Give me suggestions for a fun Honeymoon cruise!

[sfgiantsjo]

I need help! I have been on two cruises - both on Carnival. My FI want to book a cruise for our honeymoon in March 2005. Any suggestions? Which line is best for honeymoons? What are some romantic destinations? We are looking at a ~ 7-11 day cruise, maybe a $5000 budget for the two of us??? Something around there anyway! Any tips and thoughts would be appreciated! Thanks!

*~*~*sfgiantsjo*~*~*

[MandyGirl]

I always say that a cruise is what YOU make out of it. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Each cruise line is different, although several may be owned by the same company (Ex: Carnival Corp owns Windstar, Carnival, Princess, Holland America, etc ... and Royal Caribbean owns RCCL, Celebrity, etc). They each have their own reputations, but also depending on the "last minute deals" going on, the passenger clientele can change drastically with each new boarding. For example, we read many good things about Celebrity, so we booked a cruise out of San Juan. The majority of the passenger clientele that week was so horrible, rude, party-animals, dancing on tables, vandalism on board, etc that we are very skeptical to ever cruise Celebrity again. However, that was shortly after 9/11 when they were giving away cruises to those who had not booked yet (and those of us who had, we got no upgrades, refunds, etc - just saw that people got the same cruise for a third of the price so they could fill the ship - even crew members that week didn't mind sharing their frustrations). Another example is that we have always heard that Holland America is for "wheelchairs" - which doesn't bother us. Out of Celebrity, Holland America, and Norwegian, we'd book Holland America again in a heartbeat - we LOVED it so much! Very very nice, relaxing, and we still had lots of fun. We also love Norwegian for their Freestyle... casual clothing attire, eat when you want, etc... yet we still want to try Princess, RCCL, and Windjammer barefoot cruises. So long story short, each cruiseline has a different rep that can change with each group of passengers.

Another question is the itinerary. Caribbean? Mediterranean? Mexican? With a March wedding you need to keep in mind Spring Breakers - we had a March wedding as well. Do you want lots of ports, or some days at sea?

We have loved each of our cruises - each for different reasons. Even the Celebrity cruise was great because of it being ports we had never been to before, great AquaSpa, great meals, etc. - I had just never seen bluejeans in the dining room on formal night, smelled "funny smoke" on decks, etc - it was one huge party ship that week. But we still managed to find things about it that we truly enjoyed.

We always look at itinerary and price - and are always willing to try a new cruiseline no matter what it's reputation is (haven't found a bad one yet!). [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] So if you see something you like - great ports and sea days - and like the price - go for it! In the end, your honeymoon cruise will turn out to be what YOU make of it. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

~ Mandy

[url="http://www.cmgoddard.com/pages/2/index.htm"]NCL Sky 12/2000[/url] - Western Caribbean
Celebrity Galaxy 12/2001 - Southern Caribbean
S/S Norway 03/2003 [url="http://www.cmgoddard.com/pages/3/index.htm"]wedding cruise[/url] - Eastern Caribbean
~~~~ [url="http://messages.cruisecritic.com/2/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=927093444&f=158097554&m=8703069907"] Married on the beach in St John! [/url] ~~~~
[url="http://www.cmgoddard.com/pages/2/index.htm"]HAL ms Maasdam 11/23/2003[/url] - Western Caribbean

[MegBub282]

I'm just back from my honeymoon on the Explorer of the Seas Western Carribean. IT WAS AWESOME!! tns of other honeymooners (64 couples to be exact) It was the best trip ever. My third cruise, hubby's first! Look into Royal Carribean, they really seemed to know honeymooners. If you have questions let me know!
Meg

[Brucemcdou]

Hi - based on your screen name, I assume you also live in San Francisco like we do? If you're getting married here in the Bay area, you may want to look at cruises leaving from San Francisco. That way you don't have to add the hassle (and cost) of flights to your port of embarcation. In March 2005, I think you'll have a choice between the Celebrity Mercury, and the new Princess Sapphire, both doing roundtrips down the coast to Mexico, stopping in Monterey, Catalina Island and Cabo San Lucas, on a 7-day trip, adding Mazatlan or PV on the longer 10 or 11-day trip. My partner and I had our commitment ceremony on a Saturday evening last October, and we boarded the Celebrity Mercury the next morning. No flights, no airport security, no restrictions on how much luggage you could bring. :D We met our families for brunch on Sunday and then went straight to the ship. We're huge Celebrity fans, so we'd actually scheduled our ceremony to allow us to have the cruise as our honeymoon. Princess is a little more casual, and between the two ships the Princess Sapphire will have more options for dining, entertainment, etc. You can't go wrong either way. And whichever you chose, you're just going to want to relax and spend time with each other for the first few days, and by that time you'll be in the sun in Mexico. With your budget, you should be able to get a nice verandah cabin on either ship, and then spend the extra money onboard, for wine, spa treatments, shore excursions, etc.

[catharina]

Hi!

After a lot of research, we decided to take our honeymoon march 28 on The Brilliance of the seas RCCL for a 11 night Ultimate caribbean cruise. Price for a deluxe balcony cabin online is about 1500$ pp so not too expensive! Come join us honeymooners! ;-)

Carina

[mcbrides]

Just read through your post, and thought I would add that you've made a great choice! We have been obsessive about looking for our honeymoon vacation, and we have also decided on the 11 day Ultimate Caribbean in December on the Brilliance! I'm sure it will be wonderful! Best of luck to you!
Stasha

[Eric L. Kozma]

give me a email have great suggestions..

[email]ecchief@aol.com[/email]