Scrapbooking Cruise need feedback

I am in the thinking process of planning an SB cruise. Can you give me some ideas. What was best? worst? what time of year? What do you definitely need/want? With or without family? How many days?

TIA!!!

ok, for cruise. DON't go in the summer, it's too hot. do you like kids? if not, don't go over thanksgiving. (way, way, way, too many kids...well not little ones, they were never a problem, it's the young teens...those at the age where they don't have a parent around. they were just having fun and being kids...but it can get old -like when you're trying to sleep).

are you a family person? then go with family. But then you might have less time to scrap and imo, if you go with family, you should spent time with them.

I've been on two with just dh. LOVED THEM! First was over thanksgiving! great weather, warm enough to enjoy the beaches, but not hot enough to melt during the walk.

Second one was last August. I melted on the walk from our ship to the excursion boat. It was jsut too hot to enjoy being hotside. The water felt great though! but we didn't do many outdoor stuff on the boat because of the heat.

Over this thanksgiving, I'm going with dh, MIL, FIL, BIL, and SIL. Sharing a room with BIL, SIL and DH. NOT my idea of a vacation or a good time. I'm NOT a family person and I don't like sharing my space (plus, BIL snores really loud, SIL wakes up super early, I get up in the middle of the night to pee...it's going to be 7 night of no sleep). So think about habits before you pick roommates. It's cheaper for the 3 and 4th person, some ships even allow a 5th person. a good option for families.

I've only been on 7 days cruise. I don't see the point in anything less. I dream of a 12 day cruise...ah.

which cruise line are you looking at? different ones offer different things.

I love canarval! love them, love them, love them. Wouldn't want any other.

We're going on Norwigine (sp) over Thanksgiving. Already, i'm not impressed, the reviews aren't that great (I didn't pay for the ticket).


Dh and I love cruise. If you went with others who were into sb'ing, then it might be fun to do on days at sea, take over the library or one of the launges.

Lose weight before hand, you'll gain a few pounds on board. even will all the walking and swimming. The food is great! (Conquest and Valor). Service was great. if you have a problem, they WILL take care of it. Example, the second time we were assigned to sit with other people at dinner. I don't like people and I wasn't going on a cruise to meet people. First thing we did was go find the mater'd and tell him that we had a problem. It was solved, that night we had a table for two.

balcony's are great if you're going to spend time in your room, however, kinda pointless when it's hot outside, unless you like the heat.

Some say the room doesn't matter, to me, it does.

Beware of other fees. Once on the ship you'll have tipping or service charge (on Carnival, you can adjust the tipping, otherwise I think it's 10 per day per person, we adjust to zero- on the Norwegian they call it a service charge...not sure yet if it's as easily adjusted. I'm on hold now with them to ask some questions), you'll have a drink card (if you want). Photos are taken every night, 8x10=$20, 6.99 for 5x7 (I think) (Carnival). Drinks on Carnival aren't that much, 2.99 for daily drink, 6.99 with the glass you keep. I'm hearing that drinks are $10+ on the Norwegian.

Norwegain offers free style dinning, not sure if that's good yet or not. Carnival, you have a set table at a set time, although, you don't have to eat there, you may eat anywhere else.

There is a store here in So Cal called Among Friends that is doing one--she is planning it with the help from a travel agent. You might want to call her. The travel company has experience organizing scrapbook cruises. PM me for the phone number or email address. The cruise company is called Connection to Cruise and they are online.

I have been on cruises not an sbing one though.

Never been on sbing cruise, would love to go but I can't justify the $$$ when I could be spending it on a family vacation.

I know if I took my family I would feel guilty not spending my time with my family.

Don't go in Aug-early Nov due to hurricanes- big mistake!

I took carnival and would not use again. But this is just my opinion- you really have to talk to trusted people who have gone. I don't read the online stuff b/c those that were unhappy will definately post but if you thoroughly enjoyed the cruise you might not be so inclined.

I went on NCL. They ship was older but I like the free style dinning. No way was my DH going to dress up for dinner on his vacation. We went in april, when many of the kids were in school. I can honestly say that we did not see the kids other that boarding and departing from the ship. I joked with my hubby that they were tied up below deck rowing the ship.

If i do a cruise again and take kids, i would go on carnival more kids oriented. But if it was just me or me and hubby. NCL-it was more adult/laid back.

My $.02 worth:

I think it would be fun to go on a SB cruise, however, if I were on vacation with my DH or son, I definitely would not be on a SB cruise, because I would want to spend time having fun with them, as a family vacation.

There are just so many activities to do while on board as well as when you debark at each port. We were always on the go and loved every single minute of it. And if you don't want to participte, you certainly don't have too. We were there to have fun and that is exactly what we did.

We cruised on the Norwegian Star out of Seattle to Alaska. Luckily for us, we did not have to fly anywhere, only had to drive an hour to Seattle and once we debarked back in Seattle to home. Loved being home by noon - we had time to unpack, relax and unwind before going back to work on Monday.

Loved the Freestyle cruising concept - you can eat at anytime, anywhere and with anybody or nobody. They do have specialty restaurants which are an add'l cover charge, but only if you want to eat at specific restaurants, and most of those you had to make a reservation for too.

When we cruised in 2005, NCL did tack on $10 per person per day to your final debarkation billing for service (room) charges, in addition to anything else that was charged on your ID / room card.

Definitely purchase a Coke (or soda) card, we didn't and we should have, since my DH drinks a lot of Coke. Alcoholic beverages - we had a lot of those too, however, none of them were $10. Some of them you could keep the glass and get refills, saving some $$ when you get that bill when you debark.

We are ready to cruise back to Alaska and on another NCL ship (since the Star will not be sailing there next year).

On carnival, the $10 per person per day is adjustable, (since we don't have money, we adjust to zero) it's not on NCL (thankfully, Step-FIL is paying it, or else dh and I wouldn't be able to do anything). NCL, calls it a service charge, rather than tipping. Whatever, I'd rather be able to adjust it. If it's a fixed charged it should be included on the ticket price.

Customer service with NCL sucked. Thier webpages sucks. I'm so not happy with them.

runs with scissors, do you remember how much the drink were? what about pictures? I'm trying to plan a budget, but it's hard when the stupid NCL dude couldn't tell me anything other than "you'll find out on the ship". Have you been on any others? Also, do you know how many formal nights there are? With carnival, it's one for a 7 day, but Thanksgiving night's another one, so we got two that trip.

Carnvial's drink card was 44 something, we just get one for the two of us and share. You can get all kinds of sodas and sherly temples and roy rogers. NCL's webpage just says you get coke, diet-coke, sprite, tonic water and soda water. If that's the cause, we're not going to bother with the card.

About the bill at the end, pay attetion to what you spend. DH and I use envoples. We put money in one, when we but something, we remove the money and put it into another envolpe and we put the recipt where the money was. I keep different ones for different things, pictures (I spend about $100 on pictures last cruise...not as much on anything else.)

Carnival has giftshops with sales during the week, the last day at sea at great sales...

"No way was my DH going to dress up for dinner on his vacation." If you eat in any of the dinning rooms, you still have to dress up. not formal ware, no jeans or shorts or tanks or such, skirts or pants for girls Kacki's for guys. On Carnival (and NCL) you can eat other places at anytime and free room service 24/7. NCL Dream has a grill/fast food type taht's onpen 24/7. Carnival, has 24/7 pizza/salads and ice cream, plus room service. My DH loves to go eat in the dining rooms, which I don't understand, because I can't get him to go out to eat at home, even when we have gift card to pay for it! First cruise we slept through dinner once, last cruise we made it everynight.

Carnival also leaves you towel animal in the room at night. I love teh towel animals. I even bought the book. DH says NCL doesn't do that.

• EeyoreLynn Said:

Personally, we had no problem paying the $10 (or $20 per day for both of us) for the room steward service charge - our stewards were so wonderful, servicing our room (as well as all the others) twice a day. We knew that we would be charged, as it states that clearly on their website, so it certainly was no shock to us when we received our bill on debarkation and the daily charges were on it. You should be thankful that you have someone else who is footing the bill for your cruise. We didn't and we certainly aren't wealthy.

I don't know what kind of problems you are having with their website / webpages, but I never did.

LOCATION ON BOARD EXPENSES CHARGE
Galleria Gift Shop Craig?s Gifts $55.88
Java Café‰ Coke & Sprite 3.45
Red Lion Pub Cocktails 15.99
Galleria Gift Shop Craig Gifts 15.00
Teppanyaki Specialty Rest 38.49
Spinnaker Lounge Cocktails 10.93
Spinnaker Lounge Cocktail 5.18
Spinnaker Lounge Cocktails 15.99
Room 9226 Service Charge 20.00
Total $ 111.99

Above are the charges for Day 2 of our cruise - generally when we had cocktails we each had 2 at each location, so if you review the charges you will see that we did not pay $10 a drink. Our extra charges for day 2 only came to $111.99, including the $20 service charge.

They had formal / photo night every night (3 different backgrounds/poses each night). My DH and I got dressed up twice - once because I wanted formal photos and the other when we had dinner with the crew where they wined and dined us and it didn't cost us anything. Formal nights are totally optional and if you want to save money, then don't have photos taken, because it certainly is not cheap. We spent $40 for our photos which included three 8x10 (all 3 backgrounds)as well as an 8x10 of the ship in Glacier Bay in a nice folder. It just depends on what type of package you elect to get as well.

Since we didn't purchase a $40 Coke/soda card, I can't tell you what it included. However, we decided if we cruise again, we would definitely get at least one of the cards and share it.

NCL has specials every day either in the gift shop or in the atrium and other areas on the ship. Just depends on what you want to buy too. Certainly not necessary.

I don't know where you are getting your information, but this statement is not true. Our room stewards left us a folded towel animal too. In fact, one of our room stewards taught a class on how to fold them to the passengers. I think if I want a book on towel folding I would not purchase it from the ship where it might cost more, but order it online or purchase it from a local bookstore.