Going on a cruise, what is it really like?

My late husband and myself went on one of the Cunard ships which I really loved although it was many years ago when the ship had only been on one voyage before our cruise. It was small, quiet and the food was fantastic but we did go off during the Christmas period

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Been on ten cruises. Favourite is Seabourn…but expensive. Its amazing, small ship fantastic food. Would not recommend NCL (huge and noisy) Princess (just after covid, very miserable staff, poor food), worst was P and O. Packed ship, noisy pool area, terrible food. Just back from a Celebrity cruise. Very old ship, poor entertainment. We have come to the conclusion we only enjoy smaller ships (600 guests or less). Fed up of having to reserve sunbeds at dawn and blaring music round the pool!

We have had about 5 cruises . 4 with Fred Olsen which were excellent and the last one with a much bigger P & O which was glitzier but on balance we still preferred Fred.

Just coming to the end of my 3rd day on our Northern Lights cruise, so far we haven’t been crammed in nor forced to take part in anything, evening entertainment isn’t our thing so we haven’t been but nor have we been bored. No butlinesque feeling either. Our ship is a smaller one, it holds just over a thousand and is not full so plenty of space.

MissAdventure

I wouldn't risk it, in case Jane Macdonald was on there.

Just joking.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

It depends on what you want out of it. A large ship can be busy with lots of people but there is much more on offer in the way if restaurants and entertainment. Smaller ships have everything too but fewer people. A friend works for Holland America Line but prefers working on the smaller ships in the fleet. Another friend works on expedition style ships. They are educational and one does landings in places that bigger cruise ships don't go to, rather than going from port to port (and getting off and going on tours). E.g. visiting Grytviken in South Georgia and visiting Shackleton's grave and the former whaling station. Basically on the expedition style ones you see a lot of nature.

All the best!

Middle, cabin , middle deck plus balcony……our favourite too. P&O have put their prices for these cabins up by £1000, last time we looked.

I hope you have a fabulous time.

Just a quick note to say, thank you all very much for your responses. They have all been very helpful to me and we will be doing a starter cruise this year. Probably just a short one but it will be a start.
I really appreciate all of you taking the time to give your opinions and advice, good and bad experiences, all of which will help us booking ours.
Thanks so much.

Silver Seas: crossing the Panama Canal, Viking: Amazon and river cruises. Absolutely superb. You only get what you pay for. I’d hate to be on one of those gigantic floating tower blocks. Must be so impersonal. One thing that puzzles me: why so many object to formal wear? You get to wear pretty party frocks (or better) and men in dinner jackets. Splendid adventure! What’s not to like.

Those last 2 posts are good advice in choosing a cabin. Thank you.

Oh yes! Middle cabin, middle deck for me every time. Having a balcony is best too.

I get seasick from time to time but it doesn’t last long and I carry seasick tablets with me just in case. I went through a really big tropical cyclone once ( 12 metre waves!) in a very fancy balcony cabin at the back of the ship. It leaked and I was thinking of the Titanic. That was not nice and now I tend to try to avoid cyclone season and always, always get a balcony cabin in the middle where you don’t feel much at all.

We never expect to be entertained all day on board. I love sea days. I read and people watch. DH enjoys taking pics with his ancient camera and always seems to meet kindred spirits. He enjoys the lectures too.
I do suffer from mal de mer but just stay lying down in the cabin. It soon passes.
Key things for us 1) small ship, no crowding 2) a nice cabin 3) good food whenever we feel like it 4) no noisy entertainment/end of the pier type shows 5) company if we feel like it.
6) good organisation.
Viking Ocean certainly ticked all our boxes

Princess and Royal Caribbean are both great, didn’t like P & O as much. But love cruising, no airports, no luggage restrictions, no worrying about where to find that evening’s dinner, no worries about safety. We think it was better pre Covid but have just booked to Greenland and Iceland via Cornwall and Ireland. What other holiday would give us that?

So if the weather is really rough, and people would be ill, do they wait until things calm down before leaving port? Or would the whole trip then get out of sync?

I went on my first and last recently, Royal Caribbean. I personally hated all of it, was seasick the whole time and the crowds and noise really got to me. That’s just me, my friends love that stuff.

We have done several good viking river cruises and then tried one not river and never again. Too many people, a bit grubby, days at sea a bit boring.

We enjoyed Norwegian Fjiords with P&O from Southampton some while ago. Great to sail into a different fjiord each day. There were 2 formal meals , DJ required but optional, buffets fine, food seemed to go on all day! We booked trips in advance. I don't think we would have been keen on a larger boat. But decided it was the best way to see the fjiords

You sort of get what you pay for. Even on the cheaper cruises you don't need to be herded. I quite like it myself. However you get a daily Newssheet on most cruises so you can chose what you want to do or not. I would say that on the larger ships the sun loungers are all like sardines especially by the pool but you can often find a quieter space if you don't need to be by the pool. Also there is almost always plenty of space on port days when everyone else gets off for anything from 3-6 hours.

We did a Silver Sea cruise some years ago and it was superb. Then decided with friends we would try a cheaper option with P&O. Never again. As with most things you get what you pay for, although I know many who have loved P&O, so each to their own. Dun cruisn’ now, but glad I had the opportunity to try it.

My friend and I went on a Riviera Travel Cruise earlier this year, it was awful. Got on the ship at 8pm after travelling all day, then we were expected to be down for breakfast at 5.45am, we believed it was for the people going on the excursion. When we went down for breakfast at 8am, there wasn’t any. The manager told us that breakfast was at 5.45am, I said but we and lots of others were not going on the excursion so why would we need to be up at that time. When I complained about it to Riviera, they said we should have gone down for breakfast at 5.34am😳. Never go with them again.

MiniMoon

Cunard, not as posh as you would imagine. Two formal nights on our cruise, but they aren't compulsory, you can eat dinner in the buffet. You don't have to take part in any of the activities or excursions if you prefer not to. We were on Queen Mary 2.
We went on a 7 night Norwegian fjords cruise with a company that no longer exists. Very relaxed, we loved every minute.
Do give cruising a try, it spoilt us for any other type of holiday.

We did exactly the same cruise, although we booked direct.

Wonderful food, nice cabins, lots of things to do - and actually I got quite bored because I am very bad at being contained within one establishment. I wanted to eat out and walk out at will.

Do not take this as a criticsm. DH and DD loved it but if you are the kind of people, who like to go out spontaneously, explore local cuisines. get in the car and drive to visit remote small historic sites - and I am one of those people - it is not for you.

We went on a cruise once - never again for me!

Butlins on a Boat.

Admittedly, it wasn't one of the cruise companies you pay tens of thousands of pounds for, but still.

Funnily enough, we know somebody who went on the same cruise and loved it.

So, you get what you pay for, and make sure the entertainment fits your preferences.