Back in the Nineties, we had a couple as friends who did a lot of cruises, and they said Royal Caribbean was the best.
We ended up going on two cruises with them, and had a blast. The first one was a 10 day cruise aboard the Nordic Prince (now scrapped) and it was the best.
We don’t go on cruises anymore, those ones that carry 6,000 passengers seem completely insane to me. I was in the Navy on a ship that had 5,000 crew, and that was enough for me.
We switched to going on sailboat voyages with friends that included some with a lot of sailing experience, and those were the best vacations in my life. (the sailboats were 42’ catamarans out of various places around the Caribbean.
Nothing like them. Just wow.
Yep, that's the way to go, it's beautiful in those waters and tons of stuff to do, towns to visit, swimming etc.
I have sailed on 50,000 tons ships, and (3) 226,838 tons RCCL ships with 6000+ passengers and anything in between. The largest ships were the least crowded. There was so many places on the ship to dine, shop, and play sports, there were no lines anywhere! The small ships are the worst, with very few dining rooms, very few things to do.
Best part about the large ships is, with 6000+ passengers paying the tab, they can hire top class entertainment shows.
Also most of the very large Royal Caribbean ships also have ice skating rinks, with ice skating shows in the afternoons, which are a bonus and very entertaining.
It is impossible to get bored on a Oasis class or the one class bigger ships. You can do water skiing, ice skating, nerve wrecking water slides, more live music choices and ride the wire lift crossing over 15 stories deep cavern in the middle of the ship. We had breakfast at Tiffany’s LOL where the while gloved ladies served us breakfast in the Tiffany jewelry shop. You have none of those venues on a navy ship. Totally different!