Decorate your cabin door with upside down pineapples.
Everyone one we meet on the ship is so friendly.

Watching the ship undock and dock is very interesting.  Watching the pilot boat and pilot getting off and on is also very interesting.

Many cruise ships don't use tugs, but often tugs are standing by just in case.  (note: tug boat, not tug job)

Interesting how many children have outed themselves via negatives in this thread.

Bring some much larger fitting clothes to start wearing half -way through the cruise

This man knows the drill!  I come home 7-10 lbs heavier.



Good to know.  Always wondered myself.  Must be tough for an alcoholic to be on a cruise ship full of people drinking and servers trying to constantly bring you drinks.

Respectfully, it sounds like hell regardless of whether there's a ship involved.

Ah that’s probably what it was, appreciate your clarifying it for OP and anyone else

We almost went on a cruise once.  Changed our minds and went to a really nice all-inclusive in Mexico.  Never crowded (I HATE crowds and waiting), huge pool, .6 mile beach, lots of bars (decent booze is not extra), lots of restaurants (no assigned dining time, seldom a wait for a table but if there is there are bars for a drink while waiting), lots of entertainment all day and all evening (starts with yoga on the beach at 8 am, ends at 2 am in the sports bar), adults only, and the damn place won't leave us behind if we are outside the wire longer than expected.  Leave and return at will.  The smallest rooms are 532 sq. ft.  No casino on site but we don't gamble.  Casinos are a short taxi ride away and, once again, if you are on a winning streak no need to quit early since the resort isn't going to leave you behind.  365 arrival and departure dates a year.  

These kinds of places are all over the Caribbean.  Pick your island or Mexico and there will be some nice choices (avoid timeshare resorts like the plague - once for us and never again).  Good selection of family resorts (Barcelo Riviera Maya looks great for families with any age kids) as well as adults-only (not Hedonism type) resorts.    

We would like to do an inside passage cruise to Alaska but your version of an AK vacation makes a lot of sense for reasons.  My dream vacation to AK would be to ride my bike up and back and have my wife fly up to meet me for a couple of weeks.  Rent a car during her stay since she doesn't ride.  My wife has spiked the ride to AK trip figuring I'd get snatched off the bike and eaten by a bear or some other unlikely event.  She is OK with me riding to the Canadian Rockies up to Jasper next year.  

A river cruise in Europe might be memorable.

Pics of where we go.

Less than half the beach.  This part extends to the white house.  The thin blue/green rectangle this way from the house is the enclosure protecting sea turtle eggs relocated from all over the beach.  Down that way is where saltwater crocs cross from the swamp to the sea.  The crocs occasionally go for a nocturnal swim in the pool.  Staff check the pools early every morning to remove visitors.

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One swim-up bar peeking in from the right, the other swim-up bar in the background over my wife's right shoulder. The picture shows around 25% of the 46,000 sq. ft. pool.  There is another 30,000 sq. ft. pool fronting the swim-up suites.

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In this picture, there is a beachfront restaurant, two poolside food trucks, a snack bar, and 5 bars.  The other 6 restaurants, 7 bars, shopping, lobby, a breakfast and lunch buffet, and theater are out of frame to the right.  540 rooms spread over 130 developed acres.  Another 300 acres of jungle and swamp with raised boardwalks.  Critters everywhere and up close.  Cotamundis, iguanas, a few spider monkeys, a rare anteater, lots of beautiful birds and butterflies.  

Again, I hate crowds.  Mildly claustrophobic.  I want lots of elbow room.  The place seems semi to mostly deserted even at full capacity except for evening live music in the plaza, the fancy drinking bar, the sports bar, the pool foam party, the poolside mechanical bull competition, and a couple of other events.    

There are bigger and more elaborate resorts but those mostly are divided into sections with the cheap seats barred from the more expensive sections on a price ascending scheme.  

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For me, not sure if it’s ADHD or what,  it I like to go a lot of different places and do different things, so being “stuck” in the same place sounds like hell (FWIW, I have zero interest in doing a cruise that has several consecutive days at sea, like Hawaii, or a transatlantic) I like to refer to cruises as vacation sampler platters. “Let’s go to Dominican Republic! Oh, it’s a shithole, ziplining was cool, glad I was only here for a day and didn’t commit for a week!”

This, seriously.

Yeah.  First couple of trips we did a fair number of excursions.  And there are so many more that we didn't take.  Never felt unsafe.  Last couple of trips we didn't leave the resort but a visit to the lobby and we'd be on our way.  Having the option to take off somewhere at will is comforting.  Group tours, private tours, resort shuttle 3 times a day to Playa del Carmen, taxis at any time, rent a car, walk the mile to the resort entrance and catch a local bus. And, again, the resort is still there no matter when we return.  

If going to MX was our only travel I'd want to shake it up a bit but we go other places too.  We're older and were raising 3 grandkids.  Now down to 'only' a 13-year-old granddaughter.  A couple of weeks of downtime with no kids anywhere in sight is precious.  

I get my go fast, go far fix taking motorcycle trips.  I used to travel a lot for work so keep me away from people now.  We've traditionally taken the grandkids on road trip/beach vacations every other year.  Tough now with having only our 13-year-old since she only wants to go with a friend and a friend her age who can travel is hard to find.  The best we've for her done so far was a two-night trip to WV last summer so she and her friend could take the haunted tour of the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum.  Tweens are strange.  We'd like to take her and a friend on a two-week Rockies trip next summer if she can find a friend who can go.  If not maybe she can find one that can go with her go to the Smokies for a few days.

We are definitely not in a travel rut.  I'm retired and my wife is 18 months away from hers but she has around 80 days of accrued leave so we are no longer constrained to one trip a year.    

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Faked it BTW.
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If you want to wear clothes with pineapples and don't want a lot of new 'friends' make sure the pineapples are right side up.  Avoid doing handstands.

Drink prices are retarded.  A cruise ship is the best place to get sober.

BTDT, too many times in South America.  

I almost have to pack a hard hat when I go to Col or Eq....

Or you look at the bar, and see what they have.   My last cruise had a bottle of 16 single malt on the shelf, but wasn't in the system anymore.   Bartender would ring it up like Jameson.   So, I'd always go back to that bar station.

Hopefully not a 3 day on Carnival

But if mousehunter is there, you've got a good deal. Apparently, he will pay for the cruise, the flight home, a car, an education, and he will fetch your drinks all day.

Is the drink package worth it?

Drinks are about $8-12 each.
Do each of you drink 6 a day to get your $60+ per day per person worth? Every person in the cabin must get it, not just one.

You can usually carry on a 12pk of soda per person.

Kharn

Remember, you won't be drinking all day on the drink package on the shore days. You'll usually be buying drinks on shore. Also, the first and last days of the cruise are short days, so you better drink up on sea days.

That depends on which cruise line you're on, how much the package is, how many days you have in port vs at sea, and how much you drink.

With NCL, their standard grade drink package is often lumped in to their "Free at Sea" promo, but you can opt in and out of certain things and the bottom line price fluctuates. I want to say for two of us on a 2 week cruise the difference was $300 or something. Break even is something like 3 drinks per person per day.

Neither of us are big drinkers, but leaving that box checked and getting what we want whenever was pretty good.

Do the math.. how much is it per day, and how much will you drink each day?

For me it was worth it.. I drank above and beyond what I paid for daily.. they printed out a list of what I had in 6 days at the end(zero charge of course).  It was impressive LOL.

I know exactly what you’re talking about lol. I discovered suites and haven’t looked back.

Here’s the shower and tub area in the one we have booked in October.

1900 square feet and everything and I mean everything is included for cheaper than it was to take the fam to Universal for a week.

No idea.  Will be going on my first the last week of July.

we had a great time on ours, brothers family got the noravirus and never did another one.  I prefer Cozumel land based for diving but the cruise took us places I would never go.

If you want a taste of the real Bahamas, in Nassau, without risking your life.  Walk along the water east toward the two bridges you see from the cruise terminal (it's about a mile walk or you can take a cab or the bus).

Under the bridge, are traditional Bahamian fry shacks where you can get fresh fish, conch and lobster that will be better than any meal you eat on the ship, (and, you can even knock a couple of Kaliks off while you do it).  I wouldn't go anywhere else on foot in Nassau these days.  It's the one place I always have to hit, whether I go to Nassau on my boat or someone else's.

Coco Cay is a private island in the southern Abacos owned by Disney.   It's not bad.  My kids loved snorkeling and having the baby Barracuda swim all around us (I just kept looking for mama and daddy).

It's all about the math, and does it work for you and your guests.
The cruise line we've been going on lately is stupid cheap at the time of booking. The last one was $200pp for 8 days, and included wifi. I could drink any beer, and most liquors, as well as getting doubles. It also includes cappuccinos and wine at dinner. It is considerably more expensive if you buy it later.
The key to a good cruise is to wash or sanitize your hands religiously. The girls carry their cruise card on a lanyard with Purell or that trendy flat sanitizer hanging with it. Use the stairs if the elevators are crazy full to reduce the chance of a respiratory illness.

If it's the cruise line's private island where you use your ship card to make purchases on the beach, the drink package should apply. But you usually only stop at one of those.

Kharn

You are spot on with the lack of premium liquors. I’ve gone entirely mixed drinks while aboard. My last one was on Allure and I was hopeful about the Macallan treating the genie set me up on but even it was canceled because of lack of supply. There was some decent stuff in the retail area but nothing of note for consumption while aboard. I did manage to score a fifth of Johnny Blue from the retail shop manager as a gift but that’s another story. I’m not that much of a Walker fan but free is free.

RC’s drink package does apply to PDCC.

Royal Caribbean and Celebrity do not cut you off at 15 drinks.  They don't cut you off unless your are stinking drunk.
Royal Caribbean and Celebrity do have sales on drink packages.
Cash is useful for tipping your stateroom attendant, butler and favorite bartenders as well as for use while ashore.

The gratuity is included in the total price of the drink package, and not a separate charge at the end of the cruise.

I guess we should throw some things out for the OP on this one.

Your key card is how you do almost all your business with the cruise line. You can sometimes write in tips on the receipts the same way you do at a restaurant. Most gratuities are already included in your statement unless you opt out, but cash is well received.

Cash is your best bet for doing business ashore outside of the cruise line private islands. Everyone likes it, and it keeps you safe from card skimming nonsense. When you leave the ship, you should take your passport, your key card, at least one credit card (with good protections), and some amount of cash.

You should leave backups of things in the safe in your room. This includes the cash you're not carrying, debit cards, and additional form(s) of government ID in case something happens to your wallet.

We got it on our first and only cruise so far.  Wife came down with it day 5 out of 7.  I got it the second day after we got back... probably after the alcohol left my body.  Was Carnival Long Beach to Puerto Vallarta to Cabo and back.

One day was actually kinda miserable and you just curl up in bed.

The positive from it is you get back to your pre cruise weight.

Wasnt bad enough to deter us from doing more, we do have plans for an Alaska, Caribbean, and Med cruise at some point.

It not like one of us does not get some sort of travel funk on any trip anyways... I blame the airports more than the planes.

fatties hanging out by the all day burger bar

Carnival allowed us to take a bottle of wine each onto the boat.  Both wine bottles were full of liquor.

Bring cash to tip your wait staff, room attendants, etc.  A few bucks every day or at every meal will get you significantly better service.

On my Carnival cruise, the only way to buy anything on the boat was on the credit card linked to your room.  

Make sure you aren't bringing any prohibited items onto the ship.  I don't mean guns, knives, or drugs but curling irons and hair dryers.

Wear sunscreen and drink water.  It's super easy to drink all day (especially if you have the drink package) and wind up as a heat casualty in a 3rd world country.

We got off the ship in Nassau, walked through the straw market, went to both Harley shops looking for a t-shirt or poker chip, and then got back on the ship.  Nassau is a fucking shithole...

Have a good time.

Flying out to Seattle Monday, crossing an Alaskan cruise off the list.

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He definitely did not. But that Venn diagram does have some overlap, especially when  you start down the sword and jerky aisles.

Any reviews for Holland America cruises?

Geared towards an older crowd, and thus raving reviews.   No drunks fighting, no out of hand parties, no fights over respect.   You also have the "price out the riff raff" too.

We aren’t big drinkers but get it (on Royal Caribbean).  The convenience is a big factor.  Also you can try all the drinks you want.  Last cruise we broke even between the $14 drinks ($16.52 w. gratuity), bottled water and coffee.
I say we aren’t big drinkers but we started out with 17 between the 2 of us on embarkation day.

For example, our next 4 day cruise this Dec., we paid $755.04 (for the drink package).