Would we like a cruise???

[Givenup2026]

I’m currently in bed with a never ending flu/cold while my husband is skiing in Switzerland… Anyway! We’ve been thinking of going on a cruise but we’re unsure for different reasons (my husband thinks it might make him feel a bit claustrophobic) whereas I don’t like tributes bands nor musicals…. So we think we might end up getting bored or with cabin fever.

We also have a 6yo, so it has to be kid friendly.

So given that’s the case, do you think we’d enjoy it? And any you would recommend?
Ty!

I guess the AIBU is pondering going when we’re both hesitating.

Not all cruises are on cruise ships! Have you ever thought about small ship cruises? Honestly, I’ve done a big cruise ship and had fun but it’s not my thing. DH and I love small boat trips.

I haven’t used these guys (https://adventuresmithexplorations.com/cruises/ships/ ) so buyer beware and all that but they specialize in small boat sailing.

I have sailed with these guys and they are wonderful mostly Caribbean but they have added a boat in Greece I think (https://www.islandwindjammers.com/default.aspx )

@Dabralor How many cruises have you been on?

@MrsPatrickDempsey precisely none- you couldn’t pay me enough to go on a cruise. Seeing them belch smoke and decant 1000s of people into my hometown where they don’t spend much money but clutter up the streets being herded about is enough to put me off.

There is something for everyone. Nice quiet cocktail bars , Broadway shows, coffee shops , quiet reading areas , cinemas, casinos , you pick and choose what you want to do. Anything or nothing I love waking up somewhere different every day

I have read the whole thread, and have been on 4 short cruises in the last two years, and I am not sure it is right for you and your 6yo, not without a fair bit of research at least, and a bit of DIY gusto given the budget, which is probably low if you want summer holidays, drinks package etc.. If you don't mind sorting your own travel with budget airlines, I was about to suggest that you look at SEASCANNER and choose something that is in the med, a couple of days long (this is defo doable with full drinks package for around £100 pp per night for an internal room) just to see if you like the experience of being on the ship, fly there and back (different airports) with a bit of a holiday at either end. But the entire experience takes some organising and given what you normally like to do (i.e. fly then relax with everything sorted with AI type facilities) then this is not for you. My experience from 4 short cruises say It can, of course, be marvellous, I had a wonderful time going from Zadar in Crotia to Venice in Italy in September (1 night, MSC with full drinks package for £57) but of the three cruises since, we have had bad weather at points on two of them and although I am not travel-sickly, it put a dampener on things. Also if the cruise is advertising "Marseille" as either the start point, or a point en-route, have a re-think, the embark and disembark is dreadful, and there are not many nice things that anyone can say about the town. Or Genoa, or Hamburg (closed on Sunday and miles out) come to that. Rome is not Rome. Bruges is not Bruges etc...so defo do your research. Longer trips are easier, have good ports to disembark and have a wander around, but generally you have to know what you are after. CRUISECRITIC is quite a good forum to ask questions on the forums. Hope this helps. x

Thank you! I think my biggest issues that I’ve seen so far are:

like you said the ports are nowhere close where they say they are…. (I think in the Caribbean that’s a tad different)

that the cabins look out of a travelodge as opposed to to a 4 star

apart from maybe RC the pools etc, seem quite small

i also like to do 1 tropical holiday and 1 city holiday every year, theoretically this cruise woild be the “tropical” one.

Maybe a Caribbean cruise is the answer, but it’s obviously a bigger investment and we’re both on the side of “we’re probably not gonna like it“ even though I’m definitely curious. And my DH isn’t.

We’re sure we’d like something like Virgin cruises but they’re adults only, so maybe we just need to wait.

We were invited on a cruise with other family members for a big birthday. We were a bit reluctant, as we'd never fancied one for the reasons many on here have cited, but it wasn't something we could refuse without causing offence, so we put our best foot forward and went.

We bloody loved it! We went on Celebrity Apex from Southampton and have been twice since on Celebrity Edge to other destinations! The food is out of this world (even just the buffet). Our DS had the absolute time of his life at the teen club, hanging out with teens from all over the world - we barely saw him, even meals he ate with his new friends. It's just incredibly relaxing. We don't drink so a typical evening (after eating dinner, watching a show) was lying in the solarium, people watching/reading then walking the promenade to get our steps in, then heading back to the buffet for midnight snacking (we're really rather boring!). No cabin fever, no food poisoning, no overcrowding, just a really chilled, enjoyable holiday with as much or as little to do as you want.

We did it three years running, as it was the perfect holiday for DS (being an only child) but now he's 18 and holidaying with friends, I don't know if the pull of the cruise is sufficient to overcome our concerns about the environmental impact (which is HUGE). Reluctantly, I don't think we will do big cruise ships again.

I've learned that BoB Day is best spent eating light starchy food , lots of water , coffee ( I don't drink alcohol anyway) and get up early for breakfast .
Stay about the middle of the ship with a book .

Not in the cabin ( or "StateRoom" as they call them ) the feeling of bleurgh is worse .
The last cruise we did was a 1 week then a 2 week back-to-back , so FOUR BoB Days
I was hoping I'd be cured

I'm on a P&O cruise now and it is nothing l like that. Everyone else is polite and respectful.

Yes I love P&O but hate Butlins.

There are a few reviewers on YouTube. Worth a watch.

Things to consider:

Where would you like to cruise? Europe, Caribbean, Antarctic? Although cruises try to stay out of bad weather it can happen.

How many sea days are there? Personally I would not want too many, but that's my preference.

Which company to use, a lot of the lines belong to bigger companies. With a 6 year old I would think one with a kids club would be useful.

What do you want on the ship? Some have a flo-rider, some have roller coasters, some have roller skating. All have at least one pool, but they tend not to be that big.

What sort of evening entertainment do you want? It might be just a singer, it might bee a full Broadway show. How is your little one in the evening, could they cope with some entertainment?

You need proper cruise insurance, being taken off by helicopter isn't cheap.

What sort of dinner experience do you want. Some people just use the buffet, most ships have speciality dining that costs more.

Also the ships have different rules about how they seat you, some will seat you on the same table every day, others will put you with other people or give you a set time to eat.

With a 6 year old I would check if room service is included, that way you can have a drink in your room / on the balcony when the little one is asleep.

Cruises can and do change itinerary due to things like rough seas, or ports closing to cruise ship so don't set your heart on seeing a particular place.

How are your language skills? Most cruises operate in English, but not all. There is a German line where very little is written in English. Costa give all announcements in 5 languages, would that drive you insane?

We’ve watched three reviews (plus a few other random ones a few months ago).

apart from a translatlantic repositioning cruise, every single one we watched looked like a complete nightmare to us. Crowded, small rooms, some looked like an oversized ferry…. Disney still seems to be the best option, but it would be our 3rd “Disney” holiday in a row and we’re not super big fans. Also the newer ship sails the Caribbean and not the Mediterranean which is where we’d ideally go.

We only care about the location because we think it would be cheaper to keep it as local as possible. Me personally don’t necessarily care about the sightseeing. I think I’d happily to an Alaska/Arctic one but maybe as a follow up rather than a first one.

i wouldn’t know how many days at sea as I’ve never done one!

what we want on the ship is potentially the biggest contradiction. I think our 6yo would love the water park type attractions. I genuinely couldn’t care less about Vegas style entertainment, only want a piano/jazz bar and the odd quiz/ trivia night. Casino would be fine, but we’d need the kids club to leave our 6yo. No idea about them coping (or not) with the entertainment as they’ve never experienced any.

the dining experience is super important. I don’t mind (even prefer!) a buffet for breakfast, but dining I much prefer a specialty one. Also a massive bugbear of mine is to have to pay extra for dining, so when I choose an AI that’s one of the key things I look for.

I’m fluent in 3 languages (loved speaking French on the Brittany ferris and even got congratulated by the chef!) and can semi understand at least another 2, so multilingualism would be a plus rather than a negative.

According to a travel agent I just spoke with, what I want is kind of a contradiction and most likely won’t like the compromise (which seems like a fair conclusion given what some MNetteres have said).

I believe you, InveterateWineDrinker; I've seen the same myself, though sadly only on ships with a massive majority of Brits - which is why, convenient as it is, I avoid sailing from Southampton

As always this really is where research is so important; happily there's a ship for everyone, and long may it be so

You mentioned that you don’t like to pay extra for food, what are your thought on paying for drinks/buying a drinks package £50-£80 per person per day)?

The drinks package I’m OK with as I think that’s one of the bigger differences between AI and cruises.

Disney cruise (again!) seems to have only one or two options of paid dining, and they’re adults only. So from a dining POV that one is winning too.

I'm not sure the style and cost of these is very family friendly though I'm sure they're delightful if you can afford it!

You could try a Disney four night one from the UK perhaps, Disney dining is a very high standard. I know you mentioned you don’t like shows but your DC may like to go to one and they aren’t too long.
The adult pools are lovely, like a boutique hotel.

Yeah and I think I would happily go on. Disney one, my DH not so much…. Because all the food we’ve ever had at the parks (the “finer” type) has been terrible, it’s hard to convince him that the cruises are better in that sense.

I feel like we either try the Disney one or we wait until we’re empty nesters and go on a Virgin one kid free

I'm glad I read this. I'm scared of heights, and it never occurred to me that this could be an issue on a ship.

I went on a short cruise years ago (4 days, Venice and the islands), but it was a pretty small ship (passenger capacity was only just over 100) and that was fine.

I enjoyed it. It was informal (no dressing for dinner), we met some really interesting people, the food was great, the cabin was quite spacious and beds really comfy, and the service was excellent. The bar wasn't especially expensive either.

We sail Marella, which is 99% British. We've never seen bad behaviour.

We sail Azamara, mainly British, American, Canadian, Australian and some Europeans. Never seen bad behaviour either. We don’t sail from Southampton either. Apart from anything else, arriving back in dreary, probably rainy Southampton when you’ve been sailing foreign climes is the pits.

Good call on the family friendly…the island windjammers do have age restrictions and I remembered the OP mentioning a child after I posted. I think some of the other ones are family friendly but I haven’t looked at them in a while. The second link has all different kinds of trips so the prices run the gamut.

I've just done the one cruise and I loved it. If you have a 6 year old, I expect it would be great for you and hubby because there's so much family - based activities..

I have a feeling the first cruise you do ( unless it's a short / moderately priced one to start with), will generally be the best one you ever do..

We absolutely loved it.. waking up in amazing news places, what's not to love ?.

Can't think of any drawbacks. Possibly we felt a bit sad for the staff who do seem a bit of an underclass in a way..But maybe you can't escape that side of it.

Which one did you go on?