Cruise Advice....

[volntitan]

OK. Pulling out my hair. My folks want to take the Wife and I and our 20 yr. old on a nice cruise. We've all been on SeaDream, but thought would try something different. SeaDream was great, but would be nice to have some roomier and quieter rooms.

 

So here is what would be great. We are looking in the Europe area, maybe Greece, Italy, France type thing, but not opposed to another area if they are nice. Need good beds. I am a, ahem, portly gentleman so bed comfort is pretty needy. Also looking for the best, but also don't really want to have to wear a tux to dinner by any means. I know the passengers on these ships are older, but any ship that has some activity would be great.

 

We have looked at Regent, Crystal, Silverseas, Seabourn, etc. and even thought about doing a River Cruise instead, but really lost so ANY GUIDANCE would be greatly appreciated.

 

Oh also...all the talk about fancy wine. I'm a beer dude. In fact, I home brew so I am a beer "connoisseur" so to speak, so if you know of any that have a great selection of esoteric beers, that would be great. I know it is alot to hope for, but we did go on a Norweign Cruise Boat that was horrible except that it did have a "pub" on board with very good beer selection. Needless to say we stayed in there most of the time.

 

Thanks!

[kitty9]

The line with the most amenities is Crystal. They have some absolutely awesome guest speakers who are experts on the areas in which you're cruising and experts on current affairs. They tend to bring on ambassadors, Pentagon officials, retired members of the armed services, professors and famous newsmen and authors. They have their Creative Learning Institute which allows you to learn a foreign language, play piano, learn about wine and cooking, take classes on photography and computers, learn to play bridge. Their evening entertainment is very, very good with a few Vegas-type shows and guest entertainers such as singers, musicians and comedians. You will not get anywhere near that kind of daily entertainment on the other lines.

 

As far as dressing, Seabourn, Silversea and Crystal are very formal. Most men will be in tuxes on formal nights, but you can most certainly wear a dark suit. Regent is probably the least formal, but they still do have formal nights. And on all those lines, everyone stays dressed for the evening---no going back to the cabin and changing into casual clothes after dinner.

 

I've been on all four of the lines you mention, at least twice each (Seabourn 5 times and Crystal 18 times) and I would rank them as Crystal/Seabourn as number one, Silversea #2 and Regent #3.

 

OH and BTW, on selected sailings this summer on Crystal, they are offering a special where if you book one of those sailings, you receive $1000 PER PERSON to spend any way you desire, except for the casino and future cruise bookings. So that offer would make your Crystal cruise all inclusive because you could use that money for gratuities, shore excursions, all drinks including all alcohol and all costs of the specialty restaurants. That's a pretty great deal.

[Jade13]

 

As far as dressing, Seabourn, Silversea and Crystal are very formal. Most men will be in tuxes on formal nights, but you can most certainly wear a dark suit.

 

I certainly hope not as far as SilverSeas is concerned. We are going on the PAII and my understanding is that is it country club casual which to me means black pants and a nice top, no formal wear. We were told there are no formal nights. It is also open seating.

 

We are going on an expedition cruise so maybe their dress code is different in other places besides the Arctic and Antarctica.

 

My understanding is that Crystal is the most formal.

[volntitan]

Well, we are going on Seadream again. Poor us... ;)

 

Going on 7 day Med. cruise from Nice to Italy. First time ever over seas for the wife and I and can't wait.

[kitty9]

I certainly hope not as far as SilverSeas is concerned. We are going on the PAII and my understanding is that is it country club casual which to me means black pants and a nice top, no formal wear. We were told there are no formal nights. It is also open seating.

 

We are going on an expedition cruise so maybe their dress code is different in other places besides the Arctic and Antarctica.

 

My understanding is that Crystal is the most formal.

 

The PAII is an expedition type cruise ship and very different from all the other mainline Silversea ships. Yes, there are no formal nights on expedition-type cruise ships, but all the other Silversea ships do have formal nights, and their passengers do follow the dress code to the letter.

[martinsfo]

I actually enjoyed the formal nights much more than I thought. After our first cruise to Alaska, I bought a tux and rented one for my son. He actually started to like dressing in it because all the girls think he is so sauve.

[volntitan]

That's what I really love about SeaDream. 2nd to none food and service, but the most formal I have to get is nice slacks and shirt for dinner. MAYBE a sport coat.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

It sounds great, if I'm feeling flush I should really try it some day. I love the casual part--we put up with formal nights on Regent some cruises, but would love to say bye bye to them.