baltic and back just after Memorial Day weekend. Man plans, God laughs. The Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend DW demanded that I go the the ER because I had not been "feeling right" all day long. I was chaulking it up to being older, I was about to turn 68. Thankfully I listened to her. With the holiday weekend it took a few days to sort it out with a stress test. I failed the test, canceled the cruise, had a cardiac cath that found and fixed two very badly blocked arteriers and one more minor blockage. So as our friends were leaving for our "dream" cruise I was getting out of the hospital. The great news. No heart damage because I listened to DW and went before it got worse, the trip was insured and after a bit of a fight with the insurance company we were able to re-book for the next year. Since then we have cruised to Australia/New Zealand, Alaska, Amsterdam to Rome, Hong Kong to Shanghai plus making up the original Baltic trip. I have also been blessed to meet two grandchildren who I would have never met without DW and my cardiologist's intervention. I have to thank them both and I do all of the time. I will be 71 in a few weeks and I have learned, when life hands us lemons, it is up to us to make it into lemonade. Oh, and listen to your wife and your body.....

[MalteseMama2]

Mine was three years ago. Scheduled to be on the Celebrity Constellation to go from Amsterdam to the Baltic and back just after Memorial Day weekend. Man plans, God laughs. The Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend DW demanded that I go the the ER because I had not been "feeling right" all day long. I was chaulking it up to being older, I was about to turn 68. Thankfully I listened to her. With the holiday weekend it took a few days to sort it out with a stress test. I failed the test, canceled the cruise, had a cardiac cath that found and fixed two very badly blocked arteriers and one more minor blockage. So as our friends were leaving for our "dream" cruise I was getting out of the hospital. The great news. No heart damage because I listened to DW and went before it got worse, the trip was insured and after a bit of a fight with the insurance company we were able to re-book for the next year. Since then we have cruised to Australia/New Zealand, Alaska, Amsterdam to Rome, Hong Kong to Shanghai plus making up the original Baltic trip. I have also been blessed to meet two grandchildren who I would have never met without DW and my cardiologist's intervention. I have to thank them both and I do all of the time. I will be 71 in a few weeks and I have learned, when life hands us lemons, it is up to us to make it into lemonade. Oh, and listen to your wife and your body.....

 

 

 

So glad you listened to your DW! We are 23 days away from our New England cruise DH has known for about 2 months he needs to have hernia surgery. Because I was in my last weeks of teaching Kindergarten before retirement ,I didn't go with him to see the surgeon. He comes home telling me that Dr said DH can wait up to a year for surgery!! I say, No Way! DH's compromise is "sometime next fall". Again, No Way! What if you are in pain during our cruise? "No, I'll be just fine" he says.

I tell him to talk to his boss - also a woman. She says Listen to your wife. Get it done! He schedules it for when I am out of school. For the past 2 weeks he has been in more and more pain. Tomorrow is the surgery and I haven't had to say I told you so. He has thanked me many times !

 

 

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[firegal2539]

Swoopy,

I was given a 50% refund of my cruise fare and taxes only and a certificate for 50% off a future cruise.

 

 

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[LA_CA_GAL]

There are no bad cruises,

 

Costa Concordia.

[onespots]

We sailed on Celebrity from Uruguay to the Falkland Islands. 2 days to reach the Falklands & 2 days back to the southern coast of South America. This was some of the worst weather we have ever encountered on the ocean. Entire starboard side of the ship closed & secure on route to the Islands & the same for the port side when returning back to South America. ( we never did see the Falklands just a pile of rock leading to the entry of the channel ) The ship was listing about 6-7 degrees, with wind gusts of 70 mph & seas of 30 ft plus. The ship did a very nice job of keeping what they could open. Over 70% of the crew & passengers were seasick or could not manage in these conditions. Fortunately my wife & I do not get seasick. We literally owned the ship. Service levels were very high with most passengers staying their cabins during those 4 days. We enjoyed our time & felt badly for our fellow passengers. Also when we reached the Straits of Magellan is was very calm ( unusual ) as we traveled through the daylight hours. Captain noted this was the smoothest sailing through the straits he had encounter in the last 7 years. Great memories for us. However a large portion of the passengers were from the United Kingdom & very upset about not being able to visit the port in the Falkland Islands. Finally I felt bad for the entertainers trying to perform on the stage... The show must go on... One juggler had a most difficult time. We applauded his efforts under these difficult conditions. The entire staff & crew that didwork did a great job with very positive attitudes.

[rp23g7]

Our worst cruise, Norweigan Pearl, don't know if it was a final cruise before drydock or changing crews or what, but the crew wasn't happy, the food was really bad, and we aren't food snobs. And it wasn't just us complaining.

 

The "worst" experience, no fault of Princess, they were friggen awsome, it's a great long story now, pm me if you want the long version, but some things I learned on our last cruise.......

1. Don't let your passport expire and just go with your passport cards.

 

2. If you do go with just passport cards, don't dislocate your shoulder.

 

3. I you have hurt your shoulder, don't ever, ever, ever never go on your cruise without trip insurance.

 

4. I found out how lucky immigrants have it going to the US.

5. If you want to see Customs Secondary Search room, you know the one you see in movies and TV, forget to renew your passports, go on your cruise, hurt your arm again, have no vacation insurance, stay in a foreign country for a few days, then try to fly with your passport cards. WHEEEEE, What fun.

 

I got a cool story to tell now though

[pghsteelerfan]

Our best/worst? Our Carnival Liberty cruise out of San Juan on 9/20/15. Since this was our first cruise during the height of hurricane season, we had really lowered our expectations, weather wise. But the time leading up to it was one heck of a roller coast ride...watching tropical waves develop and sweat it out every time one was upgraded to a tropical storm or hurricane with one reversing the itinerary we'd be doing just a few weeks prior and missing a port. Then 2 weeks before our cruise, Liberty had the engine fire, so for several days there was a question if we'd even cruise or not (back up plan in San Juan was put in place). But we met a great group of friends roll call whom we were also on a social media roll call with, so we weren't on this wild ride alone. The flights into San Juan got messed up for a large portion of our group and most of us had missing luggage. But once on Liberty, all was good, luggage arrived and we had the best weather/calmest seas we've ever had since our honeymoon (very similar itinerary out of San Juan). So we had a great cruise and met some great friends whom we are still in touch with and hope to sail with again someday.

Edited June 6, 2017 by pghsteelerfan

[cruzinfamilyof4]

Fortunately I haven't had any real bad experiences so my worst is actually pretty funny. Back in the day when it was easy to smuggle cans of booze on board I had a 12 pack of beer in my luggage. By the time it made it to my cabin most of them had been broken open and soaked about 1/2 my clothes. Just made for a good memory, and a shopping trip when we got to Ensenada.

[NLH Arizona]

I just don't understand when people say there are no bad cruises. Cruises like the Carnival Triumph a few years ago, the Anthem last winter. Other ships having fires on them, even small fires would be enough to scare a lot of people. I love cruising but there are times when I think I would rather be home.

Probably because they haven't had a bad cruise. I've been on 50 or so cruises and never had any mishaps; never had lost luggage, never had a missed port, no toilet issues, etc.

[Mr. Click]

MalteesMama, glad he is getting that fixed now. Going on a wing and prayer is not fun. I was lucky, I am lucky because I am still here and able to do all of the things I want to do. Hope his surgery goes well and he heals quickly. Oh, our Baltic cruise that was delayed a year, DW tore cartilage in her knee 18 days before we were supposed to go. Our ortho said there was no way he could fix it and clear to fly in time so just make the best of it and go and enjoy the trip. He would have written the letter for the insurance if we decided to cancel but we both knew that if we canceled, we would never go. We went, it was a bit of a struggle with all of the walking and the knee got fixed as soon as we got home. Made the appointment before we sailed.

[Aquahound]

My best cruise to date was on HAL's Nieuw Amsterdam. It was 13 days from Venice to Barcelona. We splurged with a suite. It was when HAL allowed wine to be brought on from every port, so we bought the local wine from each location and drank it on our balcony during each sail away. Everything just fell into place. No bad neighbors, no ship problems, no fellow passenger issues, nothing.

 

On the other hand, my worst cruise is a tie between the Norwegian Sky and Norwegian Dawn (NCL...see a pattern here?) Both were just cheap, bargain basement cruises on crappy ships with awful passenger behavior, terrible service and terrible food. As a result, I won't cruise NCL anymore except on their newest ships.

[MalteseMama2]

My best cruise to date was on HAL's Nieuw Amsterdam. It was 13 days from Venice to Barcelona. We splurged with a suite. It was when HAL allowed wine to be brought on from every port, so we bought the local wine from each location and drank it on our balcony during each sail away. Everything just fell into place. No bad neighbors, no ship problems, no fellow passenger issues, nothing.

 

 

 

On the other hand, my worst cruise is a tie between the Norwegian Sky and Norwegian Dawn (NCL...see a pattern here?) Both were just cheap, bargain basement cruises on crappy ships with awful passenger behavior, terrible service and terrible food. As a result, I won't cruise NCL anymore except on their newest ships.

 

 

 

Aquahound, we will never cruise with NCL again because of a cruise on Norwegian Dawn. My Mom-in-Law chose the ship and wanted us & DH's sister to go with her. She was losing her battle with Breast Cancer at the time. I was unpacking in our cabin & found soiled underwear left by previous guests. Called the room steward, who removed them, cleaned the drawer for me and apologized. So we went on to dinner thinking no more about it.

First night, tired from travel, wine at dinner, so when we went to bed we didn't notice the sheets hadn't been changed!!! I certainly noticed the next morning! Couldn't find room steward so called housekeeping, which apparently got the steward in trouble. He was rude the rest of the cruise.

Trying to get my M-I-L on elevator was a nightmare. Rude passengers would push from behind to get in front of her wheelchair as soon as the door opened.

HOWEVER, the memories we made together were wonderful! We had such a great time and she was so happy the entire trip. We lost her less than 3 months after that - sooner than expected, so I don't regret putting up with the hassles.

 

 

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[4x4bob]

Our Best/Almost Worst Cruise was a 10 day out of San Pedro to go down the Mexico Coast on the Crown Princess.

We decided to fly the day of the cruise because we lived in Northern California and the weather was good.

We arrived at the airport to discover that Delta had switched our airplane to another gate and let them load and gave us one with mechanical problems. Delta flight board stated 30 min delay. Yup, they kept changing the time by 30 minutes until 1:30 in the after noon when they canceled the flight. We found out that Delta had to fly a part in along with a certified Delta mechanic to install it. They just did not tell us what was going on.

My wife jumped on her Cell Phone while waiting in line for a Delta rep and got us onto a 3:00 PM flight that got us into LA at 5:00 PM and the ship sailed without us at 4:00 pm even tho we had been in constant contact with princess.

Two Princess Rep's met us at luggage pick up and helped us arrange a flight the next day down to Puerto Vallarta (PV) where we could catch the ship in 3 days. We had to deal with a Princess point of contact in India due to after hours. Having our Passports with us saved the day for us.

Delta comped us a hotel room in a hotel sold out which caused us to got back to the airport to get another Hotel room.

That night at 10:00 PM we are on the Hotel computer trying to find a Hotel down in PV. We had called home to have our daughter and the wife Sister also searching for us. Finally we find one with a vacancy, but they will not take a computer reservation so we had to call them.

Then we signed into the airlines that we would take the next day to confirm our seats to find out that the Princess Rep in India that had reserved the seats for us had not paid for them.

Next morning we call Princess at 6:00AM and they finally pay for the seats.

We arrive at PV to find out that we had really lucked out in selecting a 5 star hotel.

While we were enjoying a sandwich and a beer by the pool we saw another couple that we had talked to at the Airport in LA that had also missed the ship due to Delta mix up with their flight.

We ran around with them in PV and also on the ship. We were lucky to meet such nice people under those circumstances.

The last morning we found our Hotel bill that was slid under the door . I picked it up and ask the wife what had she ordered last for room service because the Bill was for $7,000.00. We ran down to the front desk to find out that bill was supposed to be in Peso's not USD.

All in All that cruise was one of our Better Cruises because we had that extra adventure of missing the ship.

And our trip insurance covered almost everything for us because we collected a receipt for every expense.

Bob

[clackey]

Hard to pick the best one out of 16 cruises, but I would have to say our one and only cruise on the Norwegian Jewel. Everything went smooth on the cruise. They had the best entertainment that we have seen and the crew top notch.

 

It also started out as the worst. We had a winter storm come in two days before we were to leave. The roads were getting slick fast. We threw everything in the car and took off. Almost wrecked 10 miles from home but finally got ahead of the storm. We had to spend 2 extra days in Louisiana that we hadn't counted on but I guess that is why the Lord made credit cards. I called a friend back home and he told me that the highway department never touched the roads for several days. Yes sir, that is Arkansas. If we had not left when we did we would have never made it.

[gwsster]

The Best cruise? NCL Jade out of Barcelona for a 7 day Mediterranean cruise. I had spent the previous 18 months recovering from a serious illness and I really needed a vacation. My sweet Husband upgraded the room to a 2 bedroom suite and didn't tell me, a huge surprise! We met up with several CC members at the Hotel in Barcelona who we met through the roll call forum and they were in on the surprise and I think had as much fun being in on it. Wonder where Linda and Lyle are now?

 

The Worst cruise? NCL Pride of America, the ship and staff were GREAT. Trip with 3 sisters notso GREAT. Four Sisters traveling together on a once in a lifetime vacation. I spent months coordinating the trip, hotel reservations, dinner reservations, excursions and rental cars, and airfare and all were in agreement on the plans....until the cruise. Two were happy to lay on the bed all day watching free Netflix, we were in a Suite, movies were free. They could have stayed at the Motel 6 in Pacoima for a LOT less! One Netflix watcher did not want to eat in any dining room, instead of communicating this she made a scene at Teppanyaki, embarrassed the heck out of me. The other Netflix watcher got drunk x 2, sunburned and had moody episodes that we all had to "deal" with. I was ready to get off the ship and fly home after the shenanigans. Thank Goodness the oldest Sister the one with class, plied me with some booze and pulled me off the ladder. Needless to say, I made it very clear that there would be no more Sisters vacations for me. I can laugh now, but I was so upset at spending a collective $15,000 to be that miserable, Lesson learned.

[Sequim88]

Never had a "worst" cruise that we've taken but one "worst" that we had to cancel due to an unexpected job change. Company I had been working at for 16+ years underwent an ownership change from older generation to young step-son who cleaned house of everyone over 50 (severance was very generous to prevent suing). We had booked 18 months before for NCL Star transatlantic from Miami to Copenhagen and planned a week in Sweden to track done wife's roots. Ended up cancelling a few weeks before final payment date because any new job (took five months) would not come with three weeks of vacation. :(

 

Best by far was transatlantic on RCCL Mariner of the Seas from Miami to Rome with a few days in Rome after. Largely made extra wonderful by tours arranged by CC member KonaDave at Canary Is. and Mallorca. We had a HUGE and active Roll Call group of over 300 people. It was fantastic. Even when we had struggles using the Italian train system we shrugged and said "No worries, it's all an adventure!" Attitude makes the cruise.

[karenlovesparis]

Out of 13 cruises we have had a few bad standouts.

 

The absolutely worst was on the Costa Mediterranea in 2007 sailing the Greek Isles out of Venice. The food was inedible, everyone was so rude, there had to have been 1,000’s of kids, most unsupervised. The tours were a disaster and there was a clear bias against Americans. The ports of call were amazing but I can’t believe how Costa can stay in business.

 

We were on the Carnival Glory when it was brand new. It was the first time sailing in a suite. It was a splurge as my husband was being deployed the next month.

 

We no sooner got out to sea and we had major mechanical problems. The ship ending up going no where. We limped around in a circle barely moving for 7 nights. We were so disappointed. The only port of call we limped into was Freeport Bahamas. Not even worth getting off the ship. We were heading down to the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

 

Carnival did nothing for us, the people on board were like an angry mob and everyone had cabin fever by the end of the week.

 

BEST was a Windstar in a suite sailing the French Riveria. Everything was amazing! We were treated like royalty, every person on the ship knew our name on the first day, food was fantastic and the ports of call were so luxurious because we got to go to smaller ports because of the small size of the ship.