Would we like a cruise???

Azamara are good if you want an adults only experience. I know the OP doesn’t but just in case someone else reading this thread does. They don’t specifically exclude children but they don’t really cater for them. I’ve been on cruises where there were a few children and they seemed bored.

Unfortunately Celebrity have stopped doing their 4 night August bank holiday cruise from Southampton as that would have been a good one to try.

I could not agree more about cruise lines! I wouldn’t sail with Marella or P&O again if you paid me! P&O’s Canberra was the first ship I sailed on when P&O really did know how to do a cruise.

Princess
Celebrity
Royal Caribbean.

MSC at a push!

when we go to an all inclusive we never leave the hotel. I’m those that just lounge by the pool/beach all day

If that's what you prefer to do on holiday, then it's possible a cruise is not for you. The pool on a cruise tends to be very small, and getting a lounger by it can be challenging. Visiting beaches can be fun on a cruise, but almost always involves a taxi, bus ride, boat ride or excursion - there's not many places that a cruise ship docks right by a beach, at least in my experience. I'm sure there are some, but I can only think of one or two that I've been to.

It also depends on how much of a budget you have. If you don't want to do much planning, and are prepared to throw money at it, then ship excursions are a good way to go. But if you prefer to save a bit on excursions, you can book your own through Viator or similar, or just do your own thing. Usually cheaper, but may require more planning, and be a bit more stressful making sure you are back to the ship on time. I got quite worried when we got stuck in a small shack in the middle of nowhere in Colombia, and our ride back to town got stuck in traffic after a lorry fire shut the main road. We did make it by the skin of our teeth, but it was touch and go.

At the end of the day, the more you spend, the more will be included and the more luxurious it will be (some cruise lines include excursions, but these tend to be the higher end lines, and cost way more anyway). Only you can decide if it's in line with what you usually pay, and whether it's what you want to do. If you are generally one for lying in the beach/by the pool, and not doing too much, then I don't really see the point of paying out for a cruise.

I think with cruises the key is finding the right cruise line for your party. For me Royal Caribbean looks awful but for others I can see why it’s amazing.

I have done P and O which works well for us (to the point we have 3 more booked in the next 2 years) and Princess which wasn’t for us. I would like to try celebrity and Cunard at some point.

I’ve been on 30, 19 of which were with my DC, I started when the youngest was aged 9.

I usually book excursions for about 70-80% of the ports and do my own thing in the remaining ones.

Celebrity isn’t uninviting for DC, there’s still lots going on it just isn’t quite as loud and all singing all dancing as some of the other cruise lines.

You don’t have to love Disney to enjoy their cruises, the quality of entertainment and food is very good.

The ranking for the companies I’ve been with are

Scenic
Disney
Celebrity
RC
NCL
Marella
P&O
Carnival

I always book the premium drinks package, speciality restaurants and either a balcony stateroom or a suite.

Another vote for whatsinport ... absolutely invaluable for research

As PPs have said they usually offer shuttle buses to nearby cities, @Givenup2026, but there's always public transport too, and personally I'd swap lovely Livorno for crowded, tiring Rome

Like others I'd avoid P&O like the plague - IME the standards just aren't there - but you should be okay with the likes of Princess, Celebrity, NCL, or Royal Caribbean

Cruises come in all types and durations. My DD wants to do a Japanese Cruise next year, flying into Tokyo and then you join the ship. Decide your budget and then what you want from the cruise, then the destination. It might be worth sticking to AI. Some people can't feel being on a ship, other people feel unwell. So that's something to consider. My youngest GC gets every bug going and doesn't like boat trips, so consider your DC's needs.

We never do ships excursions. As pp said what’s in port is great. Also I go on cruise critic the roll call forums for our cruise and team up with people much cheaper. Have got shuttle buses Before from the port.

I’m going to be the dissenting voice and say we went on a cruise last year but hated it! Having said that we would never stay in an AI hotel and always get a villa or, if on a city break, stay in a normal hotel. Everything was absolutely fine, the food was good and there was plenty to do but by the end of the week we’d all just had enough. I think there just wasn’t enough variety. We went on a Norwegian fjords cruise and we all loved Norway but spent only about 15 hours actually in Norway. We stopped in three Norwegian ports and Bruges and that part of the holiday was fabulous but the balance was all wrong with too much time on the boat.

For day trips, the cruise prices are ridiculous. We booked through an app that connects you with local companies and trips were half the cost.

That's expensive! I think our coach from Civitavecchia to Rome was about £70pp, and that came with an excellent guide. You may have been looking at more of a guided tour around Rome, whereas our excursion was called 'Rome on your Own'.

Some people will take the train from Civitavecchia to Roma Termini for around E20, but you then have to watch your return journey as you can't be late back to the ship. We took a train from Sorrento to Pompeii, so a bit more of a cultural experience.

You don’t have to do the ship tours, you can do stiff yourself.

we use this site https://www.whatsinport.com/

I also tend to do some research to find some nice walks.

There is often a shuttle bus as well that will take you to the nearest town

We've been to the Western Med, Adriatic, Canaries, and Central America with Marella. We've also done Western Caribbean with NCL where we had 2 out of the five ports cancelled due to weather (it looked fine).

We found that the Central American ports were fake holiday villages, apart from Belize City. Canaries were a mix of industrial ports and walk out, Adriatic was similar, but more tender ports. Western Med was a mix again.

As for Italy, we were there last year and did the coach transfer to Rome, which was 1.5 hours, and the same to Florence. The coaches were great as they went through lovely scenery, and had a guide on board giving you history, suggestions etc. You can do Pisa by taxi, and spend the rest of the day in Livorno or go back to a very quiet ship.

The ships run lots of organised trips to places of interest to suit all tastes, so you aren’t stuck in the port. Or if you want to go it alone, public transport is quite a fun way to explore, and it’s cheaper and more reliable than you’ll be used to in the UK.

For many people, it’s the places you can get to see from the ship that makes the cruise. Italy is actually a great place to visit on a cruise but it will be more of a city experience.

We cruise every 1-2 years, and so far, in recent years, it's always been on Marella. We chose Marella because they have the best itineraries, and are generally British.

We like the medium-sized ships where you can quickly figure out what works for you.

There is no need to do any of the big entertainment, although we've found that there is always a lot of variety in the show theatre from night to night. We always get a junior suite with balcony, so there is plenty of space and no cabin fever. Saying that, even the smaller inside cabins are so well-designed with mirrors, fake curtains, artwork, that they don't feel small. I am happy to stay in the cabin to read on the balcony or have a nap, preferably with DH elsewhere, although I prefer a quiet spot on deck or in one of the lounges (with drinks service).

The kids clubs are really good, and they run at hours that suit you. I don't know if you want a late night date, as we never took anyone that needed babysitting. Saying that, if you are on a Mediterranean cruise you will likely be in port for five of the days.

So the ones we’ve been to, we’ve never had to pay supplement. The alcohol is very good quality (think Grey Goose vs Absolut), lobster, bottled San Pellegrino, and house champagne (as opposed to random bubbly). One of these hotels even won a Michelin Star fairly recently.
From what I’ve read Celebrity is the closest to something similar but seemed very uninviting for kids

We mostly sail Norwegian, and upgrade to include a drinks package and a few visits to the speciality restaurants. As a whole, the drinks are good brands (DH loves Grey Goose and Belvedere!), but champagne rather than prosecco would generally be extra, or require an upgraded drinks package - but I think this is true for Celebrity too. Lobster is a supplement on Norwegian, but is sometimes included on Celebrity I think.

Celebrity does have a kids club, but less of the ad-hoc entertainment - no ropes courses, water slides etc. But if you are doing a cruise with lots of ports of call, your DD may not have time to do these things anyway, and a full day out followed by kids club in the evening will probably be more than enough for a six year old!

We used to go on Disney when dcs were little. Fantastic for kids.

Now do celebrity but have been on regent and Cunard. Celebrity more ‘us’ and good with the DCs when they were teens. With a little one I’d go Disney.

Also we usually get premium drinks package. If I don’t like what’s on offer then I pay a supplement.

On regent it’s all premium but we found it a bit too sedate for us but proper luxury.

If you're going in August from Southampton then you're on the Disney Dream which is the sister ship to the Disney Fantasy we went on in August last year.

It was at full capacity - rammed, but not unmanageable. Getting everyone seated at the same time for dinner was challenging, but you have your own reserved table so you just need to exercise a bit of patience. We sometimes struggled to find a table at the breakfast buffet, but then we could have gone to one of the restaurants instead, or ordered room service, or sat outside in the freezing cold and pissing rain.

There were people turned away from the theatre, and you have to be imaginative and adventurous if you want three or four sun loungers next to each other in a particular area of the ship at certain times so sometimes you need to plan ahead and get there first, but I don't think that's particularly unusual in a peak season resort holiday.

If you like an “all inclusive “ holiday you will like a cruise. You may still like a cruise if you don’t but I would research cruise lines and itineraries to see what you would like. I think Norwegian are good for families and bigger ships tend to have a younger demographic.

Love a cruise but a love a band, not the kind that pretend to be another band (a tribute band) but one playing classic hits after classic hit. I’m not keen on the shortened musicals, and circus type shows so I stick to music. I also like the talks, demonstrations etc you get on sea days. Book a cabin with a balcony and you have a good amount of personal space and some (check carefully for up to date info because lines are cutting back) have free room service, I don’t use it for main meals but it was lovely having coffee, pastries and fruit come at 8.30 each morning to enjoy on the balcony, we then dressed and headed to the buffet for a second course! Afternoon tea is served on some lines complete with music too

You might like a cruise - I certainly wouldn't be put off by the fact that you don't like musicals or tribute acts! It's true that there is usually some entertainment of this sort, but it's easily avoided. Although most music acts round the ship often tend to be playing 'hits' with some sort of theme (country, latin, pop etc), but it's good enough background music while having a pre or post dinner drink. There's often other entertainment - on our last cruise there was a magician (better than its sounds!), a hypnotist, a duelling piano show, comedians, acrobats, trivia, language lessons, a talk about the Panama Canal (as that is where we were sailing) as well as the musicals and tribute acts.

I'd say go for one of the larger ships, with plenty of ports of call, you honestly won't have time to get cabin fever - and your six year old will have a blast, the kids clubs tend to be really great - a step above those in most hotels, in my experience. Royal Caribbean are great for kids, but other lines such as NCL (our favourite) and Princess will have loads to do as well.

If you are used to high-end all inclusives, then I'm not sure how a cruise will compare - I've done all inclusives, but more at the Rui level - and the drinks (branded rather than local) choices and food on a cruise beats those hands down - there is generally a good buffet, but you don't have to eat there if you don't want to - most cruise lines have their main dining rooms open at breakfast and evening, and many offer a choice of other places to eat at other times as well. Plus there will be speciality restaurants as well, although these often come at a supplement.

I do think with a cruise, it's usually a case of you get what you pay for - more expensive will generally be more luxurious, with better food and entertainment than the cheaper end of the market. But on the other hand, there may not be as much to do for the six year old on a very expensive line.

I could do without Mickey, Pluto and Cinderella, and there was no way we were ever going to go to a theme park, so we settled on a Disney cruise as a way of giving the DCs the Disney experience and - believe it or not - keep the costs under control. It worked for us.

What I would say is that the ships themselves are designed from the keel up as family experiences, rather than the P&O approach of tacking on a kids' club as an afterthought and the entertainment on board was peerless - in particular, Broadway quality Disney stage shows in the theatre. The food is actually nothing to write home about though (although there is a lot of it!)

We're giving serious consideration to doing another Disney one when the DCs are old enough to roam the ship by themselves, although if it were me I'd prefer a tall-masted ship where passengers are invited to help hoist the sails etc. - as I understand it these types of ship attract a very different clientele which I suspect I'd fit into better.