This my first time posting here, and first time planning a cruise, and this looked like a pretty good place to get some advice.

I'm thinking about taking the family on a cruise in February. We'll use up some unused airline tickets we had from our last vacation a year ago and fly down to Florida. From there, I'd like to go on a cruise to the Bahamas or Bermuda or whatever else is down there in the Florida area.

From your experience:

1. How much is realistic to pay for a cruise that lasts 4 or 5 days?
2. Which cruise lines give the most bang for the buck?
3. Which are the best as far as dining and fun things to do? (we're in our 50's, our kids are teens and low 20's)
4. Which cruise lines would you stay away from?

Thanks,

Carnival has several 3, 4, and 5 day itineraries out of Florida. You'll pay less than $100 per person per day for one of those cruises, sometimes much less. IMHO Carnival also gives the best value.

There are no major cruises to Bermuda from Florida. 4 and 5 day itineraries will generally take you to either one or two ports in the Bahamas, Key West, the Caymans, Jamaica, or Cozumel.

My personal recommendation for a 5 day cruise from Florida would be Carnival Inspiration out of Tampa. She's an older ship, but run very very well by an excellent crew. For the family she's got the Waterworks water park on the aft end of the top deck. The only balconies are in the suites, but they're not ridiculously expensive. Every two weeks she does a Saturday 5-day, a Thursday 4-day, and a Monday 5-day. The 5-day cruises both go to Grand Cayman and Cozumel. The 4-day goes to Cozumel, but IMHO there isn't any savings doing the 4-day vs 5-day, so the only consideration is the extra day off work.

Tampa is also generally regarded as the smoothest embarkation and debarkation port in Florida.

We've sailed Inspiration 3 times and loved every trip.

The only cruise line I would actively avoid is Celebration Cruise Line.

I would second going out of Tampa for your cruise.

Very easy airport to fly in and out of, close to the cruise port, and things to do in the area if you want to spend a few days before or after the cruise (beaches, Busch Gardens, etc). Carnival Inspiration is a nice ship. The itenerary is good for a first cruise, long enough to get a taste for cruising, not so long if you don't like it.

Thank-you for your advice.

I started checking them out and saw some trips for around $300. What does that include, and what doesn't that include?

Beware that some of the ships operating in the mini-cruise market to the Bahamas are pretty old, and lack a decent percentage of balcony staterooms. If you are looking for a balcony, NCL's Norwegian Sky operates out of Miami,is the youngest ship in that market and has a large number of balconies, so you should find a good price on this type of stateroom. I've sailed on her a couple of times and love the Freestyle cruising concept. She operates 3nt sailings on Fridays, and 4nt sailings on Mondays

Cruise prices will include your choice of accommodation, most entertainment and full board meals on the ship. Extras that you should budget for include dining in speciality restaurants, excursions, drinks and service charges / gratuities.

And as someone else has said, avoid Celebration. Not only is the ship pretty basic, as I understand it, they'll be trying hard to sell you timeshare from the second you get on board.

Mark

On the mainline cruise lines (Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian), your cruise fare includes accommodations, food, and most activities. Alcohol is extra, as are some specialty dining experiences. Tips will be extra as well, usually $10 per person per day.

In our opinion, Carnival ships are more of a "party" atmosphere with generally a younger crowd. Often very affordable trips as you can see on Expedia or whatever.

Royal Caribbean is more of a mid-line cruise with a mix of passengers. We felt it was not as "flashy / party-like" as Carnival.

Our favorites was Princess Cruise ship. Definitely had an older crowd when we cruised. We felt the caliber of the food was better than any other ship. Our kids LOVE cheesecake and the other lines it was "fake" cheesecake - not New York Style like they love. lol

Another expense not always considered by first-time cruisers is the COST of shore expeditions. If you plan to see the island or Mexico or whatever.... be prepared to pay. Generally, excursions booked on the ship are $75 - $125 per person, per excursion. If you go to Cozumel and are happy walking around the town you can do that cheaply and enjoy some good food too. Any of the "really cool" sightseeing trips are usually quite costly - just thought you'd want to know.

I don't know if I can post the name of another site that has great boards on every cruise ship, every itinerary, every port of call, etc ??? I'll give it a shot and hope I dont get in cyber-trouble LOL

I love cruisecritic . com Great site to get info, though I saw you had a couple of folks give you some good stuff here too. Flyertalk ROCKS.

Happy cruising - maybe we'll see you in February on the seas!

Make sure that you go through the booking process to the end to see what the final cost is. There are always taxes and port charges and the prices are per person. What is covered sometimes depends on which cruise line you are sailing.

On Carnival it will cover:

cabin with daily cleaning

all the food you can eat in the main dining room, buffets, pizza, sushi, snacks, iced tea, lemonade, coffe and juice at breakfast. It does not cover soft drinks, juice during the day, food and drinks in the stores on ship, or alchohol. Carnival also has free room service but you should tip the server with cash when they bring the food. I always order room service for breakfast since I can get smoked salmon this way since it is not available in the buffet.

You can buy a soda card for an additional charge to get soft drinks and juice from the bars. Carnival allows you to bring onboard soft drinks for your own consumption. You can also bring wine but there is a corkage fee for opening and consuming it in any dining place (drink it in your cabin for free).

Most ships have a specialty restuarant that has an additional charge if you choose to eat there.

entertainment -movies, shows, trivia, games, etc. There is a charge for bingo since it is for prizes.

Not included: internet - you can buy minutes or a package of minutes for use

soft drinks - you can buy a soda card or buy them as you want

alchohol _ there are often daily specials

tips - they add $10 per person per day but this can removed
if you choose (not recommended) or added to at the end
of the cruise

shore excursions - you can book through the ship, book on your
own, or just do nothing and hang around the
ship/port

laundry - there is a charge is you need to wash clothes

cell phone charges - you may or may not get service and it
could be very expensive using your US
phone internationally

Once you have narrowed down either your cruise line/ship/itinerary, go to CruiseCritic.com and search the various Forums. There are categories for each line, ports, and many other issues, The posters there are often very experienced cruisers. Each Forum has a 'search' function, so if you have a specific question try that first. Some issues have been covered ad nauseum, so there may be some groans if you ask about tipping without searching first. But that is a minor quibble. It is an invaluable source of information for all things cruising.

Believe it or not, the average age of a Carnival passenger is about 45 while the average age of a Royal Caribbean passenger is about 42. They have worked hard over the years to shed the "party atmosphere" image. Carnival even sail more seniors than any other cruise line.

Yes, the "party ship" atmosphere on Carnival is a myth. All shorter cruises will feel like party ships compared to 7 day and longer itineraries, that goes for Royal, Carnival, and NCL.

Carnival puts out a product that is more or less equivalent to NCL and Royal. The primary difference with Royal is in the ships. IMHO the ship amenities aren't worth the steep premium to sail Royal. IMHO Carnival and NCL are almost exactly identical, though we're big fans of Freestyle. Carnival's anytime dining plan works well too, though, and the greater variety of ships and itineraries out of Florida makes Carnival our line of choice. Carnival also has a better kids' program than NCL.

I think it is impossible to make a good recommendation to someone about a cruise line without knowing something about their likes/dislikes. My family of 5 won't even consider Carnival or Norwegian, but strangely, love Holland American (a line considered to be for "old people" by many).
The suggestion to read the forums a cruisecritic.com is excellent-- lots of info there. Reading the individual forums for each line may give you a feel for what people similar to yourself have experienced on board.


1. How much is realistic to pay for a cruise that lasts 4 or 5 days?--We recently paid $399 per person (double occupancy) for a 7 night Holland American cruise out of Fort Lauderdale. Putting a 3rd and 4th pax into the same cabin would have been $99 each plus port taxes of $45 per person.

2. Which cruise lines give the most bang for the buck?
This is an impossible question without knowing what you consider to be "bang"-- I value good food, good service, quiet atmosphere and HATE constant attempts at selling me crap. I also hate a "rah- rah" atmosphere that some other people love. What I consider ideal, you may consider boring and lifeless.

3. Which are the best as far as dining and fun things to do? (we're in our 50's, our kids are teens and low 20's). There are constant arguements about which line has the best food-Even within the same line, I have found that food quality varies from ship to ship.

4. Which cruise lines would you stay away from? I wouldn't even consider sailing on Carnival or NCL. I have considered Royal Carribean for trips with the kids (because of the wide range of kid friendly on board activities), but haven't sailed them yet. I currently consider Celebrity, Holland America and Princess to offer the best balance of price/quality for my family.

Can i get information and knowledge about the Cruise tour from Asia to Europe.I have to travel from Singapore to Europe.In Europe i want to travel to Spain,Italy and France.Please give me advices and tips for this.I am grateful to all for helping me in this matter.

there is a forum dedicated to crusing. cruisecritic.com

We love RCCL. The majesty of the seas sails out of miami, and is a great ship. As a previous poster noted, these short cruises are normally on older ships, but the mastesy is great, great captain. You can find some really great prices. We love that it goes from fri to mon (living in south florida) we don't even need to take a day off from work. We love coco cay, their private island and it also stops in Nassau. I think Tampa may be a still a tad cold in February.

Holland America's ship the "Amsterdam" does this route as segments of their world grand tour. Or their smaller Prinsendam sometimes has some unusual itineraries. Or you can look into MV Discovery which also has unique itineraries that might work. Princess is another cruise line that does a few global routes.

See what you can find on both the Holland American and Princess Cruise line websites or "90-day ticker" (aka Cruises to Go) which is a nice interactive website that lets you search any number of cruise lines putting in your desired ports and times to see what might be out there.