We had never taken a cruise before, but we've taken four in the past 18 months since my wife retired. They were:
- Mediterranean Cruise Ships (MSC) "Divina": 7 nights to the Caribbean (Miama, San Juan, St. Maarten, Antigua & Barbuda, Guadalupe, Barbados
- Royal Caribbean "Brilliance of the Seas": 15 nights to Barcelona (Tampa, San Juan, the Azores, Malaga, and Ibiza)
- Norwegian Cruise Lines, "Epic": 7 nights to the Caribbean (Port Canaveral, Bahamas, Jamaica, Caymans)
- Carnival Cruise Lines "Magic": 7 nights to the Caribbean (Port Canaveral, Cozumel, Belize, Roatan, Costa Maya)
The three Caribbean cruises were chosen to sample places we hadn't been to previously.. We booked them all through vacationstogo.com. All costs up front, no surprises. We'll stay with them for the future. Their last-minute cruise emails provide lots of bargain opportunities.
Depending on the route, balcony rooms can be of little value -- it gets cold crossing the Atlantic. Ocean-view rooms are often the sweet spot -- larger than either balcony or interior rooms.
Our favorites by far -- and by far the best food -- were MSC and RC, with Carnival the bottom of the barrel. We'd like to try Celebrity and Princess in the future, possibly up the Alaskan coast.
Internet connectivity sucks on all of them, at any price. Bring lots of books, or a loaded Kindle.
Fitness centers are always great! Excellent opportunity to get (back) into a workout rhythm.
Lots of entertainment on all, but Carnival's shows were mostly much later in the evening than the rest.
Liquor quality is generally pretty poor, with very high prices. Ditto wine.
Try to minimize the number of stops at ports/islands owned by the cruise line. They're generally worthless -- nothing more than a beach with really bad food and the same gift (mostly jewelry) shops you see everywhere.
Enough bobbing around for now - we're flying to Martinique on Saturday for ten days...
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