Why do you cruise?

[WIFamily]

We cruise because there are so many options for the family - me, my wife, and our four boys. We all like Disney, I and my wife hate crowds and lines, so the parks are not very appealing to us. The cruise ships can have crowded areas and lines at times, but there are quiet places and relaxing places, and we always get a veranda cabin so we a guaranteed a quiet spot whenever we want one. The shipboard activities, the clubs, the "all-inclusive" parts all help with the relaxation. While I like visiting new locations, I also like staying on-board at port time as the ship is so much quieter.

As others have said, the ability to unplug - if desired - is a big plus for me too. I'm an IT guy and at various times of my life have been on-call rotations both long term, and highly stressful. I like unplugging so much that I have done three trips to the "Boundary Waters Canoe Area" on the Minnesota / Canadian border. Each has been 6 nights of canoeing, hiking, and tenting - where there are no roads, no power, no motors, no cars, no "people". It's the ultimate wilderness area in the continental states.

For me, and I think for my wife, we love the ocean - I've always been drawn to it. Funny having been born and raised in Wisconsin My bucket list cruise is my wife and I on a Windjammer type cruise. I think cruising under wind power on a smaller ship would be perfect.

 

[bibbidibobbidibecky]

It's a good question, really. Like the OP, I never would have considered cruising if Disney didn't have a ship, but when my kids were much younger, we decided to give it a try since we loved WDW so much. We did a four-day Bahama and fell in love! However, we were not impressed with Nassau. Then, a few years later, we wanted to take the kids to Europe and DCL was doing the Med again (2011), with a military discount, so we decided it was a perfect way for us to give the kids a taste of Europe. We travel with my parents, who are in their 70s, and three young kids--3, 6 and 7 at the time--and we knew Disney would take care of our needs and keep everyone happy. My parents, husband and I had all been to Europe many times before then, and getting from place to place is always the most stressful. Letting Disney do that part for us was genius! It made international travel practically stress-free for us. So I guess we cruise because it's easier, we like the unique itineraries to see new things, and frankly after being in a foreign country all day, it is always nice (albeit a little spoiling) to come back to DCL in the evenings! We love how relaxed we are on the cruise and the kids love being able to swim, play in the clubs, get ice cream, etc. all while traveling to a new country.

Last year (June 2014) we did over two weeks in Europe (Iceland, England, France) before the Greek Isles cruise out of Venice. I cannot tell you how much I looked forward to that ship after doing it all on our own leading up to it. And my kids were older, although so were my parents

 

[NancyIL]

My first cruise was a 7-night eastern Caribbean on Holland America in 2004 with my elderly mother - who loved to cruise. It wasn't a great cruise, but I was anxious to book another cruise when I got home - just not on HAL or with my mother!

Fast forward to today - as my husband and I are in Canada for a 14-night repositioning cruise on Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas from Quebec City to Fort Lauderdale. It will be my 28th cruise on 5 cruise lines (HAL, RCI, Princess, DCL, and Celebrity). My non-Disney cruises were chosen for their itineraries and/or great prices. My 6 Disney cruises were booked because I specifically wanted to sail with DCL. Three of them were group cruises with 3 different Disney fan sites. The others were my first DCL cruise on the Wonder - also with my mother (a mistake that shouldn't have been repeated!), plus 2 Transatlantic cruises.

 

[ChicosWife]

Despite the complaining about the prices I find it to be the best value for my family. I have two preteen boys with metabolisms I wish I had. They eat constantly and stay skinny. It's only going to get worse as they enter the later teen years. I love the all inclusiveness of a cruise. I love the fact that I pay it off months in advance and then I'm pretty much done. It's so easy to budget a cruise vacation when you know the cost of everything upfront.

That is a good point. This was a feature that made it possible for us to even go!

 

[darkwing818]

We actually started cruising before trying DCL. DW cruised to Alaska on HAL before we were married & loved it & really thought we should try cruising as a family. Then I won a recognition trip at work; turned out it was it was a 4 day RCCL cruise out of Miami. Next we did a 7 day Celebrity Birthday cruise with 2 other couples out of Fort Lauderdale. Turned out we really enjoyed cruising. But it wasn't until DCL started to accept DVC points that we cruised with Disney (our DDs were 11 & 9). We did our first 4 cruises (3; 7-day & 1; 4-day) on DVC points. Needless to say we were hooked & since then, we have completed 11 more so far, some with the girls, some with just DW & I. Cheers

 

[party-of-five]

OK, setting good expectations here...they *will* do that. They don't ALWAYS do that. They haven't for us and thank goodness b/c that would irritate me. (and confuse us because what is there to cut with mac&cheese?) They did for my cousin's kids. Our server did something with the tablemate-mom's food one night, in a "you take care of your kids, I'll take care of you" way (she had something in a shell? something complicated). She appreciated it in a way I would not (but being vegetarian means never eating out of a shell LOL)

But they don't *always* do it.

LOL... They did for us. But it totally annoyed my 9 year old because HE wanted to cut his own meat. He politely told the server that he could cut his own meat. No one was going to deny him an opportunity to use a knife!

 

[party-of-five]

We just took our first cruise last month. The 4 night was much too short. We loved the escape from the everyday. It was nice to just focus on our family. We quickly realized how much we enjoyed the all inclusive food, whenever you want it food, with four kids - 3 being teen or preteen. We spent a few days in Orlando following our trip and we really missed just being able to call room service or send the kids to deck 11 for food because someone was inevitably hungry.

 

[bumbershoot]

But it totally annoyed my 9 year old because HE wanted to cut his own meat. He politely told the server that he could cut his own meat. No one was going to deny him an opportunity to use a knife!

Love it!