Are you still contemplating taking a cruise after the recent events?
My wife and I were talking the other night and I mentioned that I might like to take a Caribbean cruise in the future. (This will be our first cruise.) To which I received the reaction, 'No we are not!'....'What are you crazy?!'.... 'Over my dead body!'...
After the latest troubles with the Costa Concordia, Costa Allegra, ships stranded at sea without power, pirates, and-on-and-on..... Have you also written off a cruise as a vacation option? Are the deals today too good to pass up? How long do you think it will take for the cruise industry to recover and for people to trust them again? For my sake I hope it's very soon, I need a vacation and looking at the price drop (on cruises) lately I would like to take the plunge. Wait that was a terrible use for that saying... I would not like to take the plunge in shark infested tropical waters. High and dry on the boat deck sounds just fine to me!
We try to go every year. This year shall not be an exception. Just make sure you are sober for the muster drill and have a great time. I am not one to let doom and gloom ruin my plans.
@hottubrf: Convincing me is not a problem. I'm sold. Thanks.
Let's not forget all the illnesses too...
Sorry. :)
I'd think twice about cruising with Costa, but I'd definitely be cruising this year if I were planning a vacation.
@pamfenway: Good point!
I took a couple of flights the year DC10's were falling from the sky like raindrops. The odds are in our favor. Look how many people die on the highway each year, but most of us use it daily. "Sick ships" are another matter. We got terribly ill on our last cruise (Norwegian Spirit). The crew seemed to know it, as there were hand sanitizing stations all over the ship and outside the buffet crewmen were spraying everyone's hands with a sanitizing solution as they went in. I've never seen anything like it. In an amusing twist of fate, the only one of us who didn't catch it was the one who'd spent a previous cruise deathly seasick aboard Carnival Conquest while we were chased around exceedingly rough seas by Hurricane Ivan. But despite getting sick and a number of things we did not like aboard Spirit, we enjoyed the vacation and it certainly hasn't put us off cruising. The only reason we aren't cruising this summer is we found a great price on an air vacation to Costa Rica.
My wife and I are going on our first cruise ever this year. Got a good deal on it too! I think the chances of pirates in carribean are pretty low, but Kiera would only improve things if she showed up.
Our Costa Rica vacation is costing $825 each for three travelers and includes RT air from Atlanta, 8 hotel nights across three different cities, and car rental for the entire stay. The hotels look gorgeous. So you might consider a fly-cation if the wife is spooky about cruising. Unless you live near a cruise departure city, which makes cruising by far the best bang for your vacation buck. We are in pretty much the dead center of the continent, so it's a pricey plane ticket to get to the coast for us. We will be in Atlanta for Dragoncon so we are flying on from there.
Nope. I didn't join the Navy for a reason and have no intention of being on any cruise ship.
Please, My wife and I went to Mexico during the Swine flu.. Excuse me H1N1 outbreak. 2 weeks before our trip, they announced that no US citizens should travel to Mexico.
Our trip had been booked for 6 months. I wasn't about to pay cancellation fees because of some silly flu. Needless to say, we went, had a great time, and didn't get sick!
Cruises are definitely some of the most affordable vacation options available, and are often very fun as well.
Basing decisions about cruising off of the few incidents that have happened in the past few years is like not going on a trip to the beach for risk of a hurricane or not going to the mountains for risk of an avalanche - all vacation options have some sort of risk involved.
If you're worried about pirates, hurricanes and all that jazz, there's always the option of an Alaska cruise. You don't hear much about Inuit pirates.
Life is a 100% fatal sexually transmitted disease. Enjoy it while you can.
I've never been on a cruise, because I don't like the idea of being penned in with a bunch of other people.
Planes crash, cars get into accidents, so yeah I would go on a cruise.
Its not like a whole fleet of ships has sunk. One ship sunk in a place it shouldn't have been at because of a captain doing things he shouldn't have. It could still happen again, but I think you're often safest after something like this happens because awareness is higher.
@wingnutzero: One word: Iceberg
We'll be cruising in June and I'm not the least bit worried. I would avoid Carnival, they seem to be bearing the brunt of the bad luck right now (Carnival owns Costa). Personally I tried to avoid Carnival long before anything recent anyways but that has more to do with their style of cruise.
As far as "Sick Ships" go, unless either cruises start doing full medical evals on every passenger before boarding or people are suddenly willing to eat the cost of the cruise and not go when they're sick, there is nothing you can do besides use the offered sanitizer and wash your hands.
@czarkingkaiser: lol, can you guarantee Kiera. If so I'm booking today.
@wingnutzero: Would love to see Alaska before global turns it into a giant puddle.
@moondrake: Be sure you check carefully where you are going to be driving in Costa Rica. Some areas are a bit dangerous.
@wildridge: Totally agree.
I never really liked the idea because most come off as "all inclusive" but that doesn't include alcohol and most are not kid free. If you're not a drinker than this is obviously not a big deal. I like the idea of Sandals because it truely is all inclusive and no kids allowed. I've never heard a bad review from any of my friends and family who've gone. All food, drinks, snacks, most leisurely activities are all in the price. And if you stay on Jamaica or another island that has multiple Sandals resorts, you can visit any of them-maybe to try a different restaurant on site, different beach, more golfing, etc. This seems way more appealing than being trapped on a boat with no alcohol and screaming kids.
@magiclela: You aren't trapped with no alcohol. You have to pay for it. You just have to compare the price of the cruise plus the cost of alcohol, to the cost of the all inclusive resort plus air fare. If you are the type of person to run up a $100+ bar tab every night, then the cruise is probably not the best value. But if you are the type of person to have a few drinks a day, then the cruise may be a better deal. As for screaming kids, if you stay away from the buffet and the kiddie pool you don't see many, even on the lower end cruise lines like Carnival and Royal Caribbean. We prefer cruising over resort because we enjoy visiting different destinations.
@klozitshoper: Thanks, I'll have to research and see what I can find out. But unless we get lost we are likely to be mostly in touristy areas. We like to snorkel, parasail, zipline, ride horseback, raft, take nature tours, that sort of thing. We don't go off on our own as we can generally get a lot more done on tours.
My wife is terrified of ships.
@moondrake: There would be airfare to consider for a resort or a cruise, I'm not anywhere near a port of call. It's true that you do get a variety of places to visit, but it seems it would be too cattle like. Everyone off the boat for 2 hours everyone back on the boat to travel to the next place. I just like the idea of a resort over a cruise because you have your own schedule. Too each their own I guess!
My wife and I are trying to decide between a cruise and all inclusive resort.
But none of the resent mishaps are swaying us one way or the other.
Our biggest deciding factor is cost, followed closely by activities.
I like the idea of a cruise because you get to see a few different places and the activities on the boat when at sea. The alcohol is not a big deal I don't drink and my will only have a couple a day. Down side there can be a many hidden fees and you won't know what the total cost will be until you are done the cruise.
But the resort is nice too being all inclusive and not having to carry my wallet with me is a big plus not many hidden fees. The room size will be a plus but I don't plan on spending too much time in the room I want to be out and doing things.
So its a toss up hopefully we can find some good deals.
We are open to suggestions.
A lot of people stay on the boat for some reason. I haven't ever been anywhere that has only a two hour stay, I think the shortest I have seen is five hours, and a few as long as ten. At places where the ship is sea-anchored and you have to use a tender (transport boat), if you try to maximize your time at the destination, it is pretty cattle-like, with everyone lined up waiting for a ride. But if your boat is anchored at a dock or if you want to get off outside of rush hour it's just a matter of scanning your idea and leaving. At Roatan Honduras last summer we contracted directly for a private tour and were picked up in a regular car at the dock, taken on a tour of the island, taken ziplining, parasailing, swimming, snorkeling and horse-back riding, then delivered back to the dock by our local guide. Airfare is an issue for us as well, but usually flying internationally pretty much doubles it as opposed to flying to the port. But of course, different strokes for different folks!
My wife and I did our second cruise just before the Costa Concordia disaster (we were home perhaps 3 days before it happened). First cruise was with Royal Caribbean, second with Disney. Two very similar experiences, really; and not hard to avoid the small kids if you really want to as they both had adults-only areas. One advantage to Disney was that soft drinks were free; though I think the continually-available (ie, not just from the breakfast/lunch/dinner restaurants) may have been better (at least in variety) on Royal Caribbean.
We would certainly try either again without hesitation. We did "Western Caribbean" cruises for both lines. I would, however, suggest for anyone who wants a Caribbean itinerary to depart from a port as far south as possible so you can see more locations outside the US. Disney departs from Canaveral and spends a day each way basically following the FL Atlantic coast.
Also, in regards to Sandals - my wife and I married at one in Jamaica in 2005. Highly recommend that as well. They also have a sister chain of resorts called Beaches that allow families, which we might check out some time in the future. We stayed at Sandals Negril and the service was fantastic. Staff seemed to practically trip over each other to make sure we had whatever we wanted. Free booze was an excellent selling point for us, too. Food was excellent and the variety of restaurants was very good.
Our wedding service there was fantastically quick, too. We were wed around noon, and in the hot tub by around 2pm. Granted, we brought nobody with us, which helped keep it quick.
When its my time its my time. If you live your life worried you wont enjoy life anyway. Might as well be dead.
Although all the recent issues made me appreciate how overboard the US goes when it comes to safety on cruise ships.
@coondogg97: Did you really say, "overboard?" j/k
@pamfenway: HA!!!! Rimshot!
@moondrake:
"If you are the type of person to run up a $100+ bar tab every night, then the cruise is probably not the best value. But if you are the type of person to have a few drinks a day, then the cruise may be a better deal."
At cruise ship prices it only takes a few drinks a day to rack up a $100+ bar tab.
@jerry559: The drinks I have bought aboard cruise ships have been about $5 each. My friend bought a good bottle of wine for about $50 and that included storage and table service, they kept it in the fridge with his name on it and the sommalier was waiting at our table with it when we arrived each night for dinner. Using Carnival as an example, beers are $5, drink specials are $4, and drinks in souvenir glasses are $7, with other drinks running $5-7. That's about what we pay for drinks when we go out locally. So you'd need to drink 15-20 drinks daily to rack up a $100 bar tab every day. If you get an on-board credit which are quite common incentives then you can use it for drinks if you like. Here's a list of drink prices on Carnival:
http://cruises.lovetoknow.com/wiki/How_Much_Are_Drinks_on_Carnival_Cruises
More people die in car accidents on I-95 each day than in the wars in the middle east. I think its safe to say that a cruise ship is less likely to kill me than anything else life throws at me!
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