Cruise Advice please!
 

Planning next year's holiday already, even though we haven't been on this years yet :D

We've 2 weeks mid-September '07 & were hoping to fly to from Dublin/London to Florida (airport not important), do the Orlando/Disney thing & then head off on a 5/6/7 night cruise.

We don't want heaps of screaming kids or loads of OAP's - we're in our mid-30's & just want a decent ship we can relax & have a good time on. We don't need our hands held at every moment of the day & are quite happy to explore the ports independently

All advice welcome!

You'll be traveling after most kids are back to school, so that'll skew the age ranges higher on any line.

That said, different cruise lines have different target markets. Some, like Carnival, will announce every tiny event being held. Others, like Holland America and Celebrity, tend to only use their PA systems if one needs to get to the lifeboats. :) I'd suggest looking at those two while avoiding Carnival and Royal Carribean, amongst the major lines. You may also want to look into something small, like Windstar, Oceana, or Seadream (although there is a price to be paid for their more adult lifestyle).

The only other suggestion I'll make without further information is to decide which is more important to you: the ship or the ports. Deciding that can aid filtering the list further.

Help these brief suggestions are of some help!

Look at a 10 day cruise and you will have almost no children on board.
Enjoy your cruise.
Bob

Don't forget to look at the different departing ports. Holland America does trips out of Tampa and you can sometimes get better deals than from the Miami/Ft Lauderdale area.

I just booked our New Years cruise at www.cruise411.com
They beat everybody else by over $100 a person.

Hubby and I are considering our first cruise. I've looked at this site, which I found helpful:
http://www.cruisedirectonline.com/70bestcruiseships.htm

as well as the cdc site which tells you the score for health inspections:
http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/desc/aboutvsp.htm

One piece of advice I received from a couple who fit your description (mid-30s, no children) is to get a cabin with a balcony if at all possible. Staterooms are notoriously small and theirs was so small it was uncomfortable for two people to hang out in- but there is nowhere else on board for a couple to be alone. :(

Check out www.cruisecritic.com for a wealth of information on cruises. I think of it as the FlyerTalk for cruises.

On the negative side --although we love cruising and have 3 more planned in the next 18 months (all with Celebrity) -- don't forget that mid-September is definitely still hurricane season for most of the cruise ports in Florida.

On the positive side, because of the hurricanes, you can get fantastic prices on caribbean cruises for Sept. and Oct.! If you find a cruise or cruises that you really like, go to www.cruisecompete.com and let the agents compete for your business.

I would strongly suggest Celebrity Cruises
 

I have been on many cruise lines and found that the best quality/price was Celebrity. They have the nicest ships and tend to be more adult-oriented. On our last cruise, there was a Cirque du Soleil show! It was a very nice surprise... The Captain told us they have a partnership with the Cirque du Soleil for 3 of their ship... I was on the Constellation and it was like a dream... If you can make sure to book a cabin with a balcony, it really makes a difference...

Enjoy!

There are plenty of cheap cruises out of....
 

Hi

You will have a wonderful time.
There are plenty of cruise lines to choose from with little amount of kids.

1. HAL
2. Celebrity
3. MSC
4. Costa

And yes, a 10 days cruise will reduce the amount of possible kids.
You should find offers for $100/day/person on above cruise lines
for a balcony cabin.
You may even find a suite for $130.00/day/person if you are lucky.
But Balcony is a MUST !
Breakfast on balcony beats breakfast in bed .......

Check the newer ships since they have way more balconies thus prices are lower:

HAL: Zuiderdam/Westerdam/Nordam (dont know which one is located in FL in Sept.07)

MSC: Lirica/Opera (dont know which one is located in FL in Sept.07)

Costa: Mediteranea/Atlantica/Magica (dont know which one is located in FL in Sept.07)

Enjoy

Don't write off Disney cruises because of a concern over the number of kids. Due to their level of service and pampering, many adults cruise with them by themselves. Many areas of the ship are adults-only, including a pool, restaurant, and nightclub. Plus, it seems that combining a Disney cruise with a Disney World vacation is one of the few bargains out there for Disney trips.

Yes, but no casinos.

Disney Cruises....
 

yes, thats right - no casino.

Thats not a problem for me, but the cruise fares are double than other lines.
You won't find a Disney cruise for 7 days less than $1000.......and up

justmy2cents

Tyring to reason with hurricane season
 

I think the first thing you have to keep in mind is indeed it is hurricane season. Not to scare you off, but one of those storms can impact your airport arrival/departure, cruise arrival/departure, and/or itinerary. My last cruise was a short one, 4 nights, but it was right between hurricanes Frances (which left the area the day before we sailed) and Ivan in 2004. Getting into MIA was 'interesting' although getting back home was as scheduled. AA was very accomodating in rebooking us (if there is a major weather event, airlines should allow you to reschedule w/o penalties), although we ended up having up flying into New York the nite before and spending the nite instead of a direct flite from CLE. Our itinerary was changed because of storm damage at the destinations - some people REALLY got upset over that - but all in all we had a wonderful time on Royal Caribbean's 'Majesty of the Seas'.

Without getting too wordy here, what I would suggest doing is:
- decide where you want to go: Southern Caribbean (e.g. St. Thomas, etc.) or Western Caribbean (e.g. Cozumel, Grand Cayman, etc.) and how long a cruise you want to enjoy.
- where do you might want to depart: Port Canaveral is closest to Orlando, but MIA, FFL, TPA are all somewhat close.
- do a little research: as stated before, www.cruisecritic.com is a great source for cruise info - ship/cruise reviews, tips, excursion tips, etc.
- think balcony, balcony, balcony. Inside staterooms just won't do anymore after experiencing breakfast outside on your own balcony.
- once you get on the cruise, do whatever you want. You can do what you want to do, as little or as much as you wish. And have fun :D

If you have anything specific I can try and answer, let me know.

Frank

You also can't do a Disney Land/Sea combo for longer than four nights at sea and frankly, there is not a good value out on Disney at this time.

Go with a seven night cruise. The ships tend to be a bit bigger and better. Also, Princess and Holland America have some good deals out of Florida that time.

This may not help you unless your dates are flexible, but we did the Blues Cruise this year and it was huge fun. Very few kids, first rate entertainment, and the boat and food were good too. It's more costly than a regular cruise, and it tends to sell out about a year in advance.

www.bluescruise.com