Planning a Cruise, need help!!!?

Question

I am planning to go on a cruise the week of Thanksgiving, and would prefer going out of Houston or Galveston, TX. I have never been on a cruise before so I don't know where to go to find the best deals and still have a great experience. I've heard a little about the Norwegian Cruise Line, is it any good? And what in the world are repositioning cruises??? Someone please help!!!

i'm only able to spend a max time of 7 days.

I will be travaling with some family, so it needs to be a good cruise for ages 12-70. I'm also traveling with a few teenagers 15-18 so i need something that will intreast all ages and dowsn't require the family to stick together at all times.

Answer 1

I have been on about 12 cruises with Norwegian, Princess, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean cruise lines. Since you have never done a cruise before I am going to give you all of my information about cruising. After reading this you need to decide if you want to do it yourself, which I have done many times (you get the same prices that an agent can get) OR you may want to use this information to help decide what you want and then get an agent to do it for you.

Best Cruise Lines

If you have the money to spend for the top cruise lines try Crystal, Radisson, Cunard, Windstar, and Silver sea. These cruise lines are a cut above because they run smaller ships (like to 500 to 700 passengers) and have a higher staff to passenger ratio so you get top of the line service. They also have more amenities included in the much higher price, like all veranda/balcony cabins, tubs and shower bathroom, larger cabins, daily wine and champaign with meals, etc. These ships generally go to a port or two on a seven day cruise which are different from the normal. Prices for a 7 day cruise may start at $2500 to $3000 (vs about $1200 on the next tier of ships.). These ships tend to have a more sophisticated crowd and more formal dining.

Less Expensive

The first rule in getting less expensive cruises is book early. The second rule is go with the same cruise line multiple times. The third rule is shop around for specials. Some lines will offer specials on a date that does not usually sell out, like Christmas (or Thanksgiving) week. So don't lock yourself in to one particular week of the year; be flexible.

If you have not cruised before and don't know the ropes it may be beneficial for you to use an agent; the agent does not charge a fee but is paid by the cruise line. But, also, do some home work on cruise line, itineraries, and ships. Use the cruise line web sites to look at what's being offered. Try to have in mind some of what you want to do when you talk to an agent. If you feel comfortable doing it, you can do your own booking online, the price is the same and you can do everything you need right on the web sites. The sites usually have cruises listed for this year and next.

Now most cruises are done by lines like Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Princess, Celebrity, Holland America, and Disney. Most of the ships for these lines are now 1500 to 2500 passenger ships. The ships are so big and things are so well managed that you really don't feel crowded on them. Prices on these ship can be as low as $800 for a 7 day inside cabin and about $1200 for a balcony cabin. Most of these lines go to the same places, they are just in port on different days. When you dock there may be one or two other ships there for the day and some days there may not be any where you go. You may also want to consider Cunard and the Queen Mary II. The ship is fantastic and the prices are comparable with RC, NCL and Princess.

The format and service on all of these is about the same. I have found that the food on Celebrity, Princess and RC is a cut above Disney and Carnival. Disney is for kids, and families with kids. It does have adults only areas on ship, but the kids are still there.. They will have lots of kids’ activities on the ships, but they will still be all over the hallways, elevators and dining facilities. Disney has good ship, but also lots of kids running around and Micky, Donald, Minnie, Goofie, etc all over the ship. Carnival is the fun ship, but their accommodations are not the best. Carnival is the party cruise line that most young folks and first time cruisers take (ages 20 to 35) who want to party, party, party.

Princess, Royal Caribbean, Holland America, Celebrity, and Norwegian tend to have people who have cruised many times and are in the 40 and over age group; a more reserved crowd. All of these may have some kids but not many. There are also activities just for kids and staff who supervise them. The last cruise we took on Celebrity has about 7 or 8 kids all total. Also, ships going to the Caribbean tend to have more young folks than those going to Alaska, Panama, the Mediterranean, the Baltic, or South America.

Ship Cabin Categories

I suggest that you go to the cruise line web sites and look at itineraries (what ports the ship will stop in), dates and prices. Remember that the cheapest cabins offered are the inside cabins, those without a window or porthole. Also look at and understand the price structure. The lowest priced cabins are INSIDE (no window/porthole), next are OUTSIDE with a window or porthole), next are VERANDA/BALCONY (your own private patio), then comes the jr and full suites, then the penthouses and owners' suites which are like apartments. The inside, outside and balcony cabins are generally the same size on each ship, but may vary by ship and cruise line. I suggest that you look at Veranda cabins they are hot and most ships these days tend to have many at a reasonable price (i.e., $1200 to $1500 for a 7-day.). Its been my experience that Princess and Royal Caribbean have the best ship and cabin decor. If its for a honeymoon or anniversary, or birthday be sure to tell them, they will do special stuff for that. Most 7-day cruises have two formal nights when you can wear your best stuff and get pictures taken.

You also need to know is that the category designations DO NOT mean the same thing on all cruise lines. For example, a Cat "C" on a Carnival ship is NOT the same as a Cat "C" on a Norwegian ship. AND, a category "C" is not the same across all of the ships in a cruise line, with one exception. For example, a Cat "D" is not the same on all Royal Caribbean ships, except it will be the same just for those situations where a cruise lines builds two IDENTICAL SHIPS. Example, the RC's Jewel of the Seas is identical with their Brilliance of the Seas. So any cat on either of these ships will be the same. Same with the NCL's Dream and its Wind ships. If you go to the cruise line web site and look at categories, they will generally have the square feet of each cabin type, and the balcony square feet, if it has one, listed also .

The shorter cruises are 4 or 5 days, and the normal ones are either 7 or 14 days. If you are leaving from Florida, consider driving to the port, either Miami or Ft Lauderdale rather than flying; same for Houston and New Orleans. There is plentiful safe parking (I have done this many times in Florida ports) parking places cost about $12 a day. Most cruise lines will give you driving directions to the port and tell you about parking right on their web site. Driving can save money over the cruise line "add-in" for airfare. We generally drive most of the way on one day from NC and stop about an hour or two from the port for the night. Then continue the short trip the next day to the port.

Freestyle Cruising

I do not recommend Norwegian because of their "freestyle" cruising. It means that you do not have to specify a dining option; don't have a table and waiter assigned to you. But it also means that you may be standing in line awaiting a table on some days (like we had to); not what you want on a cruise. The option to this being pushed on NCL is their optional dining which you must pay to use. The optional dining can be $10 to $20 a person extra per dinner for restaurants like Tex-Mex, French, Suchi, or Steak house.

Hidden Costs

The hidden costs on a cruise are your tab for drinks (alcoholic and sodas),tours, and gratuity. Many ships now add the recommended gratuity to your onboard tab. The gratuity is about $10 to $12 a day per person. You can give more if you want. Tours can add hundreds to your final bill, depending upon how many stop the ship makes and what you want to do. Study the tours carefully; some places you may want to just go on your own.

What’s a Cruise Like

They are one of THE best vacations you can take. Once you are on ship the staff caters to you, its whatever you want. There is something to do all day every day. Some ships have morning exercise programs, stretching and walking or you can pay for other things like Spinning in the gym. All cruise ships have gyms so you can go workout usually any time from 6:00 AM to late at night. There is usually a walking/running track on one of the decks also. Some ships leave the gym open all night. They call the gyms Spa because they do promote getting pampering thuff like wraps and massages with aromatherapy. They will also generally have abeauty salon to do hair and nails..

Ships have movie theaters, small but nice, and you can also see movies in your room. There are demonstrations on ship like ice carving, napkin folding and towel folding, cooking demonstrations.

Each day you will receive a "newsletter" listing the time, place and particulars of each event. You can schedule land tours and activities also during the day and evening when the ship is in port. There are generally shows every evening, one show for those with an early dinner seating and another (same show) for those who eat late. There is always food available. Usually there is a place in ship where you can go get something. Or, you can always just pick up the phone in your cabin and order from the room serviice menu (food is free). If you want, you can order breakfast room service.

There are places on ships to play board games and cocktail lounges that feature a variety of mucis. There is usually a disco that starts after 10:00 PM each night.

Then there is always the pools. Some ships have more than one and the newer ships generally have an indoor pool as well as outdoor ones and all of these have hot hots.

I suggest that you go to the web site for the cruise line you are going on and look at the features for the ship you will be on. I hope you have picked a balcony cabin, or a suite, they are more relaxing and fun.

You may also want to look at the Cruise Report and at the Cruise Critic web sites to see what others have to say:
http://www.cruise-ship-report.com/
and http://www.cruisecritic.com/

Answer 2

On your first question. I personally always book with an agent. The agent I have been using for about 3 years gets me a lower rate than I can find 98% of the time. It is a large company and they book group spaces, they can then offer discounted rooms to their clients. Plus, since you are new to cruising, they will offer you a lot of help. Do you need an opinion on a cruise line, or ship, a destination, pricing, ideas, etc. They will be there the whole way so that you know everything is accurate and you can have a fabulous time. I have been on countless cruises, so I know quite a bit about it, and I would still never book anywhere but with an agent, even if it were going to save me some money. There is just too much room for error booking with discounters like Expedia and Orbitz and even in some cases booking directly with the cruise line, a good agent will take care of any problems.

NCL is a pretty good line. It is a moderately priced line, so it isn't going to be one of the most luxurious lines, but still great. They offer the freestyle experience while onboard. It is one of those things that some people love and some people hate, enough to not cruise with them. Overall, I think it is a nice line. However, if you do have kids, I think a line like Royal Caribbean, Carnival or Disney would be better.

A repositioning cruise can be one of two things. One is the cruise line just has an itinerary where they start in one location and end in another. You don't return back to the same homeport, air is generally more expensive this way, and the cruises also tend to be longer. Or, the cruise line may change their itinerary for a period of time, so they have to get the boat over to their new port. So, they have longer cruises offered to guests (they generally run at great prices) where you cruise over to the new port. For example, Disney is going to do a Mediterranean cruise next year. So, they have to reposition the ship, so the first and last cruise for the period of time they will offer this cruise is a 14 night repositioning cruise.

I hope this answers your question!

Answer 3

Thanks for the revision of your question. Being Owner of a Travel Agency, I get to actually board the cruise lines' ships. Keeping in mind that family will tag along and there's teenagers coming onboard, there are several options available to you for cruises the week of Nov 20-27, 2006:

1- NCL, 7 night Caribbean Cruise(Leaves and Arrives back in Houston, TX). I can get you onboard starting at $454.00

2- Royal Carribean, 7 night Western Caribbean Cruise(leaves and arrives back in Galveston, TX). Rates start at $714.00

3- Carnival, 7 night Western Caribbean(leaves and arrives back in Galveston, TX). Rates start at $719.00

Keep in mind that if you wanted to cruise before or after Thanksgiving week, then these prices come down considerably. And these are unpublished rates(meaning that these prices are less than listed at the cruise lines' websites). So you cannot go wrong no matter which cruise you choose.

Answer 4

NCL is fine, just make sure you book on one of the newer ships that are set up for freestyle. (free style is an ncl idea where you can eat whenever / wherever you want instead of eating at an assigned table at an assigned time) All the major cruise lines have similar quality food, service and kids activities. The newer the ship though, the more they usually have on them. A repo cruise is when the ship is moving from 1 home port to another. For ex, most cruises start and end in the same port. In a repo cruise, the cruise ends in a different port, usually on the other side of the country or in a different country and you would have to fly yourself home. I believe the way to find the best prices is to go to cruisecompete.com You pick the cruises you are interested in and the TAs bid for your business. For research, go to cruisecritic.com and go to the message boards.

Answer 5

A repositioning cruise begins its itinerary from one port and ends a different port....For example, one cruise ship may due rountrip New York trips during the summer and that same ship may do roundtrip San Juan cruises in the fall....the repositioning cruise would be the cruise at the end of the summer where passengers board the ship in NYC and end their cruise in San Juan... the next voyage of that ship begins in San Juan...hope this helps..

in terms of cruise lines,,usually Carnival, Norwegian, and Royal Caribbean, rank about the same with each other and cater to the majority of mass market cruisers. other cruise lines would be more upscale or deluxe... i personally love royal carribean, but they don't allow any travel supplier to discount their cruises...the only way to get discounted Royal cruises is to find an agent or travel supplier that buys blocks of rooms on the sailing you want to travel...only then can they discount

Answer 6

Your best bet is to contact a travel agent or look stuff up onthe Internet. Expedia can compare cruises and their cruise reviews are honest and very helpful.

Good luck to you. : )

Answer 7

go on any cruiseline...they will all be good in your condition...norwigen is ok...i went on it my first time and it was good. go to cruisesonly.com for good deals but then choose one that u like and refer it to your travle agnet and that gets you the best deal possible.

Answer 8

we had fun on carnival,wasnt too pricey and had a great time.

Answer 9

log on to vacationstogo.com . . you have all the info there

Answer 10

http://www.rhoda.joystar.com