DH and I took our first cruise to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary and we were hooked.
I am planning on booking our 6th cruise tomorrow, for January 2008.
There are so many things we love about cruising. We have done 4-night and 7-night cruises and have enjoyed each of them immensely.
Someone said Carnival gets a bad reputation because of it's party atmosphere and the 3-4 day cruises. DH and I took a 4-night Carnival Fantasy cruise and loved it. We didn't see any obnoxious drunks, and we did stay up late most nights for the entertainment. It probably just depends on the type of cruisers that are going at that particular time. When it's spring break there might be more obnoxious partying going on with the college kids, I don't know. We always go in January. We only paid $299 each so it was very cheap, but we had so much fun on that cruise. It was the only cruise we've had an inside cabin though. For week-long cruises I prefer a balcony. We enjoy having our morning coffee on the balcony before starting our day, and we like leaving the balcony door open at night so we can hear the sounds of the ocean.
We have enjoyed 99% of the food on the cruises we've taken. Occasionally there is something we might not especially care for, but that happens in regular restaurants too. You can have as much food as you want on a cruise. There is always food available at different venues. And at dinner, if you don't like something, you can order something else. Room service is included too (we tip the person bringing it a couple of dollars).
There are always activities going on during sea days, so if a person is bored it's of their own choosing to be so. DH and I love spending a couple hours sunning on the deck just above the pool, most ships have a deck that you can walk all the way around on so that's good exercise to burn off some of those calories and we enjoy that, also just sitting on our balcony having some quiet time to read, or take an afternoon nap so we can stay awake to enjoy the night life.
There are shows to see, there's dancing to do, movies to watch, different bars to visit. Our last cruise was on the
Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas and DH went ice skating (the ice show was awesome!), there was miniature golf, a rock climbing wall and new ships are introducing more and more activities (surfing on the Flow Rider, a boxing ring, bowling alley, etc.), shopping to do, people watching, bingo, the list goes on and on.
Then there are the excursions when you're in port. So many to choose from!
On our Mariner cruise we zip lined in Jamaica, the most awesome excursion we've ever done, had lunch at Margaritaville. On other excursions we've swam with/fed stingrays that were so huge and soft just like velvet, taken island tours, etc. It's always hard to decide what excursions we want to do, there are so many that sound fun.
On a ship you unpack once, for the duration of your stay, I love that!!
And there's usually no cell phone service so DH's phone isn't ringing constantly like it would be on a land-based vacation, so to me that's another big plus for cruising!
I could go on and on. Give cruising a try, you'll never know if you like it or not unless you go on one. And so many of them are reasonably priced. We've done Disney and they were the most expensive. The 4-night Carnival was only $299/person, and the one I'm planning on booking tomorrow is the Carnival Glory (launched in 2003) for $769/person for a 7-night cruise with balcony. That's the lowest I've ever seen.
Eventually we want to do a Hawaiian cruise, and an Alaskan one as well, and I'd love to do a Mediterranean one, maybe Australia....so many choices!!
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