Could you rank the cruise companies you’d pick or have used?
You have massive insight. My wife and I have been talking about taking our first cruise, but the obvious ones aren’t necessarily the best or consistently reviewed one way or the other.
I’m not bobbyvotes, but here are our two cents.
We’re long-time Princess cruisers — 20+ cruises. As with most things, the quality isn’t what it used to be.
Have done Celebrity. It was OK; entertainment sucked.
Did Carnival in the ‘80, which was beyond terrible. Sounds like it still is.
We’ve looked at Explora, but it looks more snooty-patooty than we like.
In my experience, the ship matters more than the cruise company. One of my best cruises was on a Royal Caribbean ship, and my worst cruise was on Royal Caribbean ship Monarch of the Seas. It was a small ship, but always long line to get seated in dining room. Oasis of the seas sailed with 6000+ passengers, and it was the least crowded ship I have sailed on. May be because there are so many dining rooms and cages on the ship, there are no lines. The bigger RCCL ships usually have ice skating shows which I can’t get enough of.
I can wholeheartedly recommend MSC Seascape with the Yacht Club package. It was our first cruise earlier this year for seven days. Thoroughly enjoyed it and frankly.... didn’t want to leave. That boat was awesome with tons of things to do and some of the most delicious cuisine I’ve ever had.
When we go again.... it’ll be with MSC.
“Could you rank the cruise companies you’d pick or have used?”
I got stationed at Patrick AFB in 2000 and live 20 minutes from Port Canaveral. I like to cruise...my wife can take it or leave it, but she does go. I like it, because I spend a lot of time on-call, and if I’m on a ship, I can turn off my cell phone, and NOBODY can get hold of me until I’m back.
We’ve been on a few different cruises. If I had to rank them:
1. Princess
2. Royal Caribbean
3. Disney
Others we tried and will NOT go on again...
4. Disney makes both lists. The smaller ships were good. The larger ships are horrible. The larger ships were designed by a company that builds hotels...not ships. Too many chokepoints on the bigger Disney ships and with 6000+ people, it gets crowded really fast. Also...they’ve just become too expensive.
5. Viking Ocean. Small ship was great, itinerary was outstanding. One would think that with an expensive cruise, the cabin would be comfortable. The bed was extremely “firm”, and I almost needed a chiropractor after my 2-week European cruise. Food was too gourmet with too much seafood on the menu. Not worth the cost to go on this one.
6. Carnival. I went on one many years before the Spirit Airlines crowds took it over. I would never go on one again.
Others I have yet to try, but will eventually (MSC, Holland America, Norwegian).
Pick your cruise according to your own expectations. If you like to stay busy all the time, the mega-ships are the way to go. If you go on a cruise to relax and get away from it all, the small and mid-size (3,000 passenger) ships are good to go. Personally, I like the Princess mid-size ships. Slightly older (like me) crowd, and I can stay as busy or idle as I choose. We have a Princess cruise in late November out of Port Canaveral. Can’t wait to get out of my cubicle!