What Is Your Favorite Cruise Line/Ship & Why???

[lvhmbh]

I posted this same question on Timeshareforums.com (great website btw) but figured I'd put it here also. We just sailed on Royal Caribs Jewel of the Seas and had a wonderful time. Staff was great, gambling was good, bingo was fun ship was beautiful. Unfortunately, the food in the main dining room was NOT good! They were extremely accommodating but the food was cold and had to be reheated (sure doesn't help a rare steak lol), etc. Buffet for b-fast and lunch were good but I don't like buffets for dinner. Anyway, will probably not sail on Royal Carib again for this reason.

What cruise lines do you like best? What ships? And why?

[elaine]

we alternated between celebrity and carnival--usually carnival is /bc we want 4-5 day cruise. Celebrity is always excellent and food in dining room is very good--buffet is OK (actually carnival buffet is better), but food on carnival is decent--but not anything like celebrity. and since the cruise all cost about he same--go with celebrity!
also, try cruisecritic.com BB for lots of advice.

[fnewman]

I'll second cruisecritic.com for about as many opinions on cruising as Tug has on timesharing.

For another personal opinion, we have found the food/service to be better on Celebrity, just a cut above Princess, both of whom are significatly above Carnival.

[Art]

Our first cruise was on the Celebrity Infinity because that was where our son was working. Happy to say we liked it and have since done 4 more Celebrity cruises, two of them on the Infinity. We had another booked on the Celebrity Millenium in January, but Celebrity switched ships on us and we will be on the Infinity again.

Food tends to be pretty good; a fabulous waffle bar may be the single best food item on the ship unless it is the grilled salmon for lunch at the AquaSpa grill.

In terms of style, my view is that if Marriott ran a cruise line, Celebrity would be it. High level of attention to detail and customer care.

Art

[pedro47]

Celebrity handdown for the excellent food and service.

[Fern Modena]

If I had to pick one ship, it would be Regal Princess. Its one of the "smaller" ships of today at 1590 passengers. It has several features we absolutely adore...one of them is a dedicated piano (bar) lounge. Its not in a corridor, a "hidey space" or an afterthought. It seats close to 200, and is a regular lounge, with a full time piano playing entertainer each evening. Another feature is the Stage Door Lounge. At night it has a different themed dance club program with games every evening, and the dance floor is a pit, where singles can dance as well as partners. But what sets it apart is its daytime use...its has corridors on both sides, and to the outsides are comfortable couches and chairs where people gather to play cards or sit and read.

Then there's the Bravo Pizzaria. Its a real, sit down pizza restaurant with different specialty pizzas each day. And there's the dining rooms, with plenty of deuce seating.

And of course, once you've sailed with Princess five times, you get FREE internet!!! Plus you get a special departure lounge with plenty of seating, and free coffee, juice, and continental breakfast all morning long.

Fern

[lvhmbh]

I know about cruisecritic.com but wanted to gete first-hand info from Tuggers like the descriptions above. L

[Minnie]

When we booked Radisson Seven Seas Mariner for our anniversary Alaskan cruise, our TA said we would be spoiled and never want to sail another line.
She was so right. Small ship -- under 700 -- Understated elegance, wine with dinner, in-suite bar set up (2 bottles of choice + unlimited water/soft drinks), open-seating in all restaurants. It goes on and on. Superb ship, staff and service.

[pvangordon]

I vote for Crystal. Even though mass market cruise line trips have been good for me, Crystal cruises are always much better.

1. Smaller ships, yet still the largest in the luxury lines (approx 1000 passengers, often sailing with 600-800). Generally no lines or waiting ever.
2. Service is more than outstanding. The same people have served me on different cruises and always remember my name. The word "no" doesn't exist. Small touches such as someone carrying your tray to your table at the lunch buffet.
3. Very very good food in the main dining room, excellent in the specialty restaurants.
4. No service charges for specialty restaurants.
5. Complimentary sodas and bottled waters (incl Perrier) in my stateroom and throughout the ship, complimentary specialty coffees and non-alcoholic mixed drinks.
6. Amenities such as Frette robes, dvd players, Aveda bath products, and other comforts.

I could go on, but will stop there.

[dougp26364]

We've sailed Royal Carib. 5 times now. The food has been hit or miss on the different ships we've been on. Sometimes it's wonderful, sometimes it's been pretty bad. We have two more sailings on them before we start looking at changing.

Why two more sailings? One I had booked I can't change without it costing me a considerable amount of money. Cabin prices have gone up on all the lines for that date and itenerary. I hate to cut off my nose to spite my face. Second, thanks to a screw up on Royal's customer service dept., we ended up with two $250 cruise vouchers. I'm determined to make use of them and will do so by adding a 6 night W. Carib. cruise onto a week long timeshare stay in FL.

After that we'll be shopping around. Again, thanks to poor customer service when things went wrong on one of their ships. I'm thinking of trying Princess. My in-laws sailed on Princess and have just been raving about everything fromt he service to the food. Since he's a somewhat particular eater, I'm reasonably certain the food was very good on their sailing at least. Of course, on most of the "popular" cruise lines, food can vary.

There are some cruise line that are for the "foodies." One of which is Celebrity. Unfortunately for us, Celebrity is also part of Royal Caribbean international. We also tend to like the larger, newer ships and Celebrity doesn't really have any of those.

So for now we'll be sticking with the lines most likely to attract the masses. Lines such as Carnival, NCL or Princess. All of which have newer larger ships on the oceans. Food isn't all that important to us and definately isn't as important as all the other things that go with cruising.

[philemer]

Crystal line usually has the best reviews for food. I think they are a bit higher ($$$) than other lines though.

Phil

[llandaff]

We love Princess.

Like Fern, our favorite ship is the Regal.....the first cruise we ever took (for our honeymoon 14 years ago). Unfortunately it's becoming harder to find the smaller ships on the mass market lines now. I know the Regal either has, or is due to be, passed along to one of the European lines.

We have since taken seven other cruises, all with Princess, so I'm afraid I can't compare to other lines. Someday we would like to try Celebrity since that seems to be the closest match to Princess and some prefer it. For now, we always feel like we are going home when we step onto a Princess ship and we're afraid that we would spend our vacation time doing comparisons if we try another line!

Vicki.

[grest]

Our favorites are Celebrity and Holland America. Of course if anyone offered us a free trip on any cruise line, we'd accept...love being on the water.
Connie

[frenchieinme]

Cruise lines are like people. They are varied and meet individual needs by and large. My experience in my 12 or so cruises with different companies is the younger set is better suited with the likes of Carnival. The older more mature set is more suited with the likes of Celebrity, NCL, etc...

As for my wife and I, we have our own agenda and mix in well. We have enjoyed every cruise taking in their offerings and enjoying every moment of every cruise. KIND OF LIKE LIFE, I guess. Seize the moment, gather yee rosebuds while yee may and all that good stuff.

JMHO of course

frenchieinme

[PR1NCESSD1ANE]

I've been on several Royal Caribbean ships and the food has varied substantially between their different ships. So the experience you had on the Jewel may be different from the Explorer, etc.

[pedro47]

A good source of information on the subject is www.cruise-addicts.com.
Current cruise reviews information are display.

[Andi]

One of our earlier cruises was on Princess and it was excellent. Since that cruise Carnival bought out Princess and though I haven't been on them since the buyout I have heard that the quality has fallen off. Celebrity is good, Crystal and Radisson are better as far as quality. Like most other things you get what you pay for.

Andi

[andrea t]

Royal Caribbean is our favorite line and in particular, the Voyager class ships. Love the mini golf and entertainment available. Love the atmosphere in the promenade. Love the aft junior suites! We've also sailed Disney, Celebrity and Norwegian. I've never had a bad time on a cruise, but Royal Caribbean is a perfect fit for my family.

[labguides]

We have done two Holland America cruises. The first one, we thought was perfect.The 2nd one (summer 2004), we felt the service and the quality of food had gone downhill. Others long time Holland America cruisers agreed with us.
We have friends who firmly believe that Raddison is the BEST!

[JanB]

Another vote for Celebrity. And, Celebrity does have several newer, larger ships. The 4 newest Millenium class ships are the Millenium, Infinity, Summit, and the Constellation. Each carry passengers of 2000+ and were inaugerated between 2000 and 2003. They are the largest ships that will fit through the Panama Canal. They also have a much smaller ship servicing 94 capacity, the Celebrity Xpedition which travels the Galapagos Islands.

We have also cruised with Carnaval and NCL. With NCL, we experienced poor quality food, rude and incompetent service and a very worn ship all around. We will not cruise with them again. Carnaval was better, but definately not the class of Celebrity and the prices are nearly comparable.

The food and service on Celebrity is outstanding. The entertainment we had on this last cruise, Summit through the Panama Canal, was fabulous with standing ovations each night. It was hard to believe that a two week cruise could provide consistently outstanding entertainment.

For breakfast, there was the standard buffet. Also, you could choose from the waffle bar, the omelet bar, or a light breakfast at the AquaSpa. And, there was also the formal dining room. The same for lunch, except the omelet bar was a pizza bar, the waffle bar was sandwich bar. The ice cream bar opened at lunch time. And, the hamburger and hot dog bar opened up on the pool deck complete with excellent french fries.

The food and service in the specialty dinner restaurant was beyond fabulous - which was very hard to beat the food and service in the formal dining room, but did! There was another option besides the formal dining room and the specialty restaurant. White table cloths and waiter service was also offered in the buffet area. One side of the buffet room was used for reservation dining, but on a much less formal affair. The buffet was also open in the evening including the pizza and sandwich bars.

We took advantage of room service this time. There were four couples and we had the late dinner seating. So, on the days we were at sea, we took turns entertaining in our staterooms. We ordered fruit plates, cheese plates, pizzas, and quasadillas from the roomservice menu - all free of charge (except the tip). We thoroughly enjoyed this service.

Celebrity will be our first choice, but, like you, will compare another cruise line (except NCL) for the itinerary, cost, accommodations and is well recommended.

[lvhmbh]

Thanks for the report on the Summit. We are planning the Panama Canal trip and my friend went on Celebrity also. Linda