Looking to take a 7 day cruise with the family (wife and 2 toddlers) anytime from last week of May to last week of June. Sailing out of Miami or Ft. Lauderdale makes the most sense. Any recommendations on cruise lines, ports of call, specific ships, etc?
That time of year? Sailing out of Seattle to Alaska on Royal would be my recommendation. Otherwise, no, i can’t make a recommendation. Sorry.
I would definitely do Royal Caribbean over the cheaper cruise lines (Carnival, Norwegian etc.). There are plenty of seven day Caribbean cruises. Ports of call will be a mix of Mexico, Jamaica, Caymans, Bahamas etc. I enjoy exploring once you get off the ship rather than having planned excursions, but perhaps with a family it makes sense to plan your day trips at ports thru the cruise line. I would also look at Tampa and Cape Canaveral as ports to sail out of.
Thanks. I’m east coast, so sailing out of Seattle or Alaska, while cool, adds too much time and complication to the trip.
I have seen some Cape Canaveral listings and assumed that was Ftl Lauderdale (apparently a wrong assumption on my part).
Cape Canaveral is about 45 minutes east of Orlando. Central Florida vs. Ft Lauderdale is South Florida.
Thanks. I guess I would have figured that out eventually, but certainly makes a difference in booking pre-cruise flights. I visited Cape Canaveral when I was kid as part of our annual trip to visit my uncle in Ft. Lauderdale, so I guess I just continue to associate the two.
I’ve only been on one cruise, so I don’t have a basis for comparison. But the one cruise was on Norwegian, and I really enjoyed it. You don’t have a set time that you have to be at dinner and there’s no assigned seating. It’s “buffet-style” for the most part, so you come and go as you please.
Of course, if you want to eat at one of the restaurants, you can. Some of them are free, and some of them cost money. But the good news is–no matter how much you eat, you only pay the “entry fee”.
We went to a steak house on the ship, and it cost $25 per person. I ordered a Ribeye, and my wife ordered a tiny filet mignon. (FTR - I don’t like filet mignon.) She ate hers, but because it was so small, she was still hungry. They said, “Oh, you guys are done. Do you want another?” That’s right–all you can eat. And they gladly brought us out more. Another couple said that when they went to the French Restaurant (I don’t like French food, either, FTR) - they ordered five different entrees and tried all five of them.
Have you looked into doing the Disney cruises? I think that might be fun with kids that age. Your kids are about a year older than mine.
^ Disney is certainly one of the lines we would consider.
Carnaval has excellent food. You won’t be dissapointed with the diner options.
My tips - - Show up for boarding as early as allowed (on the West Coast, 11:00 am, then on-board by 12 pm.) Con: Your room won’t be ready so you’ll have to drag your luggage around. Pros - you beat the rush and don’t have to stand in long lines, and as a bonus, get a free buffet lunch on-board. - Cruise line sponsored excursions. Your choice, but we usually do those. Con: Much more expensive esp for four people. Pro: you don’t have to put your trust in some local guy who might be trying to rip you off. Also if the excursion is late, the ship will wait for you. If you go off by yourself or with some local company and are late returning, the ship will not wait for you. Not even one minute. - If you are hungry (or even if you are not), you can order multiple appetizers, entrees and anything else on the menu at breakfast, lunch and dinner. The list items are more of a checkbox than a radio button 
This applies to normal dining room, not just specialty restaurants where you have to pay extra. - Allow about 1 hour for a sit-down lunch in the dining room, and 2 for dinner, ± 30 minutes. If you’re in a hurry to do an excursion or to catch a show, allow time or do the buffet. Buffet items are pretty high quality as well. But selection may be different from the ship dining room. But it will be less boring for kids. As for cruise lines, Carnival and Royal Caribbean are comparable. Carnival has more activities, more party people, more varied food(IMHO), bigger cabins. RC has prettier ships and decor. Disney is more expensive but may be better for kids. I’ve been on numerous CCL/RCL cruises but not a Disney one. One step above is Celebrity. If you want caviar and champagne served by a butler then try Crystal.
Oh yeah, if you (or more likely, your wife) likes to dress up and look sharp, most cruise lines have formal nights. So pack a good suit.
Ive heard the two best are Princess and Celebrity though.
royal carribean or princess for sure. spend the extra dough and get a room with a balcony. its so worth it.
check online for best bonuses and upgrades.
the new royal ships are tight insane
10+ cruises myself here, all with Carnival, Royal Carribean, and recently one with Norwegian. Without writing a textbook about it, here’s a couple of tips I’l give:
-
In terms of ports, the Western Carribean is generally the more desireable place. You have access to Cozumel, which is a top 5 place for scuba diving/snorkeling in the world. Just Google Image some of that. You may also want to check out the Grand Cayman, specifically for Stingray City. You can Google Image some of that too.
-
Carnival and Norwegian offer the most bang for the buck because they are entry-level cruise lines.You’re gonna see a lot of young families and potentially trashier people as passengers. I don’t think you’ll see trashy people if you upgrade to Royal Carribean. The cost per day is prohibitive for da trash -_-
-
I can’t speak to the other 2 lines, but Royal had an amazing kids program. As parents, you’re gonna wanna dump the kids off so you and your wife can have a real vacation at times.
-
All cruise lines of decent entertainment, but I would say NCL had the strongest entertainment. Their magicians and comedians were surprisingly impressive. One time, I went on a cruise and The Platters gave a live performance. The next day, I saw them eating with normal guests in the main dining room.
-
The food is unlimited. I would say the food is better than your typical buffett, but below the level of a casino buffett. A lot of it is more about the jazz and sizzle instead of the actual substance. It also depends on the cuisine and cruise line. Me personally, I don’t care if you have all these fancy lights and ice sculptures if your Chinese food tastes like plastic.
-
Speaking of food, I couldn’t help but notice that Royal Carribean’s food service was so many grades higher than NCL. You get the same waiter every day, same table, and he knows your family members, and asks how your excursions went. On NCL, the waiters aren’t rude - just fucking braindead and nonchalant. They care about as much about your meal as the 7-11 cashier cares about your Slurpee. I’d order a fine steak and it comes out perfectly, one of the best meals i’ve had in six months, but it comes out after 40 minutes. WTF dude?! I believe part of this is that RCCL waiters work on tips and for other lines, the tips are mandated so there’s no incentive to make it pleasant for passengers.
-
Don’t be a sucker and blow all your cash on alcohol, speciality dining, and the fanciest of excursions. That’s where all the margins are.
-
When you pick your cabin, try to get one in the center (less rocking). If you can’t get to the middle, pick one in the back closer to the dining rooms. I personally like taking interior rooms because they’re cheaper and I don’t have to deal with the light shining through the window in the morning when I’m trying to sleep. If I want to see the water, I’ll go out to the upper decks. Also the cabins are smaller than what you might have in your mind’s eye. Just consider that when packing. I think NCL had bigger bathrooms and cabins, or at least were better to designed to squeeze out every square inchs.
-
I never went on a Disney cruise, but I’ve consistently heard that it’s the best cruise line in the USA despite the fact that it costs 75%-100% per person, per day. Part of this is that the normal cabin’s size is the equivalent of a suite on other lines.
-
There’s gonna be at least one formal night, and sometimes they have an all-white party. Just check ahead with your line and cruise to see what’s up. Actually scratch that …you have two kids with you, so you’ll have a ton of luggage as it is haha.
At the end of the day, cruising is one of the safest and inexpensive vacations for a young family if you do it right.
btw you are allowed 1 bottle of celebratory booze either wine or champagne. we always bring a1.75 L of goose on each persons luggage. never got it taken away 
Never been on NCL, are they the ones with anytime dining?
CCL and RCL both have fixed time dining and your waiter-asst waiter team will be the same every day for dinner. Breaskfast and lunch - no fixed tables in dining room.
About tips - way back when, cruise lines did not add tips to your bill. Non-assholic passengers (most of them) paid about $3.50/day/person to your room steward and waiter; $1.50 to assistant waiter, and $10/$20 per person (total, not per day, depending on length of cruise) to the Maitre d’; on the last night. Usually in cruise-line provided envelopes. You knew who the a*holes were by observing which passengers skipped the last dinner… Anyway. Even now, you can ask the cruise line to take tips off of your bill and give them yourselves using above guidelines. Downside is that you need to bring your own envelopes and a lot of cash (e.g. $100 for the room steward on a 7-day cruise for a family of 4). Upside is that you can tailor the tip to the service.
Yeah it’s the one with anytime dining, so you might have to wait for a table at one of the 2 main dining rooms at dinner time. Then there’s the buffets and free casual dining. On top of that is prolly 7 speciality restaurants you gotta pay extra for. Yeah and I agree with your tipping #'s . If you’re tipping less than that, you’re an asshole
we would some days skip the formal dinner and eat at the dinner buffett. then go to the rooms to pre game before heading out to the bars/clubs
What of a Mediterranean cruise? Turkey, Greece, Tunisia, Lebanon, Israel, etc.? Anyone do one?
Some great stuff in here. Thanks everyone.