Cost for cruise? Other cruise things to know?

[lalasmama]

SIL is wanting to do a cruise next year for Christmas. Just about every vacation I've ever done has been Disneyland, so I'm clueless about cruises. What do I need to know? How much should we expect to spend? Thinking at this point of 3-4 days, maybe something tropical, near/over the Christmas holiday.

[ZeeBaby]

3-4 day cruises are usually extremely reasonable depending on the cruise line. They start from $199 out of Florida. Not sure how much it would be from CA. Might also be more because it is over the holiday, but I can't really imagine it would be more $600 or so. We enjoy cruising and it works really well with kids. Our kids loved the kids club.

[psimpson3-5]

Another poster suggested to go on the cruisecritic website. They have a VERY active forum. You can find more info there. Also, if you have a Costco membership, they have the best pricing on cruises. You can find the info on their travel website.

[rlu]

AAA also discounts some cruises.

On the cruise lines I've been on extra costs include - excursions, soda or alcohol (IIRC water and milk was free), in-room babysitting, "art auctions", and the numerous souveneir photos they will take of you. On the photos - we bought a few and then requested they take down and destroy the others.

Hands down my favorite line is Royal Caribbean and DS did ok in their kid club.

[PunkyBoo]

Check vacationstogo.com. they offer great discounts on "last minute" cruises and you can compare the rates pretty far in advance.

[Tondi G]

One thing to consider. The shorter cruises are often on older smaller ships. If you are willing to stretch it to a 5 or 7 day cruise I think you will be happier overall. We have cruised twice on Royal Caribbean with our boys and had a great time. Their children's program is awesome!!! If you want to try a 7 day cruise I would suggest looking at the Freedom Class or Oasis class (Oasis class ships have a zipline, a carousel and a central park on the ship) of ships. They have a brand new ship QUANTUM of the SEAS coming out late next year, which sounds amazing. Think bumper cars on a cruise ship! In addition to the usual water play area (H2O zone), rock climbing walls, ice skating rink, mini golf, video arcade etc. http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/ships/home.do?cS=NAVBAR&pnav=2&snav=4

I highly recommend Cruisecritic.com to do some research. they have message boards on the individual cruise lines, for Family Cruises (these folks are particularly helpful), Roll Calls for specific cruise dates/ships, ports of call so you can plan for your shore excursions. It can be a little over whelming but most people are pretty helpful over there.

Do you have an idea of where you would like to cruise? Caribbean? What islands do you want to visit? Do you have a port in mind that you would like to cruise from?

Pricing depends. Holiday cruises are usually more expensive. You have options for staterooms inside (no window), outside (window), Balcony, jr. suite, suite... Ships in the Oasis class have rooms on the interior of the ship but that have windows (or balconies, I think) that look over the Central Park. On our second cruise (on the Mariner of the seas) my Mom and MIL each had a room that was technically interior but it had windows that looked down on the Promenade (walkways with shops, cafes etc.) It was nice to have some light coming rather than a completely closed in room with no windows at all! We got lucky and paid around $2800 for our family of 4 in a balcony room. Can't beat all your food and entertainment included for 7 nights! we were also lucky that we were able to drive to the port so no airfares!!! Bummer that they are not running many Mexican Riviera cruises out of CA anymore. Carnival Cruise lines is bringing the Miracle for the Mexican Riviera in 2014 though (7 days double dip in Cabo San Lucas and one day in Puerto Vallarta). We really love cruising on Royal Caribbean ships though.

Good Luck ... and if you have any more questions feel free to ask ... or PM me!