Has anyone been on a cruise before?

I went on a Carnival Cruise to San Juan & the likes. It was by far nicer & had better entertainment than the Norweigan Cruise I went on. I liked the Bahamas better than Puerto Rico though. It also had better food. Our room was nice but small. My advice is the following:

1) Don't overpack. You won't need 5 pairs of shoes. Take the most versitile things you can take & if you take jewelry take minimal items that can go with many different outfits.
2) Book your excursions the minute you get on the boat or they will be booked FAST. If you want to swim with dolphins, go book it right away. You can look online at excursions so you can get an idea of what you want to do. Go to customer service desk to book these.
3) Be prepared to tip & tip well. You'll most likely fall in love with everyone who waits on you in some form or fashion. These folks go out of their way to make your experience great & they're very personal & friendly. The first cruise I went on I wasn't very prepared on how much to tip & the second one I felt more comfortable with how much we gave. Maybe you can research online what is average.
4) When I went on the cruise they had a refillable Coke cup that you could buy for like $15 & refill for .50 cents all week. That might be a better way for you to go than buying cold drinks often.
5) Leave space in your suitcases to bring home gifts for family & souveniers.

Hope something here helps. It's been many years since I went but I'd love to go again.

I LOVE cruising!!!

I have a few under my belt! Feel free to PM me specific questions, I'm good at planning these things & know most of the pitfalls to watch for.

RCCL (Royal Caribbean)
4-night Bahamas from Port Canaveral - Stops in Nassau, Bahamas, and CocoCay, Bahamas. I've done this twice, once on the Nordic Empress (No long exists sadly, it was beautiful) and the Sovereign of the Seas

Good - cheap & easy with some island time
A good "get your feet wet" cruise, but the ships take a lot of abuse because these are cheap and tend to attract hard-core partiers, and most night don't put their nicest boats on this route. Basic on-board activities like dance lessons, casino game lessons, cooking clinics etc. Nothing about these boats or activities are over the top, but loads of fun. These boats tend to have less nice and open public spaces aside from the sun/pool decks.

Basic activities like swimming with dolphins, booze-cruise, Nassau tour etc. Nothing too crazy available. We did an island tour, not just a ton to see though.

7-night Eastern Caribbean from San Juan stops at Barbados, St Lucia, St Croix, St Maartin, and Antigua on Adventure of the Seas

AWESOME - Highly recommend this route, biggest problem is you also have to fly to San Juan, very nice boat too. All types on board as well. The boat also is incredible.
This was our honeymoon cruise, and we couldn't have taken a better one. Day at sea had TONS of activities. Every public space had SOMETHING going on at least once that day, usually two or three times. The public spaces are very open and nice. The pool & sun deck were amazing too, even an 18+ only area of the pool deck if you want space away from kids on deck,

Activities - Everything you can think of basicallty. Island tours, beach breaks, adventure stuff like hiking/kayaking/4x4 etc were available at most ports. We did a pirate themed booze cruise, a kayak adventure, volcano tour/boat tour/beach time, we even rented a car in St Maarten so we could drive over to the French side!



7-night Greek Isles - Mykonos, Athens, Santorini, Rhodes/Patmos, Kusadasi, Istanbul - Royal Olympic Cruise lines
Beautiful stops, boat was a bit of a bucket though.

This one didn't have much in the way of on-board activities, but we were in port most of the day, so it was back on board eat & hit a bar.

Activities were touring the ruins, temples, historic sites on each island.

I recommend Royal Caribbean, they are a GREAT cruise line. Ships are nice & clean, food is incredible, you won't be over or under dressed because of the wide variety of people, wide variety of shore excursions, very helpful staff, good safety record etc.
If you're a big into the party scene, give Carnival a try.

Rooms? Why pay extra for a view when you're only going to be sleeping there. We always book interior. Sometimes you get lucky and get bumped up to a better room too. You don't want to be in the extreme bow (anchor noise at 5AM, more movement) or stern (Engine vibration). Being toward the middle is nice. Avoid rooms near the elevators.

Be prepared for tips - RCCL lets you prepay, you can add more if you like, I'm sure other lines do this too.

If you drink, scope them out the first night and find 1 or 2 favorites and get to know the bartender. Buy a wine package. It is really nice have those wonderful meals with wine to accompany.

Eat in the main dining room, the food is the best there. It's worth the time. There's not much going on during supper hours aside from the broadway like production you can see before or after you eat. They usually serve lobster on one of the formal nights.

Avoid the "shopping tips" seminar. They're promoting stores they either own or have ties too. You'll find more interesting things in the smaller, locally owned shops anyway.

Don't over pack. Just enough clothes do to is plenty. I only wore nice pants to supper. I only packed two pair. Dark tan for casual nights, black for formal nights.

Please, PM me your specific questions and I'll be happy to answer.

JM