Favorite Cruise Line, and Why? (best, reviews, trip, sailing)

[Travel'r]

Carnival
Celebrity
Disney
Holland America
Princess
Norwegian
Royal Carribbean
Luxury (Cunard, Crystal...)
Other

We are in the process of booking a cruise for next year, and are going to try Holland America this time. Have sailed Carnival, Disney and Celebrity in the past, and chose HAL this time.

So, Cruisers, what's your favorite Line/Ship and what makes it special?
Ours was Celebrity's Mercury (sans kids) and Disney with kiddies.

[exhdo1]

Been on numerous cruises. Seems like we always wind up comparing them to Royal Caribbean. We rarely have issues on Royal Caribbean and if we did the problem was fixed immediately.

[Mooseketeer]

"Hebridean cruise company", very small ships, very luxurious, fantastic gourmet food . I am not a cruise fan and could never cruise on big ship as I find them completely lacking in character and I hate their general design. The idea of being stuck with another 10000 people on board is my idea of hell ! It always makes me feel like a tourist and I want to feel like a traveller. I don't need all night buffets, glitzy entertainment,swimming pool, cabarets, casinos, shopping, etc... I am quite capable of entertaining myself.

I much prefer a tiny small ship with a lot of experts on board like ornithologists, naturalists, archaeologists, marine biologists etc( and a great library)... who can inform and teach me about the areas visited ( which some of the small cruise companies do provide as standard).

I think my ideal would be a smallish vintage yacht with a gourmet chef on board and maybe 4 guests at most. To me that would be true luxury. Something like this as an example :
Vintage Power Yacht Charters

I did one of these in the Aegean sea and it was Heaven, a real taste of paradise and you can muck in with sailing if you want to , but don't have to. What could be better !?

[mal7014]

Originally Posted by exhdo1

Been on numerous cruises. Seems like we always wind up comparing them to Royal Caribbean. We rarely have issues on Royal Caribbean and if we did the problem was fixed immediately.

I second that.

[doggiebus]

Royal Caribbean is our favorite so far. We like this cruise lines mainly because of the style and design of the ships. RC also has some cool things aboard like the wave machine, the ice rink, big pools, rock climbing, mini golf, etc. We have only been on two other cruiselines, celebrity and carnival. We to go back and compare the other lines to RC. We did find that the service was better on Celbrity with it being much more formal and the crowd was older. Carnival was a party ship with a younger crowd and the ship design just wasn't our taste. RC just fits us right at this point in our lives.

[115db]

Im not sure that I can handle a cruise. Last time I was on a ship, the entire 2 day trip was spent getting sick, as soon as we left the port, but as soon as we got off, I was fine. But since then, Ive been on sailboats and speedboats, so dont know if theres anything different of if it was just wierd, but dont want to find out the hard way anytime soon!

[Greatday]

We have been on many cruises - on both large and small vessels. However, perhaps our most favorite cruise experience has been the canals of Holland - Very small barges - maybe 20 passengers - moving slowly, so much so, you can actually step off at various points.

The Chef asks what you want and obtains fresh ingredients from local markets or farms.

No casino. No piano lounge. No martini bar. No "headline" entertainment. Just simple relaxation with others of a like mind.

[sweetana3]

We leave Saturday for a Canadian Cruise. Woo hoo.

We tried:
Holland American. Friendlist crew and best beds by far. Little older crowd and a little more casual.

Celebrity. Fancy NY supper Club cruise. Great food, lots of dancing and dress up. Lot of gorgeous Italian looking waiters.
\
Costa. Long time ago. Remember it as being very Italian and a little stuffy.

We are trying Princess this time on the Crown. Big ship but the reviews are positive. Looking forward to checking out the International cafe. Only wish they had DVD players in the room.

Once we did a back to back but took two different lines. Took the Westerdam one week, crossed the pier and took Celebrity's Millenium for the second week. So much fun contrasting the different lines.

I liked HAL also for the retractable roof over the pool in some of the ships. No matter what the weather, they could use that area. Indonesian crew.

check out Cruise reviews, message boards, bargains, cruise information - CruiseCritic.com for a huge site of reviews, forums, and articles. Well organized and so helpful.

[tao]

Originally Posted by exhdo1

Been on numerous cruises. Seems like we always wind up comparing them to Royal Caribbean. We rarely have issues on Royal Caribbean and if we did the problem was fixed immediately.

I agree. I've been on many different cruiselines (such as Cunard, Carnival, Holland American, Norwegian, etc.) and Royal Caribbean is top of the list.

[Georgepl]

Definetly not the haze grey and underway lines.