Which cruise line do you use ?

[Flying Fox]

I've only been on Royal Carribean and NCL.

RC was miles better than NCL.

NCL seemed too casual, informal, dis-organised and a bit dis-interested. Things seems all a bit difficult for the staff.

RC was excellent. Much more like good J or F service.

 

[Pushka]

I've only been on Royal Carribean and NCL.

RC was miles better than NCL.

NCL seemed too casual, informal, dis-organised and a bit dis-interested. Things seems all a bit difficult for the staff.

RC was excellent. Much more like good J or F service.

And Celebrity is RCL's older sister so even more so.

 

[Anna]

There's many things I like about Celebrity, including the adult pool areas with the healthy, lighter food options, but IMO they are woeful on disembarkation day and thereafter.

FLL springs to mind, where the immigration line was 2.5 hours long, the post-cruise buses left without many pax who were still stuck in the line, and Celebrity basically could not have done less to assist. Particularly bad for people who had paid for buses to MIA to catch flights. I was also very disappointed in the quality of a post-cruise excursion at the end of an Alaska cruise - went from luxury onboard Celebrity Millennium to basically the standard of a Sydney harbour ferry, but we were stuck on it for 6 hours. At least I saw some puffins up close

 

[SydneySwan]

We have cruised on 3 lines; NCL, HAL and RCL. It is a very subjective view as to which provides a better experience, etc. and we have booked a range of cabins so our experience between the different lines may not be comparable. Despite that I would venture to suggest that the SydneySwan family opinion ranks these 3 lines as 1). HAL (4 cruises), 2). NCL (2 cruises) and 3). RCL (1 cruise).

 

[Sale]

The cruising thing is pretty new to us - we started with HAL (Eurodam) a couple of years ago then did a cruise on Oceania (then another) - which we love.

Great size ships - either 684 pax on the three smaller ships or 1258 on the two bigger ships, fabulous staff, meals are superb and itineraries that we really like. With the dining - it is open dining in the main dining room which is great - you aren't locked in for the cruise with people or with times.

We have an Alaskan cruise followed by Miami to Montreal coming up.

I'm starting to feel a bit of a conservative not considering change - but a cruise costs so much that it would be awful to be disappointed after all the waiting and excitement.

Just as an aside - we booked a cruise on board and I think there was an error on the print out as it showed all the price breakdowns including the commission to the Australian agent - 30%!!

 

[Pushka]

There's many things I like about Celebrity, including the adult pool areas with the healthy, lighter food options, but IMO they are woeful on disembarkation day and thereafter.

Oh yes. We had a dreadful disembarkation in Istanbul. Three cruises all discharging around 6000 pax through Immigration which required a visa etc. in the space of two hours. Celebrity was running an hour past each group of passengers times, so we didnt leave the ship until 11am. But so many pax ahead of us. Then as we got off the ship a huge thunderstorm hit with lightening but we were stuck on the open wharf and couldnt get under shelter because there was 5000 pax ahead of us in the immigration hall. Oceania cruise crew were handing out umbrellas. Celebrity - off the ship and out of their sight.

Thankfully this time into Rome and no immigration.

 

[Magpie10]

Cruised on the solstice this year, but only South Pacific cruise where we walked off the ship, have not completed a celebrity cruise where we needed to go through immigration so can't comment, we found them a great cruise line, the longer we were on it the better we liked it. We usually cruise Oceania so kept comparing the two. Of course Oceania wins hands down, service, food, friendly staff, but for price comparison Celebrity does it well.

about to leave on a 24 day Med Cruise on Nieuw Amsterdam, I wish I could write a great TA like you did Puska on your QM2 cruise, but am pretty hopeless when it comes to getting the experience in print, and have no idea how to post photos, call me a Luddite I know!

Cheers V

 

[Pushka]

Use the App. Take the photo with your phone, write a post, then find your photo in the photo roll. Super easy.

 

[Sale]

Cruised on the solstice this year, but only South Pacific cruise where we walked off the ship, have not completed a celebrity cruise where we needed to go through immigration so can't comment, we found them a great cruise line, the longer we were on it the better we liked it. We usually cruise Oceania so kept comparing the two. Of course Oceania wins hands down, service, food, friendly staff, but for price comparison Celebrity does it well.

about to leave on a 24 day Med Cruise on Nieuw Amsterdam, I wish I could write a great TA like you did Puska on your QM2 cruise, but am pretty hopeless when it comes to getting the experience in print, and have no idea how to post photos, call me a Luddite I know!

Cheers V

Thanks Magpie10 for pointing out Pushka's TA - just read the 54 pages and loved every one - so thank you both! Very itchy feet now!

 

[love_the_life]

I am a few weeks shy of going on Celebrity Equinox in the Med. Agree about Celebrity pre service - it is woeful and in one of my queries, was simply wrong. I decided to ignore what they told me I could not do, and all worked out very well. Booked an Aqua class cabin for less than a normal balcony.

I like the Celebrity onboard experience in preference to Princess though. Their occasional deals are excellent value but you need to keep monitoring. They refund much quicker than Princess. Almost booked an Alaskan cruise with Princess but moved to Celebrity again instead. Just because of dates though.

I don't think NCL is my kind of ship though.

I really like AQ on Celebrity - Blu is a great restaurant (Mr LtL tries not to go to main restaurants if he can help it). Enjoy the cruise.

Re disembarkation - IMO any of the large ships are prone to trouble. Remember QM2 was woeful in HK as well.

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

We like small ship cruising, and usually Silversea, but we have booked a cruise for 2015 on another small ship because of the itinerary. We are trying the Caledonian Sky and doing the Cherry Blossom Cruise around Japan. We have always wanted to go to japan for Cherry Blossom time, so expect an overload of photos in Rons Trip report !!!


BWD - BTJP13, Botanica World Discoveries, Japanese Garden Tours, Japan Cruise, Japanese Cruising, Cruise Japan, Travel Osaka to Kyoto,

 

[k_sheep]

Has anyone used Thomson cruises before? I'm looking at Cuban Fusion. The online reviews are pretty bad, and it seems only UK people use them ... but they're the only ones I can see that have a Caribbean cruise which fits in with our dates (15th-25th March 2016).

There's a bunch of 4 night cruises which go from Florida but seem to just do a quick lap to Nassau which for me isn't my idea of fun. Never done a cruise in my life, never thought I would, but a boat seems to be the easiest way to get around the caribbean

 

[Major]

We like small ship cruising, and usually Silversea, but we have booked a cruise for 2015 on another small ship because of the itinerary. We are trying the Caledonian Sky and doing the Cherry Blossom Cruise around Japan. We have always wanted to go to japan for Cherry Blossom time, so expect an overload of photos in Rons Trip report !!!


BWD - BTJP13, Botanica World Discoveries, Japanese Garden Tours, Japan Cruise, Japanese Cruising, Cruise Japan, Travel Osaka to Kyoto,

We are on the Caledonian Sky in 3 weeks...BME-DRW

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

We are on the Caledonian Sky in 3 weeks...BME-DRW

Major, I will be most interested in your experiences ! I hope you are going to do a trip report ? What cabin are you booked in to ?

 

[Major]

Major, I will be most interested in your experiences ! I hope you are going to do a trip report ? What cabin are you booked in to ?

We managed to jag the last cabin - 335. I will probably try this as my first TR

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

We managed to jag the last cabin - 335. I will probably try this as my first TR

We did Broome to Darwin on the Orion in July 2009. We had a great time and it got us hooked on small ship cruising. It is a very picturesque part of Australia.

Have a great time. I hope Mrs Major gets some broome pearls !!

 

[amaroo]

Friends have just come back raving about True North ... the photos looked spectacular!

 

[Pushka]

Not that I am counting down

 

[amaroo]

Wouldn't mind doing this one Private Barge Cruise in the South of France via Lufthansa First Class - FlyerTalk Forums

 

[DaveB]

You really can't go wrong on any cruise of the Kimberleys though recommend starting at Broome ending with the relaxing dash across to Indonesian waters.
We also love Silversea having recently completed their Baltic and Kimberley cruises the past 12 months with Alaska booked for 2016. 10 days at sea is around our limit.