<p>If you don’t mind a little drive, Royal Caribbean has plenty of cruises that leave from Baltimore. Rather than incur the costs of flying to Florida, you can make the drive in 2-3 hours and get right on the ship and then drive back home, saving airfare and hotel in Florida. The Baltimore departures usually go to Bermuda or Bahamas.</p>
<p>Have you thought about Bermuda? Years ago I sailed out of Philly (and I know they leave out of NJ as well) on a 5-day cruise to Bermuda & it was wonderful. Bermuda is beautiful & took a day & 1/2 sailing time there & back with 2 days in port–perfect. The only drawback to Bermuda is that its seasonal (semi-tropical). Best mid May through end of June I believe, but you could look into this further.</p>
<p>For really great cruise deals, if you are a Costco member, it’s worthwhile to look at Costcotravel.com. Now I didn’t see anything that met your parameters, but maybe you could widen your parameters or look at something for the future. Besides great values, they have additional shipboard credits and Costco added values too, that you can use for anything that would be on your cruise bill onboard. Like shore excursions, alcohol, spa…it is amazing how it all adds up.</p>
<p>We were able to book a Mediterranean cruise out of Rome in May, and it was such a great deal that we actually booked a suite. We generally get either an inside, or a balcony only if it’s cheap. Always an inside for the kids, but this time it was cheap enough to get their own suite. Each room gave us $590 in credits. And apparently you can even use the credits in the casino…I’m ready!</p>
<p>bookreader - do you have any brothers? </p>
<p>;)</p>
<p>Cruise Critic is a great website! But I found it a bit overwhelming until we actually settled on our cruise. The “Roll Call” section for exact cruise/date was neat. More knowledgeable travelers arranged cheaper group shore excursions. For our cruise, one nice guy arranged to meet the first morning for breakfast together at the buffet area.</p>
<p>Great information, colorado_mom. I just logged onto cruise critic and found 3 pages of people who are on my cruise, talking about hotels and tours. This is great!! A way to get to know people a bit ahead of time, plus very knowledgeable people setting up tours. I generally am discontented with the tours arranged by the cruise lines…expensive, short, and I rarely feel like we got our money’s worth, and had the best guides.</p>
<p>Busdriver - I completely forgot about the Costco deal!! Even if I can’t use it now, I’m glad to be reminded about it. </p>
<p>Sylvan - sorry but I’m not understanding your comment. I do have a brother but I think I’m missing your joke.</p>
<p>^^I’m missing the joke too. Unless of course, sylvan is looking for some matchmaking?</p>
<p>A friend recently told me about Costco travel, and I thought it wouldn’t be so good because I get interline (airline employee) deals that are extremely cheap. But my deals are often at the last minute, which rules out a lot of trips. I found the Costco deal to be very, very good, with all the extra money they gave us. Plus if the rate goes down in the next month and a half, they will give us the cheaper rate.</p>
<p>Lol, I’d like the MIL who wants to send me on a cruise for my birthday! :)</p>
<p>I’ve got a mother who is taking me on a cruise! She used to cruise on her own all over the world but is not comfortable traveling alone anymore. So I volunteered to help her :D. I’m going to be like the companion in the old novels - fetching her fan and shawl, sitting backwards in the carriage, arranging for the footman to bring tea, etc. We’re going out of Ft. Lauderdale at the start of March for a 10 day cruise to the southern Caribbean, where I’ve never been but Mom has. She can tell me all about how much nicer the ABC islands used to be!</p>
<p>Best of all, she doesn’t want to share a cabin (actually, wants her own bathroom) so we have balcony cabins next to each other. She’s worried I’ll be bored (we’re on Holland America) since she knows how much DH and I do on vacations. But she doesn’t understand that we do so much to keep DH from being bored. I think I’ll manage ;). She’s been on zillions of cruises and I’ve been on five.</p>
<p>On cruisecritic, you can learn a lot about private tours by checking the ports of call boards. Certainly it’s nice if someone on your roll call sets something up, but there is tons of advice on the other boards to help you research. Most cruise lines have a way to set up a get together if enough people sign up. The details depend on the cruise line but generally involve a set time and place onboard, and some kind of talk and refreshment from ship personnel. Lots of roll calls also arrange an informal sailaway meeting place. It is nice to feel like you already know someone on board and then you can keep running into familiar faces.</p>
<p>Oh - and I finally found a reason to set up a Pinterest board.</p>