stay and cruise

[eeyoreangel1]

Just wondering if anybody has any ideas for a cruise and stay, the reason i'm asking is that in 2 years time it will be our 25th wedding anniversary and me and my husband are thinking of doing a week in Orlando and a week on a cruise round the carribean,possibly with royal carribean or carnival cruise line.
has anyone had experience with either of these cruise lines.

 

[~Piglet~]

Have a look over on the DCL thread, there are plenty of Dis'ers who have been on cruises with other cruise lines

 

[wayneg]

We have been on 4 Disney cruises (5th in August) and 2 Royal Carribean

Always sailed from Port Canveral for the convenience, its with 1 hour from the parks but their are other ports and other ships to look at.
Depends what you are looking for but Carnival tend to be more "fun" cruises, we have frineds who didnt like Carnival but they have young children. Said it was all drinking and gambling so maybe more suited to adults.
We like both Disney and Royal Caribbean. Don't think Carnival is for us.
Other options would be HAL, Holland America or NCL, Norwegian, both sail from Florida ports.
If you are not tied to a cruiseline I would look at the offers, for eg I keep looking at Alaska for May half term, HAL we can get 7 nights for about £300 each RCCL is about £500 each. both from Seattle.

For a good online priceguide try cruisedirect.com I used them for our RCCL cruise last August. They send me an email every week with latest offers, some are mega cheap, one this week was on NCL, 7 nights around Carribean 28th March 09 £436pp Same cruise booked on thecruisestore.co.uk would be £662pp even with the poor £ against the $ booking in $'s with a US agent still seems the best option.

Some prices are available on cruisedirect.com for 2010, even the odd one for 2011.
Shout if you need anymore help.

 

[dooledoo]

We did a Carnival Cruise in 2004, personally I would not recommend it.

It was rather brash and felt it was aimed at the "out for a good time" type of customer rather than the customer who maybe wanted a quieter but just as enjoyable cruise. (if you get my drift). That said we had very good service and the other cruisers were a happy bunch (and I mean VERY happy) but if you are looking for a romantic cruise with a intimate feel, I think I would look at another company.

It is our 25th this year as well - where did the time go!!!! However our trip won't be too romantic, we have a 7 year old DD to enjoy the time with us. At least she keeps us young (and tired )

Hope you have a very enjoyable and memorable time whatever you do

 

[CustardTart]

We did a Western Caribbean cruise for our 25th Anniversary and I would heartily recommend it. As we didn't fancy trying another cruise line, we stuck with DCL (I had cruised with them once before) and had a fab time. There's plenty for adults to do and we were treated wonderfully by the staff which made for a very romantic trip... We also renewed our vows onboard which was as magical as it gets...

 

[wayneg]

We did a Western Caribbean cruise for our 25th Anniversary and I would heartily recommend it.

Thats the cruise we are doing for our 20th Anniversary this year. We were supposed to do this itinery before but with hurricanes Grand Caymen was in a bad way so they changed the ports, hopefully we will get to do the scheduled itinery this year.

 

[dc1964]

Having just come back from a 4 day cruise with Carnival i would recommend it, the only comparison i have is Cruising on the Queen Mary 2.
I was slightly critical of some things on Carnival, yes it is definately more of a party ship, it is relaxed, informal and there are lots of fun things going on, i was critical of some noisy americans who were drunk and were doing the whooping and screaming thing that some Amercans like to do, having said that it was on the Lido deck, ( outside by the pool ). Inside the bars are much quieter, there is a Piano bar, nightclub, entertainment bar (Kareoke, live acts etc).
The food is Fantastic on the ship as the service, drink prices are about the same as UK pubs.
I have never been with DCL but i would imagine they are very good as well but would guess they are more family orientated and maybe not suited to a special wedding anniversary, it does depend on your lifestyle i suppose.

Here are a couple of pictures of Carnva Imagination to wet your apetite

The View as you cruise out of Miami

We have always used a company called Vacationstogo.com. a US based company specialising in Cruising. They use all different cruise lines