747FC

Randy,

I need to clarify: My opinions related to "alcohol" were formulated only on sampling schedule the complimentary wine and champagne menu, not hard liquor or beer. I should have been more careful in my report

Randyk47

Got it and as I said our wine experiences with the standard included wines has run the gamut from excellent to rubbish. Interestingly three years ago we boarded Silver Wind in Athens and I noticed there was an overseas shipping container being unloaded into the ship. Looked like boxes of wine but I didn't pay much attention at the time. Turned out the owner and maybe 10 to 20 other managers and family from Frog's Leap Winery out of Rutherford, CA were on the cruise. I don't know what arrangements they had made with Silversea but for that 9-day cruise Frog's Leap was the main wine served. The owner was out and about and actually very engaging. He and one of his cellar masters conducted wine seminars and tastings throughout the cruise. All unannounced prior to the cruise so it was a pleasant surprise. Can't say I tasted every wine they brought on board but the ones I tried were not bad.

Badenoch

Balance the above off with long lines for a TSA-like experience every time you get on and off the boat during which you will be searched for illicit booze like a high school teenager at a sock hop.

Being disgorged with 4 or 5 thousand of your new found friends on a remote local population whose primary objective is to part you with your money legally or otherwise.

Constantly clock watching on shore and having to pass on a delightful looking restaurant because the boat will leave without you if you don't make it back in time.

Keeping a weather eye if you have the slightest predisposition toward motion sickness.

Being lulled into an environment that encourages over-consumption only to be presented with a eye-popping invoice upon departure.

There are times when a major market cruise makes some sense: Difficult to access locations like the Marquesas or Easter Island, a Mediterranean cruise to quickly visit a variety countries that you might like visit one day or if you've embraced the "cruise culture" and it's trappings.

Having cruised in the past my advice is to know what you want from the holiday and whether a cruise is the best way to achieve your objective, understand the drawbacks and ALWAYS get a cabin with a balcony no matter how much more it costs.

ysolde

My parents were cruisers (yes, that sounds funny for a couple who were in their 20s-30s in the 70s). My husband and I are not. While my parents traveled with us to Europe regularly, as they got older (and became empty nesters) the allure of packing and unpacking once, and having their mode of transport, hotel, and restaurant be all in one was, well, alluring to them. They enjoyed cruise culture as it was back then: the afternoon teas, dressing up for dinner, having a massage (or four -- that would be my mother) and having her hair and nails done, sitting on their cabin's balcony for a leisurely breakfast and feeling the ocean breeze, ending the day on the balcony and feeling more of the ocean breeze.

I now take my mother on a yearly cruise, but I admit it is not what she has described: it all feels at once a bit flashy and Vegas-y while there is no dressing up for anything and there is an upcharge for things like the good restaurants and the classes my parents once took for granted. I think the sort of cruises my parents once took still exist, only not on the routes my mother likes to take. Oh, well.

My husband is sniffing around the "new" Queen Mary (now not so new, I suppose), which he saw on some engineering show on television (yes, we are both nerds). He sort of wants to go, but I don't know if it would be worth it now. OTOH, it sounds like it still has the afternoon teas and old-fashioned gentility I like.

All right, enough rambling.

ijkh

Have you cruised with a top end line? Mass market is very different The per diem for our cruise is $266/day. That is cheaper than airfare, a stay at a 5 star hotel and meals in the Caribbean. You have to be smart about it. If you just go low ball you will have what you describe. Picking a well priced top end trip will make sense and be relaxing. Not all airlines and all classes are the same neither are cruises. Emirates is different from Spirit.

We select smaller ships, all inclusive at a good price. The exploration cruises are our favorites. Sometimes visiting unique destinations like the northern coast of Australia and isolated islands in Indonesia are most comfortable by small ship. Cruises can be exciting.

747FC

Can you kindly inform what line this was, the itinerary and what category of stateroom? Is that per person or per cabin?

We've taken two Seabourn Cruises, and the price varies by itinerary and demand. Our Dubai-Monte Carlo cruise was around $500 per couple/per day. Our UK cruise was $1500 pc/pd. These rates were for their standard balcony suite, and are not including taxes and port fees, or travel agency rebates (around 11%). Add excursion fees and the daily actual rate is quite a bit more.

Badenoch

My cruise experiences are with NCL and Princess and the OP is looking at NCL.

When I've examined the top end lines I could not find anything close to the per diem price you quoted. I too would be interested in what line this was, the itinerary, stateroom and whether it is per person or cabin.

ysolde

I agree. My cruise experiences have been with Royal Caribbean (doesn't get more mass market than that) and it's been much more expensive per diem, even without including the drinks packages and other upcharges. Curious about the high end cruises now . . .

Jaimito Cartero

If you look at last minute deals, you might stumble upon such a deal for a higher end cruise, on a per person cost.

For a balcony, on most cruise lines, you're paying $100 a day p/p, for 2 people minimum. Plus port fees, gratuties, etc.

For instance, a decent deal on Seabourne 16 day cruise from Dubai to Singapore, the daily cost is $314 per person, per day.

In my low end Carnival cruises, a balcony about $120 a day, for a trip booked next year.

YZF_Elite

[QUOTE=Mary2e;28702132]

How is Costco for booking? QUOTE]

I find Costco great, have booked two cruises with them now. They seem to have the same prices as the websites of the lines themselves (often hard to compare as I deal in Canadian currency and a bit of a crapshoot to get quotes from some lines in Cdn Dollars without calling).

I do find their website and contact center to be user friendly and easy compare lines. As a bonus, you usually get something extra that you don't get from the lines (e.g. a Costco gift card).

Mary2e

I did look at Costco and saw that some of the cabin categories are not listed.

Hoyaheel

We did a 10 night Azamara cruise last Nov/Dec, SIN-HKG for $242 per diem per person. Azamara includes alcohol (a basic list - was fine with us) and also allows you to bring on your own wine (corkage fee if you want in the dining room) and alcohol for your cabin if you wish. Small line - just 2 of the old R ships - but we love those ships! It was a very good deal for that itinerary - so those fares are out there if you look & are flexible....

Try calling - sometimes not everything can be listed online. Doesn't mean it's not available (might be the case, but....) We booked our Azamara and a couple Princess (on Pacific Princess - another R ship) and they were great to work with.

prncess674

I have done NCL, Azamara and Seabourn cruises in the past.

I did the NCL where the focus was on the destination (12 night Med Cruise with 10 ports) and the ship was less important. We were off the ship early and back just before last call. The rooms were small and the ships definitely do have a Vegas-y loud vibe. We looked into upgrading to a small suite, but it made the price rise drastically and the added space really didn't come with many other benefits. (This was the NCL Spirit) On the larger NCL ships there is the Haven, but again you are still on a big mainstream line. I would perhaps consider the larger NCL ships with the Haven if I were traveling with kids as it is a good compromise where the adults can have some relaxation but plenty to do for the kids. The really good restaurants all have an upcharge. We only ate dinner in the MDR once and it frankly just wasn't very good. We had a galley tour and once you see how much is pre-plated and just sitting under lamps you realize why it is not good.

The breakfast and lunch offerings were good and they did a good job of churning a lot of people through in the mornings knowing that lots of people were anxious to get off.

I also did a 3 day "booze cruise" on the NCL Sky out of Miami and I can say that on these cheaper cruises the food takes a significant dip in quality. On each of these cruises they both had a pool-side BBQ lunch. The Med cruise included paella, steaks and a variety of good sides. The Sky was strictly hamburgers, hot dogs and fries.

Azamara, which falls somewhere between luxury and mainstream, I would say they are more mainstream. Yes, they include complimentary alcohol, but it was pretty limited IMHO. Comps were limited to rail brands and complimentary beer was limited to Bud and Bud Light. Each day there were 2 reds and two whites on offer. They would change each day. There seemed to be little thought as to what was offered. Like sometimes it would be two sweet whites. Why not offer two with more diversity? I am not a wine snob by any means, but I found several of them to be undrinkable. We were so dissatisfied with the wines that we paid for a bottle each evening with dinner. The staff was not up to par with Seabourn and they seemed to lack polish. The only really good restaurants on board are the additional charge restaurants. I would add the cost of the dinner packages if you go with Azamara.

All my research regarding Azamara said you needed to get a Club Continent suite to even begin to compare room size to Seabourn. We visited a CC room while onboard and it just doesn't compare. The cost of a CC suite then puts you in the same price range as a V1 suite on Seabourn, which gets you way more.

Seabourn is definitely not the most economical if the price is your primary driving factor, but if you are considering doing a lot of add ons to a mainstream cruise you may want to look into Seabourn. Get with a good travel agent who will send to you cruise specials. The rooms are huge, the staff was personable and the small ship allowed you to not feel like you were just a number. There was never any jostling for position or queuing. I would be hard pressed to pay for a Seabourn cruise where the ports are all day ports. I did a 10 day Caribbean where there were 2 sea days out and 2 sea days back in so there was plenty of time to really enjoy the ship and take advantage of all the amenities. Seabourn (as well as all the luxury lines) also excel at getting to interesting ports not necessarily frequented by the mainstream lines. A highlight was a 12-day cruise around the Java Sea visiting different Indonesian ports.

The bigger ships stick to the 7-day regiment of Eastern or Western Caribbean where they make the requisite stops where they hawk all the kitschy shore excursion. They then want to rush you back on board so they can sell you more and more add-ons to your bill. It seems everywhere you would turn they were selling something (jewelry, art, spa packages, drinks of the day, bingo, casino slot tournaments, photos)

Almost all the lines have gone to a much more casual dress code. NCL is probably the most casual where practically the only limitation is no swimsuits in the MDR. Even Seabourn is still pretty casual. There is only one night on a 13-night excursion that is considered formal. The only requirement is that men are required to wear a jacket. Women can get away with pretty much any dress. Just throw on a black dress and some sparkly earrings and you will be appropriately dressed. If you really don't want to even do that, then just order room service that night. They will serve you course by course in your room.
Ther caviar in the surf really is a good time. It isn't stuffy waiters in the water in tuxedos, but still really cool! On some of my other cruises that did not have a caviar in the surf event they did "caviar in the pool" which was just plain stupid. Below is a Seabourn video, but I think it really did accurately represent the event.


The biggest selling point that I liked about Azamara was the late night stops. It was nice to explore ports in the evening and not feel rushed. Most cruises tend to pull of port by 6pm. The bigger ships leave even earlier.

Hoyaheel

Being on the small ship was esp nice for our itinerary, as we sailed right up the rivers and docked in Bangkok & Ho Chi Minh city - for overnights, yes, great, but also much quicker rides into the center of town!

As others have said repeatedly - there's a cruise line out there for everyone, if budget isn't a problem ;-) I can't wait to try some of the luxury lines, but I'm not there yet. But as the cheaper lines continue to go for big big BIG ships, we'll either turn to other kinds of travel or save up to sail on a smaller ship....

Randyk47

We went through much of the same decision process. Came down to not liking bigger ships and being dissatisfied with the degradation in food, entertainment, and service. We'd rather cruise less often, though that really hasn't happened, and pay for a quality experience than settle for an average or below cruise just because it was less expensive. Careful "shopping" and using a TA who gives us a good cash discount works for us.