<p>H and I have never been on a cruise–mostly because we didn’t think we’d like it. We’ve recently seen notices about cruises that interested us, but don’t know much about evaluating them. One possibility is an educational tour–from Venice down the Adriatic Sea (hitting ports in Croatia. This one is sponsored by a college alumni association and has an educational focus (or so it says–there’s a prof on board). The other is a jazz tour with Mosaic Records and it’s basically a jazz festival. Several jazz artists that H likes will be performing. This one is on a Holland America ship. Both of us like jazz and we usually go to the Tanglewood Jazz Festival and have gone to the NOLA jazz festival too.</p>
<p>Looking for comments on either–pros/cons. I can’t remember if it was the Holland America cruise line or another that someone suggested I avoid and said that my H would hate it (he’s a serious hotel/accommodations snob). I think both of these are 7-day cruises with off-shore excursions.</p>
<p>The best site to go for in-depth reviews and discussions of every possible aspect of a cruise is cruisecritic dot com. You can read about every ship and just about every port of call and probably someone has written about the specific cruises you’re considering. The posts give a feel for the different personalities of cruise lines and help you decide if the ship and line are a good fit. You can also check out the “roll calls” of specific future cruises to online meet some of the fellow cruisers.</p>
<p>I’ve been on a handful of cruises and enjoyed each one for different reasons; after the last one I’m ready to take a break but would always consider going in the future. You do have to get pretty expensive to match top hotel accomodations. I liked the concept of being able to go to so many different venues with almost no effort – step out of your cabin and all the choices are there. You don’t have to commit to anything either and no worries about parking, taxis, or how long it will take to get home. I liked the opportunities to step away from the activity for quiet time – you didn’t always have to be in the middle of a crowd. I liked the people – the ship is your introduction to everyone else and you can strike up a conversation with anyone.</p>
<p>Re HAL - my mother is 82 and has been on dozens of their cruises - let’s just say she’s fairly representative of their clientele. Our last two cruises were on Royal Caribbean and that worked for us. But the other cc is the best place to learn in depth - it does for cruises what this cc does for colleges.</p>
<p>Cruises are the best vacations. There are different restaurants and seating depending the time you may choose for eating–the food is delicious and is available at all times. The service in the restaurants and the cruise in general are class “A.” You really feel you are vacationing. Cruise staff is always looking to entertain the visitors. Tons of activities for all ages: Music, shows and social activities at all hours of the day…special tours are offered for when you step into land.</p>
<p>Dress code is wonderful, there are always activities were people can feel comfortable dressing as they please. However, at night people wear their best, especially for Captain’s night and the formal restaurants. If anyone does not want to dress up still have the opportunity to go to other less formal restaurants. The cruise offer variety in everything.</p>
<p>For more than I ate…a lot, I did not gain weight. I woke up early, did the exercise, attended every activity and enjoyed the shopping in the different ports. We went to bed super late and woke up early and our group had a blast!</p>
<p>I need to add that they have place a good deal of time to dress those beds with very comfortable bedding, which I love. Last cruise I took I felt I was sleeping in heaven…so soft bedding and pillow and soft music from the sea…Enjoy your vacation!</p>
<p>The site Marilyn recommended really is the “college confidential” of the cruise going public. I highly recommend it. I’m a bit of a hotel snob, too, and don’t hate Holland America, though they’ve gone downhill, in my opinion, over the last few years. Having said that, if they’re the line offering the Jazz cruise, you’ll likely find like minded people of a similar age to yours; other than Alaska, I’ve found most cruises included a variety of ages. In my “snobbish” opinion, having taken usually 2 cruises a year (an easy way to vacation if you’re a single mom), you might want to avoid Royal Carib, NCL, and definitely avoid Carnival.</p>
<p>We (50’s couple) have also never cruised. Your opinion to possibly avoid Royal Carib, what is NCL? and Carnival, I take to heart since you have cruised often.</p>
<p>Wer’e a 50’s couple and we liked Royal Caribbean but it is mid-range rather than upscale. We liked their ships and the prices (there is a senior discount over age 55). NCL is Norwegian Cruise Lines. We cruised Carnival once and would not do it again; too flashy and casual. Although cruising in general is much more casual than it used to be.</p>
<p>Celebrity and Princess are also good mainstream cruise lines.</p>
<p>More upscale (if your wallet can afford it) would be Oceania (which my wife and I loved), Crystal, Silversea, and Seabourn (the last two are super expensive).</p>
<p>Carnival is more of a family line…lots of families with kids. </p>
<p>RC is a good line for couples or families with adult children. </p>
<p>We liked NCL, but it’s been a long time since we’ve used them.</p>
<p>Cruising is the best! However, if you’re doing a Med cruise, I would add extra land days before and after to get more sight-seeing time in southern Europe.</p>
<p>We enjoy cruising. We have done Holland America (Alaska–twice: once with D who was 7 she had a blast), Royal Carrib and a sailing cruise (line went out of business). I highly recommend crusiecritic dot com. Lots of information, varied opinions, etc. We would do Holland America or Royal Carrib, the sailing thing was a group cruise, loved the people, did not love the cruise line (I understand completely why they went out of business). It really is my favorite way to travel, DH enjoys it as long as there are not too many sea days, DD doesn’t care if there are sea days or port days.</p>
<p>MusicMom, sorry for late response - I’ve been distracted. </p>
<p>I think you’d be fine with Holland America; I’ve always been, though I think the newer ships aren’t as nice as the slightly older ones (lots of plastic pre-fab), and the quality of the food in the included dining has declined particularly after they added premium (i.e. additional cost) dining options. I’ve found the extra cost for the specialty restaurants reasonable and worthwhile, but you need to factor that in to the overall cost. I think Celebrity and Princess are probably much the same as Holland America on most fronts. </p>
<p>I’m just shy of 50, and have been cruising for over 20 years now, and have always found people around my own age and that of the kid, all the way from when we started at age 2 to the one we’ll likely take to celebrate 21.</p>
<p>The last time I took Norwegian was the last time, which was after I’d said that I’d never go on another cruise with them again. But, the price was so low and my family all wanted to go. This time I mean it…never again, at any price. The food was inedible, the service was abysmal, the ship not well maintained (e.g. the elevator door slammed closed on my hand with such force that a ring that was round is now oval, and the response I got was akin to “my bad”). </p>
<p>I haven’t tried the upscale lines Dadinator mentioned, primarily because I expect most of the passengers would tend to attract an older simply because they are costly. Dadinator, I’d be curious to know the age range you encountered.</p>
<p>We really enjoy Windstar. If you keep checking their specials, you can find a good deal - keeping in mind it will be more expensive still than the mass market cruises. We’ve been to Costa Rica, Greece/Turkey, and the Caribbean with them and I would go again in a heartbeat.</p>
<p>thanks, Fred’s Mom.
I am filing this info in a ‘safe place’ (hopefully one I will locate later!).
A 30 year anniversary cruise would be lovely, I thinnk.</p>
<p>I would also check out Regent Cruise line which is having major 2 for 1 sales and includes excursions and all food and alcohol and tips – which is very nice – and all rooms are suites and have larger square footage than other higher end cruise lines. We have been on Silversea, Seabourn, Regent, RCL, NCL and, a long time ago, on the Big Red Boat and Renaissance which sold their ships to Oceania. I would be happy to answer any questions you might have – we are about to take Regent’s Mariner from Istanbul to Rome at the end of June and then are on a huge ship – NCL’s Epic --in August with 17 relatives for my father-in-law’s 80th birthday.</p>