Cruising, oh boy!

Uptosnuff

Uptosnuff

Member
Location
Great Plains, USA
We just got home from our first ever cruise. A Bahamas Cruise to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary.

Goodness

My overall impression from the cruise - one word sums it up. Excessive
An excessive number of people on board
An excessive amount of food
An excessive amount of drinking

Our only real port of call was Nassau, Bahamas. We took a tour around the island and the comparison between the stark living conditions on the island and the living conditions on board that boat were thought provoking to say the least. Hurricane Dorian didn't really impact Nassau that much, not nearly like the other islands, which is why we were still able to dock there. It is beautiful, but underneath that beauty is much poverty. Very eye opening. The Bahemans were very friendly and welcoming and I enjoyed the stop there very much.

I don't know if cruising is for me. Overall I enjoyed the experience but I discovered I can really feel that boat move through the water. The first and last nights were the worst. Why pay so much for something that makes you feel bad? I think I will take my vacations by air or on the road.

Glad to be back.
 

Ocean cruises don't appeal to me.

I can't afford them
I get seasick and abhor taking drugs :sick:
I can't eat a lot or drink a lot
Am not the party type
Am not the Vegas type
Don't swim and don't like to bake in the sun
Cruise ships get lots of nonavirus or whatever they're called

Now, river cruises appeal to me, but I still can't afford those. Glad you got it out of your system. Happy 40th!
 

Uptosnuff said:
We just got home from our first ever cruise. A Bahamas Cruise to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary.

Goodness

My overall impression from the cruise - one word sums it up. Excessive
An excessive number of people on board
An excessive amount of food
An excessive amount of drinking

Our only real port of call was Nassau, Bahamas. We took a tour around the island and the comparison between the stark living conditions on the island and the living conditions on board that boat were thought provoking to say the least. Hurricane Dorian didn't really impact Nassau that much, not nearly like the other islands, which is why we were still able to dock there. It is beautiful, but underneath that beauty is much poverty. Very eye opening. The Bahemans were very friendly and welcoming and I enjoyed the stop there very much.

I don't know if cruising is for me. Overall I enjoyed the experience but I discovered I can really feel that boat move through the water. The first and last nights were the worst. Why pay so much for something that makes you feel bad? I think I will take my vacations by air or on the road.

Glad to be back.
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Welcome back and Happy Anniversary, Upto! Cruising never appealed to me. But at least you got away and had the experience.
 
PVC said:
Ocean cruises don't appeal to me.

I can't afford them
I get seasick and abhor taking drugs :sick:
I can't eat a lot or drink a lot
Am not the party type
Am not the Vegas type
Don't swim and don't like to bake in the sun
Cruise ships get lots of nonavirus or whatever they're called

Now, river cruises appeal to me, but I still can't afford those. Glad you got it out of your system. Happy 40th!
Click to expand...

Thanks PVC
The first night on board I felt bad enough that I took Bonine. After about an hour, it helped but made me very tired and I went to sleep at about 8:30. My husband (who never gets motion sick) stayed up and walked all over the ship drinking and having a gay old time.

I really wanted to swim in the pool, but most of the time the ship was rocking so much the water sloshed around too much to even go in it. Or else it was so cold no one got in. So the pool was a huge disappointment. Wasn't able to swim even one time.

Now I did go to the casino which surprised me. I didn't think I would even go into it but found out you had to, to get to other areas of the ship. Well, I ended up plunking down $20 and winning $58 and then quit. I'm not much of a gambler but have to say that was fun.

I also like river cruises. You can have a fun time on those.
 
Consider yourselves lucky that the plumbing on the ship worked. When it didn't work on other cruises, the whole ship became a floating toilet. Yeah....how romantic - ankle-deep in.........sloshing around.
 
We have been on 18 cruises totaling something like 170 days. We travel on Princess exclusively. Cruising is, without a doubt, the biggest bang for the travel buck. However, Carnival is pretty much the Walmart of cruise lines. Their prices are the cheapest and so they tend to draw the younger party crowd, especially on the short 5-7 day cruises to the Bahamas. Longer and more expensive cruises generally appeal to seniors.

Opunohu Bay, Moorea
DSC07437 CroppedX30.jpg
 
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Nautilus said:
We have been on 18 cruises totaling something like 170 days. We travel on Princess exclusively. Cruising is, without a doubt, the biggest bang for the travel buck. However, Carnival is pretty much the Walmart of cruise lines. Their prices are the cheapest and so they tend to draw the younger party crowd, especially on the short 5-7 day cruises to the Bahamas. Longer and more expensive cruises generally appeal to seniors.

Opunohu Bay, Moorea
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Hmmm, interesting. We did not cruise on Carnival, we chose Norweigen. A cruise for mainly seniors might be appealing. Aren't there also cruises for adults only? Frankly I'm past the age where watching screaming kids having tantrums is how I want to spend my vacation.

The only thing is, if I felt the motion so much on just a 4 day cruise, wouldn't it be worse on a longer voyage?
 
Uptosnuff said:
Hmmm, interesting. We did not cruise on Carnival, we chose Norweigen. A cruise for mainly seniors might be appealing. Aren't there also cruises for adults only? Frankly I'm past the age where watching screaming kids having tantrums is how I want to spend my vacation.

The only thing is, if I felt the motion so much on just a 4 day cruise, wouldn't it be worse on a longer voyage?
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Eighteen is the minimum age for Viking Ocean Cruises. As for the motion, I've read that the location of your stateroom can mitigate it. @Nautilus probably knows the specifics about that.
 
There's a trick to it. If you select an interior stateroom in the center of the ship on deck 8 or 9, you'll be as close to the center of the ship as you can get. The bow and stern may rise and fall but the center moves very little in comparison. The motion is caused by the height of the waves. It just depends on the weather. We've never experienced screaming kids issues, drunks or fights.

When I was a kid, I used to watch Gardner Mckay in James A. Michener's "Adventures In Paridise." That's when I made up my mind to go to Tahiti some day. Been there seven times! They just keep making me offers I can't refuse!

Fugi Fall.jpg
 
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Nautilus said:
We have been on 18 cruises totaling something like 170 days. We travel on Princess exclusively. Cruising is, without a doubt, the biggest bang for the travel buck. However, Carnival is pretty much the Walmart of cruise lines. Their prices are the cheapest and so they tend to draw the younger party crowd, especially on the short 5-7 day cruises to the Bahamas. Longer and more expensive cruises generally appeal to seniors.

Opunohu Bay, Moorea
View attachment 81838
Click to expand...

Hubby and I are about to go on a Princess cruise in early December. The ship is bigger than we usually sail in but we have found Princess suits us very well. This one is just for a week and will visit some Pacific Islands but the attraction is that it is a film festival cruise. We have never attended something like a film festival in Sydney for a number of reasons but having one on board means we don't have to make bookings and travel to theatres to take part. This will be our second film festival cruise. Last year we sailed around Tasmania and saw some very interesting movies. Each film was introduced by someone from the Sydney Film Festival and there was time to discuss the film afterwards with other passengers if we so desired, but we gave this a miss.

We always sign in for fine dining in one of the dining rooms which means we don't see much gluttony or drunkenness either. Still, whenever we have chosen to eat at the bistro most people have been very nice to talk to and very few passengers were selfish or inconsiderate.
 
I love cruising, I've been on 7 in the Caribbean. We're destination cruisers~the ship is our transportation, hotel, and restaurant. We've been to some wonderful places and done some interesting things through the years. Cruising with friends is the best. We've been on Carnival, NCL, and Princess. All had their pluses and minuses.
We went on a cruise in early May one year, after spring breaks were over, hoping to avoid other people's bratty children. I say that because too many people go free range parenting while cruising. Anyway on our May cruise we found out just after leaving port, that we had 2 high school senior trips aboard. AHHH Wild Teenagers everywhere! They were actually very well behaved and we all had a wonderful cruise.
 
G'day, Warrigal: You Aussies are lucky being fairly close to Polynesia...a least a lot closer than South Carolina. We did a TransPac cruise two years ago...started in Sydney, stayed the first three days at the Novotel in Darling Harbor. That's one expensive area! We've never done a film cruise...might be fun.

Opera.jpg
 
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Australians love cruising and travel in general.

The Harbour area is expensive. There are cheaper hotels not far away.
It all depends on whether you want up market accommodation or extra cash for sight seeing.

I live in an outer suburb of Sydney but I love the Opera House and the Harbour.
My heart sings every time we come back, whether it is by ship or by plane.
 
I love cruising. What's not to love? Lots of food, shows, just getting to sit and watch the ocean, someone cleans my room every day and makes my bed and leaves me fresh towels and a chocolate on my pillow. Interesting ports to visit.

Every time I hear someone complain about the food on a cruise, I have to laugh. When I don't have to shop for it, lug it home, put it away, cook it and clean up after it, it's a day in paradise for me.
 


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