Need help from cruise experts!

[GEM]

My three best friends and I want to do a girls only cruise in May - no husbands or kids!

We're thinking maybe five nights or so - but that's all we really know. We want a cruise line and itenerary with great food, lots of recreation options, fun shore excursions, etc. We aren't really into the bar/casino/dancing scene, so that's not so important. My husband and I did a Carnival Cruise (Fantasy) last Christmas, and we really weren't that impressed.

Any suggestions for a great cruise line for four 30 something women out for some fun in the sun? Oh, and where do we book to get the best deal??

 

[DawnCt1]

If you are considering five nights, make the leap and go to 7. The ships are better, the ports are more varied and the time will whizz by. I would definately consider Celebrity Cruise Lines for what you are looking for. We like Royal Carribean a LOT but we LOVE Celebrity. They are actually owned by the same company but Celebrity is a notch up. The Millineum Class ships are gorgeous. The food is wonderful and the service is great. T

 

[Toby'sFriend]

I'm certainly not a cruise expert because I've only just booked my first cruise for next spring.

But -- I think that since you are making this a trip with no kids, you might want to concentrate on one of the Cruise LInes that doesn't cater so much to families. Carnival and Royal Pacific are really known for the family programs so I maybe they wouldn't be that good of a fit for your plans this trip.


Maybe Princess or Celebrity?
You might want to check out http://www.cruisecritic.com

 

[Chris2597]

Since you live in Ark. have you thought about the cruise ships that sail out of Houston and Galveston Tx. My dd and her dh went on the Royal Carib cruise out of Galveston and loved it....There are also other lines that offer less than 7 days. There are some great cruise deals out there for the off season....We have been looking for one but got the news that dd is pregnant so we have to make a trip to her house for the birth....

 

[Chattyaholic]

DH and I have taken 2 Disney Magic cruises (Eastern & Western Caribbean), 1 4-night Disney Wonder cruise, and a 4-night Carnival Fantasy cruise (no kids with us on any of them, they're grown and on their own) and we loved them all. Since you're on the DIS boards, you must enjoy Disney, right? So why not consider a Disney cruise? DCL isn't just for families, DH and I had a great time. The ships are beautiful, super clean, food is wonderful, crew is fantastic, staterooms (we had balcony cabins) are great, entertainment was great, shore excursions were wonderful and so many to choose from. And the "adult only" areas are a big plus. Disney does a great job of separating adults from children. I'm really not "into" other people's children much, and we really were not bothered at all by children on the Disney cruises.

Thoroughly enjoyed our Carnival Fantasy cruise too, what didn't you like about your cruise?

We're booked on Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas and looking forward to experiencing that cruise line as well, and would love to take a Princess and Celebrity cruise eventually too.

What I would suggest, is get on the web sites of all the cruise lines and request one of their brochures. Then look them all over and see what you think. Also, the cruise critic web site has message boards for all the lines, you can learn a lot over there about all the different lines/ships.

Have fun choosing, and have fun on your all girls cruise!!

 

[minniecarousel]

Definitely check out cruise critic! They have info regarding cruises the way the have Disney info here.

My sister and the girls we grew up with were thinking of taking a cruise at some point (probably going out of Southern California). But that's as far as we got - thinking about it!

 

[ZebraStripes]

I third Cruise Critic. I've learned so much there. We have been on 3 Disney, 1 Princess and have a Carnival upcoming. I like the newer, larger ships because they offer so many different things. I loved Skywalkers on Princess even though I'm not into dancing. I loved Disney because, well, its Disney. We chose Carnival because of itinerary. I like a port intensive cruise as opposed to sea days. PM me if you want my TA's name. She is internet based and has always given me great rates and great service.

 

[disneymom3]

Another Cruise Critic fan here!

I have been on Royal Caribbean, Princess, Norwegian and DCL as well as another one that used to be something like Chandris and from what I have heard, Celebrity took it over. My first thought right off was Royal Carribbean. Loved them!! Liked Norwegian a lot, but several of their ships are older with the smaller staterooms. Princess was BORING!! There was literally nothing planned between about 5:00 and the second dinner seating so if you were at the late seating, there was nothing to do other than hang in one of the lounges or by the pool. Disney was a fun trip but the whole time DH and I were glad we were not the ones shelling out the big bucks because there is no way they were any better than any other cruise we have been on. In fact, some things were rather lacking.

 

[Wishing on a star]

When I think of you guys as relatively young Thirty-Somethings, the first thing that came to mind was Royal Caribbean... Then maybe Carnival...

These would probably be the more 'active' and 'fun' cruise lines. My InLaws swear by Princess Cruises... but then, they are nearly 70!!!

I know that at sites like Travelocity, you can put in your parameters, like a certain destination, or a certain departure port (ie. Port Canaveral) or a certain number of days, like (2-4) (5-7) (8-10) etc... and it will show you some options.

If you are looking for a 3-5 night cruise, this might limit you a little bit... Most cruises any more are 7 niters or more. And, the short length of time limits your destination port(s) by how far the ships can travel in that time frame. So, shorter cruises from FL would be Bahamas, or maybe Mexico/Cancun. I am not sure about the departures from TX... I am thinking that they all would hit Mexico/Cancun.

Also, I think that the shorter cruise length means an older ship. I know that all the short Bahamas cruises, (other than Disney) were on the lines older ships. This may have changed??? But, be aware that this is probably the case.

Have fun planning!!!

 

[simba928]

My whole family (16 people ages from 2 to 83, they were cousins, aunts, uncle, grandparents) went on Royal Carribean in June. We all loved it! We were on Voyager of the Seas, which is now going out of Spain. When we went (it was the second to last trip before going to Spain), it went out of Newark, I believe, and went down to Bermuda. That ship was beautiful and there were a lot of things to do. Have a great trip and have fun planning!!

 

[Kteacher]

I can only echo going over to cruisecritic.com for info . I've taken a couple " girls only " cruises on Royal Caribbean's Sovereign of the Seas. They offer a 4 nighter out of Port Canaveral to Nassau and Coco Cay with one day at Sea. If you want a port intensive itinerary with lots of shore excursions do a 7 night Southern Caribbean route that has just one at sea day. I've been really happy with Royal Caribbean- I've sailed on their ships many times. Have fun planning

 

[christineann]

I love Royal Caribbean. There is a good mix of all ages, and the service, ships, food, entertainment, etc. are great. I have booked two cruises directly with Royal Caribbean, and I found that I got my cruises for at least $50 less each person than I could get on the internet. I got the stateroom I wanted and got an email confirmation within minutes.

Cruisecritic.com is a GREAT source of information. You are going to have a great time! If you go to Grand Cayman, definitely go to the stingray sandbar - an unbelievable experience!

 

[justhat]

We've been on Disney, Royal Caribbean, Princess, and Celebrity and by far the best cruises we've taken were on Celebrity. The food, rooms, service, activities all were spectacular. Princess was the worst in our opinion. The food was not very good at all-1 night they had 'German' night and I promise you all they served was hot dogs! Varieties of hot dogs, all sizes, but hot dogs nonetheless. Service was okay, but they didn't go out of their way for you, but there were 2600 people on the ship so maybe that was part of the problem. I loved the Disney boat but wouldn't do it without my daughter cause it's way family oriented. Royal Caribbean wasn't bad at all, and they were very nice, but the ship was an older one so that might be affecting my rating of them. Celebrity though had a smaller amount of people than Princess, but more activities. Food was always great in the main dining room, and the specialty restaurant was excellent. The staff was very accomodating of any requests. And this should be the clincher, I was 7 weeks pregnant with 24 hr/day morning sickness on our last Celebrity cruise and I still had a phenomenal time!