So after 7 days at sea, we're officially... (Lots O' Photos Inside)

I really WANT to go on a cruise, much for the same reasons you went on this one. But I have the same fears about them as many people. Isn't there a line that does a totally free-form sort of thing? No schedules, do what you want? Freestyle I think they call it? I dunno. Thanks for your honesty about the whole thing Robin, it's definitely nice to hear the good and the bad!
 
I've been on 3 cruises, all different we I went, but I loved them.

The first time we did a 4 day to the Bahamas, (if you're never cruised, I'd recommend that because you don't know if you'll like it) I was in High School, it was our senior trip and all a of 18 year old kids, LOVED IT!! Assigned seating for our meals.

Second time was our Honeymoon, 7 day, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Belize, I got sick on the trip, which made for a less than fun time for Sean, because all I wanted to do was sleep. I loved all of excursions, we had assigned seating for dinner, the big tables with people we didn't know. It wasn't bad. Overall I loved the trip though.

Third time we went to Hawaii for 7 days and Keira was 18 months old. IF you can get a trip that stops at a port everyday, that's what I'd do with kids. We were over night at Maui & Kauai, so that gave you a little more freedom. It was a blast, I can't wait to go with both the kids, although Keira was too young for the kids club, and it prevented us from doing certain things. Oh, and on this trip, it was Freestyle dining, so basically you picked the place you wanted to eat each night, you could even make reservations, I liked this, Sean didn't like it that much.

Sucks you didn't enjoy it Robin, I always recommend cruising as a cheap, fun vacation. I can't wait to take another one. But, I've never done one with older kids.

And, I would not go in the summer months, July-November is Hurricane Season.

My first 2 were both in April, the last one to Hawaii was in November. It was hot in April everywhere we went. I hated to go in like June.
 
The photos are awesome Robin...but I have to think that we are not cruise people either. We've just never gone on one because we hate being rushed to things...I like to park myself at one resort, and travel out for the day from there. I also don't like heat, humidity or bugs...add into that a lot of people, and I'd be one crazy old lady!! No wonder my dh tells me I'm high maintenance!!
 
I love your photos Robin! It's too bad you didn't love the cruise though. We enjoy it but we have only done Disney cruises which we LOVED.
 
Thanks for telling us about your trip and sharing pictures! I am so glad you shared though because I have been wanting to go on a cruise so bad. I am like you, I like the whole family to be together. I am not a fan of different activities for each person. So, I may save my money for now and find something that is more for all of us together. A cruise would be fun for just hubby and I though. :) Of course.....I would want a more beach bum relaxing journey. No adventures for me! :)
 
Your pictures are amazing! Thanks for sharing your trip experience. My dream cruise is Disney because im a disney freak!!
 
Sorry that cruising is not for you but at least you know now. I went on a cruise several years ago and loved it; the fact that it was free was a bonus! LOL We are actually planning a Disney cruise next summer and I hope it is a good experience. Last time I went it was just myself and my best friend so it was completely a different experience. This time I'll be taking my daughter and my boyfriend. Since we live in Florida it makes it so much nicer not to have to pay for flight/transportation to the ship. I live about 1 hour north of Port Canaveral.

Also, I loved your pictures and really want to go to Mexico now! :)

Hope your next vacation is better.

Debbie
 
Wow Robin those are some really amazing pictures! I am like you and not the "cruise type" either! I like going at my own pace and doing my own thing, to me a vacation is all about NOT SCHEDULING LOL I am glad though that you were able to spend time with your family ..
Your post was so interesting and I just loved reading about it!
 
Wow Robin those are some great photos and it looks like you guys made some great memories even though it wasn't your dream vacation!

DH and I have been on 2 cruises with Carnival. One on our honeymoon and then one with our BFF's for their honeymoon.

We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE cruising. BUT, we would never take our children on one. Only if it was Disney maybe. They are so adult driven and I can't imagine my kids being away from me while we are supposed to be together. And....when you do the excursions, they do move so fast that it is hard enough to get your own enjoyment in without trying to keep your kidos having fun too.

One of the things we love about cruising is that we are forced to relax. Our lives are so fast paced all the time that we like to slow down and enjoy each other. We will typically spend the afternoon pool side having a few drinks, take an afternoon nap, go have dinner, then take another nap :p and then head out for a late night show. That is what our Sea Days always consist of. On Excursion Days we typically nap as much as we can too cuz let's face it....those short event filled trips wear you out!

On our honeymoon cruise (5 days) we did horseback riding on the beach - so AWESOME! And we did a day at a private beach - all drinks included. They even had hammocks under the palm trees where we napped while there.

On our other cruise (7 days) we did a day at a private beach (Cozumel) and then we did a zipline over the Jamaican jungle. I thought I would be terrified of this - and I was :p but after it was over, I was so proud of myself for doing it. It was AMAZING! Then our third excursion, we just went shopping along the port (Grand Cayman).

So, based on what we did....it is just not good for kids - IMHO. But was wonderful for DH and I to make some great memories.

For our family vacations - we typically just hit a Texas beach for 5 to 7 days. That's what the kids usually want to do is play in the water and BBQ every night for dinner! Oh....and we take a few naps a day then too! :p What can I say? My kids take after me! :thumbup:
 
NeeNee, you make some great points! I think cruising would be amazing for the right type of people. Honeymooning couples without kids, teens/twenties just graduating from college on their first trip alone (I wouldn't hesitate to put my girls on a cruise with their friends for a high school or college graduation trip), people who love to drink, nap and gamble, lol. We just don't fit into any of those categories at this point in our lives.

Vanessa, about the cheap, fun vacation... I think that was another one of the things we had a problem with. This vacation was not cheap when all was said and done. Between two balcony staterooms, airfare, transportation for 5 to and from the airport and port, all the nickel and dime-ing on the ship from drinks to $20 per person Bingo cards, to $12 photos on the ship and ports, etc. It was right up there with what we've paid to go to Disneyworld or Hawaii for a week. If it HAD been considerably cheaper than those vacations, we may have been able to look at it as a cheap fun vacation option, but unfortunately, it didn't turn out that way for us so we were kinda comparing it to those trips in a "we could have been doing this for the money we spent" kind of way.

For all of you who are freaked out about a large boat on the ocean with small kids and/or leaving your kids with strangers. I had nightmares before we left of Andy "falling" off the balcony into the ocean and never seeing him again. It was a totally freaky thing that I couldn't get out of my head before we left. I've got to tell you though that once we were on the ship, those fears totally disappeared. I felt completely comfortable and safe onboard. We left the kids alone in the stateroom one night so we could go watch Terminator: Salvation up on the big screen on the Lido deck and we never worried about them when they were at the kid's club. It really felt like a safe, controlled, secure environment to us. Katie who is 9 was able to sign herself in and out of the kid's club and we'd meet her back in the cabin at X time. Or she'd run from our cabin up to the Lido deck to grab ice cream cones for her in the kids - I really did enjoy the safe and secure feel of the boat in that regard.
 
gorgeous photos... I think based off what you said, we're not cruise people either... at least I'm not a schedule person and like to fly by the seat of my pants and would really struggle with having to be certain places at certain times.
 
Oh wow!!! What awesome photos Robin!! It looks like you had a fabulous time , even if it wasn't your dream vacation :) I honestly don't think I would enjoy the cruise scene either. We're too lazy and laid back to do all of that running! Hahaha! Thanks for sharing! These were really fun to look at!! Your kids are darling!
 
Gorgeous photos, Robin! I'm sorry you didn't have a better time. Thanks for sharing your feelings about the trip. We've always thought that a cruise would be fun when the kids are older, but after reading this I don't think we're cruise people either. It's not the scheduling that bothers me, but the separate adult and child activities. I love going on vacation with my family and being able to leave the kids with their grandparents for a few hours, but I'd hate having to send them to a kids club all day, every day. It'd be a nice option for a little while, but not if there was nothing to do together. I may still look into a Disney cruise in a few years, but now I know something family-oriented is all we should consider.
 
My family and I have done numerous Carnival Cruises! sad to hear that is wasn't really for you, but at least now you know! I have been to Cozumel, we went to the ruins while we were there, i think where you went sounds way more fun!! We went to Belize too, i agree that if we hadn't done an excursion, then i probably wouldn't have gotten off the boat either! But we did Cave Tubing while we were there and it was a ton of fun!

Cruises are definately not as relaxing as some place tropical where you can just hang out on the beach, which is why we try to rotate a busy fun cruise with a relaxing trip to a tropical locale!
 
That's too bad that you didn't feel like you got all out of it that you could. We have been on 2 cruises. The first one was Carnival. ANd it was nice, but yeah, the whole scheduling thing kind of stunk and we had to sit with the same people every night for dinner. So if you didn't like them that just really stunk. And we are not big drinkers or partyers and we didn't go near the pool for the same reason you mentioned. Now our second cruise we just took and it was with Norweigen. It sailed from Boston to Bermuda. What was nice is that we got 2.5 days at Bermuda and went back. So we really felt like we got to wholely enjoy Bermuda. We saw the entire island. And the atmosphere was completely different. The pools never seemed overly crowded and the kids pool, though small was never overcrowded. The thing that I LOVED about norweigen is that there were no set dining times. Dinner was served in the main dining room from 5-930pm. You just showed up. They also had the buffet type thing all day(practically). And they had bbq on deck everyday as well that was really good. So maybe you're not carnival cruise type people. But I think that cruises can be vastly different depending on the line and destination.
And your pictures are fabulous. I didn't take hardly any pictures. I spent most of our cruise napping! lol
 
Robin Carlton said:
Vanessa, about the cheap, fun vacation... I think that was another one of the things we had a problem with. This vacation was not cheap when all was said and done. Between two balcony staterooms, airfare, transportation for 5 to and from the airport and port, all the nickel and dime-ing on the ship from drinks to $20 per person Bingo cards, to $12 photos on the ship and ports, etc. It was right up there with what we've paid to go to Disneyworld or Hawaii for a week. If it HAD been considerably cheaper than those vacations, we may have been able to look at it as a cheap fun vacation option, but unfortunately, it didn't turn out that way for us so we were kinda comparing it to those trips in a "we could have been doing this for the money we spent" kind of way.

Oh, that sucks. We always go with the cheapest room we can get. LOL! I'd rather go to Disney any day over a cruise, but Sean would over rule me. LOL! That's so crappy you guys didn't enjoy it that much.
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kudos to you, robin! my family had a short (3day) trip planned for just our bordering state of indiana, and after a couple of days of trying to plan, me reminding him that we have 2 kids with us and can't be all 'go go go', we basically decided that at this time, it's just not something that is 'do-able' for our family. i think travelling is easier with older kids, and if it's stressful, it's just not fun. i think we decided on spending a day downtown, instead. i'll be missing my cousin's wedding because of it, but i figured i'll use the money we're saving to get her a nicer wedding gift. *sigh* :P
 
That looks so fun! How old are your kids? We are going next year and that xcaret looks like so much fun!! We love cruising, but the only one I was totally disappointed with was Carnival. I've heard there is a lot more drinking, and the food is only ok. I just texted my husband and told him he IS doing a couples massage and to get over it! ;-)
 
Emily, It is so funny that you mentioned NCL. I was just looking at the new Epic yesterday afternoon, and it looks completely different than the Dream with their Freestyle Cruising thing. 9 different pay-to-eat dining experiences in addition to the options that are included, lots more pools/waterslides, bowling, Nickelodeon events for the kids, Cirque du soleil dinner shows, Blue Man Group, etc - it looks like night and day in terms of entertainment / things to do. Still it is 4000+ people all trying to use those same limited amenities at once, so I don't know if that would be any better for us, but it does look like it might have more potential than Carnival did.

Vanessa, the cabin thing was one of our "if we had it to do over again" things. The balcony was nice, but it was a passing fancy if you will. LOVED the size of the room itself, and connecting cabins so we weren't all stuffed in the same room was a must for our sanity, but if we had it to do over again, connecting insides or oceanviews would have been perfectly fine because we just didn't use the balcony at all except for a couple of "ooh this is nice, ok it's hot, let's go back inside" type of moments.

Crecia, our kids are 9, 7 & 5 and they really loved Xcaret. I definitely recommend it especially if you have a mainland mexico stop in Calica where you can enjoy more of the park. I'm not sure I'd recommend it from Cozumel because there was soo much travel involved that we really didn't get to really enjoy the day in either location with all the rushing around.

Laura, we love traveling with the kids and have since they were babies. When they're younger, you do sometimes have to go at a little different pace, but all of our trips with them have been memorable and pretty stress free. We're pretty stress free, roll with the flow type of people tho so that helps. You should definitely plan a little getaway with your kiddoes soon. I'm sure you guys would love it!
 
Wow Robin, thanks for sharing. I'm not sure I'd be a cruise person either. I'm much rather just travel someplace and take my time seeing what I want to see. Love all your pics though!
 
i am definitely not a stress-free, easy-going gal like i used to be *snort* i think day trips are best for us right now....all the fun, but comfort of home at the end of the day :)

am i the only loser that keeps reading 'xcart' instead of 'xcaret'?? :P
 
Great pics Robin! Hate you weren't that fond of your cruise experience. My hubby and I went on our first cruise at the beginning of May to the Southern Caribbean and we absolutely loved it. We came back and booked a cruise for next year to Europe. We are cruising with RCCL though and with no kiddos.
 
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