Thread: Best Cruise You've Ever Been On!

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Hello everyone! - I'm desperate to have some input from a few of you (or maybe many of you). I checked out the NCL cruises on the NCL Dawn for Feb. 2012 and am interested in a Southern Caribbean cruise leaving from Miami Feb. 5th. I would love to know your experiences on this cruiseline and perhaps suggestions for options, either with NCL or other cruiselines. Please help. Not sure what to do. Have been in touch with NCL directly and want to do something soon. Thanks for any input. Diane

Diane, we absolutely LOVE the Southern Caribbean and February is a great time to go!

It's been a while (SS Norway) since we've been anyplace on NCL so I can't help you out on that.

We've been to the Southern Caribbean on Princess, RCCL, Celebrity, and HAL. While we prefer Princess, we had a very good time on each and would not hesitate to go back on any of them.

I couldn't vote because you didn't have Holland America on your poll.

We've been on them all and quite frankly, in 38 cruises, we've never really had a bad one. But our best cruise ever was on the Holland America Rotterdam - absolutely wonderful!

Frankly, the poll is a little unfair though because you're comparing more upscale cruise lines with those not so upscale and those who cater more to the older crowd versus those who cater more to kids and families.

HAL and Celebrity are the more upscale, and while they do have great kids' programs, they cater more to the older crowd. Princess is just under them. Next would be Disney, but they are more expensive yet great with kids. RCCL is less expensive but has alot of amenities for families. And while alot of people love NCL, we've just not been a big fan in the several cruises we've done with them.
Obviously, just my personal opinion, but I'm sticking to it.

Bottom line is that what one person loves, another will hate. So the fun part is trying them all to find the one that is best for you.

And as one person always says, "The best cruise is the next one!"

Pete

I totally agree with Pete. Except, I did vote for Princess. Loved it!

It all depends on you. If you like dressing up and being more formal then NCL is NOT for you it is very casual. If you are very averse to smoking go Celebrity.

I would have voted for Holland America, too. Out of the 16 I've taken and/or have already booked, I've done 9 with HAL.

I do not think you can safely make a judgement from random comments in this site. There are distinctly different opinions, and it seems to me that no cruiser has a really, really favorite!

You've got to look at the lifestyle on board; see if it fits your personalities. I quite frankly won't sail on Carnival as it is far, far too likely to by too much of an on-going, never-ending party. I have heretofore avoided Norwegian because I happen to like a more "regimented" style.

1 = Holland America
2 = Princess

SWR


P.S.: I definitely fit the Senior Citizen category!

When I saw the title "Best cruise you've ever been on," I thought you were asking in general as to itinerary, cruiseline, ship. I would have definitely put our Caribbean cruises in the middle of the pack -- our two Hawaiian and the one Alaskan cruise on top and our Mexican Riviera/Baja ones at the bottom. And the two Caribbean ones we did on Carnival. Actually the one we did on the Paradise was great, but because that was when it was a no-smoking ship. Our feeling about that cruise had nothing to do with the ports.

Originally Posted by Lolamia

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Hello everyone! - I'm desperate to have some input from a few of you (or maybe many of you). I checked out the NCL cruises on the NCL Dawn for Feb. 2012 and am interested in a Southern Caribbean cruise leaving from Miami Feb. 5th. I would love to know your experiences on this cruiseline and perhaps suggestions for options, either with NCL or other cruiselines. Please help. Not sure what to do. Have been in touch with NCL directly and want to do something soon. Thanks for any input. Diane

I'm a past NCL cruiser so I do have some experience in cruising them. Have you considered consulting a travel agent in your town for some advice? The reason I ask this is because when you call NCL, your PCC (Personal Cruise Consultant) is basically another name for a salesperson. All they are looking to do is get a sale out of you and my past experience has been not all of their information is the best. You might also be able to work out some onboard credit going through an agent. My advice would be to wait until NCL offers it on their site, because you could end up smelling kind of nicely with some extra money to spend. Who wouldn't like that? Our last cruise was on the Pearl and we had 600 dollars to spend before we even walked on the ship. (I should mention we were in a low end suite) They have deals pretty frequently.

With that out of the way, do you know what stateroom category you want to book in? If you select a suite, you will be bowled over! We have had two suites and the service is beyond amazing...once you book one though, you will never want to go back to just a regular stateroom. You will be totally spoiled rotten! You can dine in Cagneys for breakfast and lunch and have access to a butler and concierge during your cruise who will do all in their power to make sure you have a wonderful time.

We have always loved our experience on NCL. Freestyle can be a wonderful thing if you are like me and you dress to the nine's during the week for your job and just truly looking to pack a bag with your everyday items and get away. Unfortunately, there are reports of dress being too casual for some. I don't focus on what others are doing, so it doesn't seem to bother me much.

There is much to do on the ship depending on which one you book. A spa pass is a wonderful thing. When we were on last, it was 99 dollars for a 7 day or 20 dollars a day. You can enjoy everything the spa has to offer with the exception of services...those are additional. Hubby and I spent A LOT of time there. The heated tile loungers are fantastic! We also enjoyed bowling on the ship...it was quite the challenge and a lot of fun.

Shows are pretty amazing on NCL. We enjoy going to the Newlywed/Not So Newlywed game....they are usually quite a hoot! The comedians are usually very good. You will need to plan your dining times accordingly and be sure to let your server know if you are going to a show so that you are not waiting needlessly. They were very good about this.

I'm a foodie so I will be honest here. The MDR is adequate...in my experience if I don't like something, I just send it back. The Freestyle restaurants are an additional fee. You will have to make your mind up to which ones you want to do. Hubby and I do not care for NCL's signature restaurant LeBistro. If it's suppose to be French, it's a very poor representation of it. I usually get slammed on the NCL groups on other boards, but having been to Paris I feel I am more than qualified to say it's not French cuisine. Cagneys is very good for steak....it will be the local Outback quality.....their shrimp cocktails are to die for! Whatever the Italian restaurant (it's different names on different ships) they have onboard is we have always LOVED. It's the quality of our local Little Italy here in Baltimore so no complaints. We did not care for the Teppanyaki, ESPECIALLY given the price. We have a few of them here in our town and the food just wasn't up to our expectations. There will be sushi more than likely and the reports seem favorable....we would have done it ourselves, but there were only so many restaurants we could eat in. We've eaten in the oriental restaurant and were not as pleased with the food. We have many great places here to eat not to mention that I am a amateur chef myself and I make much of our oriental food....we just didn't find we would waste the money again on either of these venues. The Pearl had the most AMAZING buffet! I think we could have eaten there everyday the food was just that good....this is coming from someone who avoids buffets and all you can eat places like the plague!

Embarkation and debarkation could NOT be easier....we've never had a problem there.

Only downside for us has been their smoking policies. This is not to bash anyone, but my parents are ex-smokers and many of my breathing issues are in my mind a direct result of them smoking. I don't care for it and I don't want to smell it when I'm on my balcony. It was a big deciding factor for us for the next cruise we have booked.

If there is any specific questions that you have, just ask and I will try and help you.

Sharon, you have give quite a good description of your NCL experiences. It's good to get the personal viewpoint...Thanks!

Hi all - Just checking in. Sorry, I didn't even think about Holland America. Sounds like a few of you feel they are the best, with Princess a close 2nd. My favorite was also the Princess Cruise but thanks for the HAL option. I also tried to change the poll to be Caribbean only, but by your input, your votes are for worldwide cruises, which is also valuable.

I know that cruising opinions, like anything else, is highly subjective. We are more middle of the road with loving some dressing up, some casual, some formal meals (captain's dinners) and some not so formal. The quality of our meals is important to us - this is a big factor for everyone, I'm sure, but again this is highly subjective. Also, now that our "kids" cruise is over, we are looking at cruises that are more ADULT oriented with few children on the ship, and we know that Disney is not that one.

Again, thank you for your input...very valuable. Was looking at and was actually approached by NCL for our next Southern Caribbean cruise, but will need to wait a bit..seriously thinking about Mediterranian - this would be a new experience for us as we haven't yet been to Europe at all.

Let's keep this poll going awhile longer for more opinions. Thanks again.

Diane