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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Have you been on a cruise?
So, DH and i are starting to think about a spring break vacation and a cruise has been laid on the table. Neither of us have ever been on one, so i have a few questions for those of you who *have* been on one;
-do you recommend a cruise line?
-do you recommend a destination?
-is a cruise worth it?
I found a 7 day Bahama cruise leaving out of NYC and it's exactly the length of my spring break from school and it's about $1800. Does that sound reasonable? I think i prefer an NYC departure/arrival port. I don't know about flying down to FL and figuring out how to get to the ship...
I'll also post this on the Travel board after a while...
Thanks ladies!! 
Re: Have you been on a cruise?
i've never done a cruise out of nyc, but my friend just did and was annoyed at being at sea for 3 days before even getting to the carribean.
i've done cruises out of hawaii and florida. hawaii was princess, and then a royal carribean and a carnival out of florida. i preferred the carnival, b/c it had the most of a relaxed party atmosphere.
cruises are okay, but we are done with them for now, because we find that the ppl on cruises fall into two broad categories: "newly wed" and "nearly dead." also, you get to just barely see any of the ports you go to because you're literally there for a few hours at best.
Emerald Nuts Midnight Run (4m) 1/1/12
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I've been on 2 cruises and while I really enjoyed them, they aren't my favorite way to travel. Both were Holland America and they were great cruises but it's a MUCH older crowd onboard.
One was Alaska out of Seattle and the other was Roman Empire (Eastern Mediterranean) out of Rome. I think they were great to explore a lot of ports in a short period of time without ever having to repack your stuff. As firedancer said, it may be a bit much to be on board for 3 days straight.
We're actually looking at (possibly) the same Bahama cruise for this winter. We've cruised twice before. While the crowd is mostly older people, it never really bothered me, to be honest, we didn't do much "going out" on the ship anyway. Once we went with Princess which was a lot nicer, just DH and me. We also went with Norwegian, and we brought DD with us. Both times we sailed out of NY, which was super easy. We didn't mind being on the ship for 2-3 days before actually getting the islands, since there's always a lot to do. Yes, the atmosphere is a lot more relaxed and you kinda bum around, but you'd be doing a lot of that in Caribbean islands-type destination, kwim?
The reason we've done these cruises is that they seem to be a lot cheaper than flying to the Caribbean. We were actually just pricing our options and it seems that for the three of us (since we'd have to buy DD her own plane ticket now) it'd be about a $1000 more to fly than to take a cruise.
Like I said, we liked Princess better, but they were a tad more expensive I think. And they don't have cruises out of NY until May or June. We really enjoyed our Bermuda cruise (went with DD) with Norwegian. I wouldn't do a cruise in Europe, simply because you really don't get enough time in each city, but something like Bahamas or Caribbean, I'd definitely recommend. Whatever you choose, enjoy your vacation!
Bubblegum Explosion
I went on one cruise with my family when I was in high school and we really didn?t like it. Like the other ladies said, I love to take time to explore my destination and I also hate being held to a schedule while I?m on vacation. If you don?t already, you should subscribe to TravelZoo Top 20 alerts. We?ve found some amazing hotel and airfare deals on there and planned great vacations. If you are looking for somewhere close and beachy, I would totally recommend Grand Cayman. The flight is pretty quick and the beaches are fabulous. The water is so still, it looks like glass. There are also some great restaurants and it?s an easy (and safe) island to navigate. To save $, we stayed in a condo on the beach, went food shopping the first day and made most of our own meals. We had a blast! Whatever you do, have fun!!
DH and I have cruised a bunch. pretty much all of the Caribbean destinations, eastern and western Mediterranean and Alaska. We do like it as a way to see a bunch of places in a short period of time. Also, with the meals included, it's often much more affordable then anything else. I wouldn't worry too much about the getting from the airport to the ship, especially in FL. You can google it to be sure, but for most of the FL ports, it's a $10-15 cab ride. It;s not worth the ship transfers at all.
For cruise lines, we've sailed Carnival and Royal Caribbean, and I like them both. Food fluctuates, but is generally good. As someone said, often the people on board are Newly wed or nearly dead, but we've also met some great friends, our age on board, who we still keep in touch with.
The $1800 is that for the two of you? If so, that's pretty reasonable.
If you're thinking of the Caribbean, I prefer the southern routes, but my overall favorite were the two European trips. As for sea days/non port days, it kind of depends on the kind of trip you're looking for. I'm a big fan of trips that have one sea day at the end, it's kind of like a vacation from vacation before you have to go home. In my opinion, more than 2 sea days in a 7 day trip is too many.
Hope that helps!
Amy
i second this. grand cayman is GORGEOUS, and easy to get to. curacao is also a great option...just like aruba, but thousands of dollars cheaper.
Emerald Nuts Midnight Run (4m) 1/1/12
Coogan's Salsa, Blues, and Shamrocks Run (5k) 3/4/12
Colon Cancer Challenge (15k) 4/1/12
Purple Stride NYC (5k) 4/21/12
Run to Combat Autism (5k) 4/29/12
RnR Philadelphia (Half Marathon) 9/16/12
So, I took the hubs on a 8 day cruise for his birthday 2 years ago, and we had a BALL.
I will say - your experience is all about the kind of people the two of you are. We essentially whoop it up with each other no matter where we go, we honestly found there was a really good mixture of young and old there - and the older couples (cute) did not bear on our experience negatively. We met great people on the boat (who we still keep in touch with) the food was surprisingly great and we enjoyed every minute of it. I liked that there was always some kind of activity going on - the shows, the casino - the nightclub - there's always something to do.
We left out of NYC - via Carnival and did the Caribbean. Good times!
That price is generally what you'll pay - very reasonable. I hope its at least for a room with a balcony? *Which I highly suggest.
I will also suggest your booking the excursions as early as you can (cheaper) and bring the NON DROWSY version of Dramamine. *You never know how you'll react to being on the water. Also, a waterproof digital camera is something you will totally get tons of use out of. *BTW, they are currently on sale at Costco.
*Also, if you're a Costco member, you can book cruises through them and sometimes you might be able to get a better deal. Not always...
Do it! Sounds like a great way to spend your break.