Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree that Grand Cayman is easy.

Cruises are the easiest. You literally don’t need to worry about dinner reservations, activities, etc.

But they are also super trashy.

Sigh.

No, cruises are not super trashy.

Go price out a spring break cruise on Disney, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, etc. leaving from Florida and you’ll see how expensive it is. Hint: not cheap to fly to FL, stay in a local hotel, then cruise for a week…plus excursions.

I was a reluctant cruiser who quickly discovered how relaxing a cruise is. Sitting on a lounge chair in a quiet area while the kids go do other activities is bliss. Not having to worry about getting dinner reservations in touristy cities or islands is Heaven. Hitting 3 or 4 Caribbean islands and taking a cab to a quiet beach is awesome.

There’s nothing trashy about it.

Plus: I love the live music. Royal Caribbean has different kinds of live music all over their ships day and night. It’s fun.

Trashy and expensive are by no means mutually exclusive. Especially when it comes to cruises.

This

+1,000. The fact that so many here are defending cruises shows how much this board has declined. Utter unadulterated low class trash.

Train up to NYC. Stay in a midtown hotel where you can really see views. Go up the empire state building. Take free ferry to see statue of liberty. Play all day at Battery park and ride the sea glass carousel. Spend another day at the natural history museum and central park. If you're an arty family, go to the met, moma and gugenhiem. Eat at the restaurants that were hot 20 years ago when you lived there but now you can actually get a seat like Craft, Balthazaar, Pastis. Take the train back home in time for bed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree that Grand Cayman is easy.

Cruises are the easiest. You literally don’t need to worry about dinner reservations, activities, etc.

Lots of opinions on cruising (we enjoyed ours) but we needed reservations for everything - dinner, shows, laser tag. If not we were stuck waiting in lines or couldn’t do some activities. It was one of the things that bugged me most. This was NCL. Which are less like that?

Disney. Hands down. We just did Royal Caribbean for the first time and needed reservations there as well (though it was still way easier and more relaxing than reservations for a land vacation).

There is no way you can convince me Disney is “easy” unless you did a VIP tour every single day. Was just there in October and it was the opposite of easy…it required more planning than many other trip to avoid waiting in lines all day.

Disney Cruise Line. The question was about which cruises.

Ah. Sorry. I thought you meant actual Disney.

Haven't been since the hurricane a few years ago that damaged parts of the island, but we have done 2 easy trips to Sanibel in Florida. Ft. Myers is closest I think but it's within an hour or two of Tampa and Naples, so plenty of flight options. We stayed at a resort that has condos for rent & it's like being in an airbnb with resort amenities (pool, restaurants, activities, sports). The island, and neighboring Captiva, are really easy to get around by car or bike. Plenty of restaurants and things to do. Really relaxing, lovely place.

Boston--easy flight from BWI, hotel relatively close to airport near financial district/north end. Walked to Fanueil Hall, Quincy Market. Boarded bus for Ghosts and Graveyards tour (do it at night!) and also had fun dumping tea overboard at the Boston Tea Party Ship and museum. Super easy and low stress. Didn't attempt any art museum but if I had more time would have loved to do the aquarium and more of the freedom trail. My teen wanted to shop on Newbury Street but it was kind of disappointing except for a couple of stores. So many options--you could go to Fenway as well.

[quote=Anonymous]
We just cruised on the largest class of Celebrity ships and didn't need reservations for anything. (Well, I think the spa requires reservations, but we didn't do that). You had to show up to shows 15-20 minutes early to get the best seats (they had waiters bringing drinks, even in the theatre, so it was far from unpleasant) but you could typically get okay seats showing up right at showtime. We never waited for more than 2-3 minutes to be seated at meals. It wasn't a cruise with laser tag or water slides, but was super easy. No lines. No waits. Amazing service from all the crew.

Our 10 yo absolutely loved the kids club and would beg to go, but it got lower scores from our 7 yo who thought her program was too baby-ish.

We were in a suite and had a butler that brought us lattes and fruit/pastries (and steamed milk for the kids) every morning. It was so lovely. We would sleep in, have coffee and a nibble on our balcony and then go upstairs for a restaurant breakfast whenever we got moving. They would have done a full in room breakfast too, but we preferred to go to the restaurant.

Getting on and off the ship was flawless, too. No real crowds or waiting. So simple. [/quote]

I'll add that you do need reservations for specialty dining. I made those reservations online during a Black Friday sale in November and had no problem making the reservations (and at a reduced cost). I think the suite concierge would have also made us reservations, but we were all set before we got on the ship.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Agree that Grand Cayman is easy.

Cruises are the easiest. You literally don’t need to worry about dinner reservations, activities, etc. [/quote]
Lots of opinions on cruising (we enjoyed ours) but we needed reservations for everything - dinner, shows, laser tag. If not we were stuck waiting in lines or couldn’t do some activities. It was one of the things that bugged me most. This was NCL. Which are less like that?[/quote]

Disney. Hands down. We just did Royal Caribbean for the first time and needed reservations there as well (though it was still way easier and more relaxing than reservations for a land vacation). [/quote]

Which RC ship? One of the newer/big ones? Those are more crowded and require reservations for certain things. You don’t have these issues on smaller/midsize ships. [/quote]
We just cruised on the largest class of Celebrity ships and didn't need reservations for anything. (Well, I think the spa requires reservations, but we didn't do that). You had to show up to shows 15-20 minutes early to get the best seats (they had waiters bringing drinks, even in the theatre, so it was far from unpleasant) but you could typically get okay seats showing up right at showtime. We never waited for more than 2-3 minutes to be seated at meals. It wasn't a cruise with laser tag or water slides, but was super easy. No lines. No waits. Amazing service from all the crew.

Our 10 yo absolutely loved the kids club and would beg to go, but it got lower scores from our 7 yo who thought her program was too baby-ish.

We were in a suite and had a butler that brought us lattes and fruit/pastries (and steamed milk for the kids) every morning. It was so lovely. We would sleep in, have coffee and a nibble on our balcony and then go upstairs for a restaurant breakfast whenever we got moving. They would have done a full in room breakfast too, but we preferred to go to the restaurant.

Getting on and off the ship was flawless, too. No real crowds or waiting. So simple.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree that Grand Cayman is easy.

Cruises are the easiest. You literally don’t need to worry about dinner reservations, activities, etc.

Lots of opinions on cruising (we enjoyed ours) but we needed reservations for everything - dinner, shows, laser tag. If not we were stuck waiting in lines or couldn’t do some activities. It was one of the things that bugged me most. This was NCL. Which are less like that?

Disney. Hands down. We just did Royal Caribbean for the first time and needed reservations there as well (though it was still way easier and more relaxing than reservations for a land vacation).

Which RC ship? One of the newer/big ones? Those are more crowded and require reservations for certain things. You don’t have these issues on smaller/midsize ships.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree that Grand Cayman is easy.

Cruises are the easiest. You literally don’t need to worry about dinner reservations, activities, etc.

Lots of opinions on cruising (we enjoyed ours) but we needed reservations for everything - dinner, shows, laser tag. If not we were stuck waiting in lines or couldn’t do some activities. It was one of the things that bugged me most. This was NCL. Which are less like that?

NCL isn’t great. As you said, you need reservations for everything.

We prefer the smaller ships on Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and Disney. We get the early dinner seating and go to the late show. No tix needed.

Smaller ships = less crowds/no lines

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree that Grand Cayman is easy.

Cruises are the easiest. You literally don’t need to worry about dinner reservations, activities, etc.

Lots of opinions on cruising (we enjoyed ours) but we needed reservations for everything - dinner, shows, laser tag. If not we were stuck waiting in lines or couldn’t do some activities. It was one of the things that bugged me most. This was NCL. Which are less like that?

Disney. Hands down. We just did Royal Caribbean for the first time and needed reservations there as well (though it was still way easier and more relaxing than reservations for a land vacation).

There is no way you can convince me Disney is “easy” unless you did a VIP tour every single day. Was just there in October and it was the opposite of easy…it required more planning than many other trip to avoid waiting in lines all day.

Disney Cruise Line. The question was about which cruises.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree that Grand Cayman is easy.

Cruises are the easiest. You literally don’t need to worry about dinner reservations, activities, etc.

Lots of opinions on cruising (we enjoyed ours) but we needed reservations for everything - dinner, shows, laser tag. If not we were stuck waiting in lines or couldn’t do some activities. It was one of the things that bugged me most. This was NCL. Which are less like that?

Disney. Hands down. We just did Royal Caribbean for the first time and needed reservations there as well (though it was still way easier and more relaxing than reservations for a land vacation).

There is no way you can convince me Disney is “easy” unless you did a VIP tour every single day. Was just there in October and it was the opposite of easy…it required more planning than many other trip to avoid waiting in lines all day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree that Grand Cayman is easy.

Cruises are the easiest. You literally don’t need to worry about dinner reservations, activities, etc.

Lots of opinions on cruising (we enjoyed ours) but we needed reservations for everything - dinner, shows, laser tag. If not we were stuck waiting in lines or couldn’t do some activities. It was one of the things that bugged me most. This was NCL. Which are less like that?

Disney. Hands down. We just did Royal Caribbean for the first time and needed reservations there as well (though it was still way easier and more relaxing than reservations for a land vacation).

Anonymous wrote:Agree that Grand Cayman is easy.

Cruises are the easiest. You literally don’t need to worry about dinner reservations, activities, etc.

Lots of opinions on cruising (we enjoyed ours) but we needed reservations for everything - dinner, shows, laser tag. If not we were stuck waiting in lines or couldn’t do some activities. It was one of the things that bugged me most. This was NCL. Which are less like that?

Anonymous wrote:I mean - easy means - direct flights or no jet lag/not too long right?

Means - you get there - no fuss. There's food you can buy, don't have to make. Lots of choices, all types - not too $$$ but not just fast food either, right?

Means - you have somethings to do you like whether lay out in the sun or adventure or whatever - but without needing to plan anything ahead of time ie car rental, private excursions that have to line up with scheduling, everything has to be time lined, right?

Means - you have no worries nor stress - relax, sleep, eat, drink whenever till you have to get home

I would say anywhere you can go that meets these quals is easy. You can take it from there.

This was totally unhelpful.

There are all kinds of different vacations. To each his / her own! Haters are gonna hate. Ignore them and do what you want! It matters what YOU like, not what other people like. They are not on your vacation and they can do whatever they want on THEIR own vacation.