Cheryl and I went on our first cruise recently. It was the Giving Rocket cruise with my good friend Casey Graham. We went because we love Casey, we needed a break and we always wanted to try a cruise. It was a Royal Caribbean cruise and sailed to the Bahamas and a private island.
I’ve heard people say they could never try a cruise. Some of the same people say they would never try a bed & breakfast. (I wrote about why you should HERE.)
After my first cruise, here are things I liked and things I didn’t…
Things I like:
Eating – I got 2 entrees every night…just because I could.
Forced downtime – I’m almost never still. It’s not in my nature to truly relax. (I do take a Sabbath, but my idea of “resting” is to do something I want to do…such as something productive. 🙂 )
Price – You can get a nice vacation for a reasonable amount of money. There are great deals on a cruise. (This is in spite one of my things I didn’t like.)
Things I don’t:
Limited access to Internet – Can we not speed up satellite connections?
Motion sickness – I understand that our first night was unusually rough at sea. Our ship had to alter it’s schedule to accommodate the weather. I was sick. After the first night, however, I was fine.
The “extras” – I’d rather a cruise simply tell you how much the price is, include everything in it, and know on the front end what the total cost is going to be. I’m sure there are cruises that do that, which are obviously more expensive, but I’d like to try one.
Overall, it’s a great experience and we will take another cruise.
Have you been on a cruise? Where’d you go? What cruise line?
I'm just reading through old blog posts and thought I'd comment. 🙂 My husband and I traveled with Royal Caribbean for our honeymoon last year. I had previously been on a cruise with my family, so I knew what to expect with costs. With Royal, when you book, you can pay your gratuities in advance, and I believe you can also book your excursions in advance, that way you pay for everything at once. We did pay for two 8×10 photographs, but it WAS our honeymoon and we wanted a keepsake!
I love Royal and wouldn't cruise with anyone else! We are saving up to go for our anniversary next year. Plus, after the wedding dress diet, the all-you-can-eat wasn't anything to complain about. 🙂
Awesome. We are wanting another cruise soon.
My husband and I went on a cruise for our honeymoon (ten years ago). We enjoyed the food, the relaxation, and the price. We were not as enchanted by the rooms (so tiny!).
Also – the extravagance of the experience made us a bit uncomfortable. We were up to our ears in luxury and then we'd stop at ports with children begging. Something about that contrast made our hearts ache.
We didn't see the children begging. That would have been difficult.
I loved Celebrity cruise more than Carnival Cruise. I was better prepared for my second cruise. I saved enough so I can spend. Overall I like the ability to see different cities without getting on a plane & checking into hotels. The second cruise was through a Christian tour service, so they included gratuity in the final price. That was an added bonus.
Thanks. I haven't looked into Celebrity at all. I did look at Carnival. I'll check it out.
My wife went on a cruise with her best friend and we plan to take one ourselves. She was on NCL and loved the entire experience. She highly recommends people taking seabands with them to combat sea sickness.
Yea we didn't get adequate supplies before we left. We've learned.
I’ve been on three cruises, though none with my husband. One with my parents as a teenager, a Disney cruise. I remember that one as cramped, crowded, and short. We only went to the Bahamas and it was 3 days on ship and 4 days to Disney. One day actually at the Bahamas.
As an adult I went with girlfriends on two separate cruises on Carnival cruise lines. One to Western carribean. I drove to Fl and had a room with a balcony and took a seven day cruise. Fabulous does not begin to describe my experience, and we met other cruisers who became lifelong friends that we are still friends with 13 years later. My other cruise was same line, Carnival, with my best friend, seven days to Eastern Carribean. We flew from San Juan Puerto Rico so the majority of passengers were Spanish speaking. We found the only other English speaking couple and had the time of our lives, and we still keep in touch ten years later. So my cruise experiences have been amazing. Each of my seven day cruises cost me around $1000 each including excursions and tips (and airfare for the second one). I did a lot of research and did not use an agency/agent, I found the best online deal and knew what I would need for each excursion and tips before I left. No surprises for me. I planned for my shopping as well, cause this girl has to shop 🙂
My wife, daughter and I returned yesterday from a cruise with my wife's Mother, brother and his wife. October 3rd my Father in Law passed away from cancer, and he scheduled and payed for this cruise for the family earlier this year. When it became apparent that he wouldn't be able to take the trip, he asked us all to still go… this made the trip bittersweet, but I can't express how much of a healing and strengthening trip it was for our family.
That being said, we traveled Royal Caribbean as well, and sailed on Liberty of the Seas. Our trip was a 5-day cruise to Falmouth Jamaica and a RC island called CocoCay. Haiti was on the original itinerary but because of civil unrest, they went to their private island in the Bahamas.
This was the first cruise my wife and I had ever been on, but thankfully the rest of our family had… so we knew ahead of time how to avoid many of the extra costs for the cruise. Some things we payed for were a Sugar cane and Papaya plantation tour in Jamaica (this was incredible), periodic Internet connections, cruise photos (paid $199 for a CD of all the pics they took instead of $20/print… got some wonderful photos this way!), some t-shirts and souvenirs. The tips were also kind of pricey, but expected. There were, however, so many incredible things to do for free that we didn't lack for entertainment. We watched some movies in their theater, saw a Cirque du Soleil-type arial acrobatic show, an Ice-capades show, comedians, and more. We also took advantage of many things like their miniature-golf, water activities, etc.
Dinners were fabulous, and even though I'm just 5' 11", 160 lbs., I had to pray against the spirit of gluttony! 🙂 We ate so much, the last night's dinner we didn't even really want to eat any more.
We really did have a great time, and now that we've gone once we will probably go again.
Ron, I did get a little sick on the 4th day, but took some Dramamine and recovered quickly.
Great feedback. Thanks for sharing.
We have been on two Disney cruises and have our third scheduled in 2013. Although it’s a bit more expense, we could board the ship and have no additional expenses except gratuities and alcohol. We budget for tips at the onset because the service is always stellar and alcohol is a non-issue for our family. Other possible expenses are spa treatments, shopping, and there is a small flat fee for the adult fine dining restaurant (TOTALLY worth it!)
We love being unplugged. Even our teenagers don’t complain about their cell phones because the teen club has enough to keep them busy.
We had never cruised until a couple of years ago. Now we “take” trips sometimes but when we talk about vacation, a cruise is included. We are hooked.
I've never been on a cruise and don't think I ever will. Not a big fan of inhaling food. Plus, I don't like being in one place for too long. Although I do know people that plan their lives around cruises. To each his own.
It's worth a try once but I understand. Great for relaxing.
Having never cruised, what were the “extras”?
You can and most often do pay for the excursions at port & anything you buy at port, anything you want to buy on the ship (gifts, pictures, alcohol etc….) the price includes meals & entertainment. Oh and pictures … they have photographers everywhere snapping photos. You can buy at a cost.
There can be a lot of extra expenses. I think we learned some tricks that would make us appreciate it more. We look forward to trying another one.