r/Cruises

Friend of ours is going to Alaska on MSC with us in 2 weeks. He has a felony charge from 2007. I just heard something on a video about this being an issue not an hour ago and I know nothing about this potentially being an issue when we board.

What do they need to do? Any help is really appreciated.

just got off a 7 day eastern caribbean run yesterday and i completely forgot how brutal disembarkation day is. they basically kick u to the curb at 8am and our flight out of MIA wasnt until 5pm

last time we did this we just went straight to the airport and sat at the gate for like 7 hours staring at our bags. miami airport is literally pure chaos and doing that after a super relaxing vacation just completely ruins the post-cruise glow

This time we decided to just drag our suitcases to an uber and hide out somewhere away from the crowds. ended up killing most of the afternoon sitting outside at Bayshore club down in the grove just watching the boats go by. Getting some actual fresh air and decent seafood instead of eating sad $18 terminal sandwiches made such a huge difference ngl

but it got me wondering what everyone else does during this weird gap? do u guys book those day-use hotel rooms, take a post-cruise excursion, or just bite the bullet and camp at the airport? trying to figure out if there's a better system for our next sailing cause dragging luggage around a restaurant is still kind of a pain tbh.

i thought it would be good to start a thread on health tips when going on a cruise so please feel free to comment your own tips!
- obviously please wash your hands! the amount of people who walk pass the hand washing station at buffets is wild! tbh i’ve seen so many people doing unhygienic stuff at the buffet so if you really wanted to be cautious just avoid.
- start taking vitamin C tablets at least a month or more before your cruise.
- drink water!

First time cruise with the kiddos and I am completely lost. We are a military family of 6 trying to take a christmas cruise. So far we've looked at royal and carnival and just the total alone (we have to book connecting cabins) is out of our budget by miles without any extra excursions or activities. I'm looking to leave out of Galveston, TX so we can surprise the kiddos as our first family cruise. However, I was also told due to the holiday, typically cruises around this time are double what they normally are. My wife is wanting to make this this happen so much it's not even funny and I love that. I'm just mainly intimidated by the pricing and really just need some assistance in booking something like this without it costing 10K just for rooms. Any help or info I can get would be greatly appreciated. I know there are family rooms on certain cruiselines but I cant seem to find them online unless I call, and I dont feel completely comfortable with our children in separate rooms with a parent in each room and being in complete opposite ends of the ship. We want to stay together but would prefer conjoined rooms or something similar. With all that said I just dont know whare to look, what to ask, how to find it. Would love to make this happen with the kids, it would honestly be a dream. I'm just so lost on the actual process. So again, any help would be appreciated. I know there are some savvy minded folks who have the know how and expertise to dumb some of this down and connect me with the right people, and for that I say, thank you.

Is it possible to skip the buffet and just eat all meals in the mdr or specialty dining and avoid getting sick? Just a thought that popped into my lil mind

Title sums it up. Just trying out a cruise with my partner. Are all cruises pretty much the same. Any suggestions to make experience “better”?

Im planning my next cruise and would like to try something new as we will not be traveling with our kids this time around. We have only done Disney and Royal Carribean. We just got off of Icon and had a really fun time, however Id like to find a cruise thats a little bit slower and more relaxed, doesnt have to be kid free, but less kids would be a huge bonus. We LOVED both Disney and Royals private islands.

We have been looking at Celebrity, but Im not sure this is the demographic for us either. Seems like the older generations travel this cruiseline. We like to stay up late with activities and bars, but everything Ive read seems to be everyone is in bed by 10 😆

Virgin looks fun, but maybe too much party vibe? Not sure. Is there anything in-between? I dont know much about Norwegian or MSC.

We are also foodies. Icon did not offer good food in my opinion. You could definitely tell the food was mass produced for the large number of guests on board. That was dissapointing. We did get to try a few of their specialty restaurants, but still, nothing I ate blew my mind. I would live to hear your opinions on best cruiseline to pick this time around.

My husband and I are retired and active and looking to take a river cruise in the fall of 2027. I’ve researched them all and it seems to me that AMA Waterways is a good fit for us. I don’t need extra luxury - but I do need a lot of enjoyment. The food/wine looks excellent, there are excursion choices without paying extra for the ones you like, it sounds little livelier than say - Viking. There are so many to choose from and each line has its strengths. If you’ve done a European river cruise on AMA - did you love it? Or do you wish you had made another choice? Thank you.

Feels like every time there’s a health headline now people immediately jump to “welp guess travel is dangerous again.”

Not even just cruises. Everything.

Meanwhile millions of people are flying, cruising, staying in hotels, eating in packed restaurants etc every single day and nothing happens.

I’m not saying people should ignore health stuff or act stupid. But the internet definitely turns every story into the end of the world for like 72 hours.

At some point you either live your life or you sit at home doomscrolling headlines all day lol

OK, so I’m going on my first virgin cruise line. I haven’t been on a cruise since I’m 15 years old and I’m now 40 which is why I’m going on a cruise to celebrate my 40th birthday. I have chronic pain syndrome among other ailments so for that I take prescribed opiates, which are no problem because they’re in their bottle and I take them all over the world even outside of the bottle and I’ve had no problem whatsoever

then I have a THC vape which I’m concerned about which I could totally do without if I have to, but I’d rather not. Then I have my THC gummy’s that are completely legal in New York, but I understand they’re illegal other places, but I don’t intend for anyone to find them. They’ll be in my cabin. I only use them for sleep

I do have a question about something else and have a HARD TIME believing people don’t take this on board

My concern would be the dogs. Everyone keeps talking about at the port. Is this really that big of a concern are they looking for things like bombs or weapons or are they trying to sniff out very small amounts of personal use

I really don’t want any like prudes or people who are gonna lecture me. I just want advice from people who have done this before and just let me know what the dog situation is like and I’m also curious if it were inside my body (THC vape) how that would change things

Any help is much appreciated I just want to let loose for my milestone bday and I’m traveling for the first time since 2021 and since becoming a mother. Traveling baby free. I want to feel young wild and free again. Plus it helps me to keep up with all the drinking.

Hello cruisers! We just booked our first cruise out of Port Canaveral. I am looking for hotel recommendations close-ish to the port. Something that's reasonable enough to take an Uber or Lyft and not spend an hour getting there, not a motel 6, but can't afford the Ritz if you know what I mean. Any recommendations?

Forgot to add it's 5nights. I'm also slightly wonder if the freedom is a bit old, kinda want to give kids and wife "wow" experience as this is our first time cruse. The newer ones during the summer are at least double the price as I have seen so far. Any recommendations?

Curious if others have had a similar experience.

On our recent Royal Caribbean cruise, most of the water slides that my kids could use were not working. The water park was a key reason we booked this sailing.

We reached out to Royal Caribbean to request compensation, and they offered $20 per child (total $40). Given the total cruise cost was over $5,500, this felt insulting.

Has anyone else dealt with something similar?
What kind of compensation, if any, were you offered in comparable situations?

Any advice on how to escalate or whether it’s even worth pursuing further would be appreciated.

Is it true that travel agents don’t charge for booking cruises? Do they work for particular cruise lines or can they compare and suggest the best one? Thanks for any help.

I'd like to surprise my wife with an Alaskan cruise. We would depart from Vancouver British Columbia...

Is there a round trip option so that I can arrive at my departing port?