Cruise Info

My husband and I love to cruise. We usually book through Travelocity or one of those type sites. We have taken a cruise to 1.) Bahamas 2.) Grand Cayman and Jamaica 3.) Key West and Mexico. My all time favorite is the cruise where we visited Jamaica and Grand Caymans. We left out of Miami, FL. I would not go during hurricane season.

I LOVE cruises. Before the kids were born we would go at least once a year. I love european cruises, but those are obviously more expensive with air and cruise prices. If you go in July or August, I would highly recommend Alaska. It is so beautiful! It is a little cooler, but if you are into sights more than beaches, that is a great option. Mexican Riviera cruises are great for beaches, and so are the Caribbean ones. Those you can pretty much do any time of year, except, as someone else mentioned, hurricane season (though tickets are cheaper during that time if you wanna take the risk, and if you do, definitely get travel insurance). Actually travel insurance is not a bad idea regardless of season :) ... anyway.. my favorite cruise line is Royal Caribbean. They also own Celebrity Cruises, though I've never been on one yet, but its supposed to be as good or better. If you like to party with the younger crowd though, carnival is probably a better option for your, though I feel they lack in the level of service that Royal Caribbean provides. I am 30 now, and was mostly in my 20s for all our cruises, and I still preferred Royal Caribbean.
I usually book through my travel agent, but only because my husband has a lot of food allergies, and she takes care of all that for us. For a typical booking, you might be fine going through Travelocity or Expedia, or the cruise line's website. Just browse around for deals.
As far as cabin choices, you will have your inside room, without windows, the ocean view with a small window or a large window, your balcony room, a suite ( a little bigger than balcony, also has a balcony), and other rooms I never looked into cause i can't afford those :) If you don't plan to spend much time in your room, get the inside cabin, its the cheapest. Or at most an ocean view one. The only time I got a balcony was for our honeymoon, cause I figured we'd be spending some time in the room, if you know what I mean ;) Once, I was upgraded to a suite when we arrived because there were some available. That was nice, the shower is bigger, which is huge, considering the size of showers in a normal cabin. I personally wouldn't spend extra money on that though, but if you have the money, go for it :)
Ok, I rambled on enough... If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. You are gonna love cruises!!!

We've been on a Baltic Sea Cruise, a European Cruise and the Alaskan cruise twice. I completely agree with Zoya that Alaska, especially in July or August is amazing!

We've only cruised Regent Cruise Lines which are more expensive, but when they say "all inclusive" they mean it. No end of cruise bar tabs-staff gratuity etc. It is all included up front in their price. They also have small ships which we like and almost all of their cabins are balcony cabins. But I have friends that have cruised the larger lines and love those because they do have more on-board activities.

Have fun!

I've taken Holland America to Alaska (Inside Passage-Juneau, Glacier Bay, Ketchikan, etc.) and both Carnival and Norwegian to the Eastern Caribbean (St. Thomas, St. Lucia, St. Martin, Barbados, Aruba, etc.). I really enjoyed the Alaska cruise, even though it was cool/cold weather in June. The ship was smaller than some and the staff was great, so it was fantastic for our first cruise. The 2 Caribbean cruises were also in June, before hurricane season and both left out of San Juan, PR. I liked Norwegian better than Carnival, but both were fun floating cities. The real key to cruises is the adventure/activity trips you can book at the various ports. I'm a huge snorkler, so I try to go snorkling or do something water-based at each port. There's still time after your day excursion for some shopping before you have to be back on the ship. The excursion trips are where cruises get REALLY expensive though, so check out what's available at each port ahead of time and book your favorites in advance to possibly save a little money. You can still book trips as late as the day before onboard, if you find yourself wanting to do something different that day. Shipboard life is fun on sea days or at night, but I feel you take a cruise to see many places on the same trip and the best way to do that is on an excursion trip. Some are a bit hokey, very touristy, but you're a tourist so who cares.

My brother takes his kids on the cruise to Atlantis in the Bahamas for christmas every year... they go away to avoid the xmas at home since his wife passed away 3 years ago. They have a blast, and they get to see fireworks from the cruiseship on their way home for new years!