If you could choose any cruise for 2013.....

[PrincessAbby'sMom]

We have NEVER been on a cruise - it would be me & my hubby & 12 yr old daughter, and probably my parents.
Do we do a short 4 day cruise?
Do we do a week long cruise - and where? The St islands (St. Marteen, St. John, etc) or Mexico?

We wanted to add in a few days at Universal first as my daughter has never been.

What islands are fun?
What islands have the most options?
What is the funest to do on the ship as a family?

Give me everything... my husband thinks he will be bored & have nothing to do on the ship... help me prove him wrong!

 

[aymekae]

Planning is half the fun!

My DH also thought he would be bored and wouldn't have enough to do. He was WRONG. You can do as much or as little as you want, really. They have tons of activities, entertainment, for the whole family and for kids only and for adults only.

We live in California and weren't interested in the Mexican Riviera cruise, so we flew to Orlando for a Western Caribbean cruise, which does include one port in Mexico (Cozumel). It was amazing! They are not doing a 2013 Mexican Riviera cruise, so that does narrow your options some.

To decide on which ports had the most to offer for us, I looked at the port information on the Cruise Critic website. But I ended up picking Western over Eastern because I didn't want to go to Nassau in the Bahamas, at least night on my first cruise.

As I don't have kids, I can't help with planning for your whole family, but I will say that you will not regret whatever you choose!

 

[DisneyOHFan]

For us, we like the longer cruises vs the 3-4 day. And we prefer the Eastern over the Western, but I am sure you will get a wide variety of opinions. But I agree, planning is half the fun.

 

[zealandsmom]

I saw some great pricing for some 7 nights out of PC in March on the Wonder! around $125 pp per night! Tax included!

 

[tylerandalexsmom]

We did the 4 day Bahamas last October, and absolutely LOVED it! (We tied WDW in too, and since it was our first cruise, we did the four day to make sure everyone wouldn't be sick....) OMG! There is SOOOO much to do, we didn't even scratch the surface on the four day -- definitely going back for the 7 day!

• Kids loved the AquaDuck, of course!
• We did main dining room and show every night (so we could experience it all) and they were all great.
• I want to LIVE on Castaway Cay
• We did dolphin excursion at Nassau

The only thing I would say wasn't perfect was that we didn't have enough time to do everything -- the kids didn't have time to do all the things in the kids club, and the hubby and I only made it to the adult section the first night. (We were so busy, we forgot to even go check out the adult pool area.) So we are definitely going back for a 7 day (minus WDW so we have more cruising time!) so we can experience the things we didn't have time for, and have a little more "down" time. He definitely won't get bored!

 

[PrincessAbby'sMom]

I saw some great pricing for some 7 nights out of PC in March on the Wonder! around $125 pp per night! Tax included!

March of 2013? When I looked it was around $1000 more - figured it was due to spring breaks & such. Will have to look again!

 

[zealandsmom]

Sorry TOTALLY mixed up my info:

$123 pp for april 8 out of MIAMI (forgot that part!!!!) on a 5 day

$123 for march 2 out of Miami on a 5 day carribean

 

[zealandsmom]

$148 pp out of PC for a 7 night caribbean on FANTASY!! March 2nd

*edited to say that I priced this out as a cabin with 4 people.

 

[PrincessAbby'sMom]

Thanks, keep the opinions comeing please

 

[QCTodd]

Well we decided to surprise the kids with a 4 day cruise over Christmas break and will be spending Christmas day aboard the Dream. We (us and another family) are renting an RV, piling the kids in, and off we go! They have no clue and we hope we can keep the secret that long! I think we are going to drive by Disney just to mess with them, is that wrong? Lol

 

[tylerandalexsmom]

Well we decided to surprise the kids with a 4 day cruise over Christmas break and will be spending Christmas day aboard the Dream. We (us and another family) are renting an RV, piling the kids in, and off we go! They have no clue and we hope we can keep the secret that long! I think we are going to drive by Disney just to mess with them, is that wrong? Lol

That is just plain evil! I took our kids on the first ever surprise WDW trip (we go every year or two, and they always know all about it -- we usually start planning the next trip as soon as we leave the current trip!) We did a cruise/WDW combo trip last October, and then I surprised them with a WDW trip over Christmas Break. I kept telling them I had spent more on the bow (which was huge, and surprisingly expensive) than I did on what was in the box (technically true, since it was a WDW shirt I had bought for our previous trip, so technically it was "free" this time), but that it was their MAIN present....they didn't believe me! They didn't believe me when they opened the box either -- I was litterally having to rush them into the car to go, and they still didn't believe it until we hit the FL state line! Enjoy your trip!! (EVIL to drive by WDW to mess with them....Evil I tell you!)