Miami FL cruise help wanted

urbancookie1

Hi,
Really like the idea of doing a cruise next year April/May 08 for 5/7 days prefrably around east or west carribean and sailing from Miami port Florida where we can spend another week in South Beach when we leave the cruise.

Dont really know where to start when trying to book over the net, ive had a look at the carnival web site and a few others but find it quite confusing . Which would be the best deck to stay on? are all meals & drinks included in the price,

If anyone can help with a quote here are my detail's

sailing from Miami port - April/May 2008
east or western carribean- preferably (miami-bahamas-st thomas usvi-puerto rico-grand turk-miami
outside room with window/porthole
2 adults
no flight needed, i can organize this :T

Thanks

Beamish

Hi

Suggest you look at American Cruise Sites, Royal Carribean, NCL etc as you will get more value for money, no problem sending your tickets to the UK either.

Would not advise Carnival as a bit of a party ship, lots of kids, cant get near the pool etc! and a bit noisy.

Brother & SIL just been on a taster to Amersterdam this weekend on the new NCL "GEM", they were overawed by it.

Deck 9 is excellent as you dont get vibration from the engines.

We always cruise Royal Caribbean and so far have had no complaints.

Be warned your bar bill could be as much as your mortgage....LOL:eek:

Beem

saveapenny

Meals yes
Drinks no
Deck it all depends on the ship but usualy mid ship mid boat is the best for us because then you have not got far to go either way but its personal choice.
Its often cheaper to book with people like one of the american crusie agents or www.vacationstogo.co.uk you could try
www.ncl.com or www.ncl.co.uk they have had some really good deals on
Best Price cruise are good on price and try cruise compete which is a bit like beat my quote thread


we did the Gem this weekend for £59 each brillaint deal but if I had paid what some people had on there I would have had a major complaint about the food expecialy in the Oriental and main dinning room...we waited an hour before we had any food in front of us then the order came out wrong and cold, We spoke to a few people how said it was the samew the night before and when they ate there for breakfast. I'm glad we only ate there the one night

Beamish

Forgot to add that yes all meals are included unless you decide to eat in one of the add hoc restaurants, where you pay 10/20$ for the experience, coffee/tea are free in main cafe/restaurant, all alcoholic drinks are to be paid for.

You can go to the main cafe in the mornings and grab yourselves coffee/breakfast and take it to your cabins.

We always take the large thermo mugs and fill up with coffee then take to wherever we are going i.e. Pool area etc.

Also if you want to eat light at luchtime you can always take some of the fresh fruit/yoghurts/cheeses etc in the morning and pop into your mini bar for lunchtime snack.

Be warned there is so much food available that you will be fed up with the sight of it by the end of the week plus 10 stone heavier!

I only ever manage to do 1 formal night as I have put on some many pounds by the 2nd night I can never fit into my gladrags!!!!


Beem

urbancookie1

Just been looking through a few of the site recomended and yes i do think that the carnival ships may not be the sort of cruise we were thinking of, only looked at this ship because it sails out of miami and goes the route i think we might like. do you know of any other companys that sail out of miami,

ive seen the phrase formal ship what does this mean? i like kids but dont really want to be surrounded by them on holiday as weve done this in the past is this the type of ship the carnival is?

i have to admit we only had this idea of a cruise last night but already ive spent about 6/8hrs looking around on the web, the more i look the more confusing it becomes

saveapenny

if you go to vactionstogo and select the port and your month it will give you all the companies that have offers.
April you will have more choice because May the ships have started the repo cruises and started to leave the Caribbean in ready for the summer season

Beamish

Cruise Critic is a good site to look on as it gives reviews of cruise ships, plus available cruises.

Formal cruises tend to be the cruises where you dress for evening meal, or have formal nights,this distinguishes that they are not party ships where you dont have to dress up at all.

It all depends which week you cruise as to how many kids will be on board, if its a half term in the States there will def be more than the average! and yes Carnival is a favourite with parents and kids at half term.

It might be worth checking cruises out of Fort Lauderdale (not far from Miami).

Repositioning cruises are great value, at the moment many cruise ships are leaving the UK & Med for Boston etc ready for cruising the Caribbean, there is a excellent one going out on 3rd December from Barcelona to Boston, 9 days, 1 stop in Maderia, with the new NCL GEM for 499$ (Balcony), if it wasn't for us coming back from Cuba on the 4th December we would def be on that ship!!

Let us know if you need anymore info.

Beem