<p>I’ve been on both Royal Caribbean and NCL. I liked them both very much.</p>
<p>romani–I just about lost my Diet Pepsi on my keyboard 
I see we have the same definition of Caribbean. Wind chill here today 11…ug.</p>
<p>Appreciate everyone’s input. Hopefully someday I can use it!</p>
<p>My one and only cruise was on Norwegian Epic and we had a good time. The ship was big enough to have lots of entertainment options and the food choices were numerous. We’re not really “cruise people” but we had a good time. Some of that could have been due to the size of the ship - I suspect we’d have become bored on a smaller boat with fewer options.</p>
<p>I second using cruisecritic.com. It is an extremely comprehensive website with lots of customer input. </p>
<p>I find that Royal Caribbean and Carnival has lots of kids on board, possibly because many of their ships have rock climbing walls, wave machines, water slides, etc. etc. For this reason, I like Holland America. It IS relative to the itinerary and the time of year but I find that Holland America has the fewest kiddies because they market themselves to old folks like me!</p>
<p>romani, I concur with what Marilyn said, Jewel of the Seas and Carnival Paradise are your only choices out of Tampa (that I saw) in May. So that makes it easy for you, not much to decide from. I personally would go for the Jewel far and above Carnival Paradise, because it is a much newer boat, and the Paradise is kind of an old, but refurbished boat. I think if you look at the cruises/boats on cruise critic, you will see what I’m talking about, big difference.</p>
<p>Then again, if one itinerary strikes your fancy more than the other, or if a great deal exists on one, that could be a more important factor to go on.</p>
<p>I’ve been on 4 cruises, the first on Celebrity but with my kids back in 2002 when there were only fixed seating dinner options and lots of regimentation, we had a good time but found the whole cruise experience odd. The second cruise was in 2009 in the depths of the bad economy on Holland America that was 10 -day to Panama Canal. Actually my husband had a business trip on the cruise so it was paid for. The service was weak, the food and entertainment mediocre but the library was absolutely amazing. This June we did an Alaska cruise on Princess and really enjoyed it, good service, anytime dining, good itinerary, plenty of interesting programs onboard with National Park Service and other speakers, good movies also and so we just came back after taking advantage of an Eastern Caribbean cruise offer two weeks ago. This was our first time with balcony and that made the cruise enjoyable. We missed the Princess Cay port stop because of rough weather and one of the ports we had been looking forward to was very disappointing, would not want to return to St. Maarten… the food was not as good as on the Alaska cruise. The Alaska cruise also was an early evening cruise. I think that you are tired from being out on deck and walking around in colder and in our case wet weather and so you do go to sleep earlier. The really bad news on this cruise however was on the last night both my husband and I were among those who came down with norovirus. We got sick in the middle of the night and had to disembark and then fly home. Needless to see it was not the way we wanted to end a relaxing vacation and so it will quite some time before I consider another cruise.</p>
<p>We’ve only been on Princess. It was enjoyable and no complaints. There were folks of all ages. No loud obnoxious drunks. Food plentiful and tasty.</p>
<p>I didn’t know the options were so limited. Like I said, new to this :o</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. My mom’s enjoying cruise critic.</p>
<p>I’m sure she’ll figure this out, romani, but there are always people who have complaints. And go on and on, like the cruise is the worst in the world. Their sheets weren’t ironed one night, they didn’t get the paper napkin folded bunny another night, the steward forgot to turn down their bed, wah, wah. Well, I’d pay attention if there were tons of bad reviews, but otherwise I’d ignore the occasional crummy one. </p>
<p>Though I do want my paper napkin folded animal and chocolate laid upon my bed every night, thank you!</p>
<p>On Royal Caribbean they fold bath towels into cute little animals and leave them on your bed… Very cute!</p>
<p>Yay, can look forward to that one soon. I didn’t remember which cruise lines did that!</p>
<p>Of course, if those cute little animals were holding a bottle of complimentary wine, I’d be happier.</p>
<p>Confession: I actually have no idea what turn down the bed actually means. </p>
<p>And she knows. She worked in customer service for years. You rarely hear from the happy clients.</p>
<p>Royal Caribbean towel animals were much cuter than Holland America towel animals.</p>
<p>I didn’t know what it meant till I took a cruise. I take it to mean that they make up your bed, clean up your room a bit, and fold the top sheet down a bit. Plus put a cute animal on it, if you’re lucky. Forget Holland America, no animals!</p>
<p>We like to to cruise with Princess every couple years. In my view everyone is cutting BIG TIME and nickeling and diming equally BIG TIME. Our first in 2005 (Eastern Caribbean) was exquisite, our last back in June 2012 (Alaska) was not very impressive. </p>
<p>Thanks to cruise critic dot com one has a good frame of reference as to what cost cutting we’re talking about. The entertainment is borderline comical, with the band going from a dozen people down to 6, dancers likewise, and so on. Food has dropped considerably and ironically only desserts seemed to be improving…</p>
<p>We’re planning a Western Carib cruise for Jan 2014 out of Houston (combination cruise and college visits) and I have few expectations. When an ‘Alaska Themed’ dinner night includes mostly French and Italian dishes and oh, who would have thought, Baked Alaska, well, duh, Mrs. Turbo, of course we can’t have venison or Alaska crab or what not.</p>
<p>OP here. I wanted to thank everyone for the suggestions. I am leaning towards RCI, but it depends on the itinerary we choose. One itinerary I like is the Pacific coastal, and they don’t do that.</p>
<p>I will say that our last Carnival cruise was a 7-day not during any school breaks, and there were no problems with young drunks. We very much fit in the average age demographic for that cruise. Our first cruise was a short cruise during spring break, and that did have a younger crowd, but not too obnoxious.</p>
<p>Ideally, I would want a ship to have a good mix of young and old.</p>
<p>AdvMom, thanks for posting this. I’ve been wanting to go on a cruise and I’ve been on Cruise Critic and its so confusing. Most of all, I’m afraid that my H would hate it. He’s not a drinker, doesn’t gamble and not one to be at the beach. But he says he would go and my D says she will think about it also. </p>
<p>My S and his GF went on one of the mega ships and they had a great time but I thought the ports they went to weren’t that exciting and it was all about the ship. I’m afraid my H would be overwhelmed about the ship and decide he wants to sit in the room. </p>
<p>H does dive and likes to be active. He would love a cruise where he could dive at every stop. </p>
<p>Any suggestions on a ship where there would be lots to do that doesn’t include drinking, gambling or sitting at the pool? I think I’m fooling myself and this is a terrible idea.</p>
<p>^^Deb or OP:</p>
<p>pm me if you want the name of the national cruise company I’ve used. They can direct you toward the best option for what you’re looking for. My advice, though, would be to narrow down your choices to maybe three or four and then the cruise professional can help you decide between those options which one would be best.</p>
<p>We’ve been on several cruises around the Caribbean, Alaska and Hawaii. EVERY cruise ship has little animal towels made for them, including Holland America.</p>
<p>Hayden: We also went on the cruise ship around the Hawaiian Islands 6 years ago. We LOVED the itinerary…some cruises are “port heavy” and some are more geared to stuff to do on-board. My H & I prefer port heavy cruises more. That’s our own preference. With the NCL around Hawaii, we found the all-American crew to be much harder to ask for any assistance…they were not as easy to want to please the customer. I found that ship in particular nickeled and dimed you to death. I distinctly remember the food for the general public being quite salty and spicy…something I was surprised to find on a ship catering to the public. We did, however love the all Hawaii Island stops and am happy to hear you went recently and enjoyed it. I would do it again just for the stops! :)</p>
<p>PS Deb: I’m not a drinker or a gambler. Lots of fun things to do anyway. At night we’d go over to the piano bar and sing with the piano player and about 60 other people… something I normally don’t do at home! If you like to dive, then pick a cruise going to Bonaire, Aruba and Curacao. Bonaire is a tiny island but very big for diving. My H is not a huge beach person either and we pick port heavy cruises so we can off the ship and go explore the islands and what makes them each so unique. I get plenty of “sun” time aboard the ship while he reads his books in the shade!</p>
<p>Again, my own preference, but being on several cruises, I personally liked each cruise line except Carnival. I just think that most are a step up from Carnival and give you that memorable experience. Do some research and then contact a cruise professional to help you narrow down your choices.</p>
<p>I’ve done two cruises on Princess (Alaska and Caribbean), and one on NCL (Bermuda). I now have two (!) booked on Celebrity - one in December and one in February. I had originally been thinking of doing RCI, and obviously they have a lot of fans, but decided that a more upscale, calmer vacation was in the cards.</p>
<p>We really enjoyed Princess and will sail her again. I’ll cruise NCL only if convenient - they’re one of the only lines that cruises out of a port that I can drive to.</p>
<p>One thing to consider is a line’s smoking policy. RCI and NCL both allow smoking on cabin balconies. Princess and Celebrity do not. That makes a big difference to a lot of people, both smokers and non-smokers. In addition, Celebrity does not allow smoking in its casinos, while Princess has at least one smoke-free day/night in its casinos.</p>
<p>romani, the reason that your choices are so limited from Tampa in May is that many of the ships are repositioned from the Caribbean to the Bermuda runs out of Boston, NY and NJ beginning in May, and to the European itineraries. Not that many people want to cruise the Caribbean in the summer.</p>
<p>Also, if anyone wants to book a cruise soon, note that Celebrity is now having a big sale. For no extra charge, you can choose to get (1) a Classics drink package, which includes alcoholic drinks (a $44 per person per night value), (2) prepaid gratuities (a $12 per person per night value), or (3) $200 onboard credit per cabin. If you book a European cruise, you can choose two of the three.</p>
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<p>This must be why we had been originally told to expect poor service. The cruise line must have heard complaints, because the service was nothing less than stellar this March.</p>
<p>chocchipcookie, I echo your other comments.</p>
<p>deb922, I don’t like beaches (the sand and the crowds aren’t my taste), not much of a drinker beyond wine at dinner, and don’t do pools. I’m not trying to talk your H into liking cruises, because some people just don’t.</p>
<p>It boils down to whether you treat the cruise ship as a destination or a portable hotel. If you use it as a destination, you enjoy the games around the pool, the waiters with drinks, the lines of deck chairs in the sun and the entertainment. If you treat it like a portable hotel, you get a cabin with a window or a balcony, then look forward to what you’re going to do in a different port each day, without the hassle of packing and transport for each new location.</p>
<p>And of course, if you’re like us, between us my H and I cover both sides of the spectrum. Having said that, we reserve cruises for when the ice and snow will drive us crazy - and we go on a Rick Steves tour or by ourselves when we want to see the world.</p>