What Cruise Line to Mexico?

[PattyMichael]

My Mom 75, and I are planning a Mexico cruise in November. What are the best ships that sail there. I heard the Celebrity Mercury is in bad shape and I don't think she would like NCL free style dining> What to do?

[Lurkyloo]

The Carnival Pride was a beauty! We loved her so much that we are taking her "sister" ship to Acapulco next spring! ;) If you would like to see pics of the ship, click here: http://community.webshots.com/user/jenmoreno - most of the pics of the ship are in the Embarkation album. We had an extended balcony room and just loved it!

[10splyr]

Why do you think she won't like "free style dining?" It only means that you go to the dining room at a time that is convenient to your schedule. If you don't want to share a table, you don't have to. It's strictly up to you. But if you choose not to share, then you will miss out on meeting a lot of nice people - and if you don't like them, then you don't have to eat with them again!

[cwc]

HAL for the 70+... Princess has both tradition & "free style" dining. Are you leaving from a CA port? or FL? As for "best ship", there are some upscale line (like Silverseas, Regent) over in FL that goes to Mexico in Nov.

[PattyMichael]

We will be leaving out of CA. Mom likes having a set time for dinner and having the same table mates. But maybe she will try something new.

[iamirish]

Do you want a 3, 4. 7, 8, 10 or 11 day cruise?

 

Do you plan to leave out of LA or SD??

 

Your answers to the above will somewhat dictate which cruise(s) will be available for you and you Mom to take.

 

Tom

[LandLockedInAZ]

HAL for the 70+... Princess has both tradition & "free style" dining. Are you leaving from a CA port? or FL? As for "best ship", there are some upscale line (like Silverseas, Regent) over in FL that goes to Mexico in Nov.

 

I disagree with the statement that HAL is for 70+. I'm 42, DH is 40. We have a 15 y.o. DD who enjoys ANY cruise and has never failed to find friends on the previous HAL cruises we've taken. I believe the Vista class ships (of which one, the Oosterdam, sails the Mex. Riv) are geared to the younger pax. We will take our first cruise on her this Thanksgiving week.

 

However, that is not to be interpreted as me pushing you towards HAL. Just mentioning my love for this particular cruiseline for their traditions, service and uncrowded public areas.

 

My suggestion to anybody trying to determine which cruiseline is for them is to check out the book "The Unofficial Guide to Cruises" which lists the details about the ships in each line, features and generalizations about fellow pax you may be traveling with (i.e. what types of people each line tends to market toward and attract). This is probably more helpful than anybody who doesn't know you and your taste telling you their own favorite.

[Treven]

I'm 60 years old and I LOVED Freestyle Dining!! I was able to eat when I wanted to. If I wanted to be alone, I would get a table for two and have a nice quiet dinner by myself.

 

I think your mother would like it too.

[cwc]

My parents in-law cruised on HAL 2years ago (69 & 64). They said the ship was very very quite after 9pm. Nobody walks around?! They cruised Princess & NCL before and they said they did like HAL better because the people, services & food, but Princess & NCL are more "lively". Just repeating from the "older" people point of view here...

[cezovski]

My Mom 75, and I are planning a Mexico cruise in November. What are the best ships that sail there. I heard the Celebrity Mercury is in bad shape and I don't think she would like NCL free style dining> What to do?

 

We sailed to the Mexican Riviera on the Dawn Princess and loved it! Have nothing else to compare it to, but I was happy with everything! Here's a link with pictures and a long review if you are interested. Hope it helps. They have both anytime dining and traditional dining. I prefer anytime dining, but both are available!

Have fun!

 

http://members.aol.com/pudyqat/DawnPrincess.html

[CaliforniaAC]

We have only done HAL to the Mexican Rivera, both 10 day cruises. We are talking about going on the Zaandam 10 day, or the Oosterdam 7 day in December.

 

Traditionally, there are less kids on the ten day trips. This has been our experience also. On all our trips we've had no problem finding people our age, and our tablemates on both MR cruises were our age too. On our last cruise our tablemates were in their 70's and they were a blast :). They stayed up later than we did!

 

We love both HAL and Princess. If your Mom has mobility concerns she may be happier on one of the smaller ships.

 

We had the open seating on the Dawn Princess, and find that we like traditional dining better.

 

My vote would be one of the 10 day HAL cruises, but the months they sail are limited- I don't know if they are sailing 10 dayers in November or not.

 

Whoever you choose, I hope you and your Mom have a great time!

 

p.s. to LandLockedInAZ- I have it on good authority that there will be a lot of families with kids on your trip:)

[benchmarklearning]

Hands down, the best. We did 7-day cruise from San Diego in March and it was PERFECT.

[jlp20]

>>>My Mom 75, and I are planning a Mexico cruise in November. What are the best ships that sail there. I heard the Celebrity Mercury is in bad shape and I don't think she would like NCL free style dining> What to do?

 

As I read this, your only concern is dinning style. With Princess, you can request traditional, but you will most likely be given Personnel Choice. It has been my experience that past Princess passengers with multi cruises under their belt get the traditional seating. Carnival Pride had only traditional dinning, which you want, but the average age of the passenger is about 15 years younger than Princess.

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