I love cruising. We've been on a number of cruises. Eight or nine. Mostly Princess Cruises, though we tried Carnival (who also owns Princess) and Royal Carribean once each. After our last Princess Cruise (to Hawaii) we became "Platinum Members" so our next cruise we get some perks, like preferred embarkation and so forth. I like to drink, eat and visit ports of call. You can get the drinks and ports of call on any cruiseline but good food is a must. And that isn't RC's or Carnival's forte. It is on Princess. RC has some cool style ships with a grand mall that staterooms look out over. The only problem is you can't get food after 11 pm except for a tiny pizza, sandwich shop or roomservice. Princess' buffets on deck 14 are open 24/7 and they have goooood food. If you want to just party Carnival is the young crowd but like RC, no food after 11 (except room service). What my wife likes is the Movies Under the Stars (not available on the Carnival or RC cruises we took; I think it's unique to Princess).....like a drive-in movie on the top deck. I like it because we usually cruise during football season, the playoffs or Superbowl. Cheaper fairs in November though my wife's birthday is early February, so we've taken a few then. I watched the Saints beat the Colts, on that huge screen while eating great food and drinking good Scotch! They show NFL football....regular season, playoffs and Superbowl on that screen, so it's never a bad time (for me) to take a cruise.
On ports of call, the more the merrier. I've visited most of the Islands in the Caribbean. My favorites are Barbados, St. Thomas, St. Marten, St. Lucia, Bonaire and Aruba. We've been whale watching (in St. Lucia and Hawaii), zip lining, snorkeling (always), sailing and I love island tours, especially renting a car if the stay is long enough (Oahu & San Juan). The best cruise we were on was one that started in San Juan and had 10 stops. It was a 14 day cruise that was actually two 7 day cruises. We always get a mini-suite with a balcony.......can't stand a room with no windows that open. If you're going to fly to the port, it's best to go a day early and rent a hotel. That way if there's bad weather/airport delays you don't miss the boat. Our niece got delayed for her honeymoon and had to fly to one of the ports to catch the boat. Expensive and problems with luggage. Usually we drive to Lauderdale (for Princess), though we flew to San Juan (Princess) and Tampa (Carnival). The Royal Caribbean went out of Hoboken, NJ (about an hours drive for us). That was a hoot because for the first 2 days it appeared only three or four hundred passengers were aboard. Winter in the Atlantic can be rough and apparently most of the passengers were sea-sick the first couple days. Then they go buy those circular patches you put behind your ear to prevent further sickness. There's nothing more amusing than seeing a guy with a shaved head, tattoos all over and a little patch behind his ear!! You know it's bad when they have barf-bags in all the restrooms!
On the one Carnival Cruise we took, we got a call a couple of weeks before the cruise from Carnival to upgrade for an additional $100 each. When they sell out the suites/mini suites and get a lot of requests, they call booked parties to see if they want to upgrade to more expensive accomodations. This was a once in a lifetime piece of luck. They upgraded us to the "Owner's Suite" which was phenominal.....actually more phenominal than it sounds. A huge suite, overlooking one of the pools. No balcony but it was the one time I was okay with it. Complimentary Champagne and food on arrival, a hot tub and totally complicated shower. A walk in closet the size of interior stateroom. A bar. A living room with 4 large leather chaise-couches, a large conventional sofa, a couple of chairs and huge TV. A huge bedroom with a comfy California king and another huge TV. Needless to say the party ended there every night (or more accurately, every morning). Also needless to say we'll never enjoy those amenities for that price again.
I've never cruised Holland America but they're more expensive and tend to have an older, more reserved crowd. Carnival and Royal Caribbean are lacking in the food department. But Princess is just right, for me. The one Carnival we sailed we met a couple from Philadelphia (we live in PA). They were smoking a joint on the port side promenade deck. A little too indiscreet but that wasn't the worst of it. We learned she was his stripper girlfriend, not his wife and later he was arrested trying to board in St. Thomas after buying smoke, obviously from somebody the authorities were watching. Well, I guess he left her with little cash and she was caught propositioning multiple passengers and put off at the next port!
It's Princess for me. The entertainment is basically the same on all of them though RC had an ice skating show. Rather unique and obviously quite challenging on less than calm seas! Like I said, good food, good liquor and ports of call for me. That's Princess Cruises for my modest income bracket.
