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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Choose a small ship, kid free, and upscale. Much more enjoyable not to have to stand in buffet lines or make reservations at upcharged restaurants.[/quote]

You don’t need to go to the buffet or upcharge restaurants on ANY ship.

I agree that smaller/midsize ships are less crowded and chaotic overall. Plus the food and service are better than on the mega-ships.

But rest assured the things you have flagged are easily avoided on every ship. [/quote]

We typically do Disney which I think has better food overall, and even still we skip the buffet and the upcharge dining. I love that Disney includes room service at no charge so we do that on port days and sit down breakfast the other days. We also skip most of the group port excursions and either just taxi to a nice beach or book something with a small local provider. But mostly we book itineraries that stop at the two Disney islands because we cruise to relax not to sightsee. I wouldn’t go to the Caribbean for that. [/quote]

I’ve cruised several lines multiple times (more than a dozen cruises under my belt in the last decade).

Disney’s food is fine, but other lines have better food imho.

Disney has the comfiest beds and the split bathroom is a real perk.

While I agree that going to a cruise line’s private island is easy/relaxing/fun, you lost me at not wanting to explore islands in the Caribbean. We never do group excursions since we prefer a private driver/guide or boat. When you have a private option, you can explore as much or as little as you like—and avoid crowds. You also end up at off the beaten path places. And all of this is still relaxing. (Some private islands are better than others. And all of them are best when you are on a small ship and the only ship on the island that day. Otherwise it’s a crowded scene.)[/quote]

I find the private islands fine for a day but they’re kind of trash as far as Carribean destinations.  They are usually in Bahamas so the water is not as warm and there isn’t good snorkeling.  Belize, Cozumel, roatan, cayman, etc are all better options for snorkeling which is my favorite thing to do in the Carribean and I also like the Mayan ruins you can see from Belize or some of the Mexican stops.

We’ve done the “first class” cabins on a couple ships and I have mixed feelings.  The club room for disney is fire — we liked that a lot and the snacks there are great, but they don’t have a real club restaurant on disney.    The haven restaurant on ncl is great but has a very limited menu (which is also supper meat heavy) so doesn’t work great for a full week (I don’t know why they can’t add rotating nightly specials).  You end up paying for a lot of stuff like butler service which isn’t actually all that helpful.  On NCL, they gave you 3 bottles of high end liquor — I would rather have that rebated to my tab.

I do think that the upcharge restaurants can be a lot better than MDR and definitely than buffet.  The quality in th MDRs has really slipped a lot in the last decade, unfortunately.  The upcharge restaurants vary but some of them are quite good.  (For some reason th Italian ones are always a weak spot, but the steak and sushi and similar places are usually very good.)  I am super picky about food quality.

I think the issue about lines is overstated.  The only time I’m in a crowded line is muster call.  I hate lines.  But the check in lines are now really efficient even for non first class.  And I rarely do the ship excursions so basically just walk off the ship and walk on when I’m done.  [/quote]

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