Comparing Cruises

[Michael]

We recently completed a 7 night cruise on Royal Caribean's "Grandeur of the Seas".  Since I now know at least one other person has recently cruised as well, this might be worth a thread.



Overall we were happy with the cruise.  Of course we spent more on stuff during the cruise than the tickets cost, but that is likely to happen.  I picked Royal Caribean because it runs higher rated ships (on average by rating in the cruise newsletters) than Carnival, and hasn't adopted Norwegians (to me) awful "free style dining" (which means you get to eat in the cafeteria for free but have to pay extra to eat the great food in the nice restaurant which is half of a Cruise's appeal).  R-C still lets you order the fancy stuff in the fancy restaurant for free, and we made great friends with out tablemates--of course you can eat in the cafeteria if you wanted to, we just never wanted to for dinner.  (But we spent $180 on wine alone for the week.) 

I would like to compare notes with other cruise line guests.  What did you like?  What did you hate?   

[SFEley]

Hi Michael,

The cruise I did last week was with Norwegian, and I actually quite enjoyed myself.  I think you misunderstood what the 'freestyle' thing is about, at least for eating -- it wasn't just the buffet line that was free, but two other fine restaurants as well.  Both of them had very good food for dinner.  (Breakfast and lunch were pretty mediocre.)  It was only the really high-end theme restaurants (the French place, the Italian place, and the sushi bar) that charged a cover, and that cover was only $15 per person.  This is hardly a ripoff.

On the other hand, sodas were $2 a pop, unless you wanted to pay $42 for the thermos and card sticker that got you unlimited refills throughout the cruise.  I thought this was ridiculously chintzy; I expect to pay too much for alcohol, but for Diet Coke?  When the prime rib is free?  That's just silly.

I can't really say how the cruise stacked up against other cruise lines, because we've only done this one.  I rather suspect that most of the pros and cons are pretty much the same: good food, good facilities, relaxation, port stops that are too short, shore excursions that are fun but a bit like cattle herding.  It was good service and a surface veneer of elegance over industrial catering and a fundamentally cheesy experience.  Which isn't to say it can't be fun, of course.

I posted some additional thoughts on my LiveJournal, which I maintained via the ship's Wi-Fi while I was cruising; if you really want, you can also listen to the "Thing Two" audio comment that also talks in part about the cruise.

[RichGarner]

The last cruise I took was my honeymoon in 1995 on the "Big Red Boat." (Which was the SMALLEST thing docked at every port we visited.)

On our cruise, all food and drinks were free. The only thing you had to pay for was alcohol. The cabins were a little small (but on a honeymoon, we never really spent time look at the room) and the facilities were a little dull. The most interesting distraction was the pool/hottubs on deck which were usually overcrowded.

The shore excursions were fun, but expensive. We paid $200 to go "pet the dolphins" and we were treated to a hour long speech (not video) of how dangerous it is for the dolphins to be touched by humans. So we were lined up and put in the water two by two with one arm behind backs and "petted" the dolphins in a very restrictive and forced way. The whole "petting" lasted about a minute and a half.

Otherwise, we loved it. We were treated like royalty, we had the same waiter at every meal who knew our tastes and dislikes, and we got a  week of quality alone time.

~sigh~ I've been wanting more alone time ever since

[SFEley]

The shore excursions were fun, but expensive. We paid $200 to go "pet the dolphins" and we were treated to a hour long speech (not video) of how dangerous it is for the dolphins to be touched by humans. So we were lined up and put in the water two by two with one arm behind backs and "petted" the dolphins in a very restrictive and forced way. The whole "petting" lasted about a minute and a half.

Ah, that's a shame.  If you want a more intimate experience, go to Grand Cayman and pet the stingrays at Stingray City.  There are a lot of them, they'll run right up onto your chest, and they feel really cool.  >8->  (As I said in my LJ: "It's a little bit like wrestling a giant, prehistoric, lubricated condom. Just remember that the barbed ribs are not for your pleasure.")

[wakela]

Insert your own Steve Irwin joke here.

[RichGarner]

Actually, we have a local aquarium that has a "pet-the-stingray" exhibit. My sons love this and they usually get splashed by the more fidgety ones.

I never really thought of the whole condom example... but now that I think about it, yeah. Kinda.

And, before someone asks... the stingers of these rays have been removed.

[SFEley]

And, before someone asks... the stingers of these rays have been removed.

The ones in Stingray City aren't.  That's just the name for a particular shallow patch in the ocean where stingrays congregate because people feed them there.

It doesn't really matter; it's actually quite difficult to get stung by a stingray unless you step on one or do something fairly stupid to one.  They can't just swim up and sting you.  (Irwin, from what I understand, came down on top of a ray he didn't know was there; getting stabbed in the chest like that was a very freak occurrence.)

[Michael]

I would like to post a couple of hints for potential cruisers...

Any shore activity the Cruise line offers is available for half price or less right at the dock when you get off the boat--the boat collects a lot of money for the service of hooking you up.  My best example was on Grand Cayman, where a vist to "hell" was $50 on the boat's list-- we went out and back for a dollar each way.