We have cruised with Celebrity, RC, Carnival and Norwegian. When our kids were young, Carnival was great - had lots of things to do for the younger set. My tweens/teens now much prefer Norwegian and RC. Celebrity is not at all good for teens.

Agree to not cruise out of NY - too much sea time and not enough ports. Fly to Florida or Puerto Rico and go from there. We have gone on the RC mega ships, and all thought it was fine, but there are a lot of people all waiting to do the same things. Our sweet spot is Norwegian.

Very happy with Celebrity, I will do Princess next for comparison.

Anonymous wrote:If you cruise out of Florida, choose Ft Lauderdale over Miami.

Princess has, IMO, better food than most of the other mid-end ships.

A 3-day cruise is really just one day cruising, considering one is embarkation and the other is disembarkation.

Surprisingly good advice offered in the thread, so far.

We have cruised with Princess, and have never been disappointed. It might not be good for kids/teenagers. We cruised before we had kids. Princess had a very good food.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cruised to Bermuda on Royal Caribbean's Vision of the Seas last month. 0/10 Do not recommend. Pick a very cheap family-friendly Vegas hotel that is doing everything in it's power to cut corners, and shove it off into the ocean where no one can get off for days ... and that's it ... you get the gist. The food was absolutely terrible. You can't expect it to be really good or anything on a cruise given how many people they have to feed, but I'm talking truly awful.

I will likely not cruise again, but if I do it will be with one of the really high-end luxury lines to try to avoid what we experienced on RC.

Those short term Bermuda cruises are the worst. They are the dumpiest ships and they are filled with people that just want to drink and gamble. I posted above that if you ca. only do 3 or 4 days, it’s worth paying for diisney to avoid the drunk gamblers. It’s less about the cruise line and more about the ship and itinerary.

It was sooooooo bad. Worst vacation I've ever had.

If you want to go to Alaska with one of the big cruise lines, Princess is the best line.

Anonymous wrote:Cruised to Bermuda on Royal Caribbean's Vision of the Seas last month. 0/10 Do not recommend. Pick a very cheap family-friendly Vegas hotel that is doing everything in it's power to cut corners, and shove it off into the ocean where no one can get off for days ... and that's it ... you get the gist. The food was absolutely terrible. You can't expect it to be really good or anything on a cruise given how many people they have to feed, but I'm talking truly awful.

I will likely not cruise again, but if I do it will be with one of the really high-end luxury lines to try to avoid what we experienced on RC.

Those short term Bermuda cruises are the worst. They are the dumpiest ships and they are filled with people that just want to drink and gamble. I posted above that if you ca. only do 3 or 4 days, it’s worth paying for diisney to avoid the drunk gamblers. It’s less about the cruise line and more about the ship and itinerary.

Cruised to Bermuda on Royal Caribbean's Vision of the Seas last month. 0/10 Do not recommend. Pick a very cheap family-friendly Vegas hotel that is doing everything in it's power to cut corners, and shove it off into the ocean where no one can get off for days ... and that's it ... you get the gist. The food was absolutely terrible. You can't expect it to be really good or anything on a cruise given how many people they have to feed, but I'm talking truly awful.

I will likely not cruise again, but if I do it will be with one of the really high-end luxury lines to try to avoid what we experienced on RC.

They are all really pretty terrible. Norovirus, environmentally destructive (https://www.popsci.com/environment/why-cruise-ships-are-bad-for-the-environment/), ect.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please recommend a cruise ship that you loved. Here’s what we are looking for, clean, great food, not over crowded and lots of entertainment especially for teens.
It’s our first time so we would like to take a 3 day or 7 day cruise.

Unless you take an ultra ultra luxury line (none of the main known brands) you are not going to find “great food” and “not over crowded” and anyone saying otherwise is lying or deluded. I am not anti-cruise at all, but your expectations are unrealistic.

I’ve had some really excellent food on cruise ships. Like filet mignon, risotto and flourless chocolate cake that is as good or better than what I’ve had in excels e restaurants in DC or NYC. There’s Leo a lot of food that’s like an Omaha Applebee’s. And there’s also a lot of food that’s like your standard Indian takeout place. If you care about the food, you need to be a little discerning. I usually check the reviews or any given ship before I go. For instance, one ship had a separate fish fry place above the pool. Both the ceviche and the fish n chips were excellent. I would never have seen it unless I checked the reviews. Most of the food on the buffet was sludge but it was a good place to grab some sliced fruit. It is nice to go on a vacation and not have to worry about making reservations or whether the good restaurants are close to your hotel or if your kids will be willing to schlep 20 minutes to get to the restaurant with better food etc etc. I wouldn’t want to do a cruise every year but it is a nice relaxing thing to do every once in a while.

If you cruise out of Florida, choose Ft Lauderdale over Miami.

Princess has, IMO, better food than most of the other mid-end ships.

A 3-day cruise is really just one day cruising, considering one is embarkation and the other is disembarkation.

Surprisingly good advice offered in the thread, so far.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please recommend a cruise ship that you loved. Here’s what we are looking for, clean, great food, not over crowded and lots of entertainment especially for teens.
It’s our first time so we would like to take a 3 day or 7 day cruise.

Unless you take an ultra ultra luxury line (none of the main known brands) you are not going to find “great food” and “not over crowded” and anyone saying otherwise is lying or deluded. I am not anti-cruise at all, but your expectations are unrealistic.

Yes and no.

Re: food - some meals are excellent. If you don’t like it, you can always hit the buffet afterwards.

Re: crowds - The bigger the ship, the more people. You’ll notice the lines to get on and off the ship (especially at ports). You’ll notice crowds heading into the theater and other venues. And waiting for elevators. And on sea days you’ll scramble to find a lounge chair. And you might have a tough time finding a seat if you go to the buffet.

We prefer smaller ships because of this. And we never have issues.

If your ship goes to a private island, it feels empty when you are on a small ship vs a larger one (especially Disney’s island and RC’s Labadee).

You can find quiet spaces. I seek out quiet areas on sea days and I never am around crowds. In port we hire private drivers and head away from cruisers.

Anonymous wrote:Please recommend a cruise ship that you loved. Here’s what we are looking for, clean, great food, not over crowded and lots of entertainment especially for teens.
It’s our first time so we would like to take a 3 day or 7 day cruise.

Unless you take an ultra ultra luxury line (none of the main known brands) you are not going to find “great food” and “not over crowded” and anyone saying otherwise is lying or deluded. I am not anti-cruise at all, but your expectations are unrealistic.

Anonymous wrote:I’m still so amazed that people fall for the Carnival marketing. Sounds like literal hell to me.

It sounds like hell to me too, but I don't think Carnival is marketing anything deceptively.

It's a cheap cruise where you get loaded with other cheap people and marketed exactly as such. What's there to "fall for?"

Anonymous wrote:My family has been on cruises with Carnival, Princess, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean. We've enjoyed them all. We were a little apprehensive about Carnival but it was way better than expected and the food was surprisingly good too. It wasn't nearly as rowdy as I expected and was very kid friendly.

Agree. I've been on 14 Caribbean cruises (Royal caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian, Holland America, Celebrity) and all of them have their pros and cons. Carnival is definitely a younger, rowdier crowd with kids running every where and their drunk parents oblivious to the pandemonium around them. BUT it's fun! The advantage of cruising is that there is something for everyone on board. If you want quiet relaxation, find a quiet secluded section of the ship and chill all day long. If you want excitment, go to the pool, casino, bars, nighclubs, etc... Or just relax on your private balcony enjoying the view of the water and the endless horizon.

Oh, and for a specific ship recommendation, with kids I like the NCL Escape - sort of middle of the road size wise. Without kids, I like the older ships, like the Jewel.