I have been visiting flyertalk for months now and just this morning realized there was a cruise site! How wonderful! I am now in the early stages of planning our 5th cruise, but have a few questions that hopefully some of you can help me with. Our past four cruises have all been on Carnival -- mostly because they always had the best value for a family. But, this June we would really like to try another cruiseline, and I am leaning toward Royal Caribbean. Do any of you have advice on Royal Caribbean you would like to share? Also, in the past I have done our bookings on Cruise.com and icruise.com. Are there better bargain sites out there that I am missing? We have a pretty good idea of where we want to go this time, but are going to be restricted on dates. Any helpful tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I have sailed both Carnival and Royal Caribbean as well as NCL. I found CCL and RCCL offer a very similar product. I would recommend both of them over NCL.

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Don't take life too seriously, afterall, you won't get out alive.

I'm writing this from the Voyager of the Seas. It, and its sisters, are arguably the nicest ships afloat. Food is a notch better than Carnival but not as good as Princess. Avoid the older smaller RCCL ships.

QL

Mrs. Swede and I took our first ever cruise on RCCL's Radiance of the Seas a few weeks ago. It's a beautiful ship, and we had a great time; however, the food was somewhat disappointing (but good). Sadly, we pretty much had horrible weather the whole week; which culminated in the ship not being able to anchor in Grand Cayman.

Check out this thread for good cruise websites. Visiting CruiseCritic.com is also highly recommended.

Maybe it's just my bad luck but I think my hit rate with Grand Cayman is about 50%. It's always the morning I wake up and ask myself - just how much is the ship moving about today?

This is all great information -- thanks so much! I have bookmarked the sites and have my eye on a RCCL cruise leaving out of Baltimore in June. I sure hope all the dates work out -- Thank you everyone!

If you can find a bargain rate, try Crystal Cruise lines. They often have special prices. They are very high quality, much less crowded and have more choices of where to travel. The food is really nice as is the service.

My husband and I have completed our 7th cruise on Holland America. These ships are awsome!! You can get great deals on their web site. We met 2 other couples on our Alaska cruise in Sept. 2002 and we now crusie together 2x a year. We are trying for the first time a Transatlantic cruise in Sept on the brand new RCL Jewal of the Sea. We thought we would try another line this 1 time. Once you cruise you will love it on the right line.
Enjoy

RCCL all the way. Their suites are amazing, the new ships of Radiance and Voyager class awesome. So much to do on the ship and at the ports of call. Great experience every time.

A bad day on a cruise ship is far better than a good day at work

I am happy to hear the quote from above and forgive me for not using the "" things "food not as good as the Princess". We are planning our first big cruise that is on a big ship. We plan on going to Europe on Princess in June. It is one way I have found to beat the high euro prices. We will be flying on FF tickets so it is quite economical. Any comments about cruising the Mediterrean or Princess line are appreciated.

We had a lovely time cruising the Mediterranean on the Golden Princess, sister ship to the Grand. It's a bit frustrating to try to see Florence in a day but the ship is lovely. Don't expect a gourmet restaurant but the food should be tasty and diverse. Always ask the waiter for recommendations: he knows what is good each night.

Bon voyage!

QL

Not saying it's the best, but Carnival definately gives you the most bang-4-your-buck. For good deals, go to crucon.com and get on their mailing list.

I really like Carnival too! The "return cruisers" cocktail party is my favorite

...I wanted to post a link to a site where I usually book my cruises. I find that they usually beat every price: http://www.cruiseleaders.net

Hope that helps,
Chris

when do those $200 deals for mexico usually show up?

There's always some bargains, depending on your flexibility. I've found that the best ones show up for cruises in October and the shoulder period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. In terms of when you will be able to find them, it's hit or miss. My wife and I use vacationstogo.com, which lets you sort by location, company, etc. It's a pretty good indication of what's available.

Mike