Best friends cruising for 40th bday - suggestions?

[scully28]

My best friend and I want to take a cruise to celebrate our 40th year. We are looking for a 7 night cruise with lots of port stops and activities. The beds MUST be comfy and the service must be good. We'd like to do anything in the Caribbean that includes Puerto Rico, but we'd like to depart from a Florida port.

 

There's just too much to choose from.... here's what we've been looking at so far and what's holding us back from picking each:

 

Princess cruise - Crown Princess - hard beds

Holland America - Eurodam - older guests, limited activities

Carnival - Liberty - cabins are small - 185sf balcony

 

Are these legitimate concerns? Any suggestions would be MOST appreciated.

 

Thanks!

[arlodog]

Have a great time planning. We have only been on Carnival and RCCL and Costa. RCCL is our favorite. We have never had a problem with the beds on any of the ships. San Juan was one of our favorite ports. Make sure you check out the port of call threads. Sounds like you want to do an Eastern route. Don't know if going out of San Juan is an option for you but you may want to consider one of those cruises. Have a great time planning. For my best friends 40th we went to Vegas and saw Barry Manilow (we knew all the words and could sing along!) :p

[Jarhead235]

We sailed the Crown Princess in April last year....and didn't find the bed to be hard.

 

Balcony size with any cruise line is going to be dependent upon the type of room you get - the nicer the room, the bigger the balcony. The balcony on any standard room is ging to be on the small side.

 

Perhaps you might want to look into Royal Caribbean as well.

 

Personally, we prefer the southern caribbean routes, but you would have to sail out of San Juan for that, but you can't beat the ABC islands - Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao.

 

Joe

[KAWS]

We did a 6 day cruise out of Florida this last March. It was for my friend's 50th and their 25th anniversary. It was FABULOUS.

 

It didn't include San Juan though (you'd need eastern or southern for that). Ours was western but I find those are so much fun because there's so many terrific activities that you can do! We sailed on Radiance of the Seas. Beautiful ship and so easy to get around. If you can get it, book a full aft balcony. Those are the D1 cabins and they are a little bigger than the regular balcony cabin. Plus those aft balconies are huge. We had the corner one with the aft wrap. Spent a LOT of time on that let me tell you.

 

It was so much fun and since it was also our friends' first time cruising it sure set the standards for them. They booked a future cruise before they got off that ship (so did we) so I know they had a great time too.

[SelectSys]

My best friend and I want to take a cruise to celebrate our 40th year. We are looking for a 7 night cruise with lots of port stops and activities. ...Thanks!

 

Depending on when you want to go have you considered Celebrity. The line's newest ship - Solstice - is debuting this December (I think). It is likely to be very nice.