Psych me up for a cruise

In My Humble Opinion
1

My wife and I are going on a cruise in January, and I’m frankly not all that jazzed about it. It’ll be us, our 4 1/2 year old, the in-laws, and her two brothers. The in-laws and brothers have gone on several cruises before, but this will be the first for my wife and I.

I’m not sure what cruise line we’re taking, but we’re leaving from New Orleans on Monday, going to Mexico somewhere, and returning to New Orleans on Saturday.

My wife is all excited about it, but all I can seem to get worked up about is the $$ being spent to float in the ocean. I’m especially annoyed that a 4 year old pays full fare for what I figure is something he won’t even remember in a few years.

Help me get pumped up about this, please.

2

You’ll probably be able to foist your kid on one of your relatives and spend some mommy and daddy time with the wife.

That’s all I got, bud.

3

I hope my wife knows that I am getting on the boat under that assumption. :wink:

4

I know it’s the only thing that could possibly get me on a boat with my husband’s family.

5

I was going to go into something…then I saw you are married! Eh, screw it, I’ll tell you anyway. You’ll have a blast. But really let yourself unwind/get out of your shell. My experience:

Last summer me, and 18 of my relatives went on a Cruise. Because of such an overwhelming ‘family’ aspect of our trip, I didn’t think it would be that wonderful, and besides, my brother (17) and I (24) had to share a cabin, and we fight a lot even as (young) adults. In spite of this, I wound up having a blast. I hooked up with an older woman I met on the second day of the cruise (no really!) danced (badly!) ate and drank 5 years worth of my lifespan off. So even though I was there with my entire extended family, it didn’t stop me from getting lucky, nor did it stop me from having some time alone from them- the ship was big enough and there were enough activities that everyone could enjoy theselves without feeling they had to do everything together ‘as a family’.

Now you’re a married guy so I’m guessing the casual sex part probably won’t be on your itenerary. But that doesn’t mean you won’t have fun. I know the cruise I went on was quite a pleasant surprise, I hope you have as much fun on yours as I did on mine! :smiley:

6

Since you don’t have a bubble to burst, I’ll lay it out for you…

El Hubbo and I have just returned from a 3 night / 4 day cruise Miami to Nassau. We went with work people who also had their children so I can report the good and the bad:

Pros:

Most cruises have an EXCELLENT child-centric list of activities. They have seperate playrooms with very perky and energetic folks who do crafts and plays and such. You drop them off and then try to pick them up…tears were shed when the children had to go. Also, for 10-15 dollar an hour, you can have a sitter in your cabin when the little ones are sleeping so moms and dads can go have nice fancy dinner.

Lots of food. Imagine all the bacon you can eat…aaaggggghhhh says Homer S. There is usually a schedule of where the food is and it is buffet style. I’m a total food snob and I still found things I liked. Sadly, on our cruise you couldn’t “order” food at will which I did not like.

They are big boats…you can get “lost”. We hardly saw the 20+ people we came with–so if you do want to see each other, make plans…like meet us at the Sea Farer lounge at 4.

Cons:

Paying for drinks. Hubs and I spent about 200 on booze. They give you a card/room key/bill to my room thing so you don’t always know how much you are racking up on your charge card!
BIG TIP IF YOU DRINK: If they offer the 20 dollar reusable all you can drink coke/pepsi things get one! You can mix your own cocktails with duty free booze and BAM. Cheapo-drinko!

Do not do scheduled activities. We saw these poor folks that paid 95 bucks for a 45 jetski ride which they found out only after booking/paying that it was a guided tour so you could not see the sites for yourself.
Random advice:

Get all your passport/birth certificates in one place and keep them there. Put them in the safe as soon as you get on the boat-along with your wallet and such.

Bring a disposable camera for the beach. No sense taking digital or expensive gear for the beach.

Bring a big bag with a zipper top–hold all the sunscreen (SPF 50 worked for me, but I still got sun on myself-not good for the Irish gals), gifts etc. Don’t do a backpack–you will get way too hot.

2 bottles of booze and 200 cigarettes each and customs won’t bat an eye…

Spend at least an hour people watching on the boat. It is the only thing to keep you sane.

Bring seasick pills. If there is a storm, you will be glad for it.

Talk to other people. Especially those with kids. Everyone needs a buddy.

Try to laugh when you want to complain. There is nothing worse than 2 people having a bad time and not realizing that someday you will look back on it and laugh.

Look for knockoffs–I got me a Kate Spade bag and Chanel real cheap. Don’t get bullied into buying something. You can do what I did: Talk to person selling…they start off at double the price. Say mean husband will not let you buy it (try to hold down the vomit) get down to the lowest price and walk away. Send Hubby back with 10-20 percent less in his hand and get your goods.

7

If it will make you feel any better about it yourself, I think the 4 1/2 year old will really enjoy it, and will remember it. He’s old enough to know what a ship is. I know I loved new things at that age, and I was thrilled by the “new thing” aspect of it when I went on my cruise…and I was 38!

Cruises are about the most inexpensive kind of vacation there is, short of piling in the car to drive to Grandma’s for a week. The rate a couple pays on a typical cruise is less than they would pay for a hotel room in a destination city, and the ship entertains and feeds you for no extra charge, except for the alcohol. Of course you’re paying three fares, so it’ll be a little bit more, but I think you’ll find it’s worth it. In five years your kid will not only remember it but probably be begging to go again.

What cruise company is it?

8

Hey, I’m going on pretty much the same cruise. Except it’s in late December (over Christmas).

9

Royal Carribean, Grandeur of the Seas.

10

I was on the RC Majesty of the Seas. I did this same cruise when I was 12 with my parents–that would be 18 years ago the new years eve…–And I swear to you, it was exactly the same. The same meals–Turkey Tom on formal night…the same beach that RC owns with the same buildings and some of the same t-shirts with the beaded fringe. :eek:

Be advised of the claustrophobic rooms. You can look at them online. Ours was like 160 square feet.

Oh and be careful in the showers they get rocky and for the love of pete do not try to shave legs or pits in there like I thought I could! :smack:

11

I’ll try to resist the temptation.
:smiley:

12

Your kid will love it. Not only is it a big boat, but they know how to make 5 year olds happy. Its not that hard to do.

If your wife enjoys it , you’ll enjoy it. That isn’t a fact; that is advice as to what is good for you. Comprende? :wink:

13

When they feed you, you eat until you burst!!

Example

14

David Foster Wallace has a hilarious account of going on a cruise in “A supposedly fun thing I’ll never do again”, collected in the book of the same title. :slight_smile:

15

I took a short RC cruise years ago and really enjoyed it. I SO want to go again, but our next trip is slated to be NYC.

If you’ve never been on a ship before, you may find that once the ship hits the open ocean, you notice a gentle swaying that may make you actually a bit queasy at first. But for nearly everyone, the discomfort quickly passes as you get used to it. I think this is what they call “getting your sea legs”.

16

I’ve been on a number of cruises and I enjoy them. My wife and I don’t like the same leisure activities–she wants to lie by the waterand drink, I want to run around and eat junk foods of many lands. It’s very easy to alternate activities on a cruise, or to do separate activities and then get back together later. The food is generally good.

I prefer to travel on NCL. We found Princess, how shall I say it, not targeted to our demographic. NCL rates the difficulty of its shore excursions so that my inlaws can take a motor coach tour of an area while I, for example, hike up to hot lava or onto a glacier. Yes, it costs a little more, but we’ve become proficient at learning what can be arranged without the cruise company and what can’t. In addition, if you’re on a cruise tour, the ship will wait if you’re back late, but won’t if you are on a self-arranged outing.

I enjoy meeting people who have travelled widely and hearing their stories and recommendations. I like travelling to places I could not or would not otherwise get to (such as Zihuataneho, or Kusadasi), seeing local fish and birds, and not having to track all of my belongings at every instant (there’s a safe in most cabins).

Although the ports of call can become flooded with tourists, with a reasonable map you can get to where people actually live. In Puerto Vallarta, for example, the touristy part of town is about 4 blocks deep; inland of that, you are in real PV. Frommer’s publishes a “port of call” series that is very useful.

17

We did a Disney cruise last year and loved it. Didn’t think we really would, but wanted to give it a try. The kids club was the clincher - having family time and just spouse time was wonderful.

You will spend a lot of time eating. The shows on Disney were sentimental drip - but well done sentimental drip - and aren’t nearly so saccarine (as I understand it) on other cruise lines. The commedian was excellent. They will have gambling (Disney doesn’t but I know RCCL does). A spa (which will be extra). Movie theatre playing some halfway decent films. Some of the RCCL ships have rock climbing walls and ice skating rinks.

Check out www.cruisecritic.com

18

Hubby and I took an eleven day cruise to Hawaii in May on Royal Carribean, and I was quite unimpressed with the food. Breakfast was great, but then again, you can’t really mess up breakfast foods.

I thought the lunches and dinners were rather bland and, as my momma would put it, “nothin’ to write home about.” The food was plentiful and there was a wide selection, but nothing was all that great. It was a small step up from “caffeteria food.” What shocked me was that there was no Ranch dressing on the salad bar! Who ever heard of such a thing? I thought it was a staple.

We mostly ate at the buffet, rather than at the resturant simply because of the freedom the former offered. When we did eat at the resturant, the food wasn’t much better-- which makes sense, considering it probably comes from the same kitchen.

One thing that we loved, and I’d strongly recommend, is getting a room with a balcony. It totally made our vacation, and I think it was well worth the extra money. We spent a good deal of our time out there while we were at sea.

I was really surprised and upset by the behavior of some of my fellow passengers. A lot of the people on the cruise were awful. They seemed to think this was their chance to act like a “rich person”, meaning abusing the staff and making imperious demands.

People were surprisingly pushy and rude, and seemed to believe that the rules didn’t apply to them. (And when I say “surprisingly” I mean even moreso than the normal, everyday rudeness one sees. And bitches about in the Pit. :smiley: ) And, unfortunately, there seemed to be a policy of the staff not trying to enforce any rules.

People ate in the dining room in their bathing suits despite signs asking them not to, while the staff stood passively by. They cut in line, took other people’s seats, grabbed food with bare hands at the buffet, made terrible messes seemingly for the fun of it, and generally acted like they owned the ship, but were never challenged. While I understand the staff not wanting conflict or to upset passengers, when people’s behavior starts making others uncomfortable or inconvenienced, it may be time to gently intervene.

For example, disembarking was supposed to be bytickets you picked up the night before which gave departure time. Since we had an early excursion, we got a ticket for one of the earliest tenders. We should have had a few minutes to spare before meeting up with our excursion, but instead, we were twenty minutes late, because people who had later tickets got in line. This meant that instead of being on the third tender like we were supposed to, we ended up being really delayed. If our excursion leader wouldn’t have been kind enough to wait for us, we would have missed out on the trip and lost the money because it wasn’t booked through the cruise line. It’s my opinion that they should have enforced the ticket order because of that reason.

Excellent advice. Hubby and I were unhappy with all of our scheduled activities, with the exception of one. (A bus tour around the island of Hilo.) The scuba diving excursion we booked took us diving in the marina! An excursion billed as “sailing the coast” took us straight out to sea, and then straight back. (All of the coast we saw was as we sailed directly away from the island.) The luau we booked was held at the Hyat Regency. :eek:

19

Just back from a 7 day southern Caribbean cruise on Celebrity’s Constellation.

Long story short…Best…Vacation…Evar.

I traveled alone yet was never lonely. Food, service, atmosphere were out of this world. Met fascinating people on every island we stopped at.

Biggest negative—the embarrasement I felt at the way some of my fellow cruisers behaved.

20

Hubby and I took a cruise for our honeymoon in 2001, and can’t wait to go again next year. My biggest suggestion: don’t take a cruise that’s less than 6 or 7 days. Why? They count funny! On a seven day cruise, we boarded on Sunday afternoon and disembarked the next Sunday at 9:00 AM. A three-day cruise could be Monday: board the ship; Tuesday: sail around the Caribbean in a big circle; Wednesday: get off the ship.

We went on a Carnival cruise from Tampa to Grand Cayman, Cozumel, and New Orleans. The first full day was at sea, which gave us a chance to really relax and settle in, plus wander the ship and look at everything. We loved the food (buffet and sit-down) but skipped the shows - not our style. Instead, we headed to the piano bar after dinner.

Yes, drinks add up - it’s like being in a bar 24 hours a day for 7 days. So, we didn’t drink that much! We’re not big drinkers in the first place, but we got something froo-froo one day (just for the heck of it) and ordered a bottle of wine with dinner twice (they offered to re-cork and save it for the next night). If you’re a soda drinker, get the pre-paid card! We didn’t really care about it, and bought one Coke ($1.50 for a can, plus added 18% gratuity!). Water, tea, juice, and coffee work for me!

On Grand Cayman, we did one of the Swim with the Stingrays excursions. It was so cool! They felt like big, wet portobella (sp?) mushrooms. At Cozumel (which is an island), we actually got off the ship at Playa del Carmen (on the mainland) and took a tour of the Mayan ruins at Tulum. Totally awesome, but I’ll never do it again - six hours in the 104 degree heat is enough for one lifetime. (We did buy our trips throught the cruise line, just to be safe.) We went to a beach on Cozumel and did some shopping as well. We opted out of guided tours of New Orleans. We got a map at a little Tourist Info booth and wandered around by ourselves all day. New Orleans was the only place we bought food, since it was lunchtime and we didn’t want to trek back to the ship. We considered eating at a restaurant, but went back onboard for dinner. Good thing - it was filet mignon night!

We both love food, and were very pleased with our meals. The dining room food was always “fancier” than what was on the buffet - you’re not getting shrimp scampi, lobster tails, or filet cooked to order in a buffet line! We found a much wider, better selection for every meal in the dining room, and we didn’t mind “dressing up” a bit. Every night, we had a choice of 3 or 4 appeziters, two salads, two soups, six entrees and five desserts, IIRC. Entree choices were something like pasta, seafood, chicken, steak, vegetarian, and “exotic” (like quail or lamb). Some nights, they served one dessert to everyone, like a chocolate souffle or baked Alaska (which they can no longer flambe).

Yeah, the rooms are tiny, but unless you’re on your honeymoon, you won’t spend a whole lot of time in there anyway. Why would you??? We are getting a balcony room on our next cruise - and we’re getting an AFT room, at that. The balconies on the aft rooms are 3-4 times bigger than a standard balcony, and don’t cost a dime more. They are very hard to come by!

My husband’s parents cruise once a year - they save up all their money in order to travel. His brother, sister-in-law, and their kids go fairly often as well, since her mom pays for a trip once every couple of years. Their kids have a good time.

In my opinion, if you don’t enjoy a cruise, you must be crazy!!! :smiley: