Tips for The First Time Cruisers

With summer just around the corner many people are thinking about vacations and possibly taking their first cruise.

My husband and I have been very fortunate in that we have been able to take a cruise at least once a year for the 21 years we have been married so I have picked up some tips along the way that I thought I would share.

The cruising industry has changed considerably over the years and I am finding that most regular cruisers have chosen a particular line such as Norweigian Cruise Lines (NCL), Royal Caribbean, Carnival, etc. because the more you cruise with one line the more benefits you receive.  Everything from discounts on future trips, upgrades on cabins and special parties on board can be had for those loyal customers, but not all ships are alike and neither are the amenities so maybe I can help you wade through some of this with my experience with the various lines.

One tip that I find helps those first time cruisers is to decide what is most important to you on your vacation.  Entertainment is a given and all ships provide that in one form or another, however, choice of dining experience, shopping, on board activities, and service are all different depending on the ship.
 When I first started cruising in the late '80's you were assigned seats and times for dinner and everyone ate in the main dining room no matter what cruise line you were on.   There was an "early seating" and a "late seating" and you were  placed with the same group of people for the entire week.  If you didn't hit it off with them you were basically stuck with the situation.  Most of the time we were in good company, but occasionally we found ourselves with people who didn't speak English and so there was a lot of nodding going on.

NCL started a new program several years ago called "freestyle cruising".  Instead of having just the main dining rooms for people to have their evening meal they added several upscale International restaurants with cuisines from France, Japan, Italy and Spain as well as a 5 star steak house.  For an additional fee you could have dinner at any one of these restaurants and choose your own time table.  Originally this was relatively inexpensive but the charges now are anywhere from $10.00-$30.00 per person extra.  This is my favorite kind of dining experience as I feel the service is better and the food is more authentic then you might find in the main dining rooms. You also have a change of scenery as each one is decorated according to the cuisine served.

Now many of the other cruise lines have added an "anytime dining" alternative to their standard fare, but generally offer only one or two additional restaurants.  I think this has a lot to do with the fact that cruising is becoming more popular and the need to compete comes into play.

The "Anytime dining" works well for the days you are in port until the late evening as you can relax and enjoy yourself without the worry of rushing back to the ship so that you can have enough time to change and still make it to your scheduled dinner hour.   Many times we had to race back to grab a shower and a quick change because we opted for the early seating which was 6:30.  There is always a full buffet served on the upper decks until at least 10pm so you never go hungry, but the food is not the same and it's self serve.
Unfortunately you sacrifice one thing for another among the different cruise ships.  The specialty restaurants on NCL are exceptional in service and flavor but the ships themselves leave a lot to be desired as far as decor.  This is just my opinion, but this is not a ship I would choose for ambiance. 

If you want really great food without worrying about a time table then I would suggest you opt for a ship that has the "anytime dining" and at least try one of the restaurants other than the main dining room during your trip.  This is not to say that the food in the main dining rooms is bad. Far from it.  They offer a variety of main courses as well as specialty dishes and a host of desserts, but the experience can become mundane day after day.

Another area that has changed considerably over the years is the type of service you receive on board. There isn't a whole lot you can do about it, but I do have some tips to make it a little better and I will be posting about that next time.

My Eastern Caribbean Cruise Journal, Pt.2

I left off last time with pictures of the Penthouse cabin my husband surprised me with so now we are leaving Miami and this first picture is the one taken off our balcony. We have a "sea day" tomorrow, but the following day we will dock in Samana, Dominican Republic.

One of the great perks of being in the Penthouse or Garden Suites (Garden Suite is what they call the Owner's Suite and it is as large as a home with their own private patio and pool. The room goes for anywhere from $10,000 and up per week)is that we are given our own little restaurant to have breakfast and lunch. This is an area on the 12th floor of the ship with windows all around that can only be accessed with your room key. I loved the decor in this room with the cowhide skin backs on the black leather chairs.

The meals in here were superb as well as the service. In the morning we had our own mini buffet with choice of juices, fruits, pastries, cheeses and coffee. This was in addition to your meal. Ralph and I tried the Eggs Benedict one morning and the french toast stuffed with cream cheese and lingonberries another morning. Breakfast was served until 10am so we missed it a few times and went for lunch instead.





The next three pictures are of some of the food we had there for lunch on the first day out to sea. Ralph is having the jumbo shrimp cocktail which was followed by Veal Marsala and I had the salad and seared scallops. Of course dessert is served at all the meals so Ralph had the cheesecake and I had carrot cake.

By the time we finished the late lunch we decided to tour the ship and see what the deals in the stores were for the night. Each day the shops offer a table full of deals. One night I bought a pair of sunglasses with a little bling on the sides and a cute little black purse, each for $10.00.

When we got back to our room the "butler" stopped by with some hors'devours. This night it was little tartletts and a yummy dark and white chocolate truffle. Sometimes it would be canapes and others times it was chocolate covered cherries, but around 5pm every night you knew he would be stopping by.

This is the picture of the sun setting on our first night. We just poured ourselves a glass of wine and were eating our little desserts.

For the following day, since we would be out to sea, we planned to lounge around and catch up on our reading.

I still have lots of pictures to share and a many more adventures so I hope you will continue on this journey with me.

Cruising to the Eastern Caribbean

My husband and I are going on a cruise for 7 days in the Eastern Caribbean (map shown) so I will not be posting for a few days unless I can find somewhere to hook up my laptop. It would be great if I could blog with pictures each day, so I will see what it takes to do that.

We love cruising and it's the easiest kind of vacation when you live in Florida because you don't have to even see an airport! The drive to Miami isn't too bad and we plan to stay over so that we will have a fresh start in the morning.

Last time we were there we went over to the shops and ate at "Bubba Shrimp Company", but I think we'll just get some dinner and take it to the room and watch one of the movies we pack.

I will be posting pictures when I get back of any tours we may take or just some of the local stuff. We will be visiting Tortola/British Virgin Islands, St. Thomas/US Virgin Islands, Samana/Dominican Republic, and NCL's (Norweigan Cruise Line) private island in Stirrup Cay, Bahamas. We have been on 3 cruises now that were to stop at their island and each time the weather didn't permit so we ended up somewhere else for the day. If we make it this time we plan to walk all around the island then stop for the BBQ they set up. We aren't sun bunnies so we either find a tree to lounge under or head back to the ship.

We went on a cruise last year and bought the "Couples" spa package for the use of their steam rooms. The limit was 10 people total for the ship so we were lucky. They have 3 seperate little rooms off of one big room and each one is a little different. One has a heavy and very hot steam coming in and you sit on long wooden benches. they have hoses and sinks you can rinse off as you go; then they have one (my favorite) that only holds 4 people at a time but has this lovely eucalyptus steam they pipe in that is heavenly. The third room is larger and has warmed curving tiled benches that you can lounge on while getting steam.

They also have 6 loungers seperate from the steam rooms that are heated, tiled and curved to fit your body shape. You can just lie there and close your eyes and relax. It's wonderful because it's very quiet and you can hear the trickle of the water fall.

This is a new thing for us and we loved it. I wasn't sure my husband was going to really want to go much, as the package allowed you to go anytime the spa was open for the entire week, but he really enjoyed it and we went at least once a day. Our skin never looked better.LOL