Looking to schedule a cruise (preferably a photo cruise) for my honeymoon next year. Wedding will be Aug 28th. Any suggestions?

I should be able to get plane tickets to either coast from my credit card rewards, so now I'm looking for a good deal on the actual cruise, and recommendations on the best lines to take (or avoid) :-)

My favorite cruise line is Carnival. Good service, great food, nice clean ships, bigger staterooms, younger crowd, and lots of activities. Plus, I get a $100 on-board credit for being a stockholder. I especially like the Conquest Class ships (950+ feet long, including Freedom, Conquest, Valor, Glory, and probably another ship I'm not thinking of).

Royal caribbean is nice. Bigger ships (much bigger in some cases), decent service, good food, and medium age crowd (some young, some old).

Norwegian is a good line. Ships are comparable to Carnival, except perhaps slightly more polished. The staterooms are generally smaller, the crowd is about like on Royal Caribbean, and there are some activities. The food on Norwegian is excellent, but only if you eat in the extra-cost "specialty" restaurants. The food in the included no-extra-cost dining room and buffet is ok (think general chain-buffet quality, things like meatloaf for lunch, and things like chicken parmesan for dinner), and much less tasty than on Carnival in my opinion.

Those are the three lines I have been on recently, including several cruises from Carnival and Norwegian. Again, my favorite is Carnival, which provides a great cruise experience, usually at the most reasonable price, and I don't feel like Carnival is constantly trying to nickel-and-dime, as I do on the other two lines.

If it is a Caribbean cruise you are looking for, you will probably need to be thinking whether to do "Eastern" or "Western" Caribbean (if you plan to cruise out of Florida). Eastern will have ports like St. Thomas, Nassau, Bahamas, Key West, St. Martin/St. Maarten or Grand Turk. Western itineraries will include ports such as Cozumel, Mexico, Costa Maya, Mexico, Grand Cayman, Belize, and Jamaica. Of those, my favorite ports are St. Thomas USVI, Nassau, Bahamas, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica.

I've been to most of the islands and ports by now, but if you are new to Caribbean cruising and between 20 and 45, I would probably book a 7-day on Carnival, and pick the lowest price on at least a Conquest-class size ship (cheapest will probably be Western, and I recommend making sure Grand Cayman and/or Jamaica are on the list of ports of call). For a nice 7-day departing August 29th, 2010, expect to spend $399-$479 (including port fees, but plus tax) per person for a 7-day semi-inclusive cruise (includes meals, and most activities, but not alcohol, soft drinks, tips, and shore excursions) in an inside cabin if you book early. Since it is your honeymoon, you may want to book a somewhat nicer, bigger room with a balcony. Balcony rooms start as low as $559 per person to around $759 per person if you book early enough (I would probably recommend the bigger balcony room for a honeymoon).

If you get seasick, book a midship cabin, on a lower or middle deck. You do not want to be up top at the front or at the back of the ship if motion bothers you.

I hope this is of some help, and congrats on the upcoming wedding!

Yes, I do cruise a lot.

Thanks, Nack!

I don't get seasick that I'm aware of, but neither of us has been on a ship before! Money is tight, but if you can't splurge on your honeymoon, what can you splurge on?

We need Luk he goes on alot every year.

My aunt does nothing but princess cruises but she does those very long 14+ day ones
she will be going on her 27th cruise here soon.

What do you mean by a photo cruise? One that has lots of things to take pictures of? Do you plan on staying on the ship most of the time, or do you want to take shore excursions? I think that's a pretty good time of year to take an Alaskan cruise, but you may find better deals on cruises further south.

I would suggest Carnival. They have an atmosphere that would be more fun for celebration of your wedding. Western Carribean I think would be the most enjoyable. I personally would suggest a balcony room. I guess I am spoiled there as since the first balcony room I had I would never go back to just outside/inside. Like Nack I have been to most of the ports available in any carribean cruise and West is my favorite. I can't speak about cruises leaving anywhere other than FL but soon to find that out maybe since my wife and I plan on doing European next year for 30th anniversary.

The last cruise line I would ever go on is Carnival... not even for free! (seriously) And we fall into the age range Nack described.

Best suggestion is to not go until hurricane season is over if you are looking to the Caribbean. Cruises do get canceled, re-routed, etc if there is a hurricane headed for any part of your cruise. We've done western, eastern and southern Caribbean cruises and liked them all very much. If it is your first cruise you can't really go wrong with any of the places. Well, Jamaica is every bit as dicey as you may have heard. The last time we went was Montego Bay. It was interesting getting back on the ship and hearing first timers reactions to how bad it is in Jamaica. Negril is the one port in Jamaica we haven't been to and that is supposed to be the worst of the lot. If you plan on taking photos while diving in Cozumel know that Katrina really did a number on the coral and much of it is still covered with sand. The colors are not what they were like prior to Katrina.

The best cruise we ever went on was to Alaska. You want to be able to take pictures? Bald Eagles, Moose, Porpoises, Dolphins, Otters, Killer Whales, were just some of the wildlife was saw on our cruise. The icebergs calving, the sheer beauty of Alaska is photographers dream. August is actually an excellent time to go because the views should be clear (in June there can be a ton of fog). We went the second week of September last year round trip from Seattle. You can do a one way cruise with a land package before hand. The reason I say before is because the trains shut down after Labor Day so you'd have to do your cruise down the second week.

The logistics of flying to Florida, Seattle, San Diego, San Juan, wherever to catch a cruise: Go the day before regardless of the time of the year. Our first cruise we flew down that same day in February and it all worked out. Little did we know how unlikely that was. Since then we have flown out a day or two before, stayed a night or two in a hotel, see the sites and then have one way transportation to the ship the day of the cruise.

To me cruising is the most economical vacation you can take. Just don't let them sell you everything and anything on board. Alcohol is the #1 expense on a cruise. If you drink a lot of pop, get a pop card and it saves you in the long run. Get a balcony. It is worth the money especially if you are claustrophobic. AJ went with us one cruise and had an inside cabin. He said the main problem was never knowing the time of day. I'm sure he slept well in the total darkness though.

Definitely utilize Cruise Critic for information on all lines. That is the #1 cruise board and it is #1 for a reason. They can answer anything!

We always check prices on Vacations to go but book directly with the cruise line. If you book through an agent the agent actually owns your reservation and the cruise line will not talk directly to you (they will only answer your agent). We always get cruise insurance because, well, you never know. If you get your insurance through the cruise line and the cruise line goes belly-up you are out.

Not that it matters to most but if you are a smoker and like the idea of getting cheap cigs while on your crusie to bring back there is a store in St. Thomas that has name brand for like $24 a carton and Doral for $15 a carton. I should quit since now here in Fl a carton is $45 plus and miss the cheap ones I was able to buy in St Thomas. Yea smoking is bad I know but there are worse things.

Oh and building on what Iam said... if you are a drinker plan on buying cheap liquor in the Caribbean. Look for what you can bring back duty free (it varies by port - you can bring back more form the US Virgin Islands, more from Jamaica if it was made on Jamaica, etc ). And even if you go over what you are legally allowed to bring back and have to pay duty, it is still worth it. Once we were two bottles over and the tariff would have been under $10 so the customs agent said "forget it". Before the stupid TSA 3.4oz thing taking liquor back was easy, now unless you are driving home you need to plan. Stop at your local liquor store before you leave for your cruise and get the individual boxes so they don't break in your luggage (like happened to me once, fortunately I had it in a plastic bag). I suggest single boxes rather than doubles or triples because the singles are easier to pack in your luggage. Since we got the boxes it has been a breeze to transport liquor bottles back in our luggage.

Oh and when we have Jamaica as a port we bring back Jamaican Blue coffee. Best coffee I ever had! It is $20 a pound there and $50 per pound here. And all Jamaican Blue is not created equally. We buy Jamaican Blue from some guy on eBay for $13 per pound and it is very good, but not as good as the stuff in the blue-bag in Jamaica.

Oh, and if you plan on swimming on any of the beaches get a water proof pouch before you leave home to put your cruise card in. The stuff they sell on ship is not very good (and the shops on the ships aren't open when you are in port anyway, so by the time you remember you need it, you are SOL) or very waterproof, so buy one before you leave home.

The only cruise we ever went on was celebrity millenium and we loved it. It was also for our honeymoon. I agree with ams on the cruise critic advice. Look through the forums too. We found that there was a section that told you which room number has better/bigger rooms (mostly balcony and veranda). Again, this was for celebrity but they might have one for another cruiseline that you are considering. We used cruise complete to book our cruise and had no problems. The agent we picked gave us free travel insurance and shipboard credit.

That may be a challenge; we're getting married on a Saturday (and expect it to run late into the night) and the 7-day cruises seem to start on Sundays.

Neither of us cares for alcohol, which seems to be the big expense aboard ship, so that should help keep expenses down! We do like soda, though.

be sure to get the unlimited soda card, not exactly cheap but the way to go if you are not an alcohol drinker

Soda cards run about $5/day.

I prefer Royal Caribbean/Celebrity, myself, but have also cruised Princess.

I loved the Caribbean (I've been on a Voyager class, but I can't wait to go on a Freedom or Oasis class ship!). However, isn't it hurricane season right now? I went early January

If you love to drink soda, I will third the soda card, but only if you drink more than 2-3 sodas per day (I do not). I think the last time I calculated that around 3 sodas per day was break-even on the soda card. Flying in the day before is a great suggestion, wherever you are cruising from. I almost-never fly to cruise, because of my location, but I would not want to miss a ship because of a delayed flight. I'll also second the suggestion on cheap alcohol. You can get full 1L bottles of Stoli (or Absolut, or other top-shelf vodka) for $10 no tax. They also have great deals on rum, tequila, etc. If you do a western caribbean and like tequila, stop at the duty free in Cozumel. They have an amazing selection of tequila, and the prices are very good. The last time I was there, you could also sample some of the products.

I hear different impressions on the various cruise lines, but I already gave you my take. I do like Carnival, but I also do understand that people have had bad experiences with various cruise lines, and that different people like different things (which is why there are different cruise lines). I do NOT go on Carnival cruises when school is not in session (too many screaming kids), but as long as school is in session, and there are a moderate number of kids on board, Carnival cruises have always been (for me) a pleasant cruise experience.

I have heard the Alaska cruises are amazing, but I have not yet been on one. I plan to sometime in the future, but just haven't got around to it. For a honeymoon, I will also third that a balcony cabin is a very good idea.

You are correct about the start day of most of the cruises being the day after your wedding. All I can think of would be to have a bit earlier wedding (in the morning), and catch an evening flight that same night. If your flight is delayed though, this may or may not leave enough time to get on the ship, but at least if your flight was delayed and you had to catch the 6AM flight the next morning, you would have a shot at it. Option B would be to get married, and then take a cruise the following week (which seem to be slightly cheaper also).

As a side note, some say (and it is the truth) that you can save lots of money on shore excursions, just getting off the ship in port and booking them at the dock the day you arrive at the port. This does indeed save money, and I have done it quite a bit, and often (but not always) they are the exact same excursions, just cheaper. Be careful though. Booking through the cruise line means that the ship either won't leave you, or that if it does, the line will be responsible for flying you to the next port if your excursion comes back too late. When you book yourself directly at the dock (and do not pay the cruise line's 50%+ markup for the same excursion), you do not have this protection, and if the tour bus gets a flat and the ship leaves you, it's on you to get to the next port. One way around this (to reduce the likelihood that the ship will leave you) is to book empty seats on the dock for an excursion that has passengers on it who booked through the ship. While I have successfully done this (at a big discount), this is YMMV.

I booked another cruise yesterday. I couldn't resist.

What is the closest port you can fly to? A same day flight may very well determine, or at least eliminate, a port/destination for you.

We live in Colorado, so there's not really any that I would call close.

that might be difficult for florida ports unless you book flight first knowing can book a specific cruise. It might be best to try to get cruise and flight package but since I have never had to fly to reach the port it may be easier than I think

Sure there is... San Diego or Seattle are you best bets if you plan on sailing on Sunday. You would gain an hour on Pacific time and get a direct flight out of Denver. If you try an east coast sailing, you lose 2 hours, and if you try San Juan you lose 3 hours. So if you plan on sailing next day, look to Alaska or Pacific Mexico.

Oh, I decided to do a quick search on Kayak for Galveston. That is doable to on a direct flight from Denver to Houston. You do lose one hour to central time, but there are flights early enough to get you into Houston and then drive to the port for sailing (I think). Anyway, it is another possible option.

That's a good point. I haven't found any deals on Alaska yet, but it's definitely an option. Depending on whom I ask I've been told that Aug/Sep is either a great or a lousy time to go to Alaska

I really don't like the cold..

What is "cold" to you? We went the second week in September and it was about as cold as the end of October here. Nothing crazy although it rained a lot. I think the temps were mainly in the 50s so you needed a sweater and a rain jacket. (Really, really, REALLY needed a rain jacket.) Two weeks before that your temps would be in the 60s.

The other great thing about when we went? The following week was end-of-season so everything was at least 50% off sticker price!

I sincerely doubt you'll find a "cheap" Alaskan cruise though. You might be better looking towards San Diego although I'm not sure that would be your dream cruise to photograph anything. Also the waters down that side of Mexico can be choppy. The perk to the Caribbean is it is smooth sailing. (hehe I've been living with Goos too long. )

That's not too bad. I don't like the rain either; too much trouble keeping my hearing aid dry! ;-p

Leaning towards Caribbean this time and Alaska in the future.

I will be going on my first Alaska cruise in two weeks!

As for deals, I booked my Alaskan cruise (Celebrity Millenium 10 nighter from Vancouver, which happens to be where I'm from) several months ago. My goal for a price point is <$100pp/night for the lowest class inside cabin and I got mine for about $900pp? I did the Pacific Northwest 4nt Seattle-Seattle cruise on Celebrity Mercury and would not recommend it as a honeymoon.

I agree that a balcony should be had for a honeymoon. We did in the Caribbean and certainly don't regret the extra $$$ towards it except when our neighbors would smoke. I think policies have changed since and no smoking is allowed on one side of the boat??? Each cruise line has their own policy on smoking, so be sure to take that into consideration!

I could easily make the most of a drink card. My wife and dentist would kill me, though...that and I'd probably pack my own flask of hooch to give the soda some "flavor"

I wanna hear more about the stockholder credit ;-)

You must own 100 or more shares of Carnival Cruise Line stock (CCL). On a 7-day or longer cruise, you qualify for a free $100 per cabin on-board credit, which shows up in your account. You get it by faxing a copy of your brokerage statement (ok to redact account number, etc.) along with cruise details to CCL, and they will credit your on-board account.

Be careful, Nack's a shareholder, he may have a bias opinion.

Actually, anytime this question comes up I see people recommending Carnival for the same reason Nack did. Younger crowd is always a top one.

well damn I am old and I vote carnival

San Diego airport is about 1 mile from the cruise terminal..and there is a ton of places to stay right next to it..and everything else you can think of.
carnival the food is not that great though..Carnival is just a big party so if you like
to party thats the one to do..
If your not into drinking might want to book a princess cruise. AK would be nice been wanting to do that.

Definitely not into drinking/partying.

I like San Diego..

I just looked through Carnival pricing for rooms and found a suite for $1.3k and a cheaper room for $459. It says:


So does that mean if one was to go by themselves they would have to pay double the rate listed since they expect 2 people to that room?

If not, then why not book a suite for you and a cheap room for your SO, cheaper and you have a ton more space?

I've never done a cruise, so I don't know anything about them besides what I've read.

I think all cruise rates posted are per person however if going single the rate is not as high as 2x posted but not as low as per person rate no matter which room. Best is get suite and multiple people if that many can stand being in there together

Any advice on picking the room?

Also, I just stumbled across BestPrice Cruises and they have some -nice- early saver discounts ($1k total for both of us to get a standard balcony on carnival the week after the wedding) - anyone have experience with them?

I have used them without a hitch and would again. They are not always the best price and do not always have the best selection but if you have few preferences they are good. I prefer balconies on the back of the ship however hard to come by and higher price usually, The balconyon the back is very hot since wide open but the scenes and sunrises/sunsets (amazing for pics) you see are sure much better than that from a side balcony. The side balcony has the advantage of being nice and windy at times. How many days is that cruise? It seems like a great rate for a balcony room depending on the length of the criuse. Just be sure it is not an obstructed view as those do not allow you to veiw the best.

What's your destination?

AKAIK there is only one cruise line that does not penalize singles and that is a pretty high end line. The other high end line is a 50% upcharge for a single. All the other cruise lines charge at double occupancy rate (so as a single you would pay double).

And your line of choice is Carnival!? Ummm

there is still fun but Carnival does have a more party atmosphere the most of the rest

There's a reason I came here asking for advice, I've never been on a cruise!
Just looking for a nice ship at a good price with plenty to do once we decide to leave the room

Heh, it's not all a party there... The Carnival cruise I took seemed fairly quiet and laid back, not really much of a party or drinking scene.

And, of course, he'll probably go camp in the casino for a few (or more) hours.

actually for a first cruise and good price carnival is the best bet even though they are party ships. The ports are the same regardless of which cruiseline. Just the excitement of first being a newlywed and your first ever cruise will occupy all you need

Yeah but I hate to see him hate cruising. I honestly think Carnival would be poor placement for a non-drinker, non-partyer. Taking the (small) step up to Princess or RCCL (or Celebrity, even better!) would probably make for a much more enjoyable cruise experience.

I did not care for princess and I am not a drinker or party goer. I much prefer carnival. Just the little things but made my taste for princess sour such as no soft serve ice cream free like on carnival ( only free ice cream on princess was either from 330 to 530 in one of the buffet lines or during dinner dessert and no free punch and lemonade at the fountain ( only free lemonade is by asking for it from waiter in buffet court and no free punch at all on princess). I am not much an ice cream fan or even dessert at all for that matter however my wife is. I was surprised that by 11pm the mode of the ship turned to nothing..dead..nada except for movies under the stars I think they called it where people could sit in lounge chairs and watch a movie on a big screen near the pool. No midnight buffets as I was used to on carnival. No adult midnight comedy show. No pizza and ice cream free all night. I am sure that princess cruises is a fan of many but sure not me.

oh and no free choc milk for breakfast on princess like on carnival in buffet line.. I do like choc milk. On top of all of that I was not pleased with the meals on princess as I was on carnival.

oh and crons post about sites to watch tv reminded me of this...Princess tv only has predetermined taped shows that are mainly of no interest and every damn love boat show ever made I think. Carnival tv at least gives you options to see current events and at the time of my last carnival cruise fox tv so I could watch am idol..lol. During my last cruise which was princess I missed am idol completely cause I dont think it was on any of the online stations later and had to watch survivor and hells kitchen that I missed thru online websites

I've done Carnival, RCCL, and Norwegian. All are nice, but I really, honestly, recommend Carnival for a first-time cruise among those three. Just make sure to go on one of the larger ships. It isn't like everyone on board is a party animal on the Carnival ships. In fact, my friends and I call the RCCL cruise we went on the "Drunken Debauchery Cruise" due to the people we knew who were also onboard, and their, um, activities. The big difference on Carnival is you get a bit of a younger crowd (a good thing, as far as I'm concerned), and more kids. If you go during the school year, the kids are not a big issue.

That said, I have heard Princess is very nice as well (also a CCL company).

"Mrs. Robinson you're trying to seduce me."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pH8UVde7YM&NR=1



http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-0...0,1584476.story

What would you consider to be "one of the larger ships"?

I would say over 100k ton

Yes, over 100,000 ton. Any of the Conquest class ships will be fine. Conquest, Valor, Freedom, Glory, Liberty, etc. The Carnival Dream is even larger than these ships.

There are also some 88,500 ton Carnival ships that are newer ships that I understand are very nice as well.

Here is a link to a page where you can look up info on the various ships of all of the cruise lines, including how old they are, length, decks, size, etc.:

http://www.vacationstogo.com/cruise_ships.cfm

Wow is this all a matter of taste - I hate the larger ships. Anything that is ....of the Seas (RCCL) we will no longer book with unless we love the destination.

I must admit the best time I have ever had on cruises were smaller ships. The carnival celebration was great and the first cruise I ever took many years ago on the seawind crown which is no longer in existence. The seawind crown was so small that it was more like a huge boat on water instead of a cruise ship with low ceilings even on the stage. Dancers were limited to what they could do. My son who was I think 9 at the time and one of the few kids on board was a participant helper in all the activites onboard. By the end of the cruise even all the passengers knew him.

I was on Navigator of the Seas a few years ago when it was the largest ship out there and I loved it. I was on it for two weeks, so that may make a difference...big ship = more activities/things to do compared to a smaller ship...On the Navigator, we did roller blading, wall climbing, ice skating, etc. I was on the Celebrity Millenium two years ago and those kinds of activities just aren't even possible.

Some other topics that depend on taste involves dining -- some favor the "anytime dining" being offered by cruise companies now (and I think the trend is to increase the availability of such) vs the "traditional" main and late seatings. Being on a honeymoon, I'm not sure if anytime dining will work as well, as you may be placed at a table with others eating at the same time. On our honeymoon, I talked to the maitre'd and got us a table for two by the second night.