I love to travel and cruises are a great way to do it. You can see lots amazing things in great comfort because your hotel is moving with you. When you travel by land you have to pack and unpack as you move from hotel to hotel and I sure don't miss doing that when I'm on a cruise. It's also usually a much better value than land travel as long as you keep your bar tab and excursion expenses under control.
If I remember correctly we've been on 10 cruises. Six times on Celebrity: Alaska, Baltic, Caribbean, Europe, Mexico and Panama Canal. Twice on Carnival: Mexico and Alaska. Twice on RCCL: both in the Mediterranean.
Of those 3 lines my favorite by far is Celebrity. Their ships are beautiful, their service is excellent and their prices are in line with the "value" cruiselines rather than with the Crystal and Cunard level of extreme extravagance. Celebrity also keeps their ship wide announcements to a minimum so you don't have to continuously hear over hyped announcements about their latest swimming pool games or the drink of the day like you do on the "fun ships."
Our favorite thing about Celebrity is their food which we found to be much much better than either Carnival or RCCL. One thing to be aware of is that on our last cruise with them in April (for our 25th anniversary) we learned that they lost chef Michel Roux as the head of their food service and as a result they were preparing to overhaul their entire food service department. Hopefully the quality will not suffer...
Overall Carnival is my least favorite. It was just too much of a party ship for me. My favorite thing about their service was that the room steward left cute towel animals on our bed every night. I think they do this because they are hopeful that you will be so impressed with their towel folding abilities that you won't mind stepping over the inebriated passengers that you occasionally find passed out in the hall.
I've heard good things about Princess and good and bad things about Holland America but haven't traveled with either one myself.
These are this years 10 best cruise lines as rated by Travel and Leisure. Last year Celebrity was number 4 so it's ratings have slipped a little but it's still rated slightly above other cruiselines in it's price range:
- Crystal Cruises
- Regent Seven Seas Cruises
- Oceania Cruises
- Disney Cruise Line
- Cunard Line
- Celebrity Cruises
- Holland America Line
- Orient Lines
- Princess Cruises
- Royal Caribbean International
Crystal, Regent and Cunard are
far more expensive than any of the lines that we have traveled on. My mother and her friend returned last week from a cruise on a line of that type and complained that the other travelers were doddering and too old to be traveling. My mom and her friend are in their 70's and they said that they were by far the youngest passengers on the ship and that they worried that some of the other passengers wouldn't live through the trip.
One of our very well traveled neighbors really likes Oceania. That line attracts a younger demographic than Crystal et al but they are also more expensive than Celebrity. There is a new line called Azamara which is supposed to be comparable to Oceania but at a better price point. I haven't yet read any of their passenger reviews but the idea sounds promising.
As far as itineraries go for 7 days I think I like Alaska the best, we enjoyed that one so much we've done it twice. Our first European cruise was 7 days with 5 more days staying in a hotel in Paris. The cruise portion of that trip just wasn't long enough for the amount of places we tried to cram in to the limited time available, we were totally exhausted when we got off the ship. I much prefer 14 day cruises with a couple of days at sea so you can relax. Both of the European itineraries we did have been great and have been some of the best vacations we've ever taken. The Baltic cruise was really good too, Russia and Estonia were so interesting. We had some amazing experiences there. Panama Canal was also a good cruise, I loved taking a small boat through the mangrove jungle in Costa Rica. The extreme heat and humidity was the only downside to that trip.
You asked about the Caribbean and the following describes my only experience there. We combined a 7 day Caribbean cruise with several days in Florida. It was July and super hot and humid and there were short thunder storms every afternoon. We were traveling with my sister and her kids and the kids actually cried when we left the air conditioned hotel because the weather was so miserable. Once we boarded the ship and got away from Florida the weather became more pleasant, so did the kids.
Our cruise itinerary was:
Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Key West with 2 days at sea.
Jamaica was beautiful and has an interesting culture. You could spend at least a few days there if you had the time. In Grand Cayman we took a boat and went snorkeling in a few different spots, one with hundreds of completely tame stingrays. We've snorkeled in lots of different places but never have never encountered anything like that anywhere else. The whole day we were in Cozumel we were snorkeling too so I don't know anything about what they offer on land. The snorkeling in Cozumel was fantastic.
My favorite cruise tips:
- Always try get a balcony, if possible. Some ships have lots of them and on that type of ship balconies don't cost much more than an ocean view. There is nothing as relaxing as an afternoon at sea napping on your balcony out on the open ocean.
- Avoid the buffet where food sits out in trays. There is better food at the grill or in the spa. Look for places with no steam tables where they cook the food after you order it.
- Ask the waiters and bar servers where they like to go in each port. Most of them will be clueless but some of them know some great local places.
- Find a sidewalk café in every port and drink the local beer.
- Try the free specialty restaurants on the ship, the pizza and burgers are usually good but try the ones that don't sound as good, like the "healthy" one in the spa. The spa turned out to be our favorite for lunch on the Constellation.
- The shows: single performers (comedians, magicians etc.) are often entertaining but the musical extravaganzas can be so poorly produced that they're painful to watch.
- Ask the concierge for a galley or bridge tour. They used to offer tours more often than they do now but it's still worth it to ask.
- You can order whatever you want at dinner, you don't have to stick to the menu they hand you. Get 2 appetizers and skip the soup or ask for fresh berries for dessert even if they're not on the menu. Once Tony even ordered a second lobster.
- Late seating for dinner just works out better. Early seating sometimes conflicts with excursions.
- Get the best currency exchange rate by using your ATM card at an ATM on shore instead of exchanging currency on the ship.
- You can usually find local operators waiting on shore at ports that offer local tours and transportation for less than it costs to book excursions through the ship.
- Room service is free (don't forget to tip though). It's always nice to place your breakfast order the night before and have it delivered to your room in the morning when you have an early excursion.