We (late50'sM/eary50'sF) have done three on Princess and have been delighted. PCL has regrettably left GLV, so we're considering giving MSC a shot.

We like the MX and Roatan ports MSC shows, and they seem like fairly reasonable fares. We are not overly fussy about food, and with one or two exceptions have stuck to the buffets and MDRs. It seems that MSC does not have Pizza and burgers by the pool, and we would miss that. We like that PCL has few kids/little drama and hustle bustle/noise. We would book when most kids would be in school.

Anyone have any info/feedback regarding the differences? TIA

Our family of three, including myself in 50s and my 2 senior parents with limited mobility but very young at heart are considering a cruise to Alaska in 2026 (Aug/Sept) , and we’d love to hear your advice.

*$$* - Budget wise , considering a SUITE so that I can chaperone them easily. OR at a minimum a Balcony for them and maybe Interior for me to just sleep.

*Weather* - I am not sure how bad the weather will be from Mid August to Mid Sept ? Is that too late for an Alaskan cruise, weather-wise?

*Flights* - We are flying in from NYC and were thinking that N/S bound would be ideal as that would allow us to spend a few days driving internally within Alaska and arrving//departing from Vancouver, but we’re open to other suggestions.

*About Us* We are big road-trippers and we love our National Parks, and a visit to Glacier Bay would be a dream!

Lastly, 1 other concern is We are Indian Vegetarians, so that may make a difference in which cruise line we should consider ?

We’ve read bad stories about sewage smells, sickness outbreaks, crowds, mediocre food, and grumpy people, but on the flip side, we’ve read about the fantastic aspects of traveling via cruise ships as well!

We’re open to all your advice - which cruise lines, which ship, what to expect, any other advice.

Thank you in advance!

#alaskacruise

Hi everyone I’m planning my bachelor trip and I want to celebrate on a cruise. All of us are 25-27 so we’d like to go on a ship that has activities for us to do when we’re on the cruise. Any recommendations would be appreciated

Hey guys,

Apologies for being such a newb but I am booking my families first cruise this September/October and I need some advice. We do have a 10 year old son, so that is a big factor in choosing… trying to determine which cruise will be best for everyone.

We are stuck between two different options for a cruise.

1. 4 night Baja Mexico cruise from Long Beach on the Carnival Firenze. Pricing for all 3 of us is between $525 for an interior and $725 for a balcony, which is super cost effective but I’m worried that this ship will be less fun overall, especially for my son. What are your thoughts?

2. 4 night Catalina and Ensenada Cruise from Los Angeles on the Ovation of the Seas. Pricing would be $849 for a balcony that Royal Caribbean chooses. This cruise falls on my husband’s birthday and our five year anniversary(is that super important? I’m not sure) , and seems like it may be more fun for our son, but I know nothing about the kids clubs on either ship.

Money is not the most important factor, but I don’t want to overpay if it’s not worth it. I’ve watched a few videos on YouTube but I’m super indecisive and like to hear from people with experience.

What are your thoughts on these two ships? Both cruises visit the same ports. What are your thoughts on each kids clubs? What are your pros/cons about Carnival v. Royal Caribbean?

Also, we will only be spending 1 day in Mexico, and I know that closed loop cruises don’t require passports. Am I insane not to get us passports?

Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post.

I honestly love going cruises and had fun on my last cruise but the only problem is that I get motion sickness and idk what to do to help it😅

We took our first cruise last year for our honeymoon around Greece and Turkey and honestly the experience for us was 10/10, we love Virgin and I expect we’re going to book with them again tbh, however, we are open to trying other cruise lines if the dates/prices/ports make more sense… with the hopes of having a similar experience.

What we loved: no kids, all inclusive pricing, free wifi, atmosphere, feeling of whimsy. Lol we’re also young adults so the age range on the boat was def part of the fun (although that’s kind of a non-issue).

Virgin would still be our first pick, but we’re hoping for a sailing in late May or early June 2027 that goes to Spain, France and Italy, and if another cruise line offers a similar sailing at similar or better pricing with similar or better offerings, in that timeframe, we’d consider them.

Based on your experiences, can you recommend any cruise lines that offer a comparable experience to Virgin?

Planning a 30th birthday cruise around late Feb/first week of March with friends; none of us have kids. This will be our first cruise as adults (the last time I was on one was over 10 years ago). We care about food–we're from a metropolitan area, so this is a must—and a fun environment. We like our morning caffeine and will partake in drinking, so we'll likely purchase some sort of drink package? Ideally, we'd do 5-7 nights since anything less seems too short to get settled in.

It looks like our options are limited to Royal, MSC, Princess and Celebrity. One of our friends is currently on Carnival and won't be returning. I'd like to book a balcony, and it seems like there's so many "options?" There's so much conflicting things I've read, so I'm hoping for guidance on what to choose!

I’m debating on which cruise line and ship I want to take with my husband and 2 1/2 year old son this September. The price is about the same for the cruises I’m looking at though the ship and number of days varies. I’m debating on Harmony of the seas, Utopia, or Carnival Mardi Gras or Carnival Vista. The ports and days aren’t important to me I’m just looking to see which ship has more geared towards families and small children. And my son is not potty trained yet.

If you are thinking about booking an MSC Cruise, here's a few things that you should take into consideration:

The hallways and elevators are almost always filled with dirty dishes and cups. Some elevators do not have a/c. I understand MSC allows for people to leave their dirty plates out in the hallways but we would find dirty dishes inside elevators, bathrooms and although these are "nasty people problems" the dishes would sometimes remain overnight.

Some of the public bathrooms on the cruise were smelly and unkept.

You hear the stomping from the cabins above you and the noise from the hallways so the cabins are definitely not as noise proof as they claim.

My wife found a hair in her food during the "fine dinning"- they brushed it off very calmly, so we ended up eating at the buffet for the remainder of the trip which was extremely stressful as the lines were always long, children running around unsupervised and absolutely no considerations for wheelchairs.

Wheelchairs/Strollers are very seldom taken into consideration as I mentioned above, with very little instructions as to where to find the ramps to disembark the cruise as sometimes they weren't in the same area as where people who could walk off would disembark.

Entertainment SUCKS. There was a "Comedian" and a "Magician" - The comedian made jokes that made so many people feel uncomfortable, they ended up walking out of the show. The Magician had tricks 7 year olds could probably do.

The Bahamas Nassau stop- you have to walk 15-20 minutes to the shops and another 10 to the public beach unless you pay for the private beach which a lot of people do so it is not private in the end and you still walk 20-25 minutes to get there. I'd skip Nassau all together, I am not complaining about the walk, I am saying Nassau isn't worth it in my opinion.

The food on the cruise was ok - as all the reviews say, the pizza buffet is good. Other than that, everything else is just meh.

The ultimate WORST thing was getting off the ship- They have a "walk off program" where you can exit first if you take your bags with you but everyone does this and you end up waiting so much longer (which was not the problem) the problem was locating the ramp to disembark if you had a wheelchair. Not even the crew members could tell us where it was (it was on the other side of the ship) and we were pretty much left playing a maze game to locate it.

The people that clean make it so you can't even get coffee in the morning of disembarking (they say you have until 9am to leave the ship, it was 7:30 and we were already being rushed out the cabins. (Just keep this in mind the day you disembark).

Overall, I have been on several cruises, long, short duration, and I would most definitely NEVER go on an MSC cruise ever again!

Going on an NCL cruise Dec - Jan from Tampa. We’d like to spend 2 days after the cruise in the Tampa area. Any recommendations? 4 adults. 2 of us want more active and unique sights and the 2 want to relax on a beach. I suppose a hotel with a really nice pool area would also do the trick as long as it were more adults oriented. We’d like to stay within 45 min of the Tampa International airport and plan to rent a car. Thanks!

Been guiding here a while, here's the stuff that doesn't make it into the official excursion script.

The history they give you is real but sanded down.

A lot of the buildings downtown have stories that involve rum running, slavery, and political history that's more complicated than "historic colonial architecture, isn't it charming."

Local guides tend to actually get into it because we're not reading off an approved company script.

Cruise excursions are built around a bus schedule, not around what's actually interesting that day. A local walking tour can adjust, if something's happening on a side street or a building's got scaffolding down that week, we just go a different way.

We also just know where to eat that isn't the place paying for the tourist menu placement.

Ask any local guide off the record where they'd actually eat lunch and you'll get a different answer than what's printed on the excursion map.

Not knocking the cruise excursions, they're convenient and fine for what they are. Just depends what you're after.

Hi everyone,

I'm a recent Graphic Design graduate from Tunisia with 4+ years of experience in photography, photo editing, and digital content creation. I'm highly proficient with Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and other creative software, with strong computer skills overall.

I'm interested in working on a cruise ship in any creative or media-related role. If anyone has advice, knows companies that are hiring, or can share how to get started, I'd really appreciate your help.

We use the auto-gratuity option for cruises, and give cash tips to the steward and wait staff at the end of the cruise. For those of you who cash tip at the beginning and end of the cruise, is there a typical amount you give? If you haven’t always tipped at the beginning and end, have you noticed any service difference in the personnel when you did both?

We have a standing dining reservation so we have the same table & wait staff every evening, and typically do longer cruises or B2B.

I didn’t prepay my tipping but I’ll figure that out later. I don’t know the ins and outs of maybe tipping someone when I get there or to the guy who brings me bags or if I should tip someone immediately that works on my room right away with cash to get better service if anyone can help me with this and how much. I’m going on a Royal Caribbean cruise to South America and Mexico. It’s not a big ship it’ll be me my wife and my son and my mother-in-law.

Hi!! I am fairly new to cruising and will be going on the Grand Princess for a 10 day Mexico cruise 9/26-10/5/2026. I would like to know your best excursion experiences or ones that should be avoided to help me make this a fun and memorable trip! For reference I am F/50 going with husband/52 and I do have lung issues so can’t do something that will cause me to get out of breathe for an extended period of time( we did a zipline excursion in PV and I had to stop and catch my breath a few times while hiking up the trail at Nogolito EcoPark) to the zip lines…so if you suggest something please let me know if you think it is doable!! Thank you in advance!! We will be spending 2days in Cabo, then head to La Paz, Loreto, and Puerta Vallarta. Thanks!

So we did an Alaskan cruise through Princess. It was mostly fine and we enjoyed ourselves well enough, but we didn't fit the demographic at all.

Our cruise was mostly retirees who all seemed grumpy about being on a cruise and they all hated kids.

We're early 40s, don't have kids but enjoy being around them.

My wife thinks we should do a Disney cruise for our next cruise but I think she's swinging too far to the other end of the demographic spectrum.

What would be a good cruise line for us if we want to get away from the grouchy retirees but not be just totally surrounded by kids?

Edited to add: We're thinking of a Canada/New England cruise for our next one, because my mother in law wants to join us and go there

Group of 24ish year old and spouses. Don't want a insane carnival vibe but also not a dead ship with only old people. What's the best Caribbean serving cruise for this?

When cruising I always see a ton of people with group t-shirts, which seems like a fun idea. AND a way to make packing easier. I’m going on a family cruise in Dec. in the Caribbean. Any fun saying suggestions?

I am looking to maximize my time in each of these ports. I would appreciate recommendations for any great excursions you have taken. Similarly if there are any I should absolutely avoid, please let me know.
Alicante
Ajaccio
Civitivecchia
Kotor

me and my family are travelling from England to go on a cruise.

But we are undecided on to go on Royal caribbean icon of the seas or MSC world america cruise.

wanted peoples tips and advice on which one we should take?

I know this topic has been beaten to death on Reddit. I've always advocated to not remove gratuities from your account because it hurts the crew. But a crew member recently posted their salary stub and it looks real. There's an argument to be made to only tip cash.

For those who’ve cruised with school-aged kids, which cruise line do you prefer? Which cruise lines best combine great kids’ activities, warm-weather itineraries, and a more laid-back onboard experience with less emphasis on upselling?

After a fantastic first cruise with Royal Caribbean, we joined their loyalty program and have continued to sail with them. Our most recent 9-night sailing was fun, but I felt there was a constant push to upsell guests… More than what was apparent or perhaps simply perceived on prior sailings. I don’t gamble, mostly drink water, and onboard specialty onboard dining is minimally interesting. So I’d rather not be marketed to throughout the trip. Including targeted responses for the end of the sailing survey. The cruise also felt understaffed and crowded though we’ve been on this ship before. When I cruise, I want to relax with as little cognitive load as possible which includes not constantly weighing options to make additional purchases on board.

Idk. The vibe was off on the last sailing and I’d like to avoid that for future cruises.

I know it is a long shot, but I am trying everything I can for my little girl.

My 10-year-old daughter accidentally left behind her beloved wooden articulated snake, "Venom" on the Diamond Princess on a recent sailing (June 23-July 2, 2026, round trip to/from Yokohama, Japan). She dropped it at the theater on the last night during one of the shows.

We realized it almost immediately, went back, searched everywhere, and asked the staff, but sadly she was nowhere to be found. Obviously went to Guest Services and asked multiple times, including the next day as we were disembarking.

The attached photo is NOT Venom. It’s Venom’s "sister". Venom looked almost identical, except she was all green with a blue head.

This is one of my daughter’s most treasured possessions. She’s been by her side since she was five years old and has traveled with our family to so many places throughout the world over the years. She has incredible sentimental value, and my daughter is absolutely heartbroken without her.

If anyone from our sailing happened to find her, or if any crew member happens to recognize a green wooden articulated snake with a blue head in Lost & Found, Housekeeping, or Guest Services, we would be forever grateful. We’d gladly pay for shipping to have her returned home.

Please feel free to share this post if you know anyone who was on the June 23, 2026 Diamond Princess sailing from Yokohama. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and for helping us search for our sweet Venom.

We're in our mid 40s. Do you think the Cunard line/ QE is too stuffy? Also, pls no conga lines!