Why do people take cruise ship vacations over and over again?

In My Humble Opinion
121

I’ve never been on a ship in a storm, and have never come anywhere near being sick, though I have been on small fishing boats.
Where you are matters. On the QE2 in the Atlantic the worst I felt was at a party in the Engineer’s room way up on top of the ship. Lower down things are more stable. That was also almost 40 years ago, and technology has improved since.

I have seen someone with big problems during swells - a juggler doing his act as the boat was moving from side to side. That took guts!

122

Never taken a cruise, but I have a friend who’s a juggler/comedian, who often does cruise trips. Says the worst gig he ever had was in one during bad swells, when everything was swaying, so all his throws were coming out wonky and he kept dropping stuff, then a kid started being seasick, which set someone else off… in the end about 10 people in the crowd threw up during the act.

His descriptions have put me off the concept somewhat, though I know the good trips make bad stories, so I don’t hear about them.

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I am looking for a west coast cruise that starts and finishes in the U.S., and is not just a party cruise to Mexico.

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Seattle to Alaska and back?

125

Seattle round trip on Norwegian (NCL) to Alaska with a stop in Victoria, BC.

Long Beach round trip to Ensenada (might be a party boat, I don’t know).

Honolulu round trip.

126

That’s a case where not many people minded him dropping stuff and even simple completed bits looked pretty good. I hope he got a lot of applause from those not barfing.

127

For those who have cruised, which lines do you prefer. Carnival didn’t get much love in the last incarnation of this thread. I’ve never taken them. Princess was pretty good to Alaska. I took NCL around the Mediterranean and Baltic (no, I was not playing Monopoly) and felt nickled and dimed a lot. The Canal Cruise was Holland America and I liked them a lot.

For instance, I like doing the kitchen tour. It was free on Princess and Holland America, but NCL charged which is quite obnoxious.

128

I’m fond of Celebrity. As a more specialized line, I enjoyed Hurtigruten very much. Never been on Carnival or Disney. Costa was fine but after one of their captains killed a bunch of people by crashing the ship while grandstanding, we took them off our list.

129

We’ve been on five Royal Caribbean cruises and two Celebrity - they’re sister companies so we’re kinda locked into the ‘frequent cruiser’ club (Crown and Anchor? something like that.) We like the RCCL brands, Celebrity is a little nicer than RC, but RC’s got some really cool big ships. Personally, I’ve never head of anything good about Carnival, hearsay, I admit, but it kept us away from ever trying them. We pick them based on the ships, if the ship looks really cool and fun, then we look to where they cruise. Both had provided us great experiences on some very cool ships that we found to be very good values.

One of my good friend’s just took an Oceania cruise - loved it, but it’s a higher price point than the RCCL brands. My sister, her husband and my Mom are serious cruise veterans, sis and BIL went on a Disney cruise spree for about 10 years, loved every one, but again, Disney is a higher price point with fewer discount opportunities. They’ve all done the Princess to Alaska, and to Hawaii, loved those as well. They did a NCL cruise through the Panama canal - raved about it. Mom’s done a couple of Viking River cruises and also loved it - those do put a dent in the bank account, I think the last one she did was in the $8K range, but you get what you pay for.

I guess for us, the RCCL brands fit our desires - cool ships, great service, lots of destinations, and plenty of discount opportunities. Food can be so-so, I’ve had good and bad, but again, there are so many options, you’ll find something you like…If you are willing to shop around and be flexible in your travel plans, cruises can be very reasonable, we love checking into one room and done, all food included, and even with the drink package and tips, it can be very reasonable.

We took a cruise for our honeymoon 26+ years ago, and never thought too much about it until about 10 years ago, my sister told me about the discount sites, swore by them. I started looking and realized, that for less than a room on a beach in FL, we could go on a cruise…and not many hotels include food…since then, we’ve done 6 more and I’m thinking we go again next year…

130

RCCL’s the same - they will nickel and dime you on the tours and excursions. We’ve done a couple of booze cruise/sightseeing things that were fun, we did a wine tasting that was kind of a rip-off, we’ve gone to the ruins in Cozumel, but when we spent the day at the beach, we just got a taxi…last time, I did the engineering tour on the Indy (wife had no desire), it was REALLY REALLY cool, but do they get you for every little thing…some sun, some sights, my Kindle, a towel and a pool is just about all I need…

131

I’ve taken two cruises. In both cases It was a break in the middle of a longer trip. The first one was a Mediterranean cruise on MSC. We flew to Florence, spent three days there, trained to Venice, and spent three days there before getting on the ship. On the way back we flew through Barcelona, but only had one day there (really more like 36 hours) so didn’t see much.

The second cruise was the Alaskan thing on Princess. We flew to Vancouver BC, spent three days there before getting on the ship, cruised to Anchorage where we picked up a rental car and spent three or four days driving around Alaska before flying home.

It’s kind of a relaxing interlude in the middle of a longer trip. I’ve never done a Caribbean cruise, although if becomes possible for me to take one that stops in Cuba I might be tempted.

132

Several lines now stop in Cuba.

Trip Advisor and Cruise Critic are good sources of information about shore excursions. There are also some “port of call” travel books that can help. It’s nice to know why someone did or didn’t like an excursion. “No narration on the whale-spotting catamaran,” “They said ‘salmon bake’ but it was fish sticks,” “We got there and my kid was too short for the zipline” are all good to know. “The beer choice was limited to 5 brands,” “I received no compensation when I got sand in my eyes from the wind,” and “enough about the eagles!” (at an eagle preserve) are reminders that some people aren’t very capable.

133

Since we live in Maryland, we’ve done RCCL out of Baltimore the most. Nickle-and-diming is very accurate to describe them. Their soda package is something like $8.50/day and on our last cruise, they kept running out of ice in the machines. I think their ship tour runs something like $150 and mostly it’s the kitchen, the laundry and the bridge. No thanks.

I did a transatlantic Princess cruise, and I like the line a lot. I’d sail with them again in a heartbeat, but it would require travel to the embarkation point. They’re a Carnival company, but the higher end of the line.

Carnival goes out of Baltimore, and I wouldn’t sail with them if you paid me. I hear more bad stuff about them than pretty much any other line. Friends of my mom’s had some stuff stolen on one of the Carnival ship on their last cruise. And then there’s the poop ship from a few years back… no thanks.

We’re sailing Holland America in November - they’re also part of the Carnival family, but I hear good things about that line. We shall see. And the fact that they’ll let us bring sodas aboard is a winner. Otherwise, we’d both be required to buy the soda package and the thought of spending almost $20/day when I have one soda in the morning… nope. I can go without, but my husband is hooked! :eek:

134

The Canal Cruise?
As I said, they were pretty good. My only negative on the survey was the BB King Blues Club. The band was good - we went to their meet and greet at the beginning of the cruise - but they seemed to be allergic to playing blues. Especially BB King blues. We were lucky enough to get to see him, so this kind of annoyed me. Motown is fine, but a few blues songs would be nice. About the only one they did play was a cover of a song by the Doors. Good, but I was expecting more.
I’m curious if they put more blues in the set.

Their drinks are good though.

135

A person can have a soda on shore. Much cheaper.

136

Ah, but a person isn’t necessarily on shore first thing in the morning, or on at-sea days, and if a person drinks soda like others drink coffee, well…

Don’t look for logic. We all have our quirks. This is his.

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I’ve become acquainted with a few hard-line cruisers. One guy in particular spends 80% of his time (he’s retired) on cruises. His agent keeps a look-out for deals, so a typical cruise for him is around $300 for a 7-day cruise. He doesn’t buy any liquor…he just attends all the receptions and functions available to him as a 100+ passenger and drinks for free most days. It’s really fascinating to hear his stories. He’s been on some of the cruise ships 20+ times. He has one of those hats with pins from all the ships and all of his silver, gold, and platinum pins on it. It’s weird to see how many crew members know him personally and talk with him.

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“Worst sex I’ve ever had”

Sounds like a good title for a new thread :slight_smile:

For $164,000 a year, 86-year-old Florida widow Lee Wachtstetter gets to see the world while living in the lap of luxury.

Wachtstetter used to love cruising with her husband and after he died, she promised him she would keep up with the tradition. She decided to sell her Fort Lauderdale home and take up residency on the Crystal Serenity, where she’s lived full time for the past seven years,

139

Four cruises, three NCL and one Carnival. Any big line us going to have great and horrible stories. For food allergies, Carnival was much better that NCL, assigning a person to coordinate appropriate meals.

I look at the cruise as a sampler. If you like to explore the local night life on vacation, a cruise is not for you as you frequently will have to be back on board by late afternoon.

140

I had a friend from work years and years ago who took every vacation as a cruise. She and her mom took so many, they got such good deals on subsequent ones that they couldn’t pass them up. I thought she took Viking cruises, but I don’t see them mentioned here. The only place I’ve seen Viking mentioned recently is their river cruises.

I’d love to do the Danube cruise. Most other cruises just don’t sound that interesting to me. The entertainment seems so cheesy, and the food seems so pedestrian – you just get a lot of it.